The Ever Given is an Ultra Large Container Vessel, one size up from New Panamax; the manufacturer calls it a Golden-class container ship, and there are currently only five container ships larger than it in the world (is also has 10 siblings of comparable size). It is 400 meters long, can carry 20,000 cargo containers, and is outfitted with a scrubber on its exhaust system, making it comparatively clean to run. It's a pretty cool ship, by any standard.

Also, it blocked the Suez Canal for six days, making it the top news story in the world and costing millions or billions in economic disruption.

About 7:30 AM on March 24, 2021 the ship was hit by a blinding sandstorm with strong winds up to 30 mph (50 kph) -- normally not a problem for large container ships, but it was mid-way down the Suez Canal, and this is what happens when you put a ship in the middle of the desert. The ship was pushed sideways and rammed bow first into the east side of the canal near the…

I was recently asked to introduce a local academic to the homeless community for a book he's writing. Some examples are as follows:

Water gangs have multipled during the plague, small groups of black boys aged 13-17 who claim a highway exit ramp to sell bottles at $2 apiece. Some of them are strapped (a necessity when operating in cash). Not all of them had a meal that day.  I hand out canned ravioli and milk packs, wondering if anyone at DFCS figures them into the childhood hunger…

Turns out if you take nortriptyline, tizanidine, and 10 mg of melatonin all in one go, you get weird dreams.

Some of these make more sense than others.

* * * * *

On top of a wooded hill, under a starry sky, group of faeries were saying a blessing to the elements.

They got fire, water, wood, wind, and earth, and then they looked at me smugly.

I said they forgot one, and the black night dragon broke out of the valley for the first time in millennia.…