Rolling luggage has to be one of the greatest engineering innovations of all time, so it's a real pity that their telescoping handles are so frequently a dismal failure. On a recent trip (to India, natch) the cheaply-cast zinc parts in the handle assembly on my husband's High Sierra brand bag (above) decided to give up the ghost. First he had difficulty getting the handle to extend, which seemed like the worst luck in the world-- until he couldn't get the handle to retract again.
You try checking a 22-inch bag with an 18-inch handle sticking out of it. Talk about needing a chill pill!
In the UK, objections to wind farms are often made on the grounds of "aestheticism", the twisting blades spoiling otherwise perfect countryside views. Hmmm. IMHO this is just NIMBY-ism in another guise...
However, wind turbines can be far from perfect, as this video darkly and dramatically demonstrates.
"We're thinking that wind turbine manufacturers are less than thrilled with the above video circulating online. Apparently, this all went down in Denmark when a safety breaking system failed in strong winds. Reports say that two engineers were working on top of the turbine to repair the breaking system, but managed to get down before all hell broke loose. A 19 meter piece of the blade was thrown 20 metres away. Smaller pieces were sent more than 500 meters away."
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