had a talk show, Winfrey held an annual “Favorite Things” episode in which she showered her studio audience with luxurious products, almost all of which were provided by their manufacturers for a fee. Winfrey does a special called Oprah’s Favorite Things on the Oprah Winfrey Network now.) In November 2012, Winfrey wrote to her 14 million Twitter followers, “Gotta say love that SURFACE! Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts.” However, programs that deliver tweets also display how tweets are sent, such as a desktop computer, mobile phone, or, as in the case with Winfrey’s tweet, an iPad.
• Shortly after the death of Apple’s Steve Jobs in 2011, Margie Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to picket Jobs’s funeral to protest America’s tolerance toward homosexuality: “He had a huge platform; gave God no glory and taught sin.” Phelps announced the picket via Twitter, from her Apple iPhone.
----
CRUSH CRASH
----
I n the 1890s, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was having trouble attracting customers in Texas, large parts of it dusty expanses, so the company tasked executive William Crush with boosting M-K-T business there. Crush’s idea: a massive publicity stunt in which the railroad would build a small, temporary city where it would stage a train crash. Back then, as now, people loved to watch things crash into each other.
The railroad approved the plan. In 1896 it funded the building of the town of Crush, Texas, 15 miles north of Waco. The new little town consisted mostly of tents and a large grandstand. In the weeks leading up to the big event, two trains were decorated and sent around Texas to lure people to Crush—via the M-K-T Railroad at special reduced rates, of course. By the date of the planned crash, September 15, 1896, more than 40,000 people had come to Crush, making it the second-largest city in Texas (at least for the day).
A special track had been built 50 feet back from the throngs, and police were on hand to hold back the crowd. At 5:00 p.m., two trains were set to full speed and aimed at each other. Then the crew abandoned the 35-ton trains in preparation for impact. And, indeed, the trains did smash into each other in spectacular fashion at 45 mph.
What Crush, M-K-T, and the crowd didn’t expect, however, was the collateral damage. The force of the impact erupted the boilers on both trains, triggering massive explosions and hurtling debris into the crowd at high speeds. Photos of the event were taken by a man who was hit in the eye by a flying bolt, for example. Three spectators were instantly killed.
“WHAT CRUSH, M-K-T, AND THE CROWD DIDN’T EXPECT, HOWEVER, WAS THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE.”
The town of Crush was dismantled within a day; families of victims were given free tickets on the M-K-T Railroad. Crush himself was fired, then rehired by the railway when he convinced his bosses that he could spin the event into a public relations piece about proper railroad safety.
LAMBO, FIELD
In 2008 David Dopp won a brand-new $300,000 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 in a Utah convenience-store sweepstakes. The first night he had the car, Dopp rounded a curve at 45 mph, hit a patch of black ice, then spun out. The car jumped a curb and crashed through a fence before stopping in a field about 75 feet from the road. The car was nearly totaled. Amount of time Dopp owned the intact Lamborghini: six hours.
----
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
----
G OBBLED
In 1959 a program was started to aggressively introduce wild turkey populations to California. Officials hoped that having the game birds would mean big revenue from local and out-of-state hunters. It worked: By 1969 there were enough turkeys for a regular hunting season. By the 1980s, there were tens of thousands of them. And so, by 2003 California officials began introducing programs to get rid of wild turkeys, which now numbered in the 250,000 range. Biologists said they were invading habitats of native
• Shortly after the death of Apple’s Steve Jobs in 2011, Margie Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to picket Jobs’s funeral to protest America’s tolerance toward homosexuality: “He had a huge platform; gave God no glory and taught sin.” Phelps announced the picket via Twitter, from her Apple iPhone.
----
CRUSH CRASH
----
I n the 1890s, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was having trouble attracting customers in Texas, large parts of it dusty expanses, so the company tasked executive William Crush with boosting M-K-T business there. Crush’s idea: a massive publicity stunt in which the railroad would build a small, temporary city where it would stage a train crash. Back then, as now, people loved to watch things crash into each other.
The railroad approved the plan. In 1896 it funded the building of the town of Crush, Texas, 15 miles north of Waco. The new little town consisted mostly of tents and a large grandstand. In the weeks leading up to the big event, two trains were decorated and sent around Texas to lure people to Crush—via the M-K-T Railroad at special reduced rates, of course. By the date of the planned crash, September 15, 1896, more than 40,000 people had come to Crush, making it the second-largest city in Texas (at least for the day).
A special track had been built 50 feet back from the throngs, and police were on hand to hold back the crowd. At 5:00 p.m., two trains were set to full speed and aimed at each other. Then the crew abandoned the 35-ton trains in preparation for impact. And, indeed, the trains did smash into each other in spectacular fashion at 45 mph.
What Crush, M-K-T, and the crowd didn’t expect, however, was the collateral damage. The force of the impact erupted the boilers on both trains, triggering massive explosions and hurtling debris into the crowd at high speeds. Photos of the event were taken by a man who was hit in the eye by a flying bolt, for example. Three spectators were instantly killed.
“WHAT CRUSH, M-K-T, AND THE CROWD DIDN’T EXPECT, HOWEVER, WAS THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE.”
The town of Crush was dismantled within a day; families of victims were given free tickets on the M-K-T Railroad. Crush himself was fired, then rehired by the railway when he convinced his bosses that he could spin the event into a public relations piece about proper railroad safety.
LAMBO, FIELD
In 2008 David Dopp won a brand-new $300,000 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 in a Utah convenience-store sweepstakes. The first night he had the car, Dopp rounded a curve at 45 mph, hit a patch of black ice, then spun out. The car jumped a curb and crashed through a fence before stopping in a field about 75 feet from the road. The car was nearly totaled. Amount of time Dopp owned the intact Lamborghini: six hours.
----
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
----
G OBBLED
In 1959 a program was started to aggressively introduce wild turkey populations to California. Officials hoped that having the game birds would mean big revenue from local and out-of-state hunters. It worked: By 1969 there were enough turkeys for a regular hunting season. By the 1980s, there were tens of thousands of them. And so, by 2003 California officials began introducing programs to get rid of wild turkeys, which now numbered in the 250,000 range. Biologists said they were invading habitats of native
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