Shadowing Practice: Most Expensive Mistakes In History - Learn English Speaking with Video

this is what a 100 billion dollar mistake looks like on

april 20th 2010 a huge explosion engulfed the deep water horizon

offshore oil rig just 41 miles off the coast of louisiana the disaster claimed the lives of 11 workers

and injured 17 others

but the worst was yet to come oil was spilling out

into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming peak rate of 60 ,000 barrels a day.

That's enough to fill almost four Olympic swimming pools with oil every 24 hours.

The toxic black sludge polluted some 1 ,100 miles of America's shoreline

and was quickly declared the largest oil spill in human history.

But it could have been avoided.

The trans -ocean -owned rig, which had been hired by oil giant BP,

was positioned over an oil well 5 ,000 feet below the waves and a further 18 ,000 feet below the rock.

BP had recently hired contractors Halliburton to seal the well up

on the seafloor in order to temporarily shut the oil supply off.

They planned to use a nitrogen foam cement mix for this, but both companies knew that the mix was unstable.

Three out of four preliminary pressure tests revealed the mix did not meet the industry standards, but the companies cracked on regardless.

As such, natural gas and oil began to leak through the cement seals.

Then a series of emergency fail -safes also failed, which meant oil traveled up Deepwater's rig riser were explosively ignited at the top.

The devastating damage sank the rig just two days later

and left cleanup crews battling with tides of black tar for over three years.

But the accident hit BP where it hurt the most, in its wallet.

They initially established a $20 billion compensation fund for those affected,

but the following year the company had hemorrhaged over $63 .4 billion in cleanup, recovery, and legal costs.

And in a damning blow, the US government slapped the largest financial penalty ever imposed on

a single company on BP to the tune of $20 .8 billion.

All up, that's a staggering $104 .2 billion.

But it's merely the first of many on today's astonishing journey into the most expensive mistakes in all history.

Most people would kill for a 10 % share in Apple nowadays,

but one man threw away his golden ticket to wealth beyond his wildest dreams for just 800 bucks.

You've probably heard of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but there was once a little -known third founder of Apple,

Ron Wayne, who joined the former young entrepreneurs in 1976 to oversee mechanical engineering and documentation.

He even penned the original logo.

In return, he gained a 10 % stake in the business, but after becoming concerned about possible debts falling on him,

he decided to sell his shares less than two weeks after drawing up his own contract.

Although Wayne has claimed that he doesn't regret the potential screw -up, his original share of the company would now be worth $120 billion,

making him the 10th richest man in the world.

The global tech giant is valued at an astonishing $3 .5 trillion today,

so even a small slice of the remarkable company could be life -altering.

One thing Wayne does regret, though, is not holding onto his original contract, which he also sold for $500 in the 90s.

Unfortunately for him, the same contract sold at Sotheby's Auction in 2011 for a whopping $1 .6 million.

When it comes to aviation accidents, none can compare to the 2008 disaster of the USA's B -2 Spirit stealth bomber test flight.

This state -of -the -art machine was taking off from Guam's Anderson Air Base when, all of a sudden, the left wing started to dip down dangerously.

Unable to stabilize the craft, both the pilots ejected through the cockpit roof and the plane crashed and burned a few seconds later.

Fortunately, both the pilots survived, but an investigation launched into what had caused this high -tech bomber to really bomb.

It revealed that the plane's exposed air data sensors had been waterlogged by heavy rain prior to its takeoff.

This meant air pressure readings during its pre -flight check were too high, so the waterlogged sensors were wrongfully recalibrated.

However, when the pilots turned on the sensor heaters, the water evaporated, so while the readings looked normal, they were actually way too low.

This incorrect data caused the onboard computer to display the wrong airspeed,

so the pilots attempted to lift off at 153 miles per hour rather than the required 166 miles per hour.

To top it off, the sensor's bad air pressure readings adjusted the plane into a sharp 30 -degree pitch upwards.

Angled way too high and going way too slow, the plane immediately stalled and caused the inevitable crash.

But the most serious revelation was yet to come.

In 2006, this sensor vulnerability was discovered by aircrew and maintenance staff, but nobody thought to note it down.

This communication crash came with a hefty price tag, as the plane had been valued at an abominable $1 .4 billion.

Emphasis on the had.

Catastrophic mistakes can happen anywhere.

as proven by the Baltic ACE carrier ship which sank in just 15 minutes in the North Sea on December 5, 2012.

