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In 1918, the deadliest virus in human history struck worldwide with hardly any warning. A victim of the Spanish flu could wake up healthy and fall down dead the same day. In the United States, so many people fell ill that schools and churches closed. There werent enough healthy doctors and nurses to care for the sick, or enough healthy gravediggers to bury the dead. When U.S. troops joined World War I that year, they couldnt have imagined that more...
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Gertrude Quinn was only six years old when her world was changed forever. In a matter of minutes, she and thousands of other people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, found themselves fighting for their lives in swirling water that covered their city. Gertrude Quinn was one of the lucky ones. She survived the great Johnstown Flood of 1889. More than 2,200 other people were not as lucky. They died in one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the...
43) Space Disasters
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Imagine watching a space shuttle on the launchpad, ready to blast off into orbit. Astronauts have embarked on some of the most amazing adventures and made incredible discoveries. Yet sadly some the most well-planned launches have ended in tragedy. In fifty years of space travel, space disasters have claimed the lives of more than twenty astronauts and one hundred space workers. In two of the worst disasters, space shuttles exploded, killing all the...
44) Space disasters
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Describes how some of the well-planned launches have ended in tragedy, the causes, consequences and how they might have been averted.
45) Tsunamis
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A look at what tsunamis are and what causes them as well as a survey of some of the most destructive tsunamis in history and how science has improved our ability to predict when and where these disasters will strike.
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More than 3,500 years ago, people on the Greek island of Calliste had a very good life. They enjoyed lots of sunshine, had plenty of food, and lived in large homes. They even had running water and flush toilets. There was only one problem: Calliste was actually a volcano. Around 1650 BCE, the volcano erupted, blowing out the center of the island and creating a large bay. What was left of Calliste was buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash. Though...
47) Blizzards
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"A discussion of a major type of natural disaster, including descriptions of some of the most destructive; explanations of these phenomena, what causes them, and where they occur; and information about how to prepare for and survive these forces of nature. Features include an activity, glossary, list of resources, and index"--Provided by publisher.
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On June 23, 1900, the Southern Railroad Company's Engine #7 and its passengers were greeted by a tremendous storm en route to Atlanta, Georgia. Stalled for some time in nearby McDonough, travelers grew impatient as rain pelted the roof and wind buffeted the cars. When finally given the go-ahead, their resulting joy was short-lived: the locomotive soon reached Camp Creek--and disaster. After weeks of constant showers, the swollen creek had eroded the...
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The destruction was beyond belief. Families watched in horror as walls of water swept away homes and businesses, and men held onto saplings for their very lives while the winds howled. Buildings on Atsena Otie were swept away so completely that only cracked stone foundations remained, and the forests of red cedar that gave the islands their name and livelihood were flattened. Resulting in dozens of deaths and millions of dollars in damage, Hurricane...
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Dissect the notorious Wall Street crash of 1929, starting with the economic conditions that led to a feverish speculative boom during the "Roaring '20s." Survey investment practices of the day, some of which are now outlawed. Trace the rise in stock prices into the fall of 1929, when a normal market correction seemed underway. Probe explanations for why it suddenly turned into a crash.
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Test Professor Fullenkamp's theory that all rogue traders are the same by studying two infamous insiders: Jerome Kerviel, who cost the French bank Societe Generale more than $6 billion, and Nick Leeson, whose errant trading bankrupted Baring Brothers. Find out how trading firms are organized, and pinpoint the Achilles heel that allowed both men to go rogue.
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Discover how an elected official with a self-admitted seventh-grade proficiency in math earned fabulous returns as treasurer of Orange County, California, and then plunged the system into the largest municipal default in United States history up to that time. His strategy - and downfall - relied on two financial instruments. Track down where he went wrong.
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Delve into the details of the Mississippi bubble, an early 18th-century financial crisis sparked by speculation in the anticipated wealth of French Louisiana. Learn how the bubble's instigator, John Law, a Scottish gambler and convicted murderer, gained control of the French economy and pushed ideas that were ahead of their time - so far ahead that they plunged France into economic collapse.
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Wade into the quagmire that trapped savings and loan institutions in the 1980s and '90s. Once a thriving, if low-profit, source of home mortgages, the industry fell victim to a combination of high interest rates, well-intentioned government deregulation, and a wave of predatory, unscrupulous managers. The ensuing debacle left the American taxpayer with a bill of $160 billion in 1995 dollars.
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Long-Term Capital Management was a hedge fund with everything going for it: well-heeled investors, a dream team of economists and managers, and banks willing to loan hundreds of millions of dollars with no questions asked. In 1998, it all went terribly wrong in a debacle that threatened to take down Wall Street. Spotlight the basic rules of finance that were ignored by LTCM and its banks.
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Inspect the unprecedented run on the international financial system in 2007 - 2008, which led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Learn the ins and outs of subprime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations, and structured investment vehicles, which fueled a U.S. housing-construction boom that involved most of the world's major financial institutions.
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Learn the ropes for interest rate swaps, the most popular financial derivative in the world. Then, see how a complex form of swaps, brokered by Bankers Trust in the early 1990s, led to huge losses for some famous corporations and an ensuing round of bitter lawsuits. The case holds lessons for anyone investing in financial instruments that they don't fully understand.
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Analyze the cause of currency crises, using the 1997 collapse of the Thai baht as test case. Uncover why such events can happen suddenly with little chance for a government to stop the precipitous fall in its currency's value, and also why the U.S. dollar is not immune. Consider the role of currency speculators, such as George Soros, who famously broke the Bank of England in 1992.
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In the 1990s and early 2000s, the U.S. economy was enjoying a long spell of economic growth that struck economists as just right. But that was before the "three bads" surfaced: bad monetary policy, bad private-sector behavior, and bad financial regulations. See how self-interest and overconfidence blinded investors, borrowers, and regulators to the financial crisis that exploded in 2007-2008.
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Plunge into the economic nightmare of hyperinflation, learning how it happens, when it ends, and the policies that put nations at risk. The classic case of hyperinflation is post-World War I Germany, which faced a multitude of demands on a financial system already crippled by the war. Also, analyze the mistakes that sparked hyperinflation in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s.
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