Bill Pintas was vacationing in Las Vegas when he decided to stay at the
swank new Vdara hotel, a curvy 57-story tower owned by MGM Resorts. He
was sitting at the pool when he encountered something alarming. He
recalls, "I'm sitting there in the chair and all of the sudden my hair and the top of my head are burning. I'm rubbing my head and it felt like a chemical burn. I couldn't imagine what it could be." ..
Speaking with employees, he was alarmed to find out that the hotel staff
was aware of the situation. He recalls, "They're kind of giggling and
say: 'Yeah, we know. We call it the death ray."
The "death ray" appears to be created by the glass surface of the hotel itself -- acting as a concentrating parabolic dish -- similar to those used to heat water to a boil in solar power systems.
The dish concentrates light on a 10-foot by 15-foot hot zone moving
across the pool. Temperatures in this area spike 20 degrees Fahrenheit
-- or more...
This was reported in
Daily Tech a couple of
years ago, so perhaps they have solved the problem by now.
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