Jean-Paul Rodrigue

@simongerman600 Seems like the gap between the median age of the US population and the median age of legislators has remained constant, and may even have declined recently.

The US Congress gets older and older. Column of mine on the rise of young politicians: thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026/0… Graph source: reddit.com/r/dataisbeauti…

@simongerman600 I can only state that this is absolutely astounding in terms of demographic shift. Even though the One Child Policy was abandoned in 2016. It tells a lot about the underlying social and economic conditions post-2020.

If demographic trends hold, Europe could soon record more births than China. That would mark a genuine historical pivot. We would likely have to go back to the Qing dynasty some 300 years ago to find a comparable moment, possibly even further. For most of recorded history, China was not just bigger, it was in a different league. Now the gap is closing from both sides as Europe holds up better than expected and China ages faster than assumed. HT @benbawan

Next week in Houston, I’ll be moderating discussions at the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum USA, taking place on 5 May at the Four Seasons.

@jackprandelli porteconomicsmanagement.org/pemp/contents/…

🚨70 years of ships built for one energy map. That map just changed. Qatar declared force majeure on LNG contracts. Hormuz is running at 2 vessels per day. So 121 empty VLCCs are racing to the US Gulf Coast instead. The ships didn't change... The destination did. Every tanker in this image was engineered over decades to move faster and bigger through Gulf chokepoints. Those chokepoints are now closed, mined, or under force majeure. The infrastructure of global energy trade is intact the map it runs on is being redrawn in the last weeks. From Hormuz to Houston. Full breakdown in my latest article 👇 open.substack.com/pub/themerchan…

@jackprandelli Those are containerships. I know this well since I am the creator of this figure. Source: transportgeography.org/contents/chapt…

@GadSaad Lachine Canal?

Beautiful.

The 2nd edition of Port Economics, Management & Policy is available (hardback/ paperback/ebook formats➡️ order your copy: lnkd.in/gimpP_eT➡️ Web-companion: lnkd.in/eFY4WTYe ➡️authored by: @TheoNotteboom @apallis, @ecojpr.

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇷As the operation Epic Fury continues, learn more about its economic fallout in the latest @TheWyomingStar piece with @tparsi, @ecojpr, @EnergzdEconomy, Tel Aviv University's Dr. Paul Rivlin, and @eckartwoertz. wyomingstarnews.org/2026/03/05/exc… #Iran #Israel #USA #politics #economy #analytics

@johnkonrad Thanks for citing my map! porteconomicsmanagement.org/pemp/contents/…

Chokepoints are now more valuable than gold. The most valuable real estate on the planet. Under Biden we lost the most important chokepoint in the world, the Suez Canal, to the Houthis. We lost Gibraltar when woke politicians in the UK and Spain refused to allow 🇺🇸 ships to fuel there. We lost the Kerch Strait and Bosporus to Russia. Trump is a real estate legend. And he came in swinging. Day one after the election: Argentina’s President invited to Mar-a-Lago. This is not an active chokepoint today but is THE most important backup chokepoint for the US Navy if the Panama Canal fails. He offered asylum to South Africans to put diplomatic pressure on that government. He appointed Lou Sola to chair @fmc_gov and investigate chokepoint control. He dispatched diplomats when Norway refused to bunker Navy ships. He pressured the UK hard to secure the English Channel from migrant boats. He launched the largest carrier bombing offensive in naval history against the Houthis in Yemen and pirates in Somalia. He cut the steady flow of cash from USAID and Minnesota to Somali warlords. He demanded (and, yes, failed) to end the Russia-Ukraine war to reopen the Bosporus to 🇺🇸 ships. He sent @PeteHegseth and @SecRubio to secure the Navy’s most important chokepoint: Panama. He dialed back rhetoric with China to keep goods flowing through the Taiwan Strait while improving security of the Luzon Strait. He got an icebreaker deal signed to secure the Bering Strait. He pushed back HARD on the UN @IMOHQ carbon tax that would have eliminated fueling options at chokepoints. He closed the GIUK gap by playing hardball with Denmark over Greenland. He put the Indonesian President front and center at Davos and, just last week, made a huge tariff deal to secure the Malacca Strait. Now he’s laser-focused on the most important energy chokepoint in the world: the Strait of Hormuz. In a world of geopolitical crisis, chokepoints are king and Trump is the only leader on earth treating them like the strategic real estate they are.

@simongerman600 @researchremora Interesting. Limited level of integration into a national grid? Regional suppliers that do not trade electricity surplus?

On this map @researchremora shows only the power lines of Australia. Obviously this makes for a decent proxy population map.

@GlobalDryad Very well-designed map.

Arctic shipping isn’t “a shorter route”. It’s a different operating environment: ice unpredictability, comms constraints, limited SAR and salvage capacity.  Secure Voyager Hub helps teams monitor evolving risk signals in one place. hubs.la/Q040zVdc0

@cremieuxrecueil Sorry to say, but not a very good projection choice (cylindrical) for the purpose. A conic projection, such as Albers Equal Area, would have done a better representation of the distances involved.

