A group of world-class pole vaulters took a chunk out of a Sydney airport ceiling while carrying their equipment through the terminal, reports said last Monday.
The vaulters — Australian pair Paul Burgess and Beijing Olympic champion Steve Hooker and American 2004 Olympic gold medallist Tim Mack — were refused permission to send their 5.2m poles via the outsize luggage area.
But trouble struck as they carried them through the domestic airport.
PHOTO: AP
Burgess said he “broke the airport” when he got the poles of his training partner Hooker stuck in an escalator.
Plaster rained down on Burgess when the poles wedged into the step of the escalator and smashed through the ceiling.
“We were taking the poles down the escalator and Steve was behind me and I saw this overhanging glass sign ahead,” he told The Australian newspaper.
“I put my poles down to miss it and then turned and said to Steve, ‘Don’t hit the pane of glass’, and as I said that my poles hit this plaster wall and went into the ceiling.”
Luckily one commuter was on the ball and managed to activate the escalator’s emergency stop button to prevent the poles from snapping.
Hooker said the poles were only freed 45 minutes later when a technician reversed the escalator.
Neither athlete was injured and fortunately all six poles — each valued at A$800 (NT$17,860) — seemed to have survived intact as the group headed to Melbourne for a tournament. (afp)
媒體上週一報導,一群世界級撐竿跳選手帶著裝備通過雪梨一座機場航站時,把天花板頂破了一大塊。
這群撐竿跳選手包括澳洲籍的保羅.伯吉斯和在北京奧運拿下金牌的史帝夫.胡克,以及二OO四奧運金牌得主美國選手提姆•麥克,他們五點二公尺長的撐竿在特大號行李區遭到航空公司拒絕運送。
就在他們帶著撐竿行經這座國內機場時出了狀況。
伯吉斯把搭檔胡克的撐竿卡在電扶梯上動彈不得時說,他「把機場弄壞了」。
撐竿插進手扶梯的階梯後,另一端戳破了天花板,碎落的灰泥就掉在伯吉斯身上。
他對《澳洲人報》說:「我們拿著撐竿搭手扶梯下樓,史帝夫在我後頭,我看到前方這個垂掛式的玻璃指示牌。」
「於是我把竿子放低,以免撞上它,然後轉身對史帝夫說:『不要打到那面玻璃』,言猶在耳,我的竿子就撞上灰泥牆,穿破天花板。」
幸好一位機警的通勤者按下手扶梯緊急停止按鈕,這些撐竿才沒有被折斷。
胡克說,過了四十五分鐘後,一位技術人員將手扶梯反向運作,才把這些撐竿取下。
所幸這些運動員都沒有受傷,而且這六根每根要價八百澳幣(新台幣一萬七千八百六十元)的撐竿也完好無缺,他們一行人得以順利前進墨爾本參加一場巡迴賽。(法新社╱翻譯:袁星塵)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
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