I was reading an interesting piece on the increasingly elaborate backyard pools of SoCal when I was struck by a reference to Las Vegas. From the LA Times:

Today homeowners have moved well beyond the simple requirement of a hole in the ground. Instead, they crave Las Vegas-style amusements: remote-controlled flames, sound-activated dancing lights and the illusion of endless water. They want custom tile and real stone, architectural lines that match the house, and artwork and antiques near the waterline.

LAPS OF LUXURY – Los Angeles Times

So Las Vegas is now a byword for ornate display? I guess it makes sense. It’s more evidence that the image of the city continues to evolve. Once, a Vegas-style pool would have 99-cent shrimp cocktail and a bust of Elvis behind the diving board. In the 1990s, it would have had a miniature pirate battle. Now, it’s just expensive and technologically sophisticated–an illusion, but created by real wealth.

When are people going to start building Atlantic City-style pools? And what would they look like? How about Reno-style pools?

This is a story that makes you think. From WSB-TV, Atlanta:

Worried about the safety of her family during a stormy Memorial Day trip to the beach, Clara Jean Brown stood in her kitchen and prayed for their safe return as a strong thunderstorm rumbled through Baldwin County, Alabama.

But while she prayed, lightning suddenly exploded, blowing through the linoleum and leaving a blackened area on the concrete. Brown wound up on the floor, dazed and disoriented by the blast but otherwise uninjured.

She said ‘Amen’ and the room was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. The 65-year-old Brown said she is blessed to be alive.

Firefighters said its likely she was hit by a bolt of lightning that apparently struck outside and traveled into the house yesterday afternoon. She was found lying on the floor by her 14-year-old granddaughter.

Fire officials think the lightning likely struck across the street from the couple’s home and traveled into the house through a water line. The lightning continued into the couple’s backyard and ripped open a small trench.

A family member said he will no longer assume it is safe to be indoors during a lightning strike.

Dime-sized hail and wind gusts of up to 45 miles-per-hour moved across coastal Baldwin County. As much as three inches of rain fell in some areas in three hours.
WSBTV.com – News – Woman Hit By Lightning While Praying

Athiests can say that this proves that God does not exist, at least as he is conventionally understood–no benevolent deity would strike down a true believer with lightning while she was praying. But believers can counter that the woman was largely unhurt, which may be a sign of God’s mercy.

Others would say that any attempt to find causality here is bound to fail. I, for one, just think that it’s a striking headline. In Philip K. Dick’s Galactic Pot Healer, there is talk of a game where people search newspaper archives for the funniest headlines they can find. I think this one qualifies.

To continue on the tangent, another game has players take the title of a book, run it through a computer translator into Japanese, then back again. The opponent then has to guess the original English title.

Thanks to Alta Vista’s Babelfish, this is now possible. For example, Galactic Pot Healer becomes 銀河の鍋の治療師, which is translated back into English as “Remedy teacher of Milky Way pot.”

If anyone wants to play, email me a trans-translated book title, and we’ll start.