Free Republic

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an executive order Friday to increase Maryland's long-term resiliency to storm-related flooding and sea level rise. **SNIP** "As storms such as Hurricane Sandy have shown, it is vital that we commit our resources and expertise to create a ready and resilient Maryland by taking the necessary steps to adapt to the rising sea and unpredictable weather," O'Malley said. "In studying and planning for storms and climate change, we can ensure that our land, infrastructure, and most importantly our citizens are safe and prepared."

Climate.gov’s Brian Kahn interviews Cynthia Rosenzweig, a climate impacts expert at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, and director of the NOAA-sponsored Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast. Why should New Yorkers care about sea level rise? First of all, sea level rise is a big issue for millions of people in the U.S., not just New Yorkers. Twenty-three of the 25 most densely populated U.S. counties are on the coast. In New York, the full brunt of Hurricane Sandy has shown how powerful and damaging the effects...

Neil Armstrong's ashes buried at seaBy Alan Boyle 18 hours ago The cremated remains of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, were committed to the Atlantic Ocean today, in accordance with the Navy flier's final wish. **SNIP** The setting for today's burial-at-sea ceremony on the Navy missile cruiser Philippine Sea, operating out of its Florida homeport, was much more intimate. Armstrong's widow, Carol, played a key role in the proceedings: Assisted by Navy Lt. Cmdr. Paul Nagy, she passed the remains overboard, then accepted the folded-up U.S. flag from from the ship's...

Members are banned from having children, are paid just $50 a week and can be punished for simply looking at somebody the wrong way by being thrown in ‘The Hole’ - two trailers set aside for punishment. It has been investigated by FBI agents looking into human trafficking and one member claimed he was locked in a ship’s hold for 18 hours a day with no food. Holmes is also said to have been alarmed at her daughter being pushed into an academy partly paid for by Will Smith which acts as a feeder to a school popular with Scientologists....

Legislation would limit sea-level plans to past patternsBy Patrick Gannon Last Modified: Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 11:23 a.m. A controversy is churning over projections for sea-level rise through the end of this century and whether they should be used in drafting development policies along the coast today. Draft legislation circulating among state lawmakers, lobbyists and advocacy groups would prohibit state and local government agencies from using projections of accelerated sea rise – due mainly to global warming and the melting of polar ice caps – when forming coasting development policies and regulations. If enacted as written, the measure would...

(CNSNews.com) – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee began the latest round in a decades-long fight to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, with supporters in the Obama administration and the military squaring off against Republican opponents on Wednesday. “I am well aware that this treaty does have determined opposition, limited, but nevertheless quite vociferous,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the committee. “And it’s unfortunate because it’s opposition based in ideology and mythology, not in facts, evidence, or the consequences of our continuing failure to accede to...

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced Wednesday he likely won't bring up the Law of the Sea Treaty for a vote before the November election. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said some lawmakers “on and off the committee” have candidly told him they'd “be more comfortable” if they could avoid having to cast the controversial vote during the campaign season. He made the announcement during a high-level hearing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey. “I would like to see this

It's bad enough when American tax dollars are blown on government-created debacles such as Solyndra and "Operation Fast and Furious." But at least in those instances the expenditures carried a bare modicum of democratic legitimacy. What if, on the other hand, the U.S. Treasury was raided for billions of dollars, which were then redistributed to the rest of the world by an international bureaucracy headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica? That's what will surely happen if the U.S. Senate gives its advice and consent to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a deeply flawed treaty that was rejected...

Contributors: volunteer activists of the Sovereignty Campaign – @SovCam The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs is once again diddling with the ultra-massive U.S. sovereignty and communitarian wealth giveaways known as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Treaty (UNCLOS or LOST). Whenever one sees “communitarian,” one may think “global communist.” Neo-Marxist Saboteur Barack Obama‘s State and Defense Departments (including numerous compromised, NATO-head officers) are pressuring the Senate to adopt this travesty after years of resistance dating back to Ronald Reagan’s presidency. If the committee goes forward with it, they could choose either of two paths: 1....

