Tag Archives: transport

9704 – Tuesday –

Cinco De Mayo… Cheers! We had ratatouille and baked potato for supper. (But the bagel I ate had jalapenos on it!)

Contemplating going to Bengie’s Drive-in this weekend. Triple feature of Fanboys, Monsters vs. Aliens and Star Trek a fun, dorky night.
I’m not sure though – I’d prefer to see MvsA in 3-d.

Talked to Danny on the phone tonight – he might be jumping into a game of Champions at his local game store this summer. 150 points – the store used to be the Dragon’s Lair, but it’s now Adventure something or another.

Bro sent me a text from his new phone – I’ll call him tomorrow and see how he sounds. I’m sure he’s happy to be out and about.

No Franklin again this morning – I noticed that the lawn was treated with chemicals – hopefully that kept him away, along with the cold, drizzly rain.


Pull in your tum,
stick out your tush,
wiggle your hips,
now give ’em a push

Godspeed, Captain Chaos


As I was starting to say, I’m glad it’s staying a bit rainy and cool outside… I’m probably the only one who is loving a little soft, cool rain over sun and heat. I’m a hairy, big beast… hm, an excuse for another old Ditko picture, I think, dear journal.

IceMonster1


Freeware Eurorails game  –  Thanks, Rock, paper, shotgun!

also discovered OpenTTD for a freeware version of Transport Tycoon, and SimuTrans .


1 year ago – stern face pic, best public potties in somd, thinky-doodle, FPS games, never say hopeless

2 years ago – Cinco de mayo – extended description

3 years ago – fleet week, cinco de mayo, network neutrality, kitten & rooster, mega m&ms, options, friday 5, dr who, prisoner, lj drama

4 years ago – 555, fishbone & dose pics, reference librarian scotto, oops-i did it again (30’s style), questions asked

5 years ago – not loving the phone, porno bob cut ? (it took until last month), amy’s diary, iconners, cookies, Florida state rock

6 years ago – ortho, There-folks giving me cool virtual clothes, WMD, star wars kid

7 years ago – I’m a sexy cusser, pop vs soda, digger mole, puppyfrog, maps, bad show, verisign, a date with destiny that was doomedCinco de Mayo, panda killer, Man Imprisoned 30 Years for Crime FBI knew he Didn’t Commit, other evil news, what’s your sign poll (Gemini won again!), C&I nightmare, smart sweater

8 years ago – Cinco de Mayo, panda killer, Man Imprisoned 30 Years for Crime FBI knew he Didn’t Commit, other evil news, what’s your sign poll (Gemini won again!), C&I nightmare, smart sweaterGeotarget

9216 – Saturday

We went to the aquarium last night! pictures and details later – what a nice idea of BHK though… open until 9pm friday night.

Things on the agenda:

Allergy Shots.
Alice’s Party.
Dinner out – Maybe Paper Moon or some Baltimore location.
Rest, relax, recharge.

Got Next Friday off – BHK and I are going to check out the cherry blossom festival or some other fun thing as a little spring fling. I’m almost more interested in people-watching than taking in the beautiful blooms. Hopefully, going on a weekday will reduce mob issues. (Friday’s cherry blossom events ) I wouldn’t mind paying the Jefferson Memorial a stopover, or riding a paddle boat in the tidal basin.


via 4thletter – Re-imagining of the old avengers cartoons: The Newer, mightier, more Ultimater Avengers!… waning, some foul language and a blurred out, but naked Hulk. (I was also amused by the “24 in 1994” pilot.


The Examiner reports that Metro’s oldest rail cars have become so worn, their aluminum floors are cracking under the carpeting. Metro says the cracks pose no immediate safety risk to riders, and that when cracks are spotted, cars are pulled from service and the aluminum is welded back together. The old cars aren’t due to be replaced for at least five years.



