CHINA INTENDS TO KEEP US OUT OF THE CHINA SEAS BUT INTENDS TO PLAY A BIG ROLE IN THE ARCTIC

Chinese research icebreaker «Xue Long». Photo: Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration

 The Dragon is very insistent that it has interests in the High Arctic Region and international legal rights to use the region. The Arctic Ocean is rather round in general shape and with the exception of some relatively narrow straits is virtually enclosed by the Arctic coastal states such as Canada, Russia, The United States, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Just the internationally recognized 12 mile territorial seas of the coastal states greatly reduce the navigable ice free area in any season. However, there should be no legal issue with non coastal states navigating in the up to 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones of the Arctic Ocean for simple peaceful transport of goods. Mostly that is the right that China claims in the High Arctic and insists upon. When available based on ice conditions. China can reach European markets for their trade goods much faster going over the top of the world than the long way around. And China has sent plenty of commercial vessels through the region to illustrate their rights under international law. In the High Arctic China cites the International Law of the Sea Convention to which the Dragon is signatory as the international legal underpinning of their freedom of navigation rights in a region where they have no coast line.

 The China Seas South and East are also virtually surrounded by coastal states, the largest of which is China. China at best, lines the seas for about less than half of their length while neighboring coastal states such as Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and others collectively ring the the half of the region closest to the Pacific Ocean proper. Here however, China wants nothing to do with the International Convention on the Law of the Sea. China claims that their self invented and self published "nine dash line" gives them sovereignty over the entire region to practically the low water mark on the beaches of their maritime neighbors. There, the United States claims the identical right of Innocent passage and freedom of navigation that China insists she is entitled to off of the US Coast of Alaska and every other Arctic coastal nation, despite owning no coastal real estate. China has been ruled against in the World Court in this claim in a case brought by the Philippines. The reaction of the Dragon? China refuses to acknowledge or abide by the Court's ruling. You really do have to wonder, does China ever intend to abide by the international convention that she signed? To say the least insisting on strict adherence to such a convention on one semi enclosed sea , and refusing to recognize the convention's provisions on another is inconsistent and rather obviously self serving. The United States does a great deal of commerce with the Far East and Southern Asia and nearly all of this commerce moves by sea through the China Seas. Yet China refuses to recognize the navigation rights of the United States or her coastal neighbors while loudly and unnecessarily demanding such rights from the United States, Canada, Russia and the rest of the states with coast lines on the Arctic Ocean.

 Its no deep secret that the Dragon's naval ambition is to "push the United States back to Pearl Harbor" and totally dominate the "First Island Chain", basically her neighbors across a rather short sea. If anyone thinks that the Dragon can be dealt with in any civil fashion they have to be blind to not only their doings in Tibet, along the Indian border, relations with Taiwan, their island grabbing disputes with Japan; but also the bald faced contrast of their position in the High Arctic and their demands in the China Seas. The dragon is a slippery old reptile and can not be trusted to keep its end of any "deal".

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM THE FULL VERSION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqvNYfeaYuI

HMS BOUNTY II, originally built larger than the 18th century original of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY fame, featured for more than twenty years in films and videos and then just one of the many casualties of Super Storm Sandy


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqvNYfeaYuI

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO A WATERED DOWN VERSION OF THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER?  YOU SEE IN THE ORIGINAL WORK BY FRANCIS SCOTT KEY THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH MENTION OF GOD AND OUR DEPENDENCE AS A NATION UPON HIM FOR MAIN STREAM MEDIA TASTE. THEN THERE IS THE MAIN STREAM  MEDIA'S FIXATION ON SOUND BYTES AND TIME LIMITS. THE ACTUAL ANTHEM AS WRITTEN BY FRANCIS SCOTT KEYS IS ABOUT TWICE AS LONG AS THE USUAL VERSION PLAYED BEFORE ATHLETIC  EVENTS OR EVEN  PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATIONS. EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD HEAR THE ACTUAL ANTHEM AT LEAST ONCE IN A LIFE TIME VICE THE MEDIA EDITED VERSION. SO PLAN ON LISTENING TWICE AS LONG AS YOU USUALLY DO TO THE EDITED VERSION AND REALLY LISTEN FOR THE FIRST TIME TO THE REAL UNALTERED NATIONAL ANTHEM OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. CLICK ON ANY OF THE URL TYPE LINKS ON THIS PAGE AND CRANK UP YOUR SOUND. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqvNYfeaYuI

THE BEAR IS SHOWING AGGRESSIVE TENDENCIES NEAR NORWAY

Editor's Note 1/16/2020: Russiaan harassment contiues but has not escalated appreciably since first reported.

