Sunday, June 30, 2013

6/30/2013 Station Identification and Notice Board

WELCOME TO AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS

                    YOUR PORTAL TO THE MARITIME WORLD      

                                             SUNDAY JUNE 30, 2013

                     
The Return of Our Favorite "Cover Girl" the ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLT III


 Waving Flag #3
Start the Day Right With The National Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqRl_qB28w 

SUNDAY JUNE 30, 2013   

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TO VIEW A SHORT VIDEO DESCRIBING THIS SITE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFw32RRJY98
Please keep this site free of subscription charges, click on our advertisers and when you do want a book, video, or boat building tools, or water sports equipment purchase through our various Amazon portals and links.   THANK YOU!

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NOTICE: We have changed our border design to emphasize our mission as a book reviewer/finding aid/andvendor. We will utilize our favorite "Cover Girl", the ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLT III for a bit longer period than we usually maintain a particular sailing vessel since it is so well recognized among our regular visitors. We don't want our regulars to think they clicked on the wrong site. Despite our frequent use of the image we'd like to again assert that it is not a trade mark or copy right of this blog. The image is in the public domain and the ship, like her name sake truly belongs to history. Your clicking on our advertisers (top right hand corner opposite some posts and at the bottom between posts) helps keep us free of fees, membership charges, pop ups and other annoying forms of advertising. Your occasional purchase of books, videos, or water sports and fishing clothing and equipment through our Amazon portal (by clicking on the links provided with book, video, and merchandise descriptions) keeps us a lean, green knowledge machine always free to visit or use.

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                  Photo       
BACK THE BOT! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.We'll just keep reminding you until you do. TIME  IS SHORT LESS THAN 30 DAYS LEFT NOW AND ONLY 1/3 OF THE WAY TO THE TARGET.


THE CORALBOT PROJECT IS DEVELOPING THE TOOLS FOR RESTORING THE WORLD'S CORAL REEFS. THERE ARE ONLY 27 DAYS TO GO ON THIS FUNDING PROJECT AND WE ARE ONLY ONE THIRD OF THE WAY TO GOAL. CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO DONATE.      

    
 "A Coral reef fixing, free swimming, hive minded robot is a terrible idea to waste; reach deep like a catfish and donate at least $25 today. To learn how that $25 donation could improve your sex appeal click here:  http://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/2013/06/642012-back-bot-back-bot-great-namazu.html
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YOU ARE AT THE BLOG POSTS. Posts on a wide variety of maritime subjects are on a very long scroll with the most recent just below the daily station ID and Notice Board. You may scroll down through well over 1,000 postings or use the list of posts below the "Special Interest  Pages ". To jump straight to a particular date or title click on the list to your right below the "Special Interest pages"(INTRODUCTION AND SITE GUIDE, ADMIRALTY LAW, AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE BOAT BUILDING,etc.) by date or title.  Watch this space for news on coming new features that reduce scrolling to find things. The "Special Interest Pages" contain book reviews, book recommendations and suggestions, videos free or linked for purchase, explanatory notes, links to other informative sites on the subject of interest, occasionally free E-books to read on line, and in some cases on line shops for related equipment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

THE BIG LINKS LOCKER:

UNLOCKING THE MARITIME WORLD: Our mission is literally to  unlock the maritime world by making all English language maritime data easy to find,  available, evaluated when possible, and affordable. We suggest checking our subject pages to your right first, by clicking on the subject section most like your particular interest.  If that doesn't answer your question come back here and click any of the "super links" below that appear most appropriate, the broadest and most general is hyper linked just below. This is an entire web site of nothing but links to maritime websites and blogs of every description.

"The Mother of All Maritime Links": 
http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html 

If you don't find the book you need among those we have reviewed so far or linked to click into the Amazon general search engine via the link below or as provided within our special interest sections which you reach by clicking on their titles listed to your right

GENERAL MARITIME BOOK SEARCH :

We think the following links to major sites aligned with our "Special Interest Pages" can often provide answers to commonly asked questions:

ADMIRALTY or MARITIME LAW:


Note: The Cornell site when you arrive in the Admiralty section has two tabs : "Overview" and "Resources". If you are doing legal research the "Resources" tab is a fast route into most relevant statutes, and regulations, Supreme Court Cases, and even some state cases.

GENERAL MARITIME NEWS
WORLD MARITIME NEWS:

MARITIME TV: Videos and television broadcasts on all manner of maritime subjects http://www.maritimetv.com/ 

NAVAL HISTORY:
Naval History Blog, Joint Effort of the U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval history and heritage Command.
http://www.navalhistory.org/

NAVAL NEWS:

USNI NEWS:  http://news.usni.org/author/slagrone  

A NAVAL NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE: NOSI Naval Open Source Intelligence:

http://www.nosi.org/ 

OCEANOGRAPHY: The Scripts Institute

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

SHIP RESEARCH: 

SHIPINDEX.ORG Find publications that mention a particular ship recently or deep into recorded history:  http://www.shipindex.org/  limited free service very reasonable short and long term subscriptions.

