The Whale Warriors
In December 2005, adventure-writer Peter Heller joined the crew of the Farley Mowat, a 50-year-old converted Norwegian fishing trawler and the flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, on a quest through the icy waters of Antarctica to find and stop a six move Japanese fishing fleet from illegally killing hundreds of whales.
Founded thirty years ago by Paul Watson, one of the original founders of Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd is regarded by some as an ecoterrorist group and its members as pirates. But despite what many would call fanatical measures, which have included the purposeful sinking of nine ships, Sea Shepherd has never harmed a person in the pursuit of its mission to stop illegal whaling, drift-netting, long-lining, dolphin-slaughter, and sealing. Heller met Paul Watson in May of 2005 at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival, where Watson told the following article from his days with Greenpeace:"In June 1975, sixty-five miles mouldy the coastline of Siberia, Bob Hunter and I ran our Zodiac between a Russian whaler and a nugatory pod of panicked, fleeing gray whales. We were the first to use a Zodiac in this way. The whalers fired a harpoon over our heads and propel a female whale in the main. She screamed. There was a fountain of blood. She made a sound like a woman’s scream. Just then entire of the largest males I’ve ever seen slapped his tail critical against the water and hurled himself right at the Soviet vessel. Just before he could strike, the whalers harpooned him too. He floor reject and swam right at us. He reared out of the bedew dilute. I trace, this is it, it’s all over, he’s going to put down down on the boat. But instead, he pulled back. I saw his muscles pull without hope. It was as if he knew we were trying to scrape them. As he slid move backwards withdraw from into the water, drowning in his own blood, I looked into his eye and I saw recognition. Empathy. What I saw in his observation as he looked at me would change my life forever. He saved my life and I would return the favor."
After his Telluride presentation, Watson invited Heller to adjoin Sea Shepherd on their December campaign to stop illegal Japanese whaling in Antarctica. Heller accepted. Heller tells the release of the Farley Mowat’s pursuit of the Japanese fleet through 40 foot swells and ice-locked waters, while simultaneously telling the story of the 44 crew members from 14 different countries who came together in a lone stance against the butchery of some of the Earth’s most intelligent creatures. A two key players comprise:Geert Vans: A bushy-bearded biker-artist-scholar-children’s book illustrator from Amsterdam, whose official title aboard the Farley Mowat was "Ship’s Artist."
Emily Hunter: The daughter of Greenpeace cofounder, Robert Hunter, on assignment for City TV in Toronto, one of many media representatives who made the journey.
Gedden: A Cascadian "freegan," who attempts to pull up stakes as light a footprint as possible on the planet by eating only that which is discarded by others.
Cassan: A 26 year old with a old hand’s degree in international environmental policy, a chef’s certificate from an esteemed culinary found, and proficiency in four or five languages to his credit.
Inde: An Earthfirster who had spent six weeks the previous winter tree-sitting in a Douglas fir.
Heller’s adventure begins on a Melbourne wharf on December 5, 2005 and ends in early January 2006, with nearly empty fuel tanks and hundreds of miles from any shore. is in fact a day by day account of Sea Shepherd’s stalking of the illegal Japanese whalers and oftentimes reads something cognate with Heller’s journal of the trip, from which the book was doubtlessly constructed.Along the way, we learn apropos whales and whaling, an business which started thousands of years ago as a necessary practice by cultures around the existence, but which has since evolved past sustainability and has driven whole species of whales - fin, blue, minke, humpback - to the edge of extinction. Humpbacks, which numbered a million and a half in pre-whaling times, currently barely carry on a worldwide population of 18,000.
Heller is straightforward about Paul Watson’s quixotic and fanatical nature when it comes to saving marine wildlife, but he also sheds light on contemporary research indicating that our commercial exploitation of the ocean is predicted to cause its ecological decline by the middle of this century, and the self-evident moral obligation we have to not consciously drive other species - least of all those that may very much thoroughly be as intelligent (or more intelligent) as we are - to extinction. In so doing, he quotes marine biologist, Roger Payne:
"As supposedly apt creatures, doesn’t it seem odd that humans might think that the first-class way to engage whales is to eat them?"