The 23 ,500 -ton ship was lost 65 kilometers off the Dutch coast after colliding with the Cyprian container ship,

the Corvus J, killing 11 of its 24 crew members

and sinking over 1 ,400 new Mitsubishi cars which were being transported from Japan and Tokyo to Russia.

While the Corvus managed to stay afloat and assisted with the search for survivors,

the wreck of the Ace ended up almost 100 feet deep in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes,

hindering a safe passage from marine traffic and risking the release of dangerous substances into the environment.

In March 2014, the company Rikswaterstaat commissioned partners Boxalis and Mamoet Salvage to remove the wreckage,

which began by extracting its 540 ,000 remaining liters of oil.

More than 18 ships and 150 people then took part in a huge operation to remove the sunken vessel,

which could only be achieved by lifting the irreparably damaged wreck in chunks.

Starting in April 2015, the ship was cut into eight sections and brought to the surface in pieces.

Look at just how huge it was.

Here's the bow with all the cars inside ruined.

Investigations have put the crash down to human error, with bridge officers of the ships failing to recognize the developing collision risk

and then failing to communicate and carry out corrective measures.

The mammoth salvage operation alone costs 67 million euros, the equivalent of around 75 million dollars today.

Add that to the 60 million dollar cost of the Baltic Ace, 10 million dollars to repair the Corvus, as well as the 28 million dollars in cargo they were carrying,

and the driving error cost around 170 million dollars in total.

In April 1990, after decades of planning and work, the famous Hubble Telescope, which at the time was worth $1 .5 billion,

was launched into space.

It was designed to send back images to Earth of far -flung stars and galaxies.

But there was just one problem.

The images were coming back grainy.

It was like they'd all been taken on a toaster.

NASA eventually established that the 7 .8 -foot primary mirror of the telescope was actually the wrong shape.

It had been built by the Perkin Elmer Corporation, and the problem was traced back to a calibration issue in their mirror -making equipment.

Now, to make a giant, perfectly parabolic and lightweight mirror is no easy feat.

First, chunks of borosilicate glass are melted into a mold over the course of a week.

Then, over three months, the glass is spun and cooled from a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius to 650 degrees Celsius.

Finally, the mirror is ground and polished to an accuracy of 20 nanometers, which can take more than two years to complete.

But a calibration issue at this stage meant the Hubble mirror

was off by just one -fiftieth of the thickness of a human hair.

It may not sound like a lot, but for that colossal $1 .5 billion price tag, NASA was not happy.

Replacing the mirror was hugely impractical, so instead, NASA designed a corrective lens for the Hubble,

a bit like how glasses correct people's vision.

The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement Instrument,

or COSTAR for short, was delivered and installed in 1993 by a separate expedition.

The costly mistake, leading to CoStar's development, ultimately set the entire project back a further $50 million.

As a result of this blunder, all subsequent space telescopes launched have had built -in correction circuits and optics to ensure there's no chance of a repeat.

June 4, 1996 was a dark day for the European Space Agency.

It marked the launch of Europe's newest unmanned rocket, the Ariane 5, which was a predecessor of the super -successful Ariane 4.

It was loaded up with four incredibly expensive satellites and achieved liftoff.

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But 37 seconds in, something went horribly wrong.

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At an altitude of 2 .3 miles while traveling at the speed of sound,

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the onboard computer suddenly and unexpectedly triggered the shuttle's self -destruct sequence.

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The rocket, along with the four satellites, exploded into an unrecoverable ball of smoke, fire, and debris.

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The Europeans were understandably crushed, but they discovered the entire accident was down to a single coding error.

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The Ariane 5 reused working software from its predecessor, the Ariane 4.

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Unfortunately, the Ariane 5's faster engines caused a bug that hadn't been found in previous models.

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The computer systems were essentially only designed to handle the speed increase of the older rockets,

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so when Ariane 5 accelerated much quicker than the old maximum, the computer's tracking limitations were exceeded.

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This crashed all the guidance and altitude systems,

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including the backups, and further misreading of this info on part of the computer led to an overcorrection of the thrusters.

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The rocket veered abruptly, and the changing aerodynamic forces tore chunks off of it,

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rupturing essential electrical links that triggered the self -destruct sequence.

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Now, if you're like me, you may be wondering why the rocket even had a self -destruct sequence.

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The answer is, every rocket has one, to ensure that if it loses control, it will explode in the air,

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over the empty -ish area of land around a launch site,

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rather than risking the out -of -control rocket blasting its full payload into a city or other settlement.

