Category Archives: Sealand

A security forces airman was guarding an air base in Pennsylvania when his idol, former Navy SEAL and podcaster John Gretton Jocko Willink rolled up to the gate and asked to enter.

Airman 1st Class William Guilfoyle, who prepared for basic training and pushed through technical school with the help of Willinks podcasts, was thrilled to see the retired naval officer this month at Biddle Air National Guard Base in Horsham, Pa.

I was just blown away to be able to meet him and shake his hand, said Guilfoyle, a native of Susquehanna, Pa.

Willink made the impromptu visit April 19 after some Pennsylvania Army National Guard soldiers ran into him making a promotional video, the Pennsylvania Air National Guard said in a statement this week. The soldiers from the 28th Infantry Division invited him to give a speech to some 275 mobilized guard members temporarily living on the base on state orders.

When Willink and his team showed up at the gate, Guilfyole stayed frosty, the statement said. He and Tech. Sgt. Anthony Williams, both with the 111th Security Forces Squadron, checked the visitors identification, searched their vehicle, gave an operational security briefing and escorted them to the designated area.

In a three-minute video of the talk with the soldiers, posted to Willinks social media accounts, a soldier off-screen describes a scenario thats not all that great.

Foods not great, non-ideal sleeping conditions, maybe the shower trailers broke down, the unidentified man said. All that starts adding up.

The crowd laughs and Willink grins before putting their plight in historical perspective.

The worst possible day that you have on this base isnt 15 minutes of the pain that the guys felt at the Chosin Reservoir at Normandy, at Gettysburg, he said. Whenever I face anything thats challenging, whenever anything sucks, I like it. Its going to make me tougher.

The military uses the suckfest of boot camp and challenging schools and experiences to build bonds between troops until they ultimately arrive in combat, which sucks the worst of all but makes units even tighter, Willink explained.

In Iraq, where he commanded SEAL Team 3s Task Unit Bruiser 15 years ago, his sailors became very close with the Armys 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, headed by then-Col. Ron Clark, now a major general and chief of staff of Indo-Pacific Command.

The citation for Willinks Silver Star earned during that deployment praises his leadership, vision and courage under fire. He spearheaded missions and led forces in high-intensity and bloody urban warfare, it says.

During his speech, Willink credited the bonds developed through shared adversity as directly contributing to their successes.

So, when something sucks? Good, he said. Good! Its going to make me tougher and its going to make us stronger.

By Thursday, the video had garnered some 673,000 views on Instagram.

Meanwhile, the security forces rookie Guilfoyle received praise from his leadership for keeping his cool around his idol.

We could not be prouder of our security forces squadron, said the wings Chief Master Sgt. Robert Ferguson.

garland.chad@stripes.comTwitter: @chadgarland

Pennsylvania Air National Guard Tech Sgt. Anthony Williams poses with John Gretton ''Jocko'' Willink, a retired Navy SEAL officer at Biddle Air National Guard Base, Pa., April 19, 2021. Williams was on duty when Willink paid an impromptu visit to the base.ANTHONY WILLIAMS/U.S. AIR NATIONAL GUARD

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Retired SEAL Jocko Willink surprises guard members, tells them to relish adversity - Stars and Stripes

A REPORTED sighting of a big cat roaming a Chester park has been exposed as a hoax - with the creature in question revealed to be Chester Zoo's black jaguar.

This week, Puma Watch North Wales shared a report submitted to them by Richard and Philip.

They claimed to have taken a photo of a large black cat roaming Chesters Grosvenor Park.

However, member of Puma Watch used "open-source journalism techniques" to discover that the big cat was Goshi, who is safely housed in his enclosure at Chester Zoo.

Screenshot of the report of a panther sighting. Image: Puma Watch North Wales

Tony Jones, founder of Puma Watch North Wales, said: "Today, thanks to the efforts of the Puma Watch community, we are able to confirm their report is a hoax. Using open-source journalism techniques, we have successfully matched the location of their photo with the jaguar enclosure at nearby Chester Zoo enabling us to eliminate their report from our ongoing investigations."

