Obama, Palm Trees and Plane Crashes
I have a great job. I parachute into people’s lives and ask them questions. I cover risk and homeland security for Time Magazine, but I get to define the beat broadly—so broadly that I often write things that have nothing to do with anything at all.
This week, for example, I’m writing a story for dead-tree Time about the intimate details of the life of Barack Obama’s mother. I asked the man questions that are just none of my business, and he answered them. I met his sister under a palm tree in Honolulu, and we talked about their mama’s rice-paddy hat collection. I read a book about the traditions of Indonesia just to get a sense of why their mother loved the country so.
But most of the time, I write about things going wrong—about terrorist attacks, hurricanes and assorted acts of villainy. I recently wrote a book about how people behave in disasters and how we can learn to do better. I had my brain examined for signs of weakness; I interviewed a man who survived the worst sea disaster in modern European history, a woman whose wedding was cut short by one of the deadliest fires in U.S. history, and a physicist who models crowd behavior in plane crashes.
I can’t argue that the world needs another blog. I am writing this mostly because the space now exists. I am writing it because I want to share the shiny curios that I find between official stories and hear what you think.
Brian Wynne Williams said on April 21, 2008 at 12:58 am
I’m proud to be one of the folks who encouraged you to write such a blog! You merely hint at a few stories you could share here that are each individually more interesting that 99% of the posts I read every day ... so have at it. And congrats on the launch!
Deb said on July 19, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Just finished reading your book and am feeling more empowered. There are very few major disaster risks in my life here in Pittsburgh, PA, but we are flying to Hawaii in February and will be on a cruise ship for a week. I couldn’t find any information about what would happen to a cruise ship either at sea or in port in the event of a tsunami. So what could happen?
Amanda Ripley said on July 22, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Thanks, Deb. Interesting question. My understanding is that you probably would be fine on a cruise ship if you were at sea during a tsunami.
The problems arise when the tsunami hits shallow water. Even at port, cruise ships are in pretty deep water, so things may not be as catastrophic as our imaginations would suggest.
In any case, I always try to remind myself to worry about the most likely threats. So keep in mind that you are at far more risk driving around Pittsburgh (or Hawaii) in a car than you are in a cruise ship.
And you can lower your risk by doing a few simple things: not talking on your cell phone behind the wheel, holding off on the Mai Tais before driving, and, of course, wearing your seat belt. If more people followed those rules, we would have many thousand fewer dead people every year in America.