The Phoenician, now renamed the MSC Preziosa, will eventually entertain guests as part of MSC Cruise's fleet

MSC Cruises says that it has finalized contract negotiations with STX France to take over a 140,000 ton cruise ship after the termination of an agreement with its original owner, Hannibal Gaddafi, the exiled son of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

At a price tag of 550 million euros, the new ship, named the MSC Preziosa (formerly known as the Phoenician in the Gaddafi heyday), will come fully equipped with all the bells and whistles you’d expect out of a modern-day cruise ship marvel, including a custom 120-ton seawater tank, originally built to house Hannibal’s wide-ranging collection of man-eating sharks.

The dramatic 120-ton seawater tank was designed to accommodate Hannibal’s two sand tiger sharks, two white sharks and two blacktip reef sharks.

It would have run throughout the bar and reception area of the 1,100 ft-long ship.

Four resident marine experts would have looked after the sharks, with a dedicated food store catering to their needs. – Daily Mail

To the relief of future passengers on the vessel, the cruise ship was only about half way completed when the Gaddafi regime was overthrown, leaving the hull up for sale by its builder, the French arm of Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, and eventually scooped up by MSC Cruises earlier this month.

“Negotiations with STX France have lasted over nine months; a significant but understandable period of time considering the importance of the investment and the unexpected nature of the takeover,” said Mr Pierfrancesco Vago, CEO of MSC Cruises.

Once completed in March 2013, the 333-meter long MSC Preziosa will join MSC’s fleet as part of their fantasia-class, which includes the MSC Fantasia, the MSC Splendida and the long-awaited MSC Divina, sans man-eating sharks, of course.

Working in a global industry means communicating daily with individuals across borders, oceans and continents. It also includes traveling far distances to establish and further develop business relationships. We live in a culturally diverse world, where one of the keys to international business success is knowledge of the impact of cultural differences.

Bridging the culture gap can be challenging, but if you make a small effort to obtain a greater understanding of others’ background and social norms it will be highly appreciated and it will make your business relationships more positive and successful.

Let’s visit the world’s continents, and see what you might want to avoid doing when dealing with or visiting a respective country.

