Official "Hot-houri" thread

[kladner]

Here is an explanation of lightning killing large quadrupeds.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/a-v...indeer-at-once

You may have already heard the news that will surely terrify Rudolph-loving children for the next few months: 323 reindeer were killed by lightning in Norway this weekend. On Sunday, the country’s Environment Agency released some pretty gnarly images and reported that the herd, which included 70 calves, was killed during some intense thunderstorms Friday.

Though the number of animals killed is unusual—I poked around and couldn’t find solid evidence of this many animals being killed by lightning before—animals being killed by lightning isn’t. Just a few months ago, 21 cows in South Dakota died when a lightning bolt hit the metal bale feeder where they were having a mid-rainstorm snack. It happens pretty frequently to cows, sheep, deer, and yes, reindeer.

[Xyzzy]

http://www.cycleworld.com/harley-dav...ig-twin-engine

http://www.cycleworld.com/2017-harle...ing-impression

[xilman]

Motorcyclist ‘threw bike on the floor’ to slide under collapsed M20 bridge

...you almost get crushed by a falling bridge, throw yourself off, suffer five broken ribs but think 'bugger, I liked that bike'.

Been there, done that, though not quite as dramatically and not for over 20 years.

After failing to keep the shiny side up, bikers invariably think in the order: is the pillion rider OK? Is the bike OK? Am I OK?

[kladner]

(from the sidebar to the taco truck story.)
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la...nap-story.html

Chinese typewriters look something like a cross between a deli-meat slicer and a small printing press. There are no keys, just thousands of little metal characters arranged in a grid system. Because Chinese has no alphabet and no alphabetical order, the operator must essentially memorize the location of each character — about 2,500 on a typical machine.
They’re heavy — roughly 30 to 40 pounds.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by kladner

(from the sidebar to the taco truck story.)
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la...nap-story.html

Wow! Never heard of one! And I worked there for years. Nice sharing!

[Xyzzy]

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Since the 1980's there have been transparent cylinders in use in research.
http://www.tvu.com/PSCylTEngweb.html
http://papers.sae.org/840379/

an a newer one
http://ltces.dem.ist.utl.pt/lxlaser/...apers/24_3.pdf

[kladner]

Thanks, Mike and Uncwilly, for sharing this tech.

[Xyzzy]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/...-release-date/

[Xyzzy]

[Xyzzy]

http://i.imgur.com/ZA3lPvQ.gif