http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,73047-0.html?tw=rss.index

In his book Mind Wide Open, Steven Johnson relates an incident
when he and his wife lived in an apartment where a large window blew in during a
storm. He was standing right beside it at the time and heard the whistling of
the wind just before the window blew. He was lucky -- a foot to the side and he
would have been dead -- but the sound has never left him:



Ever since that June storm, a new fear has entered the mix for me: the sound of
wind whistling through a window. I know now that our window blew in because it
had been installed improperly.... I am entirely convinced that the window we
have now is installed correctly, and I trust our superintendent when he says
that it is designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. In the five years since
that June, we have weathered dozens of storms that produced gusts comparable to
the one that blew it in, and the window has performed flawlessly.



I know all these facts -- and yet when the wind kicks up, and I hear that
whistling sound, I can feel my adrenaline levels rise.... Part of my brain --
the part that feels most me-like, the part that has opinions about the world and
decides how to act on those opinions in a rational way -- knows that the windows
are safe.... But another part of my brain wants to barricade myself in the
bathroom all over again.

Thanks to Steve Midwinter.