Maggie's Farm

As I noted in yesterday's morning links, we've recently seen a reprehensible display of cheap sensationalism from muckrakers claiming that the 1996 crash of Flight 800 has all been a massive conspiracy.

Speaking of hoaxes and conspiracies, you might have heard that some glory-seeking and/or mentally-deficient morons are claiming the explosion aboard Flight 800 back in '96 was — and I hope you're sitting down — a government cover-up!  That's right, it was a missile, either accidentally fired from a U.S. warship during exercises or a deliberate act of terrorism; your choice.  And the government is keeping it all a secret because of, er, um, because it would be really-really embarrassing for everybody on the international stage.  That part — along with who fired the deadly missile — remains a little hazy on the details.

Regardless, this delightful little theory has the same problem the 9/11 'Truthers' had.  By the time you figure in all of the people involved in the investigation over three years, plus all of the outside people like those operating nearby airport radar units that tracked the crash, you are counting upon hundreds of people to keep silent for the rest of time eternal.  In an age when everyone's 15 minutes of fame is just a YouTube video away, isn't it interesting that not one person has ever come forward, protected by shadowy face and encrypted voice, and said "I was working for the NSA/FBI/CIA when Flight 800 was shot down, and here's what really happened that fateful day."  Not one.

The problem is that conspiracy nuts are exactly like global warming alarmists.  You can show them graphs and videos all day long but it won't do the slightest bit of good.  But, like AGW, it's still fun to try.

To wit:

— Not brought down by enemy fire, check!

— Not brought down by friendly fire, check!

— Not an external explosion at all, check!

— Gas tank blew up from an electrical short circuit allowing high voltage to enter a low-voltage line, check!

— Flaming fuselage, still under power, streaked upwards after the nose cone broke off as witnessed by hundreds on the ground, check!

— Sensationalistic muckrakers opening old wounds for nothing but greed dragged out to the street and publicly flogged, unchecked!

The full episode is here.

One thing to note is that while it mentions that a handful of gas tanks have blown up over the years (lightning, sabotage, engine falling off), electrical short wasn't on the list.  The implication is that this was a pretty rare event and that the equally-sensationalistic documentary continually screaming about how this could happen at any moment to any airplane in the sky (!!!) was quite a bit overblown.

And the same might be said of Boeing's reaction. While it's certainly caring of them to put in an 'inerting' system, all that'll do is add another quarter-ton of weight to the plane; weight that'll have to be compensated for somewhere else, possibly impairing the integrity of the aircraft.  Merely replacing the wiring would have accomplished the same end.  When they talk about the 'chain of events' that lead up to an airline disaster, about nineteen factors had to line up perfectly in order for the high-voltage line to arc into the low-voltage gas tank line in the first place, plus the perfect abrasion on the gas tank sending unit allowing the spark to occur at all.

On the other hand, this raises a key point.  While the FAA has been criticized over the years for only taking action after a horrific accident has occurred, this is obviously a highly unjust complaint because it's simply impossible to predict everything that could go wrong on such a complex craft and the tremendous pressures it faces at altitude.

But when something does go wrong, the FAA is to be credited with making damn sure it won't happen again.  Glancing over the Mayday airline disaster documentaries indicates that, with one glaring exception, not one accident whose mechanical cause was even suspected ever repeated itself.  In many cases it was equivalent to the now-mandatory inerting system; that is, probably a serious overreaction, but the bottom — and only — line is that the tragedy hasn't happened again.

The one exception was the rear door popping off a DC-10, way back in '72.  The FAA took the manufacturer's word for it that it'd be fixed, but two years later it happened again, this time with the explosive decompression taking out the plane's hydraulics and a loss of 346 lives.

That's when the FAA learned a valuable little lesson in 'trust' and started officially covering the bases, with the resultant sterling record of no repeats.  There will always be the occasional piece of fuselage ripping off because of some metal rot that no one spotted; the occasional bird strike as well as the hopefully-rare control tower mix-up resulting in either an in-air or on-ground collision, but the crafts, themselves, seem as solid as they'll ever be.

