Death Ray

Did the title of the post get your attention? When I saw an article about a "death ray" it got my attention and I decided to read it. One of the newest additions to the hotel skyline of Las Vegas is the Vdara hotel, part of City Center. This building has a concave design and apparently when its face is toward the sun, it acts to focus the sun's glare. This is similar to how some solar power plants operate.

According to the article, the designers of the building foresaw this happening so they put a protective film over the building facade. I thought it was funny (a little) when they mentioned that the beam of sun from the building can burn hair and melt plastic bags.

Just a fun article for The Mullet but the heat generated from this made me think about how you can cook an egg on a sidewalk if it is hot enough so maybe they should put an omelette bar out there by the pool! Maybe the "death ray" will work better than the pavement does though?

Bahia Emerald

This story is not profound so it could easily be part of No-Profundity but as you will see and find out, an 800+ lb emerald is definitely something for the Mullet of Blogs.
This is not the largest cut or polished emerald in the world, obviously, as you can see from the picture above. The article I read that literally "unearthed" this topic for me is here. I found myself chuckling when I read about the legal proceedings about the ownership of this emerald and the one man who testified that he purchased it for $60000, while the value has been reported to be more than 380 million dollars. That was a tough story to swallow, but I guess there has been weirder stories, I can't think of any at the moment but they probably exist.

Two Months Early

Today, it appears I am being bombarded by Harry Potter trailers. There was an HD trailer with information from Fandango in my email this morning and I also came across a different trailer. Both of them are here, so enjoy them but don't get too excited, the movie doesn't open for nearly 2 months!

The HD version is at this link.

Heights! Yikes!

WARNING!!! DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!

So with that warning to begin with, I saw this video today and I thought it was so awesome, there was no way I could avoid sharing it. I like being inside of buildings at high places for viewpoints but I would never do this. I would be nervous climbing a telephone pole in my neighborhood, but I will probably never have to try that.

While I watched this video, I was unable to look away, it was very engrossing and I can admit that I ended up getting sweaty hands while watching so I am not a candidate for this type of work.

I hope that those of you who are not afraid of heights will enjoy this video and for those who are afraid, I hope that if you do watch it against the warning I posted that you enjoy it and remember that you are safe sitting in your chair in front of your computer screen.

A climb up the tallest tower @ Yahoo! Video

Tiny Cow

This give "have a cow" a whole new meaning, in this case "have a mini-cow!"

In England, there is a cow that measures only 33 inches long...that is less than a regular human stride length.

The cow is named Swallow and is 11 years old. Here is a brief article that also has a picture.

3-D Speedbump

This is really weird and really awesome. I read this very interesting article about an alternative to speedbumps. At a school in Canada they have painted an elongated picture of a child on the pavement, which as you drive toward it appears as a 3-D optical illusion, hopefully getting drivers to brake not to hit the phantom child.
Now, imagine the possibilities for this...I am envisioning advertisements painted in parking garages (which is what this picture looks like) so drivers coming and going will see some brand name image pop-up in front of them.

I think the best part of it all is that the painted child is named "Pavement Patty!" Hahahahaha!

Maybe painting something that won't create emergency stops and rear-end collisions might have been a little better? I can imagine a bunch of things that might be more appropriate but I am sure this will get the message across to drivers.