Sea Shepherd's New Weapon

A custom-made warship with bigger engines and a long-distance fuel tank...(as blogged here 02 Feb.2015)!
Anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd have a brand-new $12m ship they say will match the speed and endurance of Japan's whaling fleet.
And with Japan's defiance of an international court ruling about to be in the spotlight at a global summit this month, the activists plan to sail the new vessel to Australia, before heading south to disrupt the summer whale hunt near Antarctica.
SS's Peter Hammarstedt: "The biggest challenge in our past campaigns has been that the Japanese whaling vessels've rammed us with their superior size, and they've outrun us with their superior speed. So this is a vessel they cannot catch."

Christened Ocean Warrior, it is the first brand-new ship SS has built, allowing the group to specify engine size and other features for its high-seas protests. Cargo space has been converted to fuel tanks to give the ship longer range.
SS won't disclose it's top speed but said it comfortably topped 30 knots in recent Mediterranean Sea trials - this'll allow it to catch the nasty Nippon harpooners and it can land a helicopter aboard, thus extending its tracking options.
All SS's other ships have been refitted older vessels, Bob Barker once a Norwegian whaling ship (c.1950), Steve Urwin a former Scottish fisheries vessel (c.1975).
Japan killed 333 minke whales last summer - the first hunt after a 2014 ruling in the International Court of Justice that declared the so-called "scientific whaling" to be illegal. But Japan has since exempted itself from the court's jurisdiction and drawn up new guidelines for whaling, effectively doubling the size of the hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean.
In Sept., 95 countries condemned Japan's resumption of whaling, and the issue is expected to dominate a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Slovenia this month.

Wake Me When It's Over

The Olympic pains!
Boring. Boring. Boring.
Did I mention boring?
I didn't buy into the pre-games hype (because I could see the growing pile of problems). Since it started, I've painted the fence simply to watch it dry!
I believe the Olympics lost it's sparkle years ago. This year's games have been buried under the Zika virus controversy; Brazil's political, economic and security problems; the Russian steroids scandal (and I'm sure the Comrades are not the only ones). Rio's poor were segregated behind the city's own 'Berlin Wall' and their shanty homes bulldozed to construct the Olympic facilities - many of which were still not ready just days before opening. Venues have been half-empty; local spectators have loudly booed other nations' winners; an official was caught scalping tickets; there've been shootings and murders near the facilities, competitors have been robbed; and let's not forget the pollution and body parts bobbing in the harbour where races are held.
And did I mention deliberately throwing oneself (opps, I mean accidentally tripping!) over the line to order to grab a medal? No, if you ain't running in a running race when you hit the finish, then you ain't finished!
No doubt as a result of all this, ticket sales for the Paralympics to follow these games are appallingly bad.

New Olympic sport?

But you can guarantee at the closing ceremony, some tosser in a suit will declare Rio 2016 "the best Olympics EVER"... yea, right.
The Olympics needs a complete overhaul. Get rid of sports that the majority of viewers and participants consider non-Olympic, and let's get real on the ridiculous 'demonstration' events. A return to complete amateurism would be great, but won't happen because every country wants to win medals and some countries will go to any lengths to get 'em.
And the media needs to throttle back on the 'hopes and dreams' hype. It's great to support our athletes, but don't set them up to fail and then broadcast disparagingly that they "could only manage" a silver or bronze (!!!)
Now excuse me: I have to paint the fence again.

Why Is This 'Indecent'?

A new ad from US clothing line Lane Bryant - featuring plus-size models Ashley Graham, Tara Lynn, Denise Bidot and Georgia Pratt in the label's underwear - has been rejected by major US TV networks.
Why? Because they call it "indecent".
The ad – Lane Bryant's ongoing body positive #ThisBody campaign – shows the women speaking proudly about their bodies, and includes a shot of Tara Lynn breastfeeding her newborn baby.
Major US networks NBC and ABC asked LB to edit the clip. When it declined, the ad was rejected with the claim it didn't meet "decency standards".
WTF???!!! These are the same networks who regularly air Miss Universe and Miss America swimsuit competitions, not to mention countless Victoria's Secret ads featuring models in lingerie, and all of a sudden this ad doesn't meet its "decency guidelines"?

