http://qz.com/467631/maps-and-video-how-ocean-currents-may-have-carried-mh-370-debris-to-la-reunion/
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Maps and video: How ocean currents may have carried MH370 debris to La Réunion
Heather Timmons
July 30, 2015
Grande Anse beach on La Réunion island. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)
A severed section of a plane wing that some aviation specialists say could be part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has washed ashore on La Réunion, an island 600 miles east of Madagascar.
The volcanic island, population 850,000, is part of France’s overseas territories, and French aviation authorities are investigating.
The wing is “almost certainly from a Boeing 777,” Reuters reported, citing an unnamed source, but it is still unclear whether it is from the missing flight. The missing MH370 flight was a Boeing 777 plane. The part appeared to have been torn from the plane because of a “sudden impact,” safety analyst David Soucie told CNN. There have been five serious accidents involving 777’s, but the MH 370 flight is the only one to occur over the ocean.
The flight’s final major turn to the south, according to data compiled by the Independent Group, was over the Andaman Sea:
That’s about 3,000 miles from La Réunion, over a remote stretch of open ocean:
The search for the missing plane focused on the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the western Australia coast, following the believed flight path of the plane:
Ocean currents flow north along the west coast of Australia to Southeast Asia, then to the coast of Madagascar across the Indian Ocean, as this map from Physical Geography shows:
You can see how those currents flow in this NASA video at about the 0:45 mark:
Get the Quartz Daily Brief in your inbox:
For early morning delivery
golden oldies
Germans are unironically nostalgic for the golden days of 1950s debt forgiveness
Maggy Donaldson
1 hour ago
Couples in voluminous A-line skirts, high-waisted pants with suspenders and liberally applied hair gel swing each other across the stage, Elvis’s Blue Suede Shoes echoing throughout the square.
It feels as if Danny Zuko will roll up in his hot rod any minute, but this isn’t a scene out of Grease. The dancers are in the otherwise sleepy German city of Wettenberg, whose half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets accommodated an estimated 70,000 visitors last weekend. They came for the “Golden Oldies” festival, which celebrates “the lifestyle and luxury” of the 1950s and 1960s, often thought of as a golden age that followed West Germany’s wartime devastation.
Held on July 25 and 26, it’s the one weekend of the year when Wettenberg’s medieval castle is not the main attraction. Among the largest of its kind in Europe, the annual fete captures the zippy ambience of Germany’s “Wirtschaftswunder”—the “economic miracle” that rekindled hope for many. After enduring years of price controls and Nazi-imposed rationing, new disposable income of the period suddenly allowed Germans to purchase cars, ovens, washing machines—modern status symbols that grew fashionable as West Germany became one of the richest countries in the world.
“People had the feeling things were improving; that they could achieve something,” said Thomas Brunner, the mayor of Wettenberg and a key organizer of the event, told Quartz. “People found joy in life again.”
The festival’s nostalgia for this era of burgeoning wealth holds particular resonance in today’s tense economic milieu. While Germans go retro to commemorate their own mid 20th century emergence from economic desolation, a “miracle” buoyed by debt cancellation, Greeks are standing in line for cash allowances, food, clothing and medicine.
(Maggy Donaldson)
Starting in the late 1940s just following the end of World War II, the West German Wirtschaftswunder ran approximately until the early 1970s. “Germans like this time because things were looking up,” Brunner said. “The people had done it—they had managed to leave behind the damage and backwards step of the war.”
Morale certainly helped, but the international community’s 1953 forgiveness of half of Germany’s foreign debt following World War II underpinned the nation’s revitalization.
This relief facilitated then-finance minister Ludwig Erhard’s orchestration of the German economic recovery. Debt forgiveness meant Germans could turn their attention to building up the country, fueling the economy with both hard work and spending.
(Maggy Donaldson)
Wettenberg’s retro flea market salutes the consumerist bent of the time with more than 100 stands selling all kinds of bric a brac from tulip lamps to cat-eye sunglasses. Upward of 1000 vintage cars paraded through the city over the weekend, as 50 throwback bands played the tunes that epitomize what many Germans like to think of as a simpler, more optimistic time.
