In Case You Missed It: A Brief Post

From the "Could be worse.  Could be a melting car" file: A glass-covered building under construction in London is shaped in such a way that, for about two hours each summer day, the building becomes a giant concave mirror and focuses the sun's rays intensely enough to fry eggs, burn carpets, and, yes, melt cars across the street.  If only the Brits had had this technology during the London Blitz!  Just lure a few Messerchmitts into the path of ol "Walkie Scorchie," and the war would've been over in a few blissful summer days.

It's Funny Because It Hurts People

Just saw this on Yahoo!: Apparently, the Vdara Hotel (you suppose that spelling is intentional?) has a minor design flaw: When the sun hits its largely glass facade at a certain angle, people on the ground get burnt to a crisp.

OK, no one's actually been burnt to a crisp yet, but plastic has been melted and hair has been singed.

Didn't Mythbusters do a story about something like this? We seem to recall they met with little success in attempting to construct a death ray out of mirrors, but it seems that the technology exists. The military possibilities demand exploration. We imagine a string of Vdara Hotels built along the Iranian border would prove a major deterrent to any of Ahmadinejad's more grandiose martial plans.