North Korea may start next naval crisis

May 28, 2009 0 Comments

Things are heating up around North Korea.  Not only has the most recent nuclear test raised the eyebrows of many around the world, but so has North Korea’s reaction to the proposed interdiction of North Korean ships to counter nuclear proliferation under the U.S. led Proliferation Security Initiative. North Korea intensified its threats against South [...]

Read more

Coast Guard to U.S. flagged operators: step up actions to protect ships

May 14, 2009 0 Comments

The Coast Guard issued a press release on May 12th stating that it had issued Maritime Security Directive 104-6 (rev. 2).  You won’t find the specific Directive anywhere unless you are a ship operator that is being effected by the directive.  It is apparently being distributed as a sensitive document directly to U.S. flagged ship [...]

Read more

Should we try using Gurkhas?

May 06, 2009 0 Comments

Gurkhas take their name after an eight century Hindu warrior-saint.  Known for their tenacity, courage, and unrelenting aggressiveness in battle, Gurkhas have a history in being involved in some very tough fights.  The British probably know Gurkhas the best.  The British first encountered the incredible Gurkhas in 1814 during the Gurkha war against the British [...]

Read more

GAO issues report on vessel tracking systems

Apr 18, 2009 0 Comments

For those keeping up with vessel tracking technology, Bryant’s Maritime Blog alerts us that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on the review of vessel tracking systems used by the Coast Guard.  Specifically, the report focuses on the duplication of data that the two primary long range tracking methods provide which include [...]

Read more

Twitter on the high seas?

Apr 16, 2009 0 Comments

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or applications such asTweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and feedalizr. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Read more