let him be remembered as someone who did bring out the best in people and provided cruelty that ended up being a very, very clarifying thing for all of us. weekends with alex witt starts now. breaking news this hour. another possible image of airplane debris reported. this time, the chinese government says they have a satellite picture of remnants of mh 370. a short time ago, they reported this news. he says he got that words from the chinese ambassador. where is the debris and how old is the satellite image? good morning, everybody. welcome to weekends with alex witt. i'm in for alex today. here is what happened over an hour ago in kuala lumpur. the transportation minister was

handed a note saying they spotted a floating object in the ocean. take a listen. >> the news i just received is that the chinese ambassador received satellite image of floating objects. they will be sending ships to verify. they will announce this in a couple of hours. this floating object is 22 meters long and 13 meters wide. >> just within the past half hour, cctv, the chinese television network released this satellite photo showing a floating object. nbc news has not independently confirmed the authenticity of this photo. it was taken four days ago. kir simmons was there when he made the announcement. he joins me now from kuala lumpur. give us details on the information we are getting in this morning. >> reporter: we are just hearing

the information, just a warning that it's coming from chinese media. you saw that image of the debris. it was spotted on noon of the 18th of march. it is 100 miles southwest of the previous image taken by the satellite near australia. perhaps, perhaps, this is the same debris, slightly shifted. we are told at the moment it is 22 x 13 meters in size. that is what's said by the chinese media. that's about 73 x 42 feet. they will clearly be looking at this as potential, more evidence that might help to narrow down the crucial search as ships and aircraft keep heading off the coast of australia to see if they can find it. they have spotted debris by satellite, but haven't been able to get eyes on it by ship or

plane. this is leaving relatives incredibly frustrated, as you can imagine. itis hard to imagine how painful it is for them. they are getting angry at meetings with officials where they feel like they are not being given enough information. in beijing, one relative was upset. listen. >> we are here. we want to know what happened. we are not a lesson to you. >> reporter: that relative just furious because they felt as if the officials have come out and given them information, but not taken the time to listen to their questions. by the way, betty, other news, we are hearing some insurers are making payments. they are airline insurers and they are bound to do it under regulations. it doesn't mean anything about

what may or may not have happened to passengers. it's part of the process and a simple fact some payments are being made given that we are two weeks in from when flight 370 disappeared. >> reality does set in. thank you. i want to bring in former airline pilot captain paul mccarthy to talk about this, especially the new findings. paul, first to the new development. the chinese saying they spotted possible debris in satellite images. we are expecting to hear more from them soon. what is your reaction to this? we have heard it many times over to this point. >> yeah, betty, it's kind of -- good morning. it's kind of a tragedy we keep dangling these things in front of folks. they have another sighting of debris. they look at the currents from the prior sighting and can figure out if it might be the same. as you said, i think keir said, you have to see what it is and

identify whether or not it could be a piece of an airplane or some other debris. until you have done that, really, we are no smarter than we were two weeks ago. >> the malaysian official described this object in the chinese satellite image as 74, roughly, by 33 feet wide. does that indicate anything to you? >> it doesn't jump off to me as being part of an airplane? >> why? >> you might be long enough to be a wing, but the width doesn't fit with anything exception fuselage panels that came unraveled and it was no longer a circle, you opened up the circle, if you will and that would be difficult to visualize happening. >> on first guess, would you say your idea may be some of that junk or trash floating in the ocean. >> i wouldn't even take a guess.

until somebody looks at the thing, we have no idea what it is. >> they are saying this image was taken four days ago, march 18th. 75 miles west of where australia spots debris and pictures two days prior. when you look at this part of the ocean, is it possible an object could travel a distance like that in a two-day period? >> i have been watching some of the meteorologists and oceanographers talking about the currents and this transpolar current, i think they call it. yes, that is certainly within the realm of possibility for it to drift that distance in the time span we are talking about. >> i want to get to this, too. the plane's black boxes will only send pings for two more weeks before they run out of batteries. it took two years to find the black boxes for air frances flight. should they have longer battery life given their importance?

