The Time They Used a Cigarette Lighter to Light the Olympic Torch
Getty Images
When it comes to the Olympic Flame, its keepers take no chances. Multiple backup sources are lit from the torch so that if the original goes out (which isn’t totally uncommon), it can be reignited using the same fire.
But what happens when the Flame goes out and the backups are nowhere to be [...]
‘Door to Hell’ has been burning for 40 years
A huge flame pit in the depths of Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert has been on fire for over four decades. Often referred to as ‘The Door to Hell’, the p…
The 2012 Olympic Torch Relay
Less than a month to go before the opening of the London Olympics, and we are halfway through the 70-day Olympic Torch Relay that takes the Olympic Flame through all four countries of the United Kingdom. The route covers 8,000 miles and involves 8,000 relay runners.
Photograph of the Olympic torch passing through Dunfermline, Scotland, by [...]
Frankenhorn: the Flamethrowing Trombone
(Watch on YouTube)
The best way to make something more awesome is to add fire, I think. The flame reaches 21 feet and the trombone–which still plays–can be heard from two blocks away. The only thing that could have made this video better is a little bit of “Smoke on the Water”. And more cowbell.
Link via [...]
The Olympic Torch Relay
When is it OK to take an open flame on an airplane? When it’s the Olympic flame, ignited in Greece and on it’s way to Vancouver for the winter games.
After departing Athens, Greece on October 30th, the Olympic Flame has been traveling across Canada, now about 1/3 of the way into its 106-day, 26,000 km [...]
The Late Movies: The Bo Diddley Beat
The Bo Diddley beat, counted out as a two-bar phrase, goes a little something like this: “One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and, etc.,” but you might know it better simply as an incessant, earth-shaking “Bomp, bomp, bomp…bomp, bomp” that gets pounded out through a song [...]
