Maritime Law: What is the legal authority of the captain of a ship?
It depends on what type of ship (military or civilian) and what country's flag is being flown, and a lot has changed since the invention of radio, but the Captain is the ultimate authority on the ship and essentially nothing can happen on a ship without their approval. For example, on either a civilian or military ship, the Captain can:- Order someone restrained or locked up- Has the authority to remove the authority of any member of the staff on a civilian ship. On a military ship, the Captain has the authority to issue orders and refusal to follow them is insubordination.- Refuse to carry cargo and often has the authority to put off passengers.- The captain decides where the ship goes and can override orders or bills of lading. For example, if a merchant ship captain feels it's unsafe to go into a port, they can make for another port. A good example can be found in the film "The Perfect Storm". When two of his men get into a fight, the captain threatens to turn the ship to Newfoundland to hand the men over to the police if they don't behave. That action would obviously end their fishing trip (he would have to return to his home port) and might infuriate the owner, but it's clearly within the authority of a ship's captain. In practice, a lot of this authority is delegated. For example, on a cruise ship, the purser is responsible for the accommodations, even though he reports directly to the captain. On a military ship, the executive officer is the person who usually gives the orders handed down by the captain.
How far out can I swim in the ocean and still be safe?
The only correct answer is … It Depends.Which ocean? If it’s a polar ocean, you won’t be swimming very far at all before you die from hypothermia. In fact except in equatorial waters, hypothermia is THE biggest concern for swimmers in the ocean. even moderate 70 degree (21 degree Celsius) water temps will sap your strength rather quickly. Southern California with all it’s sun and hot weather has summer ocean temps in the 68 degree range. Forget the sharks, jellyfish and sea monsters out there, in water your body heat dissipates quickly, and that is the greatest danger to swimmers.Now add to that currents, rough water, boats, changing weather conditions and the dangers mount. Long distance swimmers have a safety boat trailing them for good reason. These are excellent swimmers conditioned to swim mile after mile and they would not think of swimming open water without a safety boat.As a good swimmer, I feel comfortable swimming past the breakers, then parallel to shore until I feel cold and then swimming back to shore. I do not fear JAWS is going to come out of the depths and make a light afternoon snack out of me. But I always watch the conditions. It does not matter if you are swimming, surfing or boating on the ocean, the sea must be respected for she can be a bitch!
Why do USA bound flights travel over the Atlantic ocean instead of Pacific ocean?
The best way to answer your question is to give you a practical example.I’d like you to do the following,Open another tab or browser windowGo to http://maps.google.comSelect a city, I’m selecting Mumbai.Left Click on your mouse, and select the last option “Measure Distance”Zoom out, and go to New YorkClick on NYC, and you will see the distance between the two countries (this will be the shortest distance, probably going over Europe and not the Equator), now measure the distance the other way around, and check the distance, you will notice a difference and the Atlantic route is much shorter compared to the Pacific route.The first Image shows (Atlantic) the distance between MUM -NYC to be 12,537 km and the other image shows (Pacific) 14,034 kmLess km travelled, means less fuel consumed, and if you see the route, there are more airports on the Atlantic Route as compared to the Pacific route, in case of any emergency.If you still want to learn more, I would suggest you take a string and globe in your hand and measure the distance between any two cities and check which one is shorter, you can continue this, and you will understand why airlines fly certain routes.Now, it also depends on which airline you are travelling and which side of USA you arep planning to land.
Should I Go To Law School or Pharmacy School?
Pharmacy school. why? the six figure guaranteed job you'll have when you graduate. not taking your work home with you. not having to carry a gun because you lost a case. you dont want to be a para legal like so many lawyers are. passion can be found if you dig deep enough. What about both like working on Pharmacy law? like SB797. No one tells jokes like what do you call fifty lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? a good start. People trust pharmacists even above the clergy, before all the molestaion trials of course. You should volunteer at the local hospital in-patient pharmacy and shadow a pharmacist or better yet call any hospital and ask for the inpatient pharmacy, then ask to speak to a Pharmacist preferablly one with a pharmD. then pick their brain. It isnt all pill pushing trust me. it can be real exciting and sometimes boring just like life right? call em trust me you want to be Pharmacist. by the way you're only the patients beotch in Retail, but for 75-100 bucks an hour by the time you graduate who cares? you dont think you're someones beotch in the legal profession? think again. only a third are actually practicing law, the others get to do para-legal work for crap wages. Plus you get excellent benefits working in a hospital pharmacy like almost 8 hours a pay period vacation to start which is like 5 weeks a year. you can retire from some hospitals with pension plans. sure you possibly coould make more as a lawyer but its a gamble unless you know for certain that the field of law is gonna guarantee that kind of pay scale. Pharmacists get guaranteed salaries that are always going up and up. Anyway my two cents.
