A grain handling pier in Seattle's port

In the photo to the left, the ship Ji May is being loaded.  At normal operating capacity  the terminal can load 3000 tons of grain per hour through twin 48-inch conveyors.  In addition to the ability to hold and unload long trains (current capacity is 175 cars, expandable to 215), the unloading operations on shore also include a truck unloader which inclines a loaded semi tractor-trailer to unload 250 tons per hour.

Current capacity is 4.2 million bushels of storage.  The Port of Seattle owns the grain terminal and it is under long-term lease by Cargill, the nation’s largest grain dealer.  The terminal is served by both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad.

In 1979 the terminal loaded a record-breaking 1,977,000 tons of grain into 85 vessels.  Time to load a standard 15,000 ton bulk hauling vessel is about 5 hours.

Note:  All technical information in this post is courtesy of the Port of Seattle and the information placards in Elliot Bay Park.

My faithful riding companion for the last five years

I am in the market for a different car.  My trusty Taurus is approaching the ten-year-old mark and I am thinking something a little newer might be in order.  I  spent part of today looking at cars and thinking back to my very first automobile – a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass that I first drove in 1988, during my junior year of high school.  I grew to love that car over the course of about eight years of daily driving, and sometimes still wish I had it back.

So, that got me wondering – would you be willing to vote in a quick poll about the age of your first car?  If so, click the question:

Most people ask this question with the intention of finding out how you make a living. Sometimes I like to have fun with my answer to this recurring question.

“I take pictures of freight trains” or “I take apart wooden furniture looking for salvage parts” or “I like to take candid photography using my zoom lens”. I really like using this last one on new neighbors, then watching to see how much time passes before they close their blinds. My wisecracking answers increase with my caffeine intake.

How would you answer this question? Do you have any other humorous ideas? Who was the last person you asked this? What did they say? Click the “Comments” link and let me know!

I am not a professional job hopper – I have had only three employers in over 15 years.  When I got my first “real” job, social media was not even a buzzword.  Much can change in a decade and a half.  Even though I now have accounts on several social networking sites, this was the last thing I thought about when I applied for my current job.

I have no idea if anyone was looking through my LinkedIn profile or my Facebook entries, but I certainly didn’t do any optimization on any of my networking profiles.  Looking back now, maybe this would have been a good idea to consider.

Are you searching for a job?  Maybe you should take a different approach than I did, and give some attention to your social media profiles.  Are you putting your best image forward from your social media “projector”?  Have you eliminated any references to less-than-professional behavior, kept incriminating statements to a minimum, and attended to removing profanity?

Not every social network is designed for professional promotion, but all are searchable by your potential employers’ hiring managers.  Why not give them something inviting to look at, instead of something condemning?

You have perhaps guessed by now that my uninvited house guest is a cricket. My mind is wandering back to “A Cricket in Times Square”, a book I read as a child about a singing cricket in New York City. Can’t quite remember the details now.

This “singing”, as it were, has inspired what I believe to be my first ever haiku:

Infernal chirping,
One with exoskeleton,
Crunchy Gooey Mess

I recently heard the phrase “sabotaging science” in reference to some church-based curriculum or another (yes, there are still a few educational programs which are built upon the foundations of religious thought).

This made me think, “If I were to create a universe, and give a certain group of life forms the ability to think and reason, would I then also sabotage that ability?”

It is a tough question if you consider the ramifications.  First, I am going to create this prototype setting for my favorite creatures to occupy.  Then I am going to create those favorite creatures, loosely based on my own image, and place them in this setting.

With further thought, the real question soon becomes, “Do I indeed give them free will to make choices, and thus, mistakes?”

As a mere mortal, there is much to consider.  Eventually, though, I think it necessarily comes down to “If they are to find truth,  how can they not have the ability to choose between truth and lies?”

Now, if sabotaging science actually happened, then I would assert that it was done from the beginning, when humans were established as the dominant form of life.  With human participation comes human error.  This is the true sabotage that has happened.  Give a person the chance to observe a monkey and a man, and instantly the similarities are obvious to this person.  But what of the less obvious differences?

It is ironic that this doesn’t hold for human creations.  Hand a person two items made by human hands or by today’s equivalent, the robot.  If the items aren’t exactly alike, the differences will be quickly obvious, while the similarities sometimes remain somewhat elusive.

For example, let us consider a small salad bowl and a similarly sized round ash tray.  To the casual observer, the two items are obviously different.  The recognition of this difference is nearly immediate among a wide variety of intellects.  Although the two items are both round, and may both be the same color, and perhaps close to the same size, the difference is obvious.

You may ask “What difference?”, to which I would answer, “The intention of the creator.  That is what separates the salad bