Month: June 2023

Who Owns The Earth?

It is another Sunday and my day to ponder the probing questions of the day….like this one….

Have ever wondered just who owns the earth?

If you have then the old Professor has the answers for you…..

For anyone who’s ever wondered who the world’s biggest land baron is, the answer is some guy with a bunch of first names: Charles Philip Arthur George. Or Britain’s King Charles III, as he’s better known, Digg reports in a look at the top 25. Seems that Charles and the British royal family own an eye-watering 6,600,000,000 acres of land—which accounts for an eye-stabbing one-sixth of the land surface of planet Earth. Of note: not one American individual or company cracked the list. Here, the top 10 landowners, the countries in which they own land, and the amount of acreage:

  • King Charles III and the British royal family, United Kingdom and Canada, 6,600,000,000—that includes more than 90% of the land in Canada.  (Those royals are a greedy lot)
  • Catholic Church, worldwide, 177,000,000—churches, parochial schools, farms, and other real estate.
  • Inuit People of Nunavut, Canada, 87,500,000—land was given in 1993’s Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
  • Gina Rinehart, Australia, 23,969,000—mining magnate and Australia’s richest person.
  • Inuvialuit People of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Canada, 22,486,000—land was given in 1984’s Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
  • Mudanjiang City Mega Farm, China, 22,239,000—the world’s largest dairy farm has more than 100,000 cows.
  • Australian Agricultural Company, Australia, 17,297,000—Australia’s oldest such cattle farm.
  • North Australian Pastoral Company, Australia, 14,826,000—cattle company dates to 1877.
  • Jumbuck Pastoral Company, Australia, 14,208,000—sheep farm is Australia’s largest producer of wool.
  • Handbury Group, Australia, 13,047,000—owner of two giant cattle farms in South and Western Australia

See the full list, via Madison Trust.

Do Canadians know that the royals still own most of their nation?

I’ll bet you thought all us individual property owners were the proper answers….well we are not.

Maybe there is something to the old saying….”property is theft”.  (Please do not use some chat bot….I know who said this…Proudhon in 1840)

This is my only gift today for tomorrow is my birthday and I am trying to decide what I would like to eat on my special day.

I hope you all have a wonderful day….be well and be safe….

I Know I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–24Jun23

That time again….another weekend and another news dump of all the super interesting crap on the internet….or so I am told.

Well crap!  It is that time a year again….a storm is headed for Hurricane Alley as I type…..

Tropical Storm Bret chugged toward the eastern Caribbean on Tuesday as forecasters warned it could strengthen into a rare June hurricane. Bret had maximum sustained winds of 40mph and was moving across the Atlantic Ocean at 17mph, per the AP. It’s expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the coming days but then weaken ahead of its approach to the Lesser Antilles, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm is expected to pummel some eastern Caribbean islands on Thursday and Friday at near-hurricane strength. “Both the atmospheric and oceanic environment look conducive for strengthening during the next couple of days with low shear and abnormally warm ocean waters,” the center said.

The storm formed Monday—an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began on June 1. It would be only the second hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic in June in nearly a century, according to meteorologist Philip Klotzbach at Colorado State University. The previous hurricane was 1933’s on Trinidad. A tropical disturbance with a 60% chance of cyclone formation is trailing Bret. No June on record has had two storms form in the tropical Atlantic, Klotzbach noted. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast 12 to 17 named storms for this year’s hurricane season. It said between five and nine of those storms could become hurricanes, including up to four major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

It is bad enough that vegans are trying to rule to food world now they are imposing their lousy food choices on their dogs…..

The vegan Nazis are starting to pollute their dogs with ….brands like Clif Pet with vegan jerky and Halo Holistic vegan dog food….

Seriously?

On the vegan BS….a story comes out of Australia….

