Air India plane crash

came here for this & was not disappointed

That said have you, uh, had much experience with the CRJ-100/-200 series?

Had to give a fairly detailed explanation of how the PM will set thrust on takeoff in a plane with no operating auto throttle yesterday. Needless to say his preconceived notions of where his hand should be were... interesting.
 
And that’s just in the airline industry, and we know they’re wrong because it’s our field. Imagine what they and their experts get wrong in other fields, and portray that as reportable news.

Who needs fact-checkers and editors? The problem is not limited to the news and social media, it’s everywhere online.

I’m a sucker for military documentaries. There’s now an endless number of self-produced documentaries that are full of errors and omissions and rarely cite sources.

A few days ago I watched a documentary about the use of the Sherman tank in the Korean War. It was told from the North Korean perspective and detailed how the N. Koreans were shocked at how the Sherman continued to evolve post-WWII, yielding an unbeatable tank. (Yes, I’m aware of the Super Sherman’s developed by some countries, documentary was describing U.S. Sherman’s.)The documentary included first person recollections of thoughts and conversations that took place in 1950.

I’m not an expert on tanks but a few things were problematic. The premise was misplaced as all the improvements to the Sherman that were cited actually were made during WWII. Despite this, the documentary claimed that Soviet advisors were shocked at the improvements they observed. We supplied Sherman’s to the Soviet’s, nothing about the Sherman would have escaped Soviet knowledge.

Those details sounded wrong and five minutes of research killed the premise of the documentary.

Other gems -

The documentary quoted dialogue and recounted memories of observations from 1950. The period dialogue included references to lasers and rail guns. 😀

If I hadn’t been a junkie for military equipment books when I was in junior high, I wouldn’t have known any better. When I was in elementary school and junior high, the school libraries had dozen’s of books produced in the 50’s and 60’s that detailed military equipment. Any older folks remember those? Heck, I still have the Jane’s reference books I received as gifts as a kid.
 
Any older folks remember those? Heck, I still have the Jane’s reference books I received as gifts as a kid.

I've an entire section of the library full of dog-eared 80s military reference books. Probably still some Krispy-Kreme residue on the pages, if one were to do a forensic analysis. Somewhere in the pages of one of them may still be stuck the notes from my little pointy-headed buddy and my points-based analysis of the relative strengths of both the Soviet vs. US fleets circa ~1988 and the Kriegsmarine vs. British fleets circa 1941. *I* am King of the Nerds, and there can be only One. I will see you on the battlefield, Pretender. Protractors at ten paces!
 
I've an entire section of the library full of dog-eared 80s military reference books. Probably still some Krispy-Kreme residue on the pages, if one were to do a forensic analysis. Somewhere in the pages of one of them may still be stuck the notes from my little pointy-headed buddy and my points-based analysis of the relative strengths of both the Soviet vs. US fleets circa ~1988 and the Kriegsmarine vs. British fleets circa 1941. *I* am King of the Nerds, and there can be only One. I will see you on the battlefield, Pretender. Protractors at ten paces!

Well do you have the 1987 Janes edition of the USSR/Soviet Naval Forces review? I do, soft cover, more like a big spine bound magazine. I'm currently curious if it is at my house, or some bookshelf at my parents house......
 
Well do you have the 1987 Janes edition of the USSR/Soviet Naval Forces review? I do, soft cover, more like a big spine bound magazine. I'm currently curious if it is at my house, or some bookshelf at my parents house......

Awww, Naw. I mean "no". I'm of hill-William stock. All of mine are the cut-rate abbreviations/copies of the same (liberally cribbing, one suspects) , for mass-market consumption and bought from the sale table at Walden Books around Yuletide, one suspects.

No, I lie, not quite all, I do have a 1989 Jane's "Fighting Ships" somewhere, I think. Gifted to me by my Defense Contractor Uncle. It was a little bit late to arrive for our 10 year-old encyclopedic assessment of the Soviets, but it was certainly treasured. IMS, mine was (is?) hard-cover, but as one would expect from such an august publication, oddly sized. Like they were unwilling to share shelf-space with the Lesser Articles by dint of fitting on to a normal book shelf. Never change, Britannia.
 