50 things you’ve done meme continues at 45 – I…

45.’ have been in few physical fights in my life, and most have only lasted a short span… as a result of those melees, I’ve discovered that it is better to fight tactically with a cool head, than when angry… of course, if you’ve got a cool head, who wants to fight? I’ve never had much choice, as I’m a poor runner – easier to take down an opponent than to run away at a speed where I’ll be taxed and overcome, anyhow. When overly emotional, I’m a more frightening combatant. Unless common sense overrides fear or rage, I will continue to attack an opponent (no matter what they’re condition is in) until I’m exhausted. It’s a wonder I never killed anyone including myself during puberty.

These days, and for a long time now, I’m quite passive. I can still get the short hairs on my neck up if life or loved ones are threatened, but for the most part, I try to channel my energy into more useful pursuits. My skill at fighting is poor… I could stand some updated martial arts training, even boxing would be good – my primary strengths are the ability to take a hit, grappling and hitting my opponent hard and heavy.

The last time I was in a real fistfight was more than a decade and a half ago…and that one was more of a “grab-punch-done” sort of scenario. I was working at the bookstore, helping a woman out in the kids books. A guy, probably in his late 30s, early 40s (I was maybe 23?) comes over, grabs my arm and says “you’ve helped her long enough, it’s my turn”. His physical contact caused me to tense up, and I told him if he didn’t let go of me, then I’d punch him in the nose. He responded with “yeah, right”… I counted to three, and then popped him one in the face. He landed square on his backside, and I told him in a phrase littered with profanity to get out. He did, but he also contacted the store manager. Despite my feeling that I was in the right, I was fired the same day. My next job was assembling furniture while I finished off my Bachelor’s Degree.

Since then, I’ve been in a few low-level conflicts, but nothing that would cause me to “go in swinging”, usually because the issue was defused befor eI had time to build up a full head of steam. I’ve been hit in the face with a pool cue… but it was an accident. That did stop us from kicking the guy off the grounds, but I didn’t press any charges.

Worst fight in my life was with a jerky in my freshman year of high school. I really had no experience in the HS arena, and the guy sucker-punched me in the gut and then kneed me in the privates. I pretty much keeled over immediately. He dropped out before I got a chance to plot any great revenge on him – I suppose it’s just as well, because I’d probably be doing time to this day if I’d done any of what went through my mind that week.

My favorite encounter involved the end of my senior year in the cafeteria during 2nd lunch. A fellow senior and I were doing the ape behaviors of open-palm pushing one another, building to a bigger fight. My brother, looking to protect me, took one of the aluminum food trays and slammed it loudly over my enemy’s head. It was loud, but didn’t do any real damage, save to break up the fight with laughter on both sides.



1 year ago – BHK ill & irritated, free psp t-mobil wifi, north beach link, I’m swiss, haiku, D&D gaming grant

2 years ago – coloring book wakes up, zefrank’s log pretty keen, y/n meme, gesture poll, monkey doodle, abstract doodle

3 years ago – Dizzy bear flashbacks about GP, Kat, Danny, and past game group members, blackstronauts, newt angles, alex toth, nameless dread, click to save the world, lunsford

4 years ago – lemon fanta, diet pepsi slurpees, pet sweaters, bro stuff, awesome man,Galaxy Quest, mp3s, virus, apt/newt pics, chernobyl cyclist

5 years ago – There, light bulb pops, the rack, TAG approaches, heroX=mediocre

6 years ago – ice dreams, mock French, animal cams, keywords, yahoo plays bad, peep research, hut destroys a troll

7 years ago – Random Mail, music mix, palm BS picture, pantywaist poll, storms, blogger downGeotarget

9187 – Friday

Rainy day, as my voice post previous can attest.

50 things I’ve done meme continues with items 27-29. I…

27.’ran my own BBS system back in the early 80’s – an Atari 800XL with two ways to connect – a 300 and a 1200 baud modem…later I added a third modem that ran at 9600 baud. It used 3 floppy drives to share data. It boiled down to a simple message board with a few instances of trade wars on it. I was also the co-sysop of three other atari boards out there – the community was small, but there was a lot of signal – very little noise. Brent had his own soapbox on there.. “Kaiser’s Korner” where he did goofy right-wing rants – primarily to bait people into responding. His section didn’t last long, thankfully. My bbs eventually faded into a website, and then after quite a bit of rattling and rolling, a place for my own journal. Livejournal and current blogging software is a lot easier than hand-rolling every html page and uploading it.

28.’have a mortgage, and own (with the bank) a condominium in Deerfield Beach, Florida. I have been considering selling it, or keeping it as a backup crash pad of friends and relatives that want a place to be while in the sunshine state. It’s a one-bedroom on the third floor, with a huge porch. I’m especially fond of the iguanas that live out by the lake in the courtyard.. the ibis are a fave, too. Newton prefers the squirrels.

29.’Have been member of both the Civil Air Patrol and Boy Scouts – both were pretty positive expeiriences, and I’d advise anyone to try both, despite the boy scout complaints about deisim or sexism.


Guy on the bus yesterday evening reeked of old sweat, recent booze and other items too gross to go into. It wasn’t so bad, except that he got up, changed seats and sat directly in front of me… with no escape mechanism for me. My nose was tingling for about an hour afterward. brings to mind the following – Bus trips from DC to NY- Free wifi for the trip, too. (sort of like dc2ny ) I wonder how long they’ll stay “clean and fresh”?

Secaucus, N.J.-based Boltbus, a division of Greyhound Lines Inc., said tickets went on sale Monday for the service that will start March 27.

Boltbus will run between Metro Center at 11th and G streets NW and two stops in New York City — near Penn Station at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue and in south Manhattan at 6th Avenue and Canal Street.

Boltbus will compete with the Washington Deluxe, Apex Bus, Vamoose Express and DC2NY, a service that started in July 2007 between Dupont Circle and Penn Station in New York with a stop at the McPherson Square Metro station.

DC2NY launched in July and marketed the service by offering free water and high-speed wireless Internet service onboard.

Boltbus is not only also offering wireless, but it is also using a first-come first-serve incentive to sign up riders.

The company said one-way tickets start at $1 plus a 50 cent booking fee and become more expensive as the bus gets full. Also, Boltbus is offering a free one-way ticket for every eight round trips purchased.

Tickets for each bus company vary, but are typically between $30 and $40 round trip, which is significantly cheaper than Amtrak’s cost of about $140 and up for a round-trip ticket.

The buses tend to attract travelers and students who are looking for an affordable way to get between the cities.

Boltbus said it will offer eight trips daily, starting at 7:30 a.m. from D.C. to New York.


1 year ago – Cathy’s b-day, fawlty towers counterstrike, sleep pose quiz, hits map,

2 year ago – sunburn better, fliff, ubuntu, wendy/uber, top ten accidental discoveries, senior year, luthor, poll 4/5 truths, glow plants

3 years ago – LDMs, RI high-tails it, elevator prank, screaming turtle, sunburn recovery, doctor d, pelican memory, ghostbusters/gaming, weather tracking, first mention of google video, record bro, freeware alternatives, interaction quiz, Burdines dissolves into Macys, Florida gambling, greyhound rescue

4 years ago – visited with Kev, 12 things meme, bro, CoD, train ride pictures, Newt Healthy

5 years ago – Wakeup, SS card, LAN party, classifieds

6 years ago – groceries, cloud makers, Lj folks, virus PSA, mapmaking

7 years ago – fly me to the moon, edelweiss, web-gamesGeotarget

9061 – Sat

Woke up bright and early, rip-roarin’ and ready to roll. BHK and I had a tasty start of toasted bagels with cream cheese, and chugga-chugga-chugga.

After getting the parents, it was about… 11ish. Well, we didn’t lose too much steam – the in-laws were loaded for bear (girl scout cookies, soda-pop, and egg sammiches) we rolled out to our destination… Baltimore!

It was a bit of a drive, but the scenery was lovely, and the company was good… we all chitty-chatted about all manner of small talk.

We arrived at the Aquarium Parking garage at about noon, and headed off to see items lovely and aquatic… but it was not meant to be. The crowd there for the holiday weekend was vast… Chris didn’t want to navigate that swarm of roaming tourists. Totally understandable, if a little disappointing.