One could very well claim that veganism would be more popular if vegan people were a little tolerant and patient, and were not quick to burst into a temper regardless of the situation. In a recent debacle that took place in Australia, a vegan family decided enough was enough when their neighbor was cooking meat and they could smell it. The upset family had earlier sent a polite letter to the neighbor, asking them to close their windows while cooking- which is quite impossible unless someone wants the fumes to be all over their house. And when the neighbor didn’t pay heed to the letter, they sent another- which was a little less polite and a lot more intimidating. The letter was sent by a woman named Sarah, who passed it to her neighbor Kylie, where it was addressing some of the concerns that Sarah had regarding Kylie’s cooking.

Vegan Family Sends ‘Final Warning’ To Neighbors After Cooking Meat With Open Window

In the complex where my daughter works was a restaurant, An-Jacks, a BBQ food outlet and there was also a yoga studio that complained that they were offended by the smell of meat cooking…..they moved.

Personally I do not think that they are truly offended but rather are reminded what they were missing and their devotees would stray.

More lab grown meat….this time chicken….

For the first time, US regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves. The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the US to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals—what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates, the AP reports. The companies received approvals for federal inspections required to sell meat and poultry in the US.

The action came months after the US Food and Drug Administration deemed that products from both companies are safe to eat. A manufacturing company called Joinn Biologics, which works with Good Meat, was also cleared to make the products. Cultivated meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal, a fertilized egg, or a special bank of stored cells. In Upside’s case, it comes out in large sheets that are then formed into shapes like chicken cutlets and sausages. Good Meat, which already sells cultivated meat in Singapore, the first country to allow it, turns masses of chicken cells into cutlets, nuggets, shredded meat, and satays.

But don’t look for this novel meat in US grocery stores anytime soon. Cultivated chicken is much more expensive than meat from whole, farmed birds and cannot yet be produced on the scale of traditional meat, says Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alt:Meat Lab at University of California Berkeley. The companies plan to serve the new food first in exclusive restaurants: Upside has partnered with a San Francisco restaurant called Bar Crenn, while Good Meat dishes will be served at a Washington, DC restaurant run by chef and owner Jose André.

Company officials are quick to note the products are meat, not substitutes like the Impossible Burger or offerings from Beyond Meat, which are made from plant proteins and other ingredients. Globally, more than 150 companies are focusing on meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish, and beef, which scientists say has the biggest impact on the environment.

There are so many reasons to avoid Florida….the politics, alligators, and those giant pythons….to add to the reason are giant snails….

Florida continues its game of whack-a-mole, more like whack-a-snail, with a formidable opponent. On Tuesday, the state imposed a quarantine of sorts in parts of Broward County to try to contain the invasive giant African land snail, reports NBC Miami. Meaning, residents in the affected areas can’t remove snails on their own, or even dispose of dirt or yard waste. Instead, the state is moving in to apply the pesticide metaldehyde, informally known as “snail bait,” per USA Today. It essentially dries out the snails and kills them over the course of a few days.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Florida has been fighting the infestation for years. Last year, the same kind of quarantine was imposed in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County. The snail is prolific (one can lay 1,200 eggs per year), voracious (they eat at least 500 different kinds of plants and have been known to munch on homes’ stucco), potentially dangerous (they carry rat lungworm, which can cause meningitis in humans), and a little creepy for those who don’t like large, slimy creatures (they can grow to the size of a human fist). In short, “these snails could be devastating to Florida agriculture and natural areas,” warns the state, per CNN.

All I can say is….Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!

Do orcas talk over long range?   Maybe they have a social media presence.

I recently wrote about the pod of orca that are attacking boats off the coast of Spain….the word got out and now orca attacks in the North Sea….

An orca repeatedly rammed a yacht in the North Sea off Shetland on Monday, in a concerning development following previous interactions between the cetaceans and vessels in the strait of Gibraltar and Portugal.

Dr Wim Rutten, a 72-year-old retired Dutch physicist and experienced yachtsperson, was sailing solo from Lerwick to Bergen in Norway. He was fishing for mackerel, with a single line off the back of the boat, when the orca suddenly appeared in the clear water, and hit the stern of the seven-ton boat.

“I said: ‘Shit!’” Rutten, who said he had heard about the “Portuguese accidents”, told the Guardian. The whale hit again and again, creating “soft shocks” through the aluminium hull.

