Windscreen wipers to be consigned to history?

Sunday Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11:57AM GMT 15 Dec 2013 | Tom Whitehead

[Olog-hai]

It smears flies across your view and freezes up in winter, but now the humble windscreen wiper is destined for history.

Supercar designers McLaren are working on secret plans to replace the rubber wiper with a hi-tech ultrasound device that stops anything sticking to the windscreen. It would mean wiper arms heading down the same road as wind-up windows and ashtrays as they vanish from cars.

Adapted from a similar system used on fighter jets, the proposed design is understood to center on high-frequency sound waves that effectively create a force field across the windscreen preventing water, insects and mud from resting on the glass. …

[Rio]

[rlmorel]

Hahahahahahahahaha

[dfwgator]

Just pour hot water over it

Good way to crack your windshield.

[AlexW]

“we have too many green jerks here now!”
___________________________________________
Errr, I am anything but a “green jerk”. My lifestyle has nothing to do with enviro-wackos. I do, however, despise people that litter.

[rlmorel]

Pfft. Your state government is getting as bad or worse than the one up here in The People’s Republic of Massachusetts.

A town near me (Concord) outlawed the purchase of bottles of water in the town.

Bottles of water. Really.

I swear, liberals just sit there glaring out their windows, thinking of things to regulate.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Where do you live in Europe? Do you spend winters in the Philippines?

[Betis70]

When I lived in WA state, they used ground up rocks instead of salt or sand for traction on the snow. They are all about jelly bean size and jagged.

I lived there for 4 years and had to get windshield repairs done twice a year.

Now that I am back in CT, I expect my car to turn into a rust bucket in about 5 years since they switched from sand to salt.

[Betis70]

I had a 73 Super Beetle and it also had the hand crank sun roof.

I miss those simple cars, except for that #4 spark plug which was a PITA.

[AlexW]

“Where do you live in Europe? Do you spend winters in the Philippines?”
___________________________________________
I lived in Slovakia. I started international traveling in 1999, with a trip to Thailand. Most, after that, was central Europe (Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania). I was back and forth to the states, but, after selling my property, I left for the last time in Jan. 2005, moving back to Slovakia, where I worked as a private tutor.
I visited the Philippines for a month in 2008, moving here in Jan 2009 to be with a girl that I had met on the previous trip. We are now married, with one son, going on 3, and living on a beach on Cebu.
I have a quite nice life, and we spend well under $1000 per month for everything, including rent.

[null and void]

Death is everywhere
There are flies on the windscreen
For a start
Reminding us
We could be torn apart
Tonight

Death is everywhere
There are lambs for the slaughter
Waiting to die
And I can sense
The hours slipping by
Tonight

Come here
Kiss me
Now
Come here
Kiss me
Now

Death is everywhere
The more I look
The more I see
The more I feel
A sense of urgency
Tonight

Come here (touch me)
Kiss me (touch me)
Now (touch me)
(touch me)

There are flies on the windscreen
There are lambs for the slaughter
There are flies on the windscreen

Come here (touch me)
Kiss me (touch me)
Now (touch me)
(touch me)
Come here (touch me)
Kiss me (touch me)
Now (touch me)
(touch me)

[rlmorel]

Back in the late nineties, I was giving a computer tutorial to a large group of my co-workers, and was explaining various user interface components of the OS, and one of them was...radio buttons.

I explained that they were like the radio buttons in a car which allowed only one station to be selected...click one, the other one un-clicks.

As I gave this explanation, an attractive young lady sitting there was looking at me so blankly, that I realized with a start...

She had no idea what real radio buttons were.

I aged about twenty years in that instant...:)

[cripplecreek]

Floor dimmer switches for headlights.

[rlmorel]

I have ALWAYS wanted those back.

I am an inveterate high beam user. I am very careful not to blind people (even pedestrians) when I am behind them or approaching them, so I use them CONSTANTLY.

I wish I had the old foot switch. The one that was a small, metal cylinder just near your left foot. It had a satisfying metallic “CLICK” when you cycled it.

[RandallFlagg]

Pfft. Your state government is getting as bad or worse than the one up here in The People’s Republic of Massachusetts.

Ugh! Tell me about it.
They claim that it's meant to reduce stolen vehicle crimes. But everyone knows that it's a revenue generator.

[rlmorel]

LOL..the liberals in MY state would have been honest enough to tell you that they believed it would reduce global warming!

[al baby]

I know it was a poor attempt at humor

[dfwgator]

You never know, someone could Google and this thread would come up, and they probably won’t be as smart as us Freepers are.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Lots of expats in Cebu from what I’ve read. It sounds like you’ve made a great life for yourself. Do you still tutor to support your lifestyle there?

Thanks for being candid.

[pandemoniumreigns]

"I explained that they were like the radio buttons in a car which allowed only one station to be selected...click one, the other one un-clicks."

I guess that means you never got around to the part where you have to pull the button out to click it, then push it in to click, click it. Then to un click it you had to push a previously clicked button.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

... without completely highjacking this thread...

What do you miss the most from the US?
What do you miss the least?

Thanks!