Daily Archives: May 9, 2021

This great reed warbler can migrate above 6000 meters.

By Elizabeth PennisiMay. 6, 2021 , 2:00 PM

Migration ecologist Sissel Sjberg had long wondered how tiny birds like the great reed warbler can make it across long expanses of water or desert on their epic migrations. Though just half the weight of a golf ball, they fly 7000 kilometers between Northern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa twice a year. Now, a new study may have the answer: These nighttime flyers soar well into the dayand at heights of up to 6000 meters, three times as high as they normally fly.

Thats totally unexpected, says Martin Wikelski, an ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior who was not involved with the work. Its like you are building mud houses and suddenly somebody [else] builds a skyscraper. And all you can say is, you didnt know you could do that.

Birds from more than 4000 species, including thousands of songbirds, migrate across long distances each year. Although researchers have been able to track the migration paths of larger birds such as geese, its challenging to outfit small songbirds with the tracking devices that make such research possible, says Felix Liechti, an ornithologist at the Swiss Ornithological Institute who pioneered such tracking technology, but was not involved with the new research.

To see whether she could change that, Sjberg joined the lab of Lund University ecoimmunologist Dennis Hasselquist. The pair turned to great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), relatively large songbirds that summer at a lake near Lund University. Scientists there have monitored the species breeding and behavior for 40 years, even developing custom data loggers for the birds.

To track the warblerswhich are about half the size of an American robinSjberg, Hasselquist, and colleagues outfitted them with the data loggerssmall backpacks that can monitor when, how high, and where the warblers fly on their semiannual journeys between Sweden and Africa. (That feat was only possible, Sjberg says, because the warblers can grow up to three times bigger than the average songbird.) The researchers put the backpacks on 63 birds and retrieved useful data from 14.

As expected, the migrants usually spent their nights flying and rested during the day. But most birds that hit a water or desert crossing near dawn kept going as the Sun rose, climbing high into the sky. One bird was airborne for more than 32 hours. And instead of staying at typical altitudes of less than2000 meters, some birds soared higher than 6000 meters, Sjberg and colleagues report today in Science. Thats not quite as high as the 8000 meters bar-headed geese hit as they skim the Himalayas, but its still a tall order, Sjberg says. We have never even imagined that songbirds regularly would fly this high.

Such altitudes can be stressful. At 6000 meters, oxygen is scarce and the temperature is below freezing. Somehow the birds are able to cope. The ease at which they [fly that high] is amazing, Wikelski says. Like other migrating songbirds, warblers have relatively large hearts and air sacs in the lungs designed to increase the rate and efficiency of oxygen exchange. Hard-working flight muscles likely keep the bird warm, despite the 22C drop in temperature, Sjberg says.

That cooling effect may be one reason the warblers fly so high, Sjoberg suggests. As the day dawns, the Suns rays can take a toll, and the only way they can counterbalance this external heating is by rising steeply at sunrise, especially when crossing the Sahara, she proposes. This need to stay cool may help explain why other birds often migrate at night, adds Melissa Bowlin, an ecophysiologist at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. She expects other songbirds also soar to such great heights during the day, making the work important.

Liechti says he is excited about the results. His work using radar data to monitor animals moving across the western Sahara had suggested some birds fly during the day, possibly taking advantage of favorable tailwinds. But, We just tracked unknown blips [these other researchers have] tracked single known individuals along the whole flyway.

The results, he adds, show there are still a lot of unexpected flexible behaviors of animals to be discovered. Sjberg agrees: It is important to know how flexible birds [can be] as it tells [us] about the possibilities birds may have to adapt to climate change.

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Tiny songbirds cross deserts and seas by soaring three times higher than usual - Science Magazine

The Pursuit of Love9pm, BBC One

A much-needed dose of period drama frivolity drops into the schedules with this adaptation of Nancy Mitfords 1945 novel, written and directed by Emily Mortimer. Set in the interwar period initially in Oxfordshire and then moving to the Pyrenees during the Spanish Civil War, Lily James stars as wild-hearted aristocrat Linda, who seeks out love at all costs, while her cousin Fanny (Emily Beecham) narrates from her more conservative viewpoint. We open as 17-year-old Linda plots to escape from her stern father (Dominic West). Ammar Kalia

A cracking three-part documentary series about snookers golden age begins with a biography of brittle bad boy Alex Higgins: the women, the booze, the outrageous pots and ridiculous hats. Put in context and replayed through choice archive here, the 1982 World Championship is confirmed as a sporting classic. Jack Seale

Following his unceremonious booting off the franchise earlier this year, this is your last chance to catch Ant Middleton lead a team of nervous new recruits through a series of punishing SAS-style challenges. We begin on the Scottish island of Raasay with a race up a 4000ft mountain. AK

All aboard as TVs queen of the high seas kicks off a new series of cruising adventures, making pals on deck and sampling the activities on offer along the way. Tonight Jane is on in the Carribean, sailing from Fort Lauderdale to the Virgin Islands, before watching a high-speed yacht race. AK

Season four, and the era-spanning darkly comic crime anthology lands in Missouri, 1950, where an uneasy peace between two crime syndicates is suddenly thrown into jeopardy after an accidental death. Chris Rock heads up African American syndicate Cannon Limited, squaring off against the local Kansas City mafia. Ali Catterall

The fourth season of John Singletons drug business drama arrives in the UK and after taking time out to heal post-shooting, Franklin (Damson Idris) is easing back in the game. Its hard to know who to trust in the chaos of early 80s L.A., however. Is his new cane the only support he can rely on? Ellen E Jones

Inside Out, 3.05pm, BBC One

This dazzlingly inventive Pixar animated comedy takes place inside the head of 11-year-old Riley, where five bickering embodiments of feelings control her actions: Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness and the ebullient Joy (Amy Poehler). Its a great excuse for a thrilling, emotional journey. Paul Howlett

Premier League Football: Aston Villa v Manchester United 2pm, Sky Sports Main Event. Followed by West Ham United v Everton at 4pm.

