<story><title>&apos;Zen curtain&apos; saves birds from hitting glass windows</title><url>https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-28/the-curtain-saving-birds-from-hitting-glass-windows/11638774</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>HeyLaughingBoy</author><text>They should make one for people.&lt;p&gt;A Midwest bank was remodeling their in-supermarket branches with glass walls. It looked really spiffy and let in a lot more light. Then a few weeks later they had decals up on some of the glass panels and they were frosting others and I asked a teller why they changed.&lt;p&gt;It turns out that many people were slamming into the glass walls,  usually when turning a corner quickly, (my guess: while staring at their phones!) and hurting themselves, so the bank decided it was better to get ahead of the inevitable lawsuit and make the clear glass more visible.&lt;p&gt;How we&amp;#x27;ve managed to survive this long as a species is beyond me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lainga</author><text>The African savanna is very coal- and coke-poor -- for most of our species&amp;#x27; early history, our natural predators, like lions and cheetahs, were unable to produce sheet glass in large quantities. When humans started moving north into Eurasia, where coal deposits are more common, they were saved by the fact that the ursine glass industry was depressed by terrible protectionist laws up until the Bearton-Woofs Agreement in 1944.</text></comment>
<story><title>&apos;Zen curtain&apos; saves birds from hitting glass windows</title><url>https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-28/the-curtain-saving-birds-from-hitting-glass-windows/11638774</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>HeyLaughingBoy</author><text>They should make one for people.&lt;p&gt;A Midwest bank was remodeling their in-supermarket branches with glass walls. It looked really spiffy and let in a lot more light. Then a few weeks later they had decals up on some of the glass panels and they were frosting others and I asked a teller why they changed.&lt;p&gt;It turns out that many people were slamming into the glass walls,  usually when turning a corner quickly, (my guess: while staring at their phones!) and hurting themselves, so the bank decided it was better to get ahead of the inevitable lawsuit and make the clear glass more visible.&lt;p&gt;How we&amp;#x27;ve managed to survive this long as a species is beyond me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ljm</author><text>Come to many parts of Europe and you might struggle to find a single full glass door or wall without a big red blob stuck on it, at around adult eye-level. If not that, a red dotted line.&lt;p&gt;It started way before smartphones. You’ll see it in villas and holiday homes presumably because the tourists get drunk and forget they closed the door to the terrace.</text></comment>