I found this good-condition hardcover at a local thrift shop, and couldn't resist. I've read other accounts of some of the incidents cited here, but it still looks like an interesting collection.

Later: Some truly nightmarish incidents here, including errors in calibrating medical equipment that resulted in painful - and potentially lethal - injuries to patients; the basis of the Torrey Canyon oil-spill disaster; the Union Carbide spill in Bhopal; and much more. The causes of each disaster include design flaws, interface issues, and human fallibility - and often illustrate just how close we are to catastrophe without realizing...

While the large-scale disasters are unnerving, the smaller ones are perhaps even more so, as they seem more likely to strike any of us - or, if you think about it, to be *caused* by any of us in a moment of inattention. The chapter on a mixup involving a caustic cleaner called Eko-Klene was nightmarish: the patrons who thought they were drinking a watermelon-flavored mix wound up chugging the equivalent of lye, and suffering painful and permanently disabling injuries as a result.

I left this book, bagged against the elements, on a boulder at the Armory Rd. trailhead at around 3; hope the finder enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in New Hampshire here.]