Premier League Football: Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion 6.30pm, BT Sport 1. Live from Emirates Stadium.

Golf: The Wells Fargo Championship 7pm, Sky Sports Main Event. Day four coverage.

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TV tonight: Lily James and Dominic West star in The Pursuit of Love - The Guardian

A new era is taking shape between UK and India, PMs Johnson and Modi have made a commitment to bring India and UK economies, people and culture closer together over the next decade. The GoI have elevated Britain to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the first European country to receive this status.

Johnsons2030 Roadmap provides a framework across health, pharmaceutical and medical supply chains. It introduces the India-UK partnership on Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics, it expands the UK-India Vaccines Hub to develop distribution policy, clinical trials, regulation, research and innovation related to Covid-19, and helps to guarantee an equitable global supply by April 2022. Joint work will be focused on health security and future pandemic preparedness including through an India-UK Zoonotic Research Twinning Initiative to better understand, monitor and mitigate against future pandemics.

2030 Roadmap addresses climate and clean energy, transport and preserving nature. An Enhanced Trade Partnership with the intent to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with a view to doubling UK-India trade over the next 10 years. New cooperation between British and Indian Universities. New collaborations for science and technology. A defence partnership with UKs Carrier Strike Group visiting India later this year and both navies undertaking joint training exercises to enable future cooperation on operations in the Western Indian Ocean. UKs First Sea Lord Admiral Radakin told reporters during a visit to his counterpart, US Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday, in Washington DC This amazing thing called the high seas, this global commons, which allows trade and prosperity to flourish, that exists all around the world. The Indo-Pacific is a crucial part of that. And therefore, we will look to signal our belief in the freedom of the high seas, and in a free and open Indo-Pacific.

There is also a key role for cooperation between UKs Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department of Telecoms in India to strengthen the existing India-UK Tech Partnership to tackle global challenges; realising the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and emerging technologies, the benefits of interactive data systems, and the changing use of technology to overcome the digital divide with a particular focus on the digital economy and society; cyber resilience and telecoms; health technologies; and promoting clean growth, smart urbanisation and future mobility. These discussions will inform a new ministerial level Dialogue on Technology.UK and India agreed to share knowledge and expertise regarding artificial intelligence, scientific support to policies and regulatory aspects including ethics, and promote a dialogue in research and innovation. Through Tech Summits, bring together tech innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs and policy makers to work together on challenges including the norms and governance of future tech under the cross cutting theme of data.

It also was UKs turn to host the latest G7-D10 Summit in London, essentially to underscore democracy, freedoms and the rules-based international order, and with partner countries to devise a global strategic cooperation to counter the pandemic and future, technological threats and the effects of climate change.

G7 committed to measures on media freedom, Internet shutdowns, cyber governance, freedom of religion or belief, the Rapid Response Mechanism, arbitrary detention and looked forward to Leader-level discussions on Open Societies with Australia, India, the Republic of Korea and South Africa at the G7 Summit in June at Carbis Bay.

The Group welcomed Australia, India, the Republic of Korea and South Africa as guests countries to take forward shared priorities ahead in the G7 Leaders Summit in June; significantly the involvement of the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and support for the centrality of ASEAN and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific was considered vital. The lead commitment was strengthened G7-Africa partnerships and greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific. African Foreign Ministers will participate at the second G7 Foreign and Development Ministers meeting later this year. And it is worthwhile noting that Dominic Raabs visit to Indonesia has brought that archipelago into the loop, in late April UK and Indonesia announced the creation of a new joint trade dialogue. Indonesia is a key partner for the UK, as a fellow member of the G20 and the largest economy in South East Asia.

G7 urged China to participate constructively in the rules-based international system, concerns were documented about human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. China is encouraged to uphold its commitments to act responsibly in cyber space, including refraining from conducting or supporting cyber-enabled intellectual property theft. Taiwans meaningful participation in World Health Organisation forums and the World Health Assembly was supported. G7 remain concerned about the situation in and around the East and South China Seas and the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Maritime security and promoting a cooperative system of international governance for the ocean and seas received a commitment. In the Non-proliferation and Disarmament paragraph G7 urge all states to counter the threat of disease being used as a weapon, and commended the G7-led Global Partnership (GP) of 31 states, which supports vulnerable countries around the world to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, to prevent the proliferation of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons (CBRN) and related materials.

The situation in Myanmar was utterly condemned and in a striking move G7 confirmed readiness to take further steps if the military junta does not reverse its course, committing to continuing to prevent the supply, sale or transfer of all weapons, munitions, and other military-related equipment to Myanmar and the supply of technical cooperation.

The Joint Communiqu described Russias behaviour as irresponsible and threatening, it regretted Russias deteriorating relationship with western countries and it sought a stable and predictable relations with Russia. G7 called for Russia to unblock the Kerch Strait which is preventing access to Ukraines ports. Human rights and the systematic crackdown on opposition voices in Russia and Belarus were denounced. The security, economic recovery and European perspective of the six Western Balkans countries (Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina) was reaffirmed as a crucial investment for peace and stability.

