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Lightning

Ball lightning, “dark lightning,” petrified lightning, Lichtenberg figures, dramatic lightning strikes through history and how to avoid being struck by lightning. Plus pop culture!

Music: “Ain’t a Fit Night Out for Man Nor Beast” by Noble Sissle

Charity O’ The Week: Lightning Strike & Electric Shock Survivors International, Inc.

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9 Responses

  1. That’d be 30 millionths of a second, so really, really quick!
    Another sports team is the Adelaide Lightning Australian WNBL team, who didn’t quite make the grand final this year.
    Another great episode, guys. You’re great at telling tales. 🙂 Amazing pics too.

  3. Really enjoyed that one thanks guys.
    Especially the story of how Roy Sullivan was entirely justified in carting that bucket of water around with him.
    “They said I was mad, MAD!”
    Douses flaming beard
    “Who’s laughing now!”

    Incidentally I think there is such a thing as a lightening proof suit.
    Electricians working on live power lines use a full body suit made up of an insulating layer coated in a fine copper weave to direct the current away from their bodies.
    Here’s a video link to a performance group called the lords of lightening who use the same get up for less practical but decidedly more awesome purposes.

    I’m also left to wonder if the Russian fellow who was hit in the nuts by lightening was left with the most awesome Lichtenberg figure figure of all

  4. Now that you mention it… *raises hand* I like thunder and lightning but I have once seen a thunderstorm that actually scared me – as an adult that is. I was visiting my mom and step-dad and their house has a lot of big windows that were all rattling, and the winds were so strong that we all got scared a tree might fall on the house or lightning could set it on fire. So we went outside and sat in the car out of reach of any falling trees, with the windows closed 😛 Feels stupid now but at the time, we were really spooked. Maybe because we’re not used to any kind of extreme weather here in Finland.

    Cool story, bro!

  5. Guys!
    A microsecond is 10^-6 seconds, so there are 1 *million* microseconds per second, not 1000.

    So, you were all off by orders of magnitude.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix#List_of_SI_prefixes

    Also, unrelated, but I’m kinda liking this new wordpress theme you’ve got on here, though I must confess the austerity of the previous iteration made it a bit easier to navigate / find stuff.

  6. according to his Wikipedia entry Roy Sullivan died in the town of Dooms Virginia. Just throwing that out there…

  7. In the film Sweet Home Alabama, there’s a running appearance of glass made in lightning struck sand and one of the character trying to make it.