I've got a bad case of wanderlust, yet there are some things even I won't do in the name of sightseeing and worldly adventure. Namely, bridges and walkways made out of glass like the one recently erected in Henan Province, China - which just so happened to crack a bit the other day while tourists were standing on it.
Not only is the path made of thickened glass, it is suspended at around 1,080 meters, or 3,543 feet over a gorge.
One of the brave souls on the walkway at the time was Lee Dong Hai:
“I was almost at the end and suddenly I heard a sound. My foot shook a little. I looked down and I saw that there was a crack in the floor," he wrote on social media site, Weibo.
“A lot of people started to scream. I screamed out, 'It cracked! It really cracked!' and then I pushed the people in front of me so that we could run out of the way."
Turns out, someone had dropped a stainless steel mug on the path, causing three layers of glass to crack. But a spokesperson claimed at no point was anyone in real danger.
And yet the tourist attraction, which only opened last month, is closed until further notice. So you have to wonder just how safe it is.
Apparently the same happened at Chicago's Willis Tower last year, but officials claim a little bit of cracking is harmless and doesn't mean the entire structure will fall apart forthwith.
Glass walkways and bridges are really big in China, with several already in existence and more in the works.
To this, I say a resounding, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' I won't even set so much as set a baby toe on the tiny glass floor at the CN Tower. Not because I fear it will crack and I will plunge to my untimely death - although there is that, too - but mostly because the vertigo is unbearable.
Yes, I am a complete and utter chickenshit when it comes to heights and spiders. The extent of my chickenshitness is such that I don't even want to watch footage of the glass walkway in China.
But you can be my guest...
Image Source: LIDONGHAISHUOHEZAINIHAOWODEHAI/WEIBO
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Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) has recalled its speed kids cycling helmets with the style number 5036-593 as follows:
SKU - Colour
The helmets may be difficult to adjust and in some cases, the hook-and-loop (Velcro®) tabs peeled off the helmet, leaving the fit ring partially or fully detached.
While neither Health Canada nor MEC has received any related reports of incidents or injuries, customers are advised to stop using the bike helmets and return them to MEC for a full refund.
For further information, customers can call the MEC customer service centre at 1-888-847-0770, Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. PST, and Saturday to Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. PST, by email or via the company's website.
Between April 24 and September 14, 2015, approximately 4,470 helmets were sold in Canada.
Nothing like hearing the Twilight saga came out 10 years ago to make you feel instantly old. As in, vampire old.
To celebrate the anniversary of the most loved and loathed YA book of all time, author Stephenie Meyer did the unthinkable: she re-released the first book with one significant change.
The epic romance between human Bella and bloodsucker Edward has gone on a gender bender. Bella is now Beau. And Edward is now Edith.
Meyer claims in the forward of Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, that the story is essentially still the same, except that Beau is "more OCD, he's not nearly so flowery with his words and thoughts, and he's not as angry."
It seems Meyer took some of the negative press about her writing to heart, and attempted to redress some of the original wrongs. Or at least win over some of her most brutal critics... Of course she'd probably never admit as much, but it would appear that Meyer is trying to redeem the original Twilight with this reprisal.
"[Bella's] also been criticized for being too consumed with her love interest, as if that's somehow just a girl thing," said Meyer. "I’ve always maintained that it would have made no difference if the human were male and vampire female - it’s still the same story ... It’s just a love story. It doesn’t matter who’s the boy and who’s the girl. It just works out.”
Though Meyer has always staunchly defended Bella, claiming she's not a "damsel" in distress but a "human" in distress, the author and mom of three put her characters to the test with the gender reversal. I'm somewhat curious to know how the new version reads, but not curious enough to wade through 442 pages!
Mercifully the gender reversal will be limited to a single book. Like the vampires in the story, it seems the Twilight series just never dies.
Life and Death is now available in hardcover and e-book.
Image Source: Lionsgate
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