2 salmon-eating sea lions killed at Bonneville DamAssociated Press – Fri, Apr 6, 2012 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Washington state wildlife spokesman says two salmon-eating California sea lions have been captured this week at Bonneville Dam and killed by lethal injection. The Oregonian reports the deaths are the first this year after a federal judge ruled last month the program could proceed. Washington Fish and Wildlife spokesman Craig Bartlett says the sea lions were captured Tuesday.

Criticisms Convince State To Back Off Projections of Dramatic Sea Level RiseState officials still pushing coastal counties to prepare for a one-meter rise By Sara Burrows Feb. 20th, 2012 RALEIGH — State officials are pressuring local governments to plan for a one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, even though many independent scientists have argued the rise is highly unlikely if not impossible. Even though a state advisory panel no longer recommends regulations based on the one-meter projection, local government officials worry that state regulators will try to implement those rules. Such a policy, they say, would have a devastating impact on...

Satellite photos used to be for military eyes only, but Google Earth changed all that. Now something similar is happening to the ocean depths, with any web user able to listen in and "surf the sea floor" - and the US Navy is not happy."The cable is going underneath here," says Benoit Pirenne, standing at the water's edge on Canada's Vancouver Island. "It's going out 500 miles (800km) in a big loop in the ocean, coming back in the same place." The Vancouver cable connects a network of scientific instruments on the floor of the north Pacific, some as deep...

Title only so far.

Study finds that faults beneath the Salton Sea ruptured during Colorado River floods and may have triggered large earthquakes on the southern San Andreas FaultSouthern California's Salton Sea, once a large natural lake fed by the Colorado River, may play an important role in the earthquake cycle of the southern San Andreas Fault and may have triggered large earthquakes in the past. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Nevada, Reno, discovered new faults in the Salton Sea near the southern end of the San Andreas Fault. By examining...

That’s right – I married a Cornish girl nearly 44 years ago and we still often go back there. This is the cottage where we stayed in Fowey a few weeks ago.

President Obama skipped the the traditional Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery last year, a move that dismayed veterans of the armed forces who felt he was disrespecting America's dead soldiers. Nevertheless, Obama told 60 Minutes that the decision to give Osama Bin Laden a proper burial according to Islamic law was made out of respect to the late Al Qaeda chief's corpse. - VIDEO

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma's lone Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Dan Boren of Muskogee, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, accompanied House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on a trip to Pakistan where they had a "frank and productive discussion" about the battle against Islamic extremist groups like the Taliban and Al Qaeda, as reported by The Hill on April 18, 2011. Boren joined Boehner, along with Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), Mike Conaway (R-Texas), Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Joe Heck (R-Nev.). According to The Hill, "Boehner's group is taking advantage of the congressional recess to visit key strategic...

ARABIAN SEA, March 25, 2011 – U.S. naval forces disrupted a pirate attack on a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel, after it reported it had been attacked by pirates yesterday. Navy Chief Petty Officer Nathan P. Rose, an assistant boarding officer, briefs the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf’s visit, board, search and seizure team before boarding the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel Falcon Trader II, which had sent out a distress call reporting it had been boarded by pirates in the Arabian Sea, March 25, 2011. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Guerra  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. All 20...

Does anybody know of a list of which Senators support and which Senators oppose the Law of the Sea Treaty.

Ancient sea scorpions included the largest and arguably most frightening bug-like creatures known to have lived on Earth, but despite their fearsome claws, these giants might actually have been creampuffs, scientists think.

Nothing more yet, just announced by Shep....

FORT LAUDERDALE — A burial in his beloved sea was the wish of Daniel Scott Lasky, who died last week at his home in Hickory, N.C. But his family's efforts to comply with that wish led to a fisherman's startling discovery and sent homicide investigators scrambling to solve the mystery of a body at sea. Lasky, a 48-year-old grocery worker, died of Lou Gehrig's disease on Sept. 8. The next day his family packed his body in dry ice, loaded it into a van and drove to Fort Lauderdale, where Lasky once vacationed. After stopping overnight in Daytona Beach, the...

