To follow on from my previous post, here is “Frisky Whiskey” from c. 1963-65. Forty years of aging completed in 30 days by radiation! 150 proof strength!!
c. 1963 – 1965: “Frisky Whiskey”:
“Frisky Whiskey” bottle produced by Poynter Products, Inc. of Cincinnati Ohio. The copyright date is 1963. Approximately eleven inches tall.
The 2014 World Whiskey Awards were announced yesterday (of course this was in London because a vote in Scotland would stand a good chance of being compromised).
A Tasmanian Whiskey won the award for the best Single Malt!!!! Some are hoping that this may do more for Tasmania than the Tasmanian Devil never could.
It’s probably all Alex Salmond’s fault.
I have yet to try any of the award winners.
SMH: Sullivan’s Cove’s French Oak Cask variety was judged the global winner, as well as Australia’s best, from a high-quality pool of single malt entries. They included Scotland’s Bunnahabain, Aberfeldy, Glenkinchie and Glenlivet distilleries, as well as Japanese powerhouse Yamazaki.
The World Whiskies Award is considered the most prestigious in the world for whisky producers and the manager and part-owner of Sullivan’s Cove, Patrick Maguire, said it would put Australia and Tasmania firmly on the world whisky map.
2014 best whiskeys 1
MH370 has engaged all my attention for the last 2 weeks – and this will be my last post on this event.
The pilots were somehow incapacitated and locked in the cockpit and the plane flew for many hours along a route taking it further and further away from any place to land and from anyone within communication range. Some of the crew – even if they had been given instructions by the cockpit not to be disturbed – must have realised that something was not right. And if they had any such suspicions but could not talk to the pilots, could not break into the cockpit and could not communicate with anyone, it would have been a hellish nightmare as the plane flew on and on – on autopilot – and until it ran out of fuel. Six hours of being powerless and unable to communicate. How the auto-pilot would have brought the plane down when the fuel ran out is a little uncertain. Would the life rafts have deployed? Could they have deployed? Perhaps it would have been best if the crew and passengers were all unconscious at the time of ditching. Was that the reason for the plane’s excursion to 45,000 feet? Was it a ghost plane that flew the last six hours to nowhere?
I hope so.
The mysteries are unlikely to be solved for many months – if ever.
I cannot get away from what it was like for those crew and passengers for those last helpless, powerless 6 hours.
I don’t think I want to write about this any more.
I just came across this summarising Ian Stewart’s book on 17 Equations That Changed The World at Business Insider:
seventeen equations
I have used all of these up to Equation 12. I have never used the equations on Relativity or Schrodinger’s equation or those on Chaos or Information theory or the Black-Scholes Equation. But, I wouldn’t disagree with Equations 12 – 17, but considering the amount of time I spent applying it at University and during my working life I would have liked to see Bernoulli’s Equation on the list:
where:
is the fluid flow speed at a point on a streamline,
is the acceleration due to gravity,
is the elevation of the point above a reference plane, with the positive z-direction pointing upward – so in the direction opposite to the gravitational acceleration,
is the pressure at the chosen point, and
is the density of the fluid at all points in the fluid.=============================
It is Day 13 and the plane must now be presumed crashed with no survivors.
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So far (1600 CET) aircraft have not sighted the debris spotted by the US satellite.
Norwegian ship reaches site
WSJ: A Norwegian ship, the St. Petersburg, was the first to reach the site southwest of Australia Thursday where possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane was seen, shipping company Hoegh Autoliners said.
The St. Petersburg, on route from South Africa to Australia, was asked to assist in the search for the missing aircraft as it was sailing close to the area in the Indian Ocean where the objects were found. The ship arrived at the location at 0800 GMT and is now searching a 60-nautical-mile area, 2,260 kilometers southwest of Perth, Australia. The ship is sailing at a pace of 16-17 knots so searching the area will take approximately 4 hours, Hoegh Autolines said.
“The weather clear at the site and visibility is good, but they have not found anything yet,” said Cecilia Moe, representative at Hoegh Autoliners, who’s in close contact with the ship.
