"Sailor mongering" and other news

[unixronin]

The US is taking Greenpeace to court with a completely unfounded charge of "sailor mongering", apparently in retribution for civil disobedience by Greenpeace in the boarding of a freighter, the APL Jade, carrying illegally-felled Amazon mahogany to Miami.  The crime of "sailor mongering," a charge last filed 114 years ago, was the act of sending boatloads of prostitutes laden with liquor to board ships coming into harbor, with the intention of getting the sailors drunk stealing them away from the crew.  A conviction in the US action, which is pretty much a SLAPP suit, would strike a blow against Brazilian efforts to halt illegal mahogany logging, which is more profitable than cocaine dealing.  A single mahogany tree, harvested in the Amazon for $30, can bring in $120,000 when sold in New York as finished furniture.

As significant as the prosecution itself, are the implications, free speech campaigners say.

Not once since the Boston Tea Party have U.S. authorities criminally prosecuted a group for political expression.

"It's ominous," said attorney Maria Kayanan of law firm Podhurst Orseck, which worked with the American Civil Liberties Union on a "friend of court" brief to back a Greenpeace demand that the government reveal who ordered the prosecution.

In related news, Japan's annual whale hunt "for scientific purposes" has begun again.  440 minke whales have already been killed in a region of the southern ocean set aside as a whale sanctuary, with 260 whales (150 more minkes, 50 sei whales, 50 Bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales) slated to be killed this year iun the North Pacific.  The "J stock," one of two minke whale populations in the North Pacific, is down to 900 individuals; the planned Japanese "scientific" kill would be one sixth of the entire J stock.  Conservationists accuse Japan of exploiting a loophole by claiming scientific studies, in order to satisfy a commercial demand for whale meat.  Japan also kills 20,000 dolphins per year for their meat.

Orbital Recovery and Arianespace have signed a deal to launch the first of a fleet of space tugs in 2007.  Four more tugs are planned to launch in 2008.  The tugs, powered by ion engines, will be able to correct failed orbital insertions and reposition satellites whose orbits have decayed.

A new technique for growing "whiskers" on metal surfaces using intense electron beams could yield stronger joints between metals and composites, produce miniature heatsinks of any desired shape, and even encourage bone to grow onto artificial hip implants.  The technique can produce projections up to 2mm in length by 0.2mm diameter, and takes less than 10 seconds to create thousands of projections on a 10cm-square plate.

"Surfi-Sculpt has so far been successfully tested on stainless steel, aluminium and titanium, but TWI expects that it will work on any material that melts, such as glass and plastics."

And last, Google has announced it will offer graphic banner and "skyscraper" ads to advertisers for the first time.  Observations are already rife concerning this and Google's vaunted "Do no evil" policy.

Comments

[dirtynumbangel.livejournal.com]

Silly me, I thought the whole point of this little holiday in Iraq ("Bring your family! It's like one big beach!") was to bring to the rest of the world silly things like free speech and democracy.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Their analogy sucks. The Boston Tea Party, while political speech, was vandalism.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The analogy is flawed, yes. Not only was it vandalism, but it didn't even directly address their complaint.