Category Archives: Sealand

VUDUs $5 weekend deals are back and this time around we have nearly 200 movies discounts in various categories. Our favorite discount is Battleship in 4K at $4.99, which normally fetches $15. This movie follows Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna, and many other award-winning actors as they join forces in an epic battle for Earth at sea. Theres an international naval coalition that becomes the worlds last hope for survival as a hostile alien force attempts to take over our beautiful blue planet. Rated4/5 stars. If alien movies arent your thing, then head below, because Microsoft has plenty of other titles on sale as well. Also, dont forget to check outthis landing page, as it holds the entire list of discounted movies this week.

Dont forget about Apples $5 weekend sale that went live this morning with deals on comedies, sci-fi flicks, and more. Theres quite a few fan-favorites available in this roundup, so be sure to give it a look to see if theres anything youd be interested in.

An international fleet of naval warships encounters an alien armada while on a Naval war games exercise and faces the biggest threat mankind has ever faced. An intense battle is fought on sea, land and air. If they lose, the world could face a major extinction event and an alien invasion. Will humans win this alien war, what are the aliens doing here, and what do they want?

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VUDU heads into the weekend with nearly 200 movies discounted to just $5 each - 9to5Toys

Oily fish works best when reheated from frozen, such as salmon, trout and mackerel, but cod or hake would also work well here. The fragrant and punchy salsa verde makes a great addition to the freezer on its own you can double the recipe and freeze the extra batch in ice-cube trays to defrost as needed.

Prep time:15 minutes|Cooking time: 13 minutes

Eight

For the salsa verde

For the fish and grains

Portion out the grains and the spinach and leek mixture into containers. Leave to cool, then top each portion with a salsa verde-dressed uncooked fish fillet. Seal, label and date before freezing.

Microwave on high for three minutes, then remove from the microwave, uncover and agitate the container gently from side to side. Re-cover but dont seal and microwave for a further three minutes or until piping hot. Leave to stand for three minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/Gas 4. Uncover the ovenproof container and then cover the top with foil. Place on a baking sheet in the centre of the oven for 30-35 minutes or until piping hot. Leave to stand for three minutes.

Recipe from Freeze ByRuby, by RubyBell and Milly Bagot, published by Mitchell Beazley (16.99). Order your copy from books.telegaph.co.uk

Read this article:

Baked fish with supergrains and salsa verde recipe - Telegraph.co.uk

The monsoons of Mumbai never let us entirely forget that water can simultaneously exist in multiple states. As it rains, water held in the sea, land, atmosphere and vegetation swells and claims the city in all its forms. Moss covers surfaces, electronics emit excess current as moisture penetrates the earthing, doors distend, resisting their frames, chips lose their crunch, the smell of petrichor fills the lungs even as the winds and clouds clear our polluted skies.

Yet what gets spoken of the most is the visible water, pouring out of nullahs, overflowing from dams and making potholes and flooding streets and homes.

When speaking of cities, we have been trained by maps and satellite imagery, to notice only this visible water, even though it is only one threshold or moment in the hydrological cycle. The maps on which city planning, urban design, property law, public and environment policy operate, are snapshots, stills of a dynamic movement of tidal and atmospheric water.

A series that seeks to reimagine the futures of the coastal city of Mumbai in its climate-changed waters.

The ubiquitous nature of these maps, which are drawn in the driest moments of the year, directs us to imagine water only in its visible, liquid form contained in its cartographic limits.

In attempts to define the precise position of water, we have lost all tangible measure of its flow.

Delineating permanent high tide lines, river banks and coasts has erased clouds, mist, dew, waves, creeks, swells, storms, cyclones and rain from our consciousness. To map and extract a fixed position for water in a terrain born from moisture, we need to create languages of separation, and pitch land and water as opposing dualities. Water in this duality breaches boundaries and floods land, the city has to be defended from the monsoons, land has to be reclaimed from the sea.

In order to respond to the challenges of climate change to the compounding droughts and flooding, the struggles for ecological and social justice, the debate of resistance over retreat it is essential that this divide and inhabit different systems of observing the city and environment is questioned. The work of architects Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha offers us an alternative to the cartographic separation of land and sea in the form of a gradient of wetness.

The sea is very wet, the desert only less so, said Da Cunha.

In the Drawing on Wetness research of the Inhabited Sea project that aims to offer new ways in which Mumbai can be understood as a meeting of sea and monsoon rather than islands, I question the monolithic ideas of city and sea by asking what a flamingo could teach us about salinity, how Koli fishing can describe land from an aqueous perspective or how the local train can challenge assumptions about land making.

