“Malaysian Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and none of those on board survived.” That was the opening line of a text message sent to the relatives of passengers who boarded the still missing plane more than two weeks ago. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak held a press conference to announce that the plane almost certainly went down “in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth.”

+ Last night, CNN’s Don Lemon and his latest cast of “experts” spent about ten minutes explaining a theory that suggests the plane could have flown for many miles in the shadow of another plane to avoid radar detection. They then spent the next twenty minutes debunking that ridiculous theory. And on and on their coverage goes. (Thankfully, Lemon did not reintroduce his question about the possibility of the plane being sucked into a black hole). This nonstop (and often absurd) coverage brings up an interesting question: Will CNN ever stop covering Flight MH370?

+ CNN keeps covering this story because the ratings are good. Why do people keep watching? Slate’s Emily Yoffe takes a crack at explaining why our brains just cannot let this mystery go.