1. In Western cultures, people are taught to look people in the eyes at all times; averting the eyes often signifies a lack of sincerity or confidence. In Japan on the other hand, constant eye contact is considered rude or even aggressive.
2. Business cards should be accepted with both hands as a sign of deference.
3. In Indonesia it is considered extremely rude to point with the forefinger. It is especially rude if the pointing is towards a person. When pointing the Indonesian uses his thumb.
4. In Thailand it is considered rude to cross your legs in company and to point your toes at another person. The feet, as the lowest part of the body, are given the lowest esteem and pointing a toe is demeaning to the person at whom the foot is pointed.
5. In the Philippines if someone is buying you a meal, the invitee orders first. The invited should order items equal to or below the cost of the invitee’s meal.
6. In China It is considered polite to decline a gift when it is first offered and the giver is expected to offer it multiple times. Also gifts are generally not opened in the giver’s presence.
7. In China and other Asian countries, it is considered impolite for a person to pour their own drink. Generally an individual will offer to pour a companion’s drink and the companion, in return will pour the individual’s drink.
8. In Bangladesh, the “Thumbs Up” gesture is considered an offensive insult.
9. Tipping is considered rude and is never done in Japan.
10. In German business dealings, moving your chair closer to the host is considered an insult.
11. In Russia prolonged direct eye contact may be considered aggressive or as invitation to more intimate relationships (especially with the opposite sex), so it should be avoided in business relationships.
12. In France, assuming that people speak English without inquiry may be found unpleasant; being able to greet in French and ask whether the Frenchman speaks English is highly appreciated.
13. Silence is golden throughout most of Scandinavia. Do not feel the need to fill any silence with conversation. Silence is often used as thinking time and the prelude to what will be said next.
14. In many European countries, punctuality is essential and any possible late arrival should be communicated in advance.
15. When doing business in the Middle East, handshakes are always used and can last a long time. Islamic etiquette recommends that one waits for the other to withdraw their hand first before doing the same. Always use the right hand. Do not be surprised if your hand is held while you are led somewhere.
16. In most Arab countries, it is considered polite and a sign of friendship for males to hold hands when walking. So don’t be alarmed or offended if this were to happen, as it does not have the romantic connotations that it does in the West.
17. The Middle Eastern culture places more value on someone’s word as opposed to a written agreement. A person’s word is connected to their honour.
18. Meetings should not be made too far in advance as changes in personal circumstances may impact your appointment. Once an appointment has been made, confirm it verbally with the person you will meet a few days before. Punctuality is expected of foreigners.
19. In Arab countries displaying the soles of one’s feet or touching somebody with one’s shoes is considered rude.
20. In Iraq the “Thumbs Up” gesture is considered an offensive insult.
21. When visiting someone’s home in Canada, the serving of coffee at the end of an evening is a signal that it is time for vsisitors to prepare to leave.
22. In the US it is considered impolite not to cover your mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing. When someone else sneezes, it is customary to say “Bless you”. If someone says “Bless you” to you, it is customary to reply with “Thank you.”
23. In the US, one should address those significantly older than them as Mr., Sir, Mrs., Ma’am, Ms. or Miss. For example, it may be considered rude to address someone by their first name unless they have invited you to do so. In a professional setting this especially applies, however many people will ask you to refer to them by their last name.
24. South Americans like to talk in close proximity to each other. North Americans, and others, may see this as an invasion of personal space.
25. In many parts of Africa there is a cultural tendency toward a more relaxed attitude to time and punctuality.
26. In the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, direct and frank communication is not the norm in most parts of the region as most Africans are uncomfortable with blunt statements.
27. In Ghana, asking a person to a social event implies that the person offering the invite will be paying for everything. Inviting a person out and then expecting them to pay for their own drinks or food is considered extremely rude.
28. In South Africa it is the custom to look someone in the eye whenever touching glasses for a toast. Varying superstitious results can follow should you not do so.
29. In Australia when riding alone in a taxi, it is considered polite to sit in the front passenger seat next to the driver.
30. Australians are known to use informal language, and therefore may refer to some foreigners as “mate” instead of using more respectful titles. An example of this is the former Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, thanking the head of the United Nations for his support in the East Timor Crisis in year 2000, with the phrase: “I owe you a beer”.

Lauga is originally from Iceland, and is a Sales and Marketing Executive for MTS Logistics. Lauga has experience as a Sales Manager for a large fitness corporation in Oslo, Norway before she moved to New York in 2009 to pursue a Business Management degree at Berkeley.

I had heard rumors in the past that some ships had outfitted their rec rooms with pool tables, but I never quite believed it.  Why the heck would you put a pool table on a moving ship anyway?  Well, Royal Caribbean apparently thought it was a great idea and engineered a pool table that would stay level even as the ship pitched and rolled at sea.

Apparently it works too, although it has to be a bit awkward to use in a rough sea.

Thinking about it a bit more, I wonder if playing pool on this table could also help seasick passengers get over their illness?  Beside the horizon, it’s probably the only thing on the ship that a passenger would be able to look at, or touch, that is maintaining it’s attitude relative to the horizon.

Perhaps it would make them even more seasick, hard to say.  I’ve seen some ships dangle a ball from a string from the overhead as a rudimentary horizon indicator, but I never thought it worked super well as a seasickness cure.

Credit: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees) via APOD.NASA.GOV

Aurora are a frequent visitor to the dark skies in the high northern and southern latitudes. The winter skies in Alaska, Norway, Iceland, and Siberia experience aurora borealis, whereas down above the opposite hemisphere in Antarctica and far southern New Zealand are found the aurora australis. In the long, cold winter months of both hemipsheres, skies erupt with glimmering curtains of colorful light.

What causes aurora? Why are some of them green, some blue/yellow, and some red? Which are the most common, and which are rare? How come some places see them and some don’t, except under very unusual circumstances? When and where are the best times to see them? Let’s dig into auroras and find out.

