March 17, 2014

There were 2 posts published on March 17, 2014 (this is page 1 of 1).

Experts hint at meticulous planning behind disappearance of Flight MH370 – The Times of India

Reuters asked airline pilots what it would take to pull off the hijacking of the MH370. The result is one of the best explanations I’ve seen of how complex this was to pull off.

tl;dr: Only an experienced pilot could make this happen.

KUALA LUMPUR: Whether by accident or design, whoever reached across the dimly lit cockpit of a Malaysia Airlines jet and clicked off a transponder to make Flight MH370 vanish from controllers’ radars flew into a navigational and technical black hole.

By choosing one place and time to vanish into radar darkness with 238 others on board, the person — presumed to be a pilot or a passenger with advanced knowledge — may have acted only after meticulous planning, according to aviation experts.

Understanding the sequence that led to the unprecedented plane hunt widening across two vast tracts of territory north and south of the Equator is key to grasping the motives of what Malaysian authorities suspect was hijacking or sabotage.

via Experts hint at meticulous planning behind disappearance of Flight MH370 – The Times of India.

Tickets to Neil deGrasse Tyson?

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson


I got a tip from a friend that tickets would be available to the public this morning for the upcoming visit to NCSU’s College of Sciences by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. I had heard there were only going to be 100 or so general admission tickets available so I knew we had to act fast if this science family had any chance to see NDT.

Kelly and I teamed up to increase our chances. She and I both pounded the NCSU website as the clock approached 10 AM. Then when the “register now” link appeared, we both typed like crazy to enter our information. With my registration safely complete, I refreshed my browser to see that the registration window had just closed. Kelly and I were both successful, and we made it in the nick of time!

I don’t know how NCSU will distribute it’s 100 tickets. It’s possible the school will try to accommodate its alumni first and leave us regular folk out of it. I sure hope they will honor their procedure, though, and award us the tickets that we earned this morning. Fingers crossed!