I’ve been reading Richard Ford’s novel Canada, told from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy whose parents—unexpectedly, disastrously—rob a bank in 1960 in North Dakota. Damn, this is some fine writing.
One paragraph in particular encapsulates what separates human beings who recover from trauma and those who do not. It is almost a trick of the imagination, a kind of elegant delusion that changes everything. The boy and his sister have just visited their parents in jail, for what would be the first and last time. They are alone and abandoned in the world, and yet the boy makes…
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For the record, Time Magazine printed a correction last week with regards to a graphic that accompanied my story about gunfights.
I had nothing to do with this graphic. It was compiled by Time’s graphics folks.
For what it’s worth: I agree it was a foolish mistake. I am glad Time has acknowledged the error.
The correction appears to be behind a paywall, so I’ll reprint it here: “In a graphic, we listed the price of a 600-round magazine but mischaracterized its use. That magazine is for an airsoft pellet gun, not…
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We won’t know for some time exactly what went wrong on the Costa Concordia off the coast of Tuscany a few days ago. But already, the survivor reports contain some clues as to what may have gone wrong with the evacuation.
From the BBC:
“We told the guests everything was OK and under control and we tried to stop them panicking,” cabin steward Deodato Ordona recalled.
It was about an hour before a general emergency was announced, he said.
Then the ship rolled again, now listing to the right, and the captain ordered the ship to be…
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Please forgive the plug, but I have to shout from the mountain tops that Ben Ripley, who is a very talented screenwriter in addition to being an excellent brother, has a movie opening this week.
The Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga, opens April 1. Time travel, disasters, romance…and Jake Gyllenhaal, let me just say again.
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Did the stress of 9/11 lead to a spike in miscarriages? In the months after the terrorist attacks, the death rate for male fetuses in the U.S. went up 12%, as detailed in a new study in the BMC Public Health Journal. The study (PDF is here) hypothesizes that the rise in miscarriages may have been caused by “communal bereavement”—which may have in turn disproportionately impacted males, who seem to be more sensitive to stress hormones in the womb.
People have speculated for decades about how major disasters impact fertility rates. The research…
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It’s nice to take a break from the mayhem of the moment and reflect on the mayhem of days gone by. I have a piece in this week’s issue of TIME about Eleanor Roosevelt—a First Lady ahead of her time (and ours). I was struck by what she managed to get away with—close friendships with pacifists, lesbians and men half her age, an apartment in the Village, a role shaping U.S. policy on segregation, the military and education, among other things.
I’m not saying it was easy; the woman…
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Fascinating article in the NY Times about “virtual autopsies” being done on soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2004, CT scans have been given to every service man and woman killed (autopsies have been performed since 2001)—a new procedure implemented by Captain Craig Mallack, a Navy pathologist.
The CT scans have been valuable pragmatically and psychologically, it seems. For the military, the scans reveal blind spots in equipment. The findings have already led to improvements in body armor and medical gear.
But the detailed analysis is also important to the families of…
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“Fight or Flight”...and a few of my other favorites. Check out my piece on the mythology of disasters in the Times (of London).
Got any others you’d care to add? (Is this not the most fun party game of all time? Come on, admit it.)
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