Boating and Water Safety:
Mario Vittine-BE SAFEhttp://mariovittone.com/

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NOTICE BOARD:  In today's blog space (1) Ivan in Syria (2) Decorate like a Catfish, Namazu as art
6/30/2013 Naval Interests

IVAN IN SYRIA....A KINDER, MORE GENTLE IMAGE?  CAN IVAN EVER BE A FORCE FOR PEACE?


                 
                        MILITARY IVAN                                                                                 Civilian Ivan.....Yeah Right

It seems that Russia has announced that it is swapping out its military personnel on its Syrian Naval Support Base for Civilian employees.  Ivan never being one to feel an obligation to provide reasons for doing anything   isn't providing one now. Our analysts suggest that the Bear may be positioning itself to be more of a credible peace broker in Syria. The Bear claims the base is working normally despite the civil war in progress in Syria. Ivan's purpose would appear to be to position itself to keep its only naval base outside its own territory regardless of which side comes out the winner. Bears are smart like that. To read a press account of this recent development click here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/06/27/4968303/russia-subs-military-with-civilians.html 
NAMAZU'S FAVORITE GRAPHIC ARTIST


<em>Namazu-E</em>, 2008
NAMAZU 2008 by Eske Kath at Charles Bank Gallery
http://www.charlesbankgallery.com/artists/27-Eske-Kath/works/
NAMAZU GIANT CATFISH, KNOWN AS THE EARTH SHAKER, FORMER JAPANESE DEMIGOD, ALBUM COVER MODEL, AND OUR OWN COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT AND SOCIETAL COMMENTATOR. LEGEND, AND STAR OF STAGE ,SCREEN AND OUTER SPACE. 

DECORATE LIKE A CATFISH!


The catfish has a growing new modern image check out the Namazu inspired art work by Artist  Eske Kath


<em>Blackboard Namazu II</em>, 2012
Black Board Namazu by Eske Kath available from Charles Bank Gallery
http://www.charlesbankgallery.com/artists/27-Eske-Kath/works/
<em>Blackboard Namazu</em>, 2012

NAMAZU 2012 by Eske Kath from Charles Bank Gallery
http://www.charlesbankgallery.com/artists/27-Eske-Kath/works/
<em>Namazu-Eclipse</em>, 2009
NAMAZU ECLIPSE 2009 by Eske Kath
From Charles Bank Gallery http://www.charlesbankgallery.com/artists/27-Eske-Kath/works/                        <em>Namazu-E</em>, 2009  
NAMAZU E 2009 by Eske Kath  From Charles Bank Gallery http://www.charlesbankgallery.com/artists/27-Eske-Kath/works/

You will find these and other works by Eske Kath including additional Namazu images at  Charles Bank Gallery  196 Bowery (at Spring street) New York, NY 10012.  Telephone 212 219-4095. We have no idea if prints are available. We could find only one price of an original image of about $4000. Our site is not associated with the gallery and we do not receive commissions. We just know what we like and wanted to share it with our fellow Namazu fans. We have seen other Internet information that seems to price Eske Kath originals between $2000 and $5,000. Perhaps as Namazu's new persona continues to gain fans the artist might make some prints available for fans who can't afford originals costing in the thousands.



                                      



And for those looking for a classy but less pricy image of the Namazu :

Art Poster, Namazu and the kaname-ishi rock - 12x18   

Saturday, June 29, 2013

6/29/2013 Merchant Marine Interest
EDITORIAL NOTE: 11/9/2019. Mr. Edwards and others are now gone from the OIG's office but a legacy of inefficiency and a lack of real technical expertise remains. The question is as valid today as it was in 2013 the DHS OIG's office; watch dog or lap dog?  Are they part of "The Swamp"? 

WHO IS WATCHING THE WATCH DOG?

  Boxer Dog      WATCH DOG      Dog        Or LAP DOG?

         

The Media Finally Publishes The Tip Of The Ice Burg Of Corruption The National Mariner's Association Has Long Suspected Existed In The Department Of Homeland Security's Office Of The Inspector General.

 The National Mariner's Association (NMA) has often been featured in these pages for the altruistic work that it does for America's merchant seamen, especially those employed in the Jones Act trades on vessels under 1600 gross tons admeasurement where unions are virtually never present. Several years ago NMA Secretary Capt. Richard Block publicly advocated giving up on all attempts to reform certain Coast Guard programs and policies that damaged the Jones Act trades and Jones Act seamen especially in the "workboat trades" such as towing and off shore oil industry support services through appeal to the Coast Guard or the DHS including the DHS Inspector General's Office. Instead the NMA decided to start appealing directly to Congress.