I'm extremely thankful for widely available, cheap, and rapid air travel. Even if you were a billionaire in the 19th century, your ability to travel very far would be incredibly limited.

🇺🇸🇻🇪Learn more about the US capturing oil tankers during the Venezuela blockade in the latest @TheWyomingStar piece with @AllenSWeiner , @ImRalby, @ecojpr , and @MarkWeisbrot. wyomingstarnews.org/2026/01/14/exc… #USA #Venezuela #politics #economics #analytics

@johnkonrad I can point to a deeper analysis here, including the original map: porteconomicsmanagement.org/pemp/contents/…

What’s the most important choke point for American interests overseas and why is it the Luzon Strait? This is a map of the world’s choke points. It’s THE most important map Navy admirals have for global security. If it was up to me this would be posted in every hallway in the Pentagon. Problem: all these maps rank choke points of international importance… usually ranked by volume of trade. That’s not the same thing as America’s vital interests. We saw it in real time when the world’s most important choke point the Suez Canal was closed by Houthi terrorists. The inflation and disruption hit Europe far harder than the United States. I can’t find a map that ranks the most important choke points for our nation. If we made one, I’d list the top five like this: 1.Florida Strait 2.Panama Canal 3.Bering Strait 4.GIUK Gap (Greenland–Iceland–UK) 5.Strait of Magellan And to prove how little previous Administrations care about this The Florida Strait (the primary route for all ship and barge traffic from the Mississippi River) is directly adjacent to a hostile Communist nation. We turned over our military headquarters on the Panama canal to marxists NGOs… and China’s building a bridge which can blockade it. They did practically nothing to fortify the Bering Strait. The Greenland-UK gap they let Denmark exploit with zero investment in naval security. And they were happy to see Argentina circle the drain before Javier Milei. But the most stunning failure of the last 100 years was the complete abandonment of our most important overseas Choke Point on the map. Nobody even knows the bloodiest battle in American history, more 🇺🇸 casualties than any Civil War battle, the Battle of Manilla (Filipinos were naturalized Americans at the time, if not citizens), was fought to secure it. The entire Pacific War pivoted around this strait, that’s how important it is. Yet I would be surprised if one in 100,000 Americans could even point out the Luzon Strait on a map. The good news? This Administration understands Choke Points and we have a new Federal Maritime Commissioner - @thelauradibella - who will be prioritizing their importance. Now we just need our Admirals to do a better job educating the rest of government and the public on this.

@mercoglianos Cargo to be auctioned for one of the Houston refining complexes?

@simongerman600 The source of this map is not Reddit. It was plagiarized from my textbook without any citation: transportgeography.org/contents/chapt…

Before the US had cars, the railroads ruled supreme. This map shows the rail network just before the Civil War started (1860). Source: reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/RM…

My department is hiring for TWO tenure-track assistant professor positions in maritime business! ◾ Position 1 (MARITIME LOGISTICS) ◾ Position 2 (MARITIME MANAGEMENT) For additional details and to apply: faculty.tamu.edu/JobDetail?JobI…

From Jean-Paul Rodrigue of @AggiesByTheSea: The United States has 6 #automated #container #terminals; 3 on the East Coast (one in New York and 2 in Norfolk) and 3 on the West Coast (all in the LA/LB port complex). ◾ While terminal automation on the West Coast includes horizontal movements (AGVs or Autostrads) and stacking (ASCs), only automated stacking (ASCs) is used on the East Coast. ◾ Automated terminals are significantly larger than the global average (55 ha). This underlines the scale effect of their deployment, particularly in light of limited options for terminal expansion in LA/LB and New York. 2 million TEUs and above of capacity is common. ◾ The northern part of NIT is currently being upgraded to ASCs (from straddle carriers), which will likely double its capacity. ◾There is no apparent commonality in the storage of empties and reefers in an automated terminal. ◾Four terminals keep empties within their automated stacks (VIG, NIT, APMT & LBCT) while two terminals also keep empties in separate non-automated stacks (GTC & TRAP). ◾Four terminals keep their reefers within their automated stacks (NIT, TRAP, APMT & LBCT), one in a hybrid fashion (VIG), and one outside its automated stacks (GTC).

@BartGonnissen Would be relevant to identify the source of this figure: transportgeography.org/contents/chapt…

Evolution of containerships. The vast majority of ULCS are trading between Asia and Europe. Almost no ULCS will call on North America.

The U.S. needs more mariners — and Aggies are ready to answer the call. 🚢 As one of only seven maritime academies nationwide, @TexasMaritime provides hands‑on training to prepare students to crew the ships that will power our nation’s future. Read the @NYTimes: tx.ag/sggj9ok #TAMU #TexasMaritime #AggiesByTheSea