Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Visit to The Smithsonian Zoological Park

Earlier today, I made a quick trip to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington DC. As readers may have guessed already, my purpose was to catch sight of the giant pandas that are the main attraction at this fine zoo.

The photo to the right of this blog post shows the phone camera image of one of the giant pandas resting outside the shelter.  Granted, the picture is a manifestation of my lack of skills in photography together with use of a phone without an attached zooming lens but I am still proud of it because it was my first sight of this highly regarded mammal from China.

If as stated, the government of the People's Republic of China cautiously gives the panda partly to strengthen diplomatic skills links, then my cursory assessment is that it is an unqualified success.

First, while I am not an American citizen, it became clear to me that the families and groups visiting the zoo considered sighting of the panda as the highlight of the visit. In addition, the children who were here were excited at encountering animals generally but the AsiaTrail, that culminates with a sighting of the giant pandas was the busiest of them all. Panda diplomacy is very smart politics. oOne hopes that this will help these animals to survive for many more generations.

The curious thing was that entry to the the Smithsonian National Zoological Park does not require payment. Instead, there are notices all around stating that the park is maintained through private donations and coupled with evidence of bequests from corporations and families. A second source of funding is the sale of the map of the park and items in the shops. This presents an interesting model because one would consider that the rarity of the panda would almost make it very lucrative to charge for entry. The economics of pricing for entry to this zoo is helped by the panda and the bequest that supported the establishment of the park to begin with.   

Sunday, July 06, 2014

A Prize Would Speed Up Search for Malaysia Flight 370

Three months ago, a Malaysian Airlines plane carrying more than 200 passengers and flying between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing lost contact with flight controllers and failed to arrive at destination. Since then, there has been a multi-country search on both sides of the destinations with no success. As it stands now, the plane is missing and there is no clue about what happened to the aircraft and its passengers.

Understandably, the relatives of the missing passengers together with individuals do not believe official claims that this plane is missing and that nobody has found it. This state of affairs presents a fertile ground for all manner of conspiracy theories about what happened to the plane, its cargo and final resting place. All this is not helped by another statement such as that covered in this NYT piece stating that the search area has been changed once again. In short, the level of confidence in official statements and whether a proper search is being made in good faith is low.

I am not too familiar with flight science and therefore unable to find reason to distrust official statements from the airlines and the malaysian government. It is clear to me that many more people in that government are just as clueless but issue statements with more confidence than is warranted.

To my mind, the insurers of this airline together with the government would be best served to crowd source the finding of the aircraft. The incentive for them would be to display their own good faith and support that with a monetary incentive to ask teams of engineers and meteorologists who understand flight science to either find or suggest the final point of the fuselage. With these parameters broadly drawn, I am sure that a prize of up US$ 10 million would be placed out there to be claimed by the first team that provides the most useful answer or identifies the location of the flight.

This approach would serve the Malaysian Airlines and the government well because it would buttress their claim that there is no conspiracy to cover up the accident and provide relief to waiting families. The sum suggested here is affordable for both the airline, its insurers and the government of Malaysia. With that prize established, the governments that are assisting in the search could continue to conduct searches based on the best information at their disposal.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Quote of the Day

"Wise management includes making the best use of scientific, technological and artistic knowledge". Becky Norton Dunlop