Anecdote, Jan 27, 2010

When I was living in Nebraska in 1978, I had the opportunity to be standing in the near vicinity of a train derailment, as the train approached me. I stood still, and processed the images as fast as I could. I saw a cloud of dust, as the first cars crumbled upon each other and some coal cars flipped. The following boxcars rolled out of the cloud of dust like oversized, oblong, dice, while I calculated tbeir location and wondered how sure I was of my calculations. Later, all was still.