Now, I bet you are wondering what connection hot peppers and shipping containers have to each other. Well, as far as I know, they don’t have any dang connection, so there.
I am going to ask you a question and give the answer at the end of this post. I would like you all to let me know what your guess was and how many got it close. I would have gotten it wrong. The question is: how many shipping containers are estimated to fall off cargo ships and into the ocean every year?
Do you know what the hottest pepper is? Well, I would have never guessed it because I have never heard of it, but maybe any of you who have been to Australia may have heard of it. It is the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, and it registers 1,463,700 Scoville heat units. That is about 300 times as hot as the hottest jalapeno. Dang! and I thought that habanera peppers were hot!! If you want to know more about these peppers contact The Chilli Factory in Australia. Now tell me, what in the world could a pepper that hot be used for? Couldn’t use it in a defensive pepper spray device, since it would blind anyone who got it in their eyes. I just can’t see a use for it, except as a poison for fire-ants (grin)
OK, here is the answer to the shipping container losses. They estimate 10,000 containers are lost overboard each year. That will make a big reef. I would bet that the sea life just love them, unless of course there was poisonous stuff in the container (or the above peppers). Anyway, it is hard for me to believe that 10,000 containers get lost at sea every year.
Diz, That is the dreaded 'ghost pepper'. Have some fun watching this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tRq8ExAHzk
I hate to laugh at anyone's discomfort, but this guy asked for it.
see you managed to connect the lost cargo ships with the worlds hottest peppers!!! yay!!! LOL! That is a LOT of cargo containers, now I'm wondering if anyone salvages them, like sunken ships.... I doubt it if they are from China and all that junk they send over here... oops! did I say "junk"??? I MEANT to say "consumer goods"...yes, that's right -that is what I meant to say.... and wow! that IS a hot pepper; somehow though I think if someone is trying to kill me, I would not mind if they were permanently blinded. bad me.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet the Chinese products I ordered are on one of them. And, where else can I find Chinese-made items here in the US??
ReplyDeleteMy guess was "one." I'm not imaginative.
Dang...that's a LOT more than I would have thought! Wonder how they manage to lose something like a shipping container?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I even want to try one of those peppers! Jalapenos are hot enough for me!
Thanks for the info this morning!
As with any pepper, roasting it intensifies the heat you know.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites still ( if I ate hot peppers ) is the habanero, raw and chopped fine it is great in a salad. and Toasted on top of a grilled steak,small bites of it are wonderful
Michael, why would anyone want to go through that and why do they grow such hot peppers if no one can eat them?
ReplyDeleteKelly, yep the containers probably hold low cost items. And as far as the pepper spray, what if kids got hold of it?
Good Luck Duck, yep, now you know where they are. I would have never guessed any where near 10,000. But since 200,000,000 are shipped annually, 10,000 is just .00005 of them or 0.005%
HJ, like I answered above, not a very big percentage. I love Jack-in-the-Box stuffed jalapenos, the best I have had anywhere, and I love habanera sauce (in moderation), but would not be dumb enough to try the hottest pepper in the world.
Ben, habaneras have the best taste of any pepper.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw that vid I couldn't keep from laughing. I was in a jalapeno eating contest once.(years ago) I ate 17. It was like an elimination round thingie. At the last, the little young blond girl that won ate 4 more to prove she was the champ.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in New England where a spice rack is a salt and pepper shaker. I've developed a taste for spice, but not that hot!
ReplyDeleteI knew it was a lot of containers, but not that many. Wow.
After watching all the container ships go up the Savannah River last year, I can believe that there are lots that fall off. 10,000 is a heckuva lot though. Containers are also transported on trains all across the US - wonder if any of them ever fall off. I can't be convinced it is cheaper to have crap - I mean consumer goods) made in China and transported here by ship, some of it falling overboard, and then shipping the containers by train to whatever state/city they are going to, where they no doubt have to finish the journey in a big diesel powered tractor-trailer. Take away the subsidies and tax breaks and we could afford to put Americans back to work and pay for the goods they manufacture.
ReplyDeleteI read stories about sailboats smacking into one if these derelict cargo containers. If they are sealed at all, they'd float just a hair above the surface of the water.
ReplyDeleteJust the thought of this sends chills down my spine!
Michael, that blond gal must have had a cast iron stomach. About the guy in the video, he may need preparation-H the day after he ate that small piece of pepper. . .
ReplyDeleteSixbears, I was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and the hot stuff I ate came out of the ground – horseradish. I loved horseradish, even ate it on chocolate cake.
Gypsy, what surprised me more was the fact that 200 million containers were shipped a year. And I suppose they fall off of trains and trucks, too. Do they get returned filled with something else?
Ernest, never thought about that. They would float for awhile. I wonder how long the seal holds or how long it takes the salt water to eat through. They could become the modern ice burg (grin).