world's largest swimming pool

How is it okay to have an enormous swimming pool next to the beach? There has got to be some commentary on the wastefulness of modern society in there somewhere, right? Then again, we tank whales next to the ocean for our amusement...

From a paper by Stephen Pinker, who I'm not pretending to like, but exotic fare for the literature I read:

People often don't blurt out what they mean in so many words but veil their intentions in innuendo, euphemism, or doublespeak. Here are some familiar examples:

• Would you like to come up and see my etchings? [a sexual come-on]
  
• If you could pass the guacamole, that would be awesome. [a polite request]
  
• Nice store you got there. Would be a real shame if something happened to it. [a threat]
  
• We're counting on you to show leadership in our Campaign for the Future. [a solicitation for a donation]
  
• Gee, officer, is there some way we could take care of the ticket here? [a bribe]
  

This phenomenon poses a theoretical puzzle. Indirect speech is inefficient, vulnerable to being misunderstood, and seemingly unnecessary (because only a naïf could fail to see past the literal meaning). Yet politeness and other forms of indirectness in speech appear to be universal or nearly so (1). We all play this game and may be offended at those who don't, setting the stage for the hypocrisy and taboo in social life that are ubiquitously decried, yet ubiquitously obeyed.

...

The plausible-deniability hypothesis predicts that the directness of speakers' wording of a veiled bribe or other overture (assessed on linguistic grounds) is not an arbitrary social ritual, like saying "Please" and "Thank you," but is predictable from strategic factors affecting its expected utility, such as the proportion of honest and dishonest officers in an area, the cost of a bribe, the cost of a ticket, and the cost of a bribery charge.

And finally, my comments don't work, I found out yesterday from Akshay. I'll have to deal with that.