Sea-Fever blog

Episode 22 of Messing About In Ships has launched.

(73 minutes)

Download MP3: Messing About In Ships podcast episode 22 May 8, 2008

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Shownotes: Messing About In Ships blog

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The passenger liner ‘Aquitania’ (1914) in the Gladstone Graving Dock, Liverpool, in preparation for her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. A view from the head of the dock, looking up at the starboard bow of the ship.

Bedford Lemere Collection : National Maritime Museum is an online collection of over 500 photographs of ocean liners taken between 1891 and 1919. Taken by Bedford Lemere & Co., a company of architectural photographers active from the late 1860s to the 1940s, the collection covers the interiors and exteriors of 35 liners. The images were digitised from 12 x 10 inch glass plate negatives which were taken with small apertures and long exposures to allow their subjects to be captured in fine detail.  (Intute: Arts & Humanities)

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You might remember the scare last summer about two possible international terrorists scoping out opportunities for mayhem and destruction aboard the Washington State Ferries. The captain of the ferry snapped a picture of the duo and provided it to the FBI who then released it to the international media. This created a bit of a hubub about racial profiling.

Well, take down the APB, it turns out that these guys were tourists, not terrorists.

“Where these gentlemen live, they don’t have vehicle ferries. They were fascinated that a ferry could hold that many cars and wanted to show folks back home,” FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs said Monday. (Seattle Times)

Who could blame them? Car ferries are pretty cool.

What worries me is that a bad photo like that would make me look as much like a terrorist as these 2 innocent software consultants who were just enjoying an afternoon on a boat in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

via Boing Boing

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In his blog yesterday, Anil Dash posted about a Russia Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts, including American Peggy Whitson, which missed it landing by a few hundred miles while returning from the International Space Station. He reports:

The eight people who greeted her didn’t quite understand that they had encountered a spaceship gone astray, and asked about the origins of her boat.

As if it wasn’t a good enough story already:

After the crash landing (termed a “ballistic reentry“) Anatoly Perminov, the chief of Russia’s Federal Space Agency referenced the naval tradition of having more women than men on board a ship as a “bad omen”:

“You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully,” he said. “Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass” the number of men.

Challenged by a reporter, Perminov responded: “This isn’t discrimination. I’m just saying that when a majority (of the crew) is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behaviour or something else occurs, that’s what I’m talking about.”

He did not elaborate. (link)

It seems that we are not the only country that has government leaders that say stupid stuff.

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Will, over at Tugster, my favorite maritime culture blog, posted a link to a rad YouTube video that I just had to repost here. “Guaranteed to make you feel good”

Kudos to Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. for being neighborly and creating an epic day for some river dudes.

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In today’s (May 5, 2008 ) Wall Street Journal, Erin White wrote several interesting pieces about current business management thought leadership. New Breed of Business Guru Rises: Psychologists, CEOs Climb in Influence, Draw Hits, Big Fees and What Influential Business Thinkers Focus On: Top Guru’s Ponder Managers Worries, New Approaches. (subscription required)

Popular business thinkers can reap big rewards. Speakers’ bureaus say most of the top-echelon business speakers charge between $50,000 and $75,000 a pop. Among the most in-demand are “Good to Great” author Jim Collins, “Death by Meeting” author Patrick Lencioni, Dr. (Gary) Hamel, Harvard’s Prof. (Michael) Porter, and “Our Iceberg is Melting” author John Kotter, speakers’ bureaus say.

Fees are rising, notes Ron Christman, who runs executive-development workshops for nGenera Corp. and frequently hires gurus. Speakers “who five years ago might have been at 25[,000] are now at 50,” he says; less-prominent names can command $15,000. Throw in book royalties, and a top-ranked guru can reach at least $1 million a year.

Thomas H. Davenport, PhD and management professor at Babson College, compiled a ranking of influential business thinkers for the Wall Street Journal using the same methodology he used in his 2003 book, What’s the Big Idea? At the top of the 2008 list is Dr. Gary Hamel whose website is headlined by “Fortune magazine has labeled Gary Hamel “the world’s leading expert on business strategy” and The Economist calls him “the world’s reigning strategy guru.””

Unfortunately even gurus are not infallible. The first edition of Dr. Hamel’s 2000 book, Leading the Revolution “lionized” Enron Corp but thanks to some nifty editing, they were removed from subsequent printings. It’s not the first nor last time that this type of thing will happen. Seems gurus are human too, only just a little better paid.

For another view of influential business thinkers check out Thinkers 50 where Dr. Hamel currently ranks #5, up from #14 in 2005.

Cross posted in Center for Leader Development and Sea-Fever blogs.

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Way back around the time I was launching my business career, two McKinsey & Company management consultants, Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., wrote In Search of Excellence, a book that would turn out to be a modern classic and launch a new genre of business literature.

