from the cockpit

Here's my latest for Wired.com, although I'm really just the conduit. It's about what may have caused the Air France 447 crash. Be sure to check out the comments section. One of the more engaging--and trolls-free--conversation strings I've seen in a long time. It also shows that Autopia is popular among aviation junkies.

TAHRIR: the power of a name

Has the name Tahrir become a kind of shorthand for people power? Or maybe freedom? My friend Waleed Rashed of the April 6 Youth thinks so, and has been tweeting almost those exact words from Tahrir Square today, which looked like this, despite scorching temperatures:

One of the main Facebook pages advertising this demonstration had this brilliant profile picture.

Not surprisingly, it went viral, becoming the profile picture for thousands of Egyptians on Facebook. (In case it's unclear, the image on the t-shirt--or should I say superhero outfit?--is of Tahrir Square from the Jan25 revolution.)

So why are they out there? As a friend recently noted in an online conversation, a sampling of news headlines in Egypt from the last week or so looked like this:

Police Officers Charged with Killing Protesters Released on Bail

Former Ministers Fikki, Ghali, Maghrabi Found Not Guilty of Squandering Public Funds

Government Expenditure on Education, Healthcare, Housing Decreased

Minimum Wage Reduced

Then she added:

Hmmm. Thank you all for adding fuel to our fire. We'll see you on Friday.