Saturday and Sundry Tid-bits from the Week That Was

Creepology by Michael Doliner at Counterpunch.
I've commented to my husband, recently, on how rare it is to see accusations of sexual harassment where the accused was a charming good-looker. Here's Mr Doliner's view. His piece begins:

Harvey Weinstein, Louis C K, and James Toback are creeps, but they did not become creeps because of what they did. They were already creeps. Creeps are born not made. At an early age, creeps make a girl’s skin crawl. A girl will recoil violently at a creep’s touch. Creepiness, to a large extent, is a matter of fate...............

A fantastical ship has set out to seek Malaysian Airlines flight 370
A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for the plane

Good! I'm so pleased there'll be one more attempt to solve this mystery.

The plan is for Ocean Infinity’s search to be paid for, on a “no find, no fee” basis, by Malaysia alone. Contracts have yet to be signed, but Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s boss, has decided to go ahead anyway, to take advantage of the window of good weather that opens in the southern Indian Ocean in January and February.

Ocean Infinity aims to cover the ground [to the north of the original search area] much faster than Fugro did. In prior cruises in the Atlantic, the firm has, according to Josh Broussard, its technical director, managed to scan 890 square kilometres a day using six autonomous submarines. With eight, Mr Broussard thinks that the new mission will be able to manage 1,200 a day—enough to have covered the original search area in just 100 days..................

What happens next, if Ocean Infinity does locate what is left of the missing aircraft, is unclear. Friends and relatives of those aboard it will doubtless derive relief from knowing where the flight ended up. But merely finding the wreckage will not explain what happened on board the plane. That will require the discovery of the aircraft’s flight recorder.

That object is therefore Ocean Infinity’s ultimate target. If it is found on this mission, Mr Broussard says the firm plans to bring it to the surface and then deliver it for analysis to the Australian authorities, who have the technical competence to assess it

A question I noticed at Quora during the week:
What is the origin of the joke phrase “this is why we can’t have nice things”?

I'd wondered about that myself - it appears that the answer (or one possible answer) is in this video of American comedian, Paula Poundstone, from a 1990 HBO Special. Paula tells about the time in her childhood when she dropped a Flinstones jelly-jar glass in the kitchen, her mother complained: “Damn-it! We can’t have nice things!”
It comes at about 1 minute 30 seconds in.

The Whys? Persist

I read, a couple of days ago, that the search for lost airliner MH370 is, possibly, to be resumed in the near future.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41691794

"Malaysia is negotiating a "no find-no fee" deal with a US company to renew the search for downed flight MH370. The government announced in a statement that it was in talks with Texas-based salvage firm Ocean Infinity.
If the deal goes ahead, Ocean Infinity will foot the bill and recoup costs only if it finds the missing plane........."

Wonderings on the mystery of this plane, lost in March of 2014 with 239 souls on board, frequently float around my mind. Media have all but forgotten about the tragedy in these times, when there are many more click-worthy gossip pieces available, highlighting President Trump's regular mis-deeds and mis-speaks.


A more recent mystery, about which media has rapidly gone quiet, but questions remain: what was the likely motive behind recent brutal murders in Las Vegas, by Stephen Paddock, of 58 concert-goers, and injuries to hundreds more? I've been wondering, in kindlier moments if perhaps, media have been asked, or warned, to "go quiet" while authorities conduct inquiries and research in a calmer atmosphere. Or, in more cynical moments, I wonder: is this just another disgusting "shove it under the carpet" deal with the NRA?

Really?

National Paper Airplane Day is an unofficial observance, celebrated on May 26 each year in the United States to commemorate the simple aeronautical toy.

Paper airplane day celebrations typically include social gatherings at which participants create and fly paper airplanes.


Really? How odd!

All the while, we await news, still, after 2 years, of lost real plane MH370 in the Indian Ocean, and more recently lost EgyptAir 804 in the Mediterranean, with all souls aboard both. RIP.

Salmagundi on Saturday-Sunday

Nevada and South Carolina are in the news this weekend.

