In 1914, the opening of the Panama Canal shortened the distance by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by almost 7,000 miles, eliminating the need to round treacherous Cape Horn. One hundred years later, in 2014, a new third set of locks will be opened and the two other locks will be widened and deepened, allowing twice as much cargo to pass through the canal each year. The impact of this expansion is been widely discussed andyet no one will really know who will benefit the most until after 2014. The new canal locks will allow ships 25 percent longer, 50 percent wider and with drafts up to 50 feet to transit. Currently a “Panamax” containership can typically carry roughly 5,000 twenty foot containers. After the expansion, ships carrying up to 13,000 containers should be able to transit the locks.
In the mean time, yesterday, the New York Times featured panoramas of the current locks and of the construction. Definitely worth a look.
I am glad that I am of the age to have seen ships constructed the old fashioned way. Not all that long ago, shipyards still built ships from the bottom up. The shipyard first fabricated the double bottom sub-assemblies and then started adding framing blocks and so forth. When the hull was fabricated, assemblies welded and painted, they launched the ship down the ways into the water with a satisfying splash, using technology that had been first developed by the ancient Egyptians.
The most interesting question about the recently revealed cheating scandal on personnel training exams on the nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, 
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On August 15th, 1653, the 
In May, we posted about 
Last week, a bright orange jelly or “goo” floated up on the beaches of Kivalina, a remote Alaskan village of just over 400 residents. Now scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have determined that the goo is not man-made but rather millions of microscopic invertebrate eggs, filled with fatty droplets. Experts are guessing that they are from some sort of crustacean, but so far have been unable to identify which species of invertebrate laid all the eggs or whether the mass of eggs will prove harmful to the village water supply or impact local fishing.
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The Viking longboat replica, 
In May, we posted about what appears to be the deck of an aircraft carrier built onto the top of a government building in China (