January 2015

Every year, farmers in developing countries alter the crop exposure landscape by choosing to plant particular crops. These choices are guided, for the most part, by individual households' annual consumption needs, the availability of on-farm and off-farm employment, and an expectation of the profit that can be had at harvest time from the portion of the crops that will be sold.

Before the annual crop of hurricane season forecasts, ace AIR blogger Scott Stransky organizes a fun competition within AIR.

When I had to choose what I wanted to do when I grew up, my options were architecture and a math-based career like actuarial science.

Last year the U.S. saw several crop-damaging hailstorms. Two of these—both in Nebraska—were particularly significant.

While the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) expired at the end of 2014, Congressional efforts to reauthorize TRIA have finally come together.

The 2014 Western Pacific Typhoon Season is officially over and although it turned out to be sub-par in terms of the total number of named storms (23), it is of interest for several reasons.

The coastal regions of Calabria and Sicily in southern Italy, over which Europe’s most active volcano Mount Etna presides, are periodically affected by earthquakes—and, yes, even tsunamis. The area is located at the convergent plate boundary between the African and the Eurasian Plates, resulting in strong seismic and volcanic activity.

Armor plated steel doors. Motion detectors. State-of-the-art alarms. Multiple cross-directed laser virtual trip wires. These are enough to stymie most James Bond wannabes…unless the evil butler hands over or, more likely, sells the master key.