Leaderboard

You are quite right that this information was 'deduced' from the satellite data, however these are not surveillance sats but comsats. Their mission is to pass information around the world. To do that they receive and send data, usually time-tagged, from and to users, respectively. In this case it appears the data was health and performance status of the engines. This was a reverse satellite orbit determination problem -- something I know a little about. Usually a tracking station records range (distance) data and possibly range-rate (distance rate-of-change) data by receiving that information from the sat transponder or by skin tracking noncooperative sats i.e. bouncing radar signals off the sat. In this case the 'tracking station' was the sat and the object tracked, the plane. Because the transponder was turned off, the plane was not sending information intended to help with navigation, ie. orbit determination, or more aptly put flight path determination - same thing, different word. However they were able to process i.e. 'back out' some helpful data by mathematically processing time of transmission and time of receipt of the information packets. If we had three independent accurate range measurements we could locate the plane in three dimensional space, say Lat, Lon and Alt. If we have only two ranges then we can locate its position on a circle in that three dimensional space, hence that first arc that was released with the northern and southern legs. Unfortunately, there was no range data available but the principle is still relevant. It is also the case that position and flight path can be determined from range-rate information -- how fast the plane is approaching or receding from you. It is more complicated to extract the flight path from range-rate data but is quite do-able and done by NORAD and NASA everyday. In the absence of range-rate measurements (which is our case here) it does require good timing data and more than back-of-the-envelope calculations, but a capability that the sat company has. The basic idea is that if you know the time of transmission and the time of receipt of the information packet, then difference those times and divide by the speed of light to get the distance from the plane to the sat. That is a range measurement in principle. Three sets of independent time differences yields three ranges in principle. That requires at least 4 'pings' of information from the plane. However, it is never that simple. The clock on the plane tagging the packets is different from the clock on the satellite recording time of receipt. This yields a timing error which is mostly a constant difference so if you have extra packets (pings) of info that yield extra time differences and thus extra range-rate estimates then you can use that to subtract out the time errors. In practice NORAD and NASA routinely use tens and often hundreds of range or range rate measurements for routine satellite orbit determination because all measurements have errors and they require accurate results. The effect of those errors are averaged out with the large number of measurements. In this case INMARSAT had only a handful of 'pings' to deduce 'location' making it unable to do a pinpoint location thus the sizeable search box. Nevertheless, kudos to them for their contribution.

I would vote for the attention on Malaysia long before proving the "control system" is weak. There is frequent conversation about how much control has already be taken from the captain and crew. It is or was the American way to have pilots think outside the box to solve problems while still in the air. Today, with fewer problems to solve, that authority has been somewhat to quite diminished. Still, pilots have overwhelmingly fought against such as putting cameras in the cockpit. Flying in the US controlled airspace ATC system is very much dependent upon accuracy and adherence to rules and regulations. Foreign pilots and airlines do not necessarily have the same outside the box culture with which the US has done so well. The Asiana crash at SFO had to be partly caused by a difference in culture. My opinion is the more rigid the controls the more dependent upon technology we become. When you have a PC that never "acts up" let me know. Then we can have a pilot and a dog in the cockpit. The pilot's job is to watch what the airplane is doing. The dog's job is to keep the pilot from touching anything. Best regards, RA1

The toilet papers that top Consumer Reports’ tests Consumer Reports – 16 hours ago See this copyrighted report at: http://shopping.yahoo.com/news/the-toilet-papers-that-top-consumer-reports--tests-001516205.html

With any luck at all, this may prove to be the first time in site history that an administrator had to send his own thread to the sand box. On account of my immense respect for the delicacy of feeling of many of my fellow posters I have refrained from posting an appropriate visual addendum to this post. However those interested may wish to google image, key word "shit-faced".

Halloween Decorations?

Is this in the right forum?