Aurora are the result of high-energy charged particles bombarding and reacting with atoms in our upper atmosphere (specifically the ionosphere) at elevations ranging from 100-400 km (60-250 miles). These particles stream out from the sun constantly as what is known as “solar wind.” During periods of heightened solar activity called “coronal mass ejections” (CMEs or solar storms), the solar wind blows a tempest, hurling giant waves of charged particles larger than the Earth itself. The polar regions catch the brunt of the solar winds due to the converging lines of the earth’s magnetic field at the poles.

Travelling at around 1,400 miles per second, the solar wind smashes into nitrogen and oxygen atoms, causing them to convert the energy of the collisions into light, shedding photons which we see as aurora. Oxygen atoms emitting photons have a yellow-to-green tint, whereas nitrogen atoms create blue light if the atoms re-capture the electrons after ionization, and red if it returns to a normal, grounded state.

If we had neon atoms in our upper atmosphere, we would have orange auroras. Light elements such as hydrogen and helium from blue and purple auroras, but our eyes cannot typically perceive these colors against the dark night sky. The reddish ionoshpere aurora are rarest, forming when oxygen atoms at 400 km above the earth shed light.

Think of the different colored aurora like different neon lights in a store window sign. Those lights work by sending high voltage electricity (electrons) through a glass vacuum tube filled with atoms of specific elements. Each element, when energized by the electricity, lets off light of a different color. So when you see “live nude girls” on your way into a strip club in Vegas and each word is a separate color, you know that each one of the tubes that forms the letters of each word has a different element inside of it.

Earth just suffered through a fairly intense solar storm the week before last. During what was the largest solar storm in 7 years, magnificent auroras were seen by skywatchers in places that are known for  auroral displays such as Norway, Iceland, and Alaska. What was unusual however, was that that aurora were observed as far south as New York.

Auroras are typically found within 10-20 degrees of latitude from the earth’s poles. During solar storms, like the one we experienced last week, the electromagnetic effects reach much father south (or north in the case of aurora australis) as the intense solar wind showers the lower regions with charged ions and protons that flock to the magnetic flux lines which emanate from the poles.

CMEs cause more than just auroras in unusual locations. Satellites have to be re-positioned and powered down to protect sensitive on-board electronics. High-frequency radio communication is disrupted,and airlines re-route flights that typically traverse the earth’s north pole in an effort to both protect sensitive radio equipment on their jetliners, and also to reduce the amount of potentially cancer-causing radiation experienced by crew and passengers.

Solar Coronal Mass Ejections, from NASA.gov

Our sun averages around 2,000 solar storms in every 11-year long solar cycle. These cycles are measured by observations of sunspots, which are regions of the sun where magnetic activity erupts and disturbs the photosphere of the sun, showering earth with aurora-causing ions. Single CME events can shoot jets of plasma four or more hundred thousand miles from the sun.

The solar cycle was first discovered by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe in 1843. In 1859 during what is now called the Carrington event, a solar flare erupted on September 1st, which interrupted telegraph service, and caused auroras as far south as Cuba and Hawai`i. In the early 2000s, the sun has been experiencing what is known as deep solar minimum, with no visible sunspots on approximately 73% of the days in 2008. We are now ramping back up into the highest part of a solar maximum, as evidenced by the storm we saw in late January.

Solar cycles have been used as evidence for and against man-made climate change by both sides of the argument. Observations do show that the global average temperature can rise as much as 0.1 degree C as a direct result of solar variability. If you want to learn more about the solar cycle / climate link, start with this informative article over at Science Daily.

Click here to view the embedded video.

