"Flowers for Algernon" was the first association that popped up from the depths of my mind...

Ok, lets add up:
living room, right hand side: 5m wide, 7 stuffed shelves from floor to ceiling, about 35m
living room, left hand side: An Encyclopedia Britannica, nearly 2m
study, my wifes shelf: 6 IKEA shelves adding up to nearly 5m
study, my own shelf: loosely stacked, not really shelved, but at least 2m
bedroom, on the sideboard, nearly 2m
Total: about 45m, about 150ft for those who are still stuck in the last millennium, and prefer limbs over light speed.

And yes, they are (nearly) all read, even the Britannica.

And then there are the boxes in the attic with the text books we have decided not to unpack after the move.

You want to be elected? Ok, provide a notarized report on your brain status for the public to see!

As a (low-level) student, the working conditions were horrible: We had a small office for five students with a large window facing south onto a large flat roof covered with white, reflecting gravel. And no AC, of course, there was one for the computer rooms, for the profs and assistants and (later) even one for the room for the higler level students). In summer, our room was unbearable hot, even the fairly robust terminals gave up sometimes.

We tried to cool the room down, but they forbade us to do this after "smoke" billowed from under the rooms door into the hallway, causing someone to start a fire alarm. The "smoke" actually was mist from a bowl of water with dry ice leftovers in it...

Your opinion. My father worked in a steel mill too, and told me of sililar incidents they had over the years. Core message: Instant vaporisation before impact. Keep in mind that even the air in the furnace is way >1000ÂC. The amount of energy involved in melting tons of steel is quite high - we are talking about the energy usage of a small town here, all within a few mÂ.

That suit is only to reduce the heat to survivable levels while staying several meters away (sideways, nobody in his right mind would place himself above(!) the furnace). Where the guys in the suits are normally standing there is an "moderate" environmental temperature of about 100-250ÂC.