WHAT IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST SHIP?

The largest ship ever built is always debatable, depending on the overall length, deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage.  Here is one comparison showing Knock Nevis, a supertanker built in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, as the biggest, sometimes also known as the Oppama, Jahire Viking, Happy Giant, Seawise Giant and Mont:

In 2009, then called the Mont, she was intentionally beached in India for demolition, and was the biggest oil tanker ever built.  However, the Prelude FLNG is 1601 feet long, 243 feet wide, 260,000 tons of steel and 600,000 tons (five times that of the largest aircraft carrier) in operation,was built in South Korea in 2013, and is Shell's floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) facility:

The largest container ship is the MV CSCL Globe, built in 2014 in South Korea, 1312 feet long and 194 feet wide, with a gross weight of 187,540 tons and a top speed of 22 knots.  It can hold 19,000 20-foot containers.

Of course, ships (the red Prelude) are not particularly large compared to buildings:

But this blog site is most interested in cruise ships.  With a maiden cruise only last month, the Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas is now the largest, replacing its sister, Allure of the Seas.  Details:

• Both ships have 
• 20 dining venues
• 12 bars
• surf simulators
• 16 passenger decks

• Harmony
• has 15 cabins for solo cruisers
• leans towards Sandra Dee versus ABBA songs on the Allure, and has molecular gastronomy
• built in France (Allure in Finland)
• 226,963 gross tonnage (Allure = 225,262)
• 1182 feet long (Allure = 1187)
• 217 feet wide (Allure = 198)
• max speed greater than 25 knots (29 MPH); Allure at 22.6 knots
• 6780 passengers (Allure = 6296)
• crew of 2300 (Allure has more, 2384)

Unfortunately, no Royal Caribbean ship has a complete global itinerary.

Cruise Critic provides a guide for those considering a world journey on a ship.  In short (cost for 2018):

• Cunard Line (112 days, Queen Elizabeth, $21,8848, and 134 days, Queen Mary 2, $25,798) is grand, formal and mostly British.
• Saga Cruises is also British, and you need to be at least 40, with a companion at least 50.
• Princess (2018 not settled, but will come through Honolulu) and Holland America (113 days, ms Amsterdam, $17,499) are more affordable, giving good value.
• Regent Seven Seas (137 days, Seven Seas Navigator, $61,999--departs Los Angeles, first stop Hawaii) and Crystal are at the luxury class and mid-sized, but Crystal does go around the world.  The Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony combined, 129 days, switching ships in Sydney, costs $56,805--but does not circumnavigate Planet Earth.
• Costa Cruises have a European flair for reasonable prices.
• Small luxury lines like Silversea (121 days, Silver Whisper, $57,750) are expensive and pamper.
• Book when first available--18 moths before departure--to obtain the best cabins.
• Get a balcony to escape from others.
• Lower rooms in the center are more stable in a storm.
• Be careful with whom you room.
• Early on, make friends with officers and the Maitre d'.

There is, too, MS The World, a ship (644 feet long with 12 decks), now 13 years old, which constantly roams around the globe, an itinerary decided by residents.  There are 165 units and a buy-in cost around $2 million, plus an annual maintenance fee of from $60,000 to $270,000.

The Seasteading Institute facilitates the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters.  Here is my talk at one of their gatherings.

So, anyway, I'm still exploring options regarding my 2018 Global Cruise.  A small list of potential cabinmates is forming.  There has been some progress.

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TWO MALAYSIAN MYSTERIES

The disappearance of Malaysian Air 370 27 months ago, has continued to confound, even more so than that of Amelia Earhart and D.B. Cooper.  With all the current technology and effort expended ($70 million), including the sporadic re-appearance of debris unto islands of the Indian Ocean and East Africa, the current odds are that the wreck itself will never be found, for the search will officially end later this month.

No question that a next stage of black boxes (which are orange) will be real-time Cloud-connection.  The immediate availability of data should in the future improve these searches.