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Despite these safety measures, though, for the Ariane 5, those computer glitches cost the European Space Agency a total of $500 million,

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including its incredibly expensive cargo.

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When cryptocurrency Bitcoin was first invented in 2008, very few people saw the value in it.

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The decentralized digital currency hit the market with a value of just .0008 cents per Bitcoin.

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And people were pretty slow on the uptake.

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But Englishman James Howells saw the currency's potential.

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The avid IT worker mined more than 7 ,500 coins in a short span of time.

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But by 2010, Bitcoin still weren't worth much at just 8 cents each.

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So, James restored the private key code required to spend the

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coins he had mined away on an external hard drive and briefly forgot about it.

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But in 2013, he accidentally threw the hard drive away in what would turn out to be a very costly bout of spring cleaning.

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Unfortunately for him, 2013 was the year Bitcoin really started to take off.

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By April, it had reached a peak of $220 per coin,

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making James' stash worth a phenomenal $1 .65 million.

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But he realized his mistake all too late.

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He desperately began combing nearby landfills and dump sites in an attempt to retrieve his missing millions, but has never recovered the lost drive.

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To really rub salt in the wounds,

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Bitcoin's price per coin peaked at an unbelievable $124 ,517 on August 14th, 2025.

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Meaning that somewhere in an English landfill, an unsuspecting old hard drive was actually worth a staggering $934 million.

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That price is expected to climb to $375 ,000 per coin.

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meaning it could be worth around three billion dollars uh has

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anybody got a metal detector i could go borrow up next

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here's a little lesson from the british on how to waste billions of dollars

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or rather billions of pounds the high speed 2 railway better

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known as hs2 is a mega project currently underway in england

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which aims to make travel between the north and south way quicker, encouraging the country's economy to thrive along its path.

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But, following cancellation after cancellation, what was originally planned to look like this ended up looking like this,

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and then this, and currently it looks like this.

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The idea for the project emerged in 2009, where early concepts hoped it'd span all the way to Scotland.

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That was immediately scaled back to top out just beyond the city of Leeds, and received official approval in 2012.

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Initial forecasts predicted that the project would complete its first phase in 2026,

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with full completion coming in 2033 under a relatively modest budget of £32 .7 billion, or around $52 billion.

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Oh, how wrong they were.

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In 2018, soon after the first work contracts were awarded, uncertainty about the northern part of the project began to emerge,

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with politicians arguing against it altogether.

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As news emerged that the budget estimates for acquiring necessary land and property had been massively inaccurate,

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the realities of planning also proved much tougher than anticipated.

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As a result, hoping to allow more time for contractors to cut their costs, which were currently forecast at a billion dollars over budget,

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the British government pushed back the expected opening of the first phase from 2026 to between 2028

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and 2031 still in 2020 construction work was officially underway this

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is where the insanely overly optimistic early budget estimates really became

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obvious a rush to begin work also meant contracts were signed

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and started before designs were stable and construction risks and complexity levels were fully assessed, meaning prices rapidly grew out of control.

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Ground conditions along the route proved more troublesome than expected, and public pressure groups offered a lot of resistance to their local scenery being torn up,

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often requiring additional rerouting and compensation.

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By the end of 2021, panic set in as leaked reports predicted the project was going

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to cost an eye watering 106 billion pounds more than triple the initial estimate following

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that bombshell revelation the right leg of the original y -shaped hs2 rail network plan was shrunk down

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and as 2022 came and went budget spiraled further

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and station by station more length was cut off from the proposed network map.

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Eventually, the entire northern branch of the plan, which aimed to span from Birmingham to Manchester, was axed in 2023.

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The grand project was reduced to a single line between London and Birmingham.

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The disastrous failure of those now -cancelled lines cost the British taxpaying public an estimated £2 billion in wasted funds.