The post-human imagination pushes us to see beyond an anthropocentric world, into the lives of other living beings, self organising material systems, and machines. The video follows three agents Koli fishers, flamingos, and the local trains across this human, other-than-human animal, and machine spectrum and observes the ways that they inhabit and make the city. The practices of these agents transcend the duality of land-water, city-sea, organism-environment, artificial-natural. They see and draw different thresholds in the wet-dry gradient in order to operate.

The research uses drawings as tools to analyse and represent these alternate thresholds, and to offer a complex, monsoon-rich, entangled ground on which to design a more watery, resilient and just city.

Rhea Shah is a transdisciplinary environmental designer who believes design should be a cultural manifestation of ecological processes.

This is the fifth part of a series that seeks to reimagine the futures of the coastal city of Mumbai in its climate-changed waters. Read the entire series here.

Read more from the original source:

How Mumbais flamingos and Koli fishers could help the city in its battle against flooding - Scroll.in

A popular New York beach was forced to close for swimmers this week following a number of shark sightings in the area.

CBS New York reports that the Parks Department confirmed that multiple people have reported seeing the intimidating fish at Rockaway Beach in Queens.

The beach was closed for swimming as a result on Wednesday, the broadcaster said.

Ocearch, an online shark tracker and research foundation that aims to help scientists collect data on the ocean, shows that there are 11 sharks currently swimming near the shores of New York state.

While only a small proportion of the actual number of sharks in the ocean are tracked by the organisation, its interactive map provides a snapshot of insight into the movement of their populations across the US.

The map shows that the shark currently closest to Rockaway Beach is a female White Shark named Finn who is 4ft 11.5 inches in length and weighs 79.2 lbs.

Other sharks swimming in the surrounding area and further out in Long Island include Amagansett, another female white shark, and Elias, a 6ft 75 inch 100lb hammerhead.

Its not possible to know if any of the tagged sharks were those sighted by beachgoers in Queens.

Trackers said in June that a huge number of great white sharks were lurking off the coasts of New York, New Jersey, and Cape Cod.

There are thousands of them on the East Coast right now, Chris Fischer, the founder of Ocearch, told the New York Post.

Rockaway Beach is a year-round resource for residents according to New York City parks website.

The popular beach reportedly comes alive each summer from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend with millions of visitors.

In terms of shark attacks, experts assure people that incidents are rare, but advise swimmers to employ vigilance and common sense when taking a dip in open waters.

It doesnt make sense to dress up like a seal and go out in the middle of the food chain, Mr Fischer said.

In fact, according to the Florida museums yearly worldwide shark attack summary, both fatal and non-fatal shark bites are decreasing.

The museums International Shark Attack File confirmed there were 57 unprovoked shark bites and 13 shark related fatalities in 2020, 10 of which were confirmed to be unprovoked.

The total number of unprovoked shark bites worldwide is extremely low, given the number of people participating in aquatic recreation each year, the website says.

Only recently have hubs of sharks come to include the Eastern Seaboard, where they are likely searching for food swimming close to the shore, the National Geographic has reported.

See the original post:

Popular New York beach closed to swimmers over shark sightings - The Independent

In the world of sports, its tough to get any bigger than Michael Jordan. During his time on the NBA hardwood, His Airness established himself as one of the greatest talents to ever play professional basketball. He dominated the competition, became a global superstar, and, at the end of the day, built up a massive net worth.

While that may make MJs life seem pretty perfect, things arent always as they appear. In an ESPN story ahead of his 50th birthday, Jordan made a rare and strikingly human admission: His famous competitive edge can also be an unimaginable burden.

If you take UCLA football coach Red Sanders at his word, Winning isnt everything; its the only thing. While that statement might not resonate with everyone, Michael Jordan would surely agree with the sentiment.

As a boy, His Airness honed his competitive fire by batting against his brother, Larry. While there were some early setbacks Michael famously failed to make his high schools varsity basketball team at the first attempt hed go on to dominate at just about every level. He became a McDonalds All-American, earned a scholarship to the University of North Carolina, and won an NCAA title as a freshman.

At the professional level, the wins just kept on coming. Although the Bulls had some initial problems getting past the Detroit Pistons, they eventually broke the seal and started flexing their metaphorical muscles. MJ won six championships, claimed five NBA MVP titles, and did just about everything else imaginable. Theres a reason why His Airness is widely considered the GOAT.

