- Spain’s royal family is embroiled in controversy, but
maybe a little found gold from centuries gone by could buy some favor with the
masses? Getting their hands on that gold will be difficult, but if they play
their cards right, the wealth of treasures found in a 1622 shipwreck whose treasures were originally
intended to shore up the finances of the struggling Spanish Empire could be
theirs. Ironically enough, that empire was weakened by economic calamity at
home and staggering under the debt from years of war in the Middle East and
present-day Spain in hurting financially as well. The shipwrecked vessel is the
galleon Buen Jesus y Nuestra Senora del Rosario, one of 28 ships in the Tierra
Firme fleet that was sailing from the New World back to Spain, laden with
colonial treasures. Eight of the ships were sunk by a powerful hurricane off
the Florida Keys, killing 500 people and delivering a kill shot that
essentially closed down the Golden Age of Spain. The shipwreck "is the
most important Spanish galleon to be found because of what its loss
meant," explained Sean Kingsley, a marine archaeologist who has been
studying the wreck. "Its loss broke the Bank of Madrid at a time when
there was 300 percent inflation in Spain, and it was in serious debt for its
endless wars," Kingsley said. "Spain never recovered." For now,
the ship's bounty is now on display at the Tampa, Fla., headquarters of Odyssey
Marine Exploration after the group’s explorers recovered the treasure. The
impressive collection includes more than 6,000 pearls, silver coins bearing
Spain's imperial stamp, bars of almost-pure gold and long strands of glittering
gold necklaces. There were also parrot feathers and ceramic jars filled with
olives among the wreckage, which was first discovered in 1965 when shrimp
fishermen pulled up pottery and other artifacts in their deepwater nets.
However, the wreck remained buried at 1,300 feet below the surface for nearly
five decades until a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, allowed archaeologists
to begin the slow recovery process from aboard the research vessel Seahawk. Now
about returning that gold to the hurting economy of present-day Spain……
- Communist powers unite! China and Russia are planning
to unite and use their collective Communist powers to establish a cross-border
Amur leopard reserve this year. China’s Jilin Province Forestry Department
announced plans for the reserved over the weekend and is engaged in discussions
with the Land of Leopard National Park in Primorsky Territory of Russia on a
cooperative agreement to protect the big cat.
"If everything goes
smoothly, we suggest signing an agreement with the park in June," explained
Jiang Jinsong, a provincial forestry department official.
"We hope to
promote the cooperation as soon as possible," added Alyona Salmanova, head
of the science department at Land of Leopard National Park. As all nature
lovers know, the Amur leopard lives in the border area of China, Russia and the
Korean Peninsula and it is a subspecies of the Panthera genus. The World Wide Fund
for Nature claims that the Amur leopard population has dwindled to around 50,
qualifying the car as one of the world's most endangered species.
Russian
authorities claim that Land of Leopard National Park was set up early in 2012
at the order of Russian despot and avid lover of nature-related PR stunts
Vladimir Putin. Russia’s leopard park borders Hunchun in Jilin province and
lies along one of the migration routes for Siberian tigers and Amur leopards.
Both China and Russia have been focused on finding ways to protect the wild
cats in recent years, with a present focus on joint monitoring, information
sharing and personnel exchanges between Russia's Primorsky Territory and
China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.
The WWF – no, not THAT WWF, which is
now WWE – says it fully supports the cross-border Amur leopard reserve and
hopes the new agreement will help these beasts rebuild their population……..