>> well, even if they had longer battery life, unless you have some idea within plus or minus 10,000 miles of where the airplane hit, the longest battery life in the world is not really going to help you. the idea here is to figure out a better way to track the airplane when -- before anything happens to it. figure out a better way to get the information off the airplane before some ill be falls it rather than looking at batteries. >> what is that better way, in your idea? >> a better way, we are coming into satellite driven technology. we could use transmissions for some data. something as simple as when you transmit, you transmit latitude and longitude. itis all about cost. okay, we have had this accident. it may be the one that drives the industry to spend the money to get it done. i'm fairly confident there is technology to do it. >> i want to ask you about

something i find interesting. yesterday, we learned the plane was carrying lithium-ion batteries. there are lithium batteries in cell phones, but to have cargo of them, could we be looking at a fire here and why is that being shuttled on a passenger plane? >> to the why is cargo like that on a passenger plane, i believe international regulations preclude bulk shipments of batteries on passenger carrying airplanes. having said that, a lot of folks looked at the idea of a fire. a fire doesn't get you where they are looking. a fire gets you an immediate problem. if a fire is going to disable everybody on board, a fire is going to bring down the airplane long before it reaches fuel exhaustion. there's a lot of reasons why the fire scenario doesn't work well. >> what scenario does work, in your eyes, if we are looking at

this long span of travel distance from where it started and to where they are zeroing in on the search, what could it possibly have been? >> you know, i have talked to an awful lot of my friends and acquaintances in the airline business and none of us can come up with a scenario of how the airplane would get there. it just doesn't make sense. if that's where they want to look, fine. it is very difficult to construct a scenario that is remotely reasonable that would get the airplane down there. the scenarios you would have to focus on are scenario that is involved a high level of psychotic action. >> you sound skeptical these objects in this search zone could be remnants of that plane. >> i'm afraid, i am. >> thank you so much for your insight. we appreciate it. >> good morning. >> nbcs bill neilly joins me

from perth. you heard about the chinese findings. what does that compare to australia's satellite imagery? what do you know about how they compare at this point? >> reporter: well, it is, betty, a glimmer of hope. it equates to the images that we knew from the australian that is they took last sunday that they released on thursday. that's the thing, you know, that first image was taken nearly a week ago. this image was taken a few days ago. so, it may have moved as well in trying to find that piece of debris very, very difficult indeed. the size of it, well, it's much bigger than an aircraft wing. it seems bigger than a shipping container, but who knows. the news from here, not particularly good. six planes went out from this australian air base today. three have come back and the visibility is very, very poor. it's not just low clouds, but

under that there is sea fog and really trying to see anything on the surface of the ocean in those conditions very, very difficult, indeed. let's be positive for a moment. reinforcements are arriving here, particularly from china. the chinese sending three planes, three ships and an antarctic ice breaker. they are going to be joined from two planes from japan, a naval vessel from the uk. the crews are hopeful of finding something. the question is, what? australia's prime minister saying the earlier satellite image could be a shipping container. this new satellite image giving, at the very least, a glimmer of hope. >> let's dig deeper. the australian authorities say the aircraft has sophisticated radar technology, much of the searching is being done by the naked eye. why is that? >> reporter: well, that's the

ironic thing about this whole mystery, isn't it? we have the chinese with 21 satellites looking down on it as well as the u.s. and australia. we have the most high-tech things looking for this plane. what it boils down to in the end is, let's say 19 crew men on that norwegian cargo ship on the deck with by knock lars. it's the people in those high-tech planes. remember the po sigh den plane is sophisticated. it is highly trained people with binoculars looking out the windows. if sea conditions, weather conditions are as they are today with low cloud and fog, it's very, very difficult for them to see anything. interestingly, today, australia's acting prime minister was trying to dump expectations about the search. he was saying we will continue to search until we feel more searching is futile.

