Model Airplanes

Posted Aug. 31, 2015 at 11:53 AM
Updated at 12:05 PM

Article source: http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150831/NEWS/150839928

It’s a “Name That Tune”-type game with a twist, one that its creators hope to eventually use to help dementia patients. The game, a citizen science project called Hooked On Music, tests how quickly people can recognize snippets of the 200 top pop songs in Britain since the 1940s.

Last year, scientists in the Netherlands who created the game reported that, based on the recognition speed of about 12,000 people, the catchiest single was “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. And the catchiest part? Not the “I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want” part or the “zigazig ah” part, but the “If you wanna be my lover” part. When the song started at that point, a typical player guessed it in 2.29 seconds.

“Mambo No. 5” was the second catchiest, with players recognizing it 2.48 seconds after Lou Bega sings the part about Monica, Erica, Rita and Tina. And “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor was recognized in 2.62 seconds after players heard the subtle hint of the line, “It’s the eye of the tiger.”

John Ashley Burgoyne, a computational musicologist at the University of Amsterdam who created the game with colleagues, said their analysis found that three things made a song especially memorable: a repetitive melody (like the fourth catchiest song, Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance”), “melodic conventionality” (“SOS” by Abba – fifth), and a prominent vocal (Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” – sixth).

But the researchers are not just interested in what makes a musical “hook.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/summer-of-science-2015/latest/seabird

— Posted Sunday, 30 August 2015 | | Disqus

By John Mauldin

Weapons of Economic Misdirection
Hayek Versus Keynes
GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History
Will the Real GDP Please Stand Up?
GDP Is a Political Construction
Rhode Island and Toronto

Measurement theory shows that strong assumptions are required for certain statistics to provide meaningful information about reality. Measurement theory encourages people to think about the meaning of their data. It encourages critical assessment of the assumptions behind the analysis.

In pure science, we can form a better, more coherent, and objective picture of the world, based on the information measurement provides. The information allows us to create models of (parts of) the world and formulate laws and theorems. We must then determine (again) by measuring whether these models, hypotheses, theorems, and laws are a valid representation of the world.

Gauri Shankar Shrestha

In science, the term observer effect refers to changes that the act of observation will make on a phenomenon being observed. This is often the result of instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner.

Article source: http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1440961104.php

(CNN)If confirmed to be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, could a small portion of plane wing discovered on an Indian Ocean island be the clue investigators need to unlock one of aviation’s biggest mysteries?

On the surface, the discovery on a Reunion Island beach is just what investigators have been waiting for — the first physical piece of evidence since the flight vanished en route to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard.

According to a source close to the investigation, Boeing investigators are confident the debris comes from a 777 aircraft — although no one is yet saying the part came from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

“It’s only a very small part of the aircraft, but it could be a very important piece of evidence,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Friday.

Australia: Debris found is ‘major lead’ in MH370 search

But what’s taking so long?

A complex investigation

Because Reunion Island is a French territory, the debris has been flown to France, where aviation safety bureau the BEA has taken responsibility for its testing and analysis.

The flaperon arrived in Toulouse over the weekend, but the fact that so many different countries and groups are involved in the search for the missing flight has complicated and delayed the situation somewhat.

Aviation experts are not expected to begin examining the part until Wednesday, and it is unclear how long their analysis will

Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/world/mh370-plane-debris-what-next/

It’s no secret why Allegiant Air is the most profitable airline in the sky.

The Las Vegas-based airline operated by Allegiant Travel Co. has a successful business model built around flying residents of small-town America to the leisure destinations they love.

And, in 90 percent of the cities the airline flies, it’s the only game in town. To the Bozemans, Minots and Laredos of the world, Allegiant provides affordable jet passenger service to places such as Orlando, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Allegiant’s biggest competition is the living-room couch.

It’s also no secret that Allegiant maintains a high profit margin with low operational costs, including using aircraft that are considered old by industry standards but still have thousands of operational hours ahead of them.

But a recent rash of emergency landings and unusual flight incidents have put Allegiant in the spotlight and have left many observers asking if the company’s old fleet has worn out its welcome.

Since the beginning of 2015, there have been 16 reported incidents involving Allegiant flights that resulted in emergency landings, flight diversions, aborted takeoffs or, maybe the most bizarre of all, a passenger-initiated evacuation.

The most serious incident occurred in Las Vegas on Aug. 17 when the nose of a twin-engine MD-80 jet on its takeoff roll began rising prematurely, defying the flight crew’s attempts to keep it down. When the plane reached 138 mph, the pilot aborted the takeoff, bringing the jet to a halt, according to a report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration.

A preliminary FAA investigation

Article source: http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/aviation/unusual-incidents-rock-allegiant-airs-profitable-course