New fuel for Shipping!

 Cheaper than the Electric engines for the New Year?

It is amazing that this has now been discovered and that battery powered tramps working on a loop keep steady power, something that could be adapted in the U.K. for the London Underground Circle line and also the clockwork orange in Glasgow in Scotland!

If investment could open the Hirwaun loop in south-Wales it would be an eye opener for travel and business, with many other applications in Cardiff and elsewhere?

Military drones are becoming more effective in the Ukraine and its security situation with Russia, but this is not same in the Middle-East, so one has to wonder is it really true or just British/European propaganda!

Despite all the advances, it looks like the U.S. will start mining coal again and the fossil fuel issues is not going away with the piracy of the high seas, driving prices up for all?

Happy New Year and a peaceful Eastern-Christmas!

Trump is shutting down Musk?

 Happy and a Peaceful New Year 2025!

Trump is not for Electric?

Wow it looks like all that money that Musk has invested in Trump is going nowhere and his dreams may be coming to naught with the gas guzzling new President and the automobile is to stay on for another while!

European reality is moving still for the electric future and perhaps Musk will open a European plant for his cars and trucks and take a piece of the market off the Chinese, but one has to wonder what Trump might make of that?

In recent weeks many electric powered projects have been cancelled in Europe in relation to flight and this may be in relation to U.S. sales of the types and heavy U.S. tariffs, but it might also be that conventional bio-fuels are more reliable than all electric?

The motorized Sled.

 Huskies only for short Trips?

Today most of the northern peoples of the polar regions, Russia, Canada, the U.S. and Denmark, apart from Norway, Finland and Japan rely more on the speed now of the motorized sled than that of dogs, and they may still be used in a traditional way for short trips!

For some time the military of the above nations have also used various vehicles for operations in snow conditions and this now includes Australia and China and a few other countries with research also being undertaken in a fast moving vehicle that is now the subject of the green revolution and conversion to both electric power and bio fuels?

What does the future hold is perhaps more of a return to the husky and reindeer to cut down on pollution for civilian operations, but not so for the military and scientists, meanwhile space exploration will need to develop a platform for robotic sleds visiting the Ice moons of the gas giants in the near future?

Gas and Battery Buses?

 Electric is much cheaper than fossil Fuels.

Many city fleets of buses have now either opted for battery or gas, but with the very hot summers of recent years there is a problem of the Lithium overheating and vehicles catching fire.

To this date nothing better is yet available, but there are many innovations that are not getting tested and so for most of the year, apart from two months everything works fine.

Lamp post hubs are becoming the norm in London for buses and other vehicles on a pre-paid system and with the phasing out of diesel. We will have better transport connections that are far cheaper by at least £1.70 per litre of conventional fuel.

Mars and Venus?

 Wonderful Images!

The new Mars lander and helicopter are returning some wonderful images of the red planet, while Russia has allowed its Venera films to be digitized showing an alien landscape with sound and lightning!

But there is more to come in relation to Venus a probe on the way to the Sun has seen cloud breaks at night, seeing into the mountains and some surfaces that are not volcanic, meanwhile the Mars probe is cleaning up its landing site of debris and possible use of it at a later stage?

Many of the features on Mars seen by this rover are very clear and some stones look as if they were cut by hand, as in masonry, others show that they are pummas in origin from a volcano? 

But new science discoveries from Russia may be changing the long held origin of crater's from impact, to the idea that many were created by underground gas mounds that rise and push the ground up into giant mole hills before they explode throwing material several hundred meter's! 

They have also discovered that sink type holes in Northern Siberia contain compressed materials, that may also be on Mars too, and that they contain materials that are more rare and invaluable than all the oil in the Persian gulf and gas in Siberia?

Aviation Zigzags?

Radon Scanning or map Making?

It perhaps will not be admitted by the governments, why aircraft are mapping for Radon leakage in the middle of a pandemic, but this is a fact that we are dealing with radioactivity in the atmosphere and the first thing that troubles that is radon gas leaking out of the ground!

Map making could be an added need especially over the populated areas of the country and the need to get accurate mapping in our times of high criminality and terrorist activity?

There are many areas of the world that have radon gas veins and in the event of a nuclear explosion, large amounts of this gas are released from the ground causing exposure to skin and body cancers!

Pollution levels have recently been discovered to effect this SASR-COV2/Covid-19 outbreak and the probability of ending fossil fuel burning is high on the agenda after this quarantine ends?

Oil extraction and Drill-Ships!

SERTAO?

Port Talbot S-Wales to Falmouth, Cornwall, SW-Great Britain and now to a new buyer, after spending over a year being impounded for debts from a Brazilian exploration company!

The U.S President says that he likes oil and he is not alone, despite what we may think of Greta Thunberg and her campaign to end the use of fossil fuels it does not seem to be giving the drillers and consortiums a guilty conscience?

Africa is the new prospect for the black gold and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire is where this rich harvest of crude is to be found! It is also time for the African nations to become rich that all goes with the oil industry and some Europeans might find that worrying for one reason or another?

White dominated exploitation is the traditional idea of the African and this is true from 1500 and the first European conquests by the Portugese and human slavery that eventually lead to the division of Africa and the gold/diamond mining that made South-Africa what it is today. 

Drilling at sea for both oil and gas is continuing world wide, closer to home is perhaps happening fifty-five miles NW of Belmullet in Co. Mayo Republic of Ireland!

New Horizons beyond Ultima Thule!

What is the next target and when?

The problem now with this probe is speed and commands and it is not clear what is the real size of the next object? I think like Pluto we may be presently surprised that this region of our outer Solar System might be more active than we think!

