Great book
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The Big Ones
Nov 12, 2022
Last reply: 3 years ago
3 Replies
I enjoyed this book.
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I stumbled on to it, started flipping through it and got hooked. It's very interesting and well written. This guy was a great engineer. He hits it all science, technology, methodology, and economics. It was written before World War I, so it's historical but it's still the first step in making bio fuels so it's still relevant. It reminds of going to one of those manufacturing museums with a lot more detail.
What do you like about it?
Cheers
Phil "too many books, too little time" Hobbs
It has chapters on the great disasters of history, starting with Pompeii, and includes some I never heard of. Barcelona. Iceland. Tokyo. But it's really about the interaction between events and people, and how (in)accurately people assess risks and assign blame.
Evolution of plate tectonics, too. I didn't realize how important the
1906 San Francisco quake was. The fault here is clearly visible and offset about 20 feet in the quake, also clearly visible.And good writing.
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