Most Popular Books by Gavin Brown

In the depths of the ocean, the sorcerer Zambrano and his intern, Bryce, discover Rex, the ancient Demon King--and ex-husband of the demon duck Seraphex--imprisoned in a trap that has slowed time to a standstill. In order to prevent the duo from releasing the Demon King to exact his revenge, Seraphex makes an unbreakable vow to embark on the most dangerous and unfamiliar adventure of all: friendship. With a supporting cast that includes a foolhardy Indian graduate student, the ancient sorcerer Laio Ling, the deadly Leviathan, and some deeply exasperating druids, our heroes will face the Demon King--and hopefully save the world. Probably save the world. Look, they''re definitely going to give this world-saving thing a go, if they can stop arguing for like five minutes and figure out a plan, in the second installment of this humorous fantasy series.

This paper examines the equity market reaction to 77 industrial incidents involving publicly traded companies in the United States over the period 2000-2013. This sample of incidents involves 14,449 injuries and 105 fatalities, with contributing factors identified as company violations and safety errors, equipment failure, human error and vandalism. The equity market reaction is identified using a GARCH-methodology. Companies that experienced incidents that were identified as safety violations are found to suffer from the highest costs in terms of equity price reductions, but the volatility effects of these incidents tend to mitigate within two weeks. Incidents caused by vandalism experience the sharpest volatility increases, but are found to reduce within two days. Whereas, equity market volatility associated with incidents caused by equipment failure tends to persist for almost four weeks after the event. Injuries are found to cost publicly traded companies $14 million each, however, fatalities lead to equity market capitalisation reductions of between $465 and $720 million depending on the cause of the incident. Hence, these results shed light on the equity market''s role as a driver for enhanced compliance with health and safety regulation and compliance with industry good practice.

The police strike of 1923 resulted in a weekend orgy of destruction....The strike resulted from a breakdown in communication between an inept Chief Commissioner and a manipulative constable determined to be as vindictive as possible. It sucked in the Government and the Police Association. Its most immediate cause was a system of supervision by senior constables in plain clothes which the men bitterly resented. The other major factors leading to the strike were the abolition of police pensions in 1906, the very poor standards of pay and conditions when compared with the New South Wales police and the revolting barrack accommodation in which single men resided. First warning of impending disaster occurred on a Wednesday night shift when twenty-nine men refused to parade at Russell Street. The Chief Commissioner was summoned and the men walked to their beats two hours later. After discussion between the parties, the same group refused to parade and the Chief Commissioner directed their discharge and the dismissal of two men whom he believed to be their ring-leaders. The manner in which other men were confronted eventually led to almost one-third of uniformed constables joining the strikers. Unfortunately for these men, rioting in the city turned a skirmish into an all-out war in which the Government and the Chief Commissioner very early in the event determined to take no prisoners. Although the Government immediately met virtually all the strikers'' demands, none was reinstated in the Force. Days of Violence contains powerful lessons for all parties - the Government, the police administration, the police associations and the members. Gavin Brown and Robert Haldane have produced an engrossing and detailed account of a neglected period in Melbourne''s history, when the security of the community was threatened by the withdrawal of labour by its guardians in the only strike by police in Australia''s history.

Over a racecourse measuring 39,270 nautical miles, the world''s leading sailors delivered the closest race ever in pursuit of one of sailing''s most coveted prizes, the Volvo Ocean Race Trophy. Sur les 39270 milles du parcours, les meilleurs marins au monde ont disputé une course serrée comme jamais pour remporter l''un des prix nautiques les plus convoités: le Trophée de la Volvo Ocean Race. Sobre un recorrido de 39270 millas nâuticas, los mejores regatistas del mundo disputaron la regata màs renida que ha habido en la batalla por uno de los trofeos mâs codiciados de la vela, el Volvo Ocean Race Trophy.

Autobiography of a well-known Collingwood AFL player, focusing on his 10-year career in football. Provides information about his team mates and various incidents on and off the field. Also discusses his early years as a young Magpies fan and reflects on Collingwood''s achievements and the future of football. Includes statistics.

This paper examines the impact of chemical industry incidents on the stock prices of the accident company and their direct competitors. Results show that the incident company experiences deeper negative abnormal returns as the number of injuries and fatalities as a result of the incident increases. The stock value of the competitor companies also suffer substantial losses stemming from contagion effects when disasters occur causing ten or more injuries or fatalities, but benefit from the incident though increasing stock value when the levels of injury and fatality is minor.

This paper investigates the housing form and neighbourhood design preferences of residents of North Cowichan, a small community in the peri-urban zone between Victoria and Nanaimo, BC, Canada. Using a mixed methods approach, residential preferences among residents were documented in order to establish the degree to which they are consistent with the principles of smart growth and, thus, supportive of urban containment.The research finds that in general residents value privacy, separation from neighbours and independence above other residential characteristics, characteristics that are not consistent with traditional smart growth residential forms. However, there is a subset of the population, particularly among residents over fifty years of age, who want to live in more urbanized environments. This paper concludes that residential forms need to reflect the values of privacy and independence in order draw more people into denser forms of housing and toward urban cores.