Through a long and tortuous chain of links and lookups1, I came upon an interesting wikipedia entry: Flag of Convenience.
Did you know that you can register a ship (an ocean-going SHIP!) in Mongolia! You can have a ship sailing around the world, carrying cargo, with a large name on the back (say) Poseidon, out of Ulan Bator. That’s crazy.
At least if you’re registered in Bolivia (which is also landlocked last time I checked), you’re only 100 miles from the ocean. Mongolia’s nearest large body of water is Lake Baikal.
The weird stuff you learn every day really blows my noggin.
1 I’ll be posting a topic which will lend some clues as to this long and tortuous chain at a later date.
What I was amazed to learn, about a year ago, is that the U.S. naval jack is no longer the 50-white-stars-on-a-blue-field; it’s now this:
Son of a gun.
It’s now available here: http://www.flags.net/images/largeflags/UNST0008.GIF
Cool!
Or not. Personally, I think it’s a bit over the top, but then I also don’t think anyone who gets close enough to a Navy ship to see the jack is really caring one way or another. I thought the 50 white stars on a blue square was tastefully understated.
Here’s a news report about it.