A NAMAZU POST WORTH REPEATING

Namazu,Giant Japanese Catfish and Former Demigod, Now senior Analyst For AAB.

Update:1/22/2015

 My Dear Bipeds :

 I've written to you many times about the nature of the troubles in the Middle East. There has been some serious "stinking thinking" on all sides involved in the region, but the inescapable fact is that real trouble emanates from one source.That source is a peculiar school of Islamic thought that is well funded and is now rampant in most Muslim religious education outside of a few mostly Sufi sects. Not every Muslim believes that Islam is supposed to be spread by the sword but the group that does has the floor now, they took the podium by force of arms and wealth. Fortunately the lunacy of their thought processes is easily exposed by the light of common sense. Below is an entertaining and very pointed example that I received from an unknown source by E-mail. It exposes the lunacy of the radical view that clothed itself as a the dominant version of Islam. Sufi Islamic thought, mostly persecuted in the Islamic World today, abhors stupidity. Well ,observe the stupidity of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exposed below. We apologize if this comes from a copyrighted source but our research did not reveal the author. We felt it made such an important point that we wanted to spread the message and it seems to be making the rounds of the Internet. We will of course pull it if it is copyrighted and the holder prefers to keep it in authorized channels. Until we are so notified give the below some thought.


A Jewish Boycott
A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.

In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

"Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.

"A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.

Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.

If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.

Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.

Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.

Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the �Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

"Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Jewish Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.

They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

"Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.

Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

"In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

Oh, and by the way, don't call for a doctor on your cell phone because the cell phone was invented in Israel by a Jewish engineer.

Meanwhile I ask, what medical contributions to the world have the Muslims made?"

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:

1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:

1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1990 - Elias James Corey
1994 - Yaser Arafat:
1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics:

(zero)
Physics:

(zero)
Medicine:

1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7 SEVEN
The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:

1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:

1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias M ichael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:

1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1 965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charles Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:

1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Sim on Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:

1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis
1996- Lu RoseIacovino

TOTAL: 129!

The Jews are NOT promoting brainwashing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non-Muslims.
< br>The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.

There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church.

There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people. The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it all:

'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.

 If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

Benjamin Netanyahu: General Eisenhower warned us. It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.

It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 66 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United States?

                                              

 Amazon - Shop. Connect. Enjoy. All from Earth's Biggest Selection.                                                                                        

__._,_.___

 

Read More..

5/2014 Reoccurring announcement Maritime TV:  http://www.maritimetv.com/Home.aspx

NEW LINK ANNOUNCEMENT AND DESCRIPTION:

WE NOW LINK YOU TO THE WORLD'S FIRST ALL MARITIME CONTENT TV AVAILABLE OVER YOUR COMPUTER 24/7. 

http://www.maritimetv.com/Home.aspx

Maritime TV.com brings you 24 / 7 video programming devoted entirely to naval and commercial maritime subjects. Many of the important on line and print trade journals that we link you to in our NEWS SERVICE are producing features on this service. There is an archive so if you missed a feature at air time there is a good probability that you will be able to find it and play it later.

HERE IS WHAT THE SERVICE HAS TO SAY ABOUT ITSELF:

"As a pioneering global Internet broadcasting and streaming media company, TV Worldwide (www.TVWorldwide.com) developed the first Internet TV network of community-based interactive channels, including Maritime TV (www.MaritimeTV.com) in 1999. Maritime TV is now the industry�s pre-eminent channel for live and archived webcasts and video presentations involving the commercial and military shipping industry. Programming on Maritime TV ranges from congressional hearings on important marine industry issues, to live interactive town hall and advocacy group meetings, to training on shipboard safety and operational fundamentals. Maritime entertainment-based programming is also available, including the entire collection of episodes from the renowned television series, �Victory at Sea�. Over time the channel has also evolved into a leading source of industry-specific information for media outlets in the mainstream press, such as USA Today. Maritime TV is pleased to serve this industry, so vital to the global economy, as the world�s first maritime TV channel"