"This is the second time weve been able to conclusively "debunk" reports of a big cat in recent months. In February, we received multiple sightings, including a video, of a creature prowling fields near Trelogan.

"Within days, we tracked down the owner of an incredibly large pet cat living nearby, and were able to confirm that the big cat caught on video was actually Sheldon, described as the biggest softy ever. His owner was forced to buy a dog cage to take him to the vets as he cant fit in a cat carrier.

"However, the witnesses reporting sightings of Sheldon genuinely (and understandably) believed they could have encountered a big cat. Unfortunately on this occasion, it seems that Richard and Philip intentionally staged a hoax encounter though they were quickly figured out by the Puma Watch community."

The hoax comes after a series of sightings in Chester, including one where a big cat was caught on camera in Chester Meadows, just metres from Grosvenor Park.

Tony added: On Friday 16th April, Alan Standing spotted what could have been a puma near Blacon, at a location well under a mile from four other recent sightings. Just along the canal to the North, a large, black animal with a very long tail was spotted twice within a week, around the abandoned Old Oaks Golf Course and the Countess of Chester Country Park."

He added: "The sightings followed a 4ft-long cat with a great big tail being spotted twice in one night in fields bordering Blacon, behind Sealand Road Asda.

"Big cat sightings are now so commonplace in Chester they have been immortalised in the Lego Chester display within Chester Market. Just last week, a member of the public reported an encounter with a growing and snarling creature in Huntingtons Caldy Valley Nature Park, while in December, a big cat was caught on camera prowling Chester Meadows."

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Big cat sighting hoax exposed as creature prowling city park revealed to be Goshi - Chester Zoo's black jaguar - LeaderLive

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To make it even easier for you to pick the perfect one, we highlighted some of our favorite dealsfrom coffee and soup makers to a super-useful vacuum sealer and even Vitamix blender thats currently under $300. Keep scrolling to find the gift that best suits the kitchen gadget-obsessed moms in your life.

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10 Top-Notch Small Kitchen Appliances on Sale that Make Perfect Mothers Day Gifts - Thrillist

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) The 2021 May Municipal Elections are now less than 24 hours away, and our elections integrity is something local officials take very seriously.

Potter County Elections Administrator, Melynn Huntley, stated, Election integrity starts at the local level. We have to get it right here. Huntley has worked hard to do just that for the past eight years.

Election integrity to me means that when you vote your vote, that is what is tabulated. But election integrity also means that one person votes one time, and that the only people that vote in the votes, or tabulator, are people who are registered voters who are legally entitled to vote, explained Huntley.

As for Randall County Elections Administrator, Shannon Lackey, the term election integrity means, I follow the law, the Texas Election Code down to the letter.

Lackey additionally shared, Something I think everyone needs to know is our election equipment is never connected to the internet for any reason. That is Texas law.

Precautions like this are only the tip of the iceberg for the security measures that take place for every election.

We go to great lengths, before the machines ever leave here. They are sealed with a numbered seal, and the media is locked inside there. We log that. We know exactly what it looked like when it left here. It gets to the election judge, they have to verify it, then when it comes back to us election night, we verify it a third time to make sure that that hasnt been tampered with anywhere along the way. And then everything- the media is read, everything is done right here in this office, explained Lackey.

Additionally, ballot checks and balances are a must.

Huntley stated, When you vote, you check in on one of the poll paths, and where- theres a number there that were going to grab, and that number needs to correspond to the number of people who voted. So those numbers have to match.

Following the 2020 November election, Huntley said that they have received a specific question multiple times. She continued, And that is, I want to be able to see that my vote that you counted is exactly as I voted it, and no, we cannot do that at this point. That is not part of the system. The Potter County Elections Administrator later stated, We tell people that if when you review your choices on the screen, and you watch your review is what you wanted it to vote and you say yes, this is exactly what I want, you push Yes and then you push, yes, cast my ballot, but it will count that way But we do have secret ballot in this country.

Lackey shared that everyone who works with her has had to undergo a background check.

