Danny arrived yesterday with minimal difficulties. He’s currently reading Childhood’s End (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood’s_End ) The original, not the revised 1990 edition. I wonder how he’ll feel about the ending? I remember being a bit disappointed when I read it, but that was back in the 8th grade or so.

Tonight was going to end with a possible journey to Inkygypsy’s solstice party tonight with BHK and Danny, but Danny was pretty tuckered out from his visit to annapolis (as was I from a full work day), so we stayed home to unwind and relax a bit.  We played a couple of games of monsters menace america, and ate tasty stir-fry type stuff that BHK made… quite yummy, but we had to abandon the garlic-type tahini… it had gotten far too strong. 

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Learning more and more about the interaction of seaports and port authorities

(Primarily these – http://www.aapa-ports.org/, http://www.polb.com/contact/port_staff/default.asp, http://www.panynj.gov/DoingBusinessWith/seaport/html/apm.html, http://www.gaports.com/, http://www.panynj.gov/DoingBusinessWith/seaport/html/apm.html , but others as well)

and how they connect to other shipping arenas, like trucking and train freight. Currently, the whole gestalt is interesting – intermodal type transport certainly has advantages over sticking to a single method. I think that trains still hold the most fascination for me.

The more than 600 freight railroads operating today in Canada, Mexico, and the United States are vital to North America’s economic health. They form a seamless integrated system that provides the world’s most efficient, cost-effective freight service. North American railroads operate over 173,000 miles of track, and earn $42 billion in annual revenues.

Railroads remain the backbone of North America’s freight transportation network. In the U.S., railroads account for more than 40 percent of all freight transportation — and that’s more than trucks, boats, barges or planes.

Seventy percent of all automobiles produced in the U.S. move by train. So does 30 percent of the nation’s grain harvest and 65 percent of the coal, which, in turn, provides more than half of the nation’s electricity. Railroads move enough wheat to provide every man, woman and child a fresh loaf of bread six days a week… enough lumber to build almost three houses every minute of every day… and enough concrete to build 45 miles of new highway every day.

U.S. freight railroads are the world’s busiest, moving more freight than any rail system in any other country. In fact, U.S. railroads move more than four times as much freight as do all of Western Europe’s freight railroads combined.

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“How Heavy Is Dense Reading?” Supplemental:
An Oxcart Full of Knowledge http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/gifbin/2007/0615oxcarts.html 

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regarding new perm accounts – yeah, what he said. – http://springheel-jack.livejournal.com/2147714.html 

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From Wikipedia, the metric system. Three countries use non-metric measurement systems: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States. (image) Why are we still not using it?