MetaFilter posts tagged with BlackBox

Black Box

MoreForMad — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:14:47 -0800

What journalists and the public often call the "black box" is typically a nearly-indestructible combination of two things: a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) which records the voices of the pilots and crew from microphones stationed around the plane, and the flight data recorder (FDR), which monitors and stores information about the flight itself, like speed, altitude, and bearing. Underwater locator beacons help search teams find submerged black boxes up to 14,000 feet under water, but sometimes even that isn't enough.

Survival in The Sky

maxwelton — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:16:11 -0800

Known as Black Box in the UK, Survival in the Sky was a four-episode 1996 series about commercial aviation accidents and the investigation of their causes. (Two additional episodes were filmed in 1998.) Not currently available on DVD, five of the six episodes are available in their entirety on YouTube (links within). The series, narrated by Will Lyman, is notable for being produced with the cooperation of the NTSB and AAIB, and is a studied and thoughtful contrast to the much more frenetic Seconds from Disaster, a recent series which often focuses on aviation disasters. Survival in the Sky features a minimum of CGI recreation and no dramatic reenactments, instead allowing period footage and compelling interviews with survivors, air crew, experts, and investigators tell the story. Please see the wikipedia entry for a synopsis of the specific incidents each episode explores, and beware that there are a few moments in the show which take an unblinking look at the aftermath of aviation disasters. The episodes (missing the 1998 program about Flight 800):

"Blaming the Pilot" (1996) [1 2 3 4 5]
"Deadly Weather" (1996) [1 2 3 4 5]
"A Wing and a Prayer" (1996) [1 2 3 4 5]
"Crash Detectives" (1996) [1 2 3 4 5]
"Sky Crimes" (1998) [1 2 3 4 5]

A Random Walk Down Wallstreet

bystander — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:10:44 -0800

Another stock market post. Technical traders (or charters) don't look at the fundamentals of an investment, like the earnings per share or even macro economic indicators to understand how a stock will move. Instead, they look at the movements in the market. While many of us might think prices are now low, technicians have the reassurance of fibonacci sequences, relative strength indexes, support levels and other "blackbox" ratios to determine their investments. There are some who blame them for a lot of woe, but they also provide a ray of light when everything else looks glum. Despite some evidence it doesn't work, or at least doesn't work over the long term, the number of true believers in the market mean even true fundamentalists can't ignore their impact. Investment firms employ analysts to build "black boxes" or trading models, for big money, but in market conditions like now, many models fall down.

Japanese JB Juxtaposition Jamboree

Burhanistan — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:08:01 -0800

Interpreted: James Brown meets Kraftwerk.

A Welsh Black Box to make biofuel whilst capturing car fumes

ItsaMario — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:29:08 -0800

A Welsh Black Box to make biofuel whilst capturing car fumes

more voting goodness

taumeson — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:18:51 -0800

Black Box Voting has completed their analysis of log files from Palm Beach (FL) county voting machines stemming from the Nov 2004 general election. You know it's not good news when the article starts with: The internal logs of at least 40 Sequoia touch-screen voting machines reveal that votes were time and date-stamped as cast two weeks before the election, sometimes in the middle of the night.

SERVE

homunculus — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 12:34:41 -0800

A security analysis of the Pentagon's experimental Internet voting system, SERVE, says it's too vulnerable to be used. An incident in Canada last year highlights the risks. But the Pentagon is standing behind the system, and seven states have signed on. [Via Black Box Notes.]

textureslut — Tue, 17 Sep 2002 02:41:34 -0800

There appears to be a three-minute discrepancy between the time that Flight 93's black box stopped recording and the time that it actually crashed. Hmm ... I wonder if ... nah.

bas67 — Sat, 10 Aug 2002 21:01:18 -0800

Government plans to use Flight 93 cockpit tapes in Moussaoui trial "Additional recordings would be played from the cockpit of an executive jet that tracked Flight 93 on Sept. 11" "An official for NetJets, a company that sells shares in private business aircraft, confirmed that the plane tracking Flight 93 belonged to the company. The official, who asked not to be identified by name, said the company was asked not to comment on the Sept. 11 flight but would not say who made the request." Finally someone admits that there was a plane up there when Flight 93 crashed. But who was it and why?

semmi — Fri, 03 May 2002 22:00:06 -0800

"Writer William Langewiesche, a pilot in his own right, explains why a jet packed with 217 passengers plunged 33,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean in the dead of night--and why it took so long for the U.S. and Egyptian governments to issue an explanation. Using black-box transcripts and radar records, Langewiesche meticulously reconstructs the last minutes of the so-called suicide flight. In a feat of storytelling, he reveals the nasty combination of politics and culture clashes that delayed the official investigation."

daver — Mon, 19 Mar 2001 17:25:57 -0800

Right before you hit you were doing... Looks like we're all getting black boxes in our cars. As a high speed crash survivor I have to admit a certain curiosity as to the forces involved my accident happened. But I'm not sure I want to know this badly...