Those winning ways didnt stop at the edge of the hardwood, though. Over the years, plenty of stories have emerged about Jordans competitive ways. Hes apparently cheated at Yahtzee, pushed the boundaries of golf etiquette to win a bet, and done just about everything else imaginable to claim victory.

While that legendary will to the win has made Jordan an icon in addition to helping him dominate the NBA competition, its also become a part of his overarching mythos theres also a downside to always needing to be the best.

Ahead of MJs 50th birthday, which took place in 2013, ESPNs Wright Thompson spent some time with the living legend. While there were plenty of unique anecdotes that emerged, things got a bit heavier when they touched on the topic of competitiveness.

Theres no way to measure these things, but theres a strong case to be made that Jordan is the most intense competitor on the planet, Tompson explained before detailing how Jordan mastered Bejeweled on his iPad, conquered Sodouku, and raced through books of word searches. If you think that activity list sounds exhausting, you arent alone.

I cant help myself, MJ said, according to Thompson.Its an addiction. You ask for this special power to achieve these heights, and now you got it and you want to give it back, but you cant. If I could, then I could breathe.

Thats a pretty striking admission from anyone, let alone the seemingly invincible Jordan.

Given his legendary status and, if nothing else, $1.6 billion net worth, its easy to assume that His Airness is living on Easy Street. The quotes about his competitive nature, however, serve as a reminder that every human, no matter how famous they are, still experiences some struggles.

Jordan may be a striking example, but hes not the only athlete to underscore that reality. In August 2019, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck suddenly retired from pro football; no amount of fame and fortune could undo the toll that game was taking on his body. More recently, Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, citing concerns over her mental health. At the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles stepped away from the team gymnastics final and several other events, due to mental health concerns and the twisties. Shes since revealed that her aunt died unexpectedly during the games.

While the latter two withdrawals have been met with plenty of criticism the idea that athletes have to power through issues remains ingrained in the world of sports it is worth noting that Jordan took a famous break from basketball to try his hand at minor league baseball. Even if he didnt leave the Bulls in the middle of the season, he had no problem stepping away from the hardwood for personal reasons.

When were watching sports and see millionaires performing superhuman feats of athleticism, it can be easy to forget the reality that underpins every competition. At the end of the day, everyone competing is a human being; they should be treated as such.

RELATED: Michael Jordan Reportedly Regrets Leaving Luc Longley out of The Last Dance: Thats Probably What I Would Have Changed

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Michael Jordans Competitive Edge Helped Make Him a Living Legend, but Hed Give Up His Addiction If He Could: Then I Could Breathe - Sportscasting

Wanderers held their nerve to beat Barnsley on penalties last night, but what is their record like in shoot-outs over the years?

Josh Sheehan scored the decisive spot-kick at the UniBol as Ian Evatts men booked their place in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Antoni Sarcevic, Lloyd Isgrove, Amadou Bakayoko and Elias Kachunga also scored from the spot, while Joel Dixon denied Devante Cole.

Wanderers have been in 10 shoot-outs in their history, winning four times and losing six.

Chester City 3-0 Wanderers (3-3 on aggregate, Chester won 2-0 on pens) - September 14, 1983

Wanderers' first-ever penalty shoot-out was a day to forget as Chester pulled off a miraculous comeback in the opening round of the League Cup.

The Whites had a 3-0 aggregate lead going into the second leg at Sealand Road, but the hosts fought back to take the game to penalties.

Jeff Chandler, Ray Deakin, Steve Thompson, Neil Redfearn all missed from the spot as Wanderers crashed out.

Bury 0-2 Wanderers (2-2 on aggregate, Bolton won 3-0 on pens) August 24, 1993

After losing the first leg 2-0 in the opening round of the League Cup in 1993, Wanderers had a mountain to climb at Gigg Lane.

But the Whites fought back, with Owen Coyle pulling halving the deficit before John McGinlay levelled the tie.

And Wanderers held their nerve to win the shoot-out and pull off an unlikely comeback against their north-west neighbours.

Wanderers 0-0 Norwich City (2-3 on pens) December 20, 1995

Wanderers welcomed Norwich City to Burnden Park in the League Cup fourth round replay, with a home quarter-final against Birmingham City on the line.

After 210 minutes of action, neither side had managed to break the deadlock. McGinlay, Fabian de Freitas and Sasa Curcic all missed from the spot for the Whites.

The final blow came when Mark Pattersons penalty was saved by Bryan Gunn, sending the Canaries into the last eight.