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And it'll continue to cost them more the cancelled plans are

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estimated to cost 100 million pounds in reversal procedures including tasks

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like filling boreholes the money already spent on extensive planning

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and initial now redundant construction tasks will never be recovered just

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take the plans to integrate london's euston station into the hs -2 for example the multiple designs for

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which reportedly cost a quarter of a billion

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and were scrapped entirely arguably worst of all more than 592

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million pounds has been spent on land that's no longer needed for the shortened project

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which included hundreds of homes

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that owners were forced to sell to make way for hs2

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these same homeowners are now being offered their houses back by the government albeit at higher prices now

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that housing markets

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and inflation have taken their toll i'd be furious wouldn't you

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now granted some of the spiraling costs of hs2 were hard

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to predict construction costs have risen drastically in the war -stricken

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pandemic -affected high inflation global economy of the past decade

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but there's no doubt the hs2 project was mismanaged

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and underestimated to the extreme

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and what was meant to be one of europe's proudest 21st

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century infrastructure projects has ultimately become the continent's biggest embarrassment most people can only dream about winning the lottery

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but for one anonymous retiree in coventry england

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that dream very nearly became a reality in october 2010 the

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euro millions jackpot was worth a staggering 145 million dollars the biggest lottery prize in british history up to that point,

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and hopeful ticket holders eagerly waited for their numbers to come up.

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After the announcement on October 8th, over 1 ,000 people submitted claims that they were the possible winner,

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including a 70 -year -old woman who came forward to confess that her husband might have thrown away her winning ticket.

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She claimed that she played the lottery every week

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and always wrote down her numbers in a notepad before passing the ticket to her husband for safekeeping.

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After hearing speculation that the winning ticket was purchased in Coventry, she checked her numbers and couldn't believe her luck until she realized the ticket was nowhere to be seen.

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While some lotteries allow different forms of proof of purchase, like payment records and CCTV evidence,

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unfortunately policy in this case stated that only the physical ticket itself was valid proof of the win.

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Devastating.

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The discarded winnings would have made her the 589th richest person in Britain, ranking higher than Phil Collins and David Bowie before his death,

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making this one costly mistake.

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The story of Spain's supposedly state -of -the -art submarine, the S -81 Isaac Peral,

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is one of the most embarrassing chapters in the country's military history.

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A submarine was commissioned in 2013 for the Spanish Navy, but there's just one problem with its design.

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Once it's submerged, the Isaac Peral may never be able to resurface again.

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This is because a miraculously unnoticed flaw in its design means

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that the ship is around 75 to 100 tons heavier than its design allowed,

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which means Spain essentially invested in a submarine which can only move in one direction, down.

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The mistake is said to have been the result of a pesky decimal point placed in the wrong place during calculations.

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And it's a single dot

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which could cost an extra $9 .7 million per meter of the hull which was extended to regain its balance.

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Considering $680 million had already been invested in the sub as part of a total $3 billion for a broader underwater fleet,

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this must have given the person responsible quite the sinking feeling.

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The blunder pushed the submarine's official launch date target from 2015 all the way to 2023,

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and required the intended naval launch base to be completely reshaped and renovated to accommodate the finalized sub.

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Ouch.

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There's something about Snow Crab that Americans just can't get enough of.

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Something seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster tried to capitalize on back in 2003.

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That year, they began offering an all -you -can -eat crab promotion for just $22 .99.

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Their internal calculations determined that this price, which was just a few dollars more than their regular $14 .99 buffet,

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was high enough to fuel a tasty profit.

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But they were oh so very wrong.

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It turned out that the people willing to pay $22 .99 were really big fans of snow crab.

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Red Lobster's profitable calculations assumed customers would eat up to two plates of crab plus other sides and mains.

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But they were actually eating more than twice that amount on average.

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This is because crab meat isn't thick, so customers were able to eat a lot more before filling up.

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Not only that, but crab is a fiddly food to eat, meaning customers were spending much longer at their tables and,

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hence, costing restaurants more due to reduced customer turnover.

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Customers really got their money's worth.

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Red Lobster on the other claw started hemorrhaging money.

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They'd inadvertently sparked huge demand for the legs, which are an import item.

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This caused the price of crabs to skyrocket, meaning that, to honor the promotion, Red Lobster had to keep buying in snow crabs at increasingly exorbitant prices.

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By the end of just one quarter, the company took a massive $3 .3 million loss.

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This triggered a cascade effect, where Wall Street analysts saw the mismanagement mistake and downgraded their stock price,

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wiping a huge $400 million off the company's value.

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That'll teach him for underestimating the American appetite.

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When novice hunter Sergio Martinez got lost wandering in the wilds of Southern California back in October 2003,

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he was convinced he was going to die.

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In a desperate attempt to attract the attention of nearby rescue helicopters, he lit two small signal fires amidst the dry brush of the San Diego hills.

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While the fire and smoke he made did get attention, it wasn't for a good reason.

