Eric Joiner's Freightdawg.com - The Logistics and Supply Chain Blog!

STS-135: Atlantis Takes the Greatest Transport System ever into the History Books

Yesterday, on July 8th, 2011, NASA launched the 135th and final space shuttle mission.   I had a lot of internal business stuff to take care of, so I worked from home.  I needed the alone time to get some stuff done, but selfishly, I also wanted to watch this lift off, which was scheduled for 11:26AM Eastern Time.    I have a small TV in my office, so I had it on in the background. I was listening to Anderson Cooper and the rest of the talking heads on CNN blather on about the Shuttle and NASA while the launch team worked through a weather delay, which stopped the countdown at about 9 minutes.

So, slogging through conference calls,  a couple of RFP's and some other business stuff, I kept peering over to see what was going on.   About the time my cell phone rang with a call from our Atlanta District Manager about some staffing issues,  NASA started the countdown again.   I had my back to the TV and was deep into the conversation, when I happened to turn around and saw the Shuttle had already launched and was screaming off into space!!!    My daughter was home at the time in another part of the house. 

Next thing she hears from me is "DAMN!, DAMN!, DAMN!!!!  I MISSED IT!!!"        

I know our local DM thought I had lost my mind. I started fussing "Dammit Rich, you made me miss the shuttle launch!!".    This guy is sitting in the office and and I am sure he thought I was sitting here in my Bunny Slippers.   The phone call ended quickly after that. 

I'm pretty attached to the Shuttles.  I grew up watching Gemini missions when folks like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Eric Sevareid would announce the launches back in the 60's.   Then the Apollo missions came.   Alas, Apollo ended in the 1970's when the moon mission had fulfilled Kennedy's promise and the political juice ran out after the 1973 oil embargo.   

We waited 6 long years for the next launch system to come along.  It was the Space Shuttle.  Arguably the most complex, and most Herculean transportation system ever developed by man.    I vividly recall sitting in my parents home in 1981 when John Young and Bob Crippen took the first shuttle up from Cape Canaveral.   What an emotional event that was.    America was leading again.  Reagan was in the White House.  America was in the ascendency again.  Literally.

Then Challenger happened.   Like the Kennedy assassination and later 9/11,  I think every American remembers where they were when Challenger blew up.   I was in my office when my wife called and told me.  I felt like I had been kicked in the groin.  It hurt.  America hurt.    Two years later, the Shuttle returned, this time safer and NASA was humbled into a stronger, safer space program.    On the backs of Astronauts like Story Musgrave,  Hoot Gibson, Bruce McCandless, Sally Ride and others,  the Shuttle accomplished the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope,  its subsequent repair and ultimately the missions to build the first permanent International Space Station.   Despite the sacrifices of 14 American patriots in the astronauts who died in the Challenger and Columbia accidents,  the Space Shuttle has been an unparalleled success.

STS-135 was essentially a housekeeping mission, taking supplies to the ISS.  It wasn't even supposed to take place.  However, NASA has Atlantis ready to go as a back up shuttle for the earlier missions this year, and decided to fly one last time.  I'm delighted they did.

At some point in the future, America will have the political will to venture into space on its own again.  Whether through NASA and the Orion program, or through brilliant commercial minds who are developing private launch capacity,  America will go back to space.  I can't wait.   The sooner we get a Republican back in the White House again, the sooner that will be.

Enjoy the video above.  That's how I got to see the last mission blast off into space.  

Eric

Green Packing Materials

Packing materials used in both freight and express parcel movement are both expensive to produce and eat lots of petro resources.  Not exactly green materials.   

ZDNet has a great video on some new developments in creating biodegradable packaging for ecommerce uses as well as some interesting information on how bio materials are making their way into plastics used in everyday items up to and including automobiles.

Check this link out to the ZDNet site.

Ok, these things are CREEPY.

I spent the last couple of days in south Florida in some customer meetings.   I normally fly into KFLL, pick up a rental car, go to our corporate headquarters to visit my amigos, then go do what I need to do with the Latin American regional offices of my clients that are based in Miami.   This is all quite normal and regular business for me.  

On the return to Atlanta tonight, going through TSA security at Fort Lauderdale, I noted that they had a new (at least since the last time I was there) scanning unit in terminal 2.  It is a backscatter body imaging machine.  These are the units that can see through the clothing of scanned passengers, though said not to either store scans nor compromise the modesty of the scanned passenger. (see for yourself here.)

Since I work with customers who produce some of these kinds of security devices,  I figured I would go through the body imaging line.  No big deal really.  You take off any and all metal, then you proceed to hold your arms up and get scanned.  The TSA officer then tells you to move along.   However, I will say watching a young lady in front of me get scanned, then subsequently get frisked, gave me the willies.  The TSA officers did nothing unusual and were perfectly professional in the examinations. Standing in the unit, then holding your arms up to get scanned, was somehow just a little unnerving.   After a few times, I'm sure it will seem quite normal, but I can think of a few things that might seem normal if you did them enough.

Here is what the TSA says about those who observe these screenings:

"For additional privacy, the officer viewing the image is in a separate room and will never see the passenger and the officer attending to the passenger will never see the image. The officers have 2-way radios to communicate with each other in case a threat object is identified."

Why is this even more unnerving?     I do not want to even know what those people could be doing in the observation rooms, though I can pretty much assure the traveling public my image won't incite anything weird.