In Potter County, there will be 16 polling sites open.

In Randall County, there will be 11 polling sites open.

More from MyHighPlains.com:

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2021 May Municipal Elections: Election integrity starts at the local level. We have to get it right here. - KAMR - MyHighPlains.com

A dispute between InterDigital and Xiaomi highlighted the delicate balance between confidentiality and fair opportunity in SEP disputes, say Ranjan Narula and Suvarna Pandey of RNA Technology and IP Attorneys.

The objective of forming a Confidentiality Club during patent or trade secret litigation matters has become a standard protocol to keep the business-sensitive documents/information confidential to the parties involved in the litigation. The idea is to limit access to documents to a specific set of people bound by the obligation to maintain confidentiality.

The provision of the Confidentiality Club, introduced by the Delhi High Court Act 1966 through amendments in 2018 in its practice rules for the lawsuits where the Delhi High Court is the court of the first instance, is defined as follows: 17. Confidentiality Clubwhen parties to a commercial suit wish to rely on documents/information that is commercially or otherwise confidential in nature, the court may constitute a Confidentiality Club so as to allow limited access to such documents/information.

In doing so, the court may set up a structure/protocol for the establishment and functioning of such club, as it may deem appropriate. An illustrative structure/protocol of the Confidentiality Club is provided in Annexure F. The court may appropriately mould the structure/protocol of the club, based upon the facts and circumstances of each case.

The rules state that each party shall nominate not more than three advocates, who are not, and have not been, in-house lawyers of either party, and not more than two external experts, who shall constitute the Confidentiality Club.

The post discusses the decision of a single judge of the Delhi High Court in an standard-essential patent (SEP) infringement suit between InterDigital Technology (plaintiff) and Xiaomi (defendant) (CS [COMM]-295/2020 and IA No. 6441, 2020).

In summary, the parties did not disagree on forming the Confidentiality Club but its structure. InterDigital has proposed a two-tier club classifying documents and their access as follows:

Outer tier: documents are accessible to the advocates for both sides, experts appointed by them, as well as representatives of both parties and denoted as confidential information.

Inner tier: documents accessible only to the advocates for both sides and experts appointed by them who would not be in-house counsel and denoted as legal eyes only (LEO) confidential information.

Xiaomi objected to the classification of inner tier documents. Xiaomi contended that it would result in its officials, personnel, and employees being denied access to documents comprising third-party comparable patent licence agreements. Further, these documents are necessary for them to examine the basis on which royalty rates have been worked out and whether they are comparable.

The court dealt with the issue of whether comparable patent licence agreements could be justifiably included in an inner tier of confidential documents, ie, kept away from the eyes of the defendant, as well as all its officers and employees.

Court ruling

The court noted the following: the defendants would have to be made privy to the licence agreements with other licensees. Without knowing the identity of the licensee, the particulars of the licence agreement, or its covenants, it defeats comprehension as to how the defendants can be expected to make any submission regarding whether the rate at which such licence has been granted is, or is not, fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND).

The determination of whether licensing rates set by the SEP owner are FRAND requires assessment of licence agreements with other licensees, considering the licensees identity and the scope of the licence. This assessment cannot be carried out solely by advocates and external experts to the exclusion of party representatives.

Civil litigation generally requires each party to be aware of the other partys case that it is supposed to counter, and no surprises should be permitted in this regard, especially in litigation as complex as this, involving fixation of FRAND rates and determination of the issue of whether Xiaomi is, or is not, infringing the SEPs of InterDigital.

The court opined that it is a prime necessity that the officials of Xiaomi, which is conversant with its activities, and who can decide on the rate at which Xiaomi can take a licence for the exploitation of the SEPs from InterDigital, are kept abreast of all aspects of the case set up by InterDigital. A prime element for the determination of FRAND rates would be the allegedly comparable licence agreements proposed by InterDigital.

InterDigital argued that access to documents marked and designated as LEO confidential information, third-party licence agreements in particular, contain sensitive commercial information. They are strictly restricted not to disclose such information.