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The hastily made signal fires accidentally sparked a huge uncontrollable wildfire,

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which was driven across the landscape by strong Santa Ana winds.

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Thanks to this, it quickly spread at a rate of 3 ,600 acres per hour.

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By the time it was finally contained on November 4th, it had scorched more than 273 ,000 acres,

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an area of land roughly the same size as Hong Kong.

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2 ,820 homes and buildings were destroyed, and 15 people tragically lost their lives.

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Even today, it's widely considered one of the worst wildfires in Californian history.

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Despite this, Martinez was only sentenced to serve six months in a work furlough program along with 960 hours of community service.

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While his stupid decision hadn't cost him all that much, insurance losses were estimated at just over $1 billion in total.

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That's around $1 .76 billion today.

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In 2003, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company had been tasked by NASA to work on the NOAA Prime Weather Satellite,

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a $233 million piece of space technology filled with meticulously calibrated instruments

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but disaster struck

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when workers were carefully turning the satellite into a horizontal position

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the entire structure suddenly toppled over three feet to the ground the damage to all those delicate systems was severe

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and a full inquiry was launched into the mishap despite the presence of incredibly smart technicians

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and engineers there was a serious lack of procedural discipline throughout the facility it turned out

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that while the turnover cart used during the procedure was in storage, a technician removed 24 bolts which secured the cart's adapter plate,

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and all without ever documenting doing so.

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The team who then used the cart failed to check the bolts before moving the satellite, and bingo, multi -million dollar destruction was born.

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Lockheed Martin had to dig into the profits it had earned,

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and with a little help from the government they both footed the astronomical 135 million dollar repair bill

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if i was the one paying

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that i think i'd have fallen over in spring 2014 london

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welcomed an ambitious new skyscraper to its financial district the 525

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foot tall reflective building became known as the walkie -talkie due to its distinct curved design

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but this shiny new tower was hiding a sinister secret as summer came around citizens of london began complaining

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that the building's south -facing concave surface was causing powerful rays of sunlight at certain points of the day

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which could raise the temperature to an unheard of 158 degrees

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fahrenheit the highly concentrated beam was capable of melting tiles causing a small fire on the doormat of a barbershop

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and melting a Jaguar XJ belonging to a local businessman, while one journalist even attempted to fry an egg in the extreme heat.

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The newly nicknamed Walkie Scorchy had to be stopped,

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so a permanent sunshade was attached to the building between the 3rd and 34th floors over the course of six months, costing over $12 million.

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A hard pill to swallow considering the building already cost over

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250 million dollars to build ironically the architect rafael vignoli also designed the vidara hotel in las vegas

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which suffered a similar problem as it singed sunbathers earning it a nickname the death ray vignoli confessed

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that he knew this would happen but

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that he didn't have the tools to analyze just how bad

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it would be Someone needs to tell this guy to stop designing superweapons instead of buildings.

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On May 10, 2000,

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a wildfire known as the Cerro Grande Fire became one of the most destructive events the state of Mexico has ever seen.

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The blaze was intended as a deliberate controlled burn during a 10 -year plan to protect the Bandelier National Monument

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and reduce the natural fire hazards in its surrounding areas.

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Drought conditions in the late 90s made the area tinder -dry, and subject to possible ignition under unexpected circumstances like a lightning strike.

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So, Bandelier officials hoped the controlled burn would thin the coniferous and grassy areas.

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Unfortunately, they didn't account for high winds on the Cerro Grande summit, where the fire was started.

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Then the blaze quickly ripped through 150 ,000 acres of land, destroying 400 homes and damaging many other structures,

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including the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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Thankfully, no lives were lost, but after multiple evacuations, the fire was not declared fully extinguished until the 20th of July,

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by which point the damage was irreversible.

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Officials were faced with harsh criticism for proceeding with the fire despite the contradictory weather conditions, and the U .S.

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General Accounting Office has estimated that the total damages cost around $1 billion.

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The tallest dam in the United States, the Orville Dam, was a $25 million response to more than $200 million in property damage

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because of flooding in northern and central California between 1955 and 1956.

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The dam did its job for 49 years until the winter of 2017.

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Due to the heavy rain, the reservoir's water levels rose dangerously, draining gradually by the dam's spillway.

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But suddenly, a crack appeared in the spillway, and not long after, it had grown into a 250 -foot crater.

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In a state of panic, officials shut off the water to the main spillway, but the reservoir's water level continued to rise.