 The oil platform Statfjord A with the flotel Polymariner off the coast of Norway. Photo by  Jarvin (Jarle Vines) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jarvin

Rear Admiral Nils Andreas Stensoenes is the head of the Norwegian Navy. He is not a happy camper as he has a large bear prowling just outside his home waters, Russia is busy flexing its muscle and making roaring sounds just outside Norway's High Arctic territorial seas. Legally, the old bear has every right to be in international waters no matter how close to a territorial sea line they may be. There is no legal basis for complaint. But it is clear that Russia is parading its High Arctic naval capabilities for the purpose of inhibiting Norway's intentions for use of the High Arctic.  Norway has an Arctic border with the bear and the Norwegian economy is highly dependent on access to the world's oceans. The Norwegians have been a seafaring nation since Viking days. The Norwegians evolved into a gentler, nicer version of their old viking selves, the Russians seem to be taking up their ancient bad habits. Recent Russian military / naval exercises appear to be demonstrations of their ability to reach any target in Norway with extremely destructive force.  Last year Bear bombers flew missions towards the Norwegian Arctic towns of Vardoe and its Norwegian military intelligence installations. The bear seems to be telling Norway that bears don't like having their activity monitored no matter how near their neighbors territory they are working. Bears also don't like competition. The bear wants the Arctic Ocean renamed the Russian Sea and their territorial claim now extends from their shore to the North Pole, a claim contested by Canada, and others including Norway. 

 The common wisdom is that war in the Arctic is not imminent but if not. this is a most interesting use of military forces. Here Russia seems to be using its superior naval forces to intimidate Norway away from serious Arctic resource exploration and experimentation, especially out in the "commons" past their territorial sea. The bear is marking his turf in the commons and trying to use clearly superior military forces to scare its neighbors from asserting their rights. Obviously if the Norwegians offend the bear he may use a naval blockade to keep Norway from asserting their rights in the High Arctic. The Norwegians would of course scream to high heaven and the Russians could well afford to relent after only a few days or weeks of blocking Norway's access to the sea and causing billions of dollars worth of economic damage.  Such would be an aggressive and illegal use of naval force, but an effective economic / military tactic to influence a compeditors actions. Really its enough to give bears a bad image. 

BOOK REVIEW: THE CAPTAIN'S NEPHEW

• Print Length: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penmore Press LLC (January 11, 2018)
• Publication Date: January 11, 2018

• Language: English
• ASIN: B078Z35T7Kh

Author: Philip K. Allan

Editors note: Having trouble locating this bokk by author search. We were alerted by Mr. Allan that we originally misspelled his name Allen vice Allan. We have tried to correct that error below. But our research indicates that we are not the only reviewers or even book vendors using the wrong spelling. So if you haven't found this book yet or other works by this author try the correct spelling and please accept our apologies for not producing it in the fiorst place.

Through the 1690s into the 1790s Europe was engaged in wars, revolutions, and conquests  for sea control and colonies. This was the age of wooden ships and iron men. The fictional character First Lieutenant Alexander Clay, and the ship he serves on,the frigate AGRIUS are sort of prototypes of the time.Clay, like the popular fictional Horatio Hornblower is a self made officer among the blue bloods of the time. 

 In the real world "Capt. James Cook" joined the Royal navy after earning a Masters license in the Merchant Marine but had to accept a starting position as only an able seaman. At 42 he had climbed through the ranks to the warrant officer grades as a sailing master, the warranted officer who often carried out the daily duties of "Captain"; while the more politically favored and sometimes incompetent commissioned officer held the title of "Captain" and responsibility for the overall mission of the ship. The non commissioned "Sailing Master" pretty much took care of the navigation, operation, and maintenance of the ship. Yet the Sailing Master was rarely the titular "Executive Officer" (considered number two in succession to command). Every now and then the Admiralty needed an officer who was both tremendously technically competent, a leader, and expendable. Such an officer was James Cook, "deep selected" from the warrant officer corps and given a Lieutenant's commission, the lowest commissioned rank eligible for command it was he who was sent to explore the Pacific after a number of failed attempts by the blue blood corps. The Admiralty knew he was superbly competent and that if any one could complete the mission and return to England it would be Cook, They also knew that if he didn't, explaining his loss vice some blue blood distant relative to the crown, and the old coal collier given him as a ship, vice a nice new frigate. would be a lot easier to explain, if any one showed any interest. 

