DINNER PARTY INTEL...

The topics you have to be able to discuss this week

1. Falling off deck

A weather phenomenon called bombogenesis — literally “the sea bombing out” — has been blamed for the increased number of containers lost at sea. It applies to colder oceans in the northern hemisphere warming up, according to meteorologist Michael Page.

The rising temperatures have caused rough seas, especially in the northern Pacific. In November it was reported that containers tumbling overboard had increased from an average of 1,382 a year in 2019 to about 3,000 for late 2021. In November 2020 the One Apus lost 1,816 containers overboard in rough seas north of Hawaii, the biggest loss in maritime history off a single ship.

2. Bio from the grave

Decades ago actor Paul Newman, frustrated by all the unauthorised biographies and coverage of his life, recorded his own oral history, leaving behind transcripts that for years were forgotten in the basement laundry room of his house in Connecticut. Newman died in 2008 aged 83.

His family has decided to turn those transcripts into a memoir, which will be published by Knopf later this year.

“What he recorded, and in essence what he wrote, was so honest and revealing,” says Peter Gethers, who will edit the book, which does not yet have a title. “It showed this extraordinary arc, a guy who was very, very flawed at the beginning of his life and as a young man, but who, as he got older, turned into the Paul Newman we want him to be.”

3. Search for Shackleton

An expedition to find the lost ship of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton will sail from Cape Town next month, 100 years after his death.

The Endurance22 Expedition aims to find, survey and film the wreck of Endurance, which sank during Shackleton’s quest to Antarctica in 1915, and now lies somewhere at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

The expedition will set off for Antarctica on February 5 — one month after the 100th anniversary.