An equivalent mystery, at sea, perhaps more so than the Flying Dutchman (ghost ship folklore) or the Mary Celeste (colorful, with a giant squid, submarine earthquakes, paranormal intervention and Sherlock Holmes options), is the fate of the Malaysian SS Ourang Medan in the Straits of Malaka.  In 1947 there was an SOS message indicating that the captain and rest of the crew was dead, the telegrapher during transmission.  The American Silver Star in the area was asked to respond to this distress call.

They found the ship, and everyone on board was dead, mostly looking up into the sky.  During the rescue attempt, a fire broke out, the effort was abandoned, and the ship violently exploded and sank.  Among the theories:

• ship was transporting nerve gas which the Japanese military had been storing in China, which meant that there was no paper trail--there was a Unit 731 commanded by Shiro Ishii as early as 1932 suspected to have conducted biological weapon tests
• cargo of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin, also something to be shielded from authorities, probably the most realistic of the conspiracies
• carbon monoxide from the ship's boiler system
• attack by UFOs, for the dead faces seemed to be pointing to an unknown enemy
• the ship never existed...but there are these photos

Funny, though, but they look like different ships.

Tomorrow, perhaps a hint about my 2018 World Cruise, and maybe a look at some of the largest ships now floating, the $1 billion Harmony of the Seas and Knock Nevis, a football field longer than the largest aircraft carrier.

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THE GREAT BREXIT: The End of the European Union?

On Thursday, the United Kingdom votes to exit the European Union, or Brexit (British exit).  I call it The Great Brexit for three reasons.  First, the term is obsolete, as Brittania (also Britannia) or the island of Great Britain, leaves out Northern Ireland and some minor other islands.  Secondly, in the 19th century, the term British Empire  (map of 1919) applied to the global imperial power, where the Sun never set, which is no more.  Note how relatively tiny the British Isles are compared to, say, Australia or Canada or India or those African nations.  Of course, the USA, too, was once a mere colony.  Third, if Brexit prevails, this vote could well be cataclysmic for the UK, European Union and World.

There are fears that a UK departure would be the straw that breaks the will of the European Union, which is an economic basket case already metastable because of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and torn by immigration issues.  The abandonment of the Euro and disestablishment of the Union will crash the world stock market.  In the UK, economic recession is an almost certainty and the prospects of Scotland seceding will become all too real.  Only 44% voted for separation two years ago, but that number will materially increase if Brexit occurs.

As  recently as 2012, Monocle ranked Britain (yes, you can actually still refer to the UK as Britain) as the most powerful nation on Earth.  Sure, the magazine is headquartered in London and the comparative dimension was one of soft power, where "positive influence" was the key factor, and current events like hosting the Summer Olympics, number of top music albums, dominance of James Bond films, conquering of the Tour de France by Bradley Wiggins and the tennis skills of Andy Murray were considered to be impactful, but there was a matrix of 50 items.

Soft power is taken seriously in some quarters.  While the USA regained #1 status in the most recent Monocle release and the Portland Index had the U.S. at #1 this year, the Elcano Global Presence Report had the European Union over the USA.  But if you go to the report itself, the U.S. is #1, followed by a bunch of EU nations.

In case you were wondering, both Portland and Elcano are European media companies.  In any case, while it is touted that Britain's military today would defeat China, the fact of the matter is that the British Empire is a weak facade.  On the other hand, if only a glitch in banking and real estate financing can cause the stock market debacle six years ago, there are worries on how catalytic Brexit could be.

George Soros remarked that Brexit would trigger a Black Friday and the crash of the British pound.  Christine Lagarde (left), chief of the International Monetary Fund, said Brexit would result in a UK recession.  Here is a likely scenario if Brexit wins.  Both Prime Minister and President Barack Obama have pleaded for voters to shun exit.

So why is Brexit even happening?  Two words:  arrogance and unaccountability...of the EU.  The UK never accepted the Euro anyway, and the combined recent issues of migration and economic freedom might turn out to be too much to bear.

Polls on Brexit have jumped around, and most recently, exiting is at 44% and remaining at 42%.  That leaves 14% not sure at this time.