After living the past seven years in this cabin the size of a hotel bathroom, the Crafton family seems in no hurry to clear out now..."I went to a Wal-Mart the first week we were back, and I had to come home and take a nap," says Tom, rolling his ice-gray eyes and leaning against the teak bulkhead. "It's way too soon for that. Some of our cruising friends warned us about reentry. Baby steps, baby steps."

By Cassandra Anderson Thirty states will be encroached upon by Obama's Executive Order establishing the National Ocean Council for control over America's oceans, coastlines and the Great Lakes. Under this new council, states' coastal jurisdictions will be subject to the United Nations' Law Of Sea Treaty (LOST) in this UN Agenda 21 program. America'a oceans and coastlines will be broken into 9 regions that include the North East, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, the Gulf Coast, West Coast, the Great Lakes, Alaska, the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii) and the Caribbean. Because of the decades of difficulty that the collectivists have had trying...

Oddly-shaped, brightly-coloured or even transparent these are some of the bizarre creatures that scientists did not even know existed until recently.They are among a host of new animals that scientists have just uncovered in the hidden depths of the Atlantic Ocean during a new study which has 'revolutionised' thinking about deep-sea life.Scientists believe they have discovered more than 10 new marine species by using the latest diving technology during the groundbreaking study.A Benthic Holothurian (Peniagone diaphana) from the mid Atlantic ridge, which was caught swimming above the sea floor A Polynoid Polychaete worm, caught at approximately 2,500m below sea level...

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - – The appearance of a grey whale off the coast of Israel has stunned scientists, in what was thought to be the first time the giant mammal has been seen outside the Pacific in several hundred years. The whale, which was first sighted off Herzliya in central Israel on Saturday, is believed to have travelled thousands of miles from the north Pacific after losing its way in search of food. "It's an unbelievable event which has been described as one of the most important whale sightings ever," said Dr Aviad Scheinin, chairman of the Israel Marine Mammal...

It may look like a creepy-crawly April Fool's joke - but an expert on deep-sea species says the bizarre giant bug shown in pictures circulating on the Internet is the real deal. "I've seen the pictures, and they are real, and they really do get that big," Craig McClain, assistant director of science for the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina, told me today. McClain specializes in deep-sea biological systems and covers the subject on his Weblog, Deep Sea News. So he was the go-to guy when pictures of the bug, reportedly hauled up aboard a remotely operated vehicle...

Here is a nice demonstration video of body boarding, all on the excellent soundtrack for the Phoenix group and their titles: Lisztomania. A very good job of Director Fergal Smith and Tom Lowe.

This from Michael Yon on Facebook: http://ww.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPageGot arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve...eventually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies. h/t tip North Shore JournalInstead of going after those that are suspected terrorists, this happens? I was reading a post at JWF, where Joan Rivers was booted...

Thank goodness our Homeland Security people are on the job after the EunuchBomber botched attack on Christmas Day. We certainly don’t want to have independent war correspondents passing through our airports without revealing their annual income: Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from...

Russia has retrieved its Arctic Sea shipping vessel that was hijacked and charged the offenders. The story doesn’t end there, though, as reports continue to surface alleging the “hijacking” were Israeli operatives sent to intercept missiles headed to Iran.. Other reports indicate the Russians staged their own hijacking after being notified of the ship’s contents by Israel. Regardless of who the hijackers were, they have thwarted a shipment of weapons that would have raised the stakes in the region for Israel and possibly even provoked military conflict. On July 24, the Arctic Sea was hijacked by eight individuals while it...