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The flight to nowhere
Excellent Washington Post graphic here.
Reuters Graphic
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Ran out of fuel? Foul play followed by a struggle in the cockpit? or suicide pact?
The debris is about at the fuel limit for the aircraft and it could have crashed after running out of fuel. That the plane was flying for so long (7 – 8 hours) on a trip to nowhere gives some credence to a long flight on autopilot with the pilots incapacitated. It seems unlikely that both pilots were in a suicide pact. Perhaps they were incapacitated after a deliberate – but partial – introduction of a new course. Could one of the pilots have set the whole thing up and then been discovered by the other, leading to a struggle where they “took each other out”. Perhaps the new course had not been fully reprogrammed leaving the auto-pilot on a flight to nowhere with two incapacitated pilots in a locked cockpit?????
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The satellite pictures have been released – gallery
To my untrained eye it just looks like a blob.
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Relatives are hoping that there is still some hope and that the debris is not from the aircraft but from a container or something else lost at sea. If the plane has crashed , whether on land or at sea, there is little hope for any survivors. The only real hope for survivors after 12 days is if they are being held prisoner.
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A Royal Australian Navy Warship is en route to the area but is some days away. The ship is equipped to recover any objects located and proven to be from MH370.
The location of the potential wreckage is approximately 7000 kilometres from MH370’s last known location in the skies over Penang, Malaysia. The typical cruising speed of a Boeing 777 aircraft is 905 km/hr. That means the aircraft would have been flying for between seven and eight hours before falling from the sky.
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Sydney Morning Herald/ The Age report that MH 370 could have been located That AMSA press conference has now wrapped up. Here’s a few of the key points to emerge.
Debris found in search for MH370 Area searched. Photo: Andrew Meares
Microsoft, Google, Apple,Yahoo, Facebook and AOL all claimed they did not know that the access they provided led to the NSA trawling their clients’ and customers’ data. But while they may not have liked it, they certainly knew all about it according to the NSA’s chief legal counsel. It would seem that these large technology companies all cooperated – even if reluctantly – and were complicit in the NSA’s indiscriminate data gathering.
It seems they have all been protesting too much as they have tried to build up their facade of innocence.
The senior lawyer for the National Security Agency stated unequivocally on Wednesday that US technology companies were fully aware of the surveillance agency’s widespread collection of data, contradicting month of angry denials from the firms.
Rajesh De, the NSA general counsel, said all communications content and associated metadata harvested by the NSA under a 2008 surveillance law occurred with the knowledge of the companies – both for the internet collection program known as Prism and for the so-called “upstream” collection of communications moving across the internet.
Asked during at a Wednesday hearing of the US government’s institutional privacy watchdog if collection under the law, known as Section 702 or the Fisa Amendments Act, occurred with the “full knowledge and assistance of any company from which information is obtained,” De replied: “Yes.”
……. The NSA’s Wednesday comments contradicting the tech companies about the firms’ knowledge of Prism risk entrenching tensions with the firms NSA relies on for an effort that Robert Litt, general counsel for the director of national intelligence, told the board was “one of the most valuable collection tools that we have.”
“All 702 collection is pursuant to court directives, so they have to know,” De reiterated to the Guardian.
The technology giants do not really believe in the privacy of their clients. They have been complicit all along in the NSA’s data trawling exercises and have put up – in reality – very little resistance. And all their protests of innocence and reluctance and resistance are merely a public relations exercise.
As the Jungle Drum reported in December last year:
Let’s start with Gates and MS, which allowed the NSA to access every 9x series OS via a backdoor tailored especially for the purpose — that much is verified. Then we have master data censor and exploiter Eric Schmidt of Google, who has been a regular attendee at Bilderberg meetings over the past few years — for those unaware, the shadowy Bilderberg group of mega wealthy business people, bankers, media magnates, monarchs and strategically placed people of influence, hold annual meetings where ‘they’ outline future directions for the world — and you thought your elected puppets represented you and made all the decisions!