The nostalgic tourists who descend on Wettenberg yearn for that feeling of a fresh start, Brunner said. “We simply don’t have this spirit now, so people crave the feeling from before,” he said. “The Germans still enjoy whining, even though they are probably doing among the best of the European states.”
Boogie woogie dancer and festival attendee Gisela Burgemeister, 54, is not so sentimental. “People also think it must have been nice having a castle in the Middle Ages—but no, it wasn’t,” she said after showcasing her world-class dance skills on Wettenberg’s main stage. “I think this is just a romanticized version of the ‘good old days.’”
She and her 49-year-old husband Jörg Burgemeister were once the world’s top boogie woogie dancers in their senior age group. They are now trying to work their way back up from number six.
Another visitor, 66-year-old Jute Fritz, is native to the Wettenberg area, and has attended all 26 festivals since the event’s inception in 1989, months before the Berlin Wall fell and Germany reunified. Jute trains with a local dance troupe specializing in boogie woogie and swing, and this fair is one of the group’s major performances.
“Every year I think, ‘Oh this time my feet will hurt, or my legs,’ she told Quartz, in a teal halter frock with black piping and a full petticoat. “But then when I’m here, it’s just so great. I think I’ll keep coming until I’m 100.”
Beyond pining for the music, the dancing, the cars and the fashion of the age, Brunner said Germans would be wise to remember that this period also ushered in the formation of the Europe we know today. “God knows that we, as Germans, behaved terribly [during World War II], but other European neighbors were willing to work with us,” he said.
That old spirit of cooperation, he noted, “is simply contrary to what is happening now, when we’re having a hard time with the Greek crisis.”
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
You can follow Maggy on Twitter at @maggydonaldson. We welcome your comments at [email protected].
Short-lived
Watch: Gorgeous time-lapse of flowers that bloom and die in a day
Thu-Huong Ha
27 mins ago
Nothing captures the big, beautiful bummer of mortality quite like an Echinopsis cactus.
One of the many plants that flower for only a day before their blooms wilt and die, these cacti are an obsession for Greg Krehel. The professional software consultant and amateur flower freak captures their brief bloom in gorgeous time-lapse videos, which he posts to Instagram and other social media.
Since he first discovered the cactus about five years ago, Krehel has collected over 100 varities in his home in Jacksonville, Florida, reports the New York Times. Krehel writes on his site of his beloved bloomers: “The colors of many Echinopsis flowers are so intense, so saturated, that it’s literally impossible to look at them for more than a few seconds without averting your eyes.”
See some of our picks below.
15 “Antares” flowers exploding open. Hope you enjoy!! Have a wonderful week. #flower #fleur #timelapse #cactus #echinopsis #blumen #pink
A video posted by E. Freak (@echinopsisfreak) on Sep 14, 2014 at 11:11am PDT
Hello!! Here we have a closeup of a single ‘Volcanic Sunset’ flower opening. 3 progressively closer views of the action. Each clip shows over 8 hours smooshed into a few seconds. On a completely unrelated topic, have you checked out the amazing lighting and furniture designed/made in Los Angeles from @spade_studio? Worth following and better yet owning something by (in my somewhat … okay, very … biased opinion
). Hope you have a great week ahead! #volcano #sunset #volcanic #cactusflower #cactusflowerfreak #cactus #echinopsis #freak #kaktus #flower #fleur #仙人掌 #サボテン #선인장 #ต้นกระบองเพชร #câyxươngrồng #кактус #kwiat #hoa #bunga #çiçek #ดอกไม้ #цветок #flor #꽃 #花 #fiore #Blume #bloem #květina
A video posted by E. Freak (@echinopsisfreak) on May 30, 2015 at 9:52am PDT
Hello! Today we have two giant ‘Orange California’ flowers. Each is over 8″/20 cm in diameter. Each clip shows 8 hours of opening action in a few seconds. Hope you enjoy! #orange #california #cactus #cactusflower #fleur #flower #Blume #bunga #timelapse #kaktus #květina #kwiat
A video posted by E. Freak (@echinopsisfreak) on Jun 27, 2015 at 9:58am PDT
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Maps and video: How ocean currents may have carried MH370 debris to La Réunion
Heather Timmons
July 30, 2015
Grande Anse beach on La Réunion island. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)
A severed section of a plane wing that some aviation specialists say could be part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has washed ashore on La Réunion, an island 600 miles east of Madagascar.