  We carried in these pages the news of how their second appeal to Congress for such safety regulatory reforms as enforcement of existing working and hour regulations, and the long over due formal limitation to 12 hour work days for all crew members. As previously reported a distracted and squabbling Congress did nothing. We reported on such issues as apparent corruption in the Coast Guard's Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) system, the mess at the National Mariners Center, the removal of the professional mariner examination question base from public scrutiny, the run away and ill conceived medical NAVIC that has virtually outlawed middle age from the Merchant Marine. The NMA at one time or another pushed to the Inspector General's Office of Homeland Security the idea of investigating or auditing these programs within the Coast Guard. What came out of the Inspector General's Office was mostly no action, or reports that the NMA considered a "white wash".

  The NMA requested for at least six years that the Inspector General audit the Coast Guard's accident reports as the NMA had convincing evidence that marine accident reports are under reported to the Coast Guard. Eventually an audit was commissioned on this subject but nothing of consequence came out. The audit drew no attention despite the overwhelming evidence available, including a comparison of litigated on record maritime personal injury cases that met the criteria of the Code of Federal Regulations as "reportable accidents" that indicated only about 3 in 100 reportable accidents are in fact reported by the work boat industry. NMA complaints of Coast Guard corruption, mismanagement, and just plain ineptitude have gone unanswered for decades resulting in the publication of countless well prepared documented NMA reports numbered and organized that can be accessed by law enforcement, government watch dogs and the media.

 Recently CNN's THE LEAD with Jack Tapper  actually published a story detailing an investigation into the personal conduct of the present Inspector General of the DHS Charles Edwards by Congressional committeemen. Certainly if the personal misdeeds that the Congress has expressed concern over are true , and so far this is just a Congressional inquiry, there would be a need for concern about the integrity of the institution of the Office of Inspector General as well as that of the present office holder.  Unfortunately CNN or Mr. Tapper seems blissfully unaware that this Congressional inquiry is not the only investigation into misbehavior recently focusing light into the Inspector General's Office, or of the many causes that warrant investigation that no one except the NMA has paid any attention to. We urge Mr. Trapper to contact the NMA at www.nationalmariners.us or by phone at 985-851-2134 and to tap into the NMA's well prepared body of reports to begin to see the whole spectrum of problems with the DHS OIG's office, the only supposedly full time watch dog over the Customs and Border Patrol, and the U.S. Coast Guard, two organizations that interact and affect the operations of America's Merchant Marine. It is long past due that these issues reach national media attention instead of being investigated, documented, reported, numbered, and filed away in NMA's collection available for potential use by government "watch dog" (if awake or not self serving) or the media ( if they could somehow bring themselves to take an interest in events on "the wet side of the levee"). If Mr. Tapper would contact the NMA he'd learn as Paul Harvey used to say ..."The rest of the story" of a watchdog turned lap dog. To read what he has found so far click on the link below"



6/29/2013 Fishing
Editors Note 12/9 /2019 "Beastie" is on temporary lay off after our state of incorporation elected  a democrat governor, who immediately announced his intention to tax thee internet. Our advertisers and commission-able links providers bailed and for quite some time we have had no revenues. We're  starting to monetize the blog again and hope to bring Beastie back.

BEASTIE's EPIC FISH FIGHT OF THE WEEK

"Beastie" Epic Fish Fight Editor

Hey Bipeds watch this!


We are happy to report that no fish were injured in filming this sequence.

Man vs Large Rooster Fishhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wzih36Jrn4
This one will make your arms tired just watching the 7 minute landing.


                                      


Friday, June 28, 2013

6/28/2013 Station Identification and Notice Board

WELCOME TO AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS

                    YOUR PORTAL TO THE MARITIME WORLD      

                                             FRIDAY JUNE 28, 2013

                     
The Return of Our Favorite "Cover Girl" the ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLT III


 Waving Flag #3
Start the Day Right With The National Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqRl_qB28w 

FRIDAY JUNE 28, 2013   

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                  Photo       
BACK THE BOT! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. TIME  IS SHORT LESS THAN 30 DAYS LEFT NOW AND ONLY 1/3 OF THE WAY TO THE TARGET.

We'll just keep reminding you until you do.

