Top story of the week

My favourite story of the week so far has got to go to the Solar Death Ray that has been terrorising one (very) small section of London.

It's a very localised problem, this Death Ray

An unexpected side-effect of Land Securities' half-completed "Walkie Talkie" on Fenchurch Street in Central London is that the concave, fully glazed surface of the 37-storey building has acted like a parabolic mirror, focussing the sun's rays into one really, really small area in neighbouring Eastcheap.

Apparently reaching temperatures of 90C, the hotspot is not only hot enough to fry an egg, but is roughly the size of a Jaguar XJ...

Says the BBC:

"Land Securities, which is developing the tower with the Canary Wharf Group, says it is working on a solution and has taken the emergency measure of suspending the parking bays beneath the glare."

So that's alright then: just don't park in that superheated patch of focussed sunlight.

A Team of Top Experts has provided assurance, however, that City Boys will only be in danger of the plastic bits of their cars melting for roughly two hours a day for the next two to three weeks.

Until next year, of course.

"MY EYES!"

Falling down

I am unashamedly a huge fan of people falling over. There is, as far as I'm concerned, very little that comes close to seeing the look on someone's face at the second they realise that gravity has got the better of them, particularly if it is also accompanied by a flailing-of-limbs.

All the better if they also disappear completely from view.

It may well be schadenfreude, but this particular incident of a Sky Sports report apparently taking a dive for no reason whatsoever is a perfectly good example of all of these elements coming together beautifully:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2013/aug/14/sky-sports-news-reporter-falls-over-video

While it may be childish, I'm clearly not alone: there's a reason why You've Been Framed endures on the Saturday afternoon schedule!