Doomsday: She's Gonna Blow

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

Volcanoes cause much disruption in their own right. However, much larger supervolcanoes do exist, with as many as eleven likely hotspots found around the world. Should one erupt, the surrounding area will certainly be levelled and buried, and the broader world would go through an unseasonal winter.

History
There are countless examples of volcanic eruptions throughout human history, let alone throughout the life of planet Earth. A more famous one occurred in AD 79 when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried under several metres of pumice, sudden enough to preserve the inhabitants in their original positions.

Gift Card Creditors

Last February, REDgroup in Australia entered into voluntary administration after finding it difficult to pay off debts. Owning the Borders and Angus & Robertson bookstore chains in Australia, the administrators demanded that gift cards issued by these stores only pay for half the cost of purchases; the remaining half would have to come out of the customer's pocket.

As customers are accustomed to gift cards' applying to the full cost of a purchase, this caused quite an uproar, with sales staff being abused despite no fault of their own. However, this gesture may well have been a generous one considering how liquidation works, for gift card holders are creditors to the issuing business.

Gift cards are debt
The Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements (AASB) concisely defines a liability as:

...a present obligation of the entity arising from past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the entity of resources embodying economic benefits.