The horses and zebras comment about four legs is right on.
My point about the parachute drift is not complicated. That is to say, if it was calculated that Cooper would drift 4NM to the NE if he deployed immediately, the placard should drift much further. Why? Because the descent rate of Cooper, at over 200 lbs., is going to be greater than the descent rate of the 1/3 oz. placard.
Also, yes, I assume the weather conditions where the placard separated were quite similar to the weather conditions where Cooper jumped. After all, they're quite close to each other. That is, of course, unless along with "super rubber bands" that can last for years in the elements, "super packets of twenties" that move together and bury themselves together, we now also have "super weather zones" where everything is reverse of everywhere else. I think I'll call this the Twilight Zone Theory.
In addition, whether the placard had a tear or not is inconsequential. Kind of like it doesn't matter whether the placard was printed with red ink versus black ink. The fundamentals are the weight, area, altitude, and atmospheric conditions.
Finally, to answer FLY's question on TMN: Yes, the placard drifted to close to where the FBI's Flight Path is pegged. It's not coincidence, it's fact. It is what it is. In fact, it would have been much more coincidental--and harder to believe--if this 1/3 of an ounce piece of plastic fell straight to the ground from nearly 2 miles up with virtually no drift at all in a 31 knot wind. Remember, according to all of the data available, including the stuff Tom Kaye provided a couple of weeks back, the winds were in the 31 knot range from about 215 degrees. Simply inventing your own weather in that one spot is not going to change the truth of the matter. Such arguments are intellectually bankrupt.
