Peak Oil News and Message Boards

SeaGypsy wrote:Hey iowem i will be in singapore again on 9/20 if you would like to bang heads?
I noticed a much smaller backlog of shipping last time 6 weeks ago.

Oh hey, sure. You do know it's a public holiday on Sunday and thus it's a public holiday also on Monday, right?

Anyway. I'll drop you a PM to arrange things.

A boy is sitting at the staircase playing by himself. In his "house", actually, an apartment unit in a public housing estate, the lights are out. Their electrical meter had run out. Apparently the household is on a pre-paid scheme where instead of receiving a monthly bill, they have to slot in money at the meter to keep it going.

No money, no electricity. It's sad

Last I heard, unless they've changed their mind in the meantime, an updated system somewhat like it is going to be rolled out nationwide. No nation of deadbeats here.

No money, no electricity.

It's kind of brutal. You know, as in, brutally efficient. Should we as a nation leave it to market forces to work out little details like these and claim the moral high ground of capitalism or laissez-faire or whatever it is called, or should we be more compassionate towards the less well-off? I wonder.

lowem wrote:A boy is sitting at the staircase playing by himself. In his "house", actually, an apartment unit in a public housing estate, the lights are out. Their electrical meter had run out. Apparently the household is on a pre-paid scheme where instead of receiving a monthly bill, they have to slot in money at the meter to keep it going.

No money, no electricity. It's sad

Last I heard, unless they've changed their mind in the meantime, an updated system somewhat like it is going to be rolled out nationwide. No nation of deadbeats here.

No money, no electricity.

It's kind of brutal. You know, as in, brutally efficient. Should we as a nation leave it to market forces to work out little details like these and claim the moral high ground of capitalism or laissez-faire or whatever it is called, or should we be more compassionate towards the less well-off? I wonder.

Here in remote Australia they have the card prepay system in welfare housing; have done so for many years.

Especially where i work in Aboriginal communities it is the norm that the locals houses have the prepay while the white contractor houses have a quarterly bill.

Recently I was working in a community outside of Alice Springs in Central Australia. The Government was building new houses and among the 'modifications' was the installed 3kw split system aircon (x2 per house).
These were put in to replace the evaporatives which have always done the cooling in this very hot dry place.
No insulation was put in.
These houses get up to over 50 celcius (115F) every day for months during summer.
Most occupants are welfare dependent.
There is no way known they can afford to run these new aircons.

In Singapore I was shocked how much rent people pay; when compared to wages, rents there are absolutely outrageous. The prepay electric system is another lever to push people out. When they can't pay the electric they certainly won't be paying rent.

Strangely though there are far fewer homeless in Singapore than in any city in Australia. (at least visibly)

SeaGypsy wrote:Here in remote Australia they have the card prepay system in welfare housing; have done so for many years.

Especially where i work in Aboriginal communities it is the norm that the locals houses have the prepay while the white contractor houses have a quarterly bill.

and there is a good reason for it.

Pretorian wrote:

SeaGypsy wrote:Here in remote Australia they have the card prepay system in welfare housing; have done so for many years.

Especially where i work in Aboriginal communities it is the norm that the locals houses have the prepay while the white contractor houses have a quarterly bill.

and there is a good reason for it.

The whole situation is a mess. Yes there is.

lowem wrote:Ah yes, I'm fine, thanks. For the moment, anyway.
Quit Lockheed last year, joined the local equivalent.
Uh, sort of.

I've been making some trips across the newly-opened section of the Circle Line, it's pretty good, finally we've got the missing link between the two north-south going lines. They are going to double the MRT rail network by 2020. But yeah, long before that I would worry about the supply chain issues.

'Local Equivalent', hehe. No sketchy black-ops deals from the military anymore? But anyways, sounds cool. I'm glad your doing well!

I was really impressed with the MRT system, very efficient, the trains come often and they don't even have drivers (I think). I liked the announcements in 4 languages, and the "let me come out first" signs with the crazy lady everywhere.

And I don't think the white people I saw in Singapore were from the USS Ronald Reagan, they all had Australian (maybe British) accents. Lots of teenagers, maybe it was their winter holidays or something.

lotrfan55345 wrote:'Local Equivalent', hehe. No sketchy black-ops deals from the military anymore? But anyways, sounds cool. I'm glad your doing well!

