Just your run-of-the-mill road trip with an English speaking alien story.
Simon Pegg, oddly enough, has a great ability to spot a cult classic. His latest Paul, looks no different. With an amazing cast, I'm gonna say this looks very strange but very promising.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Pirates striking terror in Asian waters
By Swadesh M Rana/New York
South and South East Asia are faced with the likelihood of profit-motivated-pirates committing acts of terror and politically-driven terrorists resorting to piracy. Unlike terrorism that emanates from South/South West Asia and piracy that originates from South East Asia, terropiracy is linking South and South East Asia as a contiguous unit of operation.
With the Durand Line as the epicentre of global terrorism, the Taliban on both sides of it see no barrier separating the South from South West Asia. For the pirates in and around the Straits of Malacca, the peninsular confluence between South and South East Asia is but a choke point to disrupt the supply chain of global trade. Over 90% of it is conducted by sea with Singapore as the world’s busiest port and its largest container trans-shipment hub for a network of 250 shipping lines connecting it to 600 ports in 123 countries.
The Taliban under attack for nine years by over 110,000 US led troops and the pirates being pushed out of business from the Straits of Malacca with joint naval operations by at least 20 countries stand to gain by swapping their tools of combat and tricks of trade. The Taliban have light weapons to spare that pirates find handy to carry in their small and swift boats.
The Afghan-Pak theatre is a virtual warehouse for bargain deals on light weapons with some going for a penny to a dollar. Tens of thousands of assault rifles, AK 47’s, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and other man-portable weapons were amassed during the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
Since the 2001 US-led military action there are also more stolen weapons, weapons mistaken for exploded, weapons resold by small business contractors in the surplus industry, and weapons simply unaccounted for.
The pirates are skilled in hijacking ships with cargo that may include materials for Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) that the Taliban find easier to assemble, harder to detect and cause more panic when exploded than a combat with conventional light weapons.
Indonesian authorities see the entire South and South East Asian region as vulnerable to piracy attacks by politically motivated Free Aceh Movement ( Gerakan Aceh Merdeke:GAM) seeking independence for a gas and oil-rich region in Sumatra. Some Asian intelligence agencies reported links between GAM and Al Qaeda as the latter considered shifting its base from Afghanistan to Aceh and launched a naval offensive against its target vessels by ramming, blowing-up, air striking or torpedoing them with underwater suicide bombers aboard small, swift dinghies.
Without any reported links to Al Qaeda, such dinghies were used in successful recent attacks on tankers and smaller vessels, according to the Shipping Association of Singapore. The Directorate General of Shipping in Mumbai has recently banned small mechanised vessels called dhows from sailing south and west of Oman and the Maldives amid reports of clandestine trading in drugs and weapons between the pirates in Kismayu in Somalia and contraband traders using the Indian port state of Gujarat on the African east coast off the Arabian Peninsula.
As soft targets of terropiracy, the governments concerned in South and South East Asia need credible assurances that the arms and ammunition brought into Afghan-Pak theatre by the ISAF do not fall into the “wrong hands”. A key challenge is to find a forum to raise the issue with a three-point agenda for action:
nA common position on licensing the production and permitting the sale of ammonium nitrate to keep this substance from falling into the hands of terrorists and pirates for making IED’s.
nA closer look at the IAEA’s regulations and IMO’s Dangerous Goods Code on radio-active materials to remedy any loopholes for applicability to the storage and disposal of medical waste by the hospitals using radio-active materials for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
nA joint proposal for the forthcoming UN Conference on an Arms Trade Treaty in 2012 for a global standard on inventory taking of the weapons brought into and taken out of an area of insurgency by an external power directly engaged in the counter-insurgency operations. — Global Expert Finder (www.globalexpertfinder.org)
* Swadesh M Rana is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute New York, former chief of the Conventional Arms Branch in the Department of Disarmament Affairs, United Nations and United Nations Global Expert (www.globalexpertfinder.org)
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South and South East Asia are faced with the likelihood of profit-motivated-pirates committing acts of terror and politically-driven terrorists resorting to piracy. Unlike terrorism that emanates from South/South West Asia and piracy that originates from South East Asia, terropiracy is linking South and South East Asia as a contiguous unit of operation.