“What I felt [was] most frightening was the very loud breathing of the animal,” he said. The orca stayed behind the boat “looking for the keel. Then he disappeared … but came back at fast speed, twice or thrice … and circled a bit.

“Maybe he just wanted to play. Or look me in the eyes. Or to get rid of the fishing line.”

This is the same behaviour that has been seen in the Iberian orca population, but it is the first time it has been known to happen in northern waters.

(theguardian.com)

Again….Do orca have access to social media?

This is the end of this Saturday’s news dump.  I hope you, my reader, found something of interest.

Have a great weekend….be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Congressional Cat Fight

I do enjoy political theater.

If find a political slap fight entertaining and when it is a cat fight then the entertainment quality goes up.

There are times when our lay-about Congress becomes a source of entertainment…..this is one of those times…..

Things got heated between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert on the House floor Wednesday after a move Boebert made to push her own resolution to impeach President Biden ahead of Greene’s competing resolution. Three sources tell the Daily Beast Greene accused Boebert of “copying” Greene’s articles of impeachment after Greene asked her to cosponsor them, to which Boebert replied that she hadn’t even read them. One source says they heard Greene tell Boebert, “I’ve donated to you, I’ve defended you. But you’ve been nothing but a little b—- to me.” The other two concur that the b-word was used. Boebert reportedly then shrugged and said, “OK, Marjorie, we’re through” and turned away as Greene responded, “We were never together.”

Afterward, Boebert reacted to the exchange to a CNN congressional correspondent, saying, “Like I said, I’m not in middle school.” Greene, for her part, asked to comment on the story, called it “impressively correct.” She also said of Boebert, “Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.” The two MAGA firebrands once had a “warm” relationship, per the Daily Beast, but things have been getting increasingly tense between them for months. The latest issue has to do with their competing pushes to impeach Biden, both of them seen as longshots, at least right now. In a surprise move, Boebert used a procedural tool to force a vote on hers within days, a move Greene did not make for hers and which apparently upset Greene. In the end, the AP reports, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated a deal with Boebert to put off a vote for now.

I have always said that Congress was a clown show and these two ‘women’ prove my point.

These two seem to try an out stupid each other.

Here’s an idea since these two are extremely pro-gun then reinstate dueling and let them settle it that way.

Looks like the Freedom Caucus has had enough of these two among others….

While it apparently hasn’t reached the loyalty oath stage yet, the House Freedom Caucus is struggling to maintain unity amid infighting and mutual distrust. Politico, citing “three Republicans with knowledge of the talks,” reports some members of the conservative caucus want to purge its ranks, with at least two hardliners proposing to caucus chairman Rep. Scott Perry that he kick out members who don’t meet its standards. The insiders say one leading candidate for expulsion is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is seen as too close to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—and too willing to openly criticize the caucus.

Tensions boiled over this week, when Greene called fellow caucus member Rep. Lauren Boebert a “little b—-” on the House floor for launching a competing effort to impeach President Biden. Greene confirmed that reports on her remarks were “impressively correct,” while Boebert complained that reporters focused on “pettiness” instead of her push for impeachment. “I didn’t leave my four kids and now my grandson to come up here and have cat fights and just to get in squabbles,” the 36-year-old told Politico. She declined to say where she stands on efforts to purge members from the caucus.

I still like the duel idea.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Titanic Tragedy Update

Looks like it is official….the sub was destroyed and occupants are dead.

Debris has been found near the Titanic that leads officials to believe the sub imploded.

Those hoping for the safe return of the five people lost in a submersible in the North Atlantic rooted for a miracle on Thursday. It did not come. First, the US Coast Guard announced the discovery of a debris field on the ocean floor near the Titanic. Then OceanGate, the operator of the sub, released a statement giving up hope of a rescue for the Titan crew, reports CNN.

  • “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the statement reads, per the Guardian. It hailed the five as “true explorers.”

  • After its initial no-details statement about the debris field, a Coast Guard spokesman said “five different major pieces of debris” that belonged to the submersible were discovered. That includes the nose cone, which was found about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, reports the Washington Post. “The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger at a news conference, per the New York Times. “On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.”

