primitives notice ships too high in the water

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4272787

Oh my.

seemslikeadream  (1000+ posts)        Mon Oct-20-08 11:20 AM
Original message

I read most of the ships coming in from Asia in past few weeks have been above their waterlinesl

http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm

We noted yesterday how "China Shipping Traffic may plunge as exports slow" but few people have likely figured out the personal implications of this; the largest being the worst bummer of a Christmas ever as goods coming to the U.S. are starting to dry up. A reader who's familiar with the docks in the Pacific Northwest reports anecdotally that most of the ships coming in from Asia in the past few weeks have been 'above their waterlines' - a far cry from what the boom in consumer goods has been like over the past few years.

No, this is not something I'm making up - it's NOT being widely reported in the MainStreamMedia, however, because about the worst thing that could happen to the economy would be for consumers to really (and I mean really) tighten down on spending.

Fro example, the Port of Portland is out with September results and air freight is down 13.1 percent from year ago levels according to the Portland Business Journal.

No, I couldn't find a press release on the Port of Long Beach web site, which I guess explains why there's no MSM focus on it yet, but if you know where to go sniffing for the latest statistics, you'll see that loaded inbound Port of Long Beach container unit traffic is down 15.8% compared with year ago levels.

skooooo  (1000+ posts)      Mon Oct-20-08 11:23 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. Maybe most people have enough crap at this point...
 
Honestly, no one but Americans spend all their money accumulating every little thing they see.

The slow primitive's obviously never inspected the insides of places where most primitives live.

peace13  (1000+ posts)        Mon Oct-20-08 11:30 AM
Response to Original message

5. It makes sense, if China continues to poison the buyers of these goods that at some point the sales would come to an end. Imagine, no plastic poisonous toys for the kids this Christmas. No sugary poisonous treats. It is about time that people woke up. Maybe being broke will be the best thing that ever happened to the middle class.

formercia  (1000+ posts)       Mon Oct-20-08 03:19 PM
Response to Original message
 
45. The snakeheads must be doing poorly

Even Chinese illegals don't want to come here any more.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Uhhh, the only thing we have to EXPORT to keep the crap coming in is "Money," and in electrons at that.  Ships arriving light has no connection to that, and a whole lot of possible causes ranging from a rabid environmentalists preventing your harbor from being dredged to intermediate cargo deliveries to the possibility that they deadheaded there to make a pick-up.

Of course, it's also possible that they are coming back empty from dumping thousands of coffins full of people killed in Hurricane Ike far out at sea... 

[Rebel]

Could it be that they blow their ballast tanks in order to traverse shallow water? 

They do it coming up the Savannah from the ocean all the time.

[Lord Undies]

"The oceans are cooling rapidly due to the inactivity of the sun (global cooling).  The colder the salt water, the more the buoyancy.  All vessels will float higher."

-Professor Undies

[GOBUCKS]

"The oceans are cooling rapidly due to the inactivity of the sun (global cooling).  The colder the salt water, the more the buoyancy.  All vessels will float higher."

-Professor Undies

We went to the beach this year in late August. I noticed that the water seemed a lot warmer than it did last year when we went to the beach in mid-June.

This may just be anecdotal, but to me it seems like sure indicator of a big increase in ocean temperatures in just 14 months.

I have also noticed that when ships come out of the North Atlantic and into the Great Lakes, they ride lower in the water in the Great Lakes, since the Great Lakes are not as affected by Algorbal warming as the hot North Atlantic. 

Most of the Algorbal warming is absorbed by the Arctic Ocean, and then sort of oozes down past Greenland to heat up the North Atlantic and cause ships to pop up out of the water due to hot keels.

Already, penguins are extinct in Greenland.

I weep for the Greenland penguin colonies.

[Lord Undies]

We went to the beach this year in late August. I noticed that the water seemed a lot warmer than it did last year when we went to the beach in mid-June.

This may just be anecdotal, but to me it seems like sure indicator of a big increase in ocean temperatures in just 14 months.

I have also noticed that when ships come out of the North Atlantic and into the Great Lakes, they ride lower in the water in the Great Lakes, since the Great Lakes are not as affected by Algorbal warming as the hot North Atlantic. 

Most of the Algorbal warming is absorbed by the Arctic Ocean, and then sort of oozes down past Greenland to heat up the North Atlantic and cause ships to pop up out of the water due to hot keels.

Already, penguins are extinct in Greenland.

I weep for the Greenland penguin colonies.

The Great Lakes are fresh water.  No salt, less float.

Already, penguins are extinct in Greenland.

Non-existent, not extinct.  Penquins, to my knowledge, have never been part of the Northern Hemisphere.

[franksolich]

I have to thank all you guys for explaining this to me.

Not being from a seafaring state, I had no idea.

And also when observing this bonfire, I wondered why it would possibly be a topic of interest for the primitives, who haven't even yet invented the wheel.

 

[GOBUCKS]

Non-existent, not extinct.  Penquins, to my knowledge, have never been part of the Northern Hemisphere.

This only proves that Algorbal warming has been going on a lot longer than anyone ever suspected.

The Great Lakes are fresh water.  No salt, less float.

The Great Lakes salt shortage dates back to the Reagan administration. The Obamessiah has a plan to correct this problem.

[BamaMoose]

They are so easily impressed.  Their deep in-depth "sniffing" involves going to the Port of Long Beach's website and pulling statistics out.  That's some rock-solid Will Pitt level journalism.  From the site (http://www.polb.com/economics/stats/latest_teus.asp):

       
                              September                                      Fiscal Year to Date***      
                              2008**      2007        % Change         2008**          2007            % Change
LOADED INBOUND       279,137    331,507     -15.80%          3,337,717       3,742,132    -10.80%
LOADED OUTBOUND    129,630    134,842      -3.90%           1,782,298       1,471,508      21.10%      
EMPTIES                  146,070    187,760      -22.20%          1,616,741       2,148,241     -24.70%               
TOTAL(T.E.U.)           554,837    654,109     -15.20%          6,736,756       7,361,881     -8.50%

So the net impact on cargo for loaded containers is 5,120,015 (est) TEU's this year versus 5,213,640 last year.  A change of less than 2% that indicates that our trade imbalance may be shifting to a more favorable position.  Can't believe that the sky isn't falling on that.

FYI, since it's rather obscure, a TEU is a 20 foot equivalent unit.  It's a "unit" to measure containership cargo capacity with a standard TEU being a twenty foot ISO container.

[Chris_]

"The oceans are cooling rapidly due to the inactivity of the sun (global cooling).  The colder the salt water, the more the buoyancy.  All vessels will float higher."

-Professor Undies

"A rising tide raises all boats."