The Communiqu makes two references to biological weapons and four references to chemical weapons, for the non- proliferation and disarmament thereof, in the context Novichok, Nalvalny, DPRK and Syria.

Japan Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi enjoyed a very busy time, since being referred to as one of UKs closest partners in the Integrated Review the UK-Japan relationship has picked up. Motegi said that the British aircraft carrier strike group mission to the Indo-Pacific symbolises UKs commitment to the region. After meeting with Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, Motegi met with the FMs of the Republic of Korea, France, US, Germany, and EUs Foreign Policy Chief; Motegi welcomed Berlins decision to send a Frigate to the IPR.

The British press rudely went into overdrive following EAM Jaishankars tweet that he was self-isolating as two junior delegates from India had tested positive for Covid-19. Boris Johnson confirmed that all proper Covid-19 protocols were followed and that the business of government must go on. The PM and Raab took time out from side meetings to Zoom Jaishankar and enquire how he was feeling.

As an aside this reporter is going to mention the global need for rare earths, and how geopolitical tensions could interfere with a vulnerable supply as China controls a large % of the market. This market is set to boom as green industries develop. In 2020 the Prime Minister instructed civil servants to draw up plans for Project Defend a strategy for protecting national security after the pandemic, which includes the supplies of cobalt, nickel and lithium necessary for Britains renewable future. On Thursday the International Energy Agency (IEA) emphasised the need for government action to ensure reliable, sustainable supplies of elements vital for electric vehicles, power grids, wind turbines and other key technologies and advised Western governments to build up supplies. UK may have plans to stockpile lithiumcarbonate, which in January 2021 has been produced for the first time inCornwall, the location for the G7-D10 Summit in June.

The Hartlepool by-election result is a triumph for Conservatives, for the first time since the constituency was established the Tories have won by 23%, which is a 16% gain from Labour and a bullseye for Boris Johnson. The Scottish Parliamentary Election and the London Mayor election results are due over the weekend.

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'2030 Roadmap' will further strengthen the Indo-UK ties - The Sunday Guardian Live - The Sunday Guardian

On land, youd struggle to find a mountain that hasnt already been climbed. In contrast, in the deep sea there are thousands of unexplored peaks. Seamounts are submerged volcanoes, active or dormant, with foothills planted in the abyss and summits soaring up thousands of metres without breaking the sea surface.

These hidden mountains are some of the least known, but most abundant geological features on the planet. They form a fragmented habitat that covers an area rivalling the worlds tropical rainforests. As scientists learn more about seamounts, its becoming clear that these dramatic montane seascapes are rich oases of life that play a crucial role across the entire global ocean.

A 2019 Nekton expedition caught these images while descending a seamount near the Astove Atoll, in the Seychelles Nekton

Currently, theres no definitive count of the worlds seamounts, because locating and identifying them is not easy. Estimates suggest there are between 30,000 and more than 100,000 seamounts with peaks over 1,500m high. One of the biggest is Davidson Seamount off the California coast 42km long, 8km wide and 2,280m tall. Taller still are seamounts that rise almost 5,000m from base to peak. Add in smaller peaks, 100m and higher, and the estimated global tally reaches into the millions.

Whatever the number of seamounts, scientists have studied only a few hundred. Dr Lucy Woodall is a senior research fellow at Oxford University and principal scientist at the research foundation Nekton, who has studied seamounts in the Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans. Its something I think about before every dive, that Im probably the first human to see this bit of our planet, just because theyre so remote and so unexplored, she says.

When exploring seamounts, scientists often encounter otherworldly forests of sponges and corals, including colourful, shrub-like colonies of gold and black corals that live for hundreds or even thousands of years. Deep-dwelling coral species already outnumber their distant relatives in the tropical shallows and new species are constantly being found. A recent expedition to the Galapagos Marine Reserve uncovered dozens of new species of corals and sponges growing on three previously unexplored seamounts.

Amid the expanses of mud-covered deep-sea floor, the rocky flanks of seamounts provide a footing for larvae of corals and sponges to settle on and grow. The corals and sponges then offer a habitat for other animals: starfish, anemones, snails, brittlestars, shrimp, squat lobsters and octopuses. Sharks lay their egg cases among the coral branches like Christmas tree decorations.

A scuba diver peers down into El Bajn, a volcanic seamount in Spains Mar De Las Calmas marine reserve Alamy

The dives Woodall and other seamount explorers undertake are often conducted from afar, using Remote Operated Underwater Vehicles, or ROVs. These deep-diving robots, roughly the size of a car, are deployed from a ship and controlled via cable. Equipped with high-definition cameras and robotic grippers, they become the scientists eyes and hands in the deep.

Seamount surveys are usually conducted from the base to the summit, along pre-determined transect lines, filming and photographing bands of habitat that can be scrutinised in detail later.

As well as surveying habitats and searching for new species, scientists also visit seamounts to hunt for novel molecules that could inspire new medicines. Deep-sea corals and sponges are proving to be especially useful because they produce a huge range of chemical defences.

Scientists get samples of tissue from the corals and sponges, then isolate and analyse the molecules produced by the animals and the microbes that live inside them. The samples are yielding all sorts of complex, toxic molecules that are showing great promise as new antibiotics, as well as treatments for cancers and pathogens such as tuberculosis and malaria.