If such information is placed in the hands of other parties such as the defendants and if it is misused or further disclosed there-after, it could cause such grave prejudice to the commercial interests of the plaintiffs, as well as the third-party entities, who in many instances are competitors to the defendants, said the court.

In the case that such confidential and sensitive information is disclosed to the defendants, or is disclosed to other third parties thereafter, it will cause grave prejudice not just to the plaintiffs, but their third-party licensees as well, since it will be very difficult for the plaintiffs to be able to negotiate future licence agreements with licensees who cannot be assured that the confidentiality obligations with respect to such negotiations can be complied with.

In such a situation, any order from this Honble Court passed later cannot reverse the damage.

Single tier

While rejecting this argument, the court held: First, that litigation is not a one-way street and, second, that InterDigital has invited Xiaomi into the arena, and not vice versa. The court concluded Xiaomi is not unwilling to take licences from InterDigital, and determination of licence fees would require Xiaomi, its officers and employees to determine whether rates being offered are FRAND.

The court thus rejected InterDigitals wishes for the creation of a two-tier Confidentiality Club, with inner tier documents being shown only to advocates (who are not in-house counsel) and external experts nominated by Xiaomi.

The court directed to constitute the single-tier Confidentiality Club in the following terms:

The case emphatically lays down that the business interest of a party cannot prevail over fair opportunity and natural justice. Further, the court is required to balance the interest of the parties and cannot place one on a higher pedestal than the other.

See the original post here:

Rules of the club - Lexology

Not everybody is a fan of the five finalists for the new Arlington County logo.

There seems to be a LOT of dissatisfaction with the new county logos, one reader said, in an email to ARLnow.

Locals are being asked to weigh in on the proposed logo designs by May 26, ahead of County Board consideration in June. But a plurality seem to be calling for more choices.

In an unscientific ARLnow poll this week, about 46% of more than 3,000 respondents said the county should go back to the drawing board. The most popular choice the fifth logo above, on the far right-hand side was the preference of 24% of respondents.

The dissatisfaction is more stark on some social media channels.

Ive noticed that the five new Arlington County logos that residents have been asked to vote on are being universally panned on both Nextdoor and Facebook, another ARLnow reader said in an email. In fact, I dont think Ive seen a single positive comment out of scores. My Nextdoor group in North Arlington had more than 25 comments and not a single one positive.

Sure hope the County is listening, the reader added. Time for them to go back to the drawing board.

Perhaps its not necessary to solicit new designs. As pointed out by a local resident on Twitter, the original call for design ideas from the county yielded dozens of notable submissions that were ultimately rejected.

The new logo is needed in order to do away with the illustration of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lees plantation house a prominent Arlington landmark in the current logo, but the call for logo ideas in February specifically asked submitters to think about the images, symbols and feelings unique to Arlington and shared by people across neighborhoods.

The finalists seem to be more abstract in nature than many of the discarded designs that include the shapes of specific landmarks, buildings or geographical borders, however.

Part of that may be a function of the requirement for a logo that works in numerous visual settings and contexts. The new logo should look good in black and white and in color, and when it is printed on something as small as a pen and as large as a billboard, the county said in February.

Asked this morning whether the five finalists may be revisited and other logos considered, given the reaction so far, Arlington County spokeswoman Jennifer K. Smith said only that the county is seeking more feedback.

Engaging and involving the community is central to the process of developing a new logo and that process is ongoing, Smith told ARLnow. We want as many people as possible to weigh in on the final design options. The Logo Review Panel will use the voting results to offer a recommendation to the Arlington County Board in June. To date, well over 9,000 people have voted on the new logo and were looking for many more.

Smith said a robust community process led to the five current logo finalists.

A 14-member Logo Review Panel was appointed by the County Manager in late January of this year, following a communitywide call for applications, she explained. This is a diverse group representing different ages, ethnicities/races, neighborhoods, and backgrounds. Community members also were asked to submit their ideas and concepts over a series of week earlier this year and we received about 250. Then, over the last several months, the Logo Review Panel has worked hard to further define the considerations as well as further develop the ideas submitted by the community, in collaboration with a design firm.