if we find nothing, we'll have to think again. so, the tone, the language being used by the australians is different in tone but, again, that new chinese image, perhaps a glimmer of hope. >> absolutely. bill neily joining us from perth australia. thank you for that information. >> what do drones have to do with the missing plane? we'll get more on that. jimmy carters revelation about what president obama has not done since entering off sis. also, your grocery bill is going up. what are cost more and why. [ fe] you get sick, you can't breathe through your nose... suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. so you can breathe and sleep. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement?

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new reaction from first lady

michelle obama to flight 370. she is in the middle of a visit to china. she spoke about the missing jet with students at the stanford center. >> as my husband said, the united states is offering as many resources as possible to assist in the search and please know that we are keeping all of the families and loved ones of those on this flight in our thoughts and our prayers at this very difficult time. >> meanwhile, former president, jimmy carter is sharing a revealing detail about his relationship with president obama. in an interview airing on "meet the press." >> does the president ask you for advice? do you have that kind of relationship? does he call you? >> unfortunately, the answer is no. president obama doesn't. previous presidents have called on me to take action. president clinton did and

president bush and ronald reagan called on us to go to sensitive areas when the united states didn't have relationships with unsaverry characters, they would ask me, as a private citizen to do so. the marriage equality advocates are celebrating in michigan this morning. a federal judge in detroit overturned the decision banning same-sex marriage saying it violates. they plan to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. they have asked an appeals court to intervene. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. >> aaron, this decision in michigan is the latest in a string of rulings overturning state bans on same-sex marriage. momentum picked up at the state

level since they struck down the marriage act. how might it play into the upcoming midterm elections? >> this is obviously a big winning streak for gay marriage advocates. there's really been a string of decisions in their favor without anything going against them. it's spreading into states in the south, kentucky, texas, so this is a really fast moving thing right now. as far as the 2014 election, you know, this puts republicans in a difficult position because now we are seeing gop governors, gop attorney's general being forced to defend these laws on an issue they would rather not talk a lot about right now given the public is headed in one direction. as far as 2014 goes, it's not a huge issue. polls show people who will hinge their vote on this issue are evenly split. certainly, this is an issue for republicans going forward and the cart decisions are forcing them to talk about it in a way

they would rather not right now. gop presidential candidates might not embrace this. how is this planning out? >> it will be interesting in 2016. you are seeing a chasm in the republican party. what you think a traditional republican is. some said look, we need to broaden our base, our appeal. they are realizing gay marriage is not an issue. their calculus and personal feelings are changing on it. you have up and comers like the ted cruz's and rand pauls rick santorum. i'm going to watch it closely. >> i am so glad you mentioned rand paul. aaron, your latest post is about rand paul. he is done answering questions about his dad. >> he would like to be done

talking ability his dad, but i don't think he is. the comparison that he made during the interview i wrote about was to george w. bush. he said on the campaign trail, george w. bush wasn't asked about his father's views. i think with rand paul, it's a different scenario because his dad's views have been outside the mainstream of politics today, outside the mainstream of the republican party. you know, he may think that he can kind of stop answering questions about this, but if, in fact, he does run for president, he will be asked about this repeatedly. he needs a better response than that. >> rand paul spoke to students at uc berkeley and asked about the gops appeal. listen. >> part of it might be that the republican party is, i said they have to either evolve, adapt or die. it's a harsh thing. i was telling somebody the other day. remember, dominos admitted they had bad crust?