Forget those public surveys.  Betting odds peaked to leave two weeks ago.  Today, the odds are high that Brexit will fail:

As an aside, let us look at the upcoming U.S. presidential election.  Hillary Clinton's odds today are around 2:7, meaning that she has a 78% (7 divided by 9) chance of winning.  Donald Trump is at 3:1, meaning that his presidential prospects are only at 25%.  Gary Johnson?  Less than 1%.  The total should be less than 100%, but this is close enough.

Thus, all the above fears will most likely not come to pass, for all signs now point to BRemain as prevailing.  But if UK voters vote to leave, watch out for a Friday version of Black Monday (there were two:  1987 and 2008), and, hopefully not, Black Tuesday (1929).  Then what?

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IT'S NOW MEDICALLY OFFICIAL: TEA AND COFFEE ARE GOOD FOR YOU, BUT...

While hot beverages now have officially been placed on the warning list for being carcinogenic, coffee and tea appear now to have a range of health benefits that warrant your high consideration.  Just don't drink them too hot.

Coffee and tea are unrelated plants.  Coffee is brewed from the seed, mistakenly called beans, from two types of Rubiaceae tree of the genus coffae:

• Arabica:  75-80%, with caffeine content of 0.8-1.4% and
• Robusta:  20%, with caffeine from 1.7-4%.

First found in Yemen more than 500 years ago, the origins could well have been in the Kaffa Province of Ethiopia.  However, the name coffee, could have derived from the Arab qahwah, Turkish kahveh or Italian caffe.

Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee in the U.S.  As a nation, we import the most coffee, probably now at 10 pounds/capita for $10 billion.  Americans consume the most coffee at 400 million cups/day, or 146 billion/year.  However, we don't even crack the top 15 in terms of consumption/capita (cups/day/person):

• #1  The Netherlands, 2.41
• #2  Finland, 1.85
• #3  Sweden, 1.24

U.S.?  #16 with 0.93.

Brazil produces the most coffee at around 6 billion pounds/year.  Vietnam is #2 with 3.4 billion pounds.  Kona?  Maybe 3 million pounds/year, although that now represents only one-fourth of Hawaii production, with all major islands now having plantations.  Ah, but we blend with alien beans and might well market 50 million pounds with the Hawaii name.  Still, a pittance on the world market.

So how is coffee such a healthful drink?

• Can make you smarter.
• Improves your energy level.
• Burns fat.
• Enhances physical performance.
• Provides nutrients:   riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5), Niacin (B3) and assorted minerals.
• Lowers risk (23-50%) of Type II diabetes, afflicting 300 million people worldwide.

• Protects you from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia.
• Aids liver function and lowers risk of cirrhosis.
• Reduces breast cancer.
• Fights depression.
• Makes you happier.
• Reduces liver and colorectal cancer.
• Lowers risk of stroke.
• Increases your longevity.
• Biggest source of antioxidants in the Western diet.
• A Harvard study indicated that a sampling of 50,000 men drinking 6 cups/day reduced the chance of getting sick by 60%.

Largest coffee shop company?  Locations:

• Starbucks  20,000
• Dunkin Donuts  10,000
• Tim Hortons  4,300 (Canadian)
• Costa Coffee  1,700 (British)

Starbucks was founded in 1971 by three partners (from left, Zev Siegl, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker) who met as students at the University of San Francisco.  They were taught by Alfred Peet, who came from the Netherlands as a child and started in 1966 with Peet's Coffee, Tea and Spices in Berkeley.  There are now 200 or so Peet's throughout the nation.

A few words about the most commonly psychoactive substance in the world, caffeine (molecule to the right):

• Methlxanthine alkaloid chemically related to DNA and RNA.
• Found in sixty plant species.
• Stimulant, and recognized for increasing personal performance and health enhancement.
• Safe for pregnant women, up to two cups.
• Need to drink at least 50 cups to reach a lethal dose.
• Legal, unregulated and generally recognized as safe.
• Disrupts sleep for some.
• Increases blood pressure, heart rate and urine output.
• Might be addictive.
• Toxic to birds, dogs and cats.