At least, until you see this one, which is even more mind-bending, and gives a great perspective on the sheer scale of auroras.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other than flying to Reykjavik, northern Canada and Alaska are also good locations to go aurora hunting. Target your trips for the winter months if you head north, since the nights are long. Since we are in a solar maximum for the next year or so, conditions are ripe for auroras. Just don’t count on your GPS or Sat phone to save you if you take it deep into the dark backcountry – these communications tend to be the first to break down during intense aurora-causing solar storms. If you salivate for auroroa photos, check out the work of Terje Sørgjerd, Kiddi Krisjians, and Ole Salomonsen - they are all masterful aurora shooters. Happy hunting!

About the Author:

Truckee, CA-based, Hawai’i-born Grant Kaye creates colorful, vibrant, and evocative photographs that bring the viewer into the special landscapes he seeks out. In addition to being a passionate photographer, Kaye skis and hikes as often as he can. His professional background is in geology, volcanic hazards, and GIS/cartography. grantkaye.com

Some of you may remember a cartoon which appeared during World War I, a drawing showing an inquisitive stranger talking with the gateman at a railway crossing. The gate was painted with the usual black and white stripes, and lying on the river beyond the tracks was a steamer painted with similar markings. The stranger asked, “Why do they paint the stripes on the gate?” And the gateman answered, “Oh, that’s to make them more visible.”

And then the stranger asked, “Well, why do they paint the stripes on the vessel out there?” And the gateman replied, “Oh, that’s to make the ship less visible.”

-Everett Warner [paraphrased from his lecture notes]

A ships in costume, gCaptain brings you Razzle Dazzle; history’s most unusually painted ship. What is Razzle Dazzle? GoTouring.com tells us;

During World War I, the British and Americans faced a serious threat from German U-boats. All attempts to camouflage ships at sea had failed, as the appearance of the sea and sky are always changing.  Any color scheme that was concealing in one situation was conspicuous in others. A British artist and naval officer, Norman Wilkinson, promoted a new camouflage scheme that was derived from the artistic fashions of the time, particularly cubism. Instead of trying to conceal the ship, it simply broke up its lines and made it more difficult for the U-boat captain to determine the ship’s course. The British called this camouflage scheme “Dazzle Painting.” The Americans called it “Razzle Dazzle.”

Artists were enlisted to draw up the camouflage designs. Early in the war, designs were drawn for individual ships, with each ship having its own distinctive pattern. As the war progressed, standard patterns were devised and applied to large numbers of ships. Even the great passenger liners were camouflaged for the duration of the War.

It is unfortunate that there are no color photographs of these WWI ships. People who witnessed convoys of dazzle painted ships reported that the scene was quite dramatic. Imagine sailing across the North Atlantic surrounded by dozens of brightly painted ships, each in different colors and patterns. If you compare the colored drawing with the black and white photograph of the ship “War Clover”, you can get an idea of how much we are missing. Read More…

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The problem confronting a submarine, once his prey has been sighted, resolves itself solely into estimating course and speed of the target, in order to determine how the approach to torpedo fire position should be made. The “dazzle” system of painting is based on this one consideration and that is, of rendering the problem confronting a submarine more difficult, confusing him as to how his approach shall be made and thereby adding in some degree to the safety of the vessel attacked.

U.S. Admiral William S. Sims (1917)

Camopedia has this amazing information on the World War I design team assigned to the project;

ONE METHOD camoufleurs might have used (but did not, apparently) to generate a large number of unique dazzle schemes is the stencil method.

It is indebted to American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921), sometimes called “the father of camouflage,” who (circa 1909) devised a clever, easy way for individuals to design their own camouflage, using cut-out silhouettes.

Whatever the surrounding, said Thayer, a person “has only to cut out a stencil of the soldier, ship, cannon or whatever figure he wishes to conceal, and look through this stencil from the viewpoint under consideration, to learn just what costume from that viewpoint would most tend to conceal this figure.” However, the purpose of dazzle camouflage was confusion, not concealment, so, in the examples below, we have used the silhouette as a mask with which to “find” valuable dazzle designs in an abstract, geometric plan. In studies of human vision, Gestalt psychologists and others have investigated embedded figures or “puzzle pictures” (Wolfgang Köhler called them “camouflaged figures”) in which a simple shape has been adroitly hidden within a larger, more complex surrounding.