You'll recall the networks swinging the same axe in 2010, when LB launched a new line...if not, then recap here [link]. They had an issue with curvy Ashley Graham's voluptuous chest! After that drama, the ad was the No.1 most-watched viral video in the world!
Following the networks' recent decision, LB posted the clip on Facebook: "The networks didn't want you to see this. But we do. Show everyone what #ThisBody's made for." Since then, it's been viewed over 2 million times.
LB: "The #ThisBody campaign was meant to be a fun way for us to celebrate and honour women of all shapes and sizes. What is too much for some does not hold true for others. It is a true celebration of women of all sizes doing what makes THEM feel beautiful - whether its breastfeeding their newborn, flaunting their bodies the way they see fit, breaking down barriers all around and simply being who they are or want to be."
So now's your chance to see it. IS this ad "indecent"? Or a positive celebration of life? YOU decide!

Sports Illustrated Finally Gets REAL!

This year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition is making waves...
for all the right reasons.
Thanks to voluptuous Ashley Graham, the cover has made history - as the first to feature a plus-size woman since the annual edition started in 1964. The shoot features the 28-year-old brunette, who is best-known as a lingerie model for the plus-size clothing store Lane Bryant. (Remember the controversy in 2010 when US TV channels refused to play Lane Bryant ads featuring Ashley...?)

The US-size 16 lingerie model (that's NZ size 18) Ashley says the shoot is for "every woman who felt she wasn't beautiful because of her size...you can do and achieve anything you put your mind to."
The 2016 Swimsuit Edition also features Ronda Rousey and Hailey Clauson as the stars of its two alternate covers. (Rhonda is an American mixed martial artist, judoka, and actress. She is the former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion. Hailey Clauson is an American fashion model who has been the face of Dsquared2, Jill Stuart, and Gucci.)
It's the first time in 50 years that Sports Illustrated has featured cover stars representing three different body types. SI's assistant managing editor MJ Day: "All three women are beautiful, sexy and strong. Beauty is not cookie cutter. Beauty is not 'one size fits all.' Beauty is all around us and that became especially obvious to me while shooting and editing this year's issue."
FINALLY Sports Illustrated has seen the light!

Ozzies: Send In Some Muscle!

Australians are overwhelmingly in favour of their govt monitoring Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.
A Morgan poll finds 76.9% of 1,002 people want a Customs ship to monitor Japanese whaling.

The Coalition had previously been accused of backing off a pre-election commitment to tackle whaling in the Southern Ocean, after refusing to send the specialist Customs patrol vessel Ocean Protector, and instead sending aircraft to monitor the hunt.
Greens senator Nick McKim said the Coalition was backing away from the monitoring commitment made in opposition, and PM Malcolm Turnbull had refused to express anything stronger than "disappointment" about whaling on his recent visit to Japan.
The poll comes at the end of a fraught year on the whaling issue, in which Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku was fined $1m for wilful contempt of the Australian federal court, after breaching an order to stop killing whales.
The decision to resume whaling also flies in the face of a 2014 international court of justice (ICJ) ruling saying the programme had no basis in science and should be halted.
A spokesman for environment minister, Greg Hunt, said: "The govt has made representations at the highest level to urge Japan not to resume whaling and we will continue to do so. We will also continue our efforts in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to strongly oppose commercial whaling, and to promote whale conservation."
However in 2013 when in opposition, Hunt strongly supported having a Customs vessel in the Southern Ocean...

New Job For Christmas

Want a new job pre-Xmas?
If you enjoy working with your hands, are persistent and patient, and have a passion for Christmas, then here's just the job for you.

Tesco in Wrexham, North Wales, is hiring a Christmas light detangler! The successful candidate will manage the "Christmas Lights Untangling stand", untangling long lengths of LED lights that've wound themselves into a mess.
An ad for the position appeared in the town's local rag recently and also on Tesco's website. The store is looking for an "enthusiastic individual to join the in-store team to run a new and innovative light-untangling service."
This is not a joke. It's serious stuff - the candidates need to be able to untangle 3 metres of lights, brought in by customers, in "under three minutes."
The job is billed as a UK first, and be available in the Wrexham branch, to help customers by untangling their knotted Christmas lights while they shop.
Not only will the candidate be expected to untangle the electric mess, but also check them for broken bulbs.
Ho-ho-bloody ho! Feeling that festive love? Bah-humbug!