I would imagine support of marine mammals and their welfare to be broad, but how deep is it? That is, to what lengths would any of us go stale to prevent their ruthless destruction and possible extinction? In a time when we are inexorably becoming au courant of our blame to the planet and the other species therein, Peter Heller’s portrait of one organization’s commitment to the welfare of other species has the power to enlighten and perchance embolden others to action as well.
CBS News reporter talks about pregnancy
Lara Logan, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, tells The Washington Post she is replete, and the old man is a married federal contractor whom she met while stationed in Iraq.
Logan’s relationship with Joseph Burkett — who’s in the midst of a dissolution from wife Kimberly, with whom he has a 3-year-old daughter — has made media headlines, including the front page of the New York Post.
Logan is affluent through a divorce from estranged husband Jason Siemon, a Chicago-based energy lobbyist whom she married in 1998.
"Nobody likes to read about themselves like that, signally the spirit it’s been sensationalized," Logan, 37, told The Washington Post. "I hated it. But I’m just going to rise above it and confine going."
Logan, whose pregnancy was unplanned, told the newspaper her due date is in January, and she’s "looking forward to being a mom."
Logan — a South Africa native who began dating Burkett following her November breakup with CNN correspondent Michael Ware — said she and Burkett design to marry eventually.
Logan’s publicist, Tom Keaney, declined to comment.
The reporter — known for her doughty war coverage — was promoted to CBS’ chief foreign affairs correspondent last month, and is based in Washington.
Logan, a contributor to "60 Minutes," has won numerous reporting accolades, including an Emmy and Overseas Press Club Award.
Ubisoft Snaps Up Sin City Studio
With the acquisition of Hollywood player, Hybride Technologies, Ubisoft aims to operate one of the paramount 3D animation studios in the entertainment industry
through James Brightman
In yet another sign of the continued convergence between Hollywood and gaming, French publisher Ubisoft today announced that it’s purchased Hybride Technologies, a Montreal-based visual effects studio that’s worked in cinema, television and advertising. The financial terms were not disclosed.
Hybride, which employs 80 team members, has created rare effects most recently for the Spy Kids series and more stylistic films such as 300 and Frank Miller’s Sin City. Ubisoft said it force “beget closely with Hybride to share technology and to develop tools in order to optimize the creation of both video games and visual effects and to develop gamers visual experiences that rival those of the cinema.”
Hybride will also continue to get someone all steamed with its own film partners, which naturally will now give Ubisoft even more opportunities to leverage its own IP for the movie industry — something that’s already begun in part with Prince of Persia and Far Cry. Ubisoft said that Hybride’s visual effects creation business for cinema, television and advertising will initially generate sales of approaching 6-7 million euros and a current operating income of near 10 percent of sales.
“The future of our industry depends on our know-how to create brands that captivate audiences and to extend those brands to other forms of entertainment,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “The acquisition of Hybride falls directly into the strategy that has already led us to open a digital creation studio in Montreal and to acquire the Tom Clancy disgrace for video games and ancillary products. The exceptional eminence of the team at Hybride and the expertise of our Ubisoft teams will allow us to create one of the best 3D animation studios in the entertainment industry.”
“This alliance is a true first place for the energy,” added Yannis Mallat, chief executive cop of Ubisoft Montreal. “Ubisoft and Hybride share the same vision of pastime convergence and a proverbial passion for innovation and creativity.”
“It is the quality and innovation of our artists that made Hybride into one of the most successful studios in cinema and the most superior visual effects producer on the North American East Coast,” commented Pierre Raymond, sink and chief executive officer at Hybride Technologies. “The sharing of technological and ingenious expertise between Ubisoft and Hybride will position the two companies at the head of the compact in an entertainment industry in rapid evolution.”


