He wasn't the only one to sound alarms about the housing bubble and the explosion of the credit derivatives market.

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So although the disk, likened to a cartoon bubble or Mickey Mouse ear, only amplifies sound by a maximum of 10 decibels, the intelligibility of that sound is enhanced.

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The idea--and remember that ideas didn't have to be very sound at the peak of the Web bubble--was that the wizards in Redwood City, Calif.

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Sound recordings revealed that the snapping sound occurred well after the claw itself had closed, when the bubble collapsed.

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