While we love books and indeed earn our primary revenue by selling books we have always accepted as part of our mission to bring you all manner of maritime information, to serve as your single portal to the maritime world. We have reviewed this service and are pleased to recommend and link to it. Maritime TV is a not a paid advertiser at this time. Please keep in mind that we have little direct control of the advertisements that Google places between our posts, so if Maritime TV ever appears there, please note that we recommended it before we ever advertised it. We are very serious about our recommendations and conscious of the apparent conflicts that may arise at times when a publication that accepts a critical role in an industry accepts advertising, but advertising is the only way we can provide the service free of charge. So we exercise care and try to be up front about any apparent conflicts. We have had no contact with nor anticipate any contact with Maritime TV .com. We simply tuned in like any other viewer and recommend it as a source of general maritime information. We will be carrying this link near the top of our station identification and notice board posts daily as one of our half dozen or so key maritime links (OUR MARITIME PORTAL) that we suggest in the early stages of any maritime research.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Visit the link below for complete system requirements we do know that  the service may be utilized with a variety of browsers, we used Google Chrome with no problems, you of course need one of the later versions of windows, and media player but basically we didn't see any system requirements that most computers under 42 months of age don't have or are able to get on a free down load. But then again, despite being an Internet blog, we are far from Geeks. Give Maritime TV .com a try at:

http://www.maritimetv.com/Home.aspx

Try This sample Blooper Reel video just for fun: http://www.maritimetv.com/FeaturedContent/FeaturedVideos.aspx?VID=maritime/130214_MaritimeTV_MOM_01.flv#anchor

THANKS TO ASTUTE READER BILL RILEY FOR ALERTING US TO THIS SERVICE

                                                   

Shop Amazon Fire TV - Say it. Watch it. 

Read More..

BIRD FARMS PRESENT, PAST, AND FUTURE

Namazu, former Japanese demigod, giant catfish, and now star analyst for AAB  GREETINGS BIPEDS I HAVE THE HONOR OF ONCE AGAIN PRESENTING AN ENTERTAINING AND INFORMATIVE ARTICLE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS BY MY FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR VIC SOCOTRA.
We reprint this by permission from Vic's May 3, 2014 blog. We read the DAILY SOCOTRA religiously here at the AAB. Below is a sample of why. We recommend the DAILY SOCOTRA to all of our visitors Click here for a look at the site: www.vicsocotra.com
Due to technical difficulties we had to swap out two of the illustrations for comparable images, the text is exactly as it appeared in the May 3, DAILY SOCOTRA

03 May 2014

The Michelin Guide to Bird Farms

Nimitz Carrier Task Force-Official USN Photo

I have been watching the slow progress on the construction of the Navy�s newest aircraft carrier with a great deal of professional interest. There are some amazing technical innovations being incorporated into the design of the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and it is, as anything designed to steam the world ocean, phenomenally expensive. 

You can check out some of the innovations at this article in Popular Mechanics: 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/navy-ships/inside-the-uss-ford-americas-newest-aircraft-carrier?src=spr_TWITTER#slide-1

One of the most impressive aspects, to my mind, is the fact that there are no urinals on the ship. There is some other stuff, too, like the fact that it is not high-pressure steam that powers things, but rather electro-magnetic power. It occurred to me when reading about the electrical marvels, that the use of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon against an all-electric ship would render it a dumb and defenseless chunk of metal- but I am sure the Navy has taken that all into account.

Hahaha.

Anyway, that is a new thing for a lot of the usual suspects- we were accustomed to the oily steamy wisps that floated out of the catapult tracks, and coated everything with a thin film of oil. Everything. 

The ships were all little cities, and they all had their individual quirks. As an average, most of us have six or seven ships in our lives. The Midway sailors, and those who served on the successor ships permanently home-ported in Japan are a special lot, since the ship, whichever one it happened to be, was America. 

The discussion presented in the article tripped off a lot of bird farm memories. 