Well do you have the 1987 Janes edition of the USSR/Soviet Naval Forces review? I do, soft cover, more like a big spine bound magazine. I'm currently curious if it is at my house, or some bookshelf at my parents house......
I remember when my dad came home with a stack of Jane’s books. He was in VAQ-129, transitioning to Prowlers.

A number of the books have notes, written with a Pentel mechanical pencil. Oh, how he loved his Pentel pencils and Cross Pens. Cross Pens became a go-to gift for my father for years. I remember buying him the Cross fountain pen. He was surprised because the Exchange didn’t carry it.
 
Awww, Naw. I mean "no". I'm of hill-William stock. All of mine are the cut-rate abbreviations/copies of the same (liberally cribbing, one suspects) , for mass-market consumption and bought from the sale table at Walden Books around Yuletide, one suspects.

No, I lie, not quite all, I do have a 1989 Jane's "Fighting Ships" somewhere, I think. Gifted to me by my Defense Contractor Uncle. It was a little bit late to arrive for our 10 year-old encyclopedic assessment of the Soviets, but it was certainly treasured. IMS, mine was (is?) hard-cover, but as one would expect from such an august publication, oddly sized. Like they were unwilling to share shelf-space with the Lesser Articles by dint of fitting on to a normal book shelf. Never change, Britannia.

Much of my aviation trivia can be attributed to reading the Aviation Week’s Air and Space Encyclopedia. I clearly remember certain entries, like the entry for the X-15. Having become accustomed to the max speeds of air-breathing planes, the specs for the X-15 were mind-blowing.

Damn, my search for that encyclopedia has begun. I think there were at least ten books in the set.

Edit:

Found on eBay.


 
Nerds…


IMG_0154.jpeg
 
Who needs fact-checkers and editors? The problem is not limited to the news and social media, it’s everywhere online.

I’m a sucker for military documentaries. There’s now an endless number of self-produced documentaries that are full of errors and omissions and rarely cite sources.

A few days ago I watched a documentary about the use of the Sherman tank in the Korean War. It was told from the North Korean perspective and detailed how the N. Koreans were shocked at how the Sherman continued to evolve post-WWII, yielding an unbeatable tank. (Yes, I’m aware of the Super Sherman’s developed by some countries, documentary was describing U.S. Sherman’s.)The documentary included first person recollections of thoughts and conversations that took place in 1950.

I’m not an expert on tanks but a few things were problematic. The premise was misplaced as all the improvements to the Sherman that were cited actually were made during WWII. Despite this, the documentary claimed that Soviet advisors were shocked at the improvements they observed. We supplied Sherman’s to the Soviet’s, nothing about the Sherman would have escaped Soviet knowledge.

Those details sounded wrong and five minutes of research killed the premise of the documentary.

Other gems -

The documentary quoted dialogue and recounted memories of observations from 1950. The period dialogue included references to lasers and rail guns. 😀

If I hadn’t been a junkie for military equipment books when I was in junior high, I wouldn’t have known any better. When I was in elementary school and junior high, the school libraries had dozen’s of books produced in the 50’s and 60’s that detailed military equipment. Any older folks remember those? Heck, I still have the Jane’s reference books I received as gifts as a kid.

There’s so much AI slop on YouTube these days, the legit content creators are starting to get squeezed out. One channel that dropped into my feed was semi-interesting at first, but then I looked at the posting history. Every 2 weeks like clockwork. Considering how much effort goes into even just editing a long form video, let alone research and recording, there zero point zero chances it’s legit.

One channel had me going for a while, it was super smooth. YT wound up flagging the channel for something like “AI content aggregator” or some such, but they appealed it. After that I noticed some weird glitches in the narration, and now I’m almost sure it’s AI slop as well.
 
 
Going the complete opposite direction Never Gonna Give You Up played in the van in TPA a couple weeks and I had to try to explain Rick rolling to an entire crew that was older and less online than me
Exotic Tampa is one of our prime layovers and therefore gets all the senior crews. Don’t forget that you’re lucky to be part of it 🤣
 
Exotic Tampa is one of our prime layovers and therefore gets all the senior crews. Don’t forget that you’re lucky to be part of it 🤣
With the crew discount the cocktails were only like $16 instead of $18! What a deal! And the captain didn’t buy the first round, and the hotel espresso was literally the most expensive coffee I’ve bought in recent memory. And I buy coffee in California, Washington, and New Jersey all the time. “Affordable” Florida, my ass.
 
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