We may have a problem here....

There's currently a radio ad running over here in the UK for a company that replaces windscreens (wind shieds, what-have-you) and they keep going on about chips developing into cracks, and how much it would cost you to have the glass replaced rather than having the chip filled.

Very laudable. Keep the punter happy and they'll come back to you next time they have a problem,.

I'm not worried about the company going on about this, after all they have a business to run, what does worry me is the fact that a chip can develop into a crack in the first place by just going over a bump in the road. To me, this points out what could possibly be a flaw in the way modern motor vehicles are constructed, especially in the way the glass is fitted.

The old way of doing this was to insert a rubber gasket into the frame of the vehicle and fix the glass into the gasket, using a sealant that lubricates the glass for insertion and then sets with time.

The current way to do this is with a polymer-based glue which sets rigid in a fairly short period after application. I know production costs are everything, but couldn't a different adhesive be used to give some flexibility in the installation? Surely that way people wouldn't be left with fairly hefty bills when the screen has to be replaced.

Visible Protests?

What ever you do, try not to work for a media or news company (or even their service cmpanies) if you want a quiet life. Working for one of our customers means occasionally having to walk past or - at worse - through a demonstration outside their offices. In the many, many years I've been going to this particular company's buildings only once has the protest I've encountered actually been aimed at the company itself. More often the only reason the protest is there is so the protestors give themselves a chance of getting their point aired to the general public.
The most recent one was a human rights issue with the current Iranian government. Having scanned all the media sources following the event, it appears the only people who noticed this group were the people actually trying to get passed them.

Collision Detection!

Why is everyone worried about CERN's monster accelertor? Don't they realise that there's enough antimatter being produced around the globe already? They're doing it State-side all the time. Quarks, strangeness and I remeber a third one - charm. Whatever happened to that? Maybe it only exists at budget time!