In pre-computer days, one could make arbitrary compositions in art by overlapping “systems” on layers of tracing paper, viewed on a light table. Today, it is ever so easy to do the same thing (and much more) by using the “layers” function in software such as Adobe Photoshop. This could have been useful as a way to generate dazzle designs, had all that been available in World War I.

If you are looking for more information on this topic be sure to read things magazine‘s extensive ship camouflage links section.

The rumored origins of the giant beach-going lego man have reached that of mythical proportions over the past couple years.  The man first appeared just offshore the Dutch resort of Zandvoort in 2007, where stunned spectators made a daring rescue thinking it was real person.  Then again in 2008, the lego man has washed up on a beach in Brighton, UK leaving residents puzzled as to its origins.

Is a giant child somewhere missing a beloved toy? Is a Lego factory producing mutant rogue lego-men?

Unfortunately the real story may not be so interesting.  The lego-man is the work of aspiring artist, Ego Leonard, who may or may not be the lego man himself.  “I am glad I crossed over” Leonard said in an email to Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “Although it was a hell of a [swim]. Nice weather here and friendly people. I think I am gonna stay here for a while.”

Why Florida and why now remains a mystery.

This has to be the most out there, exotic, ridiculous “ski” vacations ever offered in the history of the world. We kid you not, a company based out of London is now making it possible to ski through the Caribbean Sea, and in relative terms, it’s not as expensive as one might think. Then again, the term “ski” must be applied loosely.

The company IgluCruise is hosting this once-in-a-lifetime unique sailing trip that will travel from the tropical island of Barbados with scheduled stops in Grenada, Tobago, Isla Margarita, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent before returning back to Barbados. The trip is set to depart on December 15^th, 2011 with prices starting as low as 799 British pounds. The price tag includes round-trip airfare from the UK, accommodation, food, room service, a 36 person Jacuzzi at the base of the “ski” slope, steam room, fitness center, ski and boot rental, and lift passes.

Related to “ skiing” the ship features:

-A 150 meter-long open-air ski slope on its top deck

-A ski surface made of Perma-Snow, which is an all weather ski carpet

- A poma lift that will facilitate the ability for up to 1,129 passengers to be “skiing” as the ship sails through its tropical destinations.

Now the term “ski” and “skiing” has to be heavily quoted here as “skiers” will be sliding on a faux snow surface, with skis, on a boat, while traveling through tropical waters. I think it’s a stretch to actually call it skiing, then again, speaking to the uniqueness of this idea, what a trip it’s going to be for people to be linking turns on a cruise ship sailing across the famed waters of the Caribbean Sea. This is not a ski trip most of us would ever consider, then again name another time you’ve heard of such a trip being offered.

Again, I have a tough time actually calling this a ski trip, but the fact of the matter is this trip is happening, people will be using skis and ski boots to slide down Perma-snow on the trip, on a moving boat, and it really is one of the more unique trips I’ve ever read about that brings a sense of ski culture to a tropical destination.

For more information and specifics regarding the trip click here.

Photo courtesy Chris Wolfenden

With most of today’s news being rather depressing, I thought I’d lighten the mood a little bit with this photo from last weeks “Burning Man Festival” taking place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.  How they get this thing to the middle of the desert is beyond me.

Never heard of Burning Man?  Click HERE to find out more about this once a year festival dedicated to “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.”

The captain got stuck in the bathroom because of a jammed lock and yelled for help, the article quoted the coast guard as saying.  One of the ferry’s crew managed to slow the vessel down but unfortunately it was too late, and the vessel ran aground on a rock near Helsinki.

Some minor injuries were reported, as well as some cosmetic damage to the vessel.  The coast guard is investigating whether the captain’s actions were criminal, but hey, at least he wasn’t drinking.

Those of you from Finland can read the Coast Guard release HERE.

Image by Murad Sezer / Reuters

Or maybe the backhoe and the barge were in cahoots the whole time and decided to make a run for it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via gCaptain Forum