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xiphiasSome of you may have heard that there is a building under construction in London, 20 Fenchurch St, whose curved surfaces focused the sun onto a parked car and melted bits of it. There are a number of stories about it -- I'll let you Google it yourself, because the different stories all have different details -- one has a person explaining how the entire side of his dashboard melted, including burning a hole in his energy drink bottle; one has a nearby shop owner talking about how it set his welcome mat on fire; one has pictures of the melted wing mirror on a Jaguar. The building has been called the "Walkie-Talkie" because of what it looks like, but it's being re-named to the "Walkie-Scorchie." (I'm assuming that "Talkie" and "Scorchie" rhyme in at least one London dialect. I mean, there are a LOT of London dialects.)
Okay, designing the sunward part of your building as a parabolic reflector is just simple incompetence. But that's not the AMAZING part of the story. No, the AMAZING part is that the architect, Rafael Viñoly, previously designed the Vdara in Las Vegas. Which did the EXACT SAME THING. It is ALSO a parabolic reflector which aims a concentrated sunbeam at the pool deck, causing a dangerously hot "Death Ray" which moves across the pool area as the sun moves.
Designing ONE Death Ray building is incompetence. But designing TWO is just boggling.
Okay, designing the sunward part of your building as a parabolic reflector is just simple incompetence. But that's not the AMAZING part of the story. No, the AMAZING part is that the architect, Rafael Viñoly, previously designed the Vdara in Las Vegas. Which did the EXACT SAME THING. It is ALSO a parabolic reflector which aims a concentrated sunbeam at the pool deck, causing a dangerously hot "Death Ray" which moves across the pool area as the sun moves.
Designing ONE Death Ray building is incompetence. But designing TWO is just boggling.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 03:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 02:30 pm (UTC)We don't have an article named Main/ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder. If you want to start this new page, just click the edit button above.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 03:00 pm (UTC)just to spite me. Trust me, the page exists, or rather, will when the site comes back up.(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 07:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 03:39 pm (UTC)Watch this space.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 04:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 04:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 05:29 pm (UTC)"But.."
"You're welcome. Go, enjoy that specialness."
Of course with Veridian, Ted would have found a way to transform the target area into a restaurant selling building fried eggs or something.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 05:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 04:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 08:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-04 11:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 02:11 am (UTC)... OR IS IT?!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 02:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 04:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 04:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 08:46 am (UTC)I don't have anything that resembles any kind of London accent (either East Midlands or generic, hard to place 'Guildford' English apparently. Depending on how much time I've spent with my family in Nottingham recently)
But 'Walkie' and 'Scorchie' don't rhyme, but they do have a nice rhythm together which works for headline writing.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 02:22 pm (UTC)Dr. Whom: Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-05 07:05 am (UTC)The best bit was that our esteemed news media chose to introduce the story with a "hot property" joke, continuing "but they've never seen heat like this!"
Following which my coworker shouts at the television, EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE TIME THEIR CITY FAMOUSLY BURNED TO THE GROUND!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-08 12:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-07 06:00 am (UTC)