Upside… we had a secondary plan of action! The B&O Railway Museum! The place is sweet for folks that dig steam / diesel engines, or rail history at all (the B&O is pretty much the birthplace of American Railroading). We got a family membership to last us the year – it turned out the snow collapse of the roundhouse was 5 years ago to the day we returned. There’s still a lot of restoration going on to the trains that were hit, but most of them are in beautiful shape. BHK and I got a couple of pressed pennies to add to our collection.

(some of our walkabout pictures on flickr here. – more to follow as I upload and make some shots public that are currently hidden.)

Got pretty tuckered out after 5 or six hours there, filling my brain with train. We headed off to Annapolis for some Cheeburger Cheeburger (they’e getting a lot of play from us lately!) and then home to relax and unwind with the kitties – plans were to hang out and watch a movie with the in-laws, but they were too pooped to pop, so BHK had a lovely night together, instead.


I can haz The Entire Bible? Man, lolcats! Nice use of your spare time!

I wonder if this will win any converts in one direction or the other?


1 year ago – Amy visit, mac & cheese, fluxx and movie

2 years ago – eye close poll, work bail, boosh, canal discovery, compusa check?, gg

3 years ago – Jill Gone, BK & GO, JLU, Newt’s treat, mel-fade begins

4 years ago – Scotto on the enchanted path, bigfoot conference, Florida photos, Newt on his back

5 years ago – mickey gas mask, donkey kong jr, google bought blogger, mere-vallie, Scotto shop-palm, palm pic of the SG building, odd news

6 years ago – bloody mary mythos, feel poll, newt ill, rainy day, movie poll, fu-style, alphebetica cyberia

7 years ago – Haiku arena, weird al’s wishlistGeotarget

9033 – sun of nutshelling

Pancake and scrambled eggs brunch at Larry & Chris’s, checked out L’s trains upstairs, and rooted around BHK’s old bedroom and returned with salvage of wacky packages, headphones and a weight ball. Not to mention BHK’s 14-wheeled skateboard. I would love to try it if I didn’t fear breaking the rest of my spine.

Retired downstairs to view the last 85% of George of the Jungle.

Too dang cold outside for playing, so back to our place – fooled around with pirates, star-wars hero-type clix, and yet more wii.

Ultimate Alliance and Lego Star Wars ruled the evening.

BHK ordered us all some pizza, and then baked cookies…. nom nom nom. Did we give Bugah any veggies this weekend, aside from products containing wheat?

Watched Funny Farm & Trial of the Incredible Hulk – Bugah may’ve been a little frightened by the needle scene. I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn’t bored by the 80’s sensibilities and lack of special effects.

Hit the sack at 10:30… it’s a school night for me!


1 year ago – newt lounging pics

2 years ago – big brain wait, college students illiterate, LN, little prince,

3 years ago – Sicky Mel, PSA, No new drama month, paypal button for charity, weather, Korean postal robots guards, MA lobster strike, Monkey king, fibs and truths answers, weather

4 years ago – crapulent, British WWII photo archive, Chick Tract, homeowners groups lacking

5 years ago – bawled out my bro, bashed up my hands.

6 years ago – walkies, coloring book fairy, waterlog ear, some dead links and some live ones, full moon birth, good dreams.

7 years ago – Iron Man, brain eating, thinking about my dad, smitten, First experience with a good LJ client, Fred the enema cat. Geotarget

9071 friday!

Dinner last night was excellent… BHK and I slept a bit late this morning – just relaxed a little before heading out for a trip with Larry to take a look at the toy trains set up at the neighborhood motorcycle shop. It was pretty amazing – I’d really like to know where he stores all of his track, trains and scenery the rest of the year! I think that my favorite parts of the set were fire engines at the burning building (with real smoke), the hobo camp off to the side in one of the tunnels, or the Super Chief. Pictures to follow as they’re uploaded.

After an hour or so there, we popped off to the doctor’s office in the hopes of getting a jump on my weekend shots. No dice – they had the same break that I did. Tomorrow’s another day, though.