    He added that a definitive explanation of what happened to the Titan will take time. Thursday morning had marked a critical 96-hour threshold since the vessel disappeared—the point at which breathable air would likely have run out.

I think there is something weird here.

The parts were found about 1600 feet from the bow of the Titanic…..why was it found just hours after the air would have run out.

I mean they were searching around the shipwreck for days and it is ‘discovered’ just hours after the air became toxic (that is if there was any air at all).

Call me suspicious but once the sub was found the story value would go down…..the timing leads me to be suspicious.

All my readers that said it was an implosion from the start of this drama may sleep well tonight for they were right on this issue.

A tragic end to the ‘adventure of a lifetime’.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Education Failing?

For years now the retention skills of American children have been dropping and the latest stats look even more disturbing..

National test scores for 13-year-olds released Wednesday showed setbacks in mastering basic skills, providing evidence that schools and students have not overcome the lost learning caused by the pandemic. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, which conducted the tests last fall, reported major drops of nine points in math scores and four points in reading from three years earlier, before the start of the pandemic, the Washington Post reports. The results sparked serious concern across the education field. “This is more than alarming,” said an educator who’s on the board that sets test policy, adding, “We really need to be concerned about what is happening here.”

The declines in what’s been called the nation’s report card put the average reading score back to where it was in 2004 and the average math score back to the 1990 level. In both subjects, scores dropped the most for students already at the bottom of the scale. Students of all races and ethnicities fell in math. But reading scores varied, with Black, multiracial, and white students posting declines while Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and Alaska Native students pretty much held steady, per the Post. Scores fell 11 points for female students overall and 7 for male students, per CNN. Roughly 8,700 students in 460 schools took the test.

The drop in scores has been pronounced since the pandemic first disrupted schools, but student performance already was in decline, per the New York Times; the questions are designed to spot long-term trends. Action is needed, said a junior high school math teacher from Colorado and member of the governing board. Researchers and policy analysts should help identify the most effective methods for teachers and schools, said Mark Miller, who considers the situation urgent. “It’s like the alarm has gone off,” he said.

History and civics scores are at a record low.

Ignorant students make ignorant voters.

I blame local school boards….they spend more time worrying about bathrooms and what books are acceptable and less time on the quality of the student’s education.

I blame the voters for not caring about their children’s education enough to learn the issues other than some divisive crap.

School boards should not be a political position.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Titanic Tragedy Update

The search continues for the tourist sub diving ob the Titanic….as the story unfolds more and more information about this little sub has come out…..

A CBS Sunday Morning segment on OceanGate’s Titanic-touring submersible, originally aired in November, has now gone viral as it highlights the “MacGyvery jerry-rigged-ness” of the vanished vessel. Reporter David Pogue went inside the sub, where OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush—among five people now locked inside the missing capsule—showed him lighting purchased from Camping World and a modified gaming controller used to steer the vessel. “I couldn’t help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised,” Pogue commented. Rush countered that OceanGate worked with Boeing and NASA in creating the capsule itself.

Yet in a clip viewed 21.6 million times on Twitter in two days, Pogue reads from a waiver he was required to sign before going on a test dive, which describes the sub as an “experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death,” per Deadline. In 2018, dozens of industry leaders warned that OceanGate’s decision to forgo an inspection and certification could lead to “catastrophic” problems, the New York Times reports. OceanGate’s director of marine operations at the time claimed the company was “unwilling to pay” for such an assessment. It now charges up to $250,000 per ticket to the Titanic.

Pogue knew the risks. “I stayed up all night the night before my dive,” he tells CBS in a new interview. “I’ve never done anything that could kill me before and I was really, really scared.” He adds Rush assured him the vessel would maintain an oxygen supply and had seven different ways of reaching the surface. “So why haven’t they come to the surface?” Pogue asks. He says Rush told him he would be in real danger if the capsule sprung a leak or got snagged, but that that was very unlikely. However, author and reporter Dr. Michael Guillen recalled thinking he would die when a submersible he used to visit the Titanic in 2000 temporarily got stuck between the wreck’s stern and propellers, per Yahoo.

