MetaFilter posts tagged with shipping

The Sailor Man In New York by Steven Thrasher

jason's_planet — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:21:16 -0800

Long before Chelsea Piers was a sporting complex and the South Street Seaport a mall, the city was lined with active piers. The city's residents were amply employed by the shipping trade, but containerization needed more land than would ever be available in the city: Massive ports sprouted in Elizabeth and Newark, and ships disappeared from the city. Efficient cranes replaced longshoremen, and the time in port for ships shrank from about a week to about a day. "The technology changed the geography," says William Fensterer, a chaplain who has been with SIH almost since its new building opened in 1964. "It doesn't look like On the Waterfront anymore," he adds. When he started out, he says, he would wander on foot from pier to pier in Manhattan and Brooklyn and board ships, with nary a guard in site. But those piers have largely vanished. And along with them, the seafarer, once ubiquitous in New York, has become invisible.

What can't Brown do for you

reformedjerk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:41:39 -0800

Out in the Sort is a 2005 New Yorker article that provides a look behind the scenes at UPS. From repairing laptops, to warehousing every available Bentley car part, to running its own postsecondary institution, UPS is expanding beyond its traditional role as a shipper of goods.

Watching the ships roll in, 2.0 style

madamjujujive — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:27:50 -0800

MarineTraffic is a live map recording ship traffic based on AIS data. The site mainly covers European and North American coasts and includes info on vessels and ports, plus a gallery with some cool ship photos. Similar: see ShipAIS for live vessel movements from around the UK.

The Ghost Fleet of the Recession

vorfeed — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:29:37 -0800

A gigantic fleet of semi-abandoned cargo and container ships has been photographed east of Singapore. Meanwhile, the ship-breaking yards at Alang are booming, and the shipping industry is looking for ways to weather the storm. As the recession slashes demand, it seems the shipping industry may be heading for dry dock...

Move over Suez Canal, there's a new route in town

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:40:46 -0800

For hundreds of years, mariners have dreamed of an Arctic shortcut that would allow them to speed trade between Asia and the West. Two German ships are poised to complete that transit for the first time, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientists have linked to global warming. Arctic Shortcut Beckons Shippers as Ice Thaws.

Davy Jones Locker

tellurian — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:17:41 -0800

The NAVIS project is a multilevel international database for ancient ships of Europe. The database has very detailed information and pictures of ships from the 2nd millenium BC to the 12th century AD (found whilst trying to answer this AskMe). See also NAVIS 2 (ship depictions on objects).

How many books does it take to save a planet?

Toekneesan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:05:36 -0800

Worried about the environmental impact of your book buying habits? The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina suggests you consider how your books are being shipped.(SLYP)

shipping nerds, rejoice

lalex — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:41:17 -0800

"Now this is cool. Hellenic Shipping has a Google Maps mashup showing interactive, live data on the global shipping fleet." [via]

The latest example of tiny homes for hard times. $8000 US.

shetterly — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:21:36 -0800

Shipping containers could be 'dream' homes for thousands. Yes, the design isn't great. They should have a contest for a version that would keep the cost the same. Esthetics don't have to be expensive.

A New Age of Sail?

[expletive deleted] — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:55:33 -0800

Some time this month, French wine will once again be transported by sail. As the Guardian reports today, French vineyards concerned about climate change are about to make life much easier for oenophiles wishing to reduce their carbon footprint. Later this month, the Belem, a 19th century barque will sail from Languedoc to Dublin with 60,000 bottles of Bordeaux. In other cargo-sail news, DHL and SkySails recently announced the first commercial shipment to use a towing kite to reduce carbon emissions. Pictures of the MS Beluga Skysails underway can be found here. Shipping cargo by sail and SkySails previously on AskMe and on the Blue.

$8.00 for shipping or.... $0.87 for some batteries

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:14:57 -0800

Straight from the Department of Things Everybody But Me Probably Knew About Two Years Ago, it was only yesterday that I discovered the mind-boggling usefulness of the Amazon Filler Item Finder, which allows you to enter the exact price of the item you need to pad your order up to $25.00 for free shipping. Happy postage-free holidays. The categories for the finder are customizable as well, so you can somewhat search only for items that might be practical as filler items. I stumbled across this last night after I was 84 cents short and wondering "god, is there a way to find out what items on Amazon are available for a dollar?" and if I'm the last person on earth to have know this site existed, please at the very least enjoy this rare moment of my amazed joy... like a child seeing snowfall for the first time.

Shipping container architecture

dersins — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 11:54:06 -0800

Shipping container architecture. A comprehensive repository of information, links, photos, and videos of shipping containers used as buildings or parts of buildings. More. Even more.

Come fly a kite!

bonehead — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:23:22 -0800

Sky Sails has a new take on an old idea to save on fuel for marine shipping: kite sails. The twist? No new ships required. Why this is a good idea: marine transport accounts for 4-5% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Putting sails on the existing commercial fleet would shave 1-2% off that. Not much? That's the equivalent of grounding at least half of all of the airplanes in the world.

