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    • deephdave
      Top reader this weekTop reader of all timeScoutScribe
      2 years ago

      Damn interesting!

      First on the scene was a single yellow digger, sent by a contractor working nearby. The driver approached nervously and started scraping scoopfuls of rocky earth from around the bow. He was terrified, according to an interview he later gave with Insider, that the metal behemoth looming over him would topple or shift, crushing him. The comical size mismatch was captured by the SCA’s communications team, which had a photographer on hand to show the world the authority was doing all it could to get the canal open again. The image of the lonely excavator went viral, and for the first time in its history, Suez was both a vital commercial passage and a meme.

    • monstertuck2 years ago

      I'm always fascinated by large scale logistics and operations - ports, trains, airports, canals, etc. I could sit and watch ships go by for days. Great and interesting summary of the full story. I hope the captain and the remaining crew can head home soon. Surely they are used to being away from home for some time, but this is probably much longer than normal.

    • thorgalle
      Top reader this weekScoutScribe
      2 years ago

      Well-deserved AOTD! Good to have a before- and after context of the meme that was just a snapshot. An interesting glimpse into the mechanics of globalization.

      Before containers were widely adopted in the 1970s, it could take a week or more to empty a large ship and then refill it. Today, vessels carrying 10,000 containers or more might spend just hours in a given port, unloaded by automated cranes guided by sophisticated planning algorithms. It’s an efficient model, saving on storage and inventory, but a fragile one. It takes only a single problem in the supply chain for everything to seize up.

      One issue though:

      “If it were not for the refloating operation, we could have witnessed a catastrophe,” he said in Arabic. The call to prayer drifted in through an open window as he spoke.

      This last sentence here confused me. Why include it right there? Just innocently to paint a picture of the surroundings, ala "birds were chirping, minarets sounded "? To negatively suggest that Egypt is a majority-Islam country where institutions of law may not be fully secular? Or to positively suggest that it must be a very weighty hearing to be held during a call for prayer?

      I felt the article is gently nudging towards possible SCA culpability, thus indirectly of the Egyptian government, for badly governing the canal. It's definitely painting the two SCA pilots in a bad light compared to the captain. Not sure why religion is being dragged into this article the way it is (or is it not?)

    • jeff2 years ago

      I've been looking forward to the long read on this incident since it took place back in March. Definitely did not disappoint. Thanks for finding and posting @deephdave!

    • DellwoodBarker2 years ago

      Really complex and deep dive into this sitch that captivated the world.

      Very Interesting Quote:

      “I’d rather have a colonoscopy than go through the Suez,” he said in an interview. The situation has improved in recent years, but the dynamic can still be fraught.