Norwich City 1-1 Wanderers (1-3 on pens) October 27, 1998

Three years later, Wanderers had a chance for revenge as they headed to Carrow Road in the third round of the League Cup.

Robbie Elliott put the Whites in front in extra time with a fine strike from the edge of the box, but the hosts hit back through Keith ONeill.

Keith Branagan was Boltons hero in the shoot-out, denying Craig Bellamy, Craig Fleming and Erik Fuglestad from the spot as Wanderers advanced to the last 16.

Aston Villa 0-0 Wanderers (4-1 on pens) April 2, 2000

Arguably the biggest shoot-out in Wanderers history! The Whites faced Aston Villa at Wembley with a place in the FA Cup final on the line.

Neither side could break the deadlock, even after extra time. Dean Holdsworth went closest for Wanderers, hitting the bar with a fierce strike.

Allan Johnston and Michael Johansen both had penalties saved by David James as Wanderers suffered heartbreak in the shoot-out.

Wanderers 2-2 Southampton (6-5 on pens) November 27, 2001

In November 2001, Wanderers welcomed Southampton to the UniBol in the last 16 of the League Cup.

Holdsworth opened the scoring before Kevin Davies a future fan favourite at Bolton - got the Saints back on level terms. Michael Ricketts restored the Whites lead in extra-time but they were pegged back once again when Tahar El Khalej got on the scoresheet.

Jussi Jaaskelainen saved Chris Marsdens penalty before Rod Wallace tucked away the decisive spot-kick to send Wanderers to the quarter-final.

Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Wanderers (4-2 on pens) August 27, 2013

In August 2013, Wanderers were knocked out of the League Cup by Tranmere Rovers following a 1-1 draw at Prenton Park.

Cole Stockton opened the scoring after an error by Zat Knight, but Wanderers hit back through Jermaine Beckford.

Andre Moritz and Alex Baptiste both had penalties saved by Fon Williams as the Whites failed to make it past the second round.

Wanderers 1-1 Bradford City (3-4 on pens) September 3, 2019

In September 2019, a young Wanderers side lost on penalties against Bradford City after a brave effort in the EFL Trophy.

Dennis Politic had put the Whites in front, but Paudie OConnor got the visitors back on level terms early in the second half.

Adam Seniors spot-kick was saved by Sam Hornby as Wanderers were beaten by the tightest of margins at the UniBol.

Rochdale 1-1 Wanderers (5-3 on pens) October 1, 2019

A month later, Wanderers went to penalties once again in the EFL Trophy, this time following a 1-1 draw at Rochdale.

The Whites took the lead through Ali Crawfords stunning free kick but the hosts drew level through Aaron Wilbrahams header.

Unfortunately, it was a similar outcome for Wanderers as Adam Chicksens penalty was saved by Jay Lynch.

Excerpt from:

How Bolton Wanderers have fared in penalty shoot-outs over the years - The Bolton News

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NEW data reveals what the most reported crimes across Sealand were in June.

In its most recent data set, Police.UK has confirmed dozens of crimes were reported throughout the town of Sealand that month.

The map, created by public reports to the police, pinpoint streets and hotspots where crimes are reported by every force in the UK. They are presented anonymously for the safety of the caller.

Police were busy in the town last month, dealing with 44 separate crimes in one month alone.

The most reported was violence and sexual offences, with 16 reports

Next, problems with anti-social behaviour were reported 7 times

Also, seven reports of public order offences were within the local reports

Other categories include burglary, drugs, weapon possession, theft and vehicle crime.

A year ago, as Wales saw its first national lockdown lift, criminals were just as active in the area.

Police received 47 crime reports overall that covered similar issues.

These included anti-social behaviour (10) as well as violence and sexual offences (15).

They handled seven criminal damage crimes last year along with four shoplifting reports and dealt with two burglaries. There was also one person reported to have been the victim of a bicycle theft.

A separate map shows that no stop and search data is available for Sealand in June 2021.

However, back in 2020, June saw five stops by officers in the town three for controlled drugs and two for firearms.

Further analysis reveals no action was taken after either firearm stops, that both occurred in the Deeside Industrial Estate area.

No action needed to be taken at either of the controlled drug stops with one on Welsh Road and two in the Kingsley Drive area in Garden City.

Read the original here:

Map using police reports shows what crimes were reported across Sealand in June - LeaderLive

ALBANY A certification process highlighting energy-efficient cannabis cultivators and a tax credit to complement it are key sustainability proposals of an industry white paper released Tuesday by New Yorks Castetter Cannabis Group. The paper also called for state regulators to develop a strategy for data collection and analysis of license holders operations.