Flossing: Little Benefit?

The importance of flossing is sold as an essential step in getting rid of harmful plaque, the bacteria that can lead to tooth decay and gum disease.
But what if flossing wasn't so important after all - what if it made no real difference to dental health?
That's the suggestion emerging from a new body of research.
Flossing is aimed at helping rid our mouths of bacteria. Just 1ml of saliva is thought to contain about 100 million microbes. The mouth is a warm, acidic environment that's perfect for them to flourish. While some of these bacteria are bad, turning food sugars into tooth-eroding acid, others actually prevent tooth decay by releasing chemicals that counteract harmful acid.
But the latest evidence suggests flossing has little impact on reducing tooth decay or preventing gum disease. British Dental Association researchers looked at the long-term effect in people who brush and floss and others who only brush, and found no difference in terms of reducing plaque, bleeding or subsequent gum disease.
A recent review in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology concluded that 'despite being widely advocated...the majority of available studies fail to demonstrate that flossing is generally effective in plaque removal and in reducing gingival (gum) inflammation'.
So although flossing may be good for removing food from between teeth, it's not successful in removing the biofilms causing problems. Researchers believe the best way to overcome biofilms and prevent tooth decay is to master your brushing technique.
They are confident that most people with normal teeth and normal gaps do not need to floss at all!

The Force Is Too Strong For Internet

The Force has awoken...and crashed the internet.
Tickets went on sale for Star Wars: The Force Awakens at 10am yesterday. Within minutes, Reading Cinema's website crashed due to heavy demand, and other NZ cinemas were nearly sold out for midnight sessions.
As has been a tradition dating back to 1997, Star Wars will debut at a special midnight screening. Sales for all sessions were going well prior the crash, but the midnight shows were proving the most popular.
Reading Cinema's spokesman says the last time he remembered demand for a film peaking this high was in the run-up to Avatar.
Twitter was glowing like a lightsabre, post-ticket release, with some twits gloating about seeing the movie in New Zealand before the rest of the world (due to the timezone difference).
But one indigenous twit seemed dissatisfied: "Given all Star Wars clones are maori actors, why can't we have lightsabre taiahas?" (a maori weapon) "And just imagine a clone army haka!"
Oh puh-leez, talk about being trapped in a space vortex. Next there'll be a maori claim for intellectual property rights!
The 7th installment in George Lucas' much beloved and obsessed-over franchise will premiere in NZ at 12.01am on Thursday, 17 December.

Maori stormtroopers - yea, right!

Apocolypse-Not-Quite-Now

In a few years from now, scientists will try to push an asteroid off its orbital path.
It's not a case of "because they CAN"…it's actually a practice run for

saving the world!
So the joint US-European AIDA (Asteroid Deflection and Assessment) mission will crash a probe into a small asteroid called 65803 Didymos. It's only 160m wide, but the test will show if in principle a much larger asteroid threatening to wipe out human civilisation can be deflected the same.
Two spacecraft, one kamikaze and the other to monitor the effect, will be launched in October 2020. They'll travel about 6million km and reach the target mid-2022.
Dr Patrick Michel, lead investigator for the European Space Agency: "To protect Earth from potentially hazardous impacts, we need to understand asteroids much better - what they are made of, their structure, origins and how they respond to collisions."
Planet Earth has had a couple of near misses in the last few years: an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier wizzed by - closer than the Moon! - in late 2011.

And let's not forget that on 13 April 2029, an asteroid called 99942 Apophis will miss us by a mere 35,000km, a hair's breadth in astronomical terms. Apophis is the size of a football field, enough mass to cause widespread devastation should it ever collide with Earth. It too will be well within the orbit of the moon. That's damn close...so better to be safe than sorry.
After all, if/when the situation is for REAL, Bruce Willis will be too far into his dotage to save us!

Unt Zen Zere Were Five!

The 'Red Peak' flag will be added as a fifth possible choice in the NZ flag referendum.
Prime Munster John Key says "I'm not wanting to stand in the way of people having some choice."
Bless him - how considerate!
This remarkable mid-week turn-around came after growing support for the design seemed to be ignored, following a petty wee stand-off between the govt and Labour opposition on how it could be added to the designs already selected.
Johnno Key repeatedly said he'd only add Red Peak as a 5th option if Labour supported the process rather than criticising it. Then the Green Party came up with a work-around...which featured them not siding with Labour - at least according to the PM.
However, Greens co-leader James Shaw said the whole process had been deeply flawed from the start, and it was "absurd" that they had to come up with a solution.
Labour leader Andrew Little has accused Key of trying to put the blame on Labour for blocking Red Peak.

