Living and Dying on Airbnb
It is horrible what happened to the author's father.  But it is also inevitable.  Like a morbid million monkeys mashing away on keyboards, operating at scale in meatspace all but guarantees that someone will die whilst using the service.<p>In America we have become accustomed to guard rails everywhere, and signs announcing the smallest hazards.  This is OK so far as it goes, but perhaps it makes us a bit soft.  Here we read about a tree swing that fell down when a full grown man used it.  At least 90% [1] of tree swings in America are built without professional engineering or even inspection.<p>I'm not apologizing for the host in this case, but I do think that some people are open to living in a world where not every conceivable danger has been mitigated.  The hard part is finding anyone so willing once a freak accident happens to them.<p>[1] I'm lowballing this estimate so much that it should be obviously true to anyone who grew up in the non-urban US.