Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

A lot of speculation about MH370. Terrorism, hijack, meteors. I cannot believe the analysis on CNN - almost disturbing. I tend to look for a more simple explanation of this event. Loaded 777 departs midnight from Kuala to Beijing. Hot night. Heavy aircraft.  About an hour out across the gulf towards Vietnam the plane goes dark meaning the transponder goes off and secondary radar tracking goes off. Two days later we hear of reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by reflection rather than by transponder interrogation response) has tracked the plane on a southwesterly course back across the Malay Peninsula into the straits of Malacca. When I heard this I immediately brought up Google Earth and I searched for airports in proximity to the track towards southwest. The left turn is the key here. This was a very experienced senior Captain with 18,000 hours. Maybe some of the younger pilots interviewed on CNN did...

A "CYBER cold war" is developing as international web espionage and cyber attacks become the biggest threats to internet security, according to a report. Computer security firm McAfee said governments and government allied groups were engaging in increasingly sophisticated cyber spying, with many attacks originating from China. Some 120 countries could be developing the capacity for such activities. In the past 12 months, there have been reports of cyber attacks against government targets in the US, Germany, India, New Zealand and Australia. What started as probes to see what was possible have become well-funded and well organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage, the report said, with perpetrators aiming to cause havoc by disrupting critical national infrastructure systems. Targets include air traffic control, financial markets, water and sewer- age systems, electricity, payrolls, intensive care units and even traffic lights. In September:...