Primary caucuses are being held in Nevada on Saturday. Weeks ago word was that Hillary Clinton had a clear advantage in the state, but lately it's being reported that the race has "tightened", as Bernie Sanders appears to have caught up considerably. There's a whiff of change in the air these days, I'm anxious for it to grow, and Nevada's result will be a guide as to the depth and breadth of that whiff of change. On the Republican side it'd seem Nevada with glitzy Las Vegas embedded would be a shoe-in for Donald Trump. The area though, glitzy as it is, has a huge working class population who cater to the tourist industry.

Las Vegas, Nevada has more hotel rooms than any other city on earth. Of the top 25 largest hotels in the world, 15 are in Las Vegas.

State of Nevada has voted for the winning presidential candidate 96 percent of the time since all Lower 48 states first voted in the Election of 1912. During the past 100 years, Nevada has voted for the winner in every election except for 1976 when Jimmy Carter lost the Silver State by a narrow margin. (Ohio is the only state that has voted for the winning Presidential candidate in each Presidential election in the last 50 years)
(HERE)

South Carolina holds its Republican primary Saturday too, Democrats must wait until next Saturday for their SC primary. Will Donald Trump retain his lead...will Ted Cruz make gains? I know nothing at all about South Carolina, except that one of my favourite movies Prince of Tides is partly set there. Reportedly Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump still hold big, possibly insurmountable, leads in this southern state.

In other news

The mystery of MH370 lingers on...and on ...and on

From news.com.au

10 weeks until the search for the plane is expected to end after a year-long mission. If officials fail to find the wreckage, it throws up the possibility that a rogue pilot was controlling the aircraft at the end.

According to The Times, Australian officials are preparing to change their theory of what actually happened before it disappeared.

The 60,000sq km search area, which is almost the size of England, was calculated on the assumption that the plane was a “ghost flight” and that its pilots were either incapacitated or dead at the time it crashed. In this scenario the aircraft flew on autopilot until its fuel ran out and it crashed into the Indian Ocean.

But if the plane is not found in this area, it may suggest someone was controlling the flight at the end and managed to glide the aircraft for up to 160km, beyond the bounds of the search area. The “rogue pilot” theory suddenly comes back into play.

Unfortunately, if the plane is not found in the next few months, the world may never know what happened to flight MH370. Australia, Malaysia and China agreed last year to end the search if they reached the end of the zone without finding the plane.

On a lighter note

From husband's vintage photos "Talking Pictures" section at Flickr



Husband's caption:
Earle Smith and Vera at the 828 house.
Vera wore her pointed paper hat of invisibility. Earle kept his club ready, just in case. He knew all her tricks, he thought.

Alternative caption suggested by Michael Donovan
"So, he wants to make you his common-law wife, does he? Well, I've give him some common-law wife right up the you-know-where if he shows his ugly mug around here again!"

Another alternative by Debbie Irwin
He knew the little pest would be back. Those pointy headed fairies had had their way with him for the last time. He had the idea that this club in his hand was not the "fairy chaser" the dealer had convinced him it was. In time, he would build his own. He feels the victory is near. It is his time, by God. IT IS *HIS* TIME!!!

And from the always chuckle-worthy Wrong Hands by John Atkinson (borrowed after the hopefully adequate donation of a tip for requested "cup of coffee"):

I'm going with:
EDGY - ALIEN - TIME TRAVELS - SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
(Thereby hangs a tale?)

Open for business.....

I got nuttin' for today - must be the heat!

But do have a look at this:

Dance of Air


Oh...and - late yesterday afternoon I saw THIS regarding lost plane MH370 (lost for some 17 months).
I've been kind of expecting something like this, been watching the pilots' "pprune" website for the last few weeks, and now they've got a thread going on MH370 again:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/565335-flaperon-washes-up-reunion-island.html

Open thread for anyone who has a grumble, an observation, or a few words of wisdom to share.