A good take-off point for tea, which is mostly Camellia sinensis, with variations, an evergreen shrub, and goes back to 3000 BC in China.  While the shrub is kept short for easier harvesting--only the top 1-2 inches of the plant is picked--a tea tree can grow to more than 50 feet tall.  Here to the left is bank of the world's oldest tea tree, found in Yunnan, China.  Caffeine constitutes 3% of tea's dry weight.

You thought you knew tea (mg of caffeine per 8 oz cup)?

• White (30-55):  wilted and unoxidized
• Yellow (33):  unwilted and unoxidized, and allowed to yellow
• Green (35-70):  uwilted and unoxidized
• Oolong (50-75):  wilted, bruised and partially oxidized
• Black (60-90):  wilted, sometimes crushed and fully oxidized (sometimes called Red)

Coffee comes in at 150-200 mg.  Why so different from the above graphic?  Not sure.  But click on this for a full list of caffeine beverages, and note that the small bottle of 5-Hour Energy you see when you check out of drugstores has 500 mg for the standard 2 oz size.  I had a terrible ordeal.  I could not sleep, but more so, the experience was frightening.  I would caution you from experimenting with drinks of this type.

China produces the most tea, about 2 million tons/year, with India #2 at 1.2 MT/Y and Kenya 0.4 MT/Y.  The story is that the British brought tea back from China, had difficulty importing it, so produced the shrub in India.  Kenya was also a colony of Great Britain.

But you'd be shocked who drinks the most tea (kg/capita/year):

• #1  Paraguay  12.22
• #2  Uruguay  9.66
• #3  Argentina  6.05
• #12  United Kingdom  2.06  (coffee now drunk at twice the volume as tea)
• #36  Japan  0.97
• #38  China  0.92
• #58  India  0.64
• #66  USA  0.53
• #140  South Korea  0.07
• #169  Cuba  0

So which is drunk more, tea or coffee?  The key point is that more coffee bean is harvested than tea leaves, but that it takes less of those leaves to make a cup.  Thus, the Pew Research Center reports that three cups of tea are drunk for every cup of coffee.

Not sure how accurate this is, but the best I've been able to figure out, Americans drink (cups/person/day), roughly:

• Water  2.5 cups
• Soda  2 cups
• Coffee  1 cup

What?  So much soda?  Ridiculously high, but in 1998 Americans drank more soda than water/person.  Interesting that while soda consumption has dropped, so has coffee and beer, but wine imbibition has increased.  By the way, you are supposed to produce 6.3 cups of urine/day.  As there are 4 cups/quart, do you pee a quart and a half a day?  Use judgement, of course, for sweating from exercising also depletes fluids.  In any case you probably should drink a little more water, coffee and wine, which also, it is reported, has health benefits. 

Finally, on your way to Starbucks (that female, incidentally, is Siren, a mermaid from a 16th century Norse woodcut), consider that it costs them only 20 cents/cup of coffee and 27 cents/cup of tea.  There is then the other end of the coffee spectrum. People do things for their own special reasons, so this is why Kopi Luwak can command a growing market: (compared to the average joe in a restaurant or cafe):

• Price/cup  up to $100 ($2 to $5)
• Price/pound of the bean  up to $600 ($3 to $10)
• Production/year of up to 1000 pounds (6 billion pounds just in Brazil)

This is that extravagance you probably first heard mouthed by Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List.  In Indonesia a civet eats the coffee cherry, with the digestive system acting like a processing factory, removing the skin and membrane called the spermoderm (which is sweet), nicely providing the bean in the cat poop.  However, 70% of what's sold is fake and much of the real stuff now comes from caged civets.

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SHOULD YOU HAVE CATARACT SURGERY?

I will continue Part 2 of whether coffee and tea are good for you or not probably tomorrow.  In short, yes, they both are now on the favorable list of medical researchers, just don't drink them too hot.