One irascible shipmate chimed in that we sounded �like the Battleship admirals of the pre-Pearl Harbor days!!! Ahhhh�.Battleship Row�.ain't she a sight to behold!�

Point taken, of course. Someone else suggested that we do a Michelin Guide for the bird farms: which ones could accomplish anything, no matter how hard, and others that had more chequered records- �floating roach hotels and unreliable platforms.� Zero Stars. 

(USS Midway departing YOKUSOKA, JAPAN 10 August 1991 Photo by PH1 Galen Walker USN

A discerning shipmate summed up the experience nicely: �I have been on seven, including all three Midway class CVs, serving in air wing, ships company, and battle group staff intelligence billets---- though for three months I was the Training Department Head aboard Coral Sea.  Carrier duty is exciting and professionally rewarding; these ship are all technologically marvelous in their own ways but some are better to live on then others.  FDR, Coral Sea, and Ranger are at the bottom in no particular order (no stars) with Enterprise, Midway, Constellation, and Kitty Hawk pretty much in that order at the top with wide gap. The gap however from top group and the bottom was significant,� though I think all the latter group would warrant at least a star in the Michelin Guide.

No kidding- you could tell by the nicknames for some of the ships, though they could change based on who was in command: Shitty Kitty, Sorry Sarah, Handjob, Danger, Forest Fire where things stood with the great ships. Others had a sense of familiarity- O-Boat, Tico, Amerika-Jima, Connie. The ten newer ships- Nimitz class boats that were brand new when most of us were in the are now starting to arrive at the point in their service lives when extensive reactor-recoring is required. 

They have much less quirky eccentricity than the old conventionally-powered ships, and more formality in their names, since they reflect actual people in their naming conventions. 

Many of them proved it with cappuccino machines in the dirty-shirt wardrooms. All the Nimitz boats would get a star for comfort, though the smoking ban and the integration of mixed-sex crews made them social experiments as well, with all sorts of interesting aspects to life afloat.

The ages of my shipmates spans the Vietnam era to the current era, when every carrier (except JFK) went to The Show in SE Asia. We rode those ships (and crews) hard in those days and put them away wet. 

One shipmate claims that �Kennedy was the best because they did everything flawlessly and you could do surgery in the engineering spaces; there were formal zone inspections every week with flashlight and white gloves. You haven't lived until you draw the weapons storage spaces as your zone and climb down 8 decks from the main deck. Awesome storage-of course mostly empty.). If you were OOD and the 0800 launch didn't have the first CAT stroke concurrent with the 8th bell - you could find yourself in deep kimchee. Her showboat reputation was deserved.� 

�The others blur together, with the Midway getting a special nod for Japanese maintenance (and signage on the Flag Bridge) and that unbelievable Midway Magic--some incredible launch rates.  You got me going!�

�Enterprise gets my top nod because Barney Kelly (later Admiral Kelly) was CO when I was embarked with CCG-3. Big radiated with his positive personality, leadership, and obvious competence. Constellation just after Stark and during Earnest Will was the best operating CV for that 6 month of any I was on her. 108 Days aboard Coral Maru during the Iranian Hostage crisis put a real strain on an already tired ship. And yes I went on the last cruise of the FDR twice! ! ! She made six more �last cruises� before being put out of her misery��

Another shipmate- I worked for him twice- had a little more perspective: 

�I am a Ticonderoga, Enterprise (two cruises, with a squadron, then CAG staff)), Hancock, Coral Sea, Constellation, and finally Midway Maru! A few days/weeks on others do not count. Coral Sea is at the bottom of my list. Hell, as the boot LT on CARGRU 3 I was sent to "look for" doors to our staterooms two weeks before our '70 departure from Alameda. Not that we did not have fun��

Of course, Tico and Hancock weren't much better to live on, Enterprise had it all, but Midway...what can I say? My two years as ships company, how it operated, and all we did puts her in first place for me...

I have to agree with that assessment- Ma Midway was home for 23 months, 1978-80, and I had a chance to steam on seven or eight more, including most of the Nimitz Class boats (the West Coast ones, anyway) with a Med deployment on Forrestal. 