Would you go on an ‘adventure’ that required such a document be signed?   A “experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death”

There was so much that is being learned I ask why if these tourist were so smart why did they not do a little research….oh that’s right they have subordinates to do that for them….too bad they did not think to ask.

By the time I post this the operation will probably have gone from rescue mission to one of recovery.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

AI And Productivity Growth

Everybody these days has something to say about this AI thing.

There has been a wealth of wide ranging posts and stories about this thing we call AI….even in the blogging world it has become popular authors employing it for posts and even comments.

There are both pro and cons in the usage of this technology.

I read an interesting article recently that takes a look at AI and productivity growth…..

It is really painful to see the regular flow of pieces debating whether AI will lead to mass unemployment. Invariably, these pieces are written as though the author has taken an oath that they have no knowledge of economics whatsoever.

The NYT gave us the latest example on Sunday, in a piece debating how many jobs will be affected by AI. As the piece itself indicates, it is not clear what “affected by AI” even means.

What percent of jobs were affected by computers? The answer would probably be pretty close to 100 percent, if by “affected” we mean in some way changed. If by affected, we mean eliminated, then we clearly are talking about a much smaller number.

Thinking of AI like we did about computers is likely a good place to start. First of all, we should remember that there were predictions of massive layoffs and unemployment from computers and robots for decades. This did not happen.

In fact, we have a measure of the extent to which computers, robots, and other technology are displacing workers. It’s called “productivity growth,” and the Labor Department gives us data on it every quarter.

Productivity is the measure of the value of output that a worker can produce an hour. We expect this to increase through time as we get better equipment and software, we learn how to do things better, and workers get more educated.

For the last two centuries, productivity growth has been a normal feature of the U.S. economy, and in fact, most normally functioning economies around the world. This is the basis for rising living standards through time. It is the reason that we can feed our whole population, and still export food, even with just around 1.0 percent of the workforce in agriculture, as opposed to more than 50 percent in the 19th century.

The big question is the rate at which productivity grows. Productivity growth has actually been pretty slow in recent years. It averaged just 1.3 percent annually since 2006. By contrast, it averaged close to 3.0 percent in the quarter century from 1947 to 1973.

AI, Job Loss and Productivity Growth

I am told that people cannot tell the difference between actual writing and the AI generated….if that is true why bother doing the writing?

I use quotes and my own thoughts…I do not use or need help.

Be aware I said ‘I’….that does not mean that I condemn the use….just that it is not for me.

That out of the way….

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Titanic Tragedy–Update

The search continues to search for the Titanic sub as the occupants are running out of air.

Back in 2018 employees and others signed a letter voicing their concerns on this whole idea….

As search and rescue teams raced against time Tuesday to find the missing Titan submersible, news emerged on the long history of concerns about OceanGate Expeditions’ experimental vessel. In 2018, leaders of a submersible craft trade group wrote to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush—who is one of the five people in the Titan—warning that there were potentially “catastrophic” problems with the vessel’s development, the New York Times reports. The Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society noted that despite “misleading” marketing, the company had no plans to have the Titan examined by a risk assessment agency before it launched tours to the wreckage of the Titanic.

The letter was signed by three dozen people, including deep-sea explorers and oceanographers as well as company execs. “The submersible industry had significant concerns over the strategy of building a deep sea expedition submersible without following existing classification safety guidelines,” committee chairman Will Kohnen tells the Times. He says Rush later called him and complained that regulations were stifling innovation in the sector. Also in 2018, an OceanGate employee was fired after refusing to sign off on manned tests of the vessel over safety concerns, according to court documents seen by the New Republic.

According to the documents, OceanGate sued submersible pilot David Lochridge after he voiced his concerns and then sued him for disclosing confidential information about the vessel. In a counterclaim alleging wrongful termination, Lochridge said the company fired him to silence him and “avoid addressing the safety and quality control issue” he had highlighted. Lochridge had called for non-destructive testing of the vessel’s hull and “stressed the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths,” court documents state. “The constant pressure cycling weakens existing flaws resulting in large tears of the carbon.”

