Happy Fourth Anniversary Of Big Boat Stuck To Those Who Celebrate
The fifth ship in a northbound convoy, Ever Given set sail early on the morning of the 23rd with no tug escort to transit the Suez Canal — the link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea — on her way to Rotterdam, NL. At around 07:42 local time, Ever Given was engulfed in a nasty sandstorm near the village of Manshiyet Rugola. With winds exceeding 40 knots (46 miles per hour) and no tug to keep her on track, the massive vessel was immediately blown off course. Her bow ran into the canal's eastern shore at a speed of 13 knots (roughly 15 miles per hour), her stern swung around and wedged into the western shore while still under power, and all of a sudden she was stuck tight.
That, as they say, is when hilarity ensued.
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At the spot where Ever Given ran aground, the Suez Canal is around 200 meters across, so a fully loaded, 400-meter-long container ship wedged hard diagonally across the canal immediately presented some navigation issues. She was completely blocking the canal, as 300 ships at both ends were attempting to transit. To call the situation a nightmare (as well as an all-hands emergency) was an understatement.
The Suez Canal Authority closed the canal to shipping on March 25 as salvage and recovery teams descended on the stuck vessel in an attempt to get her free. Over the course of about a week, a crack team of experts, 18 tugs, and the dredger Mashhour worked feverishly to pull Ever Green out of the mud while international shipping slowly ground to a halt on either side of the canal. A huge traffic jam of more than 400 ships slowly formed in the Med, the Red Sea, and the Bitter Lakes as Ever Given was painstakingly salvaged.
On March 29 at around 04:30 local time, Ever Given's stern was floated. Her bow was floated soon after, and she was finally free. This wasn't the end of Ever Given's ordeal, however. She was towed to the Great Bitter Lake to be inspected for damage while the canal was open, then immediately impounded and her crew interrogated. Accusations were made, blame was thrown freely around, and on April 13, 2021, she was seized by a court at the urging of the SCA pending payment of more than $900 million American dollars. That price included, among other things, the cost of the salvage effort and around $300 million for SCA for "loss of reputation".
The week that Ever Given spent gumming up international shipping revealed some serious worldwide economic issues. The ongoing Covid pandemic had already highlighted problems with supply chain resilience, and the Ever Given debacle really shined a light on both that and the weaknesses of just-in-time manufacturing. Lloyd's List estimated that the cost of the goods delayed by the blockage was a staggering $400 million per hour as bulk freighters, tankers, and container ships waited at anchor for Ever Given to be refloated. The knock-on effects of the blockage were even worse, and prices of everything from oil and food to kids toys and computer chips rose significantly and stayed there for months afterwards.
It wasn't all bad, though. There were, of course, the memes. Internet wags immediately got to work plastering pithy messages over images of Ever Given and her various rescuers. One particularly popular one was a photo of a seemingly tiny excavator pushing Ever Given with its boom arm (that one was my favorite, in fact). There were also Google doodles, a marine tracker built specifically to track Ever Given's adventures around the world, and Microsoft Flight Simulator mods. The event even got a shout out in an episode of "What We Do in the Shadows" when it was revealed that Nandor was delayed because he was stuck in a container aboard Ever Given.
Since then, while we've had many good boats stuck here and there, nothing has really captured the world's imagination like Ever Given's plight. Despite the very real economic, legal, and political ramifications of the incident, it was also extremely funny, and we all needed a laugh at the time. At the time of this writing, Ever Given is in port at Port Klang, Malaysia and seems to be healthy and happy with a well-founded crew. So, today, let's raise a glass to Ever Given and her crew and wish them fair winds and following seas. Oh, and captain, watch out for those sandstorms.