It would be worth a longer treatment of the individual boats, but the truth of the matter is that most of these once-proud ships are razor blades now. They scrapped FDR and Coral Maru; are taking FID apart down in Texas this morning, They deliberately sunk O-Boat and America as artificial reefs and only Midway and Intrepid are safe for the moment, being memorial ships in San Diego and New York, respectively. 

As one of the curmudgeons noted, �the CV/CVN has been the cornerstone of U.S. Naval power for over 70 years!!! While the aircraft and ships have improved dramatically, they still have some serious vulnerabilities� I wonder if we are blinded by "platform" love and nostalgia�.can you imagine the HMS Victory (the best warship of 1805) taking on the Monitor and the other ironclads of the 1860s? How about the Merrimac taking on Jackie Fischer's Dreadnoughts in the early 20th century? We are talking about that level of technological age spread.� 

"I hope we (and more importantly, the current Navy leaders) are not surprised by new technologies and tactics we were unable to see or appreciate."

We haven�t lost an aircraft carrier to hostile action in quite a while- the jeep carrier Bismark Sea was the last in 1945- but all things change. I guess we will see how the Ford Class performs. But I have to tell you, I think all of us would go back for one last deployment. 

It was that cool. 

(Five CVNs and a couple big deck Amphibs in Norfolk, the World's Largest Naval Operating Base. Photo USN)

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com

Twitter: @jayare303 

       @   

THE USS KITTY HAWK SHELF MODELS, HATS, VIDEOS, BOOKS

USS TICONDEROGA SHELF: BOOKS, HATS, VIDEOS, MODELS

USS TICONDEROGA SHELF: BOOKS, HATS, VIDEOS, MODELS

                          

Shop Amazon - Mother's Day Gifts 
                                                                        Shop  Amazon - 20% Off Mother's Day Gifts in Clothing & Accessories                 

Read More..

"SANTA MARIA" OR SIERRA MADRE"? The Chinese Have Sent 5 Ships To Confront A DERELICT HULL, BUT ONE WITH MARINES OF THE PHILIPPINES ABOARD.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/05/04/1319161/5-chinese-vessels-deployed-near-shoal


WE HAVE REPORTED THIS VESSEL BASED ON PRESS REPORTS PREVIOUSLY AS THE SANTA MARIA, THIS LATEST INFORMATION FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE, THE PHILIPPINE STAR CALLS THE VESSEL THE SIERRA MADRE ,REGARDLESS WE KNOW WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE PHILIPPINE NAVAL VESSEL AGROUND ON 
AYUNGIN SHOAL WITH A SQUAD OF PHILIPPINE MARINES ON BOARD AND CHINESE COAST GUARD VESSELS CIRCLING LIKE SHARKS. 




Photo of Chinese Coast Guard vessel taken from a Japanese Coast Guard vessel in waters under Japanese jurisdiction. Philippine waters aren't the only sovereign waters where the Dragon now feels at home. 



HERE IS THE LATEST FROM THE PHILIPPINE STAR:

 "PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan, Philippines � China has deployed five vessels � a survey ship, a frigate and three surveillance vessels � close to Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

A Philippine Air Force (PAF) Nomad plane saw the Chinese deployment while delivering provisions to the Marine troops on the BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal.

The STAR joined yesterday�s airdrop operations and saw several Chinese ships in the area.

The Chinese vessels include two surveillance ships with Bow No. 3111 and 3102; XiangYonghong 10, a survey ship; a Jianghu-V Class frigate, and one unmarked white ship from their forward naval station at Panganiban Reef.

Last March, two Chinese surveillance ships tried to block the troop rotation and provisioning operations at Ayungin. The bow numbers of the two vessels are different from those that were sighted in the area yesterday morning.