With the Durand Line as the epicentre of global terrorism, the Taliban on both sides of it see no barrier separating the South from South West Asia. For the pirates in and around the Straits of Malacca, the peninsular confluence between South and South East Asia is but a choke point to disrupt the supply chain of global trade. Over 90% of it is conducted by sea with Singapore as the world’s busiest port and its largest container trans-shipment hub for a network of 250 shipping lines connecting it to 600 ports in 123 countries.
The Taliban under attack for nine years by over 110,000 US led troops and the pirates being pushed out of business from the Straits of Malacca with joint naval operations by at least 20 countries stand to gain by swapping their tools of combat and tricks of trade. The Taliban have light weapons to spare that pirates find handy to carry in their small and swift boats.
The Afghan-Pak theatre is a virtual warehouse for bargain deals on light weapons with some going for a penny to a dollar. Tens of thousands of assault rifles, AK 47’s, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and other man-portable weapons were amassed during the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
Since the 2001 US-led military action there are also more stolen weapons, weapons mistaken for exploded, weapons resold by small business contractors in the surplus industry, and weapons simply unaccounted for.
The pirates are skilled in hijacking ships with cargo that may include materials for Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) that the Taliban find easier to assemble, harder to detect and cause more panic when exploded than a combat with conventional light weapons.
Indonesian authorities see the entire South and South East Asian region as vulnerable to piracy attacks by politically motivated Free Aceh Movement ( Gerakan Aceh Merdeke:GAM) seeking independence for a gas and oil-rich region in Sumatra. Some Asian intelligence agencies reported links between GAM and Al Qaeda as the latter considered shifting its base from Afghanistan to Aceh and launched a naval offensive against its target vessels by ramming, blowing-up, air striking or torpedoing them with underwater suicide bombers aboard small, swift dinghies.
Without any reported links to Al Qaeda, such dinghies were used in successful recent attacks on tankers and smaller vessels, according to the Shipping Association of Singapore. The Directorate General of Shipping in Mumbai has recently banned small mechanised vessels called dhows from sailing south and west of Oman and the Maldives amid reports of clandestine trading in drugs and weapons between the pirates in Kismayu in Somalia and contraband traders using the Indian port state of Gujarat on the African east coast off the Arabian Peninsula.
As soft targets of terropiracy, the governments concerned in South and South East Asia need credible assurances that the arms and ammunition brought into Afghan-Pak theatre by the ISAF do not fall into the “wrong hands”. A key challenge is to find a forum to raise the issue with a three-point agenda for action:
nA common position on licensing the production and permitting the sale of ammonium nitrate to keep this substance from falling into the hands of terrorists and pirates for making IED’s.
nA closer look at the IAEA’s regulations and IMO’s Dangerous Goods Code on radio-active materials to remedy any loopholes for applicability to the storage and disposal of medical waste by the hospitals using radio-active materials for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
nA joint proposal for the forthcoming UN Conference on an Arms Trade Treaty in 2012 for a global standard on inventory taking of the weapons brought into and taken out of an area of insurgency by an external power directly engaged in the counter-insurgency operations. — Global Expert Finder (www.globalexpertfinder.org)
* Swadesh M Rana is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute New York, former chief of the Conventional Arms Branch in the Department of Disarmament Affairs, United Nations and United Nations Global Expert (www.globalexpertfinder.org)
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Adrian Brody is WRECKED
Looks like a new subgenre of singular, introverted conflict is brewing...first Buried, now Wrecked
Monday, October 4, 2010
Snyder to Direct Superman
It's the most coveted directing job in Hollywood right now....and it's all Zack Snyder's. Word has just been announced that Snyder has beat out Robert Zemeckis to direct the legendary comic book superhero in the upcoming film. Tack that on with producer Christopher "I Can Do No Wrong" Nolan and writer David Goyer, and the production looks promising to say the least.