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Yahoo
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10 Cheap Fish You Should Avoid Buying At All Costs
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. There's a lot to like about fish. It's tasty and versatile, many varieties offer high-quality lean protein, and even fatty fish provide healthy omega-3 fatty acids instead of the saturated fats found in red meats. That's why the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest having fish (or seafood) twice a week. Of course, that simple description of "fish" covers a lot of territory. Some are cheap, while some command a hefty price. Some are farmed or harvested sustainably, while others come with unadvertised baggage in the form of unsustainability or poor working conditions. Some are healthier, while others just plain taste better. As a trained chef from Canada's seafood-centric East Coast (and the descendant of a long line of fishermen), I've spent a lot of my life cooking fish, and also writing, researching, and thinking about how it's raised and harvested. That means I've reluctantly ruled out a lot of inexpensive, otherwise-appealing kinds of fish for one or another of the reasons given above. Here are 10 common low-priced options, and why I suggest avoiding them. Read more: 7 Foods Guy Fieri Doesn't Touch Asian Catfish Catfish is one of America's longstanding favorites, especially in the Southern states. And deservedly so, because it's good stuff. Mostly it's eaten breaded and fried, which isn't exactly a strong endorsement of the "fish is healthy" argument, but it's a versatile choice that can be cooked in many other ways if you choose to do so. American catfish is a safe, practical, and reasonably priced product. It may be wild-caught or farmed, but all commercially sold catfish of U.S. origin are good choices. American catfish farms adhere to industry-standard best practices, and wild-caught blue cats from Chesapeake Bay are harvested in a responsible and sustainable fashion. Sadly, that's not reliably the case for Asian catfish. They're from a related species, pangasius, but they can't legally be sold as "catfish" in the U.S. because that label is reserved for domestic species. Instead, you'll see it sold as swai, basa, tra, and a few other names. Consumers should avoid options that come from Vietnam or China because of heavy chemical use (and the associated health and environmental issues) in their farming process. Pink Or Keta Salmon You may be surprised to see salmon on a list of "cheap fish," because it's not generally among the cheapest offerings at your local store's seafood section. That's especially true of premium wild-caught Pacific salmon, which fetches a correspondingly serious price. That said, there are several types of salmon out there, and not all of them are necessarily premium products. In fact, there are two that typically fall into the low-priced category, largely because they are kind of disappointing as salmon goes. One is Keta salmon, often known as chum or dog salmon, because in the past it was used for feeding sled dogs. The other is pink salmon, a small and very common Pacific species (your canned salmon will usually be pink, unless the label specifies otherwise). You'll often find these as fillets or even whole fish in the freezer section of your supermarket, where they're the lowest-cost salmon option. Don't get me wrong, it's not that they're in any way bad. U.S.-caught Keta and pinks make a decent meal, but they're leaner and less flavorful than other salmon species, and therefore prone to coming out dry and overcooked. Overall, it's usually worth spending a bit more to get a tastier variety. Non-Certified Tilapia Over the past couple of decades, tilapia has gone from being a relative novelty at the seafood counter to one of the most widely available and inexpensive choices. You'll find tilapia recipes everywhere, including this site, and there's definitely a recipe for every taste. And yet, despite tilapia's popularity, it's hard to find anyone who's really enthusiastic about it. Recipe writers and chefs speak of it as a blank slate for cooking with, which is a polite way of saying it's pretty flavorless. The FDA calls it one of the best fish to eat, but that's purely on the narrow basis of it being low in mercury. Like most fish, it's a good protein source, but it's low in the healthy omega-3 fatty acids that fish are prized for. So far, I've made the case that it's mediocre, not that it's bad. What earns tilapia a place on this list is the often-dubious quality of its farming. Tilapia from countries such as Colombia, Indonesia, or Taiwan, or countries that have earned certification from one of the industry's recognized certification bodies, is okay to buy if that's your thing. Tilapia farmed in China should be avoided because of environmental and potential health issues. Canned Tuna This one may feel like a gut-punch for a lot of you, and I totally get it. 