CASE 001AVIATION
A named decision boundary
Rejected takeoff at V1
A speed turns the reject-or-continue judgment into a commitment with a shrinking physical margin.
Open case02CASES / SOURCE-GROUNDED RECONSTRUCTIONS
Judgment under consequence.
Trace how a real system moved from observation to action. Each record identifies what its evidence can—and cannot—establish.
7 CASES · ALL DRAWN FROM WORKING MANUSCRIPT SOURCES · NOT INDEPENDENTLY REVIEWED HERE
7 / 7 RECORDS
CASE 002FINANCE
GERMANY / MORNINGDeutsche Marks paid irrevocably
TIME-ZONE GAPHerstatt closed after German settlement ended
NEW YORK / LATERExpected dollars did not arrive
Two obligations, different settlement times
The Herstatt settlement gap
One currency had been paid; the other was expected later, across a boundary no single party controlled.
Open caseCASE 003HEALTHCARE
Eight-hospital studyMortality 1.5% → 0.8%
Ontario mandateMortality 0.71% → 0.65% · not significant
A pause versus what becomes established
The surgical checklist contrast
A well-known before–after study reported improved outcomes; a later province-wide mandate found no statistically significant reduction.
Open caseCASE 004TRADE FINANCE
01PRESENT DOCUMENTS
02CHECK AGAINST CREDIT
03LIST DISCREPANCIES
04APPLICANT WAIVER OR REFUSAL
05PAY / DO NOT PAY
Typed discrepancy and delegated resolution
When a document discrepancy becomes a question
The bank checks the documents it can see, lists mismatches, and routes a waiver decision to the party bearing the commercial risk.
Open caseCASE 005SPACEFLIGHT
01PRODUCE IMPULSE
02POUND-FORCE-SECONDS
03INTERFACE CROSSING
04ASSUME NEWTON-SECONDS
05NAVIGATION ERROR
A declared interface without enforced meaning
The number that crossed without its units
A navigation calculation consumed impulse data under a different unit convention from the system that produced it.
Open caseCASE 006TRADING SYSTEMS
DEPLOYMENTOne of eight servers misses the release
BEFORE OPEN97 automated messages do not produce an effective stop
MARKET OPENRetired code generates erroneous orders
AFTERMATHLoss and regulatory findings
Warnings without a binding stop
Ninety-seven warnings before the market opened
An incomplete deployment left retired behavior reachable. Warning messages existed before trading began, but did not stop the orders.
Open caseCASE 007COMPUTER SECURITY
01DECLARE POLICY
02SUBMIT CODE + PROOF
03CHECK THE EVIDENCE
04ACCEPT OR REFUSE
05EXECUTE ONLY IF ACCEPTED
An untrusted producer and a narrow checker
Code that carries a checkable argument
A consumer can check evidence that untrusted code meets a named safety policy without trusting its author.
Open case