Just how many large mysterious objects can there be floating at sea? That’s what many of us have wondered after the search for debris from Malaysia Airlines 370 turned up piece after piece of ocean trash. The search for flight 370 has focused our attention on empty patches of ocean and, in the process, shed light on the surreal world of lost shipping containers.
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The global shipping industry has completely transformed our world
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Amazon lockers are amazingly convenient
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All that cement and steel has to come from somewhere. In an amazing video by filmmaker Brandon Li, we get a chance to stroll through a world not many see: The dockyards of Dubai, where everything from food to construction materials arrive in the UAE city.
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Have you ever heard of a twistlock? Unless you’re a stevedore, probably not. Yet this little mechanism is what makes it possible to stack shipping containers onto cargo ships larger than city blocks—enabling a global trade network that brought most of your belongings to your doorstep. And we have a relatively little-known Californian mechanical engineer to thank for it.
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If you’re rooting for the drone team, then chalk up another win: Rolls-Royce is working on unmanned cargo ships that would roam the Earth’s oceans packed with crates of goods, controlled by captains safe on shore using virtual reality facilities to pilot their fleets. In other words, tomorrow’s salty tales of ghost ships with no one left on board could be all too verifiable and hardly cause for… Read More
Believe it or not, sailors are a big drag on shipping vessels. They weigh down the ship, take up space, cost thousands of dollars a day, and even cause most of the accidents at sea. So it’s no surprise that Rolls-Royce’s maritime division wants to replace them with robots.
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The Wall Street Journal unearthed a recently-filed Amazon patent for "anticipatory shipping," a setup where the products you buy start traveling to your nearest shipping hub before you’ve clicked the purchase button. Welcome to the future, folks.
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Didn’t get your last last last minute gifts from Amazon
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Today’s as good a day as any to ponder how massive amounts of stuff gets moved around the world. iPhones from China, sweaters from Bangladesh, chocolates from Switzerland—they all make the transcontinental journey in containers stacked like Legos on cargo ships. And these ships can seed their own clouds, tracing out their paths across the sea.
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