The Man who created Container Shipping 

@Radical Liberation - Well, I have to do something for your kind once in a while. ;)

Wait until you find out why the VCR surpassed the superior quality Betamax. It concerns gentlemans personal time video rentals...

@@Strettger That's actually a myth. It was the recording time. Can't record, for example, the football game on a beta unless you're there to swap tapes-in which case, why are you recording it-or you have 2 so you can divide it across 2 tapes.

@@johnbelli9390 Yes, convenience and cost usually trumps quality, as long as the alternative is perceived as being _good enough_ . I was a teenager during the format war, and I remember recognizing almost immediately that betamax just wouldn't cut it for general use, despite it's better video quality. The killer feature of VCRs when they first came out was not viewing pre-recorded content, but capturing tv broadcasts for later viewing. That made VHS' extended recording length extremely important at a time when the cost of an individual tape was painfully high. 6 hours at extended play meant you could catch a whole weeks' worth of sitcoms on one tape. The broader manufacturer support of the VHS consortium also helped, allowing for more, more varied, and cheaper machines than Sony's walled garden. Cheaper machines, cheaper per-hour tapes. It was a no-brainer.

Are you sure that's what it's for? There are over-length (45') and over-height (9.5') containers. Or are you talking about width?

I think it was partly the width and partly to do with the way they were connected but I honestly can't remember. The more I think about it the less certain I am about the whole thing.

Or rubber ducks =)

Or millions of industrial plastic pellets. Thanks MSC Zoe.

Check out the story of the great Nike sneaker spill of 1990 sometime.

This "oh, we lose jobs" claim has never struck me as intelligent or valid. In reality, needing less work for a task means that time is now free to pursue other goals.

Iain Baker Exactly it's broken window fallacy

oh thank you too ;)

Juan Gonzalez - Oh, there was a great deal. They could see that this would do away with most of them. But then the march of technology and all that. The capacity of old fashioned ports had reached its limits. If one wanted more trade, one somehow needed to adopt a new method.

Gotta take the good with the bad, kiddo. I find them both quite entertaining and informative.

You realize the only reason Britisher has ANY audience at all is he took over the weekly news recap thing from Sargon of Akkad

@James Taylor - I noticed that and wondered whether to edit around it. But thought it would make for an interesting curio. ;)

@Steve Woodmansee - It will take me some time to recover. ;)

I dunno, I find something kind of pleasing about all the multi-colored blocks strewn about. It'd be better if they were sorted by color, though.

@Hikari Manekineko - Granted. They're no Cutty Sark. ;)

I don't see people turning even one sixteenth of roads into what is effectively a railroad, since you probably wouldn't be allowed to drive regular cars on these electrified logistics roads.