A Ghost Ship or a casualty of the Weather God? On 18th April 2007, an Australian coast patrol aircraft spotted a 40ft catamaran drifting off the coast of Queensland and tried to make contact with the vessel after seeing the damaged sail but it was only the next day when the coastguard boarded the vessel. It was examined as a crime scene and although there was no evidence of any foul play till now, other evidence suggests that men might have been missing since 15th April 2007. The engine was running, the computers were running, there was a laptop set up on the table which was running, the radio was working, the GPS was working and there
was food and utensils set on the table ready to be eaten, but no sign of the crew. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) rescue team was allegedly left baffled by the discovery as they searched more than four thousand square miles of shark-infested waters over four days in vain. The coastguard also found lifejackets, which purportedly suggests that the three men had presumably gone into the water without any flotation devices and that can only spell trouble. While the coastguard believes one of the men might have fallen overboard and the rest had tried to rescue him as the boat motored off, a forecaster with Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology reportedly ruled out weather as a cause of the incident. The coastguard also claimed that sharks posed a greater danger to the men than sea temperatures.
According to updates, the actual cause is still being investigated by the forensic police in Townsville, where the catamaran has been towed to and search for the missing men was called off on 21st April 2007. However, two volunteer rescue boats are still continuing the search.
Man-made precipitation in Tibet Worried what the scientists are predicting about the global warming and the melting of the glaciers and rising of the sea level? Well, may be the scientists of China have found the way to reverse the process! China has reportedly managed to simulate precipitation in the form of artificial snow for the first time in Tibet in early April, months after it was announced by experts that melting glaciers in the Himalayas could bring about droughts and trigger desertification in the region. A successful artificial snowfall operation in Northern Tibet proved it is possible to alter the weather through human efforts even on the world’s highest plateau. This is indeed a breakthrough in technology and perhaps a stepping-stone to a solution to the various climatic problems caused by global warming. Looks like the day’s not far off when we can enjoy a season on demand!
Singapore preparing well for rising sea levels Reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict countries in South East Asia and the Asia Pacific could be the worst affected areas by rising sea levels some 50 to 100 years from now but the Singaporean government has reportedly already started collaborating with the Dutch to tap their expertise in building dykes.
Experts from the IPCC suggest that with global warming and the ice caps melting, water levels could rise by a minimum of 18cm by the end of this century – which is still manageable – or a maximum of 6m, which would induce inundation and other coastal hazards, thus threatening vital infrastructure and facilities that support the livelihood of countries like Singapore and many other coastal cities. In the usual proactive operation of the Singaporean government, it is already in touch with a leading Netherlands-based water research and consulting organization to work out how to build dykes in a South-east Asian situation. In fact, the water research company has recently set up a research center in Singapore with the National University of Singapore and is also helping with the Marina Barrage, a dam being built across Marina Bay to create a new reservoir.
invites the applications for
DECK CADETS
GRADUATE MARINE ENGINEERS
Aug 2007 Batch
Sep 2007 Batch
Closing: 10 May 2007
Closing: 13 Jul 2007
DECK CADETS
GRADUATE MARINE ENGINEERS
Jan 2008 Batch
Dec 2007 Batch
Applications are now open.
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On 18th April 2007, an Australian coast patrol aircraft spotted a 40ft catamaran drifting off the coast of Queensland and tried to make contact with the vessel after seeing the damaged sail but it was only the next day when the coastguard boarded the vessel. It was examined as a crime scene and although there was no evidence of any foul play till now, other evidence suggests that men might have been missing since 15th April 2007. 