Long-lived corals also keep a record of how the ocean has changed. By extracting traces of certain chemicals and measuring isotopes, scientists can estimate the temperature, pH and nutrients of seawater when different parts of the coral colony grew, some more than 4,000 years ago.

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The least-known seamounts are those lying deepest underwater and yet, as deep-sea biologist Dr Astrid Leitner from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute points out, those are actually the most common types of seamount on our planet.

In 2018, while she was a PhD student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Leitner took part in a seamount-finding expedition to the central Pacific and made a remarkable discovery: an ultra-deep, abyssal seamount, peaking 3,112m below the surface. Leitner and the team deployed a baited camera to study the apex predators chiefly fish that hunt around it and wont pass up a free meal dropped down by scientists.

When the camera was brought to the surface 24 hours later, Leitner thought it had malfunctioned. Thumbnail images on her computer appeared to be black. Playing the footage in full she realised it was a swarm of half-metre-long fish, called cutthroat eels. We were absolutely shocked, she says. In one shot she counted 115 eels, an unheard abundance for any fish in the abyss where food is in short supply and predators are normally rare. Compare that to what weve seen across the deep sea and it blew everything else out of the water.

Cutthroat eels swarm a bait package at an unnamed seamount more than 3,000m below the surface of the Pacific Deep Sea Fish Ecology Lab/Astrid Leitner/Jeff Drazon/Soest/Deepccz Expedition

Leitner set baited cameras on other deep seamounts and found more eel aggregations, but saw none in the surrounding areas, suggesting theyre seamount specialists and providing evidence that the so-called seamount effect extends into the abyss. Seamounts are magnets for sea life, although exactly why is something deep-sea biologists are still trying to explain.

One theory is based on the way that currents that flow over abyssal plains speed up when they meet a seamount and are forced around it. Faster currents bring in a constant stream of suspended particles and plankton, on which filter-feeding animals gorge.

This injection of food then works its way up the food chain and could ultimately support high densities of predators, such as cutthroat eels. We dont have much evidence for that yet, admits Leitner. Thats one of the guesses we have.

While scientists are still investigating what causes the seamount effect, fishing industries have been taking advantage of it for decades. On shallower seamounts, ones within a few hundred metres of the surface, trawlers have targeted aggregations of fish including species that come to seamounts to spawn.

A young octopus stretches out on the Physalia Seamount off the northeast coast of America Alamy

In the 1990s, orange roughy fisheries boomed on seamounts worldwide, but swiftly collapsed as trawl nets smashed their way through ancient coral ecosystems. Trawl fishing leaves horrendous scars on these seamounts, says Leitner.

Decades after the trawlers move on, many seamounts still show few signs of the delicate ecosystem recovering. The basis of the habitat are long-lived, slow-growing species, she says, so theyre very quick to be destroyed and very slow to come back.

Seamounts and their ecosystems are gradually gaining protection from trawling, such as those within the Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument, which former US president Barack Obama expanded in 2016 to encompass 1.5 million km2 of the Pacific around the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Negotiations are underway at the United Nations for a new global ocean treaty that could make it easier to protect seamounts in the high seas, those remote reaches of the ocean that no countries claim.

Protection benefits not only the resident fish and the sponge and coral ecosystems, but multitudes of migrating animals that call in at seamounts. You get sharks, tuna, marine mammals, turtles and seabirds that know where these features are, says Leitner. Some may use seamounts as navigational tools, many come to feed. Humpback whales pause at seamounts on their seasonal migrations, perhaps using them as a sonic arena to help reflect and broadcast their songs through the ocean.

Corals and other marine life sit 700m below the surface on a seamount off the southern coast of Fernandina Island in the Galapagos Woods Hole Oceanographic institution

Even among the shallower seamounts that reach closer to the surface theres still much to learn, especially in regions where few scientists have visited. At the moment, theres a bias in what we understand about seamounts, says Woodall.

The best known are in the Atlantic and Pacific, within reach of major centres for deep-sea research in Europe, North America, New Zealand and Japan. Woodall and the Nekton team hope to go on an expedition to the Indian Ocean in 2022 to explore some of the lesser-known mounts. We know very little about tropical seamounts, she says. We know almost nothing about the biology of seamounts in the area to the north of Seychelles.

Collaborating with research partners from nations of the Western Indian Ocean, the Nekton team will explore seamounts thought to form important habitats for the migrating tuna that underpin regional economies.

Woodall plans to work with scientists from across the Indian Ocean and identify research questions important for people in the region. As part of the plan, well use an array of equipment including highly novel, low-cost options so that, together, we can remove some of the historical barriers to conducting deep-sea science, she says. With more eyes on seamounts, scientists will be able to increasingly join these vital dots across the ocean.

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Deep-sea mountains: Earths unexplored ecosystems that are teeming with life - BBC Focus Magazine

Weve seen our fair share of luxury garages on land, but now Alia Yachts has designed one for the high seas. The Turkish yard has just launched a new support vessel that will carry high-end toys and tenders for her mothership in style.

Billed as a sleek and muscular new predator, the custom 118-footer goes by the name PHI Phantom and will support Royal Huismans bespoke superyacht PHI. Featuring exterior styling by Cor D Rover and naval architecture by Van Oossanen, the shadow ship is the spit of its 192-foot counterpart, but that was by no means an easy feat.