I really think it's time to go to a US domestic passport along with some kind of bio marker that says it's me.  Maybe a retina scan or a fingerprint scan, but something that shows I am a safe traveler and something that expedites travel through security. I am convinced that at least one true cost of 9/11 is being borne and costed out on the traveling public by the inefficient use of security measures.   

Politically, I am a center right independent.  Mostly I just want to be left alone by government to pay my own way, take care of my responsibilities and do my own thing.  Most conservatives rail at the idea of any kind of domestic passport on the grounds that it is like Nazi Germany "requesting your papers" just to travel in your own country.  

On a defacto basis I think we are already there.  We are just using technology to verify who is safe and who is not.

Stop screening my shoes and my underwear.   Neither of which is really that interesting.

Eric

Clarification: Jones Act and the Oil Spill

Following on yesterdays article on the oil spill mess in the Gulf of Mexico,  I got a very good comment from a reader who pointed me to a site called Deep Sea News that breaks down the Jones Act issue and its impact on the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill clean up.

The Jones Act does prevent use of foreign vessels in US domestic commerce, but apparently is not directly preventing clean up activities in the Gulf by foreign owned skimmers etc.   The Jones Act involves those domestic waters out to 3 miles from the shore.  Activities conducted beyond the 3 mile limit, in international waters, are still open to use by any ship of any flag.    In fact the Deep Water Horizon well itself is beyond 3 miles from the coast of Louisiana.

I will stand corrected (and updated) in my comments on the concerns on the Jones Act, though I still think the President should set it aside for this particular catastrophe.  Thanks TG for your excellent post in response.  I'll admit I got suckered by Fox News on this one.  

Eric

The Mess In the Gulf of Mexico

Last week we took the kids to the beach down in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  My bride's sister and brother in law own a condo that we get a chance to use periodically.  We had a BLAST.  

The water was beautiful, the sand was sugar and the weather was great.   Just the kind of break we needed after a long winter and busy spring.  We were fortunate because we don't pay anything to use this family owned condo overlooking the beach.  Gulf Shores was also fortunate, because if we had been paying a typical rental of as much as $1500.00 a week, there is a very high likelihood that we wouldn't have made the trip.  Too much money for the risk of an oily mess on the beaches.   Lucky for us, it was free and the beach was great.  So we went and spent our money in restaurants, shops, movies and the outlet mall.

Interestingly, if you listen to the locals, its not the oil that's killing the Gulf tourism business.  it's the national news.   We heard multiple stories of news folks getting out of their satellite equipped vans in their pressed suits and making a news video with the ocean in the background.   The only thing is, they didn't get within 100 yards of the actual water. They had no clue as to the actual water conditions that day.  This goes out over national airwaves (and probably gets picked up internationally too.) and everybody thinks the Exxon Valdez ran up on the beach.  The truth is, there is more oil afloat in the Gulf of Mexico than the Exxon Valdez ever held.   But its not ashore everywhere.   Beaches are dynamic ecosystems.  Its different every day.  One day may be great, and 4 days later, there may be tar balls. 

There is a guy doing one HELL of a job in keeping would be vacation travelers honestly informed.   Bruce Alexander is a local Realtor in Gulf Shores, who runs a web site called Bruceatthebeach.net.   Bruce goes down to the ocean daily and makes a youtube.com video reporting daily on water conditions, oil clean up etc.   For folks like our family, considering and anguishing over whether to go to the beach, this guy is doing yeoman's work.    I will say this, not only is he helping his community and would be tourists,  I'd buy a property from him.  Anybody who cares this much, must be a good guy to trade with.

This isn't a post about Bruce or the beach really.  This mess is going to take my 2 year old grandsons life time to clean up.  And with millions of gallons of oil now in the global ocean currents,  its a global problem.  Two years from now, I will not be surprised for some of this oil to be found fouling landmasses in Ireland.  The clean up effort is an environmental and economic nightmare writ large.   Who knows how many whales and other lifeforms have died and nobody knows?  

The video below shows what this oil really looks like at sea.  Its a mess, and its everywhere.   From thousands of feet below the surface of the sea to tar balls on the beach.  In thicknesses ranging from heavy brown tar to a viscous shine, this junk permeates the ocean at all levels.  A hurricane would just stir it up like salad dressing in a shaken bottle.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill flyover

There is a large flotilla of ships and activity throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico right now.  It's costing the American people billions of dollars.  (Like we need that with the War in the Middle East, the recession and Obama trying to nationalize healthcare)  People are losing their livelihoods, but at the same time, somebody is making money.  I'd like to own a company that made oil booms or did heavy marine engineering.  Own a septic tank pumping business with pump tanker trucks?  Send em to the Gulf.   The government is paying $50.00 an hour 24 hours a day to move oil from recovery ships to holding tanks and tankers.   Now there is a Logistics Business. 

I believe we borrow the environment from our children.  My children and grandchildren will be paying for this one for their generations lifetime.   That is the real tragedy. Hopefully, the oil companies, the governments and the people will be able to clean this mess up.   To the extent the logistics business plays a role, I hope as an industry we step up and play our part.  God knows, if any shipping company has assets useful in the clean up of oil, they are needed.

To this end an open appeal to Mr. Obama:  Please issue an executive order temporarily suspending the Jones Act restricting foreign vessels in US trade.  There are Dutch and Scandinavian ships specifically designed to collect oil etc. These ships are needed in US waters doing what they are designed for. If you are leading on this issue, lets suspend the bullshit and get with the program for the good of our people and the environment.

Eric