Wonder how high Yemen ranks right now as pound for pound most influential country 
Wonder how high Yemen ranks right now
highest influence
highest elevation
highest on qat
They'd have the best income-adjusted "K/D ratio", maybe after the 19 guys with boxcutters who did 9/11 (but that doesn't count since it was
)
still in first place, but they're gaining ground fast.
Get Yemen an animation industry asap. Imagine an anti Zionist pirate anime where the protagonist helps shoot the anti ship missiles.
Shinzo Abe was irrelevant at the time he was killed though, wasn't he? I give it to the Houthis
His death had great impact on how Japan handles the moonies/the cult he was in so definitely an outsided influence. Like the assassin actually got what he wanted out of it beyond a dead politician
thanks, didn't know that
so Abe is connected to that Rod of Iron gun church somehow?
Thus far we’ve not seen any impact on air freight prices as it’s the post holiday low season without all the e-commerce demand that drove the high air prices in Q4. A 747 cargo plane can only carry around 7 ocean containers worth of cargo though compared to 10,000+ for the mega container ships, so it won’t take a lot of companies deciding to shift cargo from ocean to air for the air cargo market to become capacity constrained.
What a wild difference between the cargo capacity of the two.
Yeah and the broader point is an important one; it won't be too long before the impacts of this shift are very obvious in the marketplace. The US is under enormous pressure to get things back to normal, but the guy in charge is more pro-:isntrael: than Reagan, so I don't see any way that can happen.
At some point, shipping magnets all along the Mediterranean are going to start pissing themselves in frustration.
Also, can't help but see the BRI guys feeling a little extra smug about their plane for overland transport through the Middle East.
There's a reason why Reagan wasn't willing to tolerate Israeli bullshit, and it wasn't because of his deep love and respect for the Lebanese people.
Also, can't help but see the BRI guys feeling a little extra smug about their plane for overland transport through the Middle East.
I had actually forgotten that China's belt and road initiative involved electrified freight train routes from China up through Russia or the middle east into Europe proper. Iirc there is also work to build routes from China deep into Africa to allow reliable trade of resources and goods without ocean going freight.
Years ago I was honestly surprised to learn that there wasn't already a reliable freight train network connecting all of continental Asia, Africa, and Europe. That everyone was sending freight longer distances via ocean going freight traveling around continents rather than via rail in straight lines over land seemed so wasteful. Ocean going freight should only be necessary for oversized freight, island nations, or freight between the eastern and western global hemispheres.
Intuitively, boats are more scalable than trains so to some degree it makes sense. Today, ocean shipping is cheaper than over land.
China's feeling extra smug because their state-owned shipping can still transit the Red Sea lol
There was probably too much conflict and war in Europe in the past for countries to build international networks like that
Yeah. I remember something about everyone intentionally using incompatible rail gauges out of fear that other nations would use trains for military invasions. It's only been in recent decades where we have started to see a globally adopted standard rail gauge for freight networks.
Props to him for being so on brand, if a war isn't going to profitable, it's not worth having the war.
These ships are big. They are like the size of a skyscraper someone put on its side and attached a propeller to.
and they burn mad oil. the shit they burn is practically asphalt, and it SUCKS for the enviornment.
, create the nuclear cargo ship. please
Sailships (wind power) are another option for zero-emission cargo shipping
i cant wait for sailships to become more mainstream, they're really cool
perhaps it's not too late for me to become a pirate after all
Death to America
Would that not be a bit slow and potentially dangerous in storms and things? I don't know much about modern sailships.
Cargo ships already run very slowly in order to save fuel. In a storm where the winds are so strong that the ship risks capsizing, the sails can simply be retracted. Also, if the time spent not moving when there is no wind is a concern, sails can be combined with diesel (or even nuclear) propulsion in a hybrid setup.
Also see: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2021/05/how-to-design-a-sailing-ship-for-the-21st-century
eeeh, yeah but if you want to effectively use sails, you need to take specific routes with good reliable wind. modern cargo ships can go in a straighter line.
so it's not as easy as that, but yeah, they should bring back sailships even if that makes the transit times longer
Nah, since the advent of compressed wood we've had the ability to build massive, lightweight and ultra strong sailing ships
It's just not profitable to do so
I know the standards of construction between civilian and military shipping are pretty different, but we have had nuclear powered ships for a while now (nuclear aircraft carrier notably) and they sail pretty fine
Actually there are civilian nuclear powered ships, the USSR and the Russian Federation have built nuclear powered icebreakers (shoutout the Lenin ) which have had accidents but as far as I can tell, no human losses occurred
So I'd say building nuclear cargo ships isn't really in the realm of science fiction, as long as proper construction standards are applied
When the Yemenis they closed the red sea
A call came on down from the powers that be
To adjust course immediately
Roll on north Umbria
South Africa could theoretically do some epic trolling rn 

