Long live the King

Hundreds of people dressed in traditional costume flocked the courtyard of Klungkung palace as the court’s high priest Ida Pedanda Gede Putra Tembau of Aan crowned Tjokorda Gde Agung Semaraputra as the new King of Klungkung.

The elderly priest also bestowed a new name on the king: Ida Dalem Semaraputra.

Kings, princes and princesses from all over Bali and across the country, including members of the Nusantara Keraton Friendship Forum (FSKN), an umbrella organization cum lobby group for the country’s royalty, attended the coronation ceremony, which involved elaborate Balinese Hindu rituals and majestic sacred dances.

A new face: The new King of Klungkung Ida Dalem Semaraputra sits in his palace

In feudal Bali, kings always treated the kings of Klungkung with deference and respect.

Klungkung’s military power was perhaps not as terrifying as that wielded by Mengwi or Karangasem. Its diplomatic cunningness and political calculation might not have been as sharp as that repeatedly demonstrated by the kings of the Manggis dynasty in neighboring Gianyar.

Yet the kings of Bali never failed to treat the kings of Klungkung as equals, and always sought their wisdom and advice when other kings were locked in disputes.

The prince of Karangasem and his suicidal warriors were the actual forces that conquered the neighboring island of Lombok. But the victory was humbly dedicated to the King of Klungkung, the sovereign of Bali and Lombok. And there was nothing that could unite the fragmented royalties of ancient Bali better than a legion of rebellious warriors advancing toward the Klungkung palace.

Devoted people: Followers carry the new king of Klungkung Ida Dalem Semaraputra on a wooden sedan.

The brutal, yet tragic rebellion of Pande Bhasa and the victorious, albeit temporary, uprising of Gusti Agung Maruti, are a testament to this unity. Kings from various kingdoms in the island sent their fiercest warriors to defend the honor of the Klungkung’s crown.

This deferential attitude and loyalty toward Klungkung might have something to do with members of the Klungkung royalty being direct descendants from the Javanese ruler installed as the island’s king by the Majapahit empire’s legendary prime minister Gajah Mada, following his military conquest of the island in 14th century.

Members of this house, thus, directly related to Majapahit and its members, are perceived as the purest blood of the island’s royalty. Only the Kings of Klungkung can use the title “Dalem” while the others must be satisfied with “Tjokorda” or “Anak Agung”.

Young scholar Sugi Lanus said the coronation of the new “Dalem” reflected the strengthening of ethnic identitity, a phenomenon more evident in the last decade.

“We are seeing a growing tendency to reinforce traditional values, local wisdom, and cultural heritage to preserve or strengthen ethnic identity in its relation to the national identity or even the global identity,” he said.

“I called this phenomenon ‘reclaiming regalia’, an effort to reclaim past glory and at the same time a symbolic mutiny from the republic. When the number of kings keeps increasing across the archipelago, it must say something about the state of our integration as a nation and a unitary republic,” he stressed.

A touch of divinity: High priest Ida Pedanda Gede Putra Tembau of Aan places consecrated rice on the forehead of the king during the coronation ritual.

After the establishment of the republic in 1945, most royal houses in Bali decided not to crown any kings to lead the houses. The decision was partly political — to keep up with the modern and egalitarian spirit of the new state, and partly financial — it was difficult to maintain a lavish lifestyle, a personal harem and an oversized entourage when the support from colonial government ceased to exist, and political activists screamed for land reform.

Ida I Dewa Agung Gede Oka Geg, who was crowned in July 1929 by the Dutch and officially titled Zelfbesturder Landschap Van Klungkung, was the last colonial-era king of Klungkung.

Thing started to change in the last 10 years. Politician Anak Agung Ngurah Manik Pemecutan was crowned as the King of Pemecutan, one of three royal houses — Pemecutan, Denpasar and Kesiman — in Denpasar. In 2005, Tjokorda Ngurah Mayun Samirana was installed as the King of Denpasar. And in 2008, IGN Rupawan was crowned as the King of Tabanan.

The most surprising coronation took place in early 2010 when a former model and boy band singer turned politician and religious activist Arya Wekarna was crowned by one of his fans — a self-proclaimed mystic — as the King of Majapahit in Bali.

“It was ludicrous, a man crowned as a king, with no territory, no subjects and no history, a kingdom-less king indeed. The only thing he has is audacity beyond common courtesy,” social columnist Aridus commented.

Noted thinker and writer Aryantha Soetama offered a lighter take on the singer’s coronation.

Long live the King - “They don’t have anything better to do so one day they decided ‘well, I am going to be a king’. After all, you don’t need a license to be a king, there are no legal requirements whatsoever a person must fill to be a king. They can’t run a party because of the costs involved, they can’t be politicians because of the many legal requirements standing in their way. So, they simply become kings because it’s easy.”

