* According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just under 11,000 people die each year as a result of alcohol-impaired automobile accidents. A 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine estimated that as many as 98,000 people a year died in hospitals from medical errors. A 2010 survey from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services found that about one in seven Medicare patients in hospitals suffers a serious medical mistake. The report says these adverse events contribute to the deaths of an estimated 180,000 patients a year. Among those events, roughly 80,000 are caused by errors that could be caught and prevented, such as letting infections develop, giving a patient the wrong medication, and administering an excessive dose of the right drug. The additional medical cost and care required to correct for these mistakes is estimated at more than $4 billion a year.

* In March 2009, the blogger Steve Trimble, who writes the DEW (Defense Early Warning) Line blog for the aviation site flightglobal.com, did just that. After many unsuccessful direct attempts, he asked for a phone interview with the program manager of the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft and immediately was granted access. I, however, had no such luck.

* Ben Rich ushered in the era of stealth fighter design for Lockheed’s Skunk Works. When he passed away in January 1995, his ashes were spread from a plane in the skies over the Pacific Ocean near his home in southern California at his request. Just as his ashes were released, a stealth fighter suddenly emerged from the clouds, dipped its wings in a final salute to its creator, and vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

* The full rule reads “both by the military and industry.” The remaining seven rules are all specifically focused on Lockheed work and military defense contract work. You can see all 14 at lockheedmartin.com/us/aeronautics/skunkworks/14rules.html.