[ laughter ] >> think republican party, admit it. bad crust. we need a different kind of party. >> bad crust and different kind of party. who is rand paul trying to reach with those comments? >> what he's doing is very smart. he's reaching outside the traditional people you would see a republican candidate go for. in that speech, he talked race and drug laws and surveillance issues that are important. he might not be the candidate, republicans might not be the candidate you think young people especially uc berkeley. what you saw in that speech is i might not be your first choice. give me a list. i have things you might like to hear. it gives him good strength if he runs. he's flirting with that. i'm excited to see how that story progresses. >> thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. the image spotted by chinese satellite in the indian ocean

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breaking news in the search for the missing malaysian airplane. the acting transportation minister said chinese satellites spotted objects floating in the southern search of the ipd yan ocean. possibly debris from flight 370. this image released, nbc news has not been able to verify the authenticity of the image. we'll have more on this in a few minutes. now, the big money headlines, slumping sales, beefed up prices and boozing for bucks. joining me to break it down, regina lewis. >> hey, betty. >> what is the slumping sales? >> home sales is a 19-month low. it's a bummer.

there was an up tick at the price point of $750,000 and over. that's a small percentage of the market. the most are under $250,000. the median is a home of $189,000. when you look at the numbers, 35% of all the sales were cash transactions that indicates there are institutions where people who professionally buy homes. they would have to brave, in most parts of the country, wintry weather in december and closed on a home in february. a broader read on the market when we look at march, april and may sales. >> now the beefed up pryces, what are they and why are they going up? >> food inflation. when it comes to beef, there are a staggering 88 million heads of cattle in this country. that is the lowest since 1951 during the recession. smaller ranches closed and a draught. on the pork side, a virus that knocked out 6 million pigs. what's happening on the grocery

side is people are downgrading and buying chicken instead. fortunately, there's not an overall inflation fact here because gas prices have been offset by that, the decline in gas prices. this is sif nif cant. when you look at credit and debit card transactions, two-thirds go to gas and groceries. >> what is boozing for bucks all about? >> well, betty, perhaps you will contend. itis hard not to imagine this being incredibly successful. starbucks announces they are going to have an evening menu that features beer, wine, things that go with beer and wine like cheese. >> really? >> yes, in the evenings, they are pairing up with oprah on a tea line. the idea is you are not making one stop a day, but two. who knew? they have it in 40 locations and it will now roll out. not without complications. >> cheers to that. thank you so much.

>> yes. >> have a great day. more on the breaking news today in the search for malaysia flight 370. the one high-tech tool not being used to help investigators. [ female announcer ] for a brilliant smile there's a breakthrough in whitening. from crest 3d white, new brilliance toothpaste and boost. after brushing, our exclusive boost polishes your smile and whitens with 3x the stain lifting ingredient for a smile that dazzles. new crest 3d white brilliance. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more.

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the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. welcome back to weekends with alex witt, i'm betty. kuala lumpur announced he received word now, that the chinese spotted a floating object in the ocean. >> the news i just received is that the chinese ambassador received satellite image of floating objects. they will be sending ships to verify. the beijing government will announce this in a couple hours. this object is 22 meters long and 13 meters wide. >> take a look at this. this is the image from cctv, the

chinese television network. nbc news has not confirmed the authenticity of the photo. it was taken by satellite four days ago. the object is approximately 74 feet long and 43 feet wide. keir simmons was at the briefing when he was handed the note and made the announcement. he joins me now from kuala lumpur. this was unexpected and happened quickly this morning. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely unexpected. kind of sudden. now, we hear from the chinese state media, as you say, this satellite picture was taken on the 18th of march around noon. the question is, it is 100 miles from the other satellite picture. the one that's been motivating the search off the coast of australia. the question is whether or not it is the same debris that is

moved. this helped the search and rescue teams to look in the right place and, of course, for the families, it's more anxious waiting, worrying. they wake up every day hoping to hear news and not hearing anything or we get satellite images. betty? >> that's right. it's been a bit of a roller coaster for the families. how are they getting the information? i know they had to sign paperwork saying they wanted to be the first to know. that came 12 or 13 days after the plane went missing. it's incredible, if you think about it. >> reporter: that's right. very many relatives are unhappy with the way they have been treated. they have been given counselors and some efforts. you have seen some of the emotional scenes. angry relatives shouting at malaysia airline officials demanding to ask more questions, even if there aren't answers.