King-ship in modern Bali, according to Aryantha, is about looking great without the greatness itself.

With this in mind, there is a huge probability that more and more kings will be crowned in the future.

Soon Bali will also be known as the Island of a Thousand Kings and Zero Kingdom. ( thejakartapost.com )

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Air travelers embrace stricter 'no-fly' rules

Air travelers embrace stricter 'no-fly' rules - New program aims to keep suspected terrorists off planes — Airline passengers in New York welcomed stricter safety rules that went into effect Monday, especially in light of last week's interception of U.S.-bound parcel bombs sent from Yemen .

The rules, originally prompted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks but delayed by privacy concerns, require airlines to collect a passenger's full name, date of birth and gender on all flights to and from U.S. airports.

The program is aimed at ensuring that passengers on the "no fly" list are kept off planes — and that innocents are not wrongly barred from flying. It is meant to prevent airlines from issuing a boarding pass if the information is incomplete.

Passengers interviewed at New York's John F. Kennedy airport overwhelmingly supported the rules, which major airlines had largely been implementing anyway before their formal introduction.

"What happened last week shows that terrorists would still like to attack an airplane. It's scary, so whatever precautions they feel like taking, I'm OK with," said Lawrence Varner, 75, a retiree who had just arrived from Tennessee.

One package was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, north of London, on Friday. The other bomb was discovered in a computer printer cartridge in a parcel at a FedEx facility in Dubai.

"I don't think people should complain, especially given the fact that there have been recent plots against airplanes in the news, like that one last week," said Daniel Metz, 37, a bar owner.

"These things are probably necessary. Terrorists are still trying to attack, and that needs to be made difficult for them," added Rosie Duarte, 28, who is unemployed.

The new rules, called Secure Flight, were established as part of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was coincidental that they came into effect days after last week's incidents.

"I'm not worried about the no-fly list or having to provide information. It's the ones that they don't know about, at all, that concern me. None of the 9/11 hijackers were on a no-fly list," said Bryan Pettit, 30, a teacher.

Trade groups representing major airlines say carriers already comply with Secure Flight rules and expect no disruption for travelers.

Far less popular were "body scanners," the advanced imaging technology in use at 65 airports in the United States. Passengers who fear an invasion of privacy can opt for a pat-down search instead .

"I'm not comfortable with either the pat down or the scan," said James Carol, 29, a lawyer from San Francisco. "They're only giving us two bad options and finding out which we dislike less." ( Reuters )

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How the World's Largest Cruise Ship Floats

How the World's Largest Cruise Ship Floats. The world's largest cruise ship is making its first transatlantic crossing from Finland to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where it will make its U.S. debut. Though colossal, the ship relies on the same physical principles as its smaller brethren to stay afloat.

The massive ship, called the Oasis of the Seas and built by STX Finland for Royal Caribbean International, stands 20 stories high, is as long as four football fields, and can accommodate 5,400 guests at double occupancy.

The Oasis of the Seas includes more than 2,700 rooms and various neighborhoods, including one themed after Central Park and a royal promenade. Credit: Oasis of the Seas.

The world's largest cruise ship departed from Turku, Finland, on Oct. 30 en route to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where it will make its U.S. debut. Credit: Oasis of the Seas.

On Oct. 31, the Oasis of the Seas retracted its smokestacks to pass under the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark. Credit: Oasis of the Seas.

The two typical measures of size are length and weight, which is measured as displacement, or the weight of water the ship must displace to stay afloat. "She is 1,180 feet long and displaces 100,000 tons," said Paul Miller of the Department of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, referring to the Oasis of the Seas.

For comparison, the RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, was 883 feet long (269 meters) and weighed about 58,000 tons.

In terms of space available, the Oasis is nearly five times larger than the Titanic. Specifically, the Oasis can hold 225,282 gross registered tons, while the Titanic could hold 46,329 grt.

This measurement was derived long ago to describe a ship's space for a common cargo — wine. Since wine was shipped in "tuns" that each held 8 barrels or about 242 gallons, a ship that could carry 8,000 wine barrels was considered a 1,000-tun ship. "Tun" evolved into "ton" and then into "gross registered ton."

The Oasis is 50 percent larger than the runner-up, which is a group of Freedom-class ships (such as Freedom of the Seas), according to Royal Caribbean International.

Staying above water

How does such a huge ship float?

"It's just like any other ship. It has to displace an equal amount of water to how much it weighs," said Matthew Collette, assistant professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan. If it didn't, the ship would sink.

To displace this amount of water, and keep the ship stable without having a massive draft beneath the water, the designers created a wide hull.