As consolation, we went to Mexico for very late lunch and then poked our noses into the Festival of Trees. Quite lovely, but I didn’t realize it was for Hospice… many of the trees were memorials. Given the fact that my Dad’s birthday is right around the corner (I can’t believe that he’d have been 62) and that my grandmother is teetering on hospice care now – that was all a bit much for me. The Tree in the middle with all the doves on it, and each one named for someone in that sort of care really cut me to the quick.

Christmas isn’t supposed to be about deep, gut-level sorrow regarding loss… if anything, it should be a celebration of joy. I’d say it took me a good little while to rearrange my thoughts into the proper mindset.

That said, we did see some beautiful trees, again, pictures to follow. The craft show aspect was less than stellar, given that the good stuff (items made by hand – glass beads, ceramics, art prints, etc.) were rather crowded out by the bad. (Air filter units, Herbalife [crosses arms and spits to both sides], and prefab junk made overseas and sold on tables.)

We got a ceramic votive candle holder made by kids in the school’s art department… it’s lovely, and we got to meet the person who designed it. It now resides atop the TV, for mood lighting.

BHK is by far the most wonderful traveling companion a person could ever wish for. The fact that I love her so much isn’t clouding my vision there in the least. She has a delightful sense of wonder and curiosity that makes everything just a little more shiny and brought into focus.


1 year ago – gobble gobble – turkey day

2 years ago
– talked to bro in hospital, local music, reader quiz

3 years ago – good counters bad, beard, heroin traffic in sofla, Melissa not Alyssa, evo vs creationism beliefs in the usa, googlewhacked, crimes against children task force

4 years ago – Whatever comes to mind, kid memory, cent sign, elephants

5 years ago – Mayah’s Birthday with pics, mage knight, cosplayers, Newtpics, ACCExpo, Lemmiwinks song

6 years ago – Superpowers, assoil, holiday icon musing

7 years ago – Golden Rice, survey, myths over Miami Geotarget

9048 – mon

A quick peek of my office, taken with my phone’s camera this morning – not seen, the bright moon and Venus, first thing upon leaving the house this morning. Brilliant. Wave hi to DC!

1105071004.jpg

Lunch of leftover Chinese food was almost as good as lunch of leftover BHK casserole… but not quite. Dang tasty, anyhow.

Strange… we had trick or treaters the day after Halloween, and were only too happy to give our crusty old candies that didn’t make the grade the night prior. I thought it was a fairly unique situation, but it seems that it’s not an isolated incident. Note – we gave cute little kids the good stuff – chocolate, and smarties for Daniel (as he’s lactose intolerant), but any teens that came by without costumes got nasty stale necco wafers and clove candies that we hadn’t eaten in about a year.

Side note… do I really have to link to what trick or treaters or Halloween is? I doubt it.

We don’t have much candy left at the house, but gals at work still have huge bowls set out. It’s a real challenge not to grab a kit-kat when it’s right in my flight path.

I wonder how old is the “right” age to stop trick or treating… I always figured the cutoff was age 12, but maybe that was just me.

BHK had a meeting with the city, and afterward, we met at Thursday’s with the in-laws for a late supper.


Zombie Picture taken on the metro a few days back… good ol’ Halloween.


Considering that a Ford Model-T got as good or better mileage than most of today’s U.S. automobiles, I guess it’s not suprising that Henry Ford was, according to this 1934 profile, well ahead of the game in biofuels and bioplastics:

Science is discovering means of transforming products of the farm into materials for manufacture. Through his experimental farms, Henry Ford now successfully converts the common soy bean into automobile parts and an oil which makes up 30 per cent of the Ford car finish.

Mr. Ford declares that this plastic industry, this evolution of industrial agriculture, still is in its infancy and that its possibilities and opportunities are limitless. As an example, he points out that his laboratories have produced from the soy bean a tough, hard, yet inexpensive material which stands a pressure of 9,000 pounds without breaking… Ford and his chemists envision the time when automobile bodies, houses, skyscrapers and even great monuments may be fabricated from the soy bean.

