She says she kept the letters hidden in a closet for so long after the war in order to spare her children the burden of growing up with guilt about their mother's Holocaust experiences.

NPR: Letters Offer Glimpse of Life in Nazi Labor Camps

That is why this was the first thing I wrote when I got home, in order to spare other travelers the pain they are now going through the next time they fly and something goes wrong.

FORBES: Hurricane Sandy's Lesson to Travelers: Use A Travel Agent

That flood, ironically, spurred the creation of the Corps of Engineers, empowering them to create systems to guard against further calamities -- and giving them the authority to let waters flow from some levees to wash away some areas in order to spare others.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Eventually, vehicles might book themselves in for repair and order the necessary spare parts before they arrive at the garage.

ECONOMIST: Vehicle telemetry

EasyJet flies only Boeing 737s in order to save on spare-parts inventory.

FORBES: Proving Papa Wrong

Since then, the airline has taken serious measures to improve its efficiency, including rebuilding its luggage system at its Atlanta hub to cut down on lost baggage, and analysing historical cancellation data to adjust the availability of spare aircraft in different hubs in order to keep flights moving.

BBC: 2012's best and worst US airlines

Luckily, with the factory came a stack of Trabi spare parts, which Sachsenring sold at a huge mark-up in order to bring in cash during a hard first year.

ECONOMIST: Industry in eastern Germany