The volcanic island, population 850,000, is part of France’s overseas territories, and French aviation authorities are investigating.
The wing is “almost certainly from a Boeing 777,” Reuters reported, citing an unnamed source, but it is still unclear whether it is from the missing flight. The missing MH370 flight was a Boeing 777 plane. The part appeared to have been torn from the plane because of a “sudden impact,” safety analyst David Soucie told CNN. There have been five serious accidents involving 777’s, but the MH 370 flight is the only one to occur over the ocean.
The flight’s final major turn to the south, according to data compiled by the Independent Group, was over the Andaman Sea:
That’s about 3,000 miles from La Réunion, over a remote stretch of open ocean:
The search for the missing plane focused on the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the western Australia coast, following the believed flight path of the plane:
Ocean currents flow north along the west coast of Australia to Southeast Asia, then to the coast of Madagascar across the Indian Ocean, as this map from Physical Geography shows:
You can see how those currents flow in this NASA video at about the 0:45 mark:
Get the Quartz Daily Brief in your inbox:
For early morning delivery
golden oldies
Germans are unironically nostalgic for the golden days of 1950s debt forgiveness
Maggy Donaldson
1 hour ago
Couples in voluminous A-line skirts, high-waisted pants with suspenders and liberally applied hair gel swing each other across the stage, Elvis’s Blue Suede Shoes echoing throughout the square.
It feels as if Danny Zuko will roll up in his hot rod any minute, but this isn’t a scene out of Grease. The dancers are in the otherwise sleepy German city of Wettenberg, whose half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets accommodated an estimated 70,000 visitors last weekend. They came for the “Golden Oldies” festival, which celebrates “the lifestyle and luxury” of the 1950s and 1960s, often thought of as a golden age that followed West Germany’s wartime devastation.
Held on July 25 and 26, it’s the one weekend of the year when Wettenberg’s medieval castle is not the main attraction. Among the largest of its kind in Europe, the annual fete captures the zippy ambience of Germany’s “Wirtschaftswunder”—the “economic miracle” that rekindled hope for many. After enduring years of price controls and Nazi-imposed rationing, new disposable income of the period suddenly allowed Germans to purchase cars, ovens, washing machines—modern status symbols that grew fashionable as West Germany became one of the richest countries in the world.
“People had the feeling things were improving; that they could achieve something,” said Thomas Brunner, the mayor of Wettenberg and a key organizer of the event, told Quartz. “People found joy in life again.”
The festival’s nostalgia for this era of burgeoning wealth holds particular resonance in today’s tense economic milieu. While Germans go retro to commemorate their own mid 20th century emergence from economic desolation, a “miracle” buoyed by debt cancellation, Greeks are standing in line for cash allowances, food, clothing and medicine.
(Maggy Donaldson)
Starting in the late 1940s just following the end of World War II, the West German Wirtschaftswunder ran approximately until the early 1970s. “Germans like this time because things were looking up,” Brunner said. “The people had done it—they had managed to leave behind the damage and backwards step of the war.”
Morale certainly helped, but the international community’s 1953 forgiveness of half of Germany’s foreign debt following World War II underpinned the nation’s revitalization.
This relief facilitated then-finance minister Ludwig Erhard’s orchestration of the German economic recovery. Debt forgiveness meant Germans could turn their attention to building up the country, fueling the economy with both hard work and spending.
(Maggy Donaldson)
Wettenberg’s retro flea market salutes the consumerist bent of the time with more than 100 stands selling all kinds of bric a brac from tulip lamps to cat-eye sunglasses. Upward of 1000 vintage cars paraded through the city over the weekend, as 50 throwback bands played the tunes that epitomize what many Germans like to think of as a simpler, more optimistic time.