Three weeks ago I underwent cataract surgery of my right eye.  Two days later I showed you how much that eye had improved.  On Friday I had surgery on my left eye.  My vision has materially improved so that I now don't need to wear glasses for distant vision.  The whites are whiter and the blacks are blacker.  I should be able to experience the golf ball rolling on the green from 250 yards.  We'll see.

In the doctor's office the morning after the operation, my right eye had 20/30 vision, while yesterday my left performed at 20-20.  What does this mean?  Visual acuity follows the chart developed by Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen in 1862.

• 20/20 is normal vision
• 20/30 means that my right eye sees at 20 feet what a normal person sees at 30 feet
• with 20/20 vision you can see letters one-tenth as large as someone with 20/200 vision (at which point you are legally blind)
• 20/15 means that you can see an object at 20 feet when the normal person needs to look from 15 feet
• you need at least 20/40 vision to pass a driver's license test in all 50 states

In your doctor's office you will see these types of chart, and you usually stand twenty feet away:

Of course, some offices don't have that length, and many now use computer monitors.  But the left chart has 20-20 as the fourth line from the bottom.  The very bottom indicates 20/5 vision, the eyesight of some birds of prey.  If you can't read the top line, you are legally blind.

If you have at least 20/40 vision you don't need glasses to drive.  The question then is what kind of dark glasses to use, especially if you are outdoors a lot.  You need to protect yourself from ultraviolet and blue light.  Unfortunately, there are no international standards for UVA (315 to 380  nm) and UVB (280 to 315 nm).  Your eyes cannot detect the light spectrum below 390 nm, but will be physically affected.  This is why you need this protection.

Other colors (note that you can only barely distinguish the hues):

• Yellow and Brown lenses filter out blue (450-495 nm) light.   However, there is a danger here, for if you filter out too much blue, you won't be able to distinguish traffic lights properly.  
• Grey and green lenses maintain true colors.  
• Amber is popular for skiers and hunters.  
• Blue or Purple?  Only cosmetic.
• Mirrored coating:  does deflect some light and minimizes lens heating.

As an aside, here are the colors you would get if you mixed light (top) and pigments:

Lens material?

• Glass:  resistant to scratch but heavy
• Plastic:  lighter and cheaper, but prone to scratching, with 
•    polycarbonate plastic lenses the lightest and almost shatterproof
•      CR-39 also of low weight plus scratch resistant and good for filtering out ultraviolet and   infrared
•        SR-91 almost shatterproof with low weight and good clarity.

Then there is the matter of paying extra for photochromic glasses, which gradually darken when exposed to light.  I have tended to use this property for my prescription glasses but probably will not in the future, for I'd rather not wear glasses indoors.

Frames mostly depend on your financial position in society and personality.  However, a few frames allow you to change lens colors to fit the use.

Nose bridge you ask?  Depends on your nose and application.

Size?  The more cover the better, but this also depends on your personality.

How many dark glasses should you own?  Categories (European standard):

• 0   80-100% light transmission for fashion, indoor or cloudy days
• 1   43-80%  for low sun exposure
• 2   18-43%  for medium sun exposure
• 3   8-18%    for strong brightness (light reflected from water or snow)
• 4   3%-8%   intense sunshine on high mountains and glaciers (not to be used for driving)

Polarizing lenses add another degree of uncertainty.  Pilots should not use them, for the windshield is already polarized, and the effect can be dangerous.  I heard that golfers cannot see the ball in flight as well with these glasses.  If you go into space, that is another whole dimension of difficulty, for even infrared radiation can be a problem.  I can go into which glasses for other sporting events, but I'll leave that for you to do some research.

Finally, a few pointers:

• You don't need to spend a lot of money for 100% UV protection, the problem is that a $5 pair might say so, but might not, and a $20 pair probably does.  Your optical shop will measure yours for free.

