Thursday, January 10, 2013

1/10/2013 Station Identification and Notice Board (2)


WELCOME TO AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS!




Barque:  ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLT II, Named for the Oceanographer
Photo by Hans Georg Schroder

THURSDAY  JANUARY 10, 2013

NEW TO OUR SITE? WONDER WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT? CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR AN ENTERTAINING VIDEO EXPLANATION http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFw32RRJY98:
If you want more detail after the video click on the INTRODUCTION page in the right hand margin.
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THE NATIONAL ANTHEM IS PERFORMED  BY"MADISON RISING":
Click on the link below the flag to get your day off to the right start!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8C7i9kdEf8

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FROM THE NEWS AND IN THE BLOG SPACE:


Navy to stretch deployments; aircraft carrier fleet down to 9


HOW FAR WILL THE DRAGON SWIM? WHY HE IS RIGHT 

IN OUR BACK YARD NOW!


Soiled Chinese and American Flags, Google Public Domain Images

Three Chinese companies are proposing building a 

deepwater port in Morgan City, Louisiana near the 

mouth of the Atchafalaya River. The project would be 

fashioned after a similar man-made island in Hangzhou 

Bay, near Shanghai. For the complete story click on the 

link below for the TRI PARISH NEWS: 

http://www.tri-parishtimes.com/business/article_8166b2fa-59d2-11e2-9fa3-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=story


The Japanese government is aiming to boost its military spending by $2 billion in response to its diplomatic row with China over the disputed Senkaku islands.http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/japan-to-increase-military-spending-by-2-billion-in-response-to-china-334157.html

The Chinese government has appropriated $1.6 billion to fortify islands in the South China Sea currently claimed by other nations, notably the Philippines. The fortification plan includes construction of airports, piers and other facilities that could have both civilian and military uses.
The funds were specifically appropriated for the newly established Sansha City under the maritime province of Hainan.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/9/inside-china-china-fortifies-islands/




The Rescue of the Crew of the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Kulluk In Alaska Last Week. 

We finally explain our silence and link you to good journalistic coverage and pictures


NYC Ferry Accident: At Least 50 People Injured After F/V Sea Streak Crashes Into  Pier http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/nyc-ferry-accident-injures-seastreak-wall-street-pier-11_n_2439607.html  In the blog space today we explain "allisions" and why we counsel not to rush to judgement

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IN THE BLOG SPACE YESTERDAY

"FACE THE MONSTER",
     The Dragon is on Your Beach, The State of Naval Affairs in The China Sea This Week

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EARLY WEEK  NEWS :

Chinese vessel intrusion angers Japan

Ambassador summoned after entry of four Chinese maritime surveillance ships into waters near East China Sea islands.
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NOTE: This incident involved the penetration of Japan's territorial sea near the disputed islands by four Coast Guard like Chinese vessels, a virtual "Recon in Force" and is the first instance where the Chinese ambassador has been summoned. This was a deliberately provocative incident and a msjor escalation in Chinese aggression and Japanese response . This situation warrants major U.S. media attention and strong State Department Response......Don't hold your breath waiting for either.


 Tanker Hits The Bay Bridge: Ship Strikes San Francisco Span

 Bridge remains open and no oil pollution reported. Full story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/07/oil-tanker-bay-bridge_n_2426987.html


Northern China Is Gripped By An Extreme Cold Spell, 1,000 Inland and Coastal Ships Are Trapped In Ice

-China's most brutal cold spell in 28 years
-More than 1,000 ships are trapped in ice in Shandong province
- Nation Wide travel by all modes has been affected 


Temperatures in China have plunged to a point cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, Chinese transportation officials said over the weekend.

Since late November the country has averaged  1.3 degrees colder than the previous average, and now has reached the coldest temperatures in 28 years according to the state news agency news agency Xinhua .citing the China Meteorological Administration.

The record cold has even frozen the salt waters of  Laizhou Bay on the coast of Shandong province in the east, stranding nearly 1,000 ships according to the China Daily newspaper reported.


 The northernmost arm of the sea relative to China is the Yellow Sea which runs between China,North and South  Korea and Southern Japan. The southern entrance of the Yellow Sea is off of Shanghai which is located at about  31 degrees north or about the same latitude as the Northern boundary of Florida while the best known place to typical Western readers for a northern landmark is near, but not on, the Yellow Sea , the capital Beijing. The capital city is located at about the same latitude as Philadelphia. So as you can well imagine, despite China's well known naval/coast guard expansion that we have been following in our series HOW FAR WILL THE DRAGON SWIM they don't have the stock of icebreakers or ice breaking tugs needed to free up the trapped commerce. 





