Shipping

A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt. This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before - and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England. Much of the planet's electronic equipment, as well as orbiting satellites, have been built to withstand these periodic geomagnetic storms.

SACRAMENTO — A data breach that jeopardized the personal information of more than 700,000 people has spurred California officials to change the way they transport sensitive material. Packages of payroll data, including Social Security numbers, will be delivered by courier rather than dropped in the mail. And officials are examining ways to transmit encrypted data rather than store it on microfiche. "We're looking to improve the process," said Oscar Ramirez, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services.

Gasoline prices are keeping up their record-setting ways. California drivers paid an average of $4.358 for a gallon of regular gasoline, up 6.6 cents from a week earlier, the Energy Department said Monday. That's a fresh record high for this time of year and is 48.4 cents above the year-earlier price. Nationally, the average rose 7.2 cents to $3.793, also a record for this week, according to Energy Department statistics. A year earlier, the average U.S. price was 27.3 cents lower.

SAN DIEGO - The $1.3-billion ship is billed as the most technologically advanced of any in its class in the U.S. Navy, with stealth capability and a state-of-the-art communications system. But the commissioning ceremony Saturday that made the San Diego an official ship of the fleet was drawn from rituals more than two centuries old - from the days of John Paul Jones, when the Navy's first commissioned ship was a captured British schooner. And so with the classic order, "Man our ship and bring her to life," sailors and Marines sprinted aboard the 684-foot amphibious transport dock ship.

One of Earth's largest creatures penetrates the surface amid a massive cloud of krill, its gaping mouth opening as if hinged, devouring a huge swallow of chowder. The tiny red crustaceans don't stand a chance. They're gone in a whooshing gulp that leaves passengers aboard the Condor Express spellbound. "This is unbelievable," said Ian Lloyd, 54, a visitor from London who was aboard with his wife and daughter. "I read when I was a little boy that blue whales were virtually extinct and now, 40 years later, here they are."

A coalition of shipping and freight concerns announced plans Friday for a $1-billion port on deserted seaside farmland about 150 miles south of Tijuana on the Baja peninsula. They hope to link the Mexican port to California with a new rail line connecting to the Imperial Valley and compete with the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports for a share of the multibillion-dollar West Coast shipping business.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it has approved seasonal influenza vaccines produced by six manufacturers and at least two of the companies said they have already begun or will soon begin shipping the vaccines to U.S. customers. The vaccine protects against the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus that caused an uproar last winter, as well as two other strains of influenza that are not as widespread but that nonetheless can be a problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in February changed its recommendations for who should receive the shots.

The chief executive of a shipping company urged Congress on Tuesday to pass legislation allowing vessels to carry armed security. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Philip J. Shapiro of Liberty Maritime Corp. said that although an 1819 statute gave ships the right to defend themselves, they still were subject to laws and inconsistent port rules governing whether armed vessels could dock.

With a day left, negotiators at the Copenhagen climate conference are making a final push to resolve one of the thorniest issues: how to control skyrocketing emissions from international aviation and maritime shipping. The European Union, several African nations, Norway, Mexico and Australia have proposed an international cap-and-trade system covering ships and airlines that could raise as much as $25 billion a year. That money then could be used to help the poorest nations shift to renewable energy, slow deforestation and adapt to climate change.

The shipping lanes in and out of Boston Harbor will be narrowed and shifted north today in a bid to lower the risk of ships killing rare right whales. The entire North Atlantic right whale population is estimated at just 350. It's the first time in U.S. history that shipping lanes have been changed to protect wildlife.

Sailing aboard the Californian is a throwback to the era of tall ships and re-creates what 19th-century travel by sea was like. The Martitime Museum of San Diego offers three sailings to Catalina Island aboard the topsail schooner where participants take turns standing watch, setting sail and learning other on-board skills. (Yes, there's a motor so you won't be stuck in the doldrums.) But it's not all work. There'll be time to relax on board and to go kayaking in the waters off Catalina with guides and gear provided.

