The tweet was posted by a twitter account set up to mock Nashville’s diet neurosurgeon, Jack Kruse, and sent by the alias “@shitkrusesays”.  The accounts true owner likely started the account to poke fun at the dietician but when the account sent out an alarming tweet that read:

“Security confiscated dynamite. talk won’t be as explosive as at PaleoFx. still have vial of Legionnaires for epic biohack”

Unfortunately for Kruse at the time, he was booked to depart on the Carnival Magic out of Galveston, Texas on Sunday and was scheduled to speak at Jimmy Moore’s 5th Annual Low-Carb Cruise event to be held on the vessel.

When Carnival learned of the tweet, they alerted the authorities who sent FBI and Coast Guard agents to the ship to investigate.  According to media reports, the agents searched Kruse and his belongings and a long questioning session about the tweet caused Kruse to miss the vessels scheduled departure.

In the end, authorities found no reason to hold Kruse after determining that the tweet was not at all associated with him or his team.

“To make a joke about something like this is not a good thing to do. Not only is it unprofessional and unethical, it’s quite dangerous these days,” Kruse told the media of the incident and added that he understood the reasoning for the alarm.

In a statement, Carnival Cruise’s expressed the need to follow up with every threat and offered Dr. Kruse the option of flying to the ship’s next port of call and re-join the voyage at no charge.

As gCaptain reported last week, the cruise industry recently discovered that cruise ships are considered as possible targets for attacks by members of Al Quaeda after secret documents were discovered and decoded.

The twitter account that sent the tweet has since been disabled.

In celebration of the world’s seafarers, the International Maritime Organization is urging the public to turn to their facebook and twitter accounts to help spread the word of this years inaugural “Day of the Seafarer”.  From the IMO website:

People everywhere are being urged to voice their support for seafarers by using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, by posting videos on YouTube, discussing seafarer issues on LinkedIn, or even writing a blog about life at sea, to mark the first ever international Day of the Seafarer, on 25 June, 2011.

Last year, the Diplomatic Conference which met in Manila to adopt milestone revisions to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) and its associated Code, also agreed that the unique contribution made by seafarers from all over the world to international seaborne trade, the world economy and civil society as a whole, should be marked annually with a ‘Day of the Seafarer’.

We have already seen how the Red Cross and United States Coast Guard has successfully implemented Twitter in their effort to dissimenate information and update participants during times of emergency. Has the US Navy joined the social media revolution to help combat piracy in Somali waters?  Well in it’s own way (of course). Bloomberg Tells us:

In the command room of the Psara, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek officers watched a computer screen updating the positions of 17 warships. Another computer showed the location of 300 merchant ships, potential prey spread over 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers).

The tracking is done with a mix of Global Positioning System navigation and Centrix, a military-communication system developed by NATO, as well as a Web site specially developed for the mission on which commercial ships enter their positions.

Since late January, Papaioannou also has had a new tool: a third computer in the command room carries an Internet chat channel. On a recent visit, sailors from the Psara, two U.S. warships and the Spanish frigate SPS Victoria were exchanging instant messages in English about their positions and about unconfirmed reports of a fire on board a boat in Somalia’s Mogadishu harbor.

In a corner of the room, which bristled with radar and radio equipment, hung a Jolly Roger flag. Black-and-white photos of suspected pirate ships were tacked to the wall.

The EU formed the Atalanta mission after Somali pirates in September seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and, in November, a Saudi tanker carrying fuel. Task Force 151 will grow to six this month with the arrival of frigates from Singapore and Turkey.

