Word: allenating
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California's fault zones can match the rest of the world's in terms of earthquake magnitude, but when it comes to human casualties, they barely register a blip. "They're practically nothing," says Richard Allen, an associate professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley. Part of the reason can be attributed to the U.S.'s superior earthquake preparation - California has strict building codes that are designed to prevent structures from collapse, and events like the Nov. 13 ShakeOut teach individuals what to do in an emergency. For the most part, though, the low death...
...truth is, your fate on Tuesday will depend mostly on a combination of luck and geography. Most people around the country will not have to wait for very long, Allen says. But some people will have to wait a very, very long time...
...arrayed in one large display), voting can take each person just a few minutes. In 2004, Ohio voters, using open-face electronic machines, spent two to five minutes voting. But those machines are expensive to buy and transport. This Tuesday, it will take voters 7 to 13 minutes, Allen estimates, because of new voting machines that are not open-face. Voters must scroll down these screens to reach the bottom of the options, and that adds time...
...many machines they will need, officials could multiply the estimated number of people registered to vote by the amount of time it takes to complete a given ballot at a given machine and then divide that by the number of hours the voting booths will be open, according to Allen and his colleague Mikhail Bernshteyn of Sagata Ltd., a business-statistics firm that consults with election officials...
...most places don't distribute resources this way. "My impression is that almost no one is using any mathematical approach," says Allen. Unlike the people who run hospitals or airports, election officials have not yet fully embraced concepts like queuing theory and modeling. Things have gotten much better in the Ohio counties that were most embarrassed by the 2004 elections, and Allen and Bernshteyn have helped those officials distribute their machines more sensibly. But it typically takes some kind of fiasco for locals to commit the resources that this approach requires...