Intermodal shipping containers are arguable the most significant technology of the 20th century. They did more to improve worldwide standard of living, than any other advancement. Including medical.
Penicillin says hello
Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
131–140 of 159 posts
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if someone can make a living recovering these containers and selling their contents on eBay (considering it seems everyone treats the fallen off container as litter..).
Selling on eBay is theft. The contents if those containers belongs to someone. You can possibly make a living recovering the container for the owner, but if you don't agree to a price beforehand the lawyers will make a killing in court deciding what you should get.
I would assume the legality depends on where the container fell.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
One interesting take I’ve read on that quote is that you need to consider the source. If you’re a general for a country that routinely deploys troops to the other side of the world, in the service that specializes in landing those troops on a hostile beach with no friendly infrastructure, in a milieu when it is no longer considered acceptable to supply your troops by allowing them to pillage the countryside, you are…
Notice how many posts it took us to get from shipping containers to relative ancient-modern military strategic considerations. I think we've all been playing too many strategy games.
Nah, I just study history. Many strategy games nearly completely ignore logistics-- certainly any semblance of realistic logistics. Though actually when I do play strategy games I avoid those more realistic simulations: I want to focus on strategy, not the fiddly logistical details that actually make it all possible. Sort of like choosing a higher level programming language where many fiddly details are handled behind the scenes and I rarely have to bother with them.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think Amazon would not be profitable if there were no counterfeits?
Isn’t true they never turned a profit until AWS? I wonder if the online marketplace by it self still doesn’t turn profit. Probably impossible to figure out with additions of services like Prime and Amazon Fresh.
For most of its history Amazon reinvested all of its excess revenue; the "Amazon wasn't profitable" soundbite is misleading. Amazon made money, and spent it on buying and building more Amazon instead of distributing dividends to shareholders. On paper that is "zero profit" _for shareholders_.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, absolutely. It absolutely hammered home for me the extreme value potential of even (seemingly) small logistical changes. It reminds me of a quote about warfare: "Amateurs talk about strategy and tactics. Professionals talk about logistics"
Isn’t there a quote along similar lines, “battles are won by soldiers, wars are won by food/supply”?
Also: "An army marches on it's stomach".
Or in the case of Napoleon in Russia when they ran out of supplies, it marches on the 200,000 dead corpses of starved and frozen to death soldiers, with some help from countless slaughtered horses killed for food; and boot leather boiled soft enough to chew.
That's what you get when your supply plan buffers 50 days for rapid assault & victory while the enemy retreats, retreats, retreats, scorched-earth all the way. Hell, the Russians torched the entire city of Moscow to deny it to the enemy so it couldn't be used as a stop over on the way to St. Petersburg.
That was pretty much the end of Napoleon's campaign in Russia, and the beginning of his downfall. You don't get 500,000 troops killed in a single campaign and come home to fanfare and accolades.
In fact his failures during that campaign foreshadowed his downfall with a (failed) military coup. This was actually slightly convenient for Napoleon, giving him a reason to get the heck out of Russia before the final end came: extremely fortunate since the very small remaining body of troops retreating back west were not especially happy with their failed commander.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Box is way more fascinating than it has any right to be. It touches on basically every aspect of post-1950 world economy, history, urban planning, social changes, migration, etc.
On a related note, there is an episode of Connections that ties the width of the early railcar's wheelbase to pretty much all subsequent forms of transportation, ending with modern space exploration capability. Pretty awesome to observe the actual reach of decisions made long ago.
Semi related: “How big should a railroad track be?” Is actually an extremely complicated question that took a long time for us to figure out. It wasn’t unusual for different states to have different gauges, often requiring that passengers change trains at state lines.
Also, Russia to this day uses its own gauge, because they’re terrified of being invaded via rail from Europe.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#137Intermodal shipping containers are arguable the most significant technology of the 20th century. They did more to improve worldwide standard of living, than any other advancement. Including medical.
A surprisingly huge leap forward for the world was air conditioning. Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, said it was essential for his country's development. Without AC a huge swath of the world would still be seen by the West as this uninhabitable, uncivilized jungle.
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, absolutely. It absolutely hammered home for me the extreme value potential of even (seemingly) small logistical changes. It reminds me of a quote about warfare: "Amateurs talk about strategy and tactics. Professionals talk about logistics"
Isn’t there a quote along similar lines, “battles are won by soldiers, wars are won by food/supply”?
I also read on a blog about minimalism and long distance walking: *amateurs talk hardware, professionals talk software ".
Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#139Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon's retail business (amazon.com) isn't even the majority of its revenue anymore.
I looked this up just to make sure — it definitely, definitely is the majority of their revenue . Net sales on Amazon.com for Q1 2021 were $75 billion. AWS and “other” combined were $19 billion. [1] As far as profit goes, you have a stronger argument — $6 billion vs. $4 billion for AWS alone. AWS has a 30% operating margin, jesus. [1] page 19 of https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2021/q1/...
Ah, my mistake. Thanks for the correction.