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Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

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Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#91
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no reason to suspect that we'll see two more 250+ crate loss accidents this year leading to results like your graph predicts.

Nor is there any reason to supposed that the increased accidents are pure flukes that can't possibly happen again this year. If there's increased _systemic_ risk due to risky sailing, bad cargo management, etc. it'd be understandable for more outliers to occur. I don't think we can handwave away that somehow we're done with major accidents for the year only a third of the way in.

>I don't think we can handwave away that somehow we're done with major accidents for the year only a third of the way in.

These kinds of events are rare, even if something is causing more systemic risk there's no way to predict how many more will happen this year. I'm not handwaving anything away, I'm saying projections aren't useful.

Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#92

Earlier 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.

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"

Logistics entrepreneur here. I'm keeping that quote! Apparently Robert Hilliard Barrow (1922-2008), USMC four-star general. Added to https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup

Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#93

Is there a list of what exactly was lost? Does anyone actively seek out and salvage this sunken treasure? I hate to think of another Garfield Phone thing in the future with something more dangerous. https://time.com/5561165/garfield-phones-france/

This ship [0] went down offshore of Cornwall in 1641, with 60 men, 100,000 pounds of gold and 500,000 pieces-of-eight aboard. Cornwall is not known to be friendly to wrecks. And yet, nearly 400 years later, she's not been found. They say. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Royal

Okay, who's joining me for an expedition? Finders keepers, right?

Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#94
post #58

> More than 3,000 boxes dropped into the sea last year, and more than 1,000 have fallen overboard so far in 2021. A fascinating record we leave the next explorers.

If they can find them. We've lost whole planes in the ocean ; finding something as small as a shipping container will require a big stroke of luck.

I think any future generations will likely have more advanced technologies for finding stuff.

And hopefully somebody figures out how to find my glasses.

Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#95

Earlier 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"

Logistics entrepreneur here. I'm keeping that quote! Apparently Robert Hilliard Barrow (1922-2008), USMC four-star general. Added to https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup

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 going to spend a lot more time worrying about logistics.

Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#97
post #48

This has always worried me when I’ve moved across the ocean (three times). Books, photos, personal items heading over the side of a ship. I know the odds are low but it’s different from a container ipod identical, brand new Phones.

When you move overseas, wouldn't you take anything with sentimental value onboard with you as luggage? I can't imagine being too devastated to lose books or whatever other larger items people take when they relocate overseas (assuming that you would be compensated for the monetary value of lost items and be able to replace them). In my experience, most sentimental items are small enough to easily fit in a suitcase.

However, on second thought, I suppose some people would have more and larger sentimental items than I do, like large vases or antique pieces of furniture and so forth.

Is it possible to pay extra to have a very large flotation device attached to your shipping container? :P

Re: Shipping containers are falling overboard at a rapid rate

#98

Is there a list of what exactly was lost? Does anyone actively seek out and salvage this sunken treasure? I hate to think of another Garfield Phone thing in the future with something more dangerous. https://time.com/5561165/garfield-phones-france/

Somewhere there is a container full of Amazon Basics Butt Plugs waiting to spill forth its rubbery contents upon unsuspecting American beaches.

In the 1990s, a ship from Hong Kong bound for Tacoma, Washington lost a shipping container that was filled with 30,000 yellow duckies.

Oceanographers were able to collaborate with beachcombers in the western US (and eventually as far away as the UK) to validate their models of how the currents would move the ducks.

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