• Here are Amazon's two best sellers.  Above right, #1, Ray-Ban RB2132 New Wayfarer Sunglasses at $106.68.  #2?  RetroRewind Classic Polaried Wayfarer Sunglasses for $10 to the right.    Six of the top ten are from Ray-Ban, they all cost more than $100 and #7 Erika Sunglasses sells for $173. 
• The tint of the lens has little to do with the UV protection, for a clear lens can fully protect you, while a heavily darkened one with no UV protection can be very bad.  Same for colored glasses. 
• Photochromic glasses can be UV resistant, but you need to add this option.

• Polarized or anti-glare glasses don't do much for UV protection.
• Children need more protection from the sun than adults.  Be careful of cheap kids dark glasses.
• If the day is cloudy, UV light remains potent, so wear your sunglasses.

As for reading, a diopter is a unit of refractive error:

• the optimal power of a lens with a focal length of about 39 inches (one meter) is 1 diopter
• a 3 diopter lens has a length of one-third of a meter or 13 inches 
• magnification increases for higher diopters
• this will totally lose you, but...the human eye has an optimal power of 40 diopters
•    a young eye can adjust an additional 20 diopters
•    by the age of 25 the ability of your eye to focus is at 10 diopters
•    at 50 your eye can only focus at 1 diopter, when you need reading glasses
• a negative number indicates myopia or nearsightedness
• a positive number indicates hyperopia or farsightedness
• a -1.00 diopter--able to see objects at 1 meter clearly
• a -2.00 diopter--able to see objects at a 1/2 meter clearly
• a weak reading glasses has a diopter strength of +1.00 or less
• a 50-year old is probably at a +2.25 diopter correction level
• you don't need a prescription for reading, just go to your local drug store or equivalent and try them out

The lens I had installed in my eyes only addressed distance viewing.  For reading, then, I bought +2.50 diopters and +2.75 diopters glasses from Longs/CVS for $10 each, and am I pleased.  I don't remember when in the past I have read so well.  I don't need to squint when using my computer or enlarge the print size when I read this blog.    I thought a second would be better for computer applications.  This was probably not necessary, but one can always use two reading glasses if they both work well, especially if the cost is $10.

So should you have cataract surgery (CS)?  Almost 26 million Americans over the age of 40 have a cataract problem, which is a clouding of the eye's lens.  According to most studies, those who go through this procedure have an improved quality of life, reduced risk of falling and fewer car crashes.  Your mortality drops by 40%, which is good. Most of the cost was absorbed by my medical plan, but I selected a special distance lens that added $1000, total for both eyes.  There might have been other charges, but nothing significant.

CS is the most commonly performed type of eye surgery.  The equipment has significantly improved from the old days when a scalpel was used to cut into the eye.  Lasers have made the process a lot quicker and safer.  You are in and out of the operation room in 20 minutes.  Approximately 95% of the time patients are satisfied.  However, there are horror stories in one out of 3,000 cases, the most prominent being endophthalmitis, which is an eye infection.  There are also complications possible to the retina.

Everyone from the doctor to your friends will tell you the process is easy and painless.  The doctor should be optimistic, but Jon Portis (he has been on Honolulu Magazine's Best Doctor list forever) did delay this surgery for me at least a decade.  Your friends have probably also had open-heart surgery and other operations, so, yes, CS is trivial, for them.  15 Craigside is an encyclopedia of life-threatening procedures, so my concern from their point of view is laughable.  Me, the last time I was in a hospital as a serious patient I had my tonsils out almost 70 years ago.  Everything from the 20+ eye drops to an intravenous feed to use of an anesthesiologist to wearing of an eye protector after the operation are big deals for me.  There was also some pain because my eyes don't properly dilate, so Doc Portis had to use special equipment and had the skills to prevail.

Well, everything went so relatively well that I decided last night to fry on my lanai the last piece of Japanese wagyu beef I had in the freezer since February.  Note the $80/pound cost.  

The wine was a fabulous Staglin Select Cabernet Sauvignon from my Stanford Collection.  You will especially note the size of the arugula (9 inches, the 9 is upside down) and mint (3.5 inches):

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