Did you know that strawberries, though considered a fruit, are technically a member of the rose family? Then you are ripe for the California Strawberry Festival this weekend in Oxnard. On 50 acres, the event features two concert stages and an array of strawberry treats, including strawberry beer. There's also Strawberryland for the kids. Info: (888) 288-9242 or www.strawberry-fest.org . . . . Speaking of kids, here's yet another summer activity in family friendly San Diego: Pirate Ship Adventures offers daily cruises aboard an 83-foot sailing ship , including a special July 4 cruise.

On Tuesday morning, 80-year-old Bobby Salisbury took the last of his items from his boat moored at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington and stuffed them inside his gray Nissan off-road truck. "I'm the happiest guy today," he said sarcastically. For years, Salisbury has lived at the marina. Then last month, the Los Angeles Harbor Department ordered him and more than 90 other tenants to leave by May 1, calling the dock and 138 slips in Berth 204 too dilapidated to be safe.

For sale: An exotic, once top-secret radar-evading ship, dubbed the Sea Shadow, that was built by one of the world's largest defense contractors during the height of the Cold War. Specifications: about 68 feet wide, 164 feet long and around 563 tons. Price: $139,200 or best offer. If interested, please contact the General Services Administration at its website: gsaauctions.gov. That's the sales pitch from theU.S. Navy, which - after five years of trying and failing to donate the stealthy Sea Shadow to a museum - is now selling the ship for scrap metal in an online auction.

Among the safety precautions given to sailors entering the Newport Beach-to-Ensenada yacht race, the most pointed involve preparing for a night on the open ocean. Check that your lights work. Make sure the batteries powering those lights are fully charged. Best to carry spares. And perhaps most important: Be vigilant in watching for hazards emerging from the dark. As U.S. Coast Guard investigators work to determine what caused the destruction of a 37-foot sailboat early Saturday off the Mexican coast, there's a possibility that no eyewitnesses remain.

Organizers of the famed Newport Beach-to-Ensenada sailing regatta were stunned by the mysterious loss of four crew members aboard a 37-foot boat that disappeared in mid-race, marking the first fatalities in the event's 65-year history. While the U.S. Coast Guard was still investigating the accident, regatta organizers said they believed the boat was hit and demolished by a much larger ship - perhaps a freighter or tanker - passing in the dark early Saturday. The boat disappeared from the online tracking system around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Port of Los Angeles opened a shipping container bound for the Netherlands, they discovered a 1965 Volkswagen bus stolen in Washington state 35 years ago. Far out, man! The unusual seizure of the mint-condition bus on Oct. 19 came during a routine inspection of several Volkswagens that were being shipped by an Arizona restorer to customers in Europe. The vehicle identification number of the blue-and-white bus, which was swiped from a repair shop in Spokane on July 12, 1974, was still in police computers.

If hearing seven versions of "Silent Night" in six stores is enough to drive you to drink, you're probably among the millions of people who have ditched the mall for your mouse. Shopping online is expected to be more popular than ever this year, and with consumers minding their pennies, free shipping is expected to be a big deal this holiday season. "The economy will drive more people online to look for the best prices," said Kurt Peters, editor-in-chief of Internet Retailer. Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru predicts that consumers will spend $44 billion online in November and December, a 12% increase compared with last year.

The most remarkable achievement within Charlotte Rogan's debut novel, "The Lifeboat," is how neatly it exceeds, and defies, expectations. The plot seems basic: Some people clamber aboard a lifeboat as a ship sinks, and we think we're all set for a tale in which someone inevitably will be eaten for dinner. But Rogan delivers something entirely different (rest easy, no one gets eaten) by using a familiar setting to explore moral ambiguity, human nature and the psychology of manipulation.

If you want to be afraid, be very afraid, on your next vacation, check out the "Saw at Sea" summer cruise from New York City to Canada. The trip features actors who have appeared in the horror-film franchise, including  Costas Mandylor (Hoffman), Anne Greene (Dina) and Ned Bellamy (Jeff). Dan Yeager, who played Leatherface in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D,” also joins the "Saw" crew aboard ship. Even Jigsaw's creepy puppet Billy will be on board for photo ops. The film series started in 2004 and has seen the creation of six successfully scary movies, box-office wise.