The latest well publicised manoeuvres by tech giants are simply part of an overall damage control plan to convince the public that their data will not be compromised by the NSA when in fact these companies were willing and complicit partners to US agency spying. Schmidt, Gates and Zuckerberg are probably the worst pretenders/offenders.
What Snowden’s revelations have done is make the public aware of a well known fact in digital underground circles, that privacy is a myth, in fact it was Eric ‘Google’ Schmidt who stated publicly that people have to fight to maintain privacy today. So let’s cut the crap and just admit that large tech companies are complicit in attacks on the public and follow the globalist agenda.
……. Do not be deceived by the pretence of mega tech companies, they voluntarily entered into partnerships with the NSA and in Google’s and Facebook’s case, the CIA. Private mail services are already being offered on the net and its only a matter of time before other companies, not related to the above nefarious data corporations, make huge inroads in the digital world.
It is the play of simple geopolitical forces which itself is based on the drawing of lines on maps. The creeping expansion eastwards of the EU and NATO has given little thought to the response it must inevitably invite. I put much of the Ukrainian crisis down to the thoughtless behaviour of the EU. That behaviour itself is inevitable given that foreign policy in the EU is driven by a confused mix of 28 countries and by the insatiable bureaucratic hunger in Brussels for an ever-increasing bureaucracy by including ever-more countries into the pot (providing that they are non-muslim). The rush to expansion is – in part – the reason why the EU is mired for so long in the financial crisis. With 28 countries involved policy is often clumsy and heavy-handed with little place for nuance and diplomatic skill.
The current breaking point was reached when the EU (aiding and abeting the US in the expansion of NATO) clumsily encouraged internal dissent in the Ukraine and activated the far-right, neo-Nazi forces. Did they really expect no response? And does the EU really want to be associated with the neo- Nazis of Ukraine who are carrying on their traditions from the 1940’s? I think it was the rise of the neo-Nazis as the final straw which Russia found unacceptable. I find the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU a travesty and only confirms that the Peace Prize tarnishes the Nobel brand.
Today the response is in the Crimea. Logically, the EU and NATO expansion pressure will invite Russia to exercise even more control over the Eastern Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan and Turkmenistan.
1. Expansion of the EU.
2. Expansion of Nato
nato expansion (image mike faille)
3. Where will Russia push-back?
where next for Russia
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Police have found that the information in the flight simulator owned by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) pilot Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah has been mostly deleted, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. “It must be remembered that the police investigation is not aimed at putting the blame on the pilot or pressuring any of his family members but is being conducted to scrutinise everything in detail to find out the cause of the incident (disappearance of a Malaysian airliner). “We’re investigating all possibilities,”
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Leaving aside aliens, one of the more bizarre theories is that this was a case of “extraordinary rendition” by the US, which took the aircraft to Diego Garcia and has now flown the aircraft under a false identity elsewhere! This theory does not quite explain where the 239 passengers and crew are except that the “wanted” people have been moved to a US “black prison” somewhere!!
I wonder whether an airctaft can be given a false identity that easily?
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Regarding the time-line it emerges that the course change programmed into the on-board flight computer came 12 minutes before the co-pilot’s last, calm, voice transmission “All right, good night”. So the Goodfellow theory that the westwards turn was due to a fire and an emergency turn back to Langkawi, followed by the pilots becoming overcome by smoke and a flight continuing on auto-pilot is not supported. See the Goodfellow electrical fire theory here and being debunked here. This latest information appears to put the fire theory to rest.
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The only “news” so far today is that an idiot French journalist, Carrie Nooten (France 24) asked Hishammuddin Hussein at the press conference today “Can you confirm that you are PM Najib’s cousin? Are you protected?” A lack of both intelligence and knowledge.
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We are running out of theories. There are no new facts emerging. Harrowing for the relatives and friends of the 239 on board of course – but my thoughts are mainly with the 239. “There but for the grace of God …”
The only detail that emerged during day 11 was that Thai military radar saw a blip shortly after the plane turned around but didn’t reveal it till yesterday “because nobody asked them”.