For the past month, Emma Ramirez has been sleeping with her late husband. Each night, she tucks the urn full of his ashes into the bed they shared and talks to him in her dreams. Saying goodbye is harder than she imagined. But when her grief wanes, the Tucson woman plans to have her mate buried at sea as a tribute to his years of Navy service. "I know he would be honored," Ramirez, 58, said of her husband, Francisco M. Ramirez, a retired chief petty officer who died on May 15 at age 99. The Ramirezes are among a...

Just a few weeks ago I suggested that we should just give the pirates our ships - bullets first, ARRGH!. The notion was that there is no particular reason that American sailors on US flagged ships should have to leave the same guns they carry hunting and while shopping at the mall at home just because they are going to sea through say, pirate infested waters off Somalia. And now comes a Washington Times Editorial entitled "Arming sailors Gun-free zones are dangerous at sea." Quoting Richard Phillips, the heroic captain of the crew that fought off pirates on the Maersk...

Witnesses on ground reporting booms and flames from on engine...

The United States Senate may vote very soon on one of the most far-reaching and dangerous treaties our government has ever considered for ratification: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (also known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST). The treaty, which has simmered on the back burners of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades, would give the United Nations control and jurisdiction over the world's oceans, nearly three-quarters of the surface of our planet. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface and...

Bush Signs Off on New U.S. Arctic Policy The White House on Monday released a long-awaited document broadly laying out U.S. policy toward the Arctic, a region whose potential for oil, gas, and mineral exploitation is for the first time being unlocked by a historic ice melt driven by climate change. The presidential directive was issued with just over a week to go in the Bush administration, but the policy review behind it lasted about two years. The last such review was completed in 1994. "The United States is an Arctic nation, with varied and compelling interests in the region,"...

A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea. Scott Napper had taken 22-year-old Leafil Alforque to Proposal Rock near Neskowin Beach to pop the question at a place that got its name from couples ready to marry. Napper and Alforque had been dating since they met on the Internet in 2005. But Alforque had arrived in Oregon on a visa from the Philippines just three days before the fateful trip to the coast. Napper said the tide had receded around Proposal Rock on Saturday when the couple...

Aug. 4, 2008 -- Jets of searingly hot water spewing up from the ocean floor have been discovered in a far-northern zone of the Arctic Ocean, Swiss-based scientists announced Monday. The so-called "black smokers" were found 73 degrees north, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway, in the coldest waters yet for a phenomenon first observed around the Galagapos islands in 1977.The earth's plumbing system of hydrothermal vents contain their own, unique ecosystems given the absence of sunlight at depths, in this case, of 7,874 feet, with vinegar-like water attaining temperatures of up to 752 degrees Fahrenheit.A team from...

Rising sea levels threaten citiesBY ROSSLYN BEEBY SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTER 10/06/2008 7:22:00 AM Sea-level rise caused by global warning is already tracking above the global average along Australia's northern and western coastline, leading scientists have warned. Scenarios outlined in more than 40 submissions to a recent federal inquiry into environmental impacts of climate change on coastal communities included that the risk of storm surges and tidal damage to four of Australia's coastal capitals Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne had increased at least fourfold. And Cairns ''is particularly at risk'' from flooding with potential for a disaster similar to that...

The president of the low-lying Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati said Thursday his country may already be doomed because of climate change. President Anote Tong said communities had already been resettled and crops destroyed by seawater in some parts of the country, made up of 33 coral atolls straddling the equator. Although scientists are still debating the extent of rising sea levels and their cause, Tong told a press conference marking World Environment Day that changes were obvious in his country of 92,000 people. "I am not a scientist but what I know is that things are happening we did...

Sea Stallion steps back in historyRichard Collins on a remarkable Danish replica ship. AT three o’clock next Thursday afternoon Dubliners will be treated to an extraordinary spectacle. The Viking ship Sea Stallion, which has been on display at the National Museum in Collins Barracks, will be lifted 50 metres into the air by a giant crane. Then the huge vessel will be swung out over the three-storey museum building and deposited in the nearby Croppy’s Acre. In the middle of the night it will be moved to the River Liffey, prior to its long sea journey back to Denmark. The...

