movie:cape of good hope

  • Beware ! Les hordes asiatiques vont déferler sur l’Occident !
    Il s’agit de produits intermédiaires (diesel) raffinés en Chine.

    Armada of Giant New Tankers Lines Up to Ship Diesel Out of Asia - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-24/armada-of-giant-new-tankers-lines-up-to-ship-diesel-out-of-asia


    Photographer : Tim Rue/Bloomberg

    • Maintenance season in Europe seen pulling cargoes West
    • New China refineries, weak local demand seen driving shipments

    A fleet of giant newly built oil tankers is gearing up to ship diesel out of East Asia.

    Five very large crude carriers, which typically carry about 2 million barrels of oil each, are currently positioned in the seas off China’s eastern and southern coasts, according to shipping intelligence and tracking company Kpler. Two more newbuilds are set to swell that fleet shortly. If all were fully loaded, they would haul a total approaching what is currently held in independent storage in Europe’s key trading hub of the Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp ports.

    It’s a large volume coming at once,” said Olivier Jakob, director at Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland.

    China is boosting output, with more refinery capacity coming online, while weak local demand for middle distillates is helping to push products west, said Jakob. The start of refinery maintenance season in Europe also stoking Western demand for the fuel. China’s first round of export quotas also signaled an increase in diesel exports at the start of the year, while independent gasoil/diesel stocks in ARA are at their lowest seasonally since 2014.

    Three of the seven VLCCs highlighted by Kpler — the San Ramon Voyager, Ascona and Olympic Laurel — have already taken on board a combined 3.5 million barrels of diesel, according to a Bloomberg calculation from Kpler data, but are not yet fully loaded. Of the remaining four, one is currently loading, one is en route to Singapore where it may take on product, and two have yet to fully leave their construction yards.

    We expect the majority of these cargoes to head west around the Cape of Good Hope,” said Eli Powell, a Kpler analyst. Discharging is likely in northwest Europe, with possible partial discharges in West Africa.

    European demand conditions are quite favorable,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, global head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas in London. “It would make sense to try to move a lot of volume into Europe in short order to meet that demand.

    The surge in Asian exports mirrors an increase in shipments of oil products, much of it diesel, from India and the Middle East into Europe in recent weeks. January’s monthly arrivals from India are set to hit their highest since at least 2017, and shipments from the Persian Gulf will be at their highest since July last year.

  • How the Tension Between Mercy and Blame Shaped Our Legal Codes - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/how-the-tension-between-mercy-and-blame-shaped-our-legal-codes

    When we make moral judgments, says Fiery Cushman, the lead researcher at Harvard’s Moral Psychology Lab, the “more primitive, so to speak ‘you caused it, you should suffer’ response never goes away.”“The Barque of Dante,” by Eugène Delacroix (1822)One day in July 1884, four shipwrecked men aboard a lifeboat headed northwest off the Cape of Good Hope. For three weeks, Tom Dudley, Edwin Stephens, Edmund Brooks, and Richard Parker knocked off sharks with oars, drank urine, and even devoured a wayward sea turtle—bones and all—to survive. With no sign of rescue on the horizon, the quartet began to discuss sacrificing one for the good of the group. The following day, Parker fell into a coma. Dudley, seeing an opportunity, gashed open Parker’s neck with a penknife; the remaining trio began to eat. A (...)

  • The Winter Bay is on the move again! Whale meat vessel sets off for Japan - WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation
    http://uk.whales.org/blog/2015/08/winter-bay-is-on-move-again-whale-meat-vessel-sets-off-for-japan

    Winter Bay, the second-rate vessel chartered by Icelandic whaler, Kristjan Loftsson, to move an estimated 1,700 tonnes of fin whale meat to Japan, is on the move again! The vessel has been moored in Tromso since June 11th.

    • Winter Bay | Icelandmag
      http://icelandmag.visir.is/tags/winter-bay

      The Canadian Actress Pamela Anderson still hopes to persuade Russian authorities to stop the shipment of Icelandic whale meat to Japan via the north-eastern passage through the Arctic. The cargo vessel Winter Bay, registered in St Kitts and Nevis, recently left harbour in Tromsö Norway with 1,800 tons of whale products, destined for Japan.
      In a letter sent to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, this July Pamela urged him to stop the shipment:
      I would love to have the opportunity to meet and to discuss how, on behalf of my Foundation, I can forge a constructive relationship with the Russian government over issues related to wildlife, animals and the environment.
      I do have a voice in the international community and I would like to use my voice, as humble as it is, to help make this world a better place for all living things.

