Observe The Banana

I love wind turbines both as a great way to make clean power, and as beautiful things to watch. I really don’t buy the stock ‘eyesore’ argument always repeated in articles about wind farms. I often watch our local turbine and find it easily more attractive than a smokestack. So it is with a certain sadness and morbid fascination that I watch this dramatic video of a wind turbine self destructing. The slow motion replays are amazing. You can see how first one blade goes, which throws it off balance and it twists slightly causing the next blade to hit the support tower.

[From Gizmodo]
[via TechEBlog]

Update:
Boing-Boing has an entry on this today with a slightly different video that leaves out the slow motion replay, but runs a little longer showing the aftermath. They also include the explanation: “The braking mechanism that limits the speed of the wind turbine broke during a storm in Denmark. This was the outcome.” and a link to a news article on the failure. Apparantly it was one of two failures last week of Vestas wind turbines in Denmark. Poor maintenance is suspected.

Lesson in parenting:
Do not show your child the video of the HAIR theme song, and tell him about the story of Samson and Delilah before trying to convince him he needs a haircut.
Me:”You need a haircut”
B: “Can you still see my eyes?”
Me: “You need a haircut”
B: “But then I will lose my strength!”

Remember parents, anything you say can and will be used against you in a later argument with your children!