Beats the London chill
London isn’t famous for hot weather, but that may change soon, and not because of global warming. The design of a new skyscraper in the city is melting cars and setting buildings on fire. “It’s absolutely ruined,” Martin Lindsay told the BBC, referring to his Jaguar XJ. Lindsay had the misfortune of parking his luxury car across the street from the “Walkie Talkie” office building for an hour. The Jaguar now has melted panels, mirrors and other plastic parts. “You can’t believe something like this would happen. They’ve got to do something about it.” Local shopkeepers have complained about carpets catching fire and smoldering front doors. A restaurant owner told London news site “City A.M.” that slate tiles on his doorstep had shattered in the heat from the building. The 38-story skyscraper is a dramatic edifice with curved exterior glass lined walls was built at 20 Fenchurch Street in London’s financial center. But that curvilinear shape is exactly what’s causing the problem: The south-facing exterior wall is covered in reflective glass, and because it’s concave, it focuses the sun’s rays onto a small area, like a magnifying glass directs sunbeams onto a superhot pinpoint of light. James Keaveney of the University of Durham explained that the inward curve of the wall is an inherent flaw in the building’s design. “It’s a concave shape, so it’s going to have a focusing effect on the light that is reflected from it.”
It was designed in by the well-known architect Rafael Viñoly. This isn’t the first time Viñoly’s architecture has raised eyebrows as well as temperatures: His Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas has been criticized for directing sunbeams onto the swimming pool deck that are hot enough to melt plastic and singe people’s hair. The hotspot became known as the “Vdara death ray.” The solar heater is transient, it only works for about two weeks per year and then only in one block across the next street where the rays are focused. At other times the focus moves to other buildings and the light is dispersed and does not bother the humans. In the video below, the professor measures the temperature of the focused sunlight in the black tile front of the restaurant and gets a reading of about 190 degrees. One of the TV stations has filmed cooking an egg in a dark frying pan on the curb in that sunlight. While the bright light and the heat has been bad for the walkers and the merchants at that spot, it has made a couple hundred feet of Eastcheap street a tourist attraction. The Walkie Talkie building owners have promised to get sunglasses for their windows that will greatly reduce the obnoxious effect that has made their creation famous. Mr. Lindsay whose Jaguar partially melted in its parking spot, said the developers had apologized and agreed to sort out the $1200 repair costs.
The cure for London’s Weather
My landlord wants to talk to me about why my air conditioning bill is so high.
I told him my door is always open.
An American after staying in London for a month asked a local ” Why do British eat like German planes are still flying overhead?”
The brit replied, “Why do Americans eat like they have free healthcare?”
Two old men are riding on a train in north London, when it stops at a station.
First Old Man: “Is this Wembley?”
Second Old Man: “No, it’s Thursday.”
First Old Man: “So am I. Let’s go get a beer!”
Just recently, a multi-year project to renovate and restore London’s historic landmark Big Ben was completed.
They had men working around the clock.
July 3rd Birthdays
1998 – Sara Waisglass, 1991 – Nathalia Ramos, 1979 – Mia McKenna-Bruce, 1966 – Connie Nielsen
1962 – Tom Cruise, 1956 – Montel Williams, 1930 – Pete Fountain, 1947 – David Barry