[OT] Quiz of the Day [2008-11-04]

[Walter Bright]

Sean Kelly wrote:
> When I was a child my dad took me to work for one of those "bring your 
> kids to work days."  He worked on Wall Street and commuted through the 
> World Trade Center via the PATH train to get to his office.  So we were 
> heading into work together at the peak of commute time, out of the train 
> and up the massive array of escalators, all packed shoulder to shoulder 
> with businesspeople.  He lost track of me for a moment and seconds later 
> the entire escalator bank shut down.  Shortly thereafter he found me 
> near a hidden emergency stop button, grabbed me, and hurried away. Years 
> later I looked for that button on my way through the WTC and found it 
> key-locked.  I guess once was enough :-)

If it needs a key, it's a pretty useless emergency stop button.

There have been cases of people getting clothing caught in the works and 
getting injured.

I once tried to show how cool I was by bypassing the packed up escalator 
and running up the empty down escalator. My delusions of coolness were 
shattered when I tripped half way up.