Then again: maybe biofuels aren’t such a good idea, anyway.

via treehugger / kottke


1 year ago – butterfly world, swensons, pix

  • Pictures taken (and more )- giant lobster with a smile, butterfly world, one-legged day of the dead guy, iguanas

2 years ago – lithgow soup, hot in apt, STUKA!! memory, lonliness %, bus riverwalk pic, sasha/magda, bro, chicken little, tiki pic

3 years ago – ft laud pix, incredibles, win security hole, MUDD, 68th recovery

4 years ago – stream of thought, sports clix first view, first use of hr-dividers regularly?, Daler Mehndi!, interaction

5 years ago – Singing horses, SPEAR LANCASTER!, Newtie Pic, Vote For DUKES!, cutup poetry, heroclix

6 years ago – superhero dream, evil news, Daler Mehndi, vote poll, felon poll,Q&A poll, sleep ramble, FE-co the wonder dog, posting ~6 entries aday, Entry #3152

7 years ago – dead links, real change, and a trip to see Charlie’s Angels Geotarget

8909 – Monday the 9th

High: 98°F Real Feel®: 101°F – Partly sunny, very hot and humid

Phew. Heat. Sun hot heat. Hot sun hot heat hot heat hot. Last night, I fretted a bit, because I thought the thermostat was going. fortunately, it kicked in, but for how long, nobody knows.

Triple digits is one too many. I’m designed for cooler climes. How many iced coffees is too many iced coffees? I had three today, and right about 5:30, I was cracked out. (My standard coffee of choice is one cup hazelnut coffee and one cup of hot cocoa, mix and add ice. no additional sugar or milk needed… mocha-liscious)

Steve introduced me to cacls. Why did I not know about this before? That’s just too dang handy. I wonder if Novell has an equivalent?

current music – Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! … Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput

Plans to see Thomas Dolby and / or Johnathan Coulton at the Ram’s Head in the near future, possibly for BHK’s birthday?

Here are my AD&D stats.

str: 16
int:17
wis:15
dex:10
con:9
cha:15

Oh, for the days when my CON was above a 13.

To complete my nerd hat-trick, I want to see the Transformers movie on an IMAX screen. Sadly, it seems the local Smithsonian IMAX theaters aren’t doing it. The Baltimore Science Center is, but that’s a bit of a haul.

Stolen wholesale from Matt (his summer jukebox is fantastic, too, by the way)- The mafia wants your ass, so you’ve gotta hide out in a shady hotel on the wrong side of the tracks for the next two nights. You’ve got a backpack. What’s inside? This should cover your food, drink, entertainment and protection. (feel free to answer in the comments) Alternately, if you think that the mafia is imaginary, pretend there are Zombies outside instead – you expect the infection to go dormant / be rescued in 2 days.

Took the train home – not too bad! c7 bus to greenbelt, get off at Suitland, and then rode with bhk home. (I can take the Suitland bus to about 6 blocks from home too, if need be.)

0709071722.jpg
view of my office from the first bus stop.

dc metro in motion
then the metro.
(taken on another walkabout, but the scenery is the same)

DSCN5372
and then the front porch… looking up. home!


1 year ago – phone post from keys… riding the bus is about all I did that day.

2 years ago – power outage, cool magicians, my eyes are blue, klaxons, past life/ice cream/coffee, stem cell steaks

3 years ago – pizza with dan, adp screws up, paid users get lj-priority, making fiends, Fiona apple mp3, Miami Travel Piccies, condo

4 years ago – trolls, naughty hulk, wonder woman movie

5 years ago – Wave of Husband killings, apple nipple monkey, star trek chairs auctioned, Ashcroft afraid of kitties

6 years ago – brackish , some broken links, dancing poll, tried mcD’s yogurt &fruit, Le Petomane, band name poll, bid farewell to some junk

7 years ago – angry beavers, scary movie, don’t look behind you Geotarget

8886 – Thursday –

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. 


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.


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


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


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?

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