Month: September 2010

Official report of F/A-18 crash

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On December 8, 2008 a Marine Corps jet crashed near my house, killing four civilians. The USMC did a thorough investigation and held a press conference about the results, complete with powerpoints. However, I was not able to find the actual report anywhere. I eventually filed a FOIA request, and got a redacted version of the report and all its attachments.

The crash fit a common pattern: a lot of small mistakes, by a variety of people, added up to a disaster. It was not just the pilot at fault, although he was certainly involved.

Because these reports were hard to get, and will be of interest to others, I’m putting them up on this site. If I can find a better (more relevant) repository, I’ll also post it there.

There is a lot of bureaucratic material in the reports. I will gradually post all of it. Questions are welcome – use the Comments section.

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Language Log » Tracking a factoid to its lair

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Our How Much Information? 2008 Consumer report continues to generate discussion. The comments that follow this blog entry in Language Log are quite interesting. I added my own comment – we’ll see how long it takes to go through their moderation process.

Matt Richtel, one of the leading current peddlers of the “technology is eating our brains” meme, is fond of this assertion:The average person today consumes almost three times as much information as what the typical person consumed in 1960, according to research at the University of California, San Diego.That version is the lead paragraph of the online site for his appearance on Fresh Air, “Digital Overload: Your Brain On Gadgets”, 8/24/2010. I was curious about what this sentence could mean, and more specifically, I wondered which UCSD researchers did the measurements, and what they they measured.

via Language Log » Tracking a factoid to its lair.