          


 These little rascals can repair coral reefs but need your support
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


TO VIEW A SHORT VIDEO DESCRIBING THIS SITE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFw32RRJY98
Please keep this site free of subscription charges, click on our advertisers and when you do want a book, video, or boat building tools, or water sports equipment purchase through our various Amazon portals and links.   THANK YOU!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU ARE AT THE BLOG POSTS. Posts on a wide variety of maritime subjects are on a very long scroll with the most recent just below the daily station ID and Notice Board. You may scroll down through well over 1,000 postings or use the list of posts below the "Special Interest  Pages ". To jump straight to a particular date or title click on the list to your right below the "Special Interest pages"(INTRODUCTION AND SITE GUIDE, ADMIRALTY LAW, AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE BOAT BUILDING,etc.) by date or title.  Watch this space for news on coming new features that reduce scrolling to find things. The "Special Interest Pages" contain book reviews, book recommendations and suggestions, videos free or linked for purchase, explanatory notes, links to other informative sites on the subject of interest, occasionally free E-books to read on line, and in some cases on line shops for related equipment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------THE BIG LINKS LOCKER:

UNLOCKING THE MARITIME WORLD: Our mission is literally to  unlock the maritime world by making all English language maritime data easy to find,  available, evaluated when possible, and affordable. We suggest checking our subject pages to your right first, by clicking on the subject section most like your particular interest.  If that doesn't answer your question come back here and click any of the "super links" below that appear most appropriate, the broadest and most general is hyper linked just below. This is an entire web site of nothing but links to maritime websites and blogs of every description.

"The Mother of All Maritime Links": 
http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html 

If you don't find the book you need among those we have reviewed so far or linked to click into the Amazon general search engine via the link below or as provided within our special interest sections which you reach by clicking on their titles listed to your right

GENERAL MARITIME BOOK SEARCH :

We think the following links to major sites aligned with our "Special Interest Pages" can often provide answers to commonly asked questions:

ADMIRALTY or MARITIME LAW:


Note: The Cornell site when you arrive in the Admiralty section has two tabs : "Overview" and "Resources". If you are doing legal research the "Resources" tab is a fast route into most relevant statutes, and regulations, Supreme Court Cases, and even some state cases.

GENERAL MARITIME NEWS
WORLD MARITIME NEWS:

MARITIME TV: Videos and television broadcasts on all manner of maritime subjects http://www.maritimetv.com/ 

NAVAL HISTORY:
Naval History Blog, Joint Effort of the U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval history and heritage Command.
http://www.navalhistory.org/

NAVAL NEWS:

USNI NEWS:  http://news.usni.org/author/slagrone  

A NAVAL NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE: NOSI Naval Open Source Intelligence:

http://www.nosi.org/ 

OCEANOGRAPHY: The Scripts Institute

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

SHIP RESEARCH: 

SHIPINDEX.ORG Find publications that mention a particular ship recently or deep into recorded history:  http://www.shipindex.org/  limited free service very reasonable short and long term subscriptions.

Boating and Water Safety:
Mario Vittine-BE SAFEhttp://mariovittone.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTICE BOARD:  In today's blog space (1) New free on line books in thge Authoritative literature section. (2) Can anyone defend China's position on the Spratlys?
6/28/2013 Naval Interests
up date: 11/11/2017

 A CHALLENGE AS AN AFTER THOUGHT


 We ran the chart below with one of our many reports of Chinese misbehavior among the islands that

File:9 dotted line.png

belong to her neighbors. In the case of the Philippines the "dispute" is over the Spratly Islands. On the chart the Spratlys are enclosed by a box drawn with straight lines. Inside the box are overlapping magenta lines showing the over lapping claims of the Philippines and Malaysia. Some of the islands are located so close to the Philippine main island of Palawan as to be reachable by outrigger canoe from the beach. The most distant are still about 60 miles inside the Philippines internationally recognized Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). You will note that in the southeast corner there are overlapping claims between Malaysia and the Philippines. This dispute is legitimate, a recognized instance under the United Nations's International Law of the Sea Conference (UNCLOS) where EEZ boundaries have to be negotiated or arbitrated. Without China clouding the issue the Philippines and Malaysia  probably could have opened up a boundary survey and settlement board, agreed to joint oil exploration licensing until the boundary was settled and already opened up the area to oil exploration. They could have been exporting oil to oil hungry China even as we write this. Unfortunately those widely spaced green lines enclose China's claim of her territorial sea. At this point you have to scroll up to see China which is about 930 miles away from the Spratlys closest to the Philippines. Now given that the UNCLOS limits territorial sea claims to 12 miles seaward of a base line established along the adjacent coastal state's mainland how does China legally justify a territorial sea of about 930 miles seaward from their baseline and running within not only the EEZs, but here and there even the territorial seas of neighbors? Given a general limit of 200 miles from base line under UNCLOS for how does China justify legally claiming the  entire EEZ of some neighboring states? There is a comment section below this post. Anyone who thinks they can make a decent case under international law for Chinese control of the Spratlys is free to use the comments section below this post to do so. Just keep in mind two points; you are making your case on the same page with a map that shows the geographic location of the Spratlys and a brief explanation of the current rule of international law. Second our legal scholars reserve the right to respond to any such argument. Your jury may number about 40,000. We'll take a poll afterwards and report the results of this informal world "moot court."