Its recommendations reinforce lawmakers urgency to minimize harm to the the states fledgling industry, but suggest a divergent strategy centered on incentives rather than efficiency limits.

Were advocating for a performance-based approach, said Kate Hruby, the groups lead policy analyst and co-author of the paper.

In mid-March, before adult-use cannabis was legalized in New York, state Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, had proposed language for a bill that would ensure the budding industry is designed to comply with emissions standards that would reduce its potential impact on the states ambitious climate goals.

If passed, the legislation pushing cannabis growers to environmental conscious practices would put New York in a position to regulate them up-front. In contrast, early legalization states such as Colorado and California have circled back to try to cut down on their industries emissions once growers were already licensed and running.

The language of Fahys bill, which includes limits on lighting power density and mandates for efficient heating and coolingsystems for indoor grow operations, was mirrored in a Senate bill introduced in April by state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties.

What our bill does is it makes energy efficiency a priority in the indoor growing process by requiring applicants to submit their efficiency plans as part of their application, Hinchey said, noting that the specifics of the bill are still undergoing revisions. Were setting resource efficiency requirements for growers to make sure that we don't have to go back and do this again, down the road.

But Hruby and her Castetter Cannabis Group (CCG) co-authors, whose leaders draw on their experience growing and processing regulated hemp which is low-THC cannabis as well as their knowledge of the legacy market, feel the piecemeal industry is ripe with innovators after its long existence in the shadows. They argue fringe innovations need to be encouraged before specific efficiency caps and technology mandates are introduced.

We want New York to be the most innovative when it comes to energy efficiency, but we have to get the information first, Hruby said. The industry is concerned that it's going to be overly burdened when it hasn't even gotten off the ground.

Both the legislative proposal and CCGs white paper focus on the energy use of indoor grow operations, which produce more emissions than outdoor grows. A study published this spring by Colorado State University's Hailey M. Summers, Evan Sproul and Jason C. Quinn notes that a considerable amount of legal cannabis is cultivated indoors primarily for quality control and security, though the CCG white paper noted that on the black market, indoor grows also served to conceal illicit operations.

Summers and her colleagues looked at greenhouse gas emissions over the life cycle of indoor cannabis operations across the United States, and their modeling found that for every kilogram of dried cannabis flower, growers emitted gasses equivalent to between 2,283 and 5,184 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

The higher carbon cost of indoor grows has led some farmers, including the Hudson Valleys Gail and Amy Hepworth of Hempire State Growers, to advocate for the benefits of growing hemp and adult-use cannabis plants outdoors. While the sisters do note rapidly improving indoor grow systems offer more yield and protection against adverse weather, they are proud of the outdoor grow system at their organic farm.

It would be an excellent integrated plant in the agricultural community, said Amy Hepworth, the operations president and lead grower. She said its a crop that takes significant time and management they even use blockchain technology to track each plant but she loves to grow it. Its like, we know it's not easy to grow tomatoes outdoors, but they grow outdoors. And they're delicious, aren't they?

But Aldous Lloyd, CCGs cultivation analyst, said that while certain products such as cannabis grown for extracts might work well outdoors, eliminating indoor growth for cultivation of smokable cannabis flower is not practical. He thinks the industry will need to consider how to innovate within greenhouse technologies.

The problem with outdoor is contamination. You have to think about all kinds of funguses and viruses, those fall on the plants, Lloyd said, noting that most outdoor grows are not as controlled.

Several researchers at Berkeleys Cannabis Research Center have been considering these issues in their assessments of the state of the research on cannabis and the environment.

We found very few scientific, published studies on the topic, said Ariani C. Wartenberg, who co-authored a review article on the subject earlier this year.

Wartenberg said she thought the lack of data was striking given the magnitude of the industry. Her article noted that like any crop, cannabis can have adverse impacts on the environment if grown outdoors as well as indoors; in California, and in other places where the climate allows robust outdoor growth of cannabis, there is a tendency that predates legalization for growers to tuck their cannabis crops in out-of-sight locations where the grows can have a substantial negative impact on particular ecosystems and wildlife.

Van Butsic, a scholar in the group who has been doing cannabis research for about seven years, said he got into the field because of the lack of systematic takes on cannabis-related topics.

Butsic said that while further research is needed to understand how to make its farming increasingly efficient, cannabis can probably be grown sustainably multiple ways.