Details are pretty tight right now, but rumor has it that General Zod maybe returning to play the villain in the upcoming film. Let's see if Terence Stamp is called out from retirement to reprise the role. Here's hoping.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Spike in Pirate Attacks in Indonesian Waters Raises Warnings
Sara Schonhardt | Jakarta
In the latest of a series of attacks in Southeast Asian waters, armed pirates attacked a Japanese chemical tanker off the Indonesian island of Mangkai in the South China Sea. Indonesia and its neighbors are coordinating efforts to fight the pirates.
Pirates armed with guns and knives are increasing their attacks on ships passing by three Indonesian islands off the east coast of Malaysia.
The International Maritime Bureau says 27 pirate attacks have been reported in the South China Sea since January, up from only seven in all of 2009. A spate of attacks since mid-August has deepened concerns at the maritime crime monitor, which warns ships to remain vigilant in the area.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Monday the country's navy is coordinating with the navies of Singapore and Malaysia to respond to the issue. He says the government plans to increase naval patrols in the area.
"The South China Sea is a very busy sea lane of communication, including the Strait of Malacca in Singapore," he said. "It is important on our part that we conduct coordinated patrols as well as close communication."
Globally acts of piracy are down this year, but an Asia security agency called ReCAAP reported a 40 percent increase in armed ship attacks in the region in the first half of 2010. So far the attacks have been minor, with no hostages taken or ships seized.
In an attack Sunday on a Japanese-owned tanker traveling from Singapore to China, the pirates stole cash and ransacked part of the ship, but the crew was not injured.
Faizasyah says Jakarta takes piracy very seriously. After a spike in pirate attacks in the late 1990s, Indonesia partnered with Malaysia and Singapore to ensure the security of the seas they all border. That cooperation helped stem the attacks.
Faizasyah says it is important for ships passing through the region to keep in close contact with authorities in the area. The International Maritime Bureau says pirates often abort their attacks once they are spotted, and that is where communication between ships on the water can make a difference.
In the latest of a series of attacks in Southeast Asian waters, armed pirates attacked a Japanese chemical tanker off the Indonesian island of Mangkai in the South China Sea. Indonesia and its neighbors are coordinating efforts to fight the pirates.
Pirates armed with guns and knives are increasing their attacks on ships passing by three Indonesian islands off the east coast of Malaysia.
The International Maritime Bureau says 27 pirate attacks have been reported in the South China Sea since January, up from only seven in all of 2009. A spate of attacks since mid-August has deepened concerns at the maritime crime monitor, which warns ships to remain vigilant in the area.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Monday the country's navy is coordinating with the navies of Singapore and Malaysia to respond to the issue. He says the government plans to increase naval patrols in the area.
"The South China Sea is a very busy sea lane of communication, including the Strait of Malacca in Singapore," he said. "It is important on our part that we conduct coordinated patrols as well as close communication."
Globally acts of piracy are down this year, but an Asia security agency called ReCAAP reported a 40 percent increase in armed ship attacks in the region in the first half of 2010. So far the attacks have been minor, with no hostages taken or ships seized.
In an attack Sunday on a Japanese-owned tanker traveling from Singapore to China, the pirates stole cash and ransacked part of the ship, but the crew was not injured.
Faizasyah says Jakarta takes piracy very seriously. After a spike in pirate attacks in the late 1990s, Indonesia partnered with Malaysia and Singapore to ensure the security of the seas they all border. That cooperation helped stem the attacks.
Faizasyah says it is important for ships passing through the region to keep in close contact with authorities in the area. The International Maritime Bureau says pirates often abort their attacks once they are spotted, and that is where communication between ships on the water can make a difference.
Finally...a new "MONSTERS" trailer
Looking good. I can see previous monster movies being to this what Batman & Robin was to Batman Begins....turning the ridiculous in realistic.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
"Rare Exports" is coming to town
Finland's Jalmari Helander wants you all to know something. Don't believe what you've been told about Santa. It's all lies.
Helander's Rare Exports - a throwback to the dark children's adventure films of the early 80s - will soon be taking its North American bow at TIFF and to let people know that maybe Santa coming to town isn't such a good thing after all they've just released a new trailer. Check it below.
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