 Hornblower and Clay are patterned after officers like Cook who was not one of a kind. I enjoyed reading the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. Through Hornblower was a fictional character his adventures helped make an indelible impression on me of what life was really like for my professional ancestors in that era. Clay is cut of similar cloth to the Hornblower character, but if anything he is a more complex and interesting character. A good man but not the paragon of virtue, and so not as predictable as Hornblower, Clay is still one of those officers the Royal Navy called on when competency counted and so his career became "interesting". In this novel the "Captain" is one Captain Percy Follett a firm believer in nepotism and he has a nephew aboard. He favors his nephew, an officer junior to Clay over Clay, but keep in mind that Percy is no mere blue blood stick figure , but a complex and reasonably competent man of his time and circumstances. He is a major irritant to Clay but not exactly an evil figure. As mentioned previously neither is Clay the paragon of virtue that Hornblower is usually depicted as. The drama and interaction between and among these characters is mostly played out on the compact decks of the RMS AGRIUS and among the colorful society aboard as they set out on a hunt for privateers and encounter North Atlantic fog, a desperate transatlantic chase, and a series of adventures that stretch from the coast of Flanders to the tropical Caribbean. 

 This is an adventure tale that spans half the globe in an age where few people ever got much further from the village where they were born than 20 miles. The protagonists have learned to harness the wind and live a far different life than their shore bound contemporaries. When I first read Forester I wondered how he ever came up with such stories and such realism. In many ways Phillip K. Allan surpasses Forrester in realism. 

 Some time ago a friend gave me an antique leather bound copy of decisions from a British Prize Court. Reading that, I pretty much caught on where Forester and Allen get the nucleus of their material. The era really was pretty much like they describe it, and the number of incredible naval missions that sound like the script from a swashbuckler movie were great in number and thanks to courts of admiralty, prize courts, and naval tribunals well documented. The fiction writers simply flesh out what's between the lines of these sources and the best of them, people the story with highly believable characters. In short, the Allans and Foresters bring the era alive in books and sometimes movies and make us truly appreciate what these extraordinary naval people were like. 

 Maybe one day Mr. Allan will tackle the life in the "Stone Frigates" the cheap boarding houses ashore where sailors often waited for their next ship and where the real , hard, dirty, impoverished life of the British commoners of the day was lived out, occasionally in contact with the sailors who lived in an equally harsh but much wider world. We read much of the impressment gangs of the era, but like Captain Cook, there were many commoners who chose the naval life freely, and many an impressed seaman enlisted voluntarily after one of these voyages. If all your choices involve a life of hardship which is short and brutal; why wouldn't you choose one that also had travel, adventure, and on occasion offered through promotion and prize money a chance to change your life? 

 Check out THE CAPTAIN'S NEPHEW and look for more books by Phillip K. Allan at Amazon. Click here for a short cut. https://www.amazon.com/Captains-Nephew-Alexander-Clay-Book-ebook/dp/B078Z35T7K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527189844&sr=1-1&keywords=THE+CAPTAINS+NEPHEW 

 The CAPTAINS NEPHEW is book 1 of what is so far a three part series of the adventures of Lieutenant Clay. We look forward to many more books by Mr. Allan who seems to have the kind of feel for the era that Forester had. 

 Don't forget we don't sell books anymore and are no longer an Amazon portal so remember you may be responsible for forwarding sales tax to your state revenue department. If your US state is run by Democrats that is more probable than not. If you are a Brit or citizen of any EU nation we are obligated to warn you that Amazon may use "Cookies". The nany states legally require us to warn you that someone may try to send you "cookies". We don't send "cookies", we don't even know how, but you are on the American version of the Internet and it is considered wild and wooly and out of control by the Democratic party of the United States and most socialists nations.  This post originated from Louisiana where "rules" are pretty much taken as "suggestions". Freedom's voice lives on the bayou. 

Johnas Presbyter

CHINA LANDS BOMBERS ON DISPUTED ISLAND

People's Liberation Army Air Force Xian HY-6 at Zhuhai Airshow. Photo by Li Pang   licensed under the Creative Commons license.

China has recently been operating bombers , landing and taking off from disputed islands in the South China Sea subject to the competing claims of six nations. The only test so far of these claims in court didn't go so well for China whose 9 dash line argument was soundly rebuffed in favor of the Philippine in the only court test so far . China dealt with the crushing legal defeat by simply ignoring it. China also announced their intention of continuing to ignore court challenges and international law. As if to underscore their position the Dragon recently landed H-6K and other bombers on disputed islands as part of a military "drill" designed to improve the ability of the Dragon "to reach all territory". China has been accused of militarizing the region and provoking tension in the reason. While China did not formally announce which islands were involved in their exercise a video from the Chinese Communist  Party's People'S Daily showed a bomber taking off from a recently built base on Woody Island , one of the larger disputed islands in the Paracels; an island also claimed by Tiwan and Vietnam. The Dragon took pains to note in the related publicity that from this base their bombers could reach "all of South East Asia, Australia's northern bases and the US forces on Guam. 