Currently, the 1st referendum (in November) will ask kiwis to rank the now-five alternatives. The winner will then run-off against the current flag next year.
New Zealand First has opposed Red Peak being added, in line with its strong opposition to any flag change - in fact it says the design resembles markings on WWII Nazi sentry boxes!
The fact remains that if voters don't want our current flag to change, then in November they should vote for the weakest of the options, to then fight off against the existing flag.
Just don't mention ze vor!

UPDATE: 25 Sept.2015 - Gareth Morgan calls the entire issue a "$26-million dollar folly" that's completely lost the public's buy-in.

Faroese Turn On Their Own

"Sam Simon"

Last Tuesday (01 Sept.), authorities in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, seized a small boat from the Sea Shepherd ship Sam Simon.
The warrant for the seizure was presented while the vessel was in the Shetlands to refuel. In the warrant, authorities claim there are "reasonable grounds to suspect an offence has been committed under the law of Denmark."

This relates to the small boat's involvement in the defence of 61 pilot whales at a grindadráp at Sandavágur in the Faroe Islands on 12 August.
The seizure follows a legal challenge against the recently-enacted Faroe Islands Pilot Whaling Act. Faroese legal consultant, former police officer and adviser in issues regarding safety, security, defence and emergency preparedness - Henrik Weihe Joensen - has filed charges against the Faroe Islands Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, challenging the law's legality. He claims the law is 'invalid' because the Faroese Parliament does not have the legislative authority to implement new laws in relation to police activity "which concerns action

against persons and objects."
Joensen believes that, if the Pilot Whaling Act is declared invalid, it may have a great impact on the cases already brought against Sea Shepherd, and may also have implications for the political relationship between the Faroe Islands and Denmark...watch this space.

UPDATE: 04 October 2015 - end of a tough campaigning season in the Faroes.

Final Four? Forget It!

The final four designs for a proposed new NZ flag were released this week...to a less-than-enthusiastic response.
The designs were revealed by the Flag Consideration Panel as a new poll shows nearly half of voters are open to a change. A small majority - 53% - do not support a change, and 23% say they do support change 'in principle'. 61% of women want to keep the current flag, compared to 44% of men.
Thousands of design submissions were narrowed down to a long-list of 40, before the final four were revealed:

Woop de doo!

Three of the designs feature the silver fern...the preference of Prime Munster John Key (who's driving this issue as hard as he can!). The 'plain black with silver fern' was not on the shortlist: Key went cold on that, after a similarity to the Islamic State flag was noted.
Now the Great Unwashed will rank the four designs in the first referendum this November. A 2nd referendum next March will pit the preferred alternative against the current flag.
Flag Minister Bill English (Wow! What a promotion!!) says there's lotsa talk about the low level of public turnout to meetings...AND the cost: two referendums + consultation = $26 million!
Prime Munster Key denies Referendum No.1 is deliberately timed to coincide with the jingoistic Rugby World Cup mood *yawn*. No! No! Of course not. Riiiiiigghhtt!!
Meanwhile, it's been revealed that one of the long-list flags was removed after a copyright claim. And BTW, the NZ Rugby Union has made it damned clear that any successful choice involving a silver fern must NOT copy the NZRU design...or else! So, battle-lines are drawn...while most kiwis yawn!
But NZers are urged not to snooze over this issue, or the Republican Attitude of Key's Cronies will sneak by under cover of apathy.