 We believe that China's only real argument is that might makes right and they have the most naval might in the region. So does the United States in its region but the United States has never claimed the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean as an "American Lake". We've been running this challenge since 2013 and no one has used the "comments section" to argue that the Chinese claim has any legitimate standing under international law, not even a Chinese respondent. 



                                      


          
6/28/2013 Admiralty Law

THE PENNSYLVANIA-REYES DOCTRINE

Scale Of Justice Image  Killing and Maiming American Seamen is Not Only Rude and Impolite But Usually Illegal. 

 The Pennsylvania -Reyes "Doctrine" Helps Lawyers Prove this Concept and The American Admiralty Bureau's Guides and Commentators Help Lawyers Find and Apply The Pennsylvania-Reyes "Hook".


 The "Rule of the Pennsylvania" is a doctrine in Admiralty law that grew out of a collision case The Pennsylvania, 86 U.S. 125 (1873). In collisions, this case established a rule that violation of a safety statute shifted the burden of proof to the violator. Moreover, the burden was to not only prove that the violation did not cause the accident but could not have contributed to the accident. Every Admiralty lawyer worth his salt knows the "Rule of the Pennsylvania. Less well known, and somewhat less universally applied is the "Pennsylvania -Reyes Doctrine" which extends the "Rule of the Pennsylvania" to all manner of personal injuries aboard vessels. Reyes v. Vantage SS Co., 609 F.2d 140 , 5th Cir. (1980) was the clearest statement to date of this concept, though something similar had previously been articulated by various federal district courts prior. Interested readers can read more about the Pennsylvania -Reyes "Doctrine" right here in the American Admiralty Books Blog at

http://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/p/authoritative-literature.html.

Click on the link provided above and scroll down to the full reprint of the updated Volume 1 of the AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BUREAU'S COMMENTATOR VOLUME 1 or click on "Authoritative Literature in the Special Interest Pages listings to your right.

 There are few areas of human endeavor more closely regulated than maritime activity. Often over looked in personal injury cases are not only the regulations but also the codes and standards incorporated by reference in the regulations and thus having regulatory force. For over twenty years the American Admiralty Bureau, Ltd. advised lawyers on regulations, codes, standards, and authoritative literature in maritime personal injury, collision, allision, unintentional grounding, cargo loss, and navigation rights cases. The Bureau's collective observations and resulting policies and advice were published in a collection of volumes known as the Bureau's "Guides" and "Commentators". The "Commentators" were especially useful to advocates in combating "junk science" by unscrupulous "expert" witnesses. The "Guides" and "Commentators" were published between 1993 and 2005. The Bureau closed as an operating organization in 2007. American Admiralty Books with the assistance of the AAB "Guides" and "Commentators" distributor Marine Education Textbooks and the original editor is in the process of updating these useful references. Volumes 1 and 2 are now available to read on line free of charge in their finished updated versions in our Authoritative Literature Special page. The updated versions are not yet available in print.

The entire collection of American Admiralty Bureau "Guides" and "Commentators" may be purchased as spiral bound soft cover print on demand books from the original distributor Marine Education Textbooks (MET) Ph. (985) 879-3911 http://www.marineeducationtextbooks.com/ at a fraction of the price from University presses and others who have reprinted the volumes thought to have entered the public domain (and some that haven't). MET will be the sole distributor of all updated versions when they are made available in print. Meanwhile we'd appreciate any comments from readers on our E-version of the update. We may incorporate changes based on such feed back in the final print versions.

Fight junk science and dishonest experts with regulations, codes, standards and authoritative literature, let the 20 years of experience of the American Admiralty Bureau show you how.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

6/ 27/2013 Station Identification and Notice Board

WELCOME TO AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS

                    YOUR PORTAL TO THE MARITIME WORLD      

                                             THURSDAY JUNE 27, 2013

                     
The Return of Our Favorite "Cover Girl" the ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLT III


 Waving Flag #3
Start the Day Right With The National Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqRl_qB28w 

THURSDAY JUNE 27, 2013   

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                  Photo       
BACK THE BOT! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. TIME  IS SHORT LESS THAN 30 DAYS LEFT NOW AND ONLY 1/3 OF THE WAY TO THE TARGET.

We'll just keep reminding you until you do.

