The only thing that should be surprising is that anyone should be surprised. The last thing a shipper should do is release a hazardous cargo to a third party shipper with no questions both asked and properly confirmed and audited before and after. And if that shipper fails to make an insurance claim, then who is going to investigate?
The truth is that hazardous waste is best stored in the bottom of the sea, so in the end little harm is usually done. In fact most indirect nuclear waste is likely best dumped to start with. That is not true for actual fuels, but those are also subject to profitable reprocessing.
At the moment it is unregulated and regulation as exists on land has created the need for pirate disposal. Thus we have pirates.
I personally have a lot of respect for the sea’s ability to reduce whatever man chooses to throw into the drink. Of course, I would also like to have a book of scientific work describing what we know so that the dumping can be signed off on in good faith.
Poisoned Shipments: Are Strange, Illicit Sinkings Making the Mediterranean Toxic?
Accusations fly over criminal dumping and scuttling of cargo ships carrying industrial and radioactive waste
BEACHED; The cargo ship Rosso, which ran aground near Amantea , Italy
COURTESY OF LEGAMBIENTE
COURTESY OF LEGAMBIENTE
In October 2009 the government of Italy announced that a wreck discovered off the southwestern tip of the country is theCatania, a passenger vessel sunk during World War I—and not the Cunski, a cargo ship loaded with radioactive waste, as alleged by district authorities from nearby Calabria. Few locals are reassured, says Michael Leonardi of the University of Calabria Mediterranean Sea . Such a startling allegation, if true, would not only damage the tourism and fishing industries along this idyllic coast but also compromise the health of Mediterranean residents.
Processing and safely storing waste from the chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars per ton—which makes illegal disposal highly profitable. According to the Italian environmental organization Legambiente, some waste shippers that have operational bases in southern Italy have been using the Mediterranean as a dump. While acknowledging that “no wreck has yet been found that contains toxic or radioactive waste,” physicist Massimo Scalia of the University of Rome
Scalia contends that 39 ships were wrecked under questionable circumstances between 1979 and 1995 alone; in every case, he adds, the crew abandoned the ship long before it sank. An average of two ships per year suspiciously disappeared in the Mediterranean during the 1980s and early 1990s, according to Legambiente—and the number has increased to nine wrecks per year since 1995. Paolo Gerbaudo of the Italian daily il Manifesto, who is assisting investigations, has identified 74 suspect wrecks of which he regards 20 as being extremely suspicious. (The record extends until 2001.)
One notable example of a dubious wrecking is the Jolly Rosso, which washed up in December 1990 near the town of Amantea
Significantly, the increase in the frequency of wrecking correlates with the progressive tightening of international dumping regulations. The first suspect sinking, in 1979, occurred the year after the Barcelona Convention, which restricts the disposal of pollutants in the Mediterranean Sea , came into force. Over the following decades other treaties expanded the regulations, culminating in a 1993 amendment to the London Dumping Convention that halted the ocean disposal of all radioactive waste and in a 1995 amendment to the Basel Convention that banned the deposition of the industrial world’s lethal excreta in developing countries. The laws ruined the ambitious plans of one firm, Oceanic Disposal Management, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, to drop tens of thousands of cubic meters of radioactive waste into the seabed off the African coast. Andreas Bernstorff, who formerly headed a Greenpeace campaign against the trade in toxic waste, reports that the number of schemes to ship such garbage to Africa fell steeply at this time, to at most one attempt per year. The drop coincides with a sudden and ominous rise in the frequency with which ships in the Mediterranean perished.
The people at General Motors are getting more good news each day. After the media fiasco involving Toyota’s recall, which puts GM in a much better light, the World Car Awards announced that Chevrolet Cruze is a finalist for the World Car of the Year Award, and the Camaro is a finalist for the World Car Design of the Year award.
On July 23rd 1949 the first Bentley Drivers Club (BDC) race meeting was held at the Silverstone circuit in UK. The tradition has been maintained for 60 years now, and 2010 will be the 61th, as the BDC annual race meeting will be held on August 7, at Silverstone.
The Prince of Wales has had the aluminum pistons from his Aston Martin DB6 Volante melted down and turned into cufflinks… for charity. And since some of you may wonder how did his Royal Highness had the heart to rip the car apart for a pair of cufflinks, we’ll tell you the six original pistons became available after the Prince converted the car to run on biofuel.
On January 26, Japanese carmaker Toyota hinted to its sales target for 2010: 7.4 million units to be sold in the new year, a 6 percent increase compared to the better than expected 2009. The forecast now seems very unrealistic… After recalling eight models and million vehicles in the US and Europe over safety concerns, the Japanese carmaker is getting ready to feel the revenge of the consumer and expects a sharp drop in sales for January at least. 
Safety recalls are sure driving us nuts these days, especially after Toyota confirmed that millions of cars all over the globe are affected by that serious throttle pedal glitch that could kill us in a few seconds. However, this time we’re going to talk about Honda, the Japanese carmaker who’s also stepping in the recall circus with the "help" of its second generation City.
As Toyota is struggling to get out of the mess they’re in, there is finally some good news. According to Reuters, Toyota Motor Corp said it will restart production of the eight models involved in the safety recall on February 8.
The rumors have been flying over what’s going on over at Facebook headquarters. The word has been that a PHP team was brought in and made to sign non-disclosure agreements, before discussing a PHP project that has been in development for the past two years. 
