Yesterday, BBC News kicked off an exciting and unique experiment in hopes to tell the story of international trade and globalisation. In the year long experiment called “The Box”, BBC will track a standard 40 foot shipping container around the world. A GPS transmitter will be bolted to the container and so you can track its progress. BBC News reports:
It is a project which plans to deliver content for television, radio and online audiences - telling the individual stories behind what makes the global economy tick.
The Box will hopefully reach the US, Asia, the Middle East , Europe and Africa and when it does BBC correspondents will be there to report on who’s producing goods and who’s consuming them.
From the start of the voyage in Southampton this journey will be a real one and whilst we are controlling some aspects of the process for logistical reasons the story it tells will be a truly representative one painting a picture of what globalisation really means.
The experiment is named after the book by Marc Levinson titled “The Box“, which is a great story of how the shipping container changed the face of world trade.
Links:
BBC News
Tracking “The Box”
Marc Levinson’s “The Box” on Amazon.com
Tags: · bbc, containers, experiment, gps, Interesting
John Clandillon-Baker of pilotmag has been featured along with his fellow London pilot (retired) Geoff Taylor in an article written by Libby Purves of The Times. This quote seemed to ring particularly true;
The human aspect of the job fascinated me. “I know what I’m getting into, from the first rung of the ladder and the angle of the captain’s head,” says Geoff. “I’m a psychologist, have to be. You get a sense of the ship – is it well run, is it happy, is it tense, how has it been for that month at sea? Is the master assertive or co-operative?” “Or bonkers,” says a Thames pilot. “A bad ship, you feel the rust on the ladder, you look up at the scruffy individual at the top who looks as if he’d like to stick a knife in you . . .” “You smell it,” says another.
The article can be found HERE and be sure to check back for a link to the BBC radio show of the same title.
Tags: · bbc, bbc_radio, human_aspect, london, pilot, psychologist
The BBC has a great photo slideshow of the M/V Ice Prince sinking. You can find it HERE.
Tags: · bbc, coast-guard, ice prince, north sea, photos, rescue, ship, slideshow, solas, survival
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Video of the Oil Spill In South Korea.
Video not working in your browser? Try the direct link.
Tags: · bbc, crane_barge, incident, marpol, MARPOL Incidents, oil_spill, oil_tanker, sopep, south_korea, tanker, Tankers, Video, youtube
In this modern age with AIS tracking and global satellite coverage you may ask how a pirate can get away with stealing an entire ship. Occasionally referred to as Seajacking this video shows how legal ships are stolen and redocumented to appear legitimate.
Seajacking and phantom ships:
Related Video:
Tags: · bbc, ISPS, malacca-straight, marsec, phantom-ship, piracy, piracy-at-sea, pirates, Video, youtube