The top 12 used vehicles most likely to sell for less than $10,000 By Justin Hyde March 21, 2014 12:44 PM Motoramic The average new car in the United States commanded a price of about $32,000 last month — a jump of nearly 4 percent from a year earlier, according to market trackers at TrueCar. More than ever, a new car or truck has become a luxury purchase; these days, even the cheapest new cars — say a Nissan Versa Note, Chevy Spark or Mitsubishi Mirage — start around $13,000. That's been a boon to the used-car market, where used car prices have risen as well; the median second-hand vehicle now sells for about $16,000. But what if you're someone who needs a vehicle and has $10,000 or less to spend? For those of us not lucky enough to stumble onto a cream-puff $100 SUV, the analysts at Iseecars.com decided to answer that question by analyzing some 30 million used-car listings to determine which models were the most likely to have a window price of $10,000 or less. The results were not what you might expect: Rank Model % of Listings $10,000 or Less Avg Mileage Model Year Range 1 Ford Taurus 44.4% 111,723 1986-2011 2 Ford Expedition 39.9% 142,026 1997-2011 3 Volkswagen Passat 33.5% 110,218 1991-2013 4 Ford Explorer 32.2% 127,894 1991-2013 5 Jeep Liberty 29.8% 110,906 2002-2012 6 Dodge Grand Caravan 28.9% 114,355 1988-2012 7 Jeep Grand Cherokee 27.4% 129,336 1993-2011 8 Chrysler Town and Country 25.9% 112,796 1990-2013 9 Hyundai Elantra 24.9% 94,562 1993-2012 10 Ford Focus 24.5% 97,310 2000-2013 11 Dodge Ram 1500 Pickup 23.4% 132,136 1994-2010 12 Honda Civic 23.2% 122,999 1981-2013 This isn't a list of sheer popularity; the Jeep Liberty has never been a huge seller, and the perennial national best-sellers (Ford F-Series, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord) were shut out. Nor is it solely about size or the price of the vehicle when it sold new; in fact, the list is dominated by larger and near-luxury vehicles, with only the compact Focus, Civic and Elantra breaking the top 12. So what gives? For starters, all of these models are well-worn, with an average of more than 100,000 miles on the odometer. Nine of the 12 come from either Ford or Chrysler, with only three imported vehicles (although many of those Civics were made in the United States.) What I see here isn't so much a trend as a history lesson of a decde ago; most of these models were the favorite cars of rental fleets and other business buyers, who tend to pay bottom-dollar new and sell cheaply. The flip side of being a fleet favorite is that it was traditionally how Detroit kept its factories running before the great recession of 2008-09; building far more vehicles than the market demanded, then moving the metal and worrying about losses later. By the time the sixth-generation Taurus went out of production in 2006, Ford was selling it solely to fleets. That bloat depresses the prices of those models not just when new, but throughout their usable lifetimes, and in the years since the SUV boom, less fuel-efficient models like the old Explorer and older versions of the Ram pickup have only grown less appealing. And some of these models would put a gleam in your mechanic's eye for their questionable durability, especially beyond six-digit mileage. The exception to all of this is the Civic, where the law of averages finally starts to kick in. It's possible with enough searching to find just the right used car under $10,000 — but if you're willing to consider those models that weren't all that popular to begin with, the menu's a whole lot bigger. See original article at: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/the-top-12-used-cars-most-likely-to-sell-for-less-than--10-000-164425342.html

Eatting ass is like doing Tequilla shots. You need the lemon or lime chaser...