It would be cool if South Africa denied them permission to dock if they were bound for Isisrael, so they would be stranded, out of fuel as a form of karma and watch a city twice the size of Gaza - Durban, not be under siege and the dockworkers on the mainland once more relive their historic moments.
I don’t know, Isntraelis might take a lifeboat to the mainland and start killing every child they find out of frustration

South Africa in total doesn’t need to do anything, just need some dockworkers to take action.
If
was so good why isn't there a
2?
2:
I work in global logistics and the word just went out last week that container shipping prices have gone up from this.


E F F I C I E N C Y
Death to America
As god intended
Fascinating to me that this all happening as I am reading the first few chapters of volume 2 of Capital. It’s all about the circulation of commodities i.e. what commodities do after they are produced, and then how the money from the sale of those commodities goes back into production. A key point Marx is hitting on in chapters 5 and 6 is that the faster you can circulate commodities, the more surplus value in total is created. So conversely, a slowdown in circulation - like the transportation of commodities taking a whole lot longer to get from A to B - can be a massive reduction of surplus value. Maybe firms aren’t feeling the pain yet but they will soon. Should get interesting.

Ocean freight prices are spiking even on trade lanes that on the surface would not seem to be affected by the diversions like Asia to US west coast lanes.
Inflation
Black Lagoon is my favorite show, inspiring me to chart a new course. I'm seriously considering embracing piracy as my next bold career move. This is a great development.
This isn't just a job shift; it's a soulful journey to my authentic self. A great development, indeed! Sailing toward the horizon of my dreams, where passion meets destiny. #PiratePath #LifeAwakening #SailTowardDreams #OceanOfPossibilities #JourneyToSelf #EmbraceTheAdventure #DareToExplore #FindYourTrueNorth #EpicLife #AdventureAwaits 🌊🏴☠️✨
Full text in case it gets paywalled/loginwalled:
85% of container ships that would’ve transited the Red Sea are now going around the southern tip of Africa as of this morning.
The ships diverting from their ordinary course are marked orange on the @flexport map below.

Flexport customers can see which of their shipments are affected in real time on their dashboard, along with updated transit time estimates.
Our teams are working hard to find solutions for customers who’s cargo was meant to be picked up or delivered to a port no longer served by one of the cancelled strings.
Ocean freight prices are spiking even on trade lanes that on the surface would not seem to be affected by the diversions like Asia to US west coast lanes. The longer sailing time around the Cape of Good Hope requires more vessels so carriers have had to pull capacity off those lanes onto the Asia to Europe trade.
Thus far we’ve not seen any impact on air freight prices as it’s the post holiday low season without all the e-commerce demand that drove the high air prices in Q4. A 747 cargo plane can only carry around 7 ocean containers worth of cargo though compared to 10,000+ for the mega container ships, so it won’t take a lot of companies deciding to shift cargo from ocean to air for the air cargo market to become capacity constrained.
Freight prices are some of the most inelastic in the whole economy: companies don’t adjust the quantity of products they ship based on the price of freight—they ship as many products as they can sell, and the price of freight is only going to change that equation for the lowest of margin products. That means demand exceeds available capacity, the market clearing prices can spike very rapidly, as we saw during the capacity crunches (largely demand driven) of ‘21-22.
I’ve been surprised by how little the air market has moved so far in January. I would’ve expected more of a spillover by now.
What do you think, will we see this impact air freight prices soon?
Also let’s all give thanks to the brave sailors who continue to transit the Red Sea despite the very real threat of getting hit by a missile. I probably would be too scared.
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