Don't You Want To Save Coral Reefs? Well What have you done for your CoralBot today? What's a CoralBot? Click below and find out. 

http://www.isciencemag.co.uk/blog/coralbots-swarming-to-save-reefs/

Tired Reading? Click Here and Listen to Imperial College Radio http://www.icradio.com/replay/live/228594

Click here to donate. A Bot is a terrible thing to waste:

 http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/coralbots-restoring-and-conserving-coral-reefs-with-robots          



 These little rascals can repair coral reefs but need your support
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


TO VIEW A SHORT VIDEO DESCRIBING THIS SITE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFw32RRJY98
Please keep this site free of subscription charges, click on our advertisers and when you do want a book, video, or boat building tools, or water sports equipment purchase through our various Amazon portals and links.   THANK YOU!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU ARE AT THE BLOG POSTS. Posts on a wide variety of maritime subjects are on a very long scroll with the most recent just below the daily station ID and Notice Board. You may scroll down through well over 1,000 postings or use the list of posts below the "Special Interest  Pages ". To jump straight to a particular date or title click on the list to your right below the "Special Interest pages"(INTRODUCTION AND SITE GUIDE, ADMIRALTY LAW, AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE BOAT BUILDING,etc.) by date or title.  Watch this space for news on coming new features that reduce scrolling to find things. The "Special Interest Pages" contain book reviews, book recommendations and suggestions, videos free or linked for purchase, explanatory notes, links to other informative sites on the subject of interest, occasionally free E-books to read on line, and in some cases on line shops for related equipment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------THE BIG LINKS LOCKER:

UNLOCKING THE MARITIME WORLD: Our mission is literally to  unlock the maritime world by making all English language maritime data easy to find,  available, evaluated when possible, and affordable. We suggest checking our subject pages to your right first, by clicking on the subject section most like your particular interest.  If that doesn't answer your question come back here and click any of the "super links" below that appear most appropriate, the broadest and most general is hyper linked just below. This is an entire web site of nothing but links to maritime websites and blogs of every description.

"The Mother of All Maritime Links": 
http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html 

If you don't find the book you need among those we have reviewed so far or linked to click into the Amazon general search engine via the link below or as provided within our special interest sections which you reach by clicking on their titles listed to your right

GENERAL MARITIME BOOK SEARCH :

We think the following links to major sites aligned with our "Special Interest Pages" can often provide answers to commonly asked questions:

ADMIRALTY or MARITIME LAW:


Note: The Cornell site when you arrive in the Admiralty section has two tabs : "Overview" and "Resources". If you are doing legal research the "Resources" tab is a fast route into most relevant statutes, and regulations, Supreme Court Cases, and even some state cases.

GENERAL MARITIME NEWS
WORLD MARITIME NEWS:

MARITIME TV: Videos and television broadcasts on all manner of maritime subjects http://www.maritimetv.com/ 

NAVAL HISTORY:
Naval History Blog, Joint Effort of the U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval history and heritage Command.
http://www.navalhistory.org/

NAVAL NEWS:

USNI NEWS:  http://news.usni.org/author/slagrone  

A NAVAL NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE: NOSI Naval Open Source Intelligence:

http://www.nosi.org/ 

OCEANOGRAPHY: The Scripts Institute

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

SHIP RESEARCH: 

SHIPINDEX.ORG Find publications that mention a particular ship recently or deep into recorded history:  http://www.shipindex.org/  limited free service very reasonable short and long term subscriptions.

Boating and Water Safety:
Mario Vittine-BE SAFEhttp://mariovittone.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTICE BOARD:  In today's blog space (1) Namazu Lauds Kevin Costner and Gives A Big Rasberry to the USCG

NAMAZU APPLAUDS KEVIN COSTNER AND GIVES A BIG RASPBERRY TO THE COAST GUARD

Updated 2/5/2015
Editor's note : We published the story that Namazu is commenting on in the winter of 2011-12 right after the trial that is described . Then Namazu found it last November and wanted to reprint it with his own commentary. He feels very strongly that the marine safety equipment should reflect "best available technology". We feel very strongly that one does not argue with a 3,000 year old giant catfish demigod whose nick name is "The Earth Shaker", so we reprinted it. Another winter is behind us and still there is no change in Coast Guard safety and survival equipment approval processes. Namazu has been monitoring the story and is most disappointed in the lack of progress. So he has asked for space to comment again. So what do you say to a giant catfish former demigod the size of Japan?  "Sure big guy take all the space you need." He did. Below are his thoughts.