The territorial patrol was launched yesterday over the area to support the airdrop of provisions for the troops in the shoal." Read More at Philippine Star

For a pictorial and text background on the entire situation click on "A GAME OF SHARK AND MINNOW"

                                              

 Amazon - Shop. Connect. Enjoy. All from Earth's Biggest Selection.                                                                                        

Read More..

WEEK END EDITION MAY 3-4, 2014 HOME PAGE / NOTICES

WELCOME TO AMERICAN ADMIRALTY                                          BOOKS  

                      YOUR PORTAL TO THE MARITIME WORLD

Our favorite small sailboat design so far, THE PELICAN  click on her name to reach a site where you can buy plans

                    

                                                                         

YOUR PORTAL TO THE MARITIME WORLD OF NAVIES, COAST GUARDS, MERCHANT MARINES,YACHTING, OCEANOGRAPHY, NAVIGATION, FISHING, DIVING, SURFING, MARITIME LAW AND MORE. THE ONLY SITE YOU NEED TO KNOW TO FIND ALL THE INFORMATION THERE IS ON ANYTHING MARITIME IN NATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.         

                  

  WELCOME ABOARD

   NOTICES:   (1) The promotion and contest are on, you could win an F150 pick up truck from Amazon and you will save up to 50% on select truck parts and accessories NO PURCHASE NECESSARY scroll down to the truck image to get to the entry link. (2) Saturday we examined a case study of random drug testing gone wrong and how difficult it is to preserve the case record / analysis once a book goes out of print. (3) Be sure to check out the several news updates especially on events in the Ukraine. (4) Today, Sunday we introduce our readers to the concept of virtual aids to navigation, a growing concept in aids to navigation and one with a likely profound effect on recreational boaters and with serious considerations for national security. For the week end edition, scroll down

1. To Reach The Latest Blog Posts simply Scroll down

2. The list of Special interest pages to your right are direct links, simply click on any page of interest. Once there simply scroll down or use the various internal and external links provided

3. NEW VISITOR?  Click here for a short video explaining our purpose and mission, a basic site guide, short cuts etc.   INTRODUCTION

4. Looking for maritime links? We link to maritime information sites throughout the special interest pages based on the special interest subject. But we also have an indexed collection of most of the world's English language maritime web sites. Click here: THE BIG LINKS LOCKER

5.  Looking for past essays by the our top analyst, Namazu, former Japanese Giant Catfish demigod. His stuff is spread all over the blog but we are building an archive so you might want to check there first: EVERYTHING NAMAZU

6. We've been following the aggressive actions of the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard for nearly two years now. We are working on an archive for those posts as well: How Far Will The Dragon Swim?

7. On line books?  We have a growing collection for reading on line or use as a reference: Our authoritative literature section is where we are editing, up dating and posting the entire collection of American Admiralty Bureau Guide and Commentators, references that should prove vital to admiralty lawyers working with expert witnesses. This is an on going project but about four complete volumes are on line now: After you enter the Authoritative literature page simply scroll down to the start of the American Admiralty Bureau Guides and Commentators.
AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE INCLUDING AAB PUBS.  We also have our popular serial posts on the parallels between space exploration and the earlier age of maritime exploration originally published as a serial blog post under the continuing title "SPACE AS AN OCEAN" and now posted as an E-Book in Progress titled PROTOCOLS: Click into our MARITIME LITERATURE page and scroll down until you see the words "E Book In Progress". Then you may continue to scroll down to read as many of the essays as you like. Each one is complete in and of its self so you could red the entire collection painlessly by reading just one a day, about five thought provoking minutes. To view the essays click here: MARITIME LITERATURE, Including PROTOCOLS. We also have in our MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST SECTION the National Mariner's Association book: BLOOD ON BROWN WATER. Just enter the MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST SECTION and scroll down:  MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST:  "BLOOD ON BROWN WATER"

8. Book Reviews: Are sorted via the special interest pages, just click on any of the special interest pages in the column margin to your right to select a subject area. Book reviews are spread throughout each section along with links to free videos on the pertinent subject, links to specialized web sites on the subject etc. Each book review will have a link to a vendor where you can obtain additional information or purchase the book. If you are interested in a library loan look for the International Book Binding Number (ISBN) either in our review or at the vendor's site. The ISBN number is a big aid when your librarian has to arrange an inter library loan.

