Cargo ship hits US Navy destroyer

#US #Japan #Navy #USSFitzgerald #CargoShipACX #accident #Yokosuka

This is strange.

A US destroyer ship was severely damaged, and seven of the sailors were missing after a cargo ship hit it at night time about 103 kilometers southwest of Yokosuka, Japan. The mid-right side of the USS Fitzgerald was damaged, while the Phillippine-registered cargo ship ACX reportedly had scratches on the left side of its bow.

After the damage, the USS Fitzgerald had limited propulsion and there was flooding in three compartments. The USS harbors more than 200 crew members, out of which 7 were reported missing and 2 sustained injuries, including the captain.

USS Dewey, medical assistance, Navy tugs and naval aircraft were dispatched to help the crew of the destroyer.

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A US warship getting hit by a cargo ship. This is like an elephant walking in the night who mistakenly steps on a sleeping cheetah.

North Korea fires missile again

#NorthKorea #incident #US #China #Japan #missile #nuclear

North Korea’s third ballistic missile test and 12th missile test this year were carried out on Monday into Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), an area of water extending out to 200 nautical miles from the coast of the country.

Even after US show of military force (sending US Navy ships to the Korean peninsula), and much condemning by the international community, North Korea launched a short-range Scud, that flew about 450 kms before landing in the Sea of Japan.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swiftly condemned the test and vowed concerted action along with its US ally.

Only China and US have mentioned that they are willing to enter into diplomatic talks with North Korea, only after it halts its missile and nuclear tests.

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So another missile launched by the Kim Jong Un regime, and yet another discussion panel to be set up by the international community. I wonder how long will this keep on.

North Korea to mass-produce missiles

#NorthKorea #missile #KimJongUn #solidFuelMissiles #Pukguksong2 #Japan #UN

After a successful missile launch test, North Korea confirmed its combat readiness. The missile is believed to be able to reach Japan and Hawaii. The missile, Pukguksong-2, which is solid fueled, flew about 500 kilometers and reached a height of 560 kilometers on Sunday.

Kim Jong Un, North Korean Leader, said that the missile should “be rapidly mass-produced.” North Korean’s often stated goal is to perfect a nuclear warhead that it can put on a missile capable of hitting Washington or other U.S. cities.

A UN Security council consultation is being held on Tuesday at the request of US, Japan and South Korea.

David Wright, an expert on missiles and nuclear program said that the missile could have been flown farther but was fired on a ‘lofty’ trajectory.

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So it seems North Korea was finally able to develop something in all the years when other nations were trying to talk it out of this.

North Korea ready to sink US aircraft carrier; detains an US citizen

#NorthKorea #US #Japan #detain #aircraftcarrier #USSCarlVinson #KimJongUn #international

North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party commented that their forces are combat-ready to sink a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike. It said that that such a strike will be an actual example to show its military’s force. The commentary was carried on page three of the newspaper, after a two-page feature about leader Kim Jong Un inspecting pig farm.

North Korea also detained a man named Tony Kim, a US citizen who has been in North Korea for a month teaching accounting at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology according to the institution’s chancellor Chan-Mo Park. Tony was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport on his way out of the country.

North Korea will mark the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People’s Army on Tuesday, and might test some of its weapons as has been the tradition.

Currently, USS Carl Vinson along with Japanese warships Samidare and Ashigara are spread in the waters around the Korean Peninsula to strike the North if it test any nuclear missiles.

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Things are heating up in the Korean Peninsula. What will be Kim Jong Un’s move now!?

1Q84, worth a read?!

1Q84 is one of the best books I have read. The story has a good amount of romance, mystery, murder, family, history and tragedy. The author Haruki Murakami divided the story in three books in which the first two parts were published on May 29, 2009 and the third part on April 16, 2010.

The story takes place in 1984 in Tokyo with each book having a in-story time period of three months each, starting from April to December. The story has two main characters: Aomame, a 30 year old female, and Tengo Kawana, a male opposite Aomame. Through the entire three books, Murakami switches the story from the viewpoint of Aomame and Tengo (and sometimes Ushikawa, a private detective). The book starts with Aomame cataching a taxi, after which certain events make her go to a parallel world. She realizes this when she sees two moons in the sky, a white round moon and a smaller green lopsided moon besides it. At some point of time Tengo also switches track to this parallel world.

The story is about these two people realizing their love for each other from years ago, and trying to find each other in this strange and eventful world. They face several obstacles, many of which are life-threatening, but still manage to reach out to each other in the end.

I liked the flow of the story, though in my opinion the writing in the first book was the best. The story seems to flow slowly in the second book but regains the sped in the third book. However, the character description in the first two books is much better than that in the third book. The author described everything about the two main characters till the end, and in the end you would have the question, “What happend to them after this?”. It made you want to read more about them. However, I was disappointed how the author completely disregarded the supporting characters (except Ushikawa) at the end of the book. You would have the question about what happened to Fuka-Eri, or Tamaru, Nurses at the hospital, Komatsu and Professor Ebisuno. But besides this, I think the story is worth a read and I will surely recommend it to others.

For now, I will be reading The Art of War (Sun Tzu) but I will be back to other books by Murakami after that.

Japan launches junk collector in space for Trial

The space has been accumulating cosmic junk caused by over half a century of space exploration. Around more than 500,000 pieces of “space junk” are being tracked by NASA currently. This “space junk” includes millions of tiny fragments of old satellites and spent rocket stages. Not only that, but many of these fragments travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, which can cause a great deal of damage on a satellite or even the ISS.

Due to the potential problem of a collision of space junk, many space agencies are trying to figure out a solution. Japan’s space agency (JAXA) launched Kounotori 6 on Friday, that will deliver a magnetic tether. The tether is made of stainless steel and aluminum. The true purpose of the tether is to generate enough slowing effect to influence the trajectory of space debris, and let it redirect it towards Earth’s atmosphere. After travelling close to Earth’s atmosphere, the space debris will burn up.

Currently the length of the tether is 700 meters only. If the trial is successful then the length will eventually increase to 5,000 or 10,000 meters said Nitto Seimo’s engineer Katsuya Suzuki.

Read the full article here!