Mystery Spot

Mystery Spot is an area in California where the rules of gravity don't hold good. Or so they claim. Knowing that a lot of us are stupid they offer this explanation

"Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself burried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery."

You'd be surprised at how many people actually believe that rubbish! The only mystery there is "What the hell was the architect smoking?". Farce or not, the place is good fun and it does give you a few insights on how your brain works. Here's VA climbing a wall...


...and AJ dodging a bullet.

Deppe Recommends - 6

Movie: Religulous
I'm a fan of Bill Maher and I think he, as he proves it here, can be insightful while being funny and caustic at the same time. That's why I had high expectations from Religulous. I did have a lot of fun watching it and I believe every man, woman and child should go watch it.

There are all kinds of nut jobs in the movie but my favourite was a researcher from Israel who specializes in working around the sabbath laws. For instance, you are not supposed to dial numbers on a telephone during the sabbath (the old testament is more comprehensive than I thought). So this guy has invented a telephone where all the keys are pressed by default, and you un-dial the numbers that you don't need. Apparently god approves the design, because armageddon hasn't struck! Then there's a "scientist" who runs a Young earth museum. The main attraction there is a scene depicting rubber humans running around with rubber dinosaurs.

While I laughed all along, I was disappointed that the film didn't aspire to anything greater than just making fun of religion. Despite its strong material I doubt if it will change attitudes. People who are in denial will continue to be in denial. How often have you heard people say " is a religion of peace!". Hyper-sensitive folks will continue to be outraged at the silliest things (How insecure must you be to let Harbhajan Singh hurt your sentiments! I mean HARBHAJAN SINGH!!! ). Religion will continue to be given unnecessary privileges in society and politics, so that you can win at least a few constituencies with the promise of a ram temple or bridge!

My only other complaint is that Maher completely ignores my religion. Come'on bill, aren't we ridiculous enough to make the cut?

Book: Zorba, the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

Pseudo-french

I've already hollered about this before, but I'm having to rant again about pseudo-french because it is making my life hard. These two are so wide-spread that I am tempted to mispronounce them just to fit in!
1. Warren Buffett's last name is not pronounced like the self-served meal. "Booffay!" sounds like he is a comic-book villain who aims to amass vulgar amounts of money and dominate the world. Hey wait a minute!!
2. Roulette, for some reason is being called "roolay" by a lot of people around me. In Las Vegas, I got condescending looks from my betting partners when I pronounced it the way it should. I assure you, that is why I lost all that money.

And then there is pseudo-greek. Why do the Americans pronounce processes like it rhymes with hypotheses?

While I'm cribbing about it, I must also mention that when the republicans talk about the "Nucular" weapons in "eye-rack" it feels like a fork on porcelain

Vegas

Random notes from my Vegas trip
* Gambling is addictive. I was up $65 by the end of Saturday. I thought I had figured out the roulette. I couldn't wait to double my money on Sunday. By the end of the trip my net loss was $105. It's all orchestrated. The dogs make you win on Saturday so that you get reckless on Sunday.
* What's a few hundred dollars? I put something else at stake on Sunday evening, my life! The rides (XScream, Insanity and BigShot) on Stratosphere are the meanest I've ever been on!
* The casinos are impressive in their scale but there's something stupid about watching a replica Eiffel tower with the Louvre (I think) in between its legs!
* Driving 20 hours in a weekend is hard. In the one hour that I decided to take a break and hand the wheels over to my co-passengers, we got pulled over for weaving too much on the highway, almost rear-ended another car on a freeway exit, burnt so much rubber while braking that we could smell it for the rest of the journey. I even once opened my eyes and found that we were cruising along on the wrong side. I took back control and drove the rest of the way. Concentrating for 20 hours is tiring as hell. I think I built a lot of character. Now, how often can you say that about a Vegas trip?
* What(ever else) happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. So that's the end of that.