- There hasn’t been enough drama around the New York Jets
this offseason and someone needs to fix that. Enter embattled cornerback
Darrelle Revis, who has been on the trading block all offseason while he
continues to rehab his surgically
repaired knee following a complete tear of his ACL last season. While the team
shops him and can't find a suitor, the Jets are adamant that Revis show up for
their offseason conditioning program, which begins April 15. The Jets still
would like to trade him before or during the April 25 draft, but until he no
longer wears green and white, the team plans to enforce language in his contract
that requires him to participate in the voluntary workouts to collect bonus
money. That could be a point of contention with Revis, who has been rehabbing
with his personal trainer in Arizona and would prefer to stay there to keep his
rehab on track while also avoiding the certain awkwardness if he showed up to
the workouts. At stake in this game of workout chicken is $3 million in bonus
money, part of the deal Revis received when he renegotiated his contract in
2010 following his second holdout in three years. A clause in that deal requires
his attendance in all offseason activities -- even non-mandatory workouts. He
must attend approximately 80 percent of the workouts or else forfeit $1 million
workout bonus, a $1 million roster bonus (triggered March 17, but payable at a
later date) and a $1 million reporting bonus at the start of training camp. The
three bonuses are linked together, so attendance is suddenly an important topic
for Revis. The clause is part of the Jets’ sly plan to keep him on his best
behavior through the end of his deal. General manager John Idzik has been
adamant that the team’s primary concern is Revis' health, which is partially
true because he’s a lot more desirable in a trade if he’s the All-Pro, shutdown
corner who earned the nickname Revis Island and not the dude who underwent ACL
surgery last October. "I think as we get into the offseason program --
it's all voluntary -- but you would hope that most of your players want to be
there and be in the building and get the juices flowing with our staff and
everybody that we have," Idzik said of Revis’ fate in late February………
- If only Kathy Griffin's response to her talk show being
canceled was as colorful as the comedienne’s language tends to be in most other
settings. The show, “Kathy,” debuted on Bravo last year and has battled its way
through two seasons. There will not be a third. Bravo announced the cancellation
and Griffin referenced the decision over the weekend during her stand-up act at
Cincinnati's Taft Theatre. She informed the clearly biased crowd of the news
and many booed, prompting a tongue-in-cheek joke from Griffin "predicting the demise of Bravo.”
She added that she had been informed the day before that her show would not be
back for a third season and after her performance in Cincinnati, she responded
to a tweet about the cancellation, writing, "Sad but tru." Her TV
show debuted in April 2012, airing at 10 p.m. on Thursdays to relatively decent
reviews. However, when the second season premiered Jan. 10, its ratings dipped
and it was relegated to the later time slot of 11:30 p.m. starting Feb. 28. Its
24-episode run concluded with the final episode of Season 2 on March 28 and
across its two seasons, “Kathy” averaged 500,000 total viewers. Those aren't
the sorts of numbers that inspire even a basic cable network to bring a show
back and the cancellation represents the second time Bravo has bade farewell to
one of Griffin’s shows. She previously starred in the network’s reality show “My Life on the D-List” for six
seasons and will continue to be a part of what Bravo has going on through her
comedy specials, which will include a new special to be taped next weekend and
air this summer. She also reportedly shot a pilot for CNN alongside her New
Year's Eve co-host Anderson Cooper last
month……..
- Since when is paying for a project costing tens of millions
of dollars important? And so what if that project is being built to care for
veterans, the men and women who have given so much to their country and deserve
its full support? In Aurora, Colo., paying for a new Veterans Administration Hospital simply
does not rate as a top priority even though the facility is beginning to take
shape. Some of the subcontractors working on that project have raised a red
flag in the early going, claiming they have yet to be paid for their efforts.
By yet to be paid, take that to mean their allegedly unpaid bill now rests
around the $41 million mark. “Companies are on the brink of going bankrupt if
they already haven’t. Jobs are being lost and the stress on families is
unimaginable,” said Small Business Administration spokesman Greg Lopez. Rather
than pay the bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs and its prime contractor,
Kiewit Turner, are trying to divert attention from their welching ways by
accusing one another of being responsible for the delays. Whomever is on the
hook for the $41 million is stiffing more than 30 subcontractors, some of them
veteran-owned companies. “A lot of them have been waiting over a year to get
paid,” Lopez added. The SBA has been in the middle of the mess for the past two
months, trying to negotiate an agreement. Colorado’s entire Congressional
delegation has also weighed in, sending a letter to the VA last month demanding
to know its plan to “remedy nonpayment issues.” The VA’s response was to
explain that Kiewit is responsible for paying its subcontractors. Kiewit’s
stance is that the VA must work through a backlog of paperwork before payments
can be made. As part of the negotiation process, Kiewit included a clause
prohibiting all involved parties from speaking on camera about the situation……
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