The current county seal and logo which both feature a representation of Lees Arlington House were first adopted in 1983 and 2004, respectively.

The logo panels charge, from its first meeting: Replace existing logo and County seal with new logo as soon as practicable.

Read the original here:

Here Are Some of the Rejected Arlington Logo Designs - ARLnow

File image courtesy MSC

By Ankur Kundu 04-23-2021 01:26:20

Taking into account MSC's new orders, as well as the company's active involvement in the secondhand tonnage market, it can be said that it is all set to overtake Maersk on a capacity basis sometime next year, becoming the largest container line in the world.

According to Alphaliner, the two carriers currently have a capacity gap of 225,000 TEUs. Maersk operates around 709 ships with a combined net tonnage of 4,121,964 TEU. On the other hand, MSC operates 588 ships with a net tonnage of 3,897,002 TEU, and it has built up a very large orderbook.

In addition to its active newbuilding program, MSC is also aggressively acquiring second-hand tonnage. Comparing Maersk's fleet expansion strategy and order books, it's safe to say that MSC might be the biggest container line in 2022 when it comes to net tonnage.

MSC is behind orders for at least 35 big deep-sea vessels, with a combined capacity of nearly 660,000 teu, while Maersks current order book only includes 16 regional ships, for 41,674 TEU, noted Alphaliner. MSCs pipeline could grow even further since several big new builds are believed to be joining the MSC fleet under long-term charters yet to be confirmed.

On the other hand, as Maersk refocuses on decarbonization and dives deeper into exploring alternative fuels, they are expected to refrain from placing any large orders in the near term. Instead, they have been investing heavily in extending their reach into supply chain logistics.

MSCs path to the number-one spot in liner shipping has been one of organic growth, whereas Maersk owes its top ranking to the takeover of Sealand (in 1999), P&O Nedlloyd (2005) and Hamburg Sd (2017), noted Alphaliner.

See the original post here:

MSC Set to Overtake Maersk as the World's Largest Container Line - The Maritime Executive

Marine-Toilets-Market

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Marine Toilets Market Latest Innovations, Demand and Future Projections with top Major Key Player like Jabsco, Raritan Engineering, Reliance Products,...

A MAN returning home from work has reported spotting what they believe to be a puma or panther on the a Chester estate.

Alan Standing was crossing the canal while walking home from work near the police station in Blacon when he encountered the mystery beast.

There have been several sightings of the Chester big cat or "Blac Panther" in the area in recent weeks.

Alan reported the sighting to Puma Watch North Wales, a group set up to investigate such encounters that has been getting an increasing number of reports from the Chester and Ellesmere Port area.

Alan said that he was "walking home from work over the canal bridge when I spotted a black, sleek, long-tailed animal coming out of the bushes alongside the canal".

He said the animal he saw was "too big to be a dog" and was "heading upwards along the canal".

He added that it was too far away to attempt to get a photo on his phone.

The number of sightings in the area recently has let to a big black cat being added to the Lego Chester display in the city's market.

Tony Jones, of Puma Watch, said: "The sheer number of sightings on this side of Chester lately leads us to believe there is at least one big cat lingering in the area. Local community groups have done a fantastic job bringing wildlife to the area in and around the new Countess Country Park, including the adjacent Wetland Centre and abandoned golf course, and to have a big cat attracted to the area alreadyshows what a fantastic job they've done revitalising the local ecosystem.

"The location is well under a mile from fourother recent sightings. Just along the canal to the north, a large, black animal with a very long tail was spotted twice within a week, around the abandoned Old Oaks Golf Course and the Countess of Chester Country Park.

"The sightings followed a 4ft-long cat with a great big tail being spotted twice in one night in fields bordering Blacon, behind Sealand Road Asda."

The "Blac Panther" joins the "Puma of Pontybodkin" - the name given to the creature sighted several times in the Pontybodkin and Pentre Halkyn areas of Flintshire.

