Shit Happens

Postcard US-3135200 to China was from a colleague of mine who bought it during a trip to Germany, showing one of the many great comics from Ruthe.de.

A lot of things have gone wrong recently. For three days, Paris was under siege as terrorists killed satirical comic magazine editors and took hostages. AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea before the New Year, and the elusive black boxes still have not been recovered after two-week intensive searches. SpaceX rocket's booster landing was unsuccessful after launching the Space Station supply ship.

Shit Happens. However, we can not let those setbacks to hold us down. The Paris attacks have brought out one million people marching in unity, and stirred up debates about freedom of speech, religions, national identity and security. The investigations on the causes of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 accident and SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket's first stage landing failure will certainly contribute to a safer air travel and the advances of reusable rocket technology.

Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5b

Postcard US-3109087 to France shows Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5b, NR7952, at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Amelia Mary Earhart, born July 24, 1897, was an American aviation pioneer. As the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she took off from Newfoundland on May 20, 1932 and landed in Ireland nearly 15 hours later in the above plane, receiving the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this endeavor.

Amelia Mary Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra plane.

According to Wikipedia, She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

The Heritage in Negeri Sembilan

Postcard from Malaysia shows "the Heritage in Negeri Sembilan." Negeri Sembilan, one of Malaysia's thirteen states, is located on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia just south of Kuala Lumpur. Its heritage is believed to be heavily influenced by the Minangkabau people who were originally from West Sumatra in present-day Indonesia. Minangkabau features are visible on the card in traditional architecture and local artifacts.

On an unrelated note, news related to Malaysia has focused on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, missing since March 8, 2014. DigitalGlobe, an earth-imagery company, deployed its FirstLook service and directed two of its five satellites to obtained photos of more than 1,200 square miles of suspected crash area, and opened  its crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod, to the public for help in identifying any visible evidence that could help locate the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

I was assigned this map, did you see anything? However, CNN recently reports that Malaysian plane may have flown long after last contact, which would place the plane outside the initial search area.