###The Walkie-Talkie Death Ray
London, England, 2013 — A sleek new skyscraper accidentally acted like a giant magnifying glass, blasting a car-melting heat beam directly onto a London street.
In 2013, architect Rafael Viñoly built a massive 37-story commercial skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street. Nicknamed the "Walkie-Talkie," the building broke all the rules: it was narrow at the bottom and bulged outward at the top, wrapped entirely in a curved, southern-facing wall of glass.
There was just one massive, glowing problem. As the late summer sun moved across the sky, the skyscraper's concave shape acted exactly like a giant magnifying glass. It caught the sunlight and focused it into a blinding, super-heated beam aimed directly at the pavement below.
The wandering heat ray blistered paint right off storefronts and burned a hole through a local barbershop's doormat. It even struck a luxury Jaguar XJ parked on Eastcheap street, literally melting the car's plastic paneling, side mirrors, and dashboard into gooey puddles.
The Walkie-Talkie Death Ray — London, England, 2013