The last stat I read:

You have a greater chance of being stung to death by bees than you do of dying in an airplane.  So, just stay from any bee hives and, statistically, you should be good to go!

Bird Dog's a little busy this weekend so I'll be doing today's morning links.  I believe he and the missus took off for the annual Two-Seed-In-The-Spirit Predestinarian Baptist All-Gospel Revival & Review that's currently playing in downtown Connecticut.  Those New Englanders really know how to shake a tambourine, don't they?

By the way, did I ever mention I own one of these?

It's a Guild F-212, a somewhat rare animal.  I bought mine in 1968.  What makes it special is that it's a 12-string but it doesn't have that usual monstrous 12-string body.  It also has a standard 6-string neck, so while it's twice as hard to learn how to play, once one does, one can just fly because the fingers don't have to move twice as far as on a regular wide 12-string neck.  It's a real honey.

But enough about me!  Let's get to the links!

Interesting News

Men With Guitars Deemed More Attractive

Hey, what a funny coincidence!

U.S. Discovers 'Miracle Drug' — Film at 11

So, along with curing athlete's foot, gout, lumbago, cancer, dandruff and other assorted ills, we can add to the list...

Marijuana: The Next Diabetes Drug?

And, in what I'm sure many will consider the height of irony...

Study: Cannabis May Prevent Brain Damage

Get the low-down on the evil killer weed here.

The Evolution of Computer Virii

Computer Virus v1.0 (Windows):

Malware Infects 30 Percent of Computers in U.S.

Computer Virus v2.0 (Apple/Mac):

Apple Releases Major Security Update for OS X
Apple to Support Staff: Don't Discuss Mac Malware
Researchers Find Signs of Zombie Macs
Android, Apple Face Growing Cyberattacks
Apple is the New Hacker Bulls-Eye
Computer Hacking Group Targets Apple in Latest Attack
Apple Macs Hit by Scareware Attacks
Malware Attack Specifically Targets Mac Users
Apple Macintoshes Targeted by Porn-Based Computer Virus
Hidden Security Worms May Loom in Apple's Future
New Trojan Swipes Mac Passwords
Kaspersky Labs: Apple's Security 10 Years Behind Microsoft
Apple Triggers 'Religious' Reaction in Fans' Brains, Report Says
Is Apple Fandom a Religion?
Are Apple Product Launches Like Religious Revivals?
Managers Can't be Afraid to Toss Out Bad Apples

And now, Computer Virus v3.0:

Smartphone Hacking Comes of Age, Hitting US Victims

But even as smartphone users in Asia are beginning to suffer exploding bills and emptied bank accounts at the hands of hackers, U.S. users largely remain safe and blissfully unaware of the gathering threat.

Not for long.

As famed author Thomas Wolfe once said, you're either on the bus or you're off the bus.  Staying a step ahead of the smartphone hackers sounds like a good bus to be on.

The Fawning MSM (part MMMDLXVII)

It's just disgusting the way the press protects the White House when a Dem is the current occupant.  Remember all that talk about WMD and the Iraq War back in the Bush days?

Well, fifty thousand lives were recently lost due to a horrific WMD attack, but do you see any mention of it in the press?  Of course not.  Apparently, if it doesn't happen in Obama's own back yard, it's just not worth bothering with.  But tell that to the fifty thousand innocents who were gassed to death!

Memorial Scheduled for Sunday at Wilsonville

Related: another horrific WMD attack on innocents reported here.

Asking The Toughies

Question: How do you embarrass famed blogger John Hinderaker of Power Line blog?

Answer: Link to his latest article on global warming:

Global Warming Alarmism In Twilight

The one teensy, eensy little flaw in this otherwise idyllic scenario is that it escaped the attention of almost everybody else on the friggin' planet.

From Live Science just a few days ago:

Without Action, Warming to Decimate Species Diversity

Roughly one third of common and widespread animal species and over half of plant species will disappear from a large percentage of their current ranges if society does not take action on climate change, the research team predicted.