Designed for an exacting client, the fast displacement aluminum hull was to have no fairing to finish it and so the yards metalworking skills were put to the test. The plates had to be very accurately bent in three dimensions, then precisely welded without creating the slightest distortion. Alia said this was a major challenge, which, evidently, it managed to overcome to create a sleek hull that echoes that of the mothership. PHI Phantom is also painted in the exact same blue-gray hue as PHI and mirrors the larger vessels swooping sheer line and horizontal grille work at the bow.

The vessel was launched in Turkey earlier this month.Alia Yachts

As far as were aware, this is the first support ship thats been built with shared aesthetic DNA from the mothership, the captain of PHI and skipper of PHI Phantom, Guy Booth, said in a statement. She looks like a mini PHI; a sibling.

Where the pair do differ, however, is their ability to carry other sea-going vessels: PHI has no space to stow while PHI Phantom doubles as a sophisticated floating garage. Shes fitted with a 30-foot crane that is capable of lifting toys and tenders weighing up to 6 tons from out of the water and onto the expansive, 1,615-square-foot aft deck. At the same time, a hydraulically operated lazarette under the deck stores further vessels away from the elements.

Alia also says all of the systems on board are over-specced, with everything from pumps and piping to hydraulics and electrics designed to be as bombproof as possible. Power, meanwhile, comes in the form of twin Cat C-32 engines that give the vessel a top speed of 21 knots. She can also cover 4,200 nautical miles when traveling at a cruising speed of 12 knots, which means shell always be in tow of the mothership.

The vessel is currently undergoing final sea trials and will be delivered in June.Alia Yachts

While the interior is rooted in functionality, its finished to a high standard and features an elegant galley along with an enormous crew mess area. The vessel can accommodate up to six crew, with one of the larger cabins earmarked for guests.

When PHI Phantom does begin her adventures, she will represent one of the most robust and stylish support vessels ever built, adds president of Alia Gkhan elik.

PHI Phantom is currently undergoing final sea trials and will be delivered in Juneat which point we shall see if she lives up to the hype.

Check out more photos of the vessel below:

Alia Yachts

Alia Yachts

Alia Yachts

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This Sleek 118-Foot Support Vessel Has 30-Foot Crane Capable of Lifting 6-Ton Toys - Robb Report

In their long history, the Muppets have gone to outer space, sailed the high seas, hung out with Orson Welles, and even became the characters from Charles DickensThe Christmas Carol.Their next destinationis a little more contemporary: the Haunted Mansion from Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Muppets Haunted Mansion is the Muppets next project, and their first-ever Halloween special. Its described in the official press release as a brand-new special featuring a star-studded Muppets cast, celebrity cameos, all-new music and spooky fun for families to enjoy together. How exactly the Muppets interact with the Haunted Mansion whether they go to spooky house inspired by the ride or if they go to the actual ride wasnt made clear, but there is a cute announcement video starring Gonzo and Pepe the King Prawn:

The Muppets have their own Disney World attraction,MuppetVision 3D, which has been a fixture at Disneys Hollywood Studios since 1991. And the Haunted Mansion has been adapted for the screenbefore; in 2003 Eddie Murphy starred in a family comedy loosely inspired by the ride. (A remake is currently in development, to be directed byDear White Peoples Justin Simien.) As if the news wasnt synergistic enough, the announcement ofMuppets Haunted Mansion was made in conjunction with a #HalfwaytoHalloween promotion for the Disney Parks, hyping up Walt Disney Worlds plans for Halloween celebrations this coming fall. Presumably the end point of this act of corporate synergy is a sequel special about the Hatbox Ghost attending a spooky screening ofMuppetVision.

Muppets Haunted Mansionpremieres on Disney+ this fall.

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The Muppets Will Visit the Haunted Mansion in Disney Plus Special - ScreenCrush

When people look at maps of the Indo-Pacific region, often they see a lot of blue and very little green. They see the massive Pacific Ocean with tiny islands speckled throughout. Closer to the Asian continent, they see archipelagos and island chains with large seas and bays with strategic straits cutting throughout. When national security professionals view the region in this way, they tend to discount landpower in favor of air and sea. While those domains are central to Indo-Pacific security, we see the region through a different lens.

The resources that drive competition including fresh water, energy, food, and scarce minerals in the Indo-Pacific are almost entirely on land. Six out of 10 people on Earth live in the region and are only able to survive from land. Nations only exist on land. Land is where the United States needs to compete, respond to crises, and prepare for conflict to advance and preserve its national interests. Nothing signals a nations commitment as much as putting people on the ground. As Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville emphasized in his paper Army Multi-Domain Transformation, Americas Army serves to protect the Nation and preserve the peace. To fulfill the Armys purpose, landpower needs to be present in the Indo-Pacific.

Today, the United States and its allies and partners face a growing competitor in the region. As the president laid out in his recent speech at the Pentagon, we need to meet the growing challenges posed by China to keep the peace and defend our interests in the Indo-Pacific and globally. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin clarified the nature of this challenge in March as they began engagements in the Indo-Pacific, stating China is all too willing to use coercion to get its way, from internal repression in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong to external violations of international law in the South China Sea.

Left unmet, the challenges Beijing poses will erode the U.S. militarys comparative advantage and undermine U.S. assurances to allies and partners. The concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific could become a fleeting memory. Those committed to the region especially the Army should address this challenge. To that end, the Army is transforming landpower in the Indo-Pacific to engage in, and deliver operations across, the land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace domains on, from, and through land. By calibrating its force posture, developing and employing next-generation capabilities, and synchronizing joint and coalition effects across all domains, the Army will reduce risk in the region by imposing asymmetric costs in competition and applying targeted leverage in crisis. And if conflict does come the Army is ready to fight and win alongside our sister services and allies and partners.

