Nautical News

[GordMay]

Search called off for 12 missing members of Spanish fishing crew off coast of Newfoundland
The “Villa de Pitanxo”, which operated out of northwestern Spain’s Galicia region, sank in the dark early Tuesday, tossing its 24 crew members into icy seas. Three men were rescued, and the bodies of nine others have been found in the debris site ,about 460 kilometres east of St. John’s, NL.
A total of 21 crew members are either confirmed dead, or missing at sea.
More ➥ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...ng-members-of/

[GordMay]

Gail Halvorsen, the former US pilot, who thought up the idea of dropping tiny improvised parachutes, loaded with sweets for children, into Berlin, during the Soviet blockade [Berlin Airlift], has died [age of 101], in a hospital in Utah, surrounded by his family.

Halvorsen became famous, in the embattled city, as the first American pilot to drop bundles of chocolate and chewing gum, from his plane, to local youngsters, waiting below. Germans nicknamed him "the candy bomber", and "Uncle Wiggly Wings", for the way he manoeuvred his plane, so the children, still traumatised by the war, would know to look out for incoming treats. He inspired many imitators, in the ranks of the airforce.

Halvorsen rose to the rank of colonel and eventually ended up commander of the Tempelhof airfield, the staging ground for the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift. Operating almost non-stop and through a harsh German winter, the airlift brought in more than two million tonnes of supplies on more than 277,000 flights, mainly into Tempelhof.

At least 78 US, British and German pilots and ground crew lost their lives in accidents in the air and on the ground, as the Allies delivered fuel and food to prevent Berlin's population from starving.
Officially known as "Operation Vittles", it was the first major salvo of the Cold War.

[GordMay]

Two separate legal challenges were filed on Thursday, against the Canadian federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, by civil rights organizations [Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) & Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF)], accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of setting a dangerous precedent, by invoking the act, for reasons they say fall far short of the necessary legal thresholds.

[GordMay]

Hundreds rescued after flames engulf ferry near Greek island

Hundreds of people were rescued from a ferry that caught fire between Greece and Italy in the early hours of Friday, the Greek coast guard said.

A video uploaded on Greek news website Proto Thema showed the 183-metre ferry engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke. "May Day" was blasting from speakers.

The coast guard said 239 passengers and 51 crew members were on board the Italian-flagged “Euroferry Olympia”. Most of them had boarded rescue vessels transferring them to the port of the island of Corfu, authorities said.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or severe injuries.

More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/greece...fire-1.6356393

[GordMay]

A cargo ship packed with thousands of Volkswagen Group vehicles is on fire in the Atlantic Ocean
➥ https://www.businessinsider.com/volk...ity-ace-2022-2
➥ https://ampvideo.bnnbloomberg.ca/tho...25219.amp.html

[GordMay]

Further to #109:
Twelve people are still missing after a blaze swept through the “Euroferry Olympia”, sailing from Igoumenitsa, Greece, to Brindisi, Italy, as firefighters battled to control the flames.
A total of 241 passengers and 51 crew were on board, the when the blaze broke out on Friday, and rescue vessels have already moved most of them [280] to the island of Corfu.

[GordMay]

A passenger, listed as missing, after a blaze swept through the “Euroferry Olympia”, a ferry sailing from Greece to Italy, has been found alive by rescuers. Rescuers discovered the survivor, on Sunday, on the vessel's stern, as it was being towed to shore, the coast guard said. 11 passengers are still missing. They are from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Lithuania.

[GordMay]

QAnon founder may have been identified thanks to machine learning

With help from machine learning software, computer scientists may have unmasked the identity of Q, the founder of the QAnon movement. In a sprawling report published on Saturday, The New York Times shared the findings [1] of two independent teams of forensic linguists, who claim they’ve identified Paul Furber, a South African software developer who was one of the first to draw attention to the conspiracy theory, as the original writer behind Q.
They say Arizona congressional candidate Ron Watkins also wrote under the pseudonym, first by collaborating with Furber, and then later taking over the account, when it eventually moved to post on his father’s 8chan message board.

The two teams of Swiss and French researchers used different methodologies to come to the same conclusion. The Swiss one, made up of two researchers from startup OrphAnalytics, used software to break down Q’s missives into patterns of three-character sequences. They then tracked how often those sequences repeated.
The French team, meanwhile, trained an AI to look for patterns in Q’s writing. Both techniques broadly fall under an approach known as stylometry that looks to analyze writing in a way that is measurable, consistent and replicable.
To avoid the possibility of confusing their respective programs, the teams limited their analysis to social media posts.
Among all the other possible authors they put through the test, they say the writing of Furber and Watkins stood out the most for how similar it was that of Q’s.

Both Furber and Watkins deny they wrote any of Q’s messages. “I am not Q,” the latter told The Times. Furber, meanwhile, said he was influenced by Q’s posts to change the style of his prose, a claim linguistic experts told the outlet was “implausible.” Also worth mentioning is the fact the analysis included tweets from Furber that date from the earliest days of Q’s existence.

Q hasn’t posted a new message since the end of 2020.