 You don't hear much of this in the Main Stream Media. Wake up America! Are you starting to see the pattern yet? How long do you think we have to act? 

BOOK REVIEW:

MAPPING NAVAL WARFARE A VISUAL HISTORY OF CONFLICT AT SEA
  By Jeremy Black, published by Oxford and New York Osprey Publishing 2017 ; 192 pages illustrated with index . 



Available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Naval-Warfare-history-conflict/dp/1472827864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526673517&sr=1-1&keywords=MAPPING+NAVAL+WARFARE%3A+A+VISUAL+HISTORY+OF+CONFLICT+AT+SEA Please note we are not an Amazon portal link is for reader convenience AAB is not commissioned or otherwise compensated for purchases from Amazon:

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 OK, if we have all of the necessary nanny state required warnings out of the way we'd like to tell you about this book.  The author, Jeremy Black is a faculty member of Exter University in the UK and is considered a leading international naval scholar. His description of the impact and importance of various types of maps and navigation charts is brief, accurate, and at times quite insightful. While academically useful, this book is more of a big coffee table type portfolio of images of nautical maps and charts. The images are beautifully presented and all the more interesting since they do not represent only vintage navigation charts. Some come from the news journals of the day in almost cartoon form. Depending on which side of a naval conflict the source of the map came from you may encounter cartoonist figures of persons of historical record depicted  about some of the news journal maps illustrating points of the battle illustrated. Elsewhere you will find actual navigation charts of the relevant eras. The book covers about 500 years of the developments of maps and charts for naval usage including news reporting and propaganda, and the technological developments in naval war fare from before 1700 through about WWII.

 We highly recommend this book for those naval professionals and history buffs who maintain more than a basic professional personal library. If you use the link provided above you can browse through  the actual book on line quite a bit. The book originally sold for about $45 and we now see on Amazon editions for between about $15 and $26. Not a bad time or a bad price for those seeking to make a valuable edition to a personal professional library. 

Johnas Presbyter, Editor

A WORD FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD

 We created the Google profile for Johnas Presbyter, Editor in Chief of the American Admiralty Books Blog for the express purpose of giving him a means to direct attention to posts of interests on the the blog. We and he were unaware until recently that a "Home Page" was associated with the "Profile". On the profile we are able to post notices, images, and links and visitors to the site may post comments. We have recently discovered that we do not have that level of control on the associated home page where others may post images, posts, and links and we are not able to edit for content, or delete easily, inappropriate material. We ask all visitors to the Johnas Presbyter home page to please be aware of the following:

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HELIOS RUEHLS SCIENCE REPORT

AN ELECTRONIC EYE

The Human Eye, over simplifying a bit;  a sort of photon catching and sorting machine

 OPTICAL PHYSICISTS ARE DEVELOPING A TRUE ELECTRONIC "EYE" FAR DIFFERENT FROM A CAMERA.

 The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) to whom   Helios Ruehls has on occasion applied for research grants, is highly interested in the evolution of autonomous drones. How autonomous a drone can be is determined by the level of artificial intelligence that can be applied and the purpose of the drone. There are few moral considerations in terms of combat with drone intelligence gathering and recon. But drones carrying and capable of applying deadly force, at present require a human in the loop, particularly the shoot don't shoot decision making loop. But even a weaponized drone may be equipped to proceed to the target area on its own, orbit a predetermined area, and "check in" with its human controller when ready to begin the next phase of operations. 

 Despite the availability of high resolution TV cameras small enough to be no burden on today's drones air lift capacity, drones don't actually "see". What humans actually perceive when they "see" is a processed image. Our "vision" is created only in part by the image on our Retina. Our actual vision is a "processed" one created in the brain. The retina receives many picture elements that in camera and optical physics language we call "pixels". These pixels are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. However, the optic nerve compared to the brain has a very limited capacity for the transmission of these "pixels" in computer terms we might say the optic nerve has "limited bandwidth".

The retina sends only changes in the basic pixel array as they occur and the brain maintains the "basic image" and adjusts it for the changes. 