      Yesterday Pamela Anderson announced that the Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment had agreed to meet her at the East Russia Economic Forum in Vladivostok next month.
      In a letter to the Russian Ambassador to the US, which was published on the website of the Pamela Anderson Foundation, Pamela expresses her gratitude that the representative of the Russian government will meet with her to discuss the shipment of whale meat by Hvalur hf. Furthermore she expresses her hope that this meeting might lead to “Russia looking into banning such transits of protected species in the future”.

    • Et s’il passe par la #Route_du_Nord, c’est pour des raisons écologiques et pas du tout pour éviter les problèmes avec les écologistes lors des escales par la route du sud…

      Icelandic whale meat shipment heading to Japan worth 15 million USD | Icelandmag
      http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/icelandic-whale-meat-shipment-heading-japan-worth-15-million-usd

      The cargo vessel Winter bay, which is carrying Icelandic whale products to Japan, has left port in Tromsö Norway to sail the North-East passage through the Arctic. The ship is carrying meat and blubber from fin whales caught by ships operating from the Hvalfjörður fjord whaling station. These whales are caught in Faxaflói bay, outside the whale sanctuary inside the bay, where whale watching firms operating out of Reykjavík take their tours.

      In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper Fiskeribladet Fiskaren Kristján Loftsson, the CEO and owner of whaling firm #Hvalur, which owns the whale products being shipped to Japan, revealed that the cargo is worth two billion Icelandic Krona (15 million USD/14 million EUR).
      Kristján also argued the ship was taking the North-East passage because it was shorter than the route around the Cape of Good Hope. Last year Hvalur sent a shipment of whale products around the Cape of Good Hope which ran into considerable problems as the ship was refused permits to dock along the way, due to its controversial cargo. The North-East passage is 14,800 km (9,200 miles) shorter than the alternative route.

      As in every other interview in which Kristján Loftosson appears, he used the opportunity to blast environmentalists and conservationists, ridiculing those who wish to conserve the whales.
      They should rather congratulate us for exploiting the fin whale population in a responsible manner and for transporting this cargo over this long distance to Japan in a exceptionally environmental manner.

    • Robin des Bois - Communiqué
      http://www.robindesbois.org/communiques/animal/2015/viande-de-baleine-transite-passage-nord-est.html

      Grande première en Arctique : la viande de baleine transite par le passage du Nord-Est

      Le Winter Bay appartenant à un armateur européen vient de quitter le port de Tromsø en Norvège. Il est maintenant en mer de Barents. Il transporte environ 1800 tonnes de viande de baleine d’origine islandaise. Le Winter Bay est attendu à Osaka au Japon le 28 août. L’option arctique, 14.500 km, évite au Winter Bay les complications diplomatiques, les protestations d’ONG environnementales et les habituelles escales en Afrique de l’Ouest et en Afrique du Sud.

      Le passage du Nord-Est est entièrement libre de glace entre la mi août et la fin septembre. Le passage du Nord-Est raccourcit de moitié la trajectoire par le cap de Bonne-Espérance. La route maritime du Nord est entièrement contrôlée par l’administration et l’armée russe.

      La Russie est malheureusement complice du trafic de viande de baleine entre l’Islande et le Japon. L’Union Européenne est aussi complice puisque le Winter Bay appartient depuis quelques semaines à un armateur letton. La Directive européenne sur la conservation des habitats naturels ainsi que de la faune et de la flore sauvages stipule que les Etats-membres doivent interdire le transport de spécimens de toutes les espèces de cétacés vivants ou morts ou de toutes parties ou produits dérivés.

      Winter Bay, ex-Nordvaer, ex-Victoriahamn. OMI 8601680. Transporteur frigorifique de marchandises sur palette. Longueur 79,90 m. Pavillon Saint-Kitts-et-Nevis. Société de classification Det Norske Veritas. Construit en 1986 à Rissa (Norvège) par Fosen MV. Vendu en mai 2014 par son armateur norvégien Nor Lines Rederi AS à DalriadaTortola basé aux Iles Vierges Britanniques et prête-nom du letton Aquaship Ltd. Dans la foulée il abandonne le pavillon des Iles Féroé pour celui de Saint-Kitts-et-Nevis.

      Ah, voilà le communiqué de #Robin_des_Bois

  • chinese cartography china beat columbus to it. perhaps...

    An ancient map that strongly suggests Chinese seamen were first round the world

    http://itsmu.biz/view-chinese-cartography-china-beat-columbus-to-it-perhaps-_aHR0cDovL3d3dy5lY

    C’est pas tout récent mais très intéressant

    http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/cf_images/20060114/0206BK1.jpg

    Jan 12th 2006

    THE brave seamen whose great voyages of exploration opened up the world are iconic figures in European history. Columbus found the New World in 1492; Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488; and Magellan set off to circumnavigate the world in 1519. However, there is one difficulty with this confident assertion of European mastery: it may not be true.

    It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called “The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft”.

    #cartographie #visualisation #histoire #columbus #chine