Heh thanks. Black-ops deals eh? I shall neither confirm nor deny

lotrfan55345 wrote:I was really impressed with the MRT system, very efficient, the trains come often and they don't even have drivers (I think). I liked the announcements in 4 languages, and the "let me come out first" signs with the crazy lady everywhere.

The older lines have drivers (North-South Line, East-West Line). The newer lines are driver-less (North-East Line, Circle Line). All the 3 LRT (light rail) lines are also driver-less.

The crazy lady (and crazy guy) are famous local TV actors/comedians

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.

The 'ghost fleet' near Singapore. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies.


Two container ships tied together in southern Malaysia, waiting for the next charter

Story link here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession.html

Well, this sure gives a face to all the shipping collapse stories we've been reading. It's mazing, the ghost fleet off Singapore alone is larger than the US an British navies combined...

Unused tankers, cargo ships, and support vessels :

Heck, if no one's using them, I'll take a couple. I'll live out at sea and become a fisherwoman.

I posted this first, on Sept 13th, on US Economy Could Recover Much Sooner Than Expected, page 71.

Day late and a dollar short here.

I am not sure this is a bad sign, it shows me people are finally consuming less as we always should have been doing, its been a false economy here in America for at least the past 8 years due to housing prices soaring and people cashing out there equity and maxing out credit cards.

I know the investors with there money tied up in these tankers are in a sad shape but thats the name of the game.

This also shows us how much Americas over consumption as propped up lots of other countries, such as China and others,, for you American/capitalist haters on this site are sure up for rude awaking when we finally collapse, you might start jumping for joy but a minute later your country/job will be no more..

You don't need to go all the way to Singapore for evidence of this.

I imagine around every major city there is a container farm. There is one in Chicago not too far from Midway Airport. It's about 10 acres, stacked about 7 deep with empty shipping containers. There's a smaller one near me, only a couple of acres, stacked about four deep.

I suppose it's nice business if you can get it, if you have the room. Charge somebody rent on your farm for these containers? Better than growing soybeans.

As for these ships, I suppose there is an excess of sea captains right now....How will they feed their parrots, and do proper upkeep on their peg legs?

timmac wrote:I am not sure this is a bad sign, it shows me people are finally consuming less as we always should have been doing, its been a false economy here in America for at least the past 8 years due to housing prices soaring and people cashing out there equity and maxing out credit cards.

I know the investors with there money tied up in these tankers are in a sad shape but thats the name of the game.

This also shows us how much Americas over consumption as propped up lots of other countries, such as China and others,, for you American/capitalist haters on this site are sure up for rude awaking when we finally collapse, you might start jumping for joy but a minute later your country/job will be no more..

day late and a dollar short, Timmy. Africa cornered this market years ago (Darfur comes to mind).

This is incredible - the scale of the "aramada" is huge! Can't get my head around it.

Man that is pretty trippy!

I heard or saw somewhere that paper refuse that used to be shipped back to China to be recycled into shipping boxed is stacking up on this side of the ocean.

Insulation for those new container condos I guess.

That's incredible. The ships being built are a real problem as well. I wonder what they will be used for.

In England they used the hulks as prison ships. I wonder if they will think of that.

Debtors prisons.

Actually as one who has flown into and out of Singapore 12 times since August 08 the 'Armada' has shrunk by 2/3rds since April this year. It is not far above the old normal, less than double.
Ask Iowem; he lives there.

SeaGypsy wrote:Actually as one who has flown into and out of Singapore 12 times since August 08 the 'Armada' has shrunk by 2/3rds since April this year. It is not far above the old normal, less than double.
Ask Iowem; he lives there.

so, has shipping resumed at prior levels then?

JJ wrote:

SeaGypsy wrote:Actually as one who has flown into and out of Singapore 12 times since August 08 the 'Armada' has shrunk by 2/3rds since April this year. It is not far above the old normal, less than double.
Ask Iowem; he lives there.

so, has shipping resumed at prior levels then?

Did I say that?
No and it won't.
In April is was in shocking decline.
Now a slow demise.