Denmark Refuses Entry To Faroes

The Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker and its crew have been denied entry into the Faroe Islands by Danish authorities.
The vessel arrived at the port of Sund in the FI last Sunday. Upon docking, Danish Customs and Immigration officers conducted a full ship search and passport inspection. Authorities did not indicate there was any entry issue during the inspection. However, afterwards, all 21 crewmembers were issued with a Refusal of Entry notice and ordered to leave the 12nm limit of the Faroe Islands.
Danish authorities said the notices were issued for suspicion of "affecting public order", although the actual document gives no clear legal reasons for denial of entry. Believing the notices to be unlawful, SS has begun appeal processes to fight the order.
Captain Alex Cornelissen, CEO of SS Global: "Denmark seems to think the best way to divert attention away from its support of the grindadráp is to conduct further legally dubious activity."
Despite the fact that the slaughter of cetaceans is banned in the European Union - including Denmark - the killing continues with the support of Danish police and navy, and with the blessing of the Danish government. Cornelissen: "By denying the crew of the Bob Barker entry to the Faroe Islands, Danish authorities have proven that they are more interested in supporting the slaughter of pilot whales than they are in upholding their EU responsibilities and maintaining their relationships with other EU countries. They have also shown how effective Sea Shepherd has been in holding Denmark accountable for the on-going slaughter of cetaceans."

This year 490 pilot whales have been killed in the Faroes with Denmark's backing.
+ ...meanwhile international pressure against the grindadráp builds from countries within the EU. In early August, two major German cruise-liner companies cancelled tours to the Faroes.
In the past month, politicos from Luxembourg, Italy and the UK have publically expressed disdain for the grindadráp.
On 19 August, the Scottish town of Wick announced it had cut its 20yr.long twin-town relationship with the city of Klaksvík, and would not look to re-instate official relationships until the "disgusting" slaughter of whales in FI is banned.
The writing is on the wall...?

Saint Peter And Saint Fran?

Thanks sooo much, you two!

They've done it again!
Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have saved an historic Seatoun (Wellington) church.
Jackson and his wife have bought St Christopher's Church (c.1932) in Seatoun for $1.06 million, saving the earthquake-risk church and neighbouring hall from demolition.
Now, the Miramar Peninsula Community Trust has been established to run the buildings for the community, and will lease the buildings back from the Oscar-winning couple.
The deconsecrated church has been closed since 2012, but will be available for weddings, recitals and christenings once strengthening work is done.
The couple made their latest purchase to ensure the buildings would not be lost from the peninsula.
It's the second time these angels have saved a Seatoun church: they bought the quake-threatened Our Lady Star of the Sea in 2007, saving it from development.
They also bought the site of Bats Theatre in 2011, securing its future. And together with Weta Workshop founder Richard Taylor and others, Sir Peter helped restore Miramar's now-stunning 1928 Capitol Theatre.

A great save!

Water Conservation Is All BALLS!!

California's record-breaking drought shows no sign of ending, so Los Angeles has come up with something different to protect the city's water...
96-million 'shade balls' floating on its 75-acre LA Reservoir.
These apple-sized plastic balls are designed to help protect the supply against dust, rain, chemicals and wildlife, as well as prevent massive water loss each year.

So how do they work? Well, they float on the surface and block the sun's rays, to prevent evaporation and also to prevent a chemical reaction that creates the carcinogenic compound bromate. As well, the balls form a protective barrier across the surface that helps keep birds, animals and other contaminants out.
They cost 36 cents each, and are coloured black because that's the only colour able to deflect UV rays. Additionally, they reduce evaporation off the reservoir surfaces by 85-90%!
Mayor Eric Garcetti: "In addition to reducing chemical treatment to prevent natural occurrences like algae, these shade balls are a cost-effective way to reduce evaporation annually by nearly 300 million gallons, enough to provide drinking water for 8,100 people for a full year."
The polyethylene balls are expected to save $250 million when compared to other techniques to protect the water.
This is a phenomenal saving in both dollars and water, and an idea deserving of high praise!

Flag 'Em All!

The costly and wasteful process to choose what could be New Zealand's new flag has been trimmed down to 40 options.
The Flag Consideration Panel has released a "long list", chosen from more than 10,000 public submissions.
Chairman John Burrows: "A potential new flag should unmistakably be from NZ and celebrate us as a progressive, inclusive nation that's connected to its environment, and has a sense of its past and vision for its future."
The chosen 40 will now be subject to further scrutiny, including whether any breach intellectual property law. [Oh yes, mustn't forget that some maori think they have rights over a koru, and the NZ Rugby Union reckons it can claim the silver fern!]
Mid-next month, the panel will announce four of them, to be put to a national referendum. The winner will then go head-to-head with the current flag in another referendum in March 2016.
Prime Munster Johnno Key is trying to permanently stamp his legacy on this country by changing the flag, claiming ours is often mistaken for Australia's. But the cost of merely deciding whether to change the flag - up to $26m! - has come under heavy fire.
The Top 40 List is dominated by designs featuring koru, stars and ferns. Spokesman for the 'Silver Fern Flag' group Kyle Lockwood: "Like the maple leaf to Canada, the silver fern screams 'New Zealand', and it's not just a sports symbol. It's on our army and navy logos, our firefighters', police and sportsmen's uniforms, our money, passports,

