Maybe it speaks to a risk-averse nature, but I've always been interested in failure and in learning from the mistakes of others - obviously so I don't have to learn such lessons first hand. This is particularly important when you engage in activities where bad decisions can kill you. But generally, as any book on mountaineering mishaps demonstrates, it takes a series of errors in the "correct order" and at the wrong times to cause you serious harm.
In high risk activities under adverse conditions, it's not hard to make poor decisions that you would never contemplate from the comfort of your favorite living room chair. But while there is little risk to life and limb on the Internet, its very connectedness means that the blunders of pretty much anyone can impact you. What is important in this environment is the half-life and the reach of the mistakes. Those that are local and die out quickly have little chance of resulting in global mayhem. Others compound with all the other endless screw-ups regularly going on and eventually become a giant avalanche careening down hill, collecting mass and bearing down on the sleeping village below. This is one of those stories. It might be true or it might not. Your opinion depends on how much imagination you think we have!