The coordination paid off on March 3, when the freighter MV Courier, operated by German shipping company Gebrueder Winter, sent a distress signal at 10:12 a.m. local time as it came under grenade fire from a skiff. Read More…

While the implementation of Automated Identification System (AIS) has been revolutionary in its ability to track and communicate with ships, AIS gives us only a small peak into the capabilities Information Technology has to change the way we operate ships. By integrating real time chat, the multinational forces in the area suddenly are able to coordinate their efforts, a powerful tool previously not available to them. Here’s an example of the problems they faced:

“When I arrived here in December we exchanged a daily intention message with the Americans, but that was about it,” said Papaioannou, 51. “Then one day we had two helicopters patrolling the same area, which is a waste. I sent three of my officers to the U.S. command ship and we worked it out.”

Now the revolution behind twitter is it’s ability to combine the real time, short message, capabilities of chat with communities of members that share common interests. Twitter is also set up like a blog recording historical data that is search able by both Google and its own internal engine. We do not know specific of the Navy’s system but, if twitter were used in the Gulf Of Aden, daily information reports, problems and intelligence could be pushed out to vessels and military assets in real time.  By recording the information and allowing it to be searched (by authorized users!) you bring new functionality to the war on pirates including:

1) Trend Analysis – Mapping problem areas, times of day, ship characteristics, etc… trends will emerge that will enable the forces to become better prepared

2) Historic Data – Each time a ship returns to the area you have historic data on their last transit. Valubale information in predicting strenghts and weaknesses.

3) Evidence – The primary reason hijackings occur in Somalia is lack of accountability. The pirates know the chances of getting caught and serving jail time are low. Plans are underway to convict pirates in a court of law and for that to happen evidence is required. A twitter like program would allow ships, navy assets and private security firms to photograph, upload and archive photos and other evidence of the pirates. Tying this system into aerial feeds from UAV’s, ground intelligence and emerging systems would give you a robust data platform.

With both Twitter and the Navy’s pirate chat software getting high marks from users the question remains… how can these systems be integrated into maritime safety initiatives? One idea is to have a twitter like system for each port which gives pilots, VTS, ship agents and vessels access to live data and the opportunity to discuss issues of concerns in real time. Would the Cosco Busan have gotten underway if the pilots were all chatting with VTS and NOAA about the fog conditions or would a mutual consensus have changed the mind of her captain and Pilot?

What are your thoughts? Is a maritime version of twitter realistic or is there a better platform for opening dialogue between individual ship captain and port athourities? What are road blocks for wide scale implementation?

-John ( twitter.com/gCaptain )

This badge shows the latest Twitter‘s from all know United States Coast Guard personnel and bloggers, enjoy! The list was taken from our last blog post: The USCG Joins Twitter

Today we noticed a new follower on our Twitter page: uscoastguard

Ok, so many of our readers are asking; What’s Twitter and why doesn’t gCaptain mention it more often? The answer to both questions is; Twitter is the most complicated and simplest to use messaging tool on the net.

What?

gCaptain has been a member of Twitter since May of 2007 and we even promoted it’s use as an emergency beacon back in January (note: can find out profile page HERE ) but this simple to use site is difficult to wrap your head around so we have not been good at marketing (or even updating) or profile page. This all changed recently after we listened to the advice of maritime tweeter Peter Mello and took the following steps:

• Installed a desktop client (our favorite is TweetDeck).
• Jumped into the conversation.
• Visited search.twitter.com and entered a few maritime phrases.
• Friended other maritme tweeters (more info below)
• Viewed the following video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Now updates about my life may not be of great interest to you so we set up two profiles. JohnKonrad is my personal twitter profile and gCaptain is the profile for all things maritime. On our gCaptain account we keep the information related to the maritime world providing breaking news and information that relates to shipping.

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Twitter Is Old News – Enter Friendfeed

Twitter has a number of problems. First it suffers from frequent outages and second it lacks advanced features. The future is FriendFeed as it aggregates news and information from various sources around the web.

The best way to understand FreindFeed is to dive right in, browse around and join a few rooms. Here are the important links:

Maritime Rooms

• Maritime News (great news service!)
  
• Coast Guard
• Offshore Oil
• PirateShips
• Maritime Academy News
• Maritime Jobs

An our two newest rooms, USCG-Links & Maritime Video. Be sure to Join the room to post interesting links from around the web.