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The only safety mechanism was a never -used emergency spillway designed to funnel water into the nearby Feather River.

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However, as water flowed down the emergency spillway,

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it caused erosion, threatening to break the entire dam and spill out into devastating floods.

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Thankfully, the dam held, and the 188 ,000 evacuated people were allowed to safely return.

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After a thorough investigation, it was revealed the entire ordeal was totally preventable.

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Why?

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Because the spillway had been built on unstable bedrock.

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As a result, the concrete separating trillions of gallons of rushing water from the bedrock over the years had worn paper thin,

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and a series of systematic failings meant no one had bothered to check it thoroughly for almost 50 years.

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The damage was devastating, repairs costing a monumental $1 .1 billion,

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a $455 million hike from the initial estimate for a dam

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that costs 25 million bucks those are some costly repairs the lotus riverside complex in shanghai was an ambitious project

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which ended in complete disaster

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because of one simple mistake the residential complex was comprised of 11 new high -rise apartment blocks

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but around 5 am on the 27th of june 2009 one

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of the 13 -story buildings suddenly collapsed miraculously missing the surrounding blocks and avoiding a devastating domino effect.

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The incident claimed the life of one construction worker, but the fallout could have been much worse if the almost complete building had been occupied by its buyers.

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Investigations found that the freak accident was caused by non -compliance with construction standards and some seriously shoddy foundations.

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Earth beneath the building was excavated to make a 15 -foot underground car park, and the soil had been piled up 32 feet on a nearby riverbank,

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which then crumbled under the pressure, allowing water to spread into the ground beneath the building.

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These muddy foundations caused the building to topple over in a southerly direction, but simply moving the earth elsewhere could have prevented the whole ordeal.

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This massive oversight caused a number of project investors to withdraw and request their money back, and the company suffered total economic losses up to $30 million,

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including construction costs and compensation to the would -be homeowners of the apartments.

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In 1992, the Spanish city of Seville hosted a World's Fair exhibition, intended to showcase the greatest achievements of the world's nations.

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And it was an insanely costly nightmare.

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Located on an island in a river running through the city,

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the exhibition's 100 -plus pavilions were incredibly ambitious too ambitious not all pavilions were paid for by spain

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but they funded

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and promoted the main thematic ones including the grand future plaza

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the seville government also poured in money to construct monorails

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and cable cars for folks to get around the expo as

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well as five multi -million euro bridges connecting the island to the city railways highways, and a new airport.

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All in all, the bold plan came in at over 7 billion euros, some of which the city hoped to recoup from ticket sales,

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foreign investment in the area, and tourism.

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Taxpayers weren't so optimistic.

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Locals interviewed at the time complained the project drained money from social programs and doubled their cost of living.

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Critics also suggested the construction contracts were murky and linked to corruption concerns with the government at the time.

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But controversy aside, the real trouble began before the exhibition even opened.

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One of the intended centerpieces, the Discovery Pavilion,

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was destroyed in a fire just before the expo started due to seemingly insufficient safety monitoring of welded work inside.

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In spite of that, the expo launched on the 20th of April and seemed to be a roaring success.

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240 ,000 paying visitors each day amounted to 41 million total

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by the end of the run more than spain's entire population at the time

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but it wasn't enough these guests fell short of projected figures

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of 60 million guests the near 20 million strong gap of potential hotel renters restaurant visitors

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and general money spenders seville had needed organizers had projected revenues of about 631 million dollars from ticket sales

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and over a billion more from non -government investments

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but despite the event's multi -billion dollar infrastructure builds

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and associated city renovations being largely financed by the spanish government

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and its subdivisions the city of seville itself was actually still left with a debt of 422 million dollars

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and a site no one knew what to do with most foreign pavilions were deconstructed soon afterwards by the countries

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that paid for them other developments stayed up intended to find some usage

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which never came leaving them empty derelict

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and wasted to this day in seville people still tour the

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expo grounds where among the dilapidated forms a small handful of pavilions are reportedly being renovated

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while some are now used as offices

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but for many of those costly pavilions intended to put seville on the map long term.

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Their decaying shells are seen as a sign of overambitious, overly expensive, failed project long gone to waste.

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Up next is a tale of astonishing incompetency and probable corruption that cost taxpayers billions. In 1990,

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the government of Thailand awarded Hong Kong -based property developers Hopewell Holdings a contract to build

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and operate a mass transit railway system in Bangkok.