Posture Equals Relationships

Figure 1: Army Solidifies Partnerships

Source: U.S. Army (Photo by Spc. Jessica Scott)

Landpower puts U.S. soldiers alongside allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific. This is the Armys competitive advantage: its unique ability to cultivate, forge, and strengthen bonds of trust among members of like-minded nations. Soldiers who are forward-operating, thinking, learning, creating, training, experimenting, innovating, and discovering get to know their teammates where they live. They work together. They share skills and mutual values. Through sustained international military exchanges, military attach engagements, and enduring military presence, the Army is able to build credible relationships with allies and partners. Foreign officers who have trained and learned at Army institutions have gone on to become army chiefs of staff, ministers of defense, and senior officials. These officers form long-term win-win relationships with American partners. Further, these soldier-to-soldier linkages are the foundation of U.S. landpower based and rotating in the region, communicating that the United States will support them if they are threatened. It is also the strongest and most credible signal the country can send to opportunistic actors that the United States intends to respond to a crisis or aggression.

Both of us have experienced the value of forward land forces multiple times throughout our careers. In the Indo-Pacific, we have witnessed exercises like Pacific Pathways deepening partnerships with multiple countries through direct on-the-ground rehearsals. These rehearsals reduce logistical friction while building confidence in mutual contributions. This has led to the pre-positioning of stocks for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief supplies in ground storage or on mobile Army watercraft. Operating together on the ground also forces Army partners to design, test, and employ distributed interoperable networks. This can and does lead to further integration everywhere, from fielding common systems to enduring intelligence sharing.

These actions present policymakers with options. In 2017, with tensions rising on the Korean Peninsula, the Pentagon deployed the Armys Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and rapidly integrated it into the allied air and missile defense system. Expeditionary landpower communicates strategic predictability while maintaining the flexibility to understand and assess potential malign activities. As was the case in 2017, landpower offers immediate, tested levers to de-escalate crises. In a conflict, landpower provides the distributed sustainment network that enables the military to conduct joint and combined operations, blunt aggression, and surge additional forces throughout the region. Most importantly, Army landpower affords the entire military the ground network of logistics, protection, intelligence, fires, and command and control necessary to fight a modern conflict.

Building Emergent Capabilities

Figure 2: Strike Capabilities from Strategic Distances

Source: U.S. Army (Photo by Sgt. Jacob Kohrs)

The Army contributes unique capabilities to the Indo-Pacific, including distributed logistics, mobile air defense/protection, and an integrated intelligence network. It is also building additional capability through its six modernization priorities of long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicles, future vertical lift, a modern network, air and missile defense, and enhanced soldier lethality. Underpinned by modernized intelligence, the Army will be able to perform a new and critical role in the Indo-Pacific the ability to strike enemy targets in all domains from land at strategic distances.

Since the early 2000s, the Peoples Liberation Army has undergone a rapid transformation of its capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. From developing counter-satellite capabilities to anti-access area denial anti-ship missiles, the Peoples Liberation Army now has capabilities specifically designed to impede U.S. operations in the region. Further, through targeted use of predatory economics, the Chinese government has coerced other countries into providing access to their assets. Beijing has extracted long-term exclusive port access, stolen intellectual property, and used economic pressure campaigns to dissuade international coordination. The U.S. military needs capabilities to respond to these coercive activities before they become irreversible.

The fundamental aim of Chinas military modernization is to undermine the U.S. militarys ability to access the first island chain, giving it the operational space to carry out coercive military actions. Relying primarily on sea and airpower presents the Peoples Liberation Army with a problem its anti-access area denial capability is designed to solve. The U.S. Armys modernization priorities, calibrated posture, and strong relationships, reinforced by a robust network of intelligence and advisory capabilities in the region, ensure that the military is in position with multiple capabilities to deter Chinese aggression or coercion. Combining that position with foreign military sales delivers an interoperable defense network across the region. These collective capabilities provide the military the agility to operate jointly across all domains in highly contested areas throughout the Indo-Pacific.

New Approaches, New Dilemmas

Figure 3: Emerging Technology

Source: U.S. Army (Photo by Pfc. Carlos Cuebas Fantauzzi)

The Army provides the military a survivable warfighting and intelligence architecture with reliable, persistent access in areas the Peoples Liberation Army works to deny, including the first island chain. By making it easier for the United States and its allies and partners to respond to aggression, that architecture creates strategic predictability for Indo-Pacific countries. Further, the Armys capabilities in the region give the Indo-Pacific Command commander the flexibility to rapidly impose costs, regardless of the position of naval and air forces. If naval and air forces are out of position, the Army can still access and employ its greater intelligence network with integrated protection and long-range fires to enable the military to deliver multi-domain effects. The Army will also leverage its capabilities and posture to facilitate the maneuver of naval and air forces in the time, place, and combination of the commanders choosing. Without landpower, the commander is reliant on the positioning of naval and air forces to deter and respond. With it, he can assure, deter, and respond at any time and in a manner of his choosing.

