As computer engineer, you're a little on your way there, this will give you idea how to apply it on other aspects of your life. Try Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline.

Well, some of technologies are based on BlueTooth, which gives the MAC-48 address. It is unique, and with proper datamining could be identified if you visit enough stores and use credit card. I think the granularity for locating is around 15 feet radius.

'Seeing inside a cell directly without dying' I'd call that a huge advance, it seems cell biology used to be right up there with kamikaze-piloting for a profession.

I think i've seen this before, I wonder where that was. Oh wait, it was two years ago, on /. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/02/17/0058202/Jet-Pack-Runs-For-Hours-On-Water

Hmmm... Correct if I'm wrong but the speeds don't matter here, do they? ATM the meteor goes through the plane's flight level the plane is either there or not. It could actually be sitting on the ground and the odds are still the same. Nobody is aiming the meteors at the planes (I hope) so it's random ie. all about possibilities. Now, if we have schrÃdinger's cat inside the plane with no windows, then it's all quantum physics to me if the cat will get hit, or not. Either the plane is on the path of the meteor or it isn't, simple as that.

As exciting as meteor or motherships would be, I still think that simplest reason hold true in this case. An ex-Air Force weatherman, gives quite a low down on the weathersystem directly on AF447's path at the time the last messages came. http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/

I think it could also have something to do with fact the boxes are supposed to record as much as possible until the bitter end. So in the event of (almost) complete system failure it could still record cockpit conversations and pressurization changes etc, while having not studied the issue I still suspect that it's hardwired into the internal systems for a reaso. I definitely think the planes probably should send the information (location, airspeed, altitude, etc) in almost realtime versus every once in a while like tehy do now. I wonder if there are any security reasons for the delays in relaying the information.

An important thing also is to compare the life-cycle carbon footprint for any given fuel, transport costs, fertilizers etc. I have a Flexi Fuel car that runs also on Bio-Ethanol. I decided to go with that since there is a (finnish) company that has created a bioethanol fuel that is produced from waste and industrial side streams. It's not that readily available yet (only 3 stations within 20 miles from my house), but the idea is so great and the car will also run on normal fuel. You can see here (St1, the company) the carbon footprint comparison to other fuels, Brazilian sugarcane included. At least this far north, the ability to create the fuel here and distribute it without shipping it across oceans is a pretty effective way of reducing emissions.