Maritime Interests

• gCaptain

So who should I follow?

gCaptain has put together a list of maritime related people we follow on twitter to get you started (full list can be found HERE). Please feel free to add yourself or recommend someone by leaving a comment to this post below.

Image by mfilej

Maritime Twitters:

• gCaptain

• Pinoy_Maritime
• MariTalk
• Marine Buzz
• seafever

Mariners That Tweet:

• John Konrad
• cconover

Maritime Industry Twitters:

• Peter Mello
• Richard Rodriguez
• MaritimeJobs
• goldenshellback
• OilRig
  

Coast Guard & US Government Tweets:

• USCoastGuard
• Amver
• uscgd13

• 	GovTwit You are now following GovTwit remove
  	USCGNewEngland

• uscgd5pao
• USCG
• TSABlogTeam
• NOAAOceanToday
• DHSJournal
• femainfocus
• HomelandSecurit
• cgchealy
• BarackObama

Cost Guards Unofficial:

• CoastieChris
• Ryan_F_Owens
• CoastGuardNews
• FakeThadAllen
• USCGCOMRELTony
• rlabrec
• pastinson
• CGBlog
• medicjm

Boaters We Follow

• theboaters
• madmariner
• BenEllison
• TimFlan

twitter Experts (who happen to be mariners)

• ChrisCree

Groups

• Maritime Group

Download MP3 file: Messing About In Ships 16

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Sea Stories

John – Queen of the North TSB safety board

Peter – London Bridge Twitter

• Twitter
• Peter’s Twitter Page
• John’s Twitter Page
  
• Sailing Twitter Pack

How the Red Cross uses Twitter during disasters (Hint: So can YOU).

Internet Ports of Call

John – Lloyds List blog.

Peter – Daily Source Code.

Send Comments

1. show blog – messingaboutinships.com
2. email – podcast@messingaboutinships.com
3. gcaptain.com (Blog, Maritime News Discoverer, Mariner Forums & Nautical Webtools)
4. sea-fever.org
5. skype: maispodcast
6. (206) 973-7000

If we only had one technology related wish for 2008 it would be that every mariner watched this video. Reminder: This is important people!

FROM WIRED:

While micro-messaging service Twitter may be one of the best tools for citizen reporting in emergencies such as the Southern California wildfires, the service’s real usefulness is its ability to get messages to users’ friends and family and provide evacuation updates — even when cell networks are overloaded, according to homeland security consultant W. David Stephenson.

As important as the updates you wrote about, they’re nowhere near as important as using Twitter to let your family know you’re ok (instead of cell calls, which every time they’re used in disasters end up crashing the network — and don’t get through, either): because they’re packet based, they’re cued up until they can route around obstacles or gaps in the network, and the 140-character limit means they take up a tiny amount of bandwidth, leaving it for those who need it most.

Even cooler, Stephenson tells THREAT LEVEL, are the Red Cross’s Twitter channels.

* The redcross channel lets them push information during a mass evacuation. Since cellphone customers can sign up for Twitter ‘on the fly,’ they will encourage evacuees to text ‘FOLLOW REDCROSS’ to 40404, and sign up for updates. The messages will include information about where the shelters are, distribution sites, and other contact info.

* The safeandwell channel is used more for inbound communication. Those who text ‘FOLLOW SAFEANDWELL’ to 40404 will automatically be followed back. That means they can send their private information as a Direct Message to the American Red Cross. (’D SAFEANDWELL Larry Melman, 205-xxx-xxxx, 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Bay Minette, is safe in a shelter.’) That maintains the privacy of the individual, and also serves to funnel the information to a centralized database.

Stephenson shows how to use Twitter in emergencies in this episode of his video series 21st Century Disaster Tips You Won’t Hear From Officials:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to Jesse Robbins for the find.

gCaptain’s Twitter Page