"To keep it stable they had to make the ship very wide. It's 66 meters (217 feet) wide," Collette said. That means the Oasis can't fit through the Panama Canal, which is just 105 feet (32 meters).

About 30 feet (9 meters) of the ship sits beneath the water, which is a small percentage of the ship's overall height.

Dealing with the elements

The idea of a cruise generally means sunny skies, and such ships will change their ports of call to avoid large storms or hurricanes, Collette said. That's not to say rough seas are out of the question.

"It's hard to know for sure how this ship would ride without knowing the details of its design, but wide, shallow ships such as this tend to be 'snappy' in that they have so much stability they tend to snap back upright after a wave has passed, which can be uncomfortable to be on," Collette said. "The sheer size of this ship will also help it, as larger ships tend to be better rides in rough weather."

Another issue is the superstructure, or the part of the ship that extends above the main deck.

"We have learned how to design and build large ships successfully," said Miller, the engineer with the U.S. Naval Academy. "What is a bit challenging about this ship is the amount of superstructure. That can cause windage problems in hurricanes, but the basic idea of cruise ships is to run away from them."

While this ship will likely stay in warm tropical waters, what if it did stray and come upon a titanic iceberg? "The ship is bigger and generally able to take more damage than a smaller ship," Collette said. "However, as the ship is bigger, it has more kinetic energy to dissipate if it was involved in a collision, which may mean it would also suffer more damage."

And no matter the size of a water craft, rogue waves are always a concern. Rogue waves are rare but towering problems that can soar 100 feet and are known to sink large cargo ships. Scientists have only recently begun to figure out what's behind the once-mythical waves. A study in 2008 suggested that in rare circumstances, waves that would normally cancel each other out can combine to form tall monsters in quick fashion.

The Oasis is no low-riding cargo ship, however.

"If it was struck by one I would expect there to be some local damage at the point of impact — maybe some broken portholes or bent railings, but little else," Collette said. "All ships are designed to make the chance of large-scale structural collapse very remote."

Cozy quarters

And while the ship's behemoth size is garnering plenty of attention, the goal of such a cruise ship is to make it feel small. To do this, the Oasis is divided up into various themed neighborhoods, including parks, such as one themed after Central Park, boardwalks and a sports zone.

"It's an attempt to try to make it feel smaller, because you don't want the passengers to feel like they're just a commodity," Collette told LiveScience.

When you look under the hood, however, the giant cruise ship is pretty basic. "Most of the innovation of the ship is the size and the passenger amenities," Collette said. "In terms of the propelling machinery, the design of the ship, it's all very similar to the cruise ships that have come before. There's not a lot of new ground here."

Such a leviathan presents other issues, including figuring out an evacuation plan for so many passengers and being able to fit into ports.

Should we expect an even larger ship any time soon?

"Whether this ship is the limit I don't know," Collette said. "Because the economy has kind of turned south since they signed the contract for this ship, I don't think anyone is going to challenge it for the record in the next three to four years." ( livescience.com )

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Surf's up! Hawaiian sea turtles take to the waves

Surf's up! Hawaiian sea turtles take to the waves. He has eaten a big lunch and had a snooze on the beach. So this turtle is looking for a nice quiet journey home.

Rather than be crashed about on the breakers as he makes his way back out to sea, he ducks down to the sand for a smoother ride.

The Hawaiian green sea turtle makes the same journey every day to and from the Laniakea Beach in Hawaii, where he munches on seaweed and takes his rest.

Here comes the wave: A giant Hawaiian sea turtle prepares to ride the surf

He and his friends have been caught on camera by surf photographer Clark Little.

Mr Little, 40, took the pictures this summer while shooting waves from below sea-level.

He said: 'The turtles often travel through the breaking waves. I usually run into them after they have been eating. What they try and do is swim under the wave, to avoid a thrashing.

Splash down: The creatures barrel through the surf in their quest to reach the shore

'The turtles come to the shore to get the seaweed that grows there. They also swim in to sleep.'

The creatures are so used to the routine, it is easy to imagine them enjoying the same laid-back surfer’s lifestyle as the turtles in Finding Nemo.

Sea faring: The Hawaiian sea turtles are reminiscent of the band of surfing turtles in 2003's Finding Nemo

Clark, who specialises in capturing images of the inside of breaking waves, has released the shots as part of a new book.

The father-of-two gets his shots of the turtles by swimming in seas and crouching down with his waterproof camera to capture rarely seen views.

Clark, from Oahu, Hawaii, says he often risks his life to capture the photographs.

He said: 'I love the ocean - I am addicted to the waves. I'm always in the water before dawn to try and snap that perfect picture as the sun rises.' ( dailymail.co.uk )

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