The nostalgic tourists who descend on Wettenberg yearn for that feeling of a fresh start, Brunner said. “We simply don’t have this spirit now, so people crave the feeling from before,” he said. “The Germans still enjoy whining, even though they are probably doing among the best of the European states.”
Boogie woogie dancer and festival attendee Gisela Burgemeister, 54, is not so sentimental. “People also think it must have been nice having a castle in the Middle Ages—but no, it wasn’t,” she said after showcasing her world-class dance skills on Wettenberg’s main stage. “I think this is just a romanticized version of the ‘good old days.’”
She and her 49-year-old husband Jörg Burgemeister were once the world’s top boogie woogie dancers in their senior age group. They are now trying to work their way back up from number six.
Another visitor, 66-year-old Jute Fritz, is native to the Wettenberg area, and has attended all 26 festivals since the event’s inception in 1989, months before the Berlin Wall fell and Germany reunified. Jute trains with a local dance troupe specializing in boogie woogie and swing, and this fair is one of the group’s major performances.
“Every year I think, ‘Oh this time my feet will hurt, or my legs,’ she told Quartz, in a teal halter frock with black piping and a full petticoat. “But then when I’m here, it’s just so great. I think I’ll keep coming until I’m 100.”
Beyond pining for the music, the dancing, the cars and the fashion of the age, Brunner said Germans would be wise to remember that this period also ushered in the formation of the Europe we know today. “God knows that we, as Germans, behaved terribly [during World War II], but other European neighbors were willing to work with us,” he said.
That old spirit of cooperation, he noted, “is simply contrary to what is happening now, when we’re having a hard time with the Greek crisis.”
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
(Maggy Donaldson)
You can follow Maggy on Twitter at @maggydonaldson. We welcome your comments at [email protected].
Short-lived
Watch: Gorgeous time-lapse of flowers that bloom and die in a day
Thu-Huong Ha
27 mins ago
Nothing captures the big, beautiful bummer of mortality quite like an Echinopsis cactus.
One of the many plants that flower for only a day before their blooms wilt and die, these cacti are an obsession for Greg Krehel. The professional software consultant and amateur flower freak captures their brief bloom in gorgeous time-lapse videos, which he posts to Instagram and other social media.
Since he first discovered the cactus about five years ago, Krehel has collected over 100 varities in his home in Jacksonville, Florida, reports the New York Times. Krehel writes on his site of his beloved bloomers: “The colors of many Echinopsis flowers are so intense, so saturated, that it’s literally impossible to look at them for more than a few seconds without averting your eyes.”
See some of our picks below.
15 “Antares” flowers exploding open. Hope you enjoy!! Have a wonderful week. #flower #fleur #timelapse #cactus #echinopsis #blumen #pink
A video posted by E. Freak (@echinopsisfreak) on Sep 14, 2014 at 11:11am PDT
Hello!! Here we have a closeup of a single ‘Volcanic Sunset’ flower opening. 3 progressively closer views of the action. Each clip shows over 8 hours smooshed into a few seconds. On a completely unrelated topic, have you checked out the amazing lighting and furniture designed/made in Los Angeles from @spade_studio? Worth following and better yet owning something by (in my somewhat … okay, very … biased opinion
). Hope you have a great week ahead! #volcano #sunset #volcanic #cactusflower #cactusflowerfreak #cactus #echinopsis #freak #kaktus #flower #fleur #仙人掌 #サボテン #선인장 #ต้นกระบองเพชร #câyxươngrồng #кактус #kwiat #hoa #bunga #çiçek #ดอกไม้ #цветок #flor #꽃 #花 #fiore #Blume #bloem #květinaA video posted by E. Freak (@echinopsisfreak) on May 30, 2015 at 9:52am PDT
Hello! Today we have two giant ‘Orange California’ flowers. Each is over 8″/20 cm in diameter. Each clip shows 8 hours of opening action in a few seconds. Hope you enjoy! #orange #california #cactus #cactusflower #fleur #flower #Blume #bunga #timelapse #kaktus #květina #kwiat
A video posted by E. Freak (@echinopsisfreak) on Jun 27, 2015 at 9:58am PDT
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