He noted that a disproportionate amount of attention has been paid to cannabis environmental impacts compared to other crops, especially as the industry has come out of the shadows. In the end, growers in the United States have an impact on the environment even when they are working in the illicit market and not as licensed cultivators.

For local governments, it has been difficult to balance complaints from constituents, Bustic said. They say things like, we have too many cannabis farms, we need to make really restrictive permitting processes, without realizing that all the cannabis farms that they're upset about are already illegal and are not going to be joining the permit process, he said.

And for California, which has a more advanced market where the environmental standards and licensing process are already restrictive, Bustic said, we need to focus on the people who are not in the legal market and try to get them to join the legal market. I think that's where you'll see the most environmental gain.

New Yorks government leaders have yet to nominate the leadership of the new industrys regulatory bodies, the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board. Once formed, they will define how licensing will operate within the state.

See the original post here:

Cannabis industry group pushes 'green seal' and tax credits - Times Union

With the UK opening up but much of the world still off-limits, it would be fair to say that a Great British coastal exploration is underway.

Looking closer to home has its silver linings, as we get to know some wild and wonderful parts of the country, and discover new places that we might have jetted over before.

How many of you, for instance, knew about Sealand - a micronation six miles off the Suffolk coast?

Read more: NHS Test and Trace: Is the app fit for purpose? Take our 'pingdemic' survey

At just 550 square metres, it might not be open to casual tourists at the best of times, but the Principality of Sealand has a fascinating story.

Prince Michael of Sealand is hugely proud of his familys history, he told CambridgeshireLive from his holiday apartment in Spain earlier this month.

The sovereign principality was declared by Michaels father Major Roy Bates in 1967, whose rebellious nautical streak began a few years earlier in pirate radio.

His radio station was situated on an abandoned naval fort called Knock John and he broadcast pop music which was seldom heard on the BBC, Michael said.

But with the government clamping down on rogue stations, Roy was forced further offshore to another derelict sea fort, Roughs Tower, which was outside the three-mile limit to which the UK jurisdiction extended.

Here he set his ambitions a little higher and declared independence on the basis that the fortress island in international waters was nobodys land.

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From the sea, freedom is Sealands motto. After seeing off a Royal Navy offensive - with shots fired by Roy - and subsequent legal challenge, the Principality is still going strong 54 years later.

In 1968 an Essex court ruled that Sealand was outside UK jurisdiction, with the judge describing it as a swashbuckling incident perhaps more akin to the time of Sir Francis Drake.

Weve never actually asked for recognition but it would be a nice thing, said Michael, pointing to the fact that the US did not formally recognise the Peoples Republic of China for 30 years.

If you're enchanted by Sealand, you can join its nobility; becoming a Lord or Lady of Sealand will set you back just 30, or 500 if youve got your sights on a duchess or dukedom.

The peerage system is what finances Sealand, Prince Michael said, as being off shore is an expensive environment.

Its a hostile one too, with weather conditions requiring constant repairs and engineer work.

Its always a challenge, but a challenge we take up, said Michael, who has three children and six grandchildren to carry on the adventure.

"The fortress itself is quite high up from the water, so I dont see us being flooded out anytime soon," he added regarding the threat of climate change, "not before Felixstowe gets flooded out anyhow.

The life semiaquatic has changed since the pandemic struck. Though it is one of the very few nations to report no Covid cases, Michael Bates and his family have stuck more to the mainland, with visitors scarce.

We really don't need the unpleasantness of getting Covid there so theres not really been an awful lot going on actually on Sealand itself, he said.

An update on Sealands website in February gave an insight into how the micronation has operated during the last 18 months.

Being a small island nation with strict immigration control has truly benefited the people of Sealand during this period, as once out of a mandatory 10 day quarantine following arrival, Sealanders are free to go about their daily activities unencumbered, and in many ways have enjoyed a greater quality of life than many neighbouring countries throughout the pandemic, it said.

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As for stocking up on essentials: Supplies are shipped to Sealand by boat. Once hoisted onto the fortress, supplies are quarantined outside in the elements for a minimum of 72 hours to naturally disinfect.

Following this, all supplies are cleaned using disinfectant wipes, before entering any inside space, ready for consumption.

As part of our standard procedure, we hold a large supply of stores in case of an event such as a severe storm preventing access to supply channels.

You can find out more about Sealand's incredible history over on Sealand.gov, with a One Show video presented by broadcaster and adventurer Ben Fogle.

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Sealand: The extraordinary tale of a micronation off the Suffolk coast where you can become a duke or duchess - Cambridgeshire Live