one story, we have been told a group of relatives were moved out of a hotel to make space for a team coming in for a sporting event, a motor racing event. clearly, it's booked long in advance. the relatives aren't being treated completely the way you might hope they would be given what they are going through, betty. >> keir simmons, thank you. let's bring in kerry sanders in the washington bureau. what do you make of this image from the chinese? >> well, it's interesting, first of all, where they have located the image in relation to these images here. these are the images here released by the australian government. we can see, as we go to the next map that the area we are se searching is right here. it's a rather large area they have been searching. the interesting thing is where they actually found these images

on chinese satellite. first of all, let me show you here. this is where the australian images were. and remember, the aircraft went to that area after searching for the images on australian satellite. they didn't find anything. now we have the new ones. just southwest here of where the australian images showed there was debris, the chinese satellite shows where there's debris. it could be possible there is a drift. it may be the same pieces of debris, it may be different debris. the one thing to remember here is all of this is not confirmed to be anything to do with flight 370. it may well turn out to be just garbage. there's a lot of garbage. container trips travel these routes and things get washed overboard. one hopeful sign is, based on the analysis of the chinese image, that item would be 79

feet by 16 feet. 72 feet by 42 feet. >> right. >> the other images, the ones taken by the australian are one was 79 feet the other 16 feet. it may match up. this is certainly an imprecise sight looking at a satellite image, trying to measure it. go back and look at it. you can see the image from the chinese satellite run by state run television is not that clear. this is from a satellite that is orbiting well above earth. one other item is the distance here, 79 miles. so, the distance between the two, again, hopeful, but certainly with the amount of aircraft that are in the area today, we have six planes from australia, two commercial, the other are military aircraft. new zealand, the u.s. aircraft is grounded for routine maintenance today. with all the aircraft airborne, it's hoped not only technology

spots something, but they have lowered their altitudes, putting eyes on the water to see if they can confirm they see something. >> that will be key. does the size of the object we are looking at via satellite images, does it tell you anything about what it could be? >> it doesn't, unfortunately. it could be a container. containers are huge. you can see them on the backs of semis on the roads in america. it could be something that washed overboard. it could be an old vessel that broke up and is floating out there. in this part of the world, there are ocean currents that float in and around the area and these ocean currents capture garbage and moves the garbage around. it may be something that started here and is wound up here just by the ocean currents. >> okay. kerry sanders joining us from washington. thank you. a long time nbc aviation

correspondent joins me now to sift through some of the more credible theories here. i want to get to the size and the dimensions one more time. we have to try to understand this. while we don't know what it is, are those dimensions within range of it being a piece of the plane? >> it's pretty big to be a chunk of a plane. the long direction, almost 100 feet. that's the distance from home plate to first base. it's a good throw. on the other hand, the wing is about that. the wingspan of a 777 is 200 feet. >> right. >> one wing, that would match up. a wing, by the way, is something that didn't have fuel in it and might not have because they were running off the center fuel tank, would float. there's a glimmer of hope for the investigation, not hope for the families. it's sad news for the families, but it could be a piece of this plane. you don't know until you get there. some time is going to go by.