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The project was intended to span 37 miles of elevated track, built atop the infrastructure of existing train lines,

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linking the Don Muang Airport with the city, among other improvements.

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This $3 .2 billion deal took place during a time of major corruption scandals in the government.

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And without thorough investigations into the feasibility of the project nor

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timeline for its completion eyebrows were being raised right from the start construction of the

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so -called bangkok elevated road and train system kicked off at a snail's pace

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because it had been approved before ownership of the involved land was completely secured

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so bold strategy cotton let's see if it pays off for them progress

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if you can call it

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that was also massively affected by repeated changes in government leadership seeing the project completely halted

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and restarted a number of times as funding was gutted

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and reinstated the first part of the project was meant to be up

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and running by December 1995 with the remainder finished by December 1999.

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however when a continent -wide financial crisis struck in 1997 work stopped entirely revealing the bombshell update

376

that the project was only 10 complete hopewell's execs blamed the

377

thai government's land acquisition issues for the lack of progress

378

while thai officials stated that hopewell had mismanaged funds

379

and run out of moolah either way in 1998 the state

380

railway of thailand voted to officially scrap the project arguing

381

that the agonizingly slow pace thus far would have made it impossible for Hopewell to honor the construction contract in reasonable time.

382

Both sides decided they were owed financial compensation from the other, initiating a legal back and forth that would last decades.

383

By 2010, the slew of legal wins, losses, and reversals saw the monetary figures reach astronomical heights,

384

with Hopewell seeking upwards of $1 billion in compensation for wrongful termination of their contract

385

and the State Railway of Thailand counter -seeking $6 billion in lost business and damages.

386

Court decisions seemed to favor Hopewell up until 2023,

387

at which point the Thai courts ruled that Hopewell's case for compensation was invalid.

388

The result?

389

Neither side owed the other anything.

390

They just had to sit with the costs they'd incurred over

391

decades of legal strife for the state railway of thailand

392

that included all the initial taxpayer -funded construction

393

and land acquisition not to mention 20 years of legal fees at the corporate level

394

and decades of wasted development potential in a major city big yikes specific incurred costs have never been publicly released

395

but if the state railway's likely exaggerated countersuit claims were even anywhere close to reflecting their actual incurred costs,

396

they could have easily been in the hundreds of millions, if not billions.

397

The project left over 1 ,000 concrete pillars standing as useless eyesores along the planned routes,

398

often referred too mockingly as Thailand's Stonehenge.

399

One section of the derelict Hopewell structure even collapsed in 2012.

400

Pretty apt considering the financial damage the project did to the city.

401

While much of the Hopewell project was demolished in the ensuing years, a $6 .3 million process again out of the taxpayers' pocket,

402

quite a lot of the remaining pillars are reportedly in usable condition.

403

But they're just standing there.

404

All thanks to what critics argue is, at best, insanely incompetent government management,

405

or, at worst, international political corruption on the part of those handing out construction contracts back in the 90s.

406

A conclusion either way would require a thorough, unbiased investigation.

407

But what is clear is that the feasibility of the project was never properly assessed,

408

and was left wide open to failure in the changing tides of Thai politics, And ultimately, the taxpayers paid the price, quite literally.

409

In 2011, the local government decided that Glencairn Tower in Motherwell, Scotland, was too ugly, unsafe,

410

and dilapidated to continue being a blot on the urban landscape.

411

With refurbishments priced at £10 million,

412

roughly $13 million, North Lanarkshire Council determined the best course of action was outright demolition. but

413

that plan then ran into numerous costing issues the original demolition

414

price was already seriously hefty at just under a million dollars

415

but when a deadly asbestos was identified throughout the tower another 500 000 bucks was added to the bill now

416

that might not look like much

417

when compared to the billions we've seen wasted on some projects so far but keep in mind this is all relative.

418

A million dollars is a lot to knock down low -cost housing, with most homes only costing about $10 ,000 a piece to demolish by comparison.

419

Complimenting the incredible costs, Glencairn Tower went down in a truly incredible demolition.

420

Well, while it may have cost 166 % of the initial estimates

421

and was never replaced by more low -cost housing

422

and at least we got a cool video out of it

423

until september 2021 kunming the capital of china's yunnan province was

424

home to 15 high -rise buildings owned by yunan hunghi real estate

425

however the volatility of the property market in china meant

426

that the buildings which cost 1 billion chinese yuan

427

or roughly 157 million dollars were left unoccupied for eight years

428

after the construction company in charge ran out of money in 2013, the basements of these buildings became submerged in rainwater, causing irreparable damage.