NAMAZU THE EARTH SHAKER, Former Japanese Religious Icon and Now Coastal Environmental Analyst and Commentator

GREETINGS ONCE AGAIN BIPEDS:

 I came across this previously published post while doing some research on another subject. When you live at the bottom of the sea as I do, you like to know that those two legged creatures moving about on the surface in their flimsy little ships will stay up there and not come drifting down to your home for an uninvited visit. Its especially unnerving when you get multiple dead bipeds as in the loss of entire crews. I mean think about it, how would you like your home littered with the corpses from a nearby bus crash?  Trust me it isn't pleasant. I've been following the developments described below for over a year now. I'm sorry to report that the Coast Guard has made no progress toward a reasonable process of approval of best available technology safety and survival equipment.


  A close second for a gross out experience at sea is a major oil spill, and it's always the bipeds who are responsible.  Now we 3,000 year old giant catfish demigods are usually a pretty conservative lot. It's a function of longevity. We like to stick with the tried and true. But when it comes to saving the marine environment and saving human lives sometimes you got to go with "best available technology". We, and by we, I mean all of us ocean dwellers and users, finny and biped alike have to use not just tried and true technologies, but the best available technologies. If you spill it you have to clean it up, you have to clean it up fast, and you have to do no additional harm in the process.

  As the story below indicates the trial of issues between the developer of the best available oil spill recovery equipment and some of his investors is over, and Hollywood Icon Kevin Costner scored one for best available technology. But we are sorry to report that the Coast Guard approval process drags on. There is no assurance that the technology will bear the Good Coast Guarding Seal of Approval by the next time it is needed. I asked that the story be republished now because I am going to follow up on this issue and I don't want any readers left behind. 

 I also identify with the protagonist in this story who is a Hollywood Icon trying to make a major contribution outside of his own professional field. As a former Japanese religious icon trying to make it in journalism I know how frustrating it can be.  So please read on......


Merchant Marine and Marine Environmental Safety:

The Coast Guard Safety Equipment Approval Process; Why Can't the Coast Guard Deal With "Best Available Technology"

 The Kevin Costner and Stephen Baldwin Law Suit is back from a New Orleans Jury. The Lessons for the Maritime Industry are Deeper than the Headlines

 Famed Hollywood actor Kevin Costner invested millions of dollars earned in the film industry in a little known corner of the maritime industry. He helped develop oil spill clean up technology  which offered the opportunity to actually recover and reuse oil lost at sea. The technology, we can assure you, works and it works better than the usual equipment deployed in the wake of major oil spills.

  For investors looking for something truly "green" to invest in, the Costner and friends company "Ocean Therapy Solutions" looked like a winner. Other possibly green minded Hollywood personalities also invested , among them actor Stephen Baldwin and his business associate Spyridon Contogouvis. 

 At one point Costner possibly lost as much as $20 million on his earliest attempts to develop and market the product. His major problem as we see it, was that he had a non Coast Guard approved product in what was basically a compliance market. While he had the best available technology the Coast Guard routinely operates its equipment approval processes on the basis of compliance with recognized codes and standards. 

 The Coast Guard seems to struggle and consume an inordinate amount of time and make incredible demands on those approaching it with major improvements in technologies seeking the all important "Coast Guard approved label. Oil spill clean up devices are just one example we are familiar with. The Navy and the Coast Guard itself buy "throw-able devices" for the rescue of crew and passengers lost overboard that are not Cost Guard approved simply because they know these products are superior, best available technology. Meanwhile commercial vessel owners continue to invest in the old style "ring buoys" because they are Coast Guard approved and they are obligated to have the prescribed number of these devices aboard. Such owners are loath to then go out and buy the "best available technology" just to have it. Safety equipment doesn't generate direct revenue for anyone but the sellers of safety equipment. So an antiquated approval process unable to deal efficiently with approval applications based on "best available technology" works to keep major improvements off the basically compliance based market.

 In the case of "Ocean Therapy Solutions" the 2010 British Petroleum Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico first pushed up the urgency of getting Coast Guard approval, then the desperation of British Petroleum led to a major purchase of the "best available technology" regardless of the status of the Coast Guard approval.

 Caught up in the uncertainty were Costner, Baldwin and Spyridon.
Costner apparently was willing to risk all. Baldwin and Spyridon sold out just before British Petroleum did the unthinkable and made a firm commitment to buy regardless of Coast Guard approvals. Baldwin and Spyridon sold their stock in Ocean Therapy Solutions for approximately $1.5 million. In doing so they missed out on a potential windfall that they estimated to be in excess of $17 million. Baldwin and Spyridon sued Costner.

 We can now report that the New Orleans jury found for Costner who maintained throughout the trial that he did not withhold any information from stockholders and that Baldwin and Spyridon were aware of the "tentative" commitment of British Petroleum to buy the technology. The sale of their stock, according to New Orleans press accounts, took place before the final actual signing of a contract for sale.