in keir's report from kuala lumpur, night fall is falling there. it will be awhile before they can see with their eyes. >> if these new satellite images turn out to be wreckage from flight 370, just say it is, it's not at this point, but say it is. what changes should we expect to see so planes don't disappear off the radar map? >> that's interesting. even if we never solve this, in the case of crashes, there's lessons learned. that's when legislation and regulations happen after the sering intensity of a crash investigation. even if we don't know what happened, already, it suggests things about tracking planes better, about whether you should hook these black boxes up to a realtime up load to a satellite of the information as the plane is flying along. there are a lot of things to think about, improving the pingers, should we figure out a

way to make them last longer. already, without findings, there's a lot of suggestions of things that ought to be improved. >> there's a lot of suggestions, but are people working on this? are you hearing anything in the industry? >> first of all, the airline industry operates on thin profit margins. it's very competitive. there's not a lot of extra money floating around. everything costs money. the u.s. regulators have to think about that when they issue new regulations. for instance, to change all the black boxes and improve the pingers, think of how many hundreds of thousands of planes there are in the u.s. fleets to go into the tails and redo the boxes, that's a lot of money. the government is conscious of that. even though we have had this accident and the loss of lives is tragic, you have to think of that other side, too. it takes time. is the technology ready? sort of. we don't know for sure. >> let me ask you this. without wreckage to start your

search area, what are the chances of finding the black boxes? >> if you don't have wreckage, boy, then i think it's really bad news. if you get some wreckage on the surface, for instance if this is a wing floating around there, the wing doesn't tell you much. if you get some wreckage then you plot the currents back. even though the pingers run out, say you haven't found them yet. plot the currents and figure out where did the main body of wreckage come down. that's important. it would be heavy. it goes to the bottom. now, if you can plot it out and get a general idea where to look, you have to go down with sonar, underwater radar and try to map the bottom. side scan sonar. if you map the bottom and find things that don't look like mountains and so forth but look like wreckage, you have to send a sub down, an unmanned sub. itis been done. two years later, they found the

boxes in the air france crash. >> there was wreckage with that, so it gave a clue where to start. thanks so much for your insight. >> absolutely. >> we are appreciate it. we will keep you posted on the search in the indian ocean. why reliance on new satellite technology may be making the search more difficult. also, he was in osama bin laden cave on the night of 9/11. now, he is on trial in new york. the warning he gave bin laden, next. ouncer ] they say he was born to help people clean. but there are some places even mr. clean doesn't want to lug a whole bunch of cleaning supplies. that's why he created the magic eraser extra power. just one eraser's versatile enough to clean all kinds of different surfaces and three times more grime per swipe. so instead of fussing with rags and buckets, you can get back to the great outdoors, which can be pretty great. that's why when it comes to clean, there's only one mr. [ bird screeches ]

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joining me is phil who is covering the trial for "the atlantic" and was in the courtroom. this is a rare look, literally inside bin laden's cave in the hours and days following 9/11. what struck you the most during the testimony? >> the level of detail, inside the mind, if you will, of osama bin laden and al qaeda's most crucial moment on september 11, 2001 and the days following. he's a 48-year-old from kuwait who was recruited by osama bin laden to give training. he did that in the summer of 2001. on the night of september 11th, bin laden summoned him to the cave, three hours north of kabul in afghanistan and asked him to go forward and be a spokesman for the group. >> i want to talk about what he said. he talked about one conversation with bin laden on the night of

9/11 that jumped out. he told him, quote, america will not settle until it accomplishes two things, to kill you and topple the state of the taliban. bin laden responded, you are being too pessimistic. were they naive object what happened? >> no. he turned out to be correct. that's exactly how the united states responded. he said, actually, under cross-examination by the federal prosecutor that he wasn't so happy as he was worried on the night of september 11th and the days following. he tasked him to give the speeches. he gave him talking points and really, the trial has been about these video tapes that he made in the fall of 2001 that we all saw all over the world. they were tapes that justified the attacks where he called them reciprocity and revenge for american policy for american treatment of muslims and muslim

nations. pretty much boilerplate al qaeda dogma. he went a step further and talked about fighting words saying the banner has been raised. this is the call for jihad. what prosecutors say is this was a recruiting tool to get more fighters to come to afghanistan and al qaeda to fight and kill americans. that's the main charge he's faced with, being part of the al qaeda conspiracy to kill americans all over the world. >> given all this in the courtroom, what is your take on how the jury may be leaning? >> you know, it's rare that prosecutors put you in a room with osama bin laden and you walk out a free man. i have haven't seen it happen before. these cases can go either way. the evidence has been fairly strong. a lot of the tapes, there have been two witnesses one saw him in the camps. that's not helpful to his defense, either. >> interesting stuff here. thanks for bringing that to us.