More about ➥ https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/qanon-ma...205618665.html

Audio report ➥ https://youtu.be/VXb5w0nNB2k

[1] NYT Report [paywall]➥ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/t...s-authors.html


See also:
“How three conspiracy theorists took 'Q' and sparked Qanon” [Aug. 2018]
Pushing the theory on to bigger platforms proved to be the key to Qanon’s spread — and the originators’ financial gain.
➥ https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...-qanon-n900531

[GordMay]

Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and is experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms, Buckingham Palace said.
➥ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60453566

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and is experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms, Buckingham Palace said.
➥ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60453566

Probably an anxiety attack having deal with Andrew

[GordMay]

Wild Polio Reported in Africa

A three-year-old girl in Malawi has been paralysed by wild poliovirus type 1 [WPV1] — the first case of wild polio in Africa, in more than five years.

The last case of wild polio virus, in Africa, was identified in northern Nigeria, in 2016. Since 1988, worldwide cases of the virus have dropped by 99 percent, from more than 350,000, to just five cases, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, last year [2021].
Genetic sequencing has linked the strain to a version that circulated in 2019, in Pakistan, one of only two countries [the other being Afghanistan], where the wild virus is still infecting people.
The continent was certified as free of indigenous poliovirus, in August 2020. Health officials hope to end this outbreak quickly.

More ➥ https://www.afro.who.int/news/malawi...polio-outbreak

And ➥ https://polioeradication.org/news-po...pv1-in-malawi/

Global Polio Eradication Initiative [GPEI] ➥ https://polioeradication.org/

[GordMay]

Philanthropist Neil Balnaves Dies in Boating Accident Aboard Luxury Yacht "The World"

Notable Australian TV executive, and philanthropist, Neil Balnaves [77] died, on Monday Feb 21, in an accident, off the coast of Tahiti, while aboard the luxury residential yacht “The World”.
Balnaves' death comes 20 years after he endured another serious boating accident, an event that changed the course of his life. Due to Balnaves being in constant pain, and unable to travel, as result of the first accident, he sold his TV production business, and used the sizable earnings to go into philanthropy*.

“The World” ➥ https://aboardtheworld.com/presskit/...ked-questions/

* Balnaves Foundation ➥ https://balnavesfoundation.com/

[GordMay]

New York Bight offshore wind auction

The largest ever US sale of offshore wind development rights – for areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey – attracted record-setting bids, on Wednesday, from companies seeking to be a part of President Joe Biden’s plan to create a booming new domestic industry. The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management [BOEM], which has not held an auction for wind leases since 2018, is offering 488,201 acres (197,568 hectares), in shallow waters, between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey, an area known as the New York Bight.

The area is 22 percent smaller than what was initially proposed, last year, due to concerns about the developments’ impact on commercial fishing and military interests.

The sale’s 25 approved bidders include entities controlled by Equinor ASA, Avangrid Inc, BP Plc, and Eletricite de France SA, according to government documents. Each bidder may only win one lease.

With bidding still under way, the auction was on track to easily top the $405m US offshore wind auction record, set in 2018, according to updates posted on the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) website [1].

After 11 rounds, bidding stood at a record-setting $250m for a single lease 51.5km (32 miles) off the coast of New Jersey. The government had identified that 114 acres (46 hectares) area – the largest offered in the sale – as being capable of producing power for more than 485,000 homes.

The previous record amount paid for a US offshore wind lease was $135.1m in 2018 for a lease off the coast of Massachusetts.

High bids on each of the other five areas in the auction ranged between $12.6m and $134.3m as of Wednesday afternoon. The auction will continue Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. (EST).

[1] BOEM ➥ https://www.boem.gov/

[GordMay]

“Decisions from today’s extraordinary UEFA Executive Committee meeting”

Russia was stripped of hosting the Champions League [football/soccer] final by UEFA, on Friday, with St. Petersburg replaced by Paris, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The men's final will still be held on May 28, but now at the 80,000-seat ‘Stade de France’, after the decision by UEFA's executive committee.
The meeting also decided that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams, in UEFA competitions, will have to play at neutral venues, until further notice.

“Stade de France to host UEFA Champions League final on 28 May” ➥ https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...e-committee-m/

[GordMay]

Formula 1 statement on the Russian Grand Prix
On Thursday evening Formula 1, the FIA, and the teams discussed the position of our sport, and the conclusion is, including the view of all relevant stakeholders, that it is impossible to hold the Russian Grand Prix in the current circumstances.
➥ https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...Sb8LksW0J.html


Haas drops Uralkali sponsorship - Nikita Mazepin’s future in doubt
In an official statement from the team, Haas confirmed that they would run their car in “plain white”, dropping title sponsor Uralkali’s name from the VF-22’s flanks.
The statement from Haas said: “Haas F1 Team will present its VF-22 in a plain white livery, minus Uralkali branding, for the third and final day of track running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday 25 February. Nikita Mazepin will drive as planned in the morning session with Mick Schumacher taking over in the afternoon.”
The statement added that “no further comment will be made at this time regarding team partner agreements”.
➥ https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...rTWFXBzk6.html
➥ https://the-race.com/formula-1/haas-...o-be-resolved/