I didn't. 60 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About New York City Basically, you’re always walking over thousands of dead bodies. Matt Stopera BuzzFeed Staff 1. Pinball was banned in the city until 1978. The NYPD even held “Prohibition-style” busts. 2. It is a misdemeanor to fart in NYC churches. 3. It costs $1 million to get a license (medallion) to operate a taxicab. 4. The first pizzeria in the United States was opened in NYC in 1895. 5. In 1857, toilet paper was invented by Joseph C. Gayetty in NYC. 6. The Jewish population in NYC is the largest in the world outside of Israel. 7. Up until World War II, everyone in the entire city who was moving apartments had to move on May 1. en.wikipedia.org 8. The city of New York will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless person if they have a guaranteed place to stay. 9. There’s a man who mines sidewalk cracks for gold. He can make over $600 a week. 10. According to New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, the last hurricane to pass directly over the city was in 1821. The storm surge was so high that the city was flooded up to Canal Street. 11. Hog Island, a one-mile-long island south of Rockaway Beach, was never seen again after the hurricane of 1893. 12. New York City’s leading hurricane historian, Nicholas Coch, a professor of coastal geology at Queens College, believes that this is the only reported incidence ever of the removal of an entire island by a hurricane. Via en.wikipedia.org 13. Up until 1957, there was a pneumatic mail tube system that was used to connect 23 post offices across 27 miles. At one point, it moved 97,000 letters a day. Via untappedcities.com 14. Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are stored in a safe deposit box in the city. 15. There are tiny shrimp called copepods in NYC’s drinking water. 16. On Nov. 28, 2012, not a single murder, shooting, stabbing, or other incident of violent crime in NYC was reported for an entire day. The first time in basically ever. 17. There’s a wind tunnel near the Flat Iron building that can raise women’s skirts. Men used to gather outside of the Flat Iron building to watch. Via mcnyblog.org 18. About 1 in every 38 people living in the United States resides in New York City. 19. New York City has more people than 39 of the 50 states in the U.S. 20. There is a birth in New York City every 4.4 minutes. 21. There is a death in New York City every 9.1 minutes. 22. The borough of Brooklyn on its own would be the fourth largest city in the United States. Queens would also rank fourth nationally. 23. New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia. 24. New York has the largest Puerto Rican population of any city in the world. 25. PONY stands for Product of New York. i.imgur.com 26. In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage filled with explosives was detonated on Wall Street killing 30 people. No one was ever caught, though it is considered to be one of the first acts of domestic terrorism. 27. In nine years, Madison Square Garden’s lease will run out and it will have to move. 28. UPS, FedEx, and other commercial delivery companies receive up to 7,000 parking tickets a DAY, contributing up to $120 million in revenue for the city of New York. 29. It can cost over $289,000 for a one-year hot dog stand permit in Central Park. The New York Times / Via nytimes.com 30. Sixty percent of cigarettes sold in NYC are illegally smuggled from other states. 31. There was one homicide on 9/11, and it remains unsolved. 32. There are “fake” buildings in the city that are used for subway maintenance and ventilation. The building below in the middle, located in Brooklyn, has a fake facade. There is no brownstone within. Google Maps 33. Chernobyl is closer to New York than Fukushima is to L.A. 34. There are more undergrad and graduate students in NYC than Boston has people. 35. New York City’s 520-mile coastline is longer than those of Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco combined. 36. The Empire State building has its own zip code. 37. The East River is not a river, it’s a tidal estuary. 38. There is a secret train platform in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Charles Mostoller / Barcroft Media / Getty Images 39. When the Dutch first arrived to Manhattan, there were massive oyster beds. In fact, Ellis Island and Liberty Island were called Little Oyster and Big Oyster Island. 40. McSorley’s, the oldest Irish ale house in NYC, didn’t allow women inside until 1970. 41. Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park, Union Square Park, and Bryant Park used to be cemeteries. 42. There are 20,000 bodies buried in Washington Square Park alone. 43. The original Penn Station was considered to be one of the most beautiful train stations in the world but was torn down because of declining rail usage. Ewing Galloway/Hulton Archive / Getty Images 44. NYC garbage collectors call maggots “disco rice.” 45. In 2010, 38% of all 911 calls in NYC were butt dials. 46. Times Square is named after the New York Times. It was originally called Longacre Square until 1904 when the NYT moved there. 47. The entire world’s population could fit in the state of Texas if it were as densely populated as New York City. 48. In 1975, the city of New York sold a private island in the East River for $10. Courtesy of the NYC Audubon / Via tpl.org 49. The winter of 1780 was so harsh in New York that New York harbor froze over. People could walk from Manhattan to Staten Island on the ice. 50. From 1904 to 1948 there was an 18th Street station on the 4/5/6 line. It’s abandoned now, but you can still see it on local 6 trains. Via en.wikipedia.org 51. The narrowest house in NYC is in the West Village: 75 1/2 Bedford Street is just over 9 feet wide. Via en.wikipedia.org 52. In 1906, the Bronx Zoo put an African man on exhibit in the monkey house. 53. Credit card minimums ARE legal in the city. In 2010, Congress passed a law saying up to a $10 minimum was legal. 54. It would cost about $17,000 to take a cab from NYC to L.A. 55. In 1922, there was a Straw Hat Riot. It was an unofficial rule in NYC that straw hats weren’t allowed to be worn past Sept. 15, but some unruly kids started snatching people’s hats a few days before that causing an uprising that lasted a few days. 56. Eating a New York bagel is equivalent to eating one-quarter to one-half a loaf of bread. 57. NYC buries its unclaimed bodies on an island off the coast of the Bronx called Hart Island. Since 1869, nearly a million bodies have been buried there. The island is not open to the public. hartisland.net 58. There’s a 150-foot-deep hole (15 stories) on Park Avenue between 36th and 37th streets. 59. The price of a slice of pizza and the cost of single ride on the subway has been nearly equal for the past 50 years. 60. The scary nitrogen gas tanks you see on the corners of streets are used to keep underground telephone wires dry. Via Flickr: nep http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/60-facts-that-will-make-nyc-feel-like-a-whole-new-place?bffb

So sorry -- my mistake. Here's an earlier post, linking to a Huffington Post article titled "Scientist Makes Poop Burger." http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7180-scientist-develops-tasty-new-burger/ By guess who?

It's more of a "do as I say, not as I do" Thing !

OMG... AdamSmith started it. It's all his fault!