Saturday, March 22, 2014

Use satellites instead of search planes

It seemed to be quite costly to send planes to search debris of MH 370 in the southern edge of the Indian Ocean. 

It takes four hours for a plane to fly from Australia to the search area. The plane can search for two hours and have to fly back. Total of 10 hours of flying time for 2 hours of search.
About 40 planes from various countries are being used for this search. 

Here is an alternative approach. Use a commercial satellite to take images of the search area and an imaging software to identify the debris. Each image has its geo-location that is tagged. If some debris are located, the satellite imaging could focus on the location and even keep track of its movements.

The planes can be sent to the search area after that.

It does not matter that a few million images have to be searched with this method. It must be less costly and more cost effective than sending search planes.

I wonder why this approach was not being followed?

Sunday, March 16, 2014

My hopothesis - what happened to MH 370

My hypothesis, and a hopeful and speculative scenario is described here:
https://www.facebook.com/kinlian/posts/627315784007744?stream_ref=10

Fumbling over the search and rescue of MH 370

Raymond Fong asked.
Is the Malaysian Government fumbling up on the search-and-rescue mission for MH370 or are they hiding something from the public or other countries?

REPLY
The Malaysian authorities have been severely criticized over their handling of the search and rescue operation. 

They were accused of both opposite situations, i.e. releasing wrong information, which had to be retracted, and suspected of hiding information. In reality, they have been quite open in dealing with the scanty, and contradictory information, to the extent of "fumbling".

I don't think they are hiding information. They have to verify the accuracy before they release it.

Could Singapore have done better, when we are faced with a similar crisis? If you recall the Little India riots, our police had to spend some time just to have internal consultation on whether and how to respond, when the rioting was already escalating. Our approach can also be criticized.

GST is bad for Singapore

There is still a large group of people who thinks that the Goods & Services Tax (GST) is good for Singapore, as it allows income tax to be reduced to attract businesses to set up in Singapore and create jobs for Singaporeans.

Most of these people are misled by the false propaganda that is fed to them over the years by the Government and the proponents of GST.

If they understand what is really happening, they will realized that they have been conned and misled by the false arguments that were fed to them.

http://c-onyx.com/page/1790

Uncertainty about amount of loan to purchase a property

The new HDB rule proposed by Khaw Boon Wan is likely to cause the market to be more unstable.
http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/03/15/alternative-news-in-1-day-79-hdb-no-more-valuation/

It is better for HDB and the bank to tell in advance, what is the amount of loan that they are prepared to provide for a property, so that the buyer can sign the sales agreement without this uncertainty.

I can understand the difficulty for HDB to commit for a valuation price, when the property market is uncertain. But it is precisely the job of the government to give certainty and help to stabilize the market, rather than take the easy way out by avoiding responsibility.

HDB could say that they are prepared to grant a loan of $X for a specific property, without saying that this is the "valuation price". This can be set at a lower level, to discourage overspending.

Time and time again, I see the failure of the government to do its job, to give certainty and manage the situation. By abrogating its duty, it is causing chaos for the ordinary people.


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