More on the Vdara Death Ray

I am a very lucky reporter. I know this, that I have a knack for accidentally being in the right places at the right times. And so it was yesterday when I headed over to the Vdara pool to check out the vaunted "death ray" for myself for an AOL News follow-up to the Saturday Review-Journal cover story that has set the Web afire.

As good fortune would have it, I was there right when no less than Bobby Baldwin, CityCenter's CEO and president, was also walking the area with a group of suits and pantsuits examining what it is that Joan Whitely exposed in her R-J piece.

That is, in short, that the position of the glass, concave Vdara tower is producing unbearably hot reflections of the sun onto areas of the pool deck. The hotspot moves from place to place as the Earth rotates, melting things and singeing hair. It's nicknamed the "death ray" and is certain to be a question on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" this weekend or my name is Ralph.

So, anyhow, here's Baldwin, in the white shirt and red tie, leading his team as they inspect the ground in various places and then look up, unmistakably, at the side of the building.


Many people think, thanks to the R-J graphic that has been heavily replicated across the Web, that the "death ray" is something you see, that there's a glowing sphere that you can wisely avoid.

It's not so simple. It does move from place to place even during the hour I was there and you don't really know you're in it until you walk through it. Then it is very noticeably hotter. The ground, which I could walk on without sandals, became scorching, and I nearly burned my fingers touching the metal lounge chairs. I am not sure how this fellow here is bearing it, but he's going to have a rude awakening, to be sure. Hard to imagine what it must be like out there when it's 115 degrees out or how it took until late September for visitors to alert the media.

I'm pleased with my AOL piece, which did add something new to the conversation inasmuch as I've obtained letters and emails from 2008 showing that a vendor warned CityCenter officials that their solution to the known problem would be inadequate. Some of that may be the sour grapes of a vendor who didn't get a contract, but that company is the leader and innovator in the field and their warnings, as it happens, turned out to be right.

Also, I got to quote from "Five Hundy By Midnight," although my editors removed the line by Tim Dressen about your organs cooking. They also removed my reference to a hilarious Tweet from @misadventurer noting that it was ironic that the resort that starts with the letters VD would produce a "burning sensation." Oh, well!

Meanwhile, I really loved this particular shot of Vdara. With the inexplicable black background, it certainly does read "death ray."


Run!!!