It's a good thing they're not stooping to wild hyperbole, isn't it?  The point is, this was approximately the twentieth article I've read with the term 'climate change' in it since John's post came out three weeks ago.  All you have to do is click on every link that has anything to do with the natural world and there's an 80% chance it'll be there.  I was warning about such complacency three years ago.  The juggernaut continues its remorseless pace and these twilight articles do more damage than good.

As far as the decimation of species goes, I'm with the Darwinists on this one:

The amusing side of the "Global warming will cause mass extinctions" claim is that we have absolutely no idea how many species there are to begin with.  So, if you don't have a starting number, how do you know when there are "less"?  Estimates range anywhere from 100 million species to 300 million, depending upon how far down the microscopic scale you go.  When it comes to actual critters, by far the majority of species are insects, traditionally the hardiest of all creatures.

And, of course, why a temperature rise of a few degrees would reduce the number of species is never quite explained.  Even if we assumed they couldn't adapt (and any believer in Darwinism would agree that's a pretty big if), for every species that finds it just a wee bit too warm and dies off, another heretofore lesser species will find the warmer temp a blessing and thrive.

Nature's real big on that 'balance' stuff.

Indeed.

Never A Dull Moment Dept

Speaking of hoaxes and conspiracies, you might have heard that some glory-seeking and/or mentally-deficient morons are claiming the explosion aboard Flight 800 back in '96 was — and I hope you're sitting down — a government cover-up!  That's right, it was a missile, either accidentally fired from a U.S. warship during exercises or a deliberate act of terrorism; your choice.  And the government is keeping it all a secret because of, er, um, because it would be really-really embarrassing for everybody on the international stage.  That part — along with who fired the deadly missile — remains a little hazy on the details.

Regardless, this delightful little theory has the same problem the 9/11 'Truthers' had.  By the time you figure in all of the people involved in the investigation over three years, plus all of the outside people like those operating nearby airport radar units that tracked the crash, you are counting upon hundreds of people to keep silent for the rest of time eternal.  In an age when everyone's 15 minutes of fame is just a YouTube video away, isn't it interesting that not one person has ever come forward, protected by shadowy face and encrypted voice, and said "I was working for the NSA/FBI/CIA when Flight 800 was shot down, and here's what really happened that fateful day."  Not one.

3 Reasons to Doubt the TWA Flight 800 Conspiracy Theory

Flight 800 Conspiracy? Where's Proof?

Disaster Buff Corner

Speaking of mysterious airline disasters, for those of you who enjoyed my article on Flight 447, the most recent 'greatest airline disaster mystery', there's a seriously in-depth article here on the loss of the USS Scorpion in 1968, the 'greatest sea disaster mystery' of its time.

On a semi-related note, right after Benghazi I read some comment about how it reminded the guy of the USS Pueblo, the first U.S. Navy ship to surrender in 150 years and a story quickly swept under the rug by an ever-obliging MSM with Democrat Lyndon Johnson as prez, and I thought the guy made a good point.  I eventually blundered across an article on the parallel here.

Political News

Remember that guy landing a Cessna in Red Square a number of years ago?  Well, some activist named Harry Atwood landed a biplane (of all things) on the White House lawn in order to prove how poor our security was, and he certainly succeeded.  There's no question that if he'd been a terrorist carrying a small nuclear device, our government would have been paralyzed for years, so it's only right that serious steps be taken.

"I've already implemented a federal mandate entrusted to me by the powers of the Patriot Act whereupon DNA sampling and implanted GPS tracking for all citizens will immediately be implemented," said President Obama to a nation stunned by the near tragedy.  "We need to do this for the children."

ACLU president David Shear admitted that he had to side with the president on this issue.  "Not only did the Patriot Act grant the power of presidential fiat during such perilous times as this, but the American people are strong and resilient and they're aware small sacrifices must be made in order to have a more secure nation.  I'm getting my own implant this afternoon."

The pilot, identified as Harry Atwood of Dayton, OH, was unavailable for comment.

Daring Aviator Lands on White House South Lawn

Daring exit question: Might Harry have been an NSA plant??