A Good Read

Flight MH370's disappearance, now not far short of a year ago, is still a worrying phenomenon. The careful search of the seabed of large areas of the Indian Ocean has so far revealed nothing. No debris with clear connection to MH370 has yet been found. The mystery persists. Longtime blog buddy, RJ Adams has written an engaging piece of fiction on this very topic - it's a good, if scary, read. Do go and give it a whirl, please. The post is dated 29 January. Take a look at the comment section too. Link:
MH370 – Flight To Armageddon

On-going Mystery

I think CNN has stopped mentioning it now - so I will take up the slack.

This year's biggest mystery, so far, hasn't yet been solved: the disappearance of Boeing 777 #MH370, more than three months ago, with 239 passengers and crew on board. I've followed news stories over the weeks during extensive searches in the Indian Ocean: the discovery of pieces of debris, later proving not to be parts of the plane , the complex mathematical calculations drawn up by experts to establish the likely route and crash area using satellite "handshake pings"; the other kind of pings heard in the ocean in a likely crash area, originally thought to have been the last signals from MH370's black box equipment - doubt has now been cast on even this piece of "evidence".

There have been reports of possible sightings of the flight, from a guy on an oil rig; from some villagers on a island in the Maldives early on; and more recently from a British woman sailor on a yacht in the general area of the plane's possible route, who didn't believe her eyes when, close to the horizon she saw a large plane with what appeared to be orange lights beneath it, trailing black smoke. She didn't report the sighting immediately, three months ago, due to her disbelief.

Conspiracy theories have free range now but, strangely, the longer it goes before something definite is found, the less likely most of the theories become. Ideas about a terrorist hijack and subsequent plans to ransom passengers has become highly unlikely now, as has a possible plot to steal the plane, re-paint it, to use for dastardly deeds in the future - but what about those 239 people on board? Was the plane shot down by some over-keen military? Possible, I guess, but a plane shot down would certainly have left debris, some would have washed up or been seen by now. Lack of debris seems to indicate the plane sinking intact, or with minimal debris which sank soon after.

The most likely scenario remaining, other than fire in the cockpit or hold (which kind of makes the several known hours of onward flight unlikely) is that either one of the crew or a passenger re-routed, or caused the re-routing of the plane, but for what reason? If a passenger with sufficient expertise was involved, perhaps the reason could have been to divert the plane in order to crash it somewhere in a populated area, thus causing a 9/11-like tragedy. The captain might have been able to save this from happening by ensuring the plane would be out of range of all populated areas. Or... another scenario: if the plane's captain had held sufficient grudge against his company, or his country, and was in an emotionally unbalanced state at the time, he might have decided to "teach them a lesson" by taking the plane to sink it where it might never be found, thus causing huge expense and effort - and ensuring insurance payments would have to be made? There is some evidence that such a story might fit, but people who new the captain well have said that it seems highly unlikely, because loss of the lives of so many others was involved.

The search will continue in the Indian Ocean after the seabed has been mapped in detail. Expert search companies are currently being tendered, to continue what will likely be year(s)-long searches later this summer.

Recently it was reported as follows HERE:

Grieving relatives of passengers on board missing flight MH370 is offering a $3 million (£1.8m) reward for a whistleblower to come forward and give key information into the flight's investigation.

After three months of failed search efforts, families have become convinced the authorities are concealing the truth about the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and will launch the crowd-funding campaign Indiegogo in a bid to get answers

Latest as of 16 June: When search resumes the Inmarsat "hotspot" will be a key focus.

The emotional pain the families and loved ones of those lost have been enduring is unimaginable. I hope there will be closure for them, and soon.

Chariot ~ Eerily Relevant?

At the weekend we decided to catch up on the Bourne Series, a set of movies both of us had missed. After having watched the latest of the series on HBO: The Bourne Legacy our curiosity was aroused. That's not what this post is to be about though.

On our way out of the video rental store, three Bourne DVDs in hand, I noticed the cover of a DVD bearing illustration of a passenger plane in flight, with some kind of mayhem going on around it. As my mind has been on disappearance of flight MH370 and plane disasters in general a lot lately, I grabbed it just before arriving at the check-out, without reading the cover, which anyway isn't included with the rental video. The movie's title, Chariot, didn't give much away.