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They're a fun fish to catch, with adult specimens averaging around 15 pounds and occasionally getting to 50 pounds or more. They're also a great fish for eating. They're moist and flaky, like grouper or snapper, but with an unusual, subtle sweetness that reminds some diners of crab or scallops. Even if you don't get out to fish for your own, tilefish can often be found at your local fishmonger for a price that's quite reasonable considering its culinary virtues. So why would you want to avoid such a tasty, pleasing fish? Well, it's that "m-word" again. As a large deep-water predator, tilefish tend to accumulate a lot of mercury in their tissues. In fact, in two decades of testing by the FDA, tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico had the highest levels of mercury contamination found in any fish species. Levels were lower in Atlantic-caught tilefish, so feel free to indulge in that occasionally if you're not pregnant or nursing, but there are definitely safer options for your money. Winter Skate It pains me to write this because I'm a big fan of skate, and I consider it to be an unfairly overlooked seafood option on our side of the Atlantic. Skate are flat, diamond-shaped fish rather like rays, and usually what you'll see in fish stores are the so-called "wings." I've enjoyed skate for years whenever I could find it, because it's a great fish to cook. A slab of "wing" gives you two large fillets, one above and one below a dividing line of rib-like cartilage (like sharks, skate have no bones). It's delicious, and once cooked, it's easy to slide the flesh from the cartilage for serving. So why is it on this list? Well, there are a couple of reasons. One is that — again, like shark — because of its unusual physiology, skate breaks down quickly when it's not absolutely fresh, and produces an ammonia-like aroma if it is handled incorrectly. 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From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation
While it now grapples with concerns over its financial viability in the modern era, the agency has had a long and colorful history that helped shape the nation. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people. Advertisement A new postal service In those early days, creating an American postal system was a key priority for the nation's founders, who needed to communicate with the Continental Army and the colonies. When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it appointed Franklin as the first postmaster because he had served in the British postal service for North America. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The early postal system also became crucial to unifying the diverse, fragmented colonies into a nation by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets. 'People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,' Kochersperger said. Westward expansion When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes that were first used by mail carriers on horseback and later upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today. Advertisement Initially running north–south along the East Coast, post roads later extended westward. Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes. As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months. 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Jack McAuliffe, who brewed a craft beer revolution, dies at 80
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Advertisement In high school, Jack became enthralled with welding and worked in a shop as an apprentice. He enrolled at Michigan Technological University but quit to join the Navy. He was posted to a base in Scotland, where he repaired submarine antennas. In his free time, he developed a fondness for British ales -- especially full-bodied porters and stouts -- and began brewing his own at home. After he was honorably discharged from a base in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. McAuliffe decided to stay. He received an associate degree from the City College of San Francisco and worked for an engineering company in Sunnyvale, Calif., all the while dreaming of making his beloved British-style ales in the United States. Finally, in 1975, he met Denison and Zimmerman, who each put in $1,500 in seed money to start New Albion. Mr. McAuliffe was a demanding brewmaster, and Zimmerman left the company. But Denison stayed on, eventually running most of the daily operations. 'He totally trusted me,' she said in an interview. 'He might go into San Francisco to pick up hops or something and leave me completely in charge.' After the brewery closed, Mr. McAuliffe sold his equipment to a new brewery, the Mendocino Brewing Co., where he worked for a time as a brewmaster. He soon quit, he said, because after being a captain, he couldn't stomach working as a deckhand. But he continued supporting the craft brewing movement, in one instance working with Fritz Maytag, the owner of the Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco, on securing legislation to allow brew pubs to serve food. Advertisement Mr. McAuliffe later lived in Nevada and Texas before settling in Arkansas. Along with his daughter, he leaves his sisters, Cathy and Margarita McAuliffe; his brother, Tom; two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Craft beer did not take off as a national phenomenon until the late 1990s, and many in the new generation of drinkers had never heard of New Albion. That began to change in 2012. Koch, of Sam Adams, contacted Mr. McAuliffe to tell him that not only had he bought the trademark to New Albion, but he also wanted to resurrect the beer as a limited release. After leading a nationwide tour reintroducing New Albion to craft-beer fans, Koch gave the proceeds from the beer and the rights to the New Albion name to Mr. McAuliffe. And in 2019, the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution, featured items related to New Albion in a permanent exhibit on craft brewing, including an original bottle of its ale and a photograph of Mr. McAuliffe. McCulla, who designed the exhibit, interviewed Mr. McAuliffe for an oral history of craft brewing in 2019. She asked him what he thought of his legacy. 'Damnedest thing I ever saw,' he said. 'It's really hard to believe that this happened.' This article originally appeared in
