Cloning News

For the Ridley Scott movie, Robin Hood, which opened at the Cannes Film Festival, the Dover beaches were recreated at Freshwater West, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The last 15 minutes of the film is set on the beach with 130 horses doing a full speed gallop charge into 600 actors. Maritime Services International (MSI) was called in to source a suitable vessel that could be converted into a 12th century landing craft for the French invasion fleet. MSI found an old LASH barge in Castleford that seemed to suit the brief.

Machinery plant maintenance represents a major expense for ship operators. In addition to normal maintenance expenditures, unexpected breakdowns have a significant cost impact. Recognizing the importance of preventing equipment failures, companies continue to adopt automation for machinery monitoring at a rapid pace. Continual improvements in the price/performance ratio of automation systems have also fueled their increased use in shipboard machinery plant monitoring. As a result, more ships with automated machinery plants exist today than ever before. However, just as a typical Internet search can easily create "information overload", so too can process automation create a "data overload" situation for the engineering crews responsible for equipment operation and maintenance.