As the search continues it is reported that tapping sounds have been detected….

“Banging sounds” were detected “every 30 minutes” in the area that a Canadian aircraft was searching for the missing Titanic submersible, according to internal email updates sent to the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by Rolling Stone. The aircraft involved “has underwater detection capabilities from the air,” the email says, and four hours after the sounds were initially detected Tuesday, “additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard.” A retired US submarine commander previously told Sky News the sub’s crew might use rhythmic banging on the walls in an effort to transmit sound to search vessels using sonar. The email to DHS did not specify a time, nor did it speculate on a cause of the banging, and none of the official agencies contacted by Rolling Stone returned a comment.

A DHS official did, however, anonymously (and confusingly, given the timeline that has been reported) tell the publication that no noise has been detected since Monday. In its own email, the Explorers Society, a travel and research group that says two of its members were aboard the Titan submersible when it went missing Sunday, said Tuesday afternoon that, “It is being reported that at 2am local time on site that sonar detected potential ‘tapping sounds’ at the location, implying crew may be alive and signaling.” CNN also later reported on the internal government memo reporting the banging that was heard at two different times four hours apart, and the outlet notes that a separate memo from later Tuesday night indicated “additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors.”

Further confusing matters, a US Coast Guard statement from early Wednesday says that “Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.” It’s not clear whether those “noises” are the same as those previously mentioned by the various media outlets. The Coast Guard earlier said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference that the search has so far “not yielded any results.” The DHS official who spoke to Rolling Stone said the “situation looks bleak.” The sub’s 96-hour oxygen supply is estimated to run out Thursday morning local time, CBS 8 reports. The retired sub captain who spoke to Sky News says the crew is likely trying to remain as calm as possible, possibly even meditating, to conserve oxygen.

Some have asked why this operation is not more successful…..here is what we know…..

A big issue in the search for the submersible that went missing during an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic is just how deep that wreckage sits. It’s around 13,000 feet below sea level, and a retired Navy captain with three decades of experience including salvage operations tells CNN, “There’s very few assets in the world that can go down that deep.” Even sophisticated naval craft can only dive about 1,000 feet per hour, meaning if the sub is close to the wreckage, getting to it and surfacing again could take an entire day. On such a journey, a remote craft wouldn’t be able to search along the ocean floor once it got there: “When you’re going deep, you usually go up and down like an elevator,” the expert says. Adding to the difficulty: The sub is white, making it difficult to spot from the air, an expert tells Reuters, and rescuers aren’t sure whether they should be focusing on the surface or the sea floor, he adds.

Similarly, a US Coast Guard rear admiral tells the BBC, “There are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.” The Navy’s manned rescue craft only go to a depth of around 2,000 feet, Rolling Stone reports, and US military remote-operated vehicles wouldn’t be able to lift the sub. Because of that, according to internal emails obtained by Rolling Stone, “the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre is working to find an underwater remote-operated vehicle through partner organizations to possibly assist.” And, as Axios also notes, locating the sub in a search area the size of Connecticut is one thing, but far from the only thing—it must then also be recovered, no small feat. Last but not least, the occupants of the sub can’t let themselves out: Someone must undo the bolts from outside the vessel, and experts say there will be no way to transfer them to a rescue vehicle underwater.

A remote-operated craft about the size of a cargo van, tethered to a ship at the surface, might be an option to attempt to locate the sub, the expert who spoke to CNN says, but another even more specialized vehicle—the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, one of which was expected to arrive in the search area by Tuesday night—would be required to bring the sub up, since it can lift as much as 60,000 pounds. For more, the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the sophisticated equipment and vehicles assisting with the search, complete with illustrations, and NPR looks into one deep-sea rescue that was successful—among a number of others that weren’t

And the search continues but every hour is a step closer to a change in operation from rescue to recovery.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Titanic Tragedy (Again)

Most everyone watch the movie Titanic (spoiler if you have not…the ship sinks) and since 1912 there have been theory after theory about this tragedy.

Then along came James Cameron and a movie and documentary on this famous wreck…..fast forward to 2023 and the interest in this shipwreck is still high…..

