Don't Forget to Vote in the Bye Bye Busan® Contest!

Red Star Over China Basin. The big yellow star on the Red Flag represents The Party of course, with the two smaller ones standing for the petit-bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. Larger glorious photo here.

This is what it will look like when she finally heads out, with crewmembers chilling on the poop deck.

Today is your last chance to enter the contest by submitting a comment with your guess of the date and time the Cosco Busan will eventually sail through the uprights of the Golden Gate Bridge. Choose wisely.

In related news, Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant United States Coast Guard, (check out his MySpace - Thad in the hiz-zouse! -- did he really put this up?) gave testimony today about how to handle petroleum spills from ships that are not oil tankers.

These so-called non-tank vessels include container ships such as the Busan, which only spilled about 2.7% of its total capacity of bunker fuel.

If the Busan had just been topped off for a big trip and somehow ruptured all its tanks, the worst case would be 2.2 million gallons spilled instead of 58,000. An unlikely scenario for the Bay Area, but you could say we got off lucky as only two of the Busan's "gas tanks" got punctured last month.

Read all about it here in glorious PDF.