But they would have noticed that by now. The ocean theory seems plausible, after all, nutters never die out and I've heard that the pilot was a political aggressivist. Or, you know, they were just abducted by aliens-

evillaugh wrote:the pilot was a political aggressivist.

What this turns out to mean is that he was a supporter of the Malaysian opposition party, who are attempting to bring change via getting elected. Some sort of scary political radical he is not.

Slate Magazine wrote:A fanatical supporter of Anwar Ibrahim does sound scary—as long as you know nothing about him.

Anwar is the 66-year old opposition leader who is the principal thorn in the side of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) that has ruled Malaysia for 56 years. Anwar heads a coalition of parties, which includes his own multiethnic party, that has made the greatest inroads against the country’s corrupt masters. [...]

Anwar is trying to defeat Malaysia’s authoritarian regime through elections—not terrorism, let alone revolution. So, to be clear, what we know is that the pilot of MH370 is a fanatical supporter of a nonviolent man who supports a pluralistic and democratic Malaysia.

Source

I wonder, on a scale of 1 to 10, how legit that satellite data is...

Didier wrote:I wonder, on a scale of 1 to 10, how legit that satellite data is...

The data comes from the physical inclination of the transmitter from the satellite; this isn't something you could supply fake data for. Transmitter's gotta be where the satellite thinks it is in order to actually receive the signal. I can't think of way of faking it that's more plausible than actually flying the plane there.

Ya I have absolutely no clue how satellite data is gathered or why there are two giant arcs across Asia where the plane could be... how easy would it be for the satellite to have actually picked up something else that wasn`t the plane for instance.

Edit: I suspect a roc ate the plane and flew off to Indonesia to meet Aggron, and eventually the transmitter got fried in the stomach acid and stopped working :P

As stupid as it sounds, before this I never realized you could just 'lose' a plane. Makes you remember just how big the world really is. Can't imagine what kind of nightmare this must be for passenger's relatives.

This is pretty strange. That poor guy.

Didier wrote:Ya I have absolutely no clue how satellite data is gathered or why there are two giant arcs across Asia where the plane could be... how easy would it be for the satellite to have actually picked up something else that wasn`t the plane for instance.

Edit: I suspect a roc ate the plane and flew off to Indonesia to meet Aggron, and eventually the transmitter got fried in the stomach acid and stopped working :P

NO! It's impossible my cute little roc never eats a plane! At least not a plane at that size!

FuzzyLobster wrote:As stupid as it sounds, before this I never realized you could just 'lose' a plane. Makes you remember just how big the world really is. Can't imagine what kind of nightmare this must be for passenger's relatives.

This is pretty strange. That poor guy.

Lololololololol. Ah, Texas. This is how I imagine the argument went down...
Man: *shouting* PERSIANS SHOULD`VE WON
Everyone else: YOU WANT THE TERRORISTS TO WIN?! *kills him*

Didier wrote:Ya I have absolutely no clue how satellite data is gathered or why there are two giant arcs across Asia where the plane could be... how easy would it be for the satellite to have actually picked up something else that wasn`t the plane for instance.

The satellite it was talking to sits over the equator above the Indian Ocean. The data gives an inclination from the satellite (an angle which tells an object directly underneath the satellite apart from one thousands of miles away), but it doesn't give an azimuth (an angle which tells an object, say, north of the satellite from one west of it). This means you get a big circle around the satellite's location that the signal could have come from. So, take the inclination from each ping received by the satellite, factor in the last known position of the plane, its fuel capacity, and its cruising speed, and you get those two arcs in which it could have ended up.

It isn't clear how much authentication is involved with this signal - whether you could have faked it if you had access to, say, hundreds of thousands of dollars of satellite transceiver equipment, some technical know-, and another plane to move the transmitter around. Even if you could, though, that's a heck of a lot of resources to invest to no obvious gain.

It is a supervillain scheme to slowly start the apocalypse by running us ragged looking for mysteriously vanishing objects. Soon, the world as we know it, shall be subjected to the tender mercies of the four elements. We. Are. Doomed.

Sentynel wrote:

Didier wrote:Ya I have absolutely no clue how satellite data is gathered or why there are two giant arcs across Asia where the plane could be... how easy would it be for the satellite to have actually picked up something else that wasn`t the plane for instance.

The satellite it was talking to sits over the equator above the Indian Ocean. The data gives an inclination from the satellite (an angle which tells an object directly underneath the satellite apart from one thousands of miles away), but it doesn't give an azimuth (an angle which tells an object, say, north of the satellite from one west of it). This means you get a big circle around the satellite's location that the signal could have come from. So, take the inclination from each ping received by the satellite, factor in the last known position of the plane, its fuel capacity, and its cruising speed, and you get those two arcs in which it could have ended up.

It isn't clear how much authentication is involved with this signal - whether you could have faked it if you had access to, say, hundreds of thousands of dollars of satellite transceiver equipment, some technical know-, and another plane to move the transmitter around. Even if you could, though, that's a heck of a lot of resources to invest to no obvious gain.

Oh, it makes a lot more sense explained that way.

So apparently, there's a theory (although rather far-fetched) that a plane could 'hide' in the shadow of another plane and avoid detection on military radar... in which case it could have snuck into China/Pakistan/Kyrghyzstan etc.

Meh, I guess it'll turn up when it turns up... In the meantime, I'll just munch on popcorn and enjoy the search :P

Well, they've allegedly found it now in Australia, but still waiting for total confirmation. That was a very short mystery.

evillaugh wrote:Well, they've allegedly found it now in Australia, but still waiting for total confirmation. That was a very short mystery.

Some debris was spotted in a satellite image from four days ago, but the searchers haven't been able to find anything at that location now. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... ocean-dawn It's a long way from solved.

Even if they find the wreckage, they'll still have to try and figure out what happened...

If they ever find the blackbox, they will certainly have made progress.

Giant Tree Lobster Lives 80 Years in Hiding. Well.

FuzzyLobster wrote:Giant Tree Lobster Lives 80 Years in Hiding. Well.

:blink:

Hello, uncanny valley.

It looks like a strange bald Hillary Clinton