There are a couple of American companies doing this too: Kite for Sail and KiteShip, but neither seem to be as advanced as the Germans.

I Told You Not To Kill That Albatross!

jonson — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:30:40 -0800

Disaster at Sea!! A collection of dozens & dozens of photographs of misfortune striking those GIGANTIC shipping vessels, the kind that bring goods from China to Wal Mart. Every kind of affliction imaginable, from shipboard fire to heavy weather to grounding amidst crushing waves to capsizing from ill balanced loads to random explosive cargo to terrorist attack to so much more. Descriptions of the vessels and what brought them down are included in the first link.

Live Vessel Movements

mattoxic — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:04:01 -0800

A group of enthusiasts bring you live vessel movements from around the Irish Sea (and further!) derived from AIS data. Click on the map to see the individual ships, their statistics and photos. Nice use of google maps here see who is docked and who is underway

When the original just isn't enough

Xere — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:50:50 -0800

When the usual fanfiction fare just doesn't cut it ... there's shipping and then there's slash, with coined terms such as squick and mpreg. The usual suspects are Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and the Phantom of the Opera - and then there's Kirk/Spock, Hermione/Ginny, Cloud/Sephiroth, and lots more. And it's not limited to recent works - there's also some Jesus/Judas Biblical action going on. (Mostly text, with the occasional NSFW jpg.)

Hot Shoes Pointin' Down The Avenue

fandango_matt — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:35:24 -0800

Two time-lapse journeys through the Panama Canal.(YouTube)

50th birthday of the shipping container

soiled cowboy — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:47:00 -0800

Happy 50th birthday (bugmenot) to "the box that changed the world". (Video interview with the author, here.) On April 26, 1956, Malcolm McLean, a trucker from rural North Carolina, hired a crane to hoist 58 trailer-sized steel cargo boxes onto a refitted oil tanker. This modest experiment would profoundly alter international trade and the global economy, eventually creating the "biggest real-time datastreaming network in the world."

A Man, a Plan, a Cam...

Chrischris — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:53:41 -0800

Panamacam! (warning: embedded mpg) Using available web-cam footage and a little DIY hackery, Stephan van der Palen created this nifty little time-lapse movie of shipping traffic in the Panama Canal zone (1 week=11 min.). Not to be outdone, the US Army Corps of Engineers has their own Lock-cams, and releases their own time-lapse movies of Soo Lock Traffic--from multiple cams--every day of the shipping season.

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize

well_balanced — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 21:02:31 -0800

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize A very enlightening article for anyone needing a little refresher in geography. New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange... Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

Sethu digs for dugongs

RedEmma — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 14:14:49 -0800

600 arrests over Sethusamudram Ship Channel. That seemed like a lot. So I was curious about why. Turns out, they're going to dredge up the sea floor so big ships can have a short cut. Fisherfolk and others think it's probably a pretty bad idea.

Male call

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 21:43:42 -0800

Man short on funds, mails himself home. Judge not amused, fines him $1,500. More background info here. Robbed of the Darwin Award.

Terabytes by mail--Interview with Jim Gray

mooncrow — Fri, 11 Jul 2003 06:41:03 -0800

Interview with Jim Gray, head of Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center. "Clear your schedule, because once you've started reading this interview, you won't be able to put it down until you've finished it. Who would ever, in this time of the greatest interconnectivity in human history, go back to shipping bytes around via snail mail as a preferred means of data transfer? (Really, just what type of throughput does the USPS offer?) Jim Gray would do it, that's who. And we're not just talking about Zip disks, no sir; we're talking about shipping entire hard drives, or even complete computer systems, packed full of disks."

Can't Mail Wine in the US?

djspicerack — Tue, 26 Nov 2002 14:12:47 -0800

Ever Try Getting Wine Shipped in the U.S.? Looks like Montana had set up a "wine connoisseur" rule that allowed for some shipping into the state if you filled out some paperwork, blah blah blah. PAIN! As someone who enjoys a good wine and wanted to order a bunch of it earlier in '02 when I was in Sonoma, CA and have it shipped home, only to be crushed when I couldn't have it done, I'm looking for a way to get this to work. Anyone else come across these various laws? Anyone else live in a state where they CAN get wine shipped in to them? 13 states allow reciprocal shipping from other partner states, and 14 others have some strict rules about it. Will opening these rules up allow minors an easy way to get alcohol? Some great links at the bottom of the article, too.

clevershark — Thu, 15 Nov 2001 17:09:17 -0800

Thinking of shipping valuable stuff by UPS? Think different! Every time I forget exactly why I never, ever want to ship anything at all by UPS ground, a story like this one pops up that reminds me. The last time I had something sent to me using that "service" (and I use the term loosely) my Athlon desktop system showed up at my door with the case dented and the CPU & heatsink loose inside the case as the box was jolted so violently that it broke the notch (on the ZIF socket) which usually keeps the assembly in place. Use FedEx if it positively, absolutely has to be there in one piece, I guess.