On the Northern corridor, searches were concentrated in Western China /Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Near the Southern corridor there was a report of a sighting of an aircraft flying low over the southern Maldives.
No wreckage, no debris, no trace of any survivors.
The lead insurer, Allianz, has started to pay out.
And we now go into Day 12.
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The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will already achieve the dubious distinction of causing more deaths than they will score goals perhaps 6 deaths per goal.
It has long been assumed that FIFA’s decision to award the World Cup to Qatar was bought – not least because of FIFA’s long, institutionalised tradition of representatives accepting bribes and the poorly kept “secret” that any country wanting to host the World Cup must reserve bribe money in its budget – by whatever name is most appropriate.
Now the Telegraph reveals that millions changed hands just after Qatar was awarded the Championship:
A senior Fifa official and his family were paid almost $2 million (£1.2m) from a Qatari firm linked to the country’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup, The Telegraph can disclose.
Jack Warner, the former vice-president of Fifa, appears to have been personally paid $1.2 million (£720,000) from a company controlled by a former Qatari football official shortly after the decision to award the country the tournament.
Payments totalling almost $750,000 (£450,000) were made to Mr Warner’s sons, documents show. A further $400,000 (£240,000) was paid to one of his employees.
It is understood that the FBI is now investigating Trinidad-based Mr Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid, and that the former Fifa official’s eldest son, who lives in Miami, has been helping the inquiry as a co-operating witness.
The awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was one of the most controversial decisions in sporting history. The intense summer heat in the desert nation has raised the prospect of the tournament being moved to the winter for the first time.
from pambazuka.org
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UPDATE! Intriguing Maldives Islands residents report sighting of ‘low flying jet’
Residents of the remote Maldives island of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhaal Atoll have reported seeing a “low flying jumbo jet” on the morning of the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Whilst the disappearance of the Boeing 777 jet, carrying 239 passengers has left the whole world in bewilderment, several residents of Kuda Huvadhoo told Haveeru on Tuesday that they saw a “low flying jumbo jet” at around 6:15am on March 8.
They said that it was a white aircraft, with red stripes across it – which is what the Malaysia Airlines flights typically look like.Eyewitnesses from the Kuda Huvadhoo concurred that the aeroplane was travelling North to South-East, towards the Southern tip of the Maldives – Addu. They also noted the incredibly loud noise that the flight made when it flew over the island.
Satellite data suggests that the last “ping” was recieved from the flight somwhere close to the Maldives and the US naval base on Diego Garcia.
But the Maldives is not amongst the countries that Malaysian authorities had sought help from in its search for the missing jet.
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The Chinese have started searching their own territory. Could the aircraft be in the Taklamakan Desert in the vast Tarim Basin in Xinjiang?
NASA landsat photo of the Tarim Basin (via Wikimedia)
Xinhua attributes this statement to the Chinese Ambassador in Malaysia which raises more questions than it answers. If no Chinese nationals were involved, the chances of the aircraft being in China ought to decrease – not increase. To start searching their own territory now – 11 days after it may have landed or crashed – is perplexing.
Perhaps the Chinese have discovered loopholes in their radar surveillance?
1. No passenger from Chinese mainland aboard the missing MH370 flight might be involved in hijack or terror attack, Chinese ambassador to Malaysia said on Tuesday. Background check on all passengers from Chinese mainland has found no evidence to support that suspicion, Huang Huikang said.
2. He also said China has started search in the its territory along the northern corridor. Based on latest information, the new search areas encompass a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, as well as a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
AFP says that the Northern corridor means that the aircraft could have flown through passes in Western China and for the plane to have reached all the way to Western China (Xinjiang?) suggests some very lax military radar in the early hours of Saturday morning (8th March). And in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region an estimated 80% of Xinjiang’s Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin.
The historic Tarim Basin lies at the border of China and Kyrgyzstan and may be one of the last places in Asia to have become inhabited. It is surrounded by mountains.
Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin.
Tarim River and Tarim Basin in Xinjiang (Wikipedia)
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A clear graphic tweeted by Agence France Press
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The k2p blog 