Excerpt from:

Another sighting big cat in Blacon area of Chester - The Chester Standard

Who is responsible for last months jam-up in the Suez Canal? Could it be a North Carolinian with ties to Pinehurst?

The damages to the quarter-mile-long container ship Ever Given, which ran aground in the canal, are just the beginning. Egypt lost millions in toll revenue from hundreds of ships backed up. Somebody has to pay for the earth moving equipment and tugboats that dislodged the Ever Given from the canals banks, where it was stuck for six days.

Then there are damages that will accrue to owners of the cargo items for late delivery charges and for the spoilage to time sensitive agricultural products.

Could all this have been caused by a North Carolinian?

Yes, it is easy to argue that Malcom McLean, the son of a sharecropper tobacco farmer in Robeson County, shares responsibly.

McLean (1913-2001) is known as the Father of Containerization because he developed the modern intermodal shipping container that revolutionized freight transportation.

Prior to the 1950s, most shipping cargo was loaded by longshoremen in a time-consuming and costly operation.

McLean began the revolution that led to using strong truck trailer-sized containers to load ocean ships.

How dirt farmer McLean came up with the idea and built businesses around it is a great American story of entrepreneurism and determined work.

Malcom not Malcolm spelled his name without the extra l. Though born in Maxton, he finished high school in Winston Salem in 1935. His family did not have enough money to send him to college. They used the little money they could scrape up to buy a used truck. It was the beginning of McLean Trucking Co., which started operations in Red Springs.

In 1937 McLean drove a truckload of cotton to a port in Hoboken, N.J., where, as he remembered, I had to wait most of the day to deliver the bales, sitting there in my truck, watching stevedores load other cargo. It struck me that I was looking at a lot of wasted time and money. I watched them take each crate off the truck and slip it into a sling, which would then lift the crate into the hold of the ship.

He put that thought about wasted time aside for almost 20 years while he built McLean Trucking, then headquartered in Winston Salem, into the largest trucking fleet in the South.

But he saw the possibility of a container sized to fit on a truck bed or railcar, or stacked on a ship. He saw how to eliminate the wasted time he had experienced in Hoboken. He developed and patented a standard steel reinforced container that fit on a truck bed and was stackable on ships. He founded a new company, SeaLand, to exploit the opportunity.

As McLeans first container ship left Newark harbor in 1956, someone asked Freddy Fields, a top official of the International Longshoremens Association, What do you think of that new ship? Fields replied, Id like to sink that sonofabitch. Fields knew that McLeans way of transferring freight would put longshoremen out of work.

The world found out that the new way of loading and transferring freight opened doors for increased world trade and for more and more container ships, larger and larger ones, carrying more and more containers like those stacked to the sky on the Ever Given.

McLeans Pinehurst ties didnt surface until his shipping enterprise was awash in success. Diamondhead Inc., a real estate development company controlled by McLean, bought Pinehurst Inc. in the late 1970s from the Tufts family, for $9.2 million. Diamondhead had several divisions, but its main business was developing resort communities. In less than a full decade, the company spent millions more on developing homes, condos and much of what you see today in Pinehurst, including the Members Club and Course No. 6. It also built what you dont see today: a Golf Hall of Fame that eventually closed and was torn down.

The whole relationship eventually soured, and Pinehurst incorporated as a village in 1980. Club Corp., owned by Bob Dedman Sr., bought the resort and golf business.

As for McLean, his revolution in containerized shipping brought us cheaper products from other parts of the world. It gave us the opportunity to produce and sell our goods internationally without having to pay exorbitant shipping and handling costs.

And it made possible the gigantic Ever Given loaded with 18,300 containers that plowed into the Suez banks.

Give McLean the credit he is due for revolutionizing world trade. And then you can hold him partly accountable for the jam-up of the monster container ship in the Suez.

D.G. Martin hosts North Carolina Bookwatch, Sundays at 3:30 p.m. and Tuesdays at 5 p.m. on PBS North Carolina (formerly UNC-TV).

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Column: Did Suez Canal Back-Up Have a N.C. Connection? - Southern Pines Pilot