Sublime

Maximin. Minimize the impact of your losses. This is the way a power plant works. It’s nice if your average productivity goes up a bit, but it’s absolutely terrible if something goes wrong and the place melts down.

When lots of these conditions are in place (greater than 80 percent) there is around a 1-in-3 chance of a civil war or revolution—so not very probable but still too probable for comfort. The US is in the 60–80 percent bucket today.

Threats such as meteorites and space debris are rarely included in risk assessments because of the minute chance of occurrence.

But there are only ten specialized burn beds in the entire Washington metropolitan area, at the MedStar Washington Hospital’s Burn Center in central D.C.

Avoiding these kinds of unknown risks is, almost by definition, impossible. You can’t prepare for what you can’t envision. If there’s one way to guard against their damage, it’s avoiding single points of failure.

put chains and a padlock around the quick-release handles to the back fire door exit. Hoke got the keys from the office, unlocked the chains, and put them into the storage room behind the unused kitchen. Later, when he made out his report and put it on Mr. Bennett’s desk, he reminded the manager that the fire marshal could close the hotel down for