A journalist recounts the surprising history of accidents and reveals how they’ve come to define all that’s wrong with America. We hear it all the time: “Sorry, it was just an accident.” And we’ve been deeply conditioned to just accept that explanation and move on. But as Jessie Singer argues convincingly: There are no such things as accidents. The vast majority of mishaps are not random but predictable and preventable. Singer uncovers just how the term “accident” itself protects those in power and leaves the most vulnerable in harm’s way, preventing investigations, pushing off debts, blaming the victims, diluting anger, and even sparking empathy for the perpetrators. As the rate of accidental death skyrockets in America, the poor and people of color end up bearing the brunt of the violence and blame, while the powerful use the excuse of the “accident” to avoid consequences for their actions. Born of the death of her best friend, and the killer who insisted it was an accident, this book is a moving investigation of the sort of tragedies that are all too common, and all too commonly ignored. In this revelatory book, Singer tracks accidental death in America from turn of the century factories and coal mines to today’s urban highways, rural hospitals, and Superfund sites. Drawing connections between traffic accidents, accidental opioid overdoses, and accidental oil spills, Singer proves that what we call accidents are hardly random. Rather, who lives and dies by an accident in America is defined by money and power. She also presents a variety of actions we can take as individuals and as a society to stem the tide of “accidents”—saving lives and holding the guilty to account.

'Move over King, Chuck Wendig is the new voice of modern American horror' Adam Christopher 'A rich, rewarding tale' The Guardian ____________________________________________________________________________ A family returns to their hometown - and to the dark past that haunts them still - in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers When Nate's father dies, he leaves behind a final gift for his son: his childhood home. Married now, Nate decides to move in with his wife, Maddie, and their son, Oliver, seeking peace from the chaos of the city. But it doesn't take long before things get strange in the night and even stranger by day. Because Nate was a child being abused by his father, and has never told his family. Because Maddie was a little girl who saw something she shouldn't have. Because something sinister, something hungry, walks in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of this town in rural Pennsylvania... And now, what happened all those years ago is happening again, and this time, it is happening to Oliver. When he meets a strange boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic, he has no idea that what comes next will put his family at the heart of a battle of good versus evil. ____________________________________________________________________________ 'The dread, the scope, the pacing, the turns-I haven't felt all this so intensely since The Shining' - Stephen Graham Jones 'Universally horrifying and viscerally intimate, Wendig brilliantly uses The Book of Accidents to explore a painful truth: in the end, we all haunt ourselves' - Kiersten White

Afascinating and highly accessible look at the surprising role serendipity has played in some of the most important medical discoveries in the twentieth...

Major accidents are rare events due to the many barriers, safeguards and defences developed by modern technologies. But they continue to happen with saddening regularity and their human and financial consequences are all too often unacceptably catastrophic. One of the greatest challenges we face is to develop more effective ways of both understanding and limiting their occurrence. This lucid book presents a set of common principles to further our knowledge of the causes of major accidents in a wide variety of high-technology systems. It also describes tools and techniques for managing the risks of such organizational accidents that go beyond those currently available to system managers and safety professionals. James Reason deals comprehensively with the prevention of major accidents arising from human and organizational causes. He argues that the same general principles and management techniques are appropriate for many different domains. These include banks and insurance companies just as much as nuclear power plants, oil exploration and production companies, chemical process installations and air, sea and rail transport. Its unique combination of principles and practicalities make this seminal book essential reading for all whose daily business is to manage, audit and regulate hazardous technologies of all kinds. It is relevant to those concerned with understanding and controlling human and organizational factors and will also interest academic readers and those working in industrial and government agencies.

Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them. The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it "may mark the beginning of accident research." In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the "quintessential 'Normal Accident'" of our time: the Y2K computer problem.

Exiled from time after a failed love affair, Waldemar "Waldy" Tolliver is forced to confront a difficult betrayal and his ancestral legacy against a backdrop of historical events in the first half of the twentieth century.

Stop saying 'no' to opportunity, and start saying 'yes' to possibility Happy Accidents is your personal guide to transforming your life. As we take on task after task, responsibility after responsibility, we lose sight of who we are and why we're doing what we do; we rush through the day completing a to-do list, but we never really seem to accomplish the things that are most important. What goals do you have for your life? What steps have you taken toward them today? Consider this book your guide to getting back on track to your dreams and help inspire those around you. It's not about doing more or doing less, it's about making what you do worthy of the effort. From forging new relationships, stepping out of your comfort zone, and reframing your work—start valuing these as empowering choices you get to make toward a particular goal every day. To preserve our precious time and energy, we often default to 'no,' yet this only closes the door to our growth, while a 'yes' opens up a world of possibilities. The secret is adding 'yes, and' to our lives. This seductively simple turn of phrase opens the doors to better collaboration and positive relationships, and invites self-sustaining opportunities into our world. 'Yes, and' helps you get from where you are, as an individual or organization, to where you want to be. No person or organization is an island, and none of us reaches our goals alone. This book shows you how to build on the power of open-mindedness, cultivate supportive relationships, and adopt a win-win mindset to reignite your purpose and unleash your best. Harness the power of team collaboration, cooperation, and creativity Reframe 'mistakes' and 'bad ideas' into 'Happy Accidents' that lead to opportunities Communicate more effectively by learning how to listen actively and build on the pertinent information Relinquish some degree of control to allow for more growth and discovery Children have a natural inclination toward curiosity. As we grow into adults, our curiosity gradually takes a back seat to obligations, responsibility, and duty—but that spark remains, and can be reignited. Don't spend your life adrift in a sea of 'could've, would've, should've'—take back your sense of purpose, positivity, joy, time, and energy with the power of Happy Accidents.