The Paris Summer Olympics roll along, and so are the teams of the USA. - Women's gymnastics team, overcame ailing legs, illnesses, falls and twisties to rather easily win the Gold medal.
- Men's gymnastics team won a medal, bronze, for the first time in 16 years.
Good ethnic mix on both teams. In no other event will you see such close team camaraderie, and hugs.- Men's soccer team, for the first time in 24 years, reached the knockout round. They face Morocco at 9AM EDT on Friday, August 2.
Both women's and men's volleyball teams look to make the next round.- Katie Ledecky coasted to victory in the 1500 meter swim, topping her Olympic mark of Tokyo by 5 seconds, finishing 10 seconds before the silver medalist, winning her 8th gold medal, the most in swimming, with Jenny Thompson.
The most stunning USA victory, maybe ever, was in women's rugby, where they won the bronze medal match over heavily favored Australia. First medal in rugby for the U.S. since the Paris Olympics in 1924 . A hundred years. You need to watch this!!! The ending is everything. Unbelievable.
- The USA has won the most medals with 30. #2 is Great Britain at 26 and #3 China 19, but with the most gold, 9.
1People's Republic of China
97319
2France
810826
3Japan
83415
4Australia
76316
5Great Britain
66517
6Republic of Korea
63312
7United States of America
5131230
- If you live in Hawaii, you can save some TV-watching time by recording your NBC channel from 7PM, and begin watching around 8PM, so you can delete ads. The time schedule calls for 3 hours, but many times extends another half an hour. You will see the highlights of the day.
Changing subjects to politics, Donald Trump was scheduled for a one hour Q&A session at the National Black Journalists Convention, and began by insulting the first black, female journalist. Made a complete fool of himself, and the program ended in half an hour. Exaggerated, lied, showed rage and provided ammunition for future Democratic Party ads. He might have strengthened his MAGA base, but alienated those at the margins. Said Michael Tyler, Kamala Harris's campaign communicators director:
The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people.
- These nodules range in size from microscopic to volleyball size, although most of them are in the range of potatoes.
How did they form? Dissolved metal compounds in seawater precipitate over time around a nucleus of some kind--like shark's tooth or fragment of a clam shell--on the sea floor.- They not only contain nickel, copper and manganese, but, perhaps more important, rare metals needed for batteries and other higher tech products.
- They cover 70% of the sea floor, and estimated to weigh 500 billion tons, more than enough to supply industry for centuries.
- The deep oceans were oxygenated in the Ediacaran period 540 million years ago, and this has become a recent environmental issue I'll later describe.
- Were discovered in the Arctic Ocean near Siberia in 1868. The HMS challenger (1872-1876) later found them in most oceans of the world.
- The largest deposit can be found in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (about the size of Europe) on vast abyssal plains at depths of from 13,000 to 20,000 feet. As can be seen below, this zone is close by Hawaii.
- There are three other prime locations.
While no nation owns this area of the ocean, Hawaii has reasons to be involved:- Maybe a source of future income.
- Water pollution.
- Thus, when I worked for U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga from 1979-82, I was the chief of staff to pass the bill, which is known as the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. Senator Lee Metcalf was the original sponsor, but he passed away in 1978, so Senator Matsunaga took on the congressional leadership.
Over the years I went to various Law of the Sea gatherings and have kept up with the status.- Over the years I went to various Law of the Sea gatherings and have kept up with the status.
- I figured this subject was useful for research funding, so the University of Mississippi, University of Alaska and the University of Hawaii partnered to establish the Marine Minerals Technology Center through the Department Interior. Senator John Stennis was then Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and was from Mississippi. and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican, was the co-chairman.
Governor Josh Green this month signed a bill into law prohibiting the mining, extraction and removal of minerals in the state's waters. Of course, our legal outreach is only 3 miles, so this legislation will have no effect on the Law of the Sea Treaty.
While fraught with potential environmental problems, these metals are crucial to the progress of our economy. Yet, and as a humorous aside, this subject matter itself in a conference setting is so utterly boring as to be somnolent. What, then, is the Law of the Sea Treaty?
