My role on the interweb of late has been more as a consumer rather than a producer of content, given the activities of the last few months and my resulting energy levels and state of mind. I hope that the resulting nuggets of information that I’ve gathered from far and wide are as interesting to our reader(s) as they are to me! When I get back in the water (I haven’t dived for three months, thanks chiefly to the CTDF – oh the irony) there will be a return of photographs and accounts of visits to new dive sites.
Meanwhile, here’s something on a subject reminiscent of The Box, which was a history of shipping containers. Shipping pallets are those nifty wooden constructs used to transport heavy (and not so heavy) items – often, packed inside of shipping containers. You have probably seen them underneath temporary displays at your local supermarket.
According to this article on Slate.com, “most every object in the world, at some time or another, is carried” upon a shipping pallet. There are billions of pallets circulating in a largely unseen global supply chain. A significant proportion of US hardwood lumber production goes into pallets. This is a wonderful example of an object that is absolutely fundamental to how the global economy operates, and yet receives very little attention. Here I am, rectifying that.
Read the full article here.
Via BoingBoing