The operator of the submersible that went missing on a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic says it is “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.” In a statement, OceanGate Expeditions said its “entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families,” the CBC reports. The company says it lost contact with the sub, which has a 96-hour oxygen supply, Sunday morning. OceanGate says it is rushing to get a remotely operated vehicle capable of diving 20,000 feet to the site. The Titan submersible vessel has a capacity of five, though it’s not clear how many people are on board. Action Aviation has confirmed that its chairman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, was on the sub, the AP reports

“Every attempt is being made for a rescue mission. There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” said Mark Butler, the aviation company’s managing director. In a Facebook post Saturday, Harding said the expedition “is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”

Canada’s Coast Guard says a military aircraft and a Coast Guard ship have been sent to assist the US Coast Guard with the search and rescue operation around 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, the New York Times reports. Experts say it’s not clear what happened to the sub, though there is a chance it could have released a drop weight after losing power and is on the surface of the water waiting to be found. Parks Stephenson, technical director on James Cameron’s Titanic movie, says the loss of communication with the vessel is a “highly unusual event,” reports the BBC.

Time is running out for those trapped in this ‘sub’……including some random billionaire……

Billionaire British adventurer Hamish Harding is among the five people aboard the submersible that went missing during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic Sunday. The 58-year-old chairman of private jet dealer Action Aviation is also a “renowned explorer,” the BBC reports. Last year, he flew to space on Blue Origin’s fifth human-crewed flight. He’s also been to the South Pole multiple times and set three world records, including longest time spent at full ocean depth when he went on a dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He posted on Facebook Saturday that he was to be a mission specialist aboard the Titanic expedition, which he said would likely be the only manned dive to the wreckage this year.

He said that was “due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years,” and said that a “weather window” had just opened up that should allow them to start the dive at 4am local time Sunday if the weather held. The wreckage sits 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. US Coast Guard officials lost contact with the submersible about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, and a Coast Guard official said Monday that he understands the vessel likely had 70 hours left of its 96-hour oxygen supply at that point, Axios reports. Sources tell Sky News two of the others aboard the submersible are French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that runs the submersible tours.

Sorry this ‘adventure’ is not and never was on my bucket list……never did I ever consider being in a small metal tube thousands of feet under the water.

Some things should just stay a ‘mystery’……this is one of them.

Any thioughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

So Much For The Sanctions Idea

WE know that since last February the US and NATO has imposed heavy sanctions on Russia as a penalty for invading Ukraine.

These sanctions do not seem to find a way to stop the madness now exploding (no pun intended) in Ukraine.

Sanctions, at best, are a feel good action….seldom do anything to curb any bad activity by this country or that.

Let me go off track for a moment….

As a nuclear super power where does all the uranium come from that is needed to make those lovely bombs and stuff?

Here’s a hint for you….the nation is under extreme sanctions.

Roughly one third of the enriched uranium used in the United States is now imported from Russia, the world’s cheapest producer.  Most of the rest is imported from Europe. A final, smaller portion is produced by a British-Dutch-German consortium operating in the United States. Nearly a dozen countries around the world depend on Russia for more than half their enriched uranium.
 
The company that operates the Ohio plant says it could take more than a decade for it to produce quantities that rivaled Rosatom. The Russian nuclear agency, which produces both low-enriched and weapons-grade fuel for Russia’s civilian and military purposes, is also responsible in Ukraine for commandeering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, sparking fears that a battle over it could cause leaks of radioactive material or even a larger meltdown.
 
It is one of the most significant remaining flows of money from the United States to Russia, and it continues despite strenuous efforts among U.S. allies to sever economic ties with Moscow. The enriched uranium payments are made to subsidiaries of Rosatom, which in turn is closely intertwined with Russia’s military apparatus.
 
I have said and written many times that this sanction thing does nothing but help politicians feel good and something they can use to separate fools from their money.
 
Not something that is common knowledge by the people….but not to worry there is plenty more that we do not know.
 
At what point do we allow this BS to continue?  (that is a rhetorical question)
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”