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Disney could claim $50 million after Carrie Fisher’s death
The tragic death of Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher could mean an insurance payout of $50 million for Disney.
MSN reports that the studio, which owns the Star Wars franchise through its Lucasfilm arm, took out an insurance policy brokered by Exception Risk Advisors of New Jersey, which covered the potential loss from the star being unable to complete the planned movies.
Although one of the late actress’ work on one of the pictures has been completed, there is another which had not begun shooting and may require the role of Princess Leia to be computer-generated.
US flood risk is changing says academic study
The northern half of the United States is in increasing danger from flooding while the risk for the south is declining.
A study from the University of Iowa reveals the sharp turnaround from the current status and while the results are in general, they could result in changes in insurance risks of many states.
Study authors Gabriele Villarini and Louise Slater considered US Geological Survey data and discovered that water stored under the ground is trending higher in northern states, increasing flood risk; while many southern states have lower levels of under-ground water, reducing risk.
"It's almost like a separation where generally flood risk is increasing in the upper half of the U.S. and decreasing in the lower half," says Villarini, associate professor in civil and environmental engineering and an author on the paper, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "It's not a uniform pattern, and we want to understand why we see this difference."
Changes in rainfall are another contributing factor with Midwest and Plains states showing increased frequency of heavy rainfall. The reason for this is not clear but the authors say it could be due to regional climate changes.
Questions raised about most famous marine disaster
The world-famous sinking of the RMS Titanic is widely attributed to it hitting an iceberg but new evidence appears to support an alternative cause.
In a TV documentary screened in Britain this week, journalist Senan Maloney claims that his 30-year research into the disaster reveals damage to the ship’s hull even before it left the Belfast shipyard where it was built.
Maloney says that experts believe that marks spotted in photographs are likely to have been caused by a fire in a fuel store and that the ship set sail for New York from Southampton with hull damage and the fire still burning.
The ship’s sinking cost the lives of 1,514 people in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.
The ship was insured by insurance broker Willis Faber & Co at Lloyd’s of London for £1 million which is the equivalent of £95 million, or U$117 million today.
Lloyd’s says that all claims were paid in full within 30 days of the disaster, which remains one of the largest insurance losses ever along with the likes of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