One wonders if there is a back up mission planned for Pluto along with possibly visiting the outer gas giants of Ouranus and Neptune with its interesting Moon Triton? The recent BBC the planets was a bit disappointing because so much was not taken into consideration!

Brian Cox seems to be fixated with the date 4.5 billion years and the much speculation of what is now becoming a bore? We just do not know what occurred in times past in the creation of the planets and also what is happening?

Fires at Sea!

Crimea and Sea of Azov!

Accidents will happen at sea, when dangerous processes such as refuelling take place as in this case! We have heard about it because of the disputed waters and the loss of life, but generally something similar happens everyday around the globe and we hear nothing about the tragedies?

Merchant shipping is a more dangerous world that it ever has been in the age of metal ships, prior the wooded vessels were attacked in various piracy incidents. Refuelling and moving cargo such as explosives, along with chemicals and gas are the most dangerous?

We can try to make safety an issue, but we humans are in the habit of making mistakes! We can say oh the Russians were drunk, the Irish are thick and so on, while the English are some of the most arrogant in the world when it comes to safety issues!!!!!

Oil and Gas Platforms. Two.

Northern Passage.

Russia and the U.S. will in years to come prosper for the access to Oceans resources, despite the hypocritical lies of the British government who is ruining the U.K investment opportunities in Gas and oil support industries?

New ships are replacing rigs and many jobs will be lost in the ship building industries left in the U.K. but this is not the end? This one ship will have a sister, which will be much bigger and in years to come with trial and error or nations will build for their own needs and sea conditions?

The burning of fossil fuels will not end overnight, but pollution levels in our cities will be cut by the introduction of electric battery powered vehicles and now the possibility of suburban trains! But the power for the national grids of the world and industry will still need cheap electricity that perhaps those without Nuclear energy as yet cannot afford?

Ships are better than rigs being towed out, they if viable will be able to construct a platform on site and then introduce the infrastructure to support and pipe the fuel to conventional shipping! If nothing substantial is found money will be saved by marking the site with a buoy and then moving on to the next area!

Oil and Gas Platforms. Part-One.

Steel Islands to New types of Ships!

There is a massive change on the way in this area of sea work from the static rigs to a ship built like a catamaran to replace some of the test platforms! This is now one of the largest ships in the world and if proved to be a success we will see more of them built and put into service?

The rig or steel Island has been around for some time, these structures are in their own right floating vessels but they have to be towed from construction to the drill sites. There they are chained to the sea bottom, as in the Gulf of Mexico, North-Sea and the Persian Gulf!

These shallows are ideal for rigs and over the years many designs have come and gone with three to four legged ones being common, but their some with five legs. Four seems to be the best for stability, while these steel islands are more than just drilling platforms they are also accommodation blocks and are serviced by helicopters.

Over the years safety has been improved, after many serious fires in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. But the dangerous part of working on these today remains the journey to and from, with there being several fatalities because of bad weather, poor maintenance of machines?

Never seeing the light of Day. ONE.

Bores.

Boring machines come in various sizes and uses, we tend to associate them with tunnel construction as in the London Tubes, Channel Tunnel and the new London Cross rail project?

But there are as many used in a variety of roles from water well sinking to the present day need of fracking. Many of the surface drillers are set up for short-term workings, where as the boring machines are constructed under ground and when the jobs are completed they are buried or encased.

Smaller boring machines where developed for the mining industry to take men off the coal face, but today many are no longer used.

Despite computer or robotic automation, humans are still required to clear obstacles and this has lead to some very serious and devastating accidents in China, Russia and South-America.

Ten Day Civil Alerts.

Germany and France Issued Today.

What is one talking about?

During the years of the Cold war between NATO and the Eastern-Block Soviet pact nation regular alerts were sounded in both East and West-Germany. This morning one was issued in the unified Germany for the first time since the fall of the Berlin wall?

Within two hours supermarkets were cleared out of food. Civil alerts were issued in the event of a nuclear strike, but it has been announced in Germany that from tomorrow the alert will be in effect for a serious emergency situation over the next 10 days?

There is much one can do in a nuclear war situation, but just continue life and hope for the best. This may be more in connection with reports of heavy weapons fire reported in the Eastern-Ukraine and the possibility of the shutting down of both the gas and Oil pipe-lines from Russia?

Sea Power In the Med. Part-One.

European Force. 

There at this time two major areas of European involvement with Naval vessels, the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and northern-Somalia protecting western shipping from being hijacked. The other is in the Mediterranean dealing with refugees fleeing Libya or north-Africa.

Ireland last year donated their Emer Class Corvette LE Aoife P22, to the Maltese Navy as P65. It is the first warship for Malta, since the Crusades 1091-1340. It is now part of the European force, that has seen the U.K. deploy two Frigates and one support ship HMS Hermes.

Everyday the Italian Navy is overwhelmed by the number of crap boats trying to get to the island of Lampadusa, many hundreds of people are drowned each day on these fatal crossings. 

Finland and Sweden, along with France and perhaps the British patrol the Arabia sea, Gulf of Aden and the narrows into the Red sea. The task here is to protect gas and oil tankers heading to Europe with their cargoes from the Persian Gulf. Hijacking and hostage taking is big business for Al-Shabab and other affiliated Al-Quida militants in this region.

Tugboats. Part-One.

Sea Haulage.

There is quite a lot more to the humble tugboat than meets the eye! Haulage is big business on land, in the air and so it is also at sea. Tugboats have a great expanding history to them from their first introduction, as a ship type in 1830 to the present day.

With the introduction of this seaborne assistant no major changes were made for the first seventy years of service in the British Isles. But over the last 110 years much has changed to the various new classes and their roles, which now include search and rescue, floating fire engines and a few newer type oil rig towing and recovery roles.