Windshield pitting and the madness of crowds

Great historical account of the Washington State "windshield pitting" epidemic of 1954 -- a mysterious rash of pitted windshields that were blamed on hooligans, nuclear waste, cosmic rays, and coal dust -- but turned out to just be a collective delusion, where reports of a windshield pitting epidemic caused people to notice the pits in their windshields that had always been there. Link Discuss (Thanks, Alan!)

Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

Comments are closed.

Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.