9. To look at books that we haven't reviewed yet, shop for water sports books, videos, clothing, and equipment, boat building tools, fishing equipment, or surfing and diving gear visit our shopping mall.  The shops are open while we're under construction. 
  AMERICAN ADMIRALTY SHOPPING MALL

10. Need Boat Building Plans? Links to designers with building plans for sale are in the BOAT BUILDING section.  BOAT BUILDING SECTION

11. If you need additional guidance through this very large site try our  SITE GUIDE AND INDEXS

Shop Amazon - Save Up to 50% on Select Truck Parts & Accessories and Enter for a Chance to Win a 2014 Ford F150  

                                                   

Shop Amazon Fire TV - Say it. Watch it. 

                                                                               Shop Amazon - Celebrate May the Fourth with Star Wars Items                                                  
 Amazon - Shop. Connect. Enjoy. All from Earth's Biggest Selection.                                                                                        





                          

Shop Amazon - Mother's Day Gifts 
                                                                        Shop  Amazon - 20% Off Mother's Day Gifts in Clothing & Accessories                                                                                                                 Shop Amazon - Take 25% Off Mother's Day 

Read More..

RECREATIONAL BOATERS TAKE NOTE: VIRTUAL AIDS TO NAVIGATION ARE COMING

AS VIRTUAL AIDS TO NAVIGATION REPLACE AN INCREASING NUMBER OF BUOYS AND DAY BEACONS MANY COASTAL AND GREAT LAKES RECREATIONAL BOATERS WILL BE IN NEED OF INEXPENSIVE AUTOMATIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TRANSCEIVERS. THE QUESTION IS WILL THEY BE ON THE MARKET ON TIME.

 Photo: Portion of a navigation chart by NOAA.  Presently the symbols for the buoys marking the entrance channel on the chart section depicted above as well as the fixed beacon on shore opposite green buoy no. 21 and the wreck buoy near "Wellman Ledge" all represent real physical aids to navigation present in or near the water. For an increasing number of such aids to navigation there is coming a day when the actual physical aid won't be there as a matter of routine. Even today an aid may be destroyed or temporarily replaced by another aid different than that depicted on the official navigation charts. Professional mariners update their charts electronically or through the Coast Guard's Notice to Mariner's system. In the future selected aids that disappear may not be replaced at all but instead be "simulated" by being broadcasts as symbols on electronic chart systems and automatic information systems (AIS). Additionally ever shrinking budgets for coast guards and light house authorities globally will drive many aids to be evaluated on an basis of navigational necessity versus costs causing even more aids to go virtual and be continued only in some sort of AIS system. 

 Most recreational boats under 65 feet (19.8 meters) don't carry very much in the way of sophisticated electronic equipment so physical aids to navigation are very important in their daily navigation. It is also true however, that electronic navigation equipment, including GPS based electronic chart display type systems are getting smaller and cheaper, even battery operated and hand held. Perhaps by the time virtual aids to navigation reach their apex of development there will be devices for small boats that will both put out the AIS position signal (transmit) with its value in collision avoidance and search and rescue, and provide electronic chart displays with all AIS generated virtual aids at a size, battery life and ease of use comparable to your cell phone. of Course for the smaller boats being waterproof and able to float would be a plus.
  Most primary seacoast lights will probably be maintained as historic structures and the lights have long ago been automated by most coast guards and light house authorities world wide since the automated light technology has been available for decades and it is much cheaper maintaining a light keeper on the property. Eventually however many other "secondary aids" will be candidates for virtual existence only. There is a plus side. Where new aids are needed virtual aids may be instantly added at nominal costs.
   Photos: U.S.Coast Guard   The establishment and maintenance of physical aids to navigation involves some expensive and often dangerous highly skilled manual work. in the late 20th century two U.S.Coast Guard buoy tender ships were lost on Aids to Navigation (ATON) missions the CGC WHITE ALDER and the CGC BLACKTHORN about 17 crew members were lost in each accident. Italy recently lost an entire vessel traffic center watch section when the on water center was struck by a ship. Almost every year in coast guards and light house authorities around the world individual technicians are injured and killed attempting to restore malfunctioning physical aids to navigation often in very foul weather. The physical ATON effort in every maritime nation involves hundreds if not thousands of people and billions of dollars worth of heavy equipment. Below is a look at how a virtual ATON would be established, moved, repaired and maintained.
 Photo: U.S. Coast Guard  Not all physical aids can be converted to virtual aids coast guards and light house authorities will continue to have to maintain buoy tending vessels and service technicians for the physical aids retained when the AIS virtual ATON revolution reaches its peak. As you can see however there is reason to worry that shrinking agency budgets and the extremely low costs of virtual aids may drive the move to virtual aids beyond what is prudent. What is prudent is difficult to tell but there are limits that are probably well below what economics alone would drive.

