Interesting Finds: Issue #10

Global Trade, Electric Eels, 13 kilobyte games and Light Sabers

Oct 16, 2020

Welcome to Interesting Finds Issue #10. Each week, I curate the most curious content I find, and add a spotlight on portions I find most interesting.

This week, I cover how one man’s ingenuity changed global trade, electric tweets, coding games in 13kb and 4000 degree plasma lightsabers.

The Box That Changed The World

Just came across the story of Malcolm Purcell McLean on Twitter. In a 13 part tweetstorm, @SahilBloom tells the story of how ingenuity a hundred years ago revolutionized global trade by inventing “containerization” for shipping.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

1/ Malcolm Purcell McLean was born in 1913 in Maxton, North Carolina. The son of a farmer, McLean learned the value of hard work from a young age. Unable to afford college, he went to work at a gas station. By age 21, he had saved enough money to buy a used truck.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

2/ It was from these humble beginnings that Malcolm McLean founded McLean Trucking Co. in 1934. The business focused on transporting empty tobacco barrels, livestock feed, and produce. Originally confined to the Mid-Atlantic, McLean Trucking quickly expanded its reach.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

3/ In 1937, after completing a haul from Fayetteville to Hoboken, McLean was forced to wait for hours in his hot truck while the stevedores worked their way to his load. He realized there had to be a more efficient way to do all of this.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

4/ The current method - with individual crates unloaded by stevedores, placed into a sling, and lifted into the ship's hold - was time consuming, expensive, and inefficient. As he continued to build a trucking empire over the next decade, the idea constantly gnawed at him.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

5/ By 1955, Malcolm McLean had built McLean Trucking Co. into one of the largest trucking operations in the country, with >1,700 trucks and locations. But the future he envisioned went well beyond trucking, so he set out to build a new reality.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

6/ McLean dreamed up a standardized truck trailer that could be easily loaded and stacked onto ships or trains. In his mind, "containerized cargo" was to be the future of shipping and logistics. Efficient logistics would mean improved commerce and a thriving economy.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

7/ In 1955, to expand his reach, he sought to acquire Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company - a cargo and passenger operation with docking rights at key port cities. But when railroad executives attempted to block the deal on anti-trust grounds, McLean was forced to make a decision.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

8/ Malcolm McLean decided to bet on himself and his big idea. He sold his ownership stake in McLean Trucking for $6 million (~$58 million today) and used it to purchase Pan-Atlantic. He quickly set about to make his vision for the future of logistics into a reality.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

9/ Renaming it Sea-Land Industries, in 1956, he purchased two World War II tankers and retrofitted them to carry his newly designed standardized containers. The SS Ideal X set sail on its maiden voyage in April 1956, carrying 58 of McLean's containers from New Jersey to Houston.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

10/ With the initial success, McLean kicked off a marketing tour to convince key players to rethink their operations. With 25% lower transportation costs, safer storage, and cheaper insurance, he won over customers. With lower port labor costs, he won over port authorities.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

11/ McLean's big idea for "containerization" took the shipping and logistics world by storm. By the late-1960s, Sea-Land Industries had 27,000+ containers, 36 ships, and covered 30 major ports. McLean had built the single largest cargo shipping business in the world.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

12/ In 1969, R.J. Reynolds purchased Sea-Land Industries for $530 million (~$3.8 billion today). Malcolm McLean personally made $160 million (~$1.1 billion today) on the sale. His transformation from truck driver to global shipping magnate was officially complete.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

13/ The legend of Malcolm McLean's innovation extends well-beyond his personal success. "Containerization" enabled the rapid expansion of global trade. Without it, our global economy would simply not be possible. Malcolm McLean died in 2001 at age 87, but his legacy lives on.

Hello Miguel

I’ve just learned there’s an electric eel named Miguel Wattson at an aquarium in Tennessee who powers Christmas tree lights with his electrical bursts!

Electric eels emit low-voltage bursts of electricity when they are searching for food, so the aquarium cleverly rigged up a special system to harness that. Even more interesting, Miguel has his own Twitter account which the aquarium team wired up to tweet each time one of his electrical blips happen!

Miguel Wattson TNAQ @EelectricMiguel

BLAM!!!!

Interestingly, Miguel also tags users in tweets but I haven’t figured out how he is selecting them (if you know, holler!).

Miguel Wattson TNAQ @EelectricMiguel

BAH-WEEP-GRAAAAAGNAH WHEEP NI NI BONG!!!! (A mouthful, that one, @jrgolden42!)

5 interesting facts about electric eels:

Although they are called eels, they are more closely related to the catfish than to the common eels (source)
All of their vital organs are packed into front 20% of their bodies, with the rest of the body housing cells used for generating electrical juice (source)
Their skin protects them from their own attacks, but if their skin is injured, they will shock themselves (source)
They can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh over 40 pounds (source)
The oldest eel was named “Ale” and lived to 155 years. He died in August 2014. (source)

Lightsabers

The guys over at Hacksmith created the best attempt at a Star Wars lightsaber that I’ve seen. This one is features a 4000 degree plasma blade which is retractable (go physics!). I apologize in advance for how many ads are featured throughout the video 🤦‍♂️.

The actual grand unveil of the final lightsaber in use is reserved for their Patreon subscribers right now, and will be released to the mass public (us) next week on their channel.

Games in 13KB

Reaffirming that I’ve never be a good enough software engineer, Js13kGames is an annual competition to create the best HTML5 game in one month using just 13 kilobytes. The official description:

Js13kGames is a JavaScript coding competition for HTML5 Game Developers. The fun part of the compo is the file size limit set to 13 kilobytes. The competition started at 13:00 CEST, 13th August and ended at 13:00 CEST, 13th September 2020. Theme for this year was 404.

Over the years, the games have been incredible and the 2020 winners are no different. The first place, Ninja vs. EvilCorp, is a crazy feat of engineering. Here’s an animated GIF of the game play… remember, this is all done in 13KB!

While Track Not Found garnered 4th place, I loved this game more than the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. The need to change perspectives as an essential part of game play reminded me of Monument Valley.

Github repo

JS13kGames project page

Other Interesting Finds 🔎

😷 Someone designed a contraption to launch face masks onto people, then tried it at a beach in southern California.
🚬 The Pez dispenser was originally designed to be an anti-smoking device.
🥑 30-50% of adults that have a latex allergy also have an allergy to avocados, bananas, chestnuts, kiwis, peaches, tomatoes, potatoes and bell peppers. It’s called the Latex-fruit syndrome.
🎥 Actor Bruce Willis caused Disney to lose $17.5 million when they were forced to abandon a movie project after he fired the director and most of the crew. As part of a settlement they reached, he was committed to making 3 movies for them, with a portion of his salary to pay back the $17.5M. Those movies were: Armageddon, The Sixth Sense and The Kid which ended up grossing a combined $1.35 billion. Good deal.
🔨 Flashback to some great scenes in Avengers Age of Ultron: the crew tries to lift Thor’s hammer. Later in the movie, Vision casually picks it up.