Two Chinese bullet trains have
collided with two coaches
falling off a bridge after a lightning strike disabled the first train and signaling failed to alert the second in time. A few months previously the railways ministry
expressed and subsequently
retracted concerns that builders had ignored safety standards to complete construction more quickly.
[more inside]
posted by jeffburdges
on Jul 23, 2011 -
42 comments
Fried Gibson. I've always thought you were safe in a house from lightning storms as long as you were off the land-line or computer. A Mississippi man's Gibson Les Paul got positively roasted while sitting in his home, in its case, leaning against a wall.
That's a powerful bolt.
Lots of gory photos here and in the auction linked above including a nice shot of some of
the parts that exploded off of the guitar, some shooting
like bullets through the case.
Awesome! And it still held quite a bit of its value.
Via [more inside]
posted by JBennett
on Jul 10, 2009 -
49 comments
Air France flight AF 447 has gone missing over the atlantic. The flight left Rio at 2200 GMT on Sunday, and was due to land at 0910 GMT in Paris, but contact was lost at 0130 GMT, some 186 miles northeast of the Brazilian city of Natal. It had 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, including three pilots. The passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.
[more inside]
posted by ArkhanJG
on Jun 1, 2009 -
125 comments
The fire tower, or fire lookout, was one of the main wildfire-fighting tools of forest services across the world for
much of the 20th century. Most are
small cabins,
alone or placed on
80-foot steel towers; these are then placed on top of peaks, giving them an unobstructed
view of the surrounding countryside. (There are
some exceptions, of course.) Operators in the towers, equipped with binoculars and
firefinders, spent their days searching for smoke or lightning strikes, which would be pinpointed and radioed in for firefighters. (The lookout operators, who staff the towers for a season at a time straight, have a life that is generally pretty
solitary and
quiet, though sometimes rather
intense.) At peak, there were thousands of fire towers across North America; while most of these no longer exist,
a few hundred are still active.
[more inside]
posted by Upton O'Good
on Mar 2, 2009 -
35 comments
7000 frames per second Newscientist article, with links to the movies.
"Atmospheric 'sprites' captured in explosive detail
... by researchers using an ultra-high-speed camera.
"The best images yet of the flashes – which resemble a giant undulating jellyfish with its tentacles falling from a halo of light – have allowed the team to pick apart their structure and mechanics. "
posted by hank
on Feb 17, 2006 -
22 comments
Nova Science Now recently ran a segment on lightning (
quicktime, real, and windows video here). I figured that subject was over and done with shortly after Franklin flew a kite, but it turns out
we don't really know exactly what causes a bolt to start. The coolest part of the segment was
these researchers in Florida. Scientists know how hard it was to observe, monitor, and even find lightning bolts, so these guys built their own rig. High-powered model rockets attached to a couple thousand feet of wire, which is grounded to larger metal structures on the ground. The result? Shoot a rocket into a storm cloud and you get
instant lightning you can count on, measure, and control.
posted by mathowie
on Oct 22, 2005 -
30 comments
Lightning On Demand is a volunteer organization of engineers, artists, scientists and machinists. Our key objective is to produce a controllable discharge of lightning at the greatest physical scale imaginable using modern technology.
They've built the worlds biggest Tesla coil,
Electrum, a
Taser Cannon and some other
projects
posted by warbaby
on Apr 30, 2005 -
19 comments
Wow... whether it's someone playing with video editing or the real thing, this is pretty freakin' cool: footage of a jet liner triggering a lightning strike. The page takes a bit to load, but for all of you lightning freaks out there, you'll dig.
posted by RakDaddy
on Aug 14, 2000 -
1 comment
