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News Briefs 10-07-2006

By Rick MGon

I’m visiting Japan for two weeks in October, so if there are any TDG readers living in Japan who’d like to drink sake, see the future at Shinjuku and explore Jomon ruins, let me know and we’ll make it the first official TDG shindig.

  • Instead of Japan, perhaps you can plan a trip to Peru’s 5000 year old sacred city of Caral?
  • It’s suffered invasion and genocide, but now the ruins of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples face another threat – tourist hordes.
  • A unique ancient statue of the Greek goddess Artemis was unearthed by archaeologists, but they’re still looking for her head.
  • Bones and tusks dating back 400’000 years are the earliest signs in Britain of ancient humans butchering elephants for meat.
  • The latest genetic techniques have revealed that the wooly mammoth’s coat varied in colour, from blonde and ginger to dark brown. Early humans only ate the blonde ones.
  • Discussion of a theory that suggests civilisations develop during periods of extreme climate change.
  • An expert panel convened by BBC News has concluded that climate change is real and dangerous. That’s a clear and present danger, Mr Bush.
  • If you weren’t fooled by the theatrics of the Da Vince Code court case, then perhaps you’d like to bid for the DVC copyrights on Ebay.
  • Another code-busting hopeful has stepped forward to solve the mystery of Shugborough Hall’s cryptic letters.
  • Got nothing to do on weekends? Then why not join the Society of Leyhunters. It beats bowling.
  • Were ancient civilisations able to levitate huge blocks of stone?
  • Dr Steven Greer claims SETI has received multiple extraterrestrial signals but has lost connection due to human interference, and Microsoft may be part of it.
  • British UFO hacker Gary McKinnon is being extradited to the US and may end up in Guantanamo.
  • The North Korean missile crisis heats up, with Japan pushing for UN sanctions. Even scarier, North Korea’s ambassador to Australia warns his country will retaliate with physical force if pushed to disarm. Only Team America: World Police can stop Kim Jong II.
  • China is harvesting organs from live Falun Gong prisoners, according to a Canadian human rights lawyer.
  • China will transmit 30 pieces of Chinese music to Earth next year aboard its first lunar-probing satellite, with the public helping to choose the tunes. I’ve already recommended Tool, Greg.
  • A huge sunshade a million miles from Earth could help astronomers search for signs of life on planets orbiting distant stars.
  • A mystery object has been discovered at the heart of a supernova.
  • Critics say Stephen Hawking is wrong to suggest we should abandon the Earth when things get bad to colonise outer space. I’ve already booked a seat on an escape pod.
  • Speaking of escape pods, a Christian archaeology expedition claims to have found Noah’s Ark in Iran.
  • A new exhibition explores how artists – from William Blake to John Cage – have portrayed visions of the universe, and sci-fi writer Brian Aldiss speculates on civilisations of the future. Great article.
  • Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich! A profile of actor John Malkovich and the many universes he’s created.
  • A great article about the secret of Bono’s success, his wife Ali Hewson and her ethical clothing company Edun.
  • Actor Robert Downey Jnr claims to have psychic powers, or maybe he just got too involved in the film adaptation of Philip K Dick’s A Scanner Darkly.
  • Forget Johnny Depp and Hollywood, modern pirates carry AK-47s and use speed boats to plunder gas tankers and foreign aid ships, with Southeast Asia a hotspot.
  • What about ghost pirates? A ghostbusting team of Malaysian healers and religious teachers seek the paranormal, and claim to have captured a Bigfoot in Cambodia three years ago, but can’t afford to transport it. Uh, cameras are pretty cheap these days.
  • Loren Coleman is dreaming of the day photographs are taken of the Johor Bigfoot.

Thanks Kat, Clifton, Gary, Ksmith and Badeye.

Quote of the Day:

Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Rick MG
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3 Comments

  1. I know about the pirates in the Malacca Straits
    My son sailed in container ships for many years through the Malacca Straits and his mother was a nervous wreck.
    A huge container ship or tanker can be taken over by as few as 4 or 5 pirates carrying weapons and boarding from a small fast vessel.
    Under International Maritime Law no ships are allowed to carry weapons, so the instruction to the crew from their companies is to lock themselves on the bridge.
    This applies in the event of an attack by terrorists also.

    The country stealing the biggest ships are the Chinese.They board a container ship and order all the crew at gunpoint down below.
    Then they order the captain to sail the ship to China.
    In China the ship is painted and re-flagged and the cargo sometimes unloaded or sent on to another destination.

    It has become an international disgrace.A few Australian ships have been hijacked and sailed to China and their captains held prisoner until some sort of deal could be done to secure their release.

    There have been tragedies but you don’t hear much about them because who is interested?
    Not many people, only those with relatives sailing on these ships.

    My son also sailed for some years on a rig tender from Singapore to the oil rigs off the north west shelf.
    The tender carried supplies for the rig and their cargo though not of container ship size was very valuable.
    My son’s ship was actually chased by pirates out of Singapore once and I asked him what he did about it.
    He replied that with a smaller ship they were able to move faster and reached the safety of the rig.

    It was certainly not the life I had envisioned for him at sea.
    Now he sails from the west coast of Oz and I stopped worrying until I heard that Howard had warned that the rigs there had been threatened by terrorists.

    You can’t win.

    shadows

    1. money
      Of course you (shadow) know me as a supporter of free trade, and free movement of individuals and companies all over the world. But this is certainly a negative consequence of shipping valuable stuff all over the place.

      If you leave valuables unattended, or undefended, then some peolple try to take them from you. It is basic theft and robbery. Don’t some large ships get robbed simply for the cash that the crew carry? With no regard for the cargo, and no regard where the ship goes later, when the crew is dead?

      To some , these look like trivial observations, I know.

      Does everyone have to travel with heavy weapons again?

      Sometimes it seems that we are back in the times of the 1600s, 1700s or so. Nations are becoming less important, and businesses large and small are taking back their historically normal role. Not that this is good or bad, it just seems to be normal.

      If Kennc reads this, yes there is a cycle of history here. For Richard, yes it is the same kind of realization, and perhaps dispair, that we talked about in another thread just today.

    2. China has banned movie
      I see that China has banned the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, the second one.
      The reason is because they don’t want attention brought to their piracy.
      China plays games constantly as do most nations I suppose, but China is absolutely deadly.

      shadows

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