We watched the movie on Sunday evening, and regular commenter mike's term "quinky-dink" kept rattling around in my head throughout!

The movie, I now discover, is available online, for free. (LINK)

A little information, which I'll try to keep spoiler-free in case anyone reading this decides to watch the 90 minute film.

Chariot, released in 2013, is an independent film produced on a shoestring budget of around $42,000 by a Dallas, Texas based film company. Writer/producer was Eric Vale, director/producer, Brad Osborne and actor/producer, Anthony Montgomery. It was shot on a single set inside a non-functioning Boeing 727, with a cast of Texas-based, largely unknown but competent actors.

From information at prweb.com

In the film, seven strangers wake aboard a passenger jet in mid-flight and find themselves unwitting participants in a government evacuation program. As a seemingly devastating attack unfolds on the U.S. homeland, the passengers learn they have been chosen to be saved because of their unique skills and/or political connections. But from the beginning, the plan appears to be ill-conceived and for those aboard things quickly go from bad to worse.

"The film is-among other things-a commentary on the power and reach of the government" Osborne (producer) said. "But I never could have predicted the subject would be so top-of-mind in the public consciousness at the very moment of Chariot's release."

Osborne was referring, I guess, to the then recent NSA revelations of blanket surveillance. A year later, in 2014, the movie seems to have even more sadly weird relevance. From what's written here, perhaps such a weird relevance isn't obvious, but watching the movie, hearing dialogue of the passengers, at times made my skin crawl, bearing in mind the disappearance of MH370.

............ Unfolding in real time, Chariot boasts a number of surprising revelations and plot twists designed to keep audiences guessing to the end.

The end...or what passes for the end was a weak spot, for me.

"I just set out to write a thriller. But what was initially a fairly far-fetched plot now seems eerily believable," Vale said about his first screenplay brought to feature film status.

Again, in 2014, the film has gathered another layer of eeriness!

.....The real-life mystery of the disappearance of a passenger aircraft sparked the story idea behind Chariot. In 2003, an American Airlines Boeing 727 - registration number N844AA - vanished from an airport in Angola. Despite a worldwide yearlong search by the FBI and CIA, the plane was never seen again.

Lost Plane.....still

Three weeks+ on and still no certain news about the disappearance of flight MH370, other than it has, indeed, disappeared. There are "pings" and expert analyses of same, and sightings of debris in several different areas of sea and ocean. Most, if not all such debris would have no connection to the lost plane, only to our profligate carelessness. So, we're left with "pings" which, we are told, direct the search southward rather than northward, apt quotes about not finding the needle until we've located the haystack, and multiple theories, varying from plausible to absolute silliness, as to the how, the why and the where.

A comment by "Ornis" on the PPRuNe forum yesterday appealed to me:

Facts. We have science and technology because Man didn't wait for facts. He guessed and he imagined and he tried and he demonstrated.

It's perfectly obvious that the chances this was not a carefully planned act of vengeance is somewhat less than my winning Lotto. Of course someone does win Lotto, so it's not impossible it was the wrong kind of fire at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The fact is, the Universe is based on probabilities, and so is our knowledge of it; how we make sense of it.

A bit of garbled elemental guff.....

I don't feel like delving into detailed astrology with regard to lost Malaysian airlines MH370. Other, more experienced, heads are onto it anyway, and my heart wouldn't be in it, not at the depth needed to reach any kind of sane conclusion.

Something loosely astrological keeps nagging at the back of my mind though. Every astrological element is involved in this current mystery.

Air, obviously - the plane flew through it. Water - the plane flew over it and might possibly have crashed into it. Fire - some experienced pilots have put forward the considered opinion that an electrical fire in the front instrument panel or below it might have been the beginnings of an ensuing tragedy. Earth - the plane, if not in the sea has to be somewhere on or in the earth, intact, hidden for whatever purpose, or destroyed in a crash.