Today Tom Peters runs his own management consulting firm industry. His books are perennial bestsellers and his website/blog is chockful of interesting and useful information. He is an energetic, engaging and insightful public speaker as this short clip about “respect” will attest.

If you enjoyed that and have a little more time (20 mins), watch this episode from The Charlie Rose Show. While its more than 10 years old, much of what they discuss in the interview is still relevant today.

If you want a daily dose of Tom Peters, you can register to receive his Daily Quote via email here.

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Sunday VOW’s (Videos of the Week)

Leave it to Björk, the edgy Icelandic pop star and former front for the Sugarcubes, to incorporate a collection of ambient maritime sounds into her latest song Wanderlust, the sixth single released from her 2007 album Volta. The song’s recently released music video is a magical ride down a roaring river on the back of a buffalo. Well, it basically defies description, so you better watch it and make sure you listen for all of the cool nautical noises in the song.

WATCH THIS incredible large high resolution version in 2D or 3D (need 3D glasses)

Here’s the standard “making of” piece; not as good the video itself, but still worth watching. The video, which took nine months and over $100,000 to film, was staged in the studio of Bjork’s partner, the artist Matthew Barney.

NY Times interview with Björk and ‘Encyclopedia Pictura’ about the making of the new 3-D music video ‘Wanderlust.’

“Wanderlust” lyrics

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Episode 21 of Messing About In Ships has launched.

(39 minutes)

Download MP3:Messing About In Ships podcast # 21

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Shownotes: Messing About In Ships blog

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It’s always tough to say good bye to old friends and that was the theme for CARRIER tonight. Lots of good byes to the shipmates, friends, relationships, careers and even USS Nimitz herself.

I’ve spent 10 hours over the past 5 consecutive evenings so captivated by the show that I was afraid to step away for a moment out of concern of missing something. That’s really crazy since I Tivo’d the entire series.

While I’m not a veteran or military man or naval history enthusiast, I do enjoy a good story and PBS delivered more than 5,000 of them over the 10 hours of CARRIER. We got an intimate view of the lives of a handful of sailors and a broader view of many more. It’s certainly easier now to appreciate what life is like aboard a United States aircraft carrier; frankly it’s not all that different than life anywhere else. Or is it?

I have spent the last decade of my professional life observing life at sea and promoting the opportunities to experience it. In my younger days I had the great fortune to live it first hand and have written about it on number of occasions. (Here, here, here and The Tabor Boy Project). I passionately believe in what the sea can do to change lives and after watching CARRIER I am even more convinced that it ain’t necessarily the size of the boat. Put any number of people in a confined space in an alien environment and chances are they will figure out the need to work together and support each other. Of course, shooting high performance aircraft off a moving and abbreviated strip adds a whole other level of complexity. But in the end, life at sea is a unique and powerful personal development experience.

Thanks to the amazing, charming, intelligent, funny, dedicated and hardworking crew of the USS Nimitz for giving us this incredible opportunity to peek into their lives and get a better understanding of the challenges of life aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Also an even BIGGER THANKS to them for serving our country. Thanks to the filmakers who IMHO created something absolutely riveting. Thanks to PBS and all of the sponsors including the organization that I work for, Northeast Maritime Institute, for making this show possible.

I would typically never sit and watch so much television over the course of 5 days, but like many of the sailors leaving Nimitz after her deployment, I’m a bit melancholy wondering what I’m going to do tomorrow night.

Episode 9: “Get Home-itis”

A six-month absence places a heavy burden on relationships. The Navy holds seminars to counsel sailors on what to expect when they return home — and how to make the transition smooth. The “Tiger Cruise” ritual allows sailors to invite their family members aboard for the last leg of the deployment.

Episode 10: “Full Circle”

As the Nimitz makes its final transit from Hawaii to California, the sailors and Marines on board prepare to return to their homes and families. For those still on board, the “Tiger Cruise” provides a buffer, but there’s no such transition for those who fly home early from Hawaii. As the Nimitz returns to her home port of San Diego, sailors and Marines reflect on the deployment and take stock of what they’ve achieved. Was the mission accomplished? There are tearful, joyful reunions at the pier.

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Dark Roast Blend, one of my favorite blogs, has an awesome collection of dramatic shipwreck photos in a post today. (Shipwrecks and Sea Disasters) You might have seen many of these before but some were new to me. It’s definitely worth a visit.

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Arrgh, finally a useful Twitter tool!

Thanks to lizbdavis on Twitter

Get Sea-Fever post updates and other free stuff - http://twitter.com/petermello

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You would be hardpressed to find more dramatic or suspenseful television than the Part 7 scene of landing planes on a pitching deck at night. It’s ironic that the most dangerous part of the mission is not fighting “terrorists” in Iraq but rather surviving mother nature on the way home. This is must see TV!

Up through part 7, a considerable amount of time is devoted to telling the story of the USS Nimitz as a well honed war machine with a diverse crew that successfully coexists under some challenging conditions and circumsta