Six federally protected sea lions were apparently shot to death on the Columbia River as they lay in open traps put out to ensnare the animals, which eat endangered salmon. State and federal authorities are investigating. The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground in central California. Trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who was at the scene Sunday.

Windmill With A Twist Can Provide Fresh Water From Seawater DirectlyThe first prototype has been built and is already working at a location near the A13 motorway near Delft. This prototype is to be dismantled and transported to Curaçao the first week of March. There the concept will be tested on seawater. (Credit: Image courtesy of Delft University of Technology) ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2008) — A traditional windmill which drives a pump: that is the simple concept behind the combination of windmill/reverse osmosis developed by the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands. In this case, it involves...

Mystery ‘mound’ to be saved from the sea Gavin Morgan 26 January, 2008 ARCHAEOLOGISTS plan to save a fine example of a Bronze Age burnt mound from disappearing into the sea in a unique £70,000 removal operation on Shetland this coming summer. Historic Scotland has given permission for the site at Cruister, on Bressay, to be shifted to the islands’ heritage centre. The unprecedented project will see the prehistoric version of a water heater, a third of which has already been eroded by the sea, dismantled and rebuilt in fully functional order. Barbara Anderson, of Bressay Heritage Centre, said it...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2007 – Ask Master Chief Petty Officer Bruce “Skip” Binda why he joined the Navy nearly three decades ago and he’ll tell you it was a matter of pride. At 19, Binda had spent all of his tuition money on beer and eight-track music cassettes and was too proud to ask his father for the $200 he needed to return to college. Along came a Navy commercial proffering $1,500 to join, and Binda took the bait “hook, line and sinker,” he said. Since joining in 1980, he has served on one submarine and 10 ships and served...

Ancient jade study sheds light on sea trade Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:07pm GMTBy Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG (Reuters) - Over 100 ancient jade artifacts in museums across southeast Asia have been traced back to Taiwan, shedding new light on sea trade patterns dating back 5,000 years, researchers said. Using X-ray spectrometers, the international team of scientists analyzed 144 jade ornaments dating from 3,000 BC to 500 AD and found that at least 116 originated from Fengtian in eastern Taiwan. "The chemical composition of jade reveals its origin and ... their analysis determined the relative amounts of iron, magnesium,...

Coast villages to be sacrificed to the sea By Melissa Kite and Richard Gray Last Updated: 4:11am GMT 11/11/2007 Whole villages and swathes of agricultural land will be surrendered to the sea because the Government is unwilling to spend billions of pounds on flood defences. In pictures: Readers' pictures of the storm surge Ministers have admitted privately that they are preparing to evacuate settlements on the east coast within the next 30 years because it is not "cost effective" to save them. A Walcott place sign stands in sea water Thousands of acres of farmland will be allowed to flood,...

Senate Panel Backs Sea Treaty By JIM ABRAMS – 3 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The Reagan-era "Law of the Sea" treaty was primed for its first-ever Senate vote, boosted by strong support from the Bush administration and an emphatic vote of approval Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee. With Senate ratification, the United States would join 155 nations that are party to a convention that sets rules and settles disputes over navigation, fishing and economic development of the open seas and establishes environmental standards. Treaty supporters, after making little headway for years, have gained momentum recently with concerns that...

Culinary Specialist Seaman Vannessa Robertson, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-40 Detachment Horn of Africa culinary specialist, sprinkles seasoning on fish before putting it in the oven. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Mary Popejoy U.S. Navy Seaman Vannessa Robertson Culinary Specialist Serves up Food and Smiles By Petty Officer 1st Class Mary Popejoy CJTF-HOA Public Affairs CHARICHCHO, Ethiopia, Oct. 16, 2007 — Far away from the dining facility of Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, the Soldiers and Sailors of Forward Operating Location Charichcho look to Culinary Specialist Seaman Vannessa Robertson to serve up tasty treats that keep their bellies full...