Once again, California is proving itself way ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to disaster resilience. Check out my Time.com story on the Great Shakeout here.
Exciting news! The Unthinkable has been chosen by Hudson Booksellers as one of the best books published in 2008.
Honestly, it is just a ridiculous thrill to be on any list with the 8 other nonfiction books Hudson selected. Check it: The Animal Dialogues by Craig Childs, Hot, Flat & Crowded by Thomas Friedman, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hooman Majd, Out of Mao’s Shadow by Philip P. Pan, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, The Way of the…
Saturday’s Russian sub disaster, which killed 20 people, is mystifying. Russian officials said that the Nerpa’s automatic fire-suppression system accidentally went off, releasing Freon gas and suffocating the victims. But submarine crews are normally trained to put on oxygen masks whenever this happens (and it is not all that uncommon). So what happened?
This Newsweek interview with Mikhail Barabanov, editor-in-chief of Moscow Defense Brief, speculates that this was a case of too many people onboard with too little…
I spent some time yesterday watching images of the country’s response to Obama’s victory. I thought I’d share some of the best videos here.
Generally speaking, Americans don’t tend to take to the streets in joy. Except for Tuesday night. What a night…
Check out the scene… in Brooklyn
In Washington, DC, on U Street, birthplace of Duke Ellington, destroyed in the 1968 riots and brought back to life just the past few years:
Thanks for the comment, Valerie. I should have mentioned this in the story. You’re right, early voting has really revolutionized everything, and I think the day is coming when we will all vote early.
But to answer your question, this year, exit pollsters dealt with early voting by doing telephone surveys of early voters in 18 states before the election. The phone survey had its own problems (it only included landline phones, for example), but it was in other ways easier to control than physically surveying people at polling places. The data was then merged with the data…
I was planning to refuse to read any exit-poll data tonight, since they are always wrong. Then I got assigned to write about them.
I did my best not to look, really. Here is a story so bloated with caveats that it almost can’t stay afloat.
OK, I spent the past week looking behind the voting booth curtain, and it was scary. I had no idea just how much we rely on chance, faith and volunteers to get an election done in this country. Incredible. I have new respect for poll workers. I have new doubts about the result in a close race. I haven’t seen anything this homespun since I went to Amish country. And it’s significantly less charming when your vote is in the balance.
Check out my Time.com story on how your…
I’m headed out to Virginia today to attend a training class for poll workers. Until I started working on this story about the logistics of polling places, I never realized just how much we rely on volunteers (read: senior citizens) to carry out elections. They really take care of everything, these guys.
On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of volunteers will appear at polling places at 5 a.m. (!) and manage what is expected to be a record turnout. They will look up your name, direct you to a voting booth, delicately explain that you can’t wear your Obama…