Why is the Navy allowed to dump their trash in the ocean when there is such a problem with garbage in the sea?
Simple answer is that they don't.Every enlisted sailor has had the disgusting job of working in the trash room, digging through bag after bag of trash, separating it into dumpable and undumpable waste. Biodegradable stuff like food and paper is thrown into a giant garbage disposal, ground up, and discharged into the ocean to get eaten by fish and plankton.Plastics are melted into disks and stored onboard until the ship pulls into port.If you've never smelled the nosehair singeing aroma of burning plastic encrusted with old food, you aren't missing much.Metal is ground up, placed in burlap sacks and, like the plastic, stored onboard until the ship pulls into port. This was harder to find an image for, since google images just kept pulling up images of metal trash cans, but you can use your imagination. I have been sliced up by metal shards more than once while trying to get them from the grinder into the bag, not a pleasant experience.Sometimes, because working in the trash room sucks, sailors may try to get away with sneaking upstairs at night and throwing a few bags over the side. This is referred to as "night ops” and certainly happens more than the people in charge would like, but is not the general rule and not what they are supposed to be doing with it.EDIT: wow, over 500 up votes, and on a thread unrelated to biology too! Thanks everybody!!EDIT: Simon Beuller just provided an excellent image of metal disposal in the comments, so I'm posting it here.EDIT: Below is an additional image that sort of sums up everything mentioned above, from a publication by the American Society of Naval Engineers written back in ‘97, showing the nature and function of all of the trash and garbage disposal equipment currently standard on newer naval vessels.
What should I do with my life? I´m 25 and about to be a lawyer.
Really. You’ve made it past being at the top of every class since Kindergarten, and now you are falling into an ocean of oversupplied young lawyers. Much depends on whether you were at the top, middle, or bottom of the last shark tank, but almost as much depends on who you are and where you think you want to be in ten years. There is a lot more gold at the end of some of those rainbows, but there are worlds that need changing and good people needing help waiting along the path of the others. Only you can feel where you need to be, and, if it helps you any to hear empathy, those years of choosing my path were the hardest years of my life. (My divorce was a close second.) But, if you have been admitted to a Bar, know that you have joined a fairly exclusive club. Just about any of your new Peers will take your call to give advice on the areas of Law they know, and, sometimes, on your career. The Bar is becoming more and more a business instead of a profession, so I ask you to remember to carry that forward into the next generation at Bar.Congratulations, and good luck!
I'm thinking about sailing across the Pacific ocean. What kind of boat should I buy when traveling alone?
You want to sail across the Pacific Ocean alone - a serious challenge for anyone, even the most experienced.As skipper, you will probably sleep about three hours/night, at most.You have to decide: monohull, catamaran or trimaran. Your decision is a matter of which type you have the most experience, you are most comfortable. I’m a monohull sort of guy, but my mother sailed the Med and Caribbean in a cat. So, go with whichever you feel most comfortable.Length: the boat should be either so small, it will bob up and down with the waves, or big enough to straddle two. What you don’t want is something in-between.Get a boat that’s unsinkable. Either the hull is made unsinkable, or the boat has lots of built-in buoyancy.I assume a sail boat, because the Pacific is a bit big for fuel loads.Simplicity: alone, you will have to do everything, so KISS.Have lots of backup. Things get wet and things go wrong. Have duplicates, copies, spares and reserves. When my father went off on a long voyage, the downstairs corridor of our house - about 100 metres long, was full of supplies. Offloading from a truck into the yacht took all day. All tins had labels removed and contents written in indelible ink; we had enough to allow being dismasted and adrift for months.Navigation: we could navigate by all means - coastal, celestial, radio, dead reckoning; now your PC and GPS will do it - but just remember, electronics can go wrong. I also learned to not trust even the best charts - rocks can be quite a way from where claimed.Be prepared to be scared beyond belief. Even the toughest, most experienced, are known to retreat to the bunk and get blind drunk. The ocean can be a very, very scary place, where at times, there is nothing you can do about it.My recommendation is to carry on dreaming.