I've occasionally pondered which of the astrological elements is the strongest (as in "rock-paper-scissors"). This will not help with the current mystery, but just for the hell of it.... Air feeds fire, fire dies without air. Fire can be extinguished by water and indeed by earth if enough of it is thrown onto a fire. So though fire is dramatic, strong and destructive it isn't the strongest of the elements. Air can affect earth : tornado, dust devils etc. but it re-arranges rather than destroys; what it destroys are constructions not earth itself. Air and water mix somewhat uncomfortably, neither needs the other to persist. Earth can and does exist under the oceans, water can and does exist in clouds in the air. Nothing destroys earth or water entirely. Air, as we know it, could be subject to change, which is its weakness, I guess.

Earth and water reign supreme then? Did I need to know this? Not really. Never mind.

Back to where is MH370?

Lost Plane (continued again)

Back to the lost plane issue. I'm finding it difficult to drag myself away from it.

A useful exchange of comments drawing together pros and cons of possible motives for disappearance of MH370, with current situation and known facts (not many). This comes from recent input at the pilots' forum where I've been lurking, and reading the now 5,000+ thread for several days.

By :"slats11"

1. Kidnap passengers as hostages? You would have to know that the pax (= passengers) were mostly Chinese and Malaysian. I can't imagine China would be keen to negotiate, nor to facilitate negotiations by the relatives. So this would seem a very poor choice of flight for this purpose.

2. Theft of cargo? For this to work, you would need accomplices and logistics at other end. This takes time to set up. How much notice would you have of an upcoming valuable shipment? Presumably not enough to get yourself onto that flight and organise the other end. Could it have been a spur of the moment opportunistic theft? Possibly. But the details we have suggest the reversal of course (and other things) was done very skilfully, and this suggests detailed planning. And you would still have to set up the other end. So theft seems unlikely.

3. Steal plane for some future terrorist plot? This is probably the most likely scenario for the "northern corridor." However, you would imagine the customer was most likely in the Middle East. You would also imagine the customer would like his plane stolen with the least chance of things going wrong. So why steal a plane heading east, and then have to reverse course and avoid radar of Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia etc? There are plenty of MAS flights from KL heading to Europe or Middle East. Why not steal one of these flights? You could even cross India (legally) and then disappear - which would give you much greater range (Pakistan or Iran). For ME terrorists, an added bonus of a Europe bound flight would be a greater number of westerners. Do we know if the crew flew other routes?

4. "Southern corridor" scenario. Hard to think of a reason other than suicide and disappear. If this happened, the guy didn't want anyone to know for sure - he could have left a note, or even come up on the radio and announced his intention. Nor did he want the plane found. Reverses course and possibly flies low to avoid primary radar - unlike the customer in option 3 who has nothing to gain by playing games with radar, it is possible the pilot here enjoys the challenge of defeating radar. He then heads NW up Straits of Malacca, before turning SW when he is sure he is out of primary radar coverage. Why turn NW first? Well he does not want to be found. If he is picked up by primary radar, heading NW he looks like lots of other traffic heading out of KL or Singapore. If he went immediately SW over Malaysia and then Sumatra, this would seem unusual if anyone did see him on primary radar.

From "OleOle"

Good assessment of possible motives. What's missing is
- something spontaneous
- something not going according to plan
- a change in plan.

My own thoughts: As things stand now, with my original Occam's Razor thoughts cancelled by what seems to be indisputable fact, i.e. that a radar signal from the (more or less) intact plane was received some 7 hours after last contact, now #3, above seems the most likely. #3 would not necessarily involve a customer from the Middle East, or if it did, then perhaps they were distracting, trying to avoid appearing obvious in not selecting an easier route?

This blog of pilot Mark L. Berry and radio broadcast by him is informative and fairly persuasive.

BLOG

BROADCAST

The best, if it can be so described, outcome from a rapidly darkening situation, would be for the families and loved ones to receive absolutely certain news, one way or the other. The terrible anguished "limbo" they are in at present has to be horrendously debilitating, causing harm to their own mental and physical health.

Lost Plane (continued)

In the early hours of the morning I watched streaming of the Malaysian Prime Minister's press conference, after which I decided not to post the non-relevant material I'd prepared for the weekend.