The Army is exercising its emerging capabilities with the rest of the joint force and our partners in the region through its daily actions in competition, including employment of the Multi-Domain Task Force through exercises like Valiant Shield. To support this joint and multi-national effort, Army Futures Command initiated Project Convergence. Joint and multi-national by design, Project Convergence ensures the United States can fight and win as one team. Project Convergence brings together the right people, the right units, and the right capabilities, all correctly positioned around the world and enabled by the right technologies and intelligence network. Project Convergence is how the Army rapidly and continuously integrates the unprecedented range and speed of converging effects.

The Army will bring the results of Project Convergence to the Indo-Pacific and develop its multi-domain operations approach alongside sister services and partners. Competing this way requires a transformational change in the Armys approach to the region. Landpower based on modern capability, forward posture, and synchronization with sister services and through partners and allies is the key to enduring U.S. military deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. The cumulative result of persistent Army actions in competition is military readiness to deter and respond to adversaries malign activities.

Ultimately, Americas ability to persistently deliver multi-domain effects with and through allies and partners is how the United States competes and wins without fighting across the competition continuum. Beijing should take into account that the United States can contest the Peoples Liberation Army in all domains at all times, and is willing to engage on land to do so. This level of capability and commitment is an undeniable signal to our adversaries and partners alike that the United States will fight for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Landpower Is Indispensable in the Indo-Pacific

Figure 4: Working with Allies

Source: U.S. Army (Photo by Capt. Rachael Jeffcoat)

As the president has noted, the United States will take on directly the challenges posed [to] our prosperity, security, and democratic values by our most serious competitor, China. The Department of Defense needs to marshal all elements of American military power air, cyber, land, sea, and space in response. Given the stakes involved and Beijings continued ability to translate economic growth into military might, the United States cannot afford to discount landpower in its regional strategy.

The United States could just buy more technological platforms and say that this is our competitive advantage.But, if America did that, a quick look at military history would prove it wrong. From Great Britain in the American Revolution to France in World War II to Americas own experience in Vietnam, what a country fights with is nowhere near as important as how it fights. The United States can and should develop new platforms with better technology and enhanced intelligence capabilities, but it should also be clear-eyed about where and how it intends to employ those platforms to create enduring effects. U.S. air-, cyber-, sea-, and spacepower are essential to securing American interests in the Indo-Pacific, but we are unaware of any historical example where a war ended at sea or in the air or in space or cyberspace space for that matter.Does the United States compete in those domains? Absolutely. However, war is won, and peace is preserved, on land. Army landpower needs to be in position to help decide the outcome.

Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn currently serves as U.S. Army deputy chief of staff for operations, strategy, and planning and has been confirmed as the next commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific. Lt. Gen. Laura Potter currently serves as U.S. Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence.

Image: U.S. Army (Photo by 1st Lt. Angelo Mejia)

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Strategic Predictability: Landpower in the Indo-Pacific - War on the Rocks

The daring rescue of a shipwrecked schooners crew is the inspiration for a new public artwork by the Stonehaven Banksy the first to be located outside his hometown.

Based on the fate of the Banff-based Isabella in a deadly gale that lashed the north-east in November 1888, the distinctive metal model is now finished and ready to be installed on the clifftops at Newtonhill.

It was commissioned as part of a community-led project to bring in visitors and help the post-Covid recovery of the local pub, caf, restaurants and other businesses.

A series of linked walking routes taking in the villages picturesque surroundings and rich coastal heritage have also been drawn up which will be featured on a new website and Facebook page: Newtonhill and Beyond.

It carries details of businesses and voluntary groups, maps and guides to the walks, historical information and community updates for the village and nearby Muchalls and Chapelton.

Hello all! As you may have heard, Newtonhill has recently secured a grant from the Phoenix Fund. The Phoenix Fund is

Posted by Newtonhill & Beyond onThursday, December 17, 2020

The initiative is among several selected for funding by Aberdeenshire Councils Phoenix Fund programme, which is aimed at boosting economic recovery in several town and village centres.

Among outfits closely involved in getting it off the ground are the Skateraw Store caf and shop, the Newton Arms pub and the Bettridge leisure centre all of which have played big parts in getting the community through more than a year of lockdown.

When mystery sculptures started appearing overnight along the seafront at neighbouring Stonehaven several years ago, they caused a stir and received national and international attention.

The man behind the intricate nautically-themed models. which remain a very popular sight, was later revealed to be Jim Malcolm, who was commissioned to create another for the village just a few miles up the coast.

He says he is now very much looking forward to an early morning visit once the model is in place to photograph it with the rising sun.

At more than 1.7 metres in length and needing at least two people to lift it is almost twice the size he originally intended.

When I make things I have a rough idea what its going to be but it often ends up different, he says.

I read the story and looked into it and it just developed. Once I got going I just got into the zone and away I went.

But Im really very pleased with it, especially as its the first schooner I have made.

The finished craft has been kept under wraps while lockdown continued and businesses were closed.

But the easing of rules means it can now be installed at its permanent clifftop home, overlooking the harbour where the Isabellas ill-fated journey home finished in disaster.

A planned open day celebrating local groups and businesses and promoting the village will now take place at a later date, once restrictions are lifted further.

It forges a link from Skateraw of the past to Newtonhill and Beyond of the present and future

Alan Jones came up with the original idea and has worked with a small team for months with the support of Newtonhill, Muchalls & Cammachmore Community Council.

He tells us: It has been a privilege to have worked with a dedicated and enthusiastic team in making this happen in challenging circumstances.

Also celebrating the potential of the project are Jamie Donald and Anna Hall, who had not long opened Skateraw Store when the pandemic hit and are now looking forward to being able to welcome people back properly after a year of takeaways and deliveries.

