It was a dark and stormy night... Perfect for a jail break!

A collection by Neal McKenna

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Lightning Strikes!

Lightning is one of the most beautiful displays in nature. It is also one of the most deadly natural phenomena known to man. It is also very spooky. Where would Gothic novels and horror movies be without it? With bolt temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun and shockwaves beaming out in all directions, lightning is a lesson in physical science and humility.

Beyond its powerful beauty, lightning presents science with one of its greatest local mysteries: How does it work? It is common knowledge that lightning is generated in electrically charged storm systems, but the method of cloud charging still remains elusive. 

In an electrical storm, the storm clouds are charged like giant capacitors in the sky. The upper portion of the cloud is positive and the lower portion is negative. How the cloud acquires this charge is still not agreed upon within the scientific community, but the following description provides one plausible explanation.

Clouds can contain millions upon millions of water droplets and ice suspended in the air. As the process of evaporation and condensation continues, these droplets collide with other moisture that is in the process of condensing as it rises. Also, the rising moisture may collide with ice or sleet that is in the process of falling to the earth or located in the lower portion of the cloud. The importance of these collisions is that electrons are knocked off of the rising moisture, thus creating a charge separation.

The newly knocked-off electrons gather at the lower portion of the cloud, giving it a negative charge. The rising moisture that has just lost an electron carries a positive charge to the top of the cloud. Beyond the collisions, freezing plays an important role. As the rising moisture encounters colder temperatures in the upper cloud regions and begins to freeze, the frozen portion becomes negatively charged and the unfrozen droplets become positively charged. 

At this point, rising air currents have the ability to remove the positively charged droplets from the ice and carry them to the top of the cloud. The remaining frozen driplets fall to the lower area of the cloud or continue down to the ground. Combining the collisions with the freezing, we can begin to understand how a cloud may acquire the extreme charge separation that is required for a lightning strike.

When there is a charge separation in a cloud, there is also an electric field associated with the separation. Like the cloud, this field is negative in the lower region and positive in the upper.

The strength or intensity of the electric field is directly related to the amount of charge buildup in the cloud. As the collisions and freezing continue to occur and the charges at the top and bottom of the cloud increase, the electric field becomes more and more intense -- so intense, in fact, that the electrons at the earth's surface are repelled deeper into the earth by the strong negative charge at the lower portion of the cloud. This repulsion of electrons causes the earth's surface to acquire a strong positive charge.

All that is needed now is a conductive path for the negative cloud bottom to contact the positive earth surface. The strong electric field, being somewhat self-sufficient, creates this path. And flash, kaboom, a lightning bolt strikes the earth.

Lightning Myth #1

The tallest objects in a storm don't always get struck by lightning. It's true that taller objects are closer to the clouds, but as discussed previously, lightning can strike the ground at a close distance to a tall object. Taller objects may have a higher possibility of a strike, but where lightning is concerned, the strike path is not predictable.

Lightning Myth #2

Surge protectors won't save your electronics (TV,VCR, PC) if lightning strikes your power line. Surge protectors provide protection for power surges in the line from the power company, but not for lightning. To really guard against strike damage, you need a lightning arrester. The arrester uses a gas-filled gap that acts as an open circuit to low potentials, but becomes ionized and conducts at very high potentials. If the lightning hits the line you are protecting, the gas gap will conduct the current safely to ground.                   Via How Stuff Works

Now, here's a bit of the Gothic...

The phrase "getting blasted" has oh-so-many definitions

There's the literal meaning as pictured here.
Via With Friendship 

There's also the getting wasted kind of blasted. 

Photo Via Graphics Hunt 

And, then there is this kind of blasted... 

Via layoutsparks.com 
How unlucky can one person get? 
Incredible story of how man survives being hit by lightning TWICE in remarkable CCTV footage 
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 
Last updated at 11:11 AM on 2nd May 2011

The chances of being struck by lightning once are high enough. But one unfortunate man appears to have been electrocuted twice within the space of a minute by two almighty bolts of lightning. The hapless pedestrian had been jogging along a quiet city street when CCTV captured the astonishing moment on April 11.

Shortly before the apparent freak accident a walker carrying an umbrella and a jogger had passed through the street unscathed.