national airline, and soon it'll be on NZ rockets sending satellites into space...it's our national symbol and it's time we put it on our flag." Hmmm, as you can tell, Kyle is quite OTT about the fern!
As for me, there's not ONE on the "long list" that smokes my tyres. I say: flag 'em all and keep what we've got!

Winter Bay On The Move

The key to stopping Icelandic whaling - the Winter Bay with 1,800 tonnes of endangered fin whale meat - has left the port of Tromso, Norway, heading into the Barents Sea.
Winter Bay has the lowest ice classification recognised by Russia, and her permit to sail this route is only valid for 'low' ice conditions. Conditions remain 'medium' en route, so it's surprising the vessel has sailed.
But given that Icelanders don't eat fin whale meat (and therefore this hunt is entirely for export), if the shipment cannot be delivered to Japan (its only market), then the Icelandic hunting will have to stop. Strong pressure from the whalers' owner, Kristjan Loftsson, to get the vessel through...

Winter Bay plans to sail to Japan over the top of Russia, through the Northern Sea Route – which is increasingly navigable to commercial vessels due to thinning of the sea ice caused by global warming. No shipment from Iceland has gone this way before.
The unusual route is because of the unusual cargo. Loftsson used to send his meat via the international sea freight cargo network using European ports. But in mid-2013, Greenpeace actions in Rotterdam and Hamburg closed these ports to whale meat. Shipping lines began to refuse whale meat, including one of Iceland's own.
Jan.2014: Loftsson sent whale meat to America labelled as 'Frozen Seafood': USA barred it. Canada allowed it and seven containers were railed 4,000 miles across Canada before Greenpeace got them stopped.
March 2014: Loftsson chartered his own ship for the first time. He loaded 2,000 tons of meat onto the Alma, and sent it south around the Cape of Good Hope. But protestors got Alma's planned port stop in Durban, South Africa cancelled. She had to refuel from a tanker off Mauritius, making headlines there, and reached Japan without once going into port.
These efforts bring little/no financial gain to Loftsson. The Japanese whale meat market is collapsing, because young people don't eat it and Japan's whalers are unable to sell all their catch. But he hopes to build the market. He claims a decreasing supply of whale meat in Japan will create a demand for his product...
+++++
...meanwhile Russia is considering prohibiting transit of Icelandic foods to Russia through the EU, due to the high risk of shipping documents being forged.
According to findings of Iceland food inspections in Russia in the last 6mths, just one out of 40 certificates was the original one, while the others were forged in EU member-states.
+++++
UPDATE: 05 Sept.2015 - Winter Bay reached Osaka, Japan on 30 August. Its Icelandic fin meat cargo equates to roughly 40% of Japan's annual whale consumption.

Stuck In Its Own Time Warp

North Korea is frequently accused of turning back the clock on human rights, economic development and diplomacy.
But last week, the pariah nation took things to a whole new level. It announced it would adopt a new time zone – called Pyongyang Time – to cast off the legacy of "wicked Japanese imperialists".
The new time zone takes effect from August 15 to mark the 70th anniversary of the country's independence from Japanese rule at the end of WWII.
Since Japan colonised the country in 1910, its clocks have been 9hrs ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, the same as Japan and South Korea. Pyongyong's new time zone (8hrs ahead of GMT) is a wind-back to its pre-colonial past.
[North Koreans already have their own calendar. Instead of counting from the birth of Christ, they count from the birth of founding leader, Kim Il Sung. Kim was born in 1912 - known in North Korea as Juche 1, making this year Juche 104.]
The new time will put Pyongyang half an hour behind Tokyo and Seoul. I'm a little surprised that the idea of trailing their South Koreans by 30mins hasn't annoyed the DPRK leadership a bit...or maybe they he hadn't thought it through that far!