From the very start of the project we wanted to come up with something that was for the people of the village but would also attract others from far and wide.

We are excited to see the sculpture in place. It will be a great focal point for the walks and people visiting Newtonhill for many years to come.

Councillor Wendy Agnew, chair of Aberdeenshire Councils Kincardine and Mearns area committee, says lockdowns have had a particularly hard impact on our town centre economies which were already facing multiple other challenges.

Aberdeenshire Council developed the Phoenix Fund to help some of our town centres to recover and attract footfall back to local businesses and I look forward to seeing the benefits to the local community.

Vice-chair and Newtonhill resident Ian Mollison adds: I am particularly excited to see this project coming to fruition. By extending the work of Stonehavens Banksy out along the Kincardineshire coast, it will encourage more visitors to come to the area, enjoy a healthy walk and spend time in our local shops here in Newtonhill.

And in the words of Newton Arms landlord Ian Beresford: This has been a fantastic project, paying tribute to the courage and kindness of the good folk of Skateraw and the bravery and seamanship of the crew who brought the vessel to shore.

Jim Malcolms sculpture of the Isabella is a lasting work of art of which Newtonhill and the surrounding area can be proud. It forges a link from Skateraw of the past to Newtonhill and Beyond of the present and future.

It was a journey The Isabella had undertaken countless times in the 11 years since she was bought by a Banff coal merchant named Watson for the grand sum of 750.

Setting sail from Sunderland with a full cargo on Monday, November 12, 1888, the schooners five-strong crew were anticipating a relatively smooth sailing back home to the north-east.

They reckoned without the intervention of one if the most ferocious storms to hit the coast for a decade or indeed without the captains chequered history of navigating such choppy waters.

George Lyall had been wrecked twice before and nor would this, tragically, be the last time that fate befell him.

Conditions rapidly deteriorated on the passage north and the heavily-laden 93-tonne vessel, which had made an aborted attempt to seek refuge in the Firth of Forth, began to take on water a problem that had reached crisis point by the time the Girdleness Lighthouse came into sight at 4am.

Tacking and drifting for hours, when daylight finally illuminated the scene, the Isabella could be seen close to the shore at Newtonhill, perilously close to the jagged rocks of Craig Stirling.

A monumental effort by Lyall and his mate William Roy somehow steered the stricken boat clear and into the small harbour, where a gallant band of villagers had gathered.

The prospects of a rescue did not appear promising.

With the south-south-easterly gale still blowing with full fury, witnesses described a sea running mountains high, breaking over the pier and sweeping everything before it.

Along the coast in Aberdeen, a huge crowd had also gathered, defying 50-foot spray with the appearance of a mighty waterspout to watch several other ships try to reach safety.

The arrival of steamers over the previous few years had reduced the threat to seafarers of such dreadful conditions, but there remained many still travelling under sail like the Perth-built Isabella.

Back at the harbour in Newtonhill still known by many then as now as Skateraw the schooner had got close enough to the pier for a rope to be thrown by a gallant band of volunteers, hanging on by the rings on the pier to keep themselves from being washed off by the tremendous seas that swept every new and again over it.

One by one the crew were able to get themselves, hand over hand, to the relative safety of the pier despite the crashing waves threatening constantly to send them flying into the waves.

Leaving the deck last, Lyall was indeed knocked backward by a breaker and only saved from a certain drowning by first one and then another of the locals grabbing a foot each and pulling him to safety.

The report in these pages at the time records two very distinct impressions of the role played by the fisherfolk of Skateraw.

On the one hand it was acknowledged that they treated the rescued seamen with every kindness after taking them to their cottages ranged in a row from the Braehead.

But if labourers, railwaymen and joiners were named among those directly involved in the bravery, it was said that the fisher folks displayed a lamentable reluctance to endanger their own personal safety in getting them to land. Not one of them ventured on the pier to assist when their presence would have been most welcome. They hung back, encouraging the others and comforting their women folk.

This stung not least when as much was entered later into the official report of the incident.

Indeed so deep was the hurt and so intense the umbrage taken at the slur, that the following year they went as far as to employ a certain Major W Disney Innes of Cowie universally recognised as the fishermans friend to conduct an investigation in a bid to clear their name.

Among the findings which most pleased them was that credit is due to them for the promptitude with which they had in fact rushed to Muchalls in search of emergency equipment.

Back at the scene of the drama, the Isabella had been thrown onto her port side, her valuable cargo clean washed out and was clearly becoming beyond salvage.

Lyall managed to get himself aboard in a vain bid to stow the sails and recover anything he could, to the fury of the coastguard, Commander Davies.

The skipper turned a deaf ear before he was virtually placed under arrest, marched to the station and put on a train home.

What wreckage remained from an event which has gone down in village memory to this day, was sold to a Mr Marr, an Aberdeen chandler for 13 just over 1,000 today and local man John Christie snaffled any remaining coals for the princely sum of 10s.

As for Lyall, eventually there came one such drama too many.

Less than a year later, in October 1889, he was captain of the Wetherill when it got into trouble in stormy seas and was lost off Whinnyfold trying to make refuge at Peterhead.

A crewmate who helped him after they were flung into the icy sea then lost sight of the ill-starred captain and, despite running as fast as his bare and bleeding feet would allow across rocks to get help from a crowd of fishermen returning from church, could do no more to help.

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Stonehaven Banksy is back with a shipwrecked schooner to get a village back on its feet - Press and Journal