Most of the losses are coming at leveraged financial firms, like banks, which will in turn pull back lending, applying another brake on economic growth.
Some car insurers, such as Progressive Insurance in the US, already use sensors that report back on how abruptly drivers brake or whether they are heavy on the accelerator to help it set insurance premiums.
If events go as planned, the Curiosity spacecraft late on Aug. 5 will plunge into the thin Martian atmosphere at 13, 200 miles per hour and quickly brake by swooping back and forth in aerodynamic S-curves, much like the Space Shuttle.