The Clown Prince

The sabre-rattling ego-pumping national news agency states emphatically: "It is the firm faith and will of the DPRK's people to force the Japanese imperialists to pay for the monstrous crimes committed by them for a century, firmly defend the national sovereignty, and demonstrate for eternity the dignity and might of the great ... nation shining with the immortal august names of Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il."
And speaking of "living in their own little time warp", what do ya think of His Glorious Leadership's latest hair style...?!!
Ooooooooo YEAAAAAA!!!!!
Me wants one just the same!!!

Honesty Not The Best Policy?

For a New Plymouth woman, honesty doesn't always pay!
Louise Jackson noticed a mystery $429 deposit in her ANZ account recently. She rang the bank to sort it out. How hard can that be? VERY, it seems!

ANZ staff told her they could not simply reverse the transaction - they can do a trace, but that would cost Louise $15.
When she said she didn't want to pay the fee (and fair enough: why should she? SHE didn't make the mistake!), the ANZ staff member suggested she call the bank that the dosh came from, to see if it could do anything. Crazy, huh?
Now, at this point, some folk would say
"To hell with it! Finders keepers!" but Louise persevered and contacted TSB Bank, where the transaction originated...only to be told that without an account number or name to reference against, it could do nothing either. (No company name or account number showed up on Louise's online statement, just a three-letter reference code.)
Surely all that was needed was a teeny bit of effort, to compare dates and amounts, and narrow down the possible source that way...? A half-decent computer programme could do it in the blink of a bank charge hike.
But it appears banks don't like to work FOR their customers any more. However, under the spotlight of public scrutiny, they do start to squirm!
ANZ Bank spokesman Stefan Herrick acknowledges the bank does charge a small fee to trace transactions, but staff can waive it under certain circumstances: "In this case the customer shouldn't have been asked to pay a fee for doing the right thing. We applaud her honesty, and thank her for doing what she could to ensure the money went back to its rightful owner."
And surprise-surprise, the ANZ is now tracing the source of the mystery money "as a matter of priority." Quite frankly, too little too late - a weak response from both ANZ and TSB...

Tailing The Winter Bay

Sea Shepherd's ship Sam Simon has left Norwegian waters, after a short stop in the port of Tromsø. It was tailing a shipment of

endangered fin whale meat, en route to Japan.
You'll recall in May, I blogged about the cargo vessel Winter Bay, with 1,700 tonnes of endangered fin whale meat, harvested from endangered whales slaughtered in the North Atlantic by Icelandic whaling company Hvalur (run by its blood-hungry CEO Kristján Loftsson).
Winter Bay (which until 2014 was Norwegian-owned, and operated by the country's shipping and ferry company Nor Lines), has been reflagged to a St.Kitts and Nevis flag-of-convenience. It's ownership has been transferred to a shell company in Tortola British Virgin Islands, and the vessel's management has been outsourced to a Latvian ship operator. It's not uncommon for older, aging ships to be handled in this way to avoid the cost of maintenance.
Prior arrival in Tromsø, Sam Simon notified Norwegian authorities of it's plans to enter Norwegian waters, as required under law. The SS vessel was then tailed by the Norwegian Coast Guard, and buzzed multiple times by a Maritime Surveillance Aircraft.
Once in harbour, Sam Simon was boarded by about two dozen Coast Guard, Customs officers and police with sniffer dogs. They carried out a thorough inspection, while crew were kept under guard in the mess.
There were no incidents and the authorities remained professional and courteous at all times, but it's hoped the Coast Guard subjected Winter Bay, which is carrying endangered wildlife, to the same amount of close scrutiny.
SS will continue to watch Winter Bay, which is

scheduled to sail the icy passage between Russia and the North Pole to Japan.
...meanwhile actress Pamela Anderson has written to Russian Prez Putin, requesting that Russia stop Winter Bay from sailing through the Northeast Passage.
Winter Bay is in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), to which the Russian Federation is a signatory. CITES prohibited the shipment from going through the Suez or Panama Canals, thus leaving only one viable route: the Bering Strait, which separates the Russian region of Kamchatka from the US state of Alaska at the point where the Arctic meets the Pacific Ocean. This cuts straight through Russian territorial waters, meaning Putin has the power to refuse the Winter Bay passage and send it back to Iceland.
Anderson, a well-known animal-rights advocate, has asked the Russian leader to do exactly that...