 Our purpose isn't to applaud or second guess the jury. We simply wish to point out that the root source of the struggle of Ocean Therapy Solutions began with an antiquated, inefficient and unresponsive Coast Guard safety equipment approval process and that this process keeps important lifesaving technological improvements off the market. In the Ocean Therapy Solutions case we don't know how many other stockholders like Baldwin and Spyridon became disillusioned and began to despair that their investment would ever make a profit. But we are dead certain that a maritime industry outsider or group of outsiders would be surprised by the inability and reluctance of the Coast Guard to approve best available technology. If the oil recovery equipment in question had obtained approval in a reasonable time the company would have followed a more normal growth pattern. It may have prospered or it might have even been knocked right out of the market by even better innovations. But the nearly impossible approval process bred investor frustration and deterred any better technology that might be out there. 

 Ours is a very complex and enclosed area of economic endeavor with lots of quirks, not always visible to even the most astute business man from outside this industry. Consider the barge surplus that began to manifest itself in the inland towing industry in the 1980s. The surplus was driven in large measure by medical doctors and other non maritime investors looking for a better return on their investments than what the stock market was producing at the relevant time. These outsiders invested heavily in new barges and at first prospered. Unfortunately, none of their investment counselors and brokers knew when to tell them to stop. Seemingly without warning, the barge market became flooded and cargo rates went down and resale value of even new barges plummeted for a while. Everybody lost. experienced barge lines lost revenues for a while, though their fleets were upgraded, some lost so much that there was some consolidation among the operators. As a result, a smaller number of barge companies operate today than before the doctors started to invest. Most of the doctors and other outside investors lost the lion's share of value in their investments.

 Costner, Baldwin  and Spyridon take away from the lawsuit an appreciation of how bitter things can become when investors who originally come aboard an enterprise for the long haul lose confidence. Those of us who are professionals in the maritime sector should take a few lessons away as well. First the primary regulator of our business, the U.S. Coast Guard needs attention across a broad spectrum of issues related to the regulation of our activities not just the equipment approval process. Second it is highly unlikely that the needed reform will come from either our hopelessly gridlocked Congress or some other logical outside source like the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Inspector General's Office. According to the National Mariner's association in the last four years the DHS Inspector General's Office of Audits has systematically eliminated or reassigned every real maritime expert they ever had and now appears incapable of performing any type of compliance or performance audit of Coast Guard activities. Of course, if one asks the DHS Inspector General about it you will be told that that they have "experts".  But check with the National Mariner's Association which tracks the operations of the office and you will learn that only one licensed merchant marine officer with a technical degree in maritime operations is still employed and he was removed from his lead position in the Coast Guard audit and reassigned non maritime duties. The "experts" the Inspector General speaks of are simply accounting trained general auditors that the Assistant Inspector General in Charge of Audits self designates "experts". They have no third party certification as such, and no occupational licenses related to marine operations, you would be hard pressed to even find a Navy or Coast Guard veteran in the group. Certainly no one in the maritime industry would recognize any of the DHS Inspector General's Coast Guard audit team members as a "maritime expert".The regulatory environment in our industry is a mess, but not the only mess affecting the investment outlook.

 At the time of the barge oversupply fiasco the WORKBOAT Magazine "Workboat Index" of related common stocks either wasn't being published or wasn't as well known as today. This first of its kind stock index is so far one of far too few investor's tools for learning about maritime sector investment opportunities. We never seemed to have evolved real investment counselors who know our industries. We "salty dogs" are not the only sources of innovation or investment in our industries. Sometimes great innovations come from unexpected , even inexperienced sources. We are by nature conservative, for ours is a dangerous calling and caution is a virtue. Innovations must be tested. But we must find a way to more efficiently test for best available technologies and better ways to guide new investors through the minefields of the group of businesses that admiralty law refers to as "marine adventure". The as yet unfinished experience of Ocean Therapy Solutions is far too common, and far too discouraging to the new comers to our "adventure". 

 As far as we know at the moment the oil recovery units still have not received final Coast Guard approval. If that is correct than the compliance market is still closed to this improved and proven technology and it will take another massive  environmental disaster to generate any more significant sales. Those of us who have been gainfully employed and invested in the maritime sector need to start examining our industry and demanding better service by the government regulators. We also need to encourage anything that generates more confidence in outside investment. We can not afford many more sad tales like the saga of Ocean Therapy Solutions. Hollywood wasn't a direction from which we were expecting investment cash and technological innovation but we sure prefer these American's to China as a source of capital and ideas. Who knows where the next great maritime idea will come from? What can we do as an industrial community to make the risks more transparent, make the predictions of reward more accurate, and the regulatory way more smooth? What is the price of continued inaction?   



Wednesday, June 26, 2013

6/26/2012 Station Identification and Notice Board

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