-
Recent comments: The back-chat. What it’s all about really
- Jayla Hunsinger on Slice of cake at Maersk that leaves a sour taste
- John Miele on Channel ferry operators feel the pinch yet again
- John Miele on Crying foul when there is a whiff of natural gas
- don mitchel on Installation overload may compromise ballast rules
- John Miele on A rabbit on the highway needs to move fast
- Don Mitchel on Installation overload may compromise ballast rules
- Ryan Skinner on Censorship can’t beat the tweet, so why not join it?
- Ryan Skinner on It is time to give shipping the X Factor treatment
- Dr Ivica Tijardovic on No silver bullet in BAE anti-piracy laser
- don mitchel on Installation overload may compromise ballast rules
Monthly Archives: June 2010
The ballast water horse has bolted
It suddenly occurred to me, as I overheard two marine superintendents talking about the merits of different ballast water systems, they could just as well be farmers about to order a stable door after the horses have fled.
While the IMO’s ballast water convention is indeed a noble drive to get a technical solution onto our [...]
Look mummy. A camera!
There is something to be said for an oil spill – it gets our attention. In fact there’s plenty to be said about an oil spill, and the fact is most people seem to think they have the god-given right to say it.
Local and national media will flock to a beach to get the obligatory [...]
How to get shipping talked about in the pub
Wow, hasn’t shipping suddenly become all knee-jerkingly political. Back in the day, being at sea, or owning a couple of freighters, meant simply trying to earn your crust in an honest hardworking -perhaps slightly alcoholic – way.
Boy, has this changed over the last three decades. Obama and his bans is swiftly followed by the UK’s [...]
To do or EEDI
Next week at the IMO a group of experts are going to meet and thrash out even more minuscule detail of a vessel performance benchmarking formula that few people want, and most do not understand.
This formula, one of the IMO’s few ‘tools in the tool box’ to meeting the political pressure to curb shipping’s CO2 contribution, [...]
Planes, trains and NASA at sea
Do you remember a time back in the seventies, or maybe eighties, when we were all talking about the unmanned ship. It was at the time that ship’s engine room became an unmanned space with the use of those watch alarms to allow engineers to sit in their cabins rather than in the engine control [...]
Mini-skirts and emissions
I saw with interest on television reports that a Dutch brewer has been accused of ambush marketing in the world cup in South Africa.
It appears Dutch brewer Bavaria is accused of sending over thirty young blonde ladies in bright orange miniskirts to attract attention from the stands during one of the Netherlands games. Obviously it [...]
Damned by the Jones Act
America’s hypocrisy with its Jones Act seems to be coming back to haunt it as it appears to find itself unable to elicit international tonnage to help in managing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Written perhaps in a pique of protectionism to keep America jobs on American ships that have been built in American yards, [...]
The uses of super-slow steaming
‘Super-slow steaming unlikely to generate carbon credits’, according to a headline on the Lloyd’s List website right now. Maybe not. But Mrs B tells me it is still by far the best way to cook asparagus.
Tonnage tax – state aid in disguise
This was the comment thrown into a conversation, like a lit stick of dynamite, during a social gathering at a fairly large European shipowners’ association last week. Allowing shipping companies to register in a country but then gain special conditions to do so is nothing more than state aid in disguise.
Many European countries have opted for a tonnage tax [...]
Inevitable World Cup post