 Back in the 1970s the United States south of Philadelphia experienced something similar, indeed most of usually balmy Chesapeake bay froze over. The U.S. Coast Guard was able to break out some of the Chesapeake bay commerce with their ice breaking tugs, the open ocean did not freeze over. Back in the 1970s there was a lot of talk about "climate change" and it was thought after a series of record cold winters that we were headed to a new ice age. But then the climate began to warm for about 16 years and we were told that we were experiencing "global warming" . Actually the climate has now been cooling very slowly for the last 8 years and the talk is changing to "climate change". Strangely we never hear about the "weather cycles". Weather comes within a given climate range in 5 , 10, 100, even 500 year cycles with the basic boundaries between arctic, subarctic, temperate, sub tropical, and tropical climates remaining about the same and sea level rarely fluctuating more than a few inches.




 Both our own Chesapeake Bay freeze over in the 1970s and today's frozen seas in parts of China are well within the recorded 100 year records. Ice breakers and ice breaking tugs cost a lot of money and have a service life of 20 years. It is more economic to simply endure these rare events than to build fleets of service vessel that may not be needed but once every 20 to 100 years. We're not saying the present climate change dogma is wrong, we're just saying that we haven't seen anything that would make an investment like a major ice breaking fleet south of 40 N a worthwhile investment. Our Namazu school of climate change says climate changes, with or without our activities and natural forces exist that can change it dramatically over night. Local, national ,and international governments and businesses need to be doing what they can to be prepared to mitigate the negative effects of sudden climate change because that can happen anytime. But if sudden climate change was to cause navigation crippling ice conditions below 40 N a spring and summer of emergency boat construction can launch quite a few ice breaking tugs. But the shifts in agriculture and the threat to the food supply would be life threatening for many. We should be working ion that at all times. A cold snap is no occasion to start spending money on ice breakers for normally temperate climes; not for us and not for the reptile on ice.
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ANOTHER WEATHER STORY: FREAK SNOW AND COLD GRIP THE MIDDLE EAST RELATED LIMITED VISIBILITY  ON THE SUEZ CANAL REDUCES TRAFFIC 
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/winter_storm_batters_middle_ea.html

 POLAND COMES OF AGE AS NATO MEMBER:
 Poland , one of NATO's newest members reached a mile stone recently when a Polish Officer and his flag ship took the lead in the NATO mine countermeasures mission. Read all about it here:
http://www.acus.org/natosource/polish-naval-command-makes-nato-history

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YEAR END REPORT TO READERS (CONTINUED):  

                 THE DIVE SHOP





We created an on line dive shop in the Diving  Section before Christmas. There are no intrusive pop ups or banner ads you have to scroll to the very bottom of the video links and book reviews to get into the shop. We know that for most big ticket items divers like to handle the merchandise. But your purchase of dive watches, dive knifes, or researched purchase of more expensive items like regulators or tanks through our on line store may actually save you time , effort , and money. And... you support our efforts for which we thank you.

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We posted this link on Sunday January 6, 2012 and we will leave it on the Notice board for a few days. We highly recommend the linked Wall Street Journal article for all of our readers who have been following our series HOW FAR WILL THE DRAGON SWIM about the Chinese Navy and China's aggressive ocean policies. It is particularly a handy background article for those who have not been following HOW FAR WILL THE DRAGON SWIM since its start early in 2012.

Key Trends to Watch in the Year of the Snake



The Wall Street Journal published a highly interesting article the day before yesterday for those of you who follow our continuing series How Far will The Dragon Swim.
In the article the writer describes ten trends to watch for in China during 2013. Interestingly, our own giant catfish maritime political guru NAMAZU described most of these trends over the past year. But most of you haven't really been following us but for a few months, so this Wall Street Journal article will bring you up to speed in just a couple of pages and nicely summarize some of our earlier maritime concerns and observations about China in a neat listing of ten trends. Number 8 of the Wall Street Journal feature; China Will Continue to be the number one builder of warships in the world.  The Journal also recognizes that China will take an even more aggressive stance against its coastal neighbors in it's drive to turn the East and South China and Yellow seas into Chinese lakes.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/01/04/key-trends-to-watch-in-the-year-of-the-snake/tab/print/

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  NAMAZU EXPLAINED THE MARITIME COMMONS LAST WEEK

NAMAZU, Former Japanese Demigod, Rock Album Cover Model, Analyst

  Namazu explained the vocabulary and legal theory of the maritime "commons" last week a concept hated by "Thug States" and under enforced by the international community of nations. If you missed this or any of the other explanations of complex world maritime developments by our seemingly all knowing giant catfish, former demigod, a complete index of his major efforts is posted in our Index Section. Click on the Index and Finding Aid Section in the right hand column and once in the Index Section scroll down until you see his familiar face. The subject of our many of our blog postings and news stories, the unrest in the China Seas is having a major effect on his peace of mind since his main home is in very near the East China Sea. We don't know what the big guy is working on at the minute but if history is any indication it will be an earth shattering insight when it comes out.  He is after all "Namazu The Earth Shaker"


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