Amelia Earhart

What happens when you take "leading edge technology" into enemy territory unescorted?

It had nothing to do with fortifying the mandated islands, Japan was not fortifying them.

It had nothing to do with her husband being in Fleet Intelligence. ALL New-England Blue-Bloods applied for a Naval Reserve commission in Fleet Intelligence to avoid the one year extra duty they would otherwise have to serve if they sought a career path in the Navy.

The search the Japanese conducted was a joke. The major vessels that supposedly took part in the search all stayed in port, there was no such search taking place.

It had nothing to do with Fred Noonan being moody, depressed and drunk. The best navigator in the world at the time was Fred Noonan, sober. The second best navigator in the world at the time was Fred Noonan, drunk.

It all related to the advanced technology of the plane. Japan wanted it. Lockheed sure wasn't going to sell it to them.

Phone Hacking: continued ad nauseam.

Now it seems there are claims that unidentified editors have attempted suicide and that some managerial personnel at British news organizations have hired personal security guards.

Claims of everything such as "newspapers been doing this for hundreds of years" to cozy relations between press and London police was recent. A news editor being loaned a retired police horse is an incident providing some comic relief to how close the relationships are.

Big deal. It was hushed up as long as could be, now the cat is out of the bag so why is anyone resisting it at this point in time.

It was widespread. The press and the coppers knew it. Each made money from the relationship. Each found it convenient to overlook the extent of what was going on but neither side was ignorant enough to believe it was one rogue reporter and one rogue private investigator. Not even members of the public believed any such nonsense. So why now do we have the arrest of Rebekkah Brooks and her husband on some predawn raid? I guess its the old joke of why you should never trust a policeman: you never know when he will turn honest.

Eyeglasses and radar displays

News that the Costa Concordia's Captain was without his eyeglasses and unable to properly see the radar display hardly alters the basic situation. He was standing into danger at high speed towards well known submerged rocks on a publicity lark and most of the crew and all of the passengers were unaware of the obvious peril he was recklessly placing them in.

Bump into rocks at slow speed and there is a need for a damage report. Bump into rocks at nearly full speed and the damage report is simple: Fatal. Sinking Fast. What did anyone think? That pumps could handle the amount of incoming water or that the incoming water would somehow not interfere with the operation of the engines that provide power to the pumps?

Way would come off really fast and the vessel could have turned towards the available port since the speed would decay so fast and rudder authority lost fairly promptly.