Scroll down to see the video

Ouch: The pedestrian is zapped by an almighty bolt of lightning that sears down from the sky during a storm earlier this month (April 2011). They are followed later by a young couple walking arm-in-arm as they shelter from what could be light drizzle. But the unlucky man then jogs in from the bottom of the screen wearing dark trousers and a heavy coat. Seconds later a frightening bolt of electricity rips down from the heavens and zaps the man in his tracks. He stumbles for a few feet before collapsing painfully face down onto the hard ground.

Knocked out: The stunned man lies motionless face-down on the ground a short distance from a dark shadow which could be blood, or scorched tarmac.

What happened? The injured man clutches his head after struggling to the ground and walking away from the first lightning strike
Around his motionless body a dark shadow forms, which could be blood or scorched tarmac.

After some 15 seconds the man begins to move his legs before struggling up from the ground. He clutches his head and sits for a moment to catch his breath.

The stunned jogger lifts himself up and goes on his way, resuming a brisk jog. But seconds later after around ten yards a second bolt of powerful lightning strikes the man, knocking him to the ground again. Another dark shadow forms on the ground. Thankfully, the man pulls himself to his feet and struggles away, even if he is a little confused by what just happened.

The astonishing video has become an internet sensation with thousands of people expressing their surprise that the unlucky man survived.

Lightning never strikes twice - or does it? A second bolt appears to rip from the heavens and strike the man within a minute and just yards from the first strike

Back on the ground: The man stumbles and collapses to the ground again before laying motionless for a short period next to another dark shadow

The chances of being struck by lighting once in a give year are around one in 700,000. The chance of being struck twice within such a short space of time are virtually unmeasurable. It is not known where the video was recorded, although there is Chinese writing in the top corner of the screen.

Cynics suggested that so high was the probability of such a freak accident that the video might have been faked. Some internet users pointed to the lack of visible rain in the CCTV footage while one suggested that lightening hitting the ground would have caused the camera to shake.

Another stated that in the video the lightning lasted for only one frame, whereas, they said, real lightning would have 'overexposed the camera for at least a few frames on each strike.' But other viewers said the video was genuine.

One wrote: 'Security cameras don't just shake every time it's windy don't they? Pause the video when the dude gets hit and look at the light, that's pretty hard to fake, don't you think?' Another added: 'Photoshop can't make a thunder like that, real.' And one person wrote: 'I think this is the lesson for all of us - if you are hit by lightning don't get up because you will feel a second wave.'

Only around ten per cent of people who are struck by lightning die, usually because the bolt of electricity causes their heart and breathing to stop. Those who survive tend to wake up from the shock within a few seconds but have little recollection of what happened before the injury. They could suffer minor burns and stroke-like symptoms. A doctor may later point to lightning strikes as the cause of injury.

Via Daily Mail UK

And, here's another kind of blasted!

Now, this is just plain bonkers...

Woman tried to sneak inmate out of prison in suitcase

A woman was caught trying to sneak her common-law-husband out of a Mexican prison in a suitcase following a conjugal visit, according to police.

The 19-year-old woman had brought the suitcase with her on a visit.  It was just large enough for her common law husband to curl up inside. 

Suspicious wardens stopped the woman to check the suitcase and were able to recapture the convict before he could escape.

Staff at the prison in Chetumal in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo noticed that the woman seemed nervous and was pulling a black, wheeled suitcase that looked bulky, said a police spokesman.

Prison guards checked the bag belonging to 19-year-old Maria del Mar Arjona and found inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina curled up inside in the fetal position, he added.

The prisoner is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2007 conviction for illegal weapons possession.

Arjona was arrested and charges are pending.

Security at Mexican state prisons is notoriously lax. Jailbreaks are common, inmates are often found to be directing criminal operations from behind bars, and corrupt guards are often found to be involved.

The attempted escape comes months after police discovered a bar at a prison in northern Mexico which served beer, tequila and vodka to inmates. 

Ramirez is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2007 conviction for illegal weapons possession Photo: AP  Story via The Telegraph UK

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Nothing lies beneath but this...

...Perfect for a dark and stormy night.

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