Look up magnetic blowout.

The plasma moves because of the magnetic fields. I think, just like when you energize a coil and a metal rod moves one direction to ring a doorbell.

Tires don't explode like that. I think that was something in the engine. Threw a rod maybe?

Different technology, same basic idea.

That kind of rivet is a rod with a domed, flat end like a bolt or screw. It sorta looks like (== , you push it through a hole in the two or more pieces and use an impact hammer to squash the end of the rivet into the pieces you're attaching. (==)

"Hot" rivets using a 50ton press: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ncgq6OPmY4o

I'll start the theories:

Alfonso Cuaron's upcoming NBC sci-fi/fantasy series Believe. This seems to be the popular choice.

J. J. Abram's special project concerning Rod Serling's "The Stop Along the Way". Serling's last script before his death which he considered his best work. Of course it hasn't been nearly long enough since Abrams got the rights to it for him to have done much with it yet.

Star Wars. Can't see them making a teaser this far from everything yet, and the only thing people seem to point to is the way "Soon he will know" leaves in reverse order ala Yoda speak. I'm not betting on this option at all.

The Crow. Not sure why people are saying that since near as I can tell Bad Robot isn't involved with the reboot at all.

kinetic energy = mass x velocity squared

Bullets kill by punching holes in vital organs, fracturing bones into the blood and slicing veins and arteries - not by impact shock.
More like poking a thin metal rod into someones body than hitting them with a heavy object.

Only in hollywood do they throw people off their feet.

Sometimes they get it right:

http://youtu.be/f8j4GIRYbZw

I find it disgusting that it is perfectly acceptable in some countries to use a rod on your wife to discipline her.
*quality

Clegane invulnerability and Stark lightning-rod-ness might cancel out and give the kids a chance at normal life!

and so here is a google translation...

[Flynt]
My friend is my Swiss although not sorrel
This is my ganache, my mouth but not me
This is my brother, but it was not brought by the same arm
This is my SRAB is surely not the one who denounced me
My friend is my big but it is not Pierre Menes
It does not break my back on sugar
It can support the OM and if it helps I lie to his wife without problem
If my friend has far him or her darons
Black, white, yellow or brown, it makes me a less ignorant
I do not expect from me that thou waxes pumps
It will not be because of your deductible if I cut the bridges
J'te would not put in my shenanigans and if I did the con
J'te not ask to reapply with a shovel at night without asking any question
But if we take me home
If I go into a spin please take me to the reason
We can disagree, we can take the lead
But y 'will always firstly for you on my plate
My buddy does not scream with Wolves
We do not wash dirty linen in public but us
This is not always the good wind brings buddy
J'cautionne not always how it behaves
I would not learn that he has betrayed me or plotting
It bury our relationship even if they are strong
I have not sealed my fate to his, for me things are clear
My friend is my friend but it is not my father
I want to keep it that long so I avoid interfering
Between him and me money, women and all c'qui could divide us

[Orelsan]
My friend has always been there
Too long, my best friend was me
Buddy squats at home, we spend sleepless nights
We remade the world, means even in the silences
My friend always answers my shots thread
That is called every hour or every twelve rods
J'peux all understand him with an eyebrow
At the edge of the explosion buddy is the pin
I'm where many people mix friends and groupies
But I understood the treason since Fox and the Hound
My buddy is trying not please at all costs
Not pretend to move the head when j'fais couplets rotten
Late evening, always a corner sofa
My car is not in the ditch because it holds the key
Nothing separates us even large sums
No pigs are raised but raised some sluts
Buddy lowers one to highlight
This is my reflection, we break it's risky seven years of misfortune
My buddy is not a beast in heat
And I can sleep peacefully at night when my sister has J'lui
Loyal friend
If I have more down to earth dude reminds me of the laws of gravity
Always ready, always the first to reapply
If that blow for a party Play

This is my antidepressant, my lexo, my friends n'sont not all heroes
(n'sont = are not) so my friends are not all heroes.

In practice we all have our faults
If one day in my life I forgot to be legit

J'réécouterais this piece as a kind of memo
(J'réécouterais = I'm saying)

[Flynt & Orelsan]
This is for my friend 20 years
For my buddy now
This is my friend and my disgusting dapper dude
My ugliest friend
To my greatest con pal
My friend down to earth
To my friend on Pluto

This is for my friend and my Chatter dyslexic friend
( I think chatter here means mumbling)

My buddy that my friend said no but still
Unemployed for my buddy, my buddy who works

Kickeur my buddy, my buddy who raps poorly
(kickeur apparently means good rapper)

Boxer buddy, my pianist friend
Handler buddy, buddy artist
Buddy hook, buddy Roger
My friend who squats at a mate and no project

Dude in a suit, buddy-Coste in the (coste-la seems to mean united states or the coast) so buddy in the states

My friend who lives in the countryside

BUT MEN WERE ALLOWED TO BEAT THEIR WIVES WITH A ROD NO BIGGER THEN THEIR THUMB !!!

OMG IT MUST BE TRUE

Hot rod!

@Hastur's rigid rod and @Payback's slippery pipe have left me very confused.

Actually, doing the math for the tangential velocity of a falling rigid rod, I think we were both wrong. (An exercise left for the reader...)

All this talk about rods and pistons...

I'll be in my bunk.

Back in shop class, when I was about, oh, 12, we were doing some metalworks that involved heating things up with a propane torch. Now some kids noticed a thin metal rod will heat up to a glow quite quickly and looks kinda neat if you wave it around fast. The teacher being at his desk at the time (he was a bit of a dick, to be honest), we spent a good while waving glowing hot metal bits around the propane tank.

The valve on the tank must have been faulty, because suddenly the top of the tank was on flames. You wouldn't believe how fast a room full of 12-year-olds evacuates itself when an explosion seems imminent. Some kids went out the door, others went out the window (we were in a basement with a window right at ground level) and some simply hid behind a sturdy desk far away from the flaming tank.

Our teacher wasn't quite disinterested enough not to notice the ruckus and went in to extinguish the fire. First he tried to stamp the flames out with his shoe, managing mainly to re-arrange the patterning of his soles, and then got a fire-extinguishing glove which did the job.

As I said, this teacher was something of an asshole, seeming to get his kicks from berating and belittling the kids he was teaching, but this time what followed was a very sober and concise lesson on fire safety. Everyone was left with the feeling we'd all gotten very lucky, and there was this worldess concensus that it'd really be best for all concerned if no-one said a word about what had happened, ever.

The article he links for support is the same one I found, and it points out that the rods in both human and frog retinas can detect a single photon... but in humans there is a neural filter to prevent us detecting a single photon, we require 5-9 photons within 100ms to detect a flash.

I seriously doubt that frog vision works as he described in the original video, but clearly there could be some creature out there for whom his hypothesis was correct... and either way it was quite a fun talk, even if one has to substitute a robotic frog for total verisimilitude.

He says in the comments that he addressed this on his walk, but that the audio of that part was unusable!