- Some history.
- The League of Nations held a 1930 conference, but there were no agreements.
- In 1945, President Harry Truman extended U.S. control to all the natural resources in our continental shelf. Other nations similarly did, to a distance of up to 200 nautical miles
About some marine terms.- The curvature of our planet distorts dimensions.
- Car and trains, for example use miles per hour.
- Boats and planes are affected by the earth's curvature, and use knots.
You thus sometimes see knots, and sometimes miles per hour.- One knot is roughly 1.15 miles per hour.
- A single knot represents one nautical mile traveled in one hour.
Our globe is broken up into 360 degrees.- One degree has 60 minutes.
- One nautical mile equals one minute of latitude.
Our planet is not a perfect sphere.- It is an oblate spheroid.
- Slightly bulges at the equator and flattened at the poles.
- 24,901 miles at equator.
- 24,860 miles around the poles.
- Thus, 24,901 miles divided by 360 equals 69.17, then divided by 60 gives 1.15, about the length of one knot, from which comes the nautical mile.
- Note that the length of a longitude shrinks from the equator to either pole, where it is 69.4 miles at the equator and zero miles at either pole.
In 1958 the UN held its first Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at Geneva, Switzerland. Four treaties were developed.- UNCLOS II in 1960 did not do much.
- UNCLOS III in New York had 160 nations participating, and went on for almost decade, defining baselines shown to the right.
The Law of the Sea Treaty was opened for signature in 1982 when I left the U.S. Senate to return to the University of Hawaii.- The Treaty went into force in 1994 when the 60th party ratified.
- Today, 170 parties have ratified.
- Red countries have not ratified, including the USA and twelve others. All major powers have. We are in the company of Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iran, North Korea, Libya and similar others.
- 14 other parties have not even signed, including Israel, Turkey, and the Holy See.
The U.S. helped shape the Law of the Sea and all revisions, and even signed on in 1994. Thirty years later, our U.S. Senate has not ratified the Convention.
- You need at least 67 Senators.
- In 2012, 34 Republican Senators said they wouldn't agree.
- So-called problems with outer space, environmental restrictions and need to share technology with others have stood in the way. The usual excuse is that being part of the Convention undercuts American sovereignty, whatever that means.
- In short, there is an attitude that if we wanted to mine the sea, we can go ahead and just do it without sharing anything...and no one can stop us. Plus, we really don't care because deep sea mining isn't viable today, and into the nearby future. Lockheed Martin has itself the rights to two Pacific seabeds.
- The conservative Heritage Foundation (that same organization to develop the Republican Party's platform in the past, and is responsible for Project 2025) is particularly active in fighting off treaties. So this is more a Republican Party position than a national one, and the two-thirds Senate majority is hard to reach.
- In the meantime, the ratifying parties are rushing to stake claims.
- China has five exploration sites over 90,000 square miles.
- The U.S. has none as a country. But there is Lockheed Martin, which won't be able to get started until the U.S. Senate ratifies the treaty.
- Basically, China already dominates the rare-earth metals picture, and these are vital to a high tech economy, from electric cars to defense systems.
I've studied this field for forty years, and, in general, our U.S. Senate just does not like to ratify treaties.- Many times presidents have entered the U.S. into international agreements without the advice and consent of the Senate.
One example is the Paris Agreement for global warming.- Donald Trump said the U.S. would drop out.
- But Joe Biden became president and re-joined.
- This is an example of the Administration proceeding without Senate consent.
- The following treaties were signed, but not ratified.
- 1979 Salt II.
- 1979 Moon Treaty.
- 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity.
1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.- 1994 Convention on the safety of UN and Associated Personal.
- 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban treaty.
1997 Kyoto Protocol, which was the original climate change agreement.- 2008 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
2013 Arms Trade Treaty.- 2016 Trans-Pacific Partnership.
- Want to see the entire list? Goes back to 1930 for the Forced Labour Convention. I count 46 of them.
But they keep trying, so last year, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono co-introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. Senate to ratify UNCLOS. What are the odds?
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