we appreciate it. we are also following breaking news. china tv reporting a new satellite image could be debris from the missing jet liner. also, why is the latest search technology probably not the best to use in this case? that's next. about retirement. a 401(k) is the most sound way to go. let's talk asset allocation. sure. you seem knowledgeable, professional. would you trust me as your financial advisor? i would. i would indeed. well, let's be clear here. i'm actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] [laughs] no way! i have no financial experience at all. that really is you? if they're not a cfp pro, you just don't know. find a certified financial planner professional who's thoroughly vetted at letsmakeaplan.org. cfp -- work with the highest standard.

all right. let get you an update now on the break story we have been following all morning long. the malaysian acting transport minister says the chinese have spotted an object floating in the indian ocean that could be debris from flight 370. this image broadcast on the chinese television network shows an object about 74 feet long and 43 feet wide. nbc news has not independently confirmed the authenticity of this photo. meanwhile, as the latest images rely on satellite images,

my next guest says the u.s.'s reliance on imagery has put the country at a disadvantage. joining me is patrick tucker, technology author for defense one and author of "the naked future." this is fascinating stuff. you write that adar imagery is more useful for the search than high-resolution. why is that? explain the difference. >> the difference between radar satellite imagery and high resolution satellite imagery is this. with a radar satellite, you can take a picture of an area like 500 kilometers. it's different from a high-resolution satellite picture. with radar, you're sending signals from space to earth and picking them back up. sort of like a bat through eco-location understands its own location in relevance to other objects around it. high-resolution satellite

imagery gets you a detailed picture of a small area. we don't understand them the same way. >> okay. >> now a reliant -- sor prip go ahead. >> are you certain they're not using radar satellites? >> we probably are using radar satellites to some degree. but, there is no domestic radar satellite industry. we don't have the same sort of radar satellite capabilities right now as we do high-resolution capabilities. and that is sort of key. that speaks to a gap that we have allowed to sort of develop because over the last two wars, we have become increasingly reliant on this high-resolution satellite data that lets us, for instance, go to i rrks arraq, afghanistan, and take pictures of people in crowds. people on the border. get really close in there. and yet we're missing the whole

picture. this radar satellite data lets you understand the area better. you see oil, ripples, anomalies. we have data from australian satellites. from this morning, a chinese satellite. we're not sure how it all fits together. this lagging gap in radar satellite imaging is the key to help us put this together. we don't have a domestic radar satellite imagery. >> could drones be used in connection with other aircraft? >> they've proven to be ineffective in this type of activity. they're great at sticking over a target, sticking over a very small area. taking lots and lots of pictures. when you want to find something in an area like this. cape iblts that we could have had, we don't because of previous decisions.

>> all right. patrick, fascinating stuff. thank you for explaining it. we appreciate it. that, indeed, does wrap up this hour of "weekends with alex witt." stay tuned to msnbc. lean better, and that he travels the world inventing amazing new cleaners, like his newest invention, liquid muscle, that lifts and cleans tough grease with less scrubbing. it's a liquid gel, so it's less watery and cleans more. and its cap stops by itself so almost nothing's wasted. ♪ no matter where he went or who he helped, people couldn't thank him enough. new mr. clean liquid muscle. when it comes to clean, there's only one mr. plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+.

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it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ a brand-new lead in the hunt for the missing malaysian jetliner. good morning. i'm crystal ball. steve kornacki has the day off. this morning, the search for flight 370 has now officially entered its third week. we begin today with the breaking news that malaysian official say china is investigating new images of an object spotted by satellite in the