 For example in the case of the U.S. Coast Guard where ATON is both a domestic civil mission and a military support mission the service must maintain enough physical ATON capacity to service the needs of the U.S. Navy , Merchant Marine, and Army Transportation corps in foreign combat theaters of operation. Physical ATON was critical in Vietnam and Coast Guard buoy tender personnel had to service these aids while under constant threat of sniper fire. In the first Iraq war one of the first U.S. units into liberated Kuwait was a USCG team that quickly discovered booby trapped ATON. Both physical ATON and Virtual ATON are subject to enemy action. While it is easy to destroy a physical aid or a number of aids, it is difficult to destroy an entire system. Virtual aids are subject to attacks as well, but a cyber attack if successful will take out an entire system. Caught in the middle of this evolving system are the small craft users recreational boaters, near coastal commercial and sports fishermen, water taxi operators, and other launch services. We doubt that virtual ATON will ever completely replace physical ATON but the economic pressure on budgets may drive the evolution too far too fast and the navigational interest most likely to be hurt will be the small craft operator unless commercial off the shelf virtual charting/virtual ATON transceivers become hand held, battery powered and cheap before the system over steps prudence.

 The U.S. Coast Guard with a military support mission involving physical ATON may move slower and resist economic pressures a little better than many other non military coast guards and light house authorities around the world so we don't expect the revolution to arrive all at once and every where at the same level. But the time is already here where small boat interests need to be aware of what is going on with the ATON authorities and need to monitor the evolution of the related electronic consumer technology. Below is a link to typical devices available to day. There are some hand held devices for under $250 but many dashboard mounted devices with larger displays and more capacity exceed $1500 a major hurdle for many small craft owners. We urge small craft interests to monitor both this evolution towards at least a partial shift to virtual ATON and the related marine electronics market. Try not to get caught in an unattended squeeze play, use caution, governments at work.



ELECTRONIC CHART AND GPS DEVICES

         

 
THE COAST GUARD SHOP, CG LOGO ITEMS AND BOOKS ABOUT THE U.S. COAST GUARD

Read More..

NEWS ALERT: Green Peace Ship Boarded By German Maritime Authorities

Dutch police storm Greenpeace ship trying to block Arctic oil delivery

 Reuters has the story:

"Reuters) - Dutch police stormed a Greenpeace ship on Thursday to prevent environmental activists blocking delivery of the first oil from Russia's new Arctic drilling platform reaching port in Rotterdam.

The Rainbow Warrior was crewed by the activists who were detained last year by Russia in the Arctic, the campaign group said. Greenpeace is opposed to drilling in the Arctic Sea which it says risks causing a catastrophe in a fragile ecosystem." FULL STORY

 A comprehensive history of the Green Peace Movement /Organization

Shop Amazon - Save Up to 50% on Select Truck Parts & Accessories and Enter for a Chance to Win a 2014 Ford F150  

Read More..