429

With maintenance costs rising and money on the project hemorrhaging, there was only one option left, a demolition derby.

430

In the eye -catching collapse, the buildings were torn to the ground in just 45 seconds,

431

using more than six tons of explosives placed at 85 ,000 blasting points.

432

Man, 157 million bucks is a lot of money to spend on a very big pile of rubble.

433

When it opened in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington cost $6 .4 million to build.

434

That means if it was built today, it would cost a whopping $148 million.

435

At the time, it was the third longest suspension bridge in the world by main span.

436

with only the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and NYC's George Washington Bridge outspanning this megaproject.

437

With so much money sunk into it, construction workers were alarmed when, during the building process, the bridge began to move vertically in wind conditions.

438

The workers continued to follow the design regardless, giving the bridge the nickname Galloping Gertie.

439

Poor Gertie wouldn't be galloping for long, however, as just over four months after the bridge opened to the public, it spectacularly collapsed into the water below.

440

But how could such a collapse be allowed to happen?

441

Well, Galloping Gertie was the first bridge to be built with large beams of carbon steel anchored in concrete blocks.

442

Preceding bridges had typically used open trusses, a framework designed for structure support.

443

The new design had the effect of diverting wind both above and below the bridge, resulting in a swaying effect.

444

One day, the swaying developed into a dramatic twisting called aeroelastic fluttering,

445

whereby each twisting motion left the bridge in a more severe angle for the winds to act upon.

446

In the vicious self -escalating feedback loop that ensued, the bridge twisted beyond its limits and support cables and girders failed,

447

resulting in a dramatic, terrifying collapse.

448

And so, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge went down to its watery grave there were no fatalities

449

but the last person to come across the bridge leonard coatsworth lost both his car and his dog, Tubby.

450

In addition to the $6 .4 million blunder, Coatsworth was able to claim a total of $50 ,000 in today's money for all he lost.

451

But it wouldn't bring Tubby back.

452

If you're craving even more expensive blunders, check out this video about the most ridiculous megaprojects of all time.

453

Thanks for watching, and I'll catch you soon.

454

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Most Expensive Mistakes In History”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: billion, cost, project. This video has 454 sentences and 6332 words to shadow. The speech runs for 45:33. The speaker talks at a steady 139 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
crab noun	/kɹæb/	Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
spillway noun		A path designed to take away overflow safely.
costly adjective	/ˈkɒst.li/	Of high cost; expensive.
collapse verb	/kəˈlæps/	To break apart and fall down suddenly; to cave in.
devastate verb	/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/	To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
pavilion noun	/pəˈvɪljən/	An ornate tent.
coin noun	/ˈkoɪ̯n/	A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle.
demolition noun	/ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/	The process of demolishing or destroying buildings or other structures.
expo noun		An exposition (type of public exhibition).
taxpayer noun	/ˈtakspeɪə/	A person who is subject to, liable for, or pays tax.
sensor noun	/ˈsɛn.sɚ/	A device or organ that detects certain external stimuli and responds in a distinctive manner.
ambitious adjective	/æmˈbɪʃ.əs/	Having or showing ambition; wanting a lot of power, honor, respect, superiority, or other distinction.
buck noun	/ˈbʌk/	A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret, salmonid, shad, skunk and kangaroo.
astonish verb	/əˈstɑnɪʃ/	To surprise greatly.
blunder noun	/ˈblʌn.dɚ/	A clumsy or embarrassing mistake.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
throw away verb		To discard (trash, garbage, or the like), to toss out, to put in the trash.
turn out verb		To end up; to result.
carry out verb	/ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/	To hold while moving it out.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come across verb		To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition.
come around verb	/kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/	To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first.
come back verb		To return to a place.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if it loses control, it will explode · if it was built today, it would cost
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	You've probably heard · has claimed · have put
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	have been avoided · had been hired · was positioned
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	cars which were · nanometers, which can · costs, which were

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as they'd, wouldn't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, ambitious /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/, astonish /əˈstɑnɪʃ/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, bombshell /ˈbɑmʃɛl/
Long words — get the stress right: demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, reportedly /ɹɪˈpɔːtɪdli/, astronomical /ˌæs.tɹəˈnɑm.ɪ.kəl/, calibration /ˌkæl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, dilapidated /dɪˈlæpɪdeɪtəd/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like crab, spillway, costly.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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