Simple camera imaging system

By comparison camera / computer "vision" programs must create large images and then compare them bit by bit using complex algorithms to comprehend what is happening. Such programming has worked on large terrain change navigation systems, but not so well on looking for humans moving between and among buildings. A live TV camera trained on the compound and observed by a human has been the only trust worthy solution so far. The inability to really "see" has imposed a limit on artificial intelligence used in autonomous or near autonomous drones.  Beyond the mission related ethical / moral considerations lack of real "vision" impedes the development of certain aspects of drone self executing navigational systems.

 Long before we resolve the law of armed conflict ethical issues of when there must be a human "controller" in the loop for weaponized drones we are going to have to improve the ability of drones to see. Not all navigational tasks can be solved by an AI drone knowing its longitude and latitude. We need among other things micro drones that can determine what room in a house they are in. Humans often make up in many ingenious ways for damage to their "sensor array" (sight, hearing, smell, touch). However  for many human activities no matter how intelligent the human, a full sensory array is needed. We can't, for example" utilize blind cops or air craft pilots. Sensory perception can enhance or limit the application of "intelligence". 

 Darpa is making progress on developing true artificial vision to operate in tandem with artificial intelligence. But don't expect the resulting technology to be very closely held by US defense Department interests. DARPA is providing partial funding of an organization based in Zurich, Switzerland known as "iniLabs"which is blazing a trail in the realm of artificial vision. The resulting findings aren't likely to become the exclusive property of the US Department of Defense. 

 The human, or for that matter bird eye/ brain system, does not have to continuously generate large complex images and then compare them bit by bit. The eye/ brain system generates an image the bulk of which is held by the brain the rest of which is capable of receiving rapid small changes. To the optical physicists of "iniLabs" these changes are called "events". Their system which they call a "Dynamic Vision Sensor" combines a conventional (camera like) "imager"with a new invention called an "Event Monitor". 

In experiments so far with their "Dynamic Vision Sensor", the "iniLab" device has proven the system to be about 130% more accurate than previous devices relying only on event sensing and about 85% more accurate than a camera image.The combination is definitely a big improvement over camera based big image comparison computer applications and produces a far more graphic image than previous "event sensors". The lesson of the eye / brain system is that improvement in sensor provided information processing power nets a greater return than improvements in the actual sensor. In humans, the eye developed to the point where it could transmit depth (at least in tandem sensors) and color, but the optical nerve never really increased in carrying (think band width) capacity. It didn't need to , the brain's interpretative ability increased faster and no real need for improvement was needed in the actual sensors (eyes) or transmitters (optical nerves) 

 Something similar is going on in artificial vision. There is more research money available for computer science than optical physics and computer processing speed continues to expand much faster than optical physics is developing more accurate image capture and transmission systems. The "intiLab" project may indicate that we are reaching a long term apex in the optical physics part of the artificial vision evolution, but that may not be any more of a block to progress to artificial vision than it was in the evolution of human vision. 

WHAT IT ALL MEANS FOR HELIOS RUEHLS STOCK HOLDERS: 

  Helios Ruehls, Inc has had some experience with both optical imaging and human vision gleaned in our "Yellow Lens Project". We had interactions between optical physicists and optometrists, and ophthalmologists. We developed some institutional understanding and some academic connections but so far we lack the in network expertise in computer science to play a major role in the development of artificial vision technology. But we don't need a major role to get our foot in the door. 

 There is a great interest in artificial vision beyond the US Department of Defense. We must be on the look out for under served opportunities in the commercial sector, and use our understanding of the artificial vision concept to spot potential investment opportunities for our "endowment fund".  Our potential for entry into the developmental research for artificial vision is another reason for us to consider revising our corporate vision to encompass a more broadly based "skunk works" approach to more types of optical physics work than the pursuit of the fractal lens. We can not drop projects like the fractal lens but the academic / economic politics of the moment are far from optimal for large grant funding. Contract research in the search for artificial vision won't yield us big intellectual property profits but could start to generate regular income. 

 It is time to consider the question, can we survive if our only activity is the development of our own exclusive intellectual property? Is the combination of selling supportive temporary research services not necessary both to an earlier generation of revenue but also as an attractant to our academic corporate participants (":Sweat equity partners"). Our corporate experience so far informs us there will always be political, military, and academic politics affecting research funding. While we must push for funding of our projects that can give us the big pay offs in terms of proprietary intellectual property, selling research support services on the optical physics projects currently in vogue is a wise idea. Going into publishing is a another wise idea that keeps us in the public eye , offers our academic sweat equity stock holders something they value, and generates useful revenue.