The Prime Minister first summarised what had unfolded since flight MH370 disappeared from radar a week ago. He then revealed, or confirmed, that radar "pings" discovered by British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat, while not able to pinpoint exact positions of the lost plane at various points in time, did indicate that it had continued to fly for many hours after its last "proper" radar communication, which had taken place just as it passed from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control space. At that time, it appears the plane's transponder was manually switched off, which indicates to researchers that it was a deliberate action rather than, as many had thought, disabled by some electrical or electronic fault or a fire in the cockpit.

The last communication between the missing plane and satellites (and this was merely a kind of "handshake"), was at 8.11 am Malaysian time, nearly seven hours after disappearing from air traffic control screens.

The Prime Minister said that "Despite media reports the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear, we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate." He said analysis of the plane's last communication with satellites placed it somewhere in one of two corridors: a northern corridor stretching from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, or a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. The plane did not necessarily follow the corridor, but was at some point along its path at the moment the signal was sent.

Authorities involved are sure to be in possession of more information than is being given to the public. Investigation of crew and passengers is ongoing, probably has intensified. It shouldn't be difficult to discover whether there was anyone present, other than the captain and his first officer, with anywhere near capablity of flying a Boeing 777. Failing that, it would seem that the captain or first officer had to have been involved, possibly under duress, or possibly on some errand of their own.

I guess there's still an outside chance that there was, indeed, an electrical fault or small fire on the plane around the time the transponder went quiet. If not brought under control quickly the fault or fire might have harmed further controls. Rather than putting the plane, by then perhaps fatally damaged and likely to crash over highly populated areas, the captain diverted to a route certain to be mainly over sea or small islands. Pressure loss could have killed all on board rapidly, but the plane could have carried on flying the route set until no further fuel was available. I have not seen anyone suggest this yet. Maybe it's out of the range of possibilities.

Hopes for better news, with even a shred of hope involved. Thoughts remain with crew's and passengers' families and loved ones.

Lost Plane

At time of writing this, late yesterday afternoon, no concrete information on the fate of Malaysian airlines Flight MH370, lost since Saturday/Sunday, had emerged. First thoughts now go to relatives and loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew, still waiting in dread for what is almost certainly going to be the worst kind of news.

I've been following comments on a professional pilots' forum in the Rumours and News section. At least there, I suspect one has a better chance of commenters who actually know what they are talking about.

Astrology, at a time like this, always seems to me as akin to ambulance chasing, so I'll leave that alone.

Using Occam's Razor (simplest answer is usually the best one), I'd rely on the theory that some electronic/electrical fault in the flight's instruments, including the facility for pilot communication with ground staff, meant that the the pilot decided not to follow the plane's set route, while remaining unable to communicate the fault, decided to turn back and head for some place safe to land. After that, Occam's Razor becomes blunter...Did the original fault spread to other controls, maybe oxygen supply was cut off, so that the plane ditched and crashed either in an area of sea where full search has yet to be carried out, or in a jungle area of land?

Update: Recent news reports, though, indicate Malaysian military is now back-tracking on an earlier statement that it appeared the plane had altered course. All is confusion!

With technology at such an advanced level these days, it seems unlikely that a huge airliner could be allowed to simply disappear. Let us hope that efforts to produce new safeguards for ground communication methods in future airliners will be adopted.

As Martin Robbins wrote, in finishing his piece Cutting Through the Bullshit Surrounding Flight MH370

The irony is that, buried in this avalanche of speculation, there are some really interesting stories that have been largely ignored. How is it, for example, that for all the supposed increases in airline security in the wake of 9/11, checks at airports are so bad that people with stolen passports can apparently travel at will? And why is it that in an era of high speed 4G broadband, when 40-year-old technology can transmit data back from beyond the edge of the solar system, we still have to send ships and divers to retrieve data from a plane, rather than simply transmitting it in real time?

LATER: This article by Vijandren Ramadass has the best theory I've seen so far.

I'm not going to mention astrology again, other than to say that this situation is reflecting the worst side of Neptune.