Funny story. Well, not really. Years ago I was working for Victoria University of Wellington’s John McClure. This involved pestering lunchers enjoying the sun in the capital’s Civic Square to answer questions about different reasons for buildings collapsing in an earthquake.

I had successfully cajoled people to fill in half the surveys I had and lunch hour was ending, so I called it quits intending to return the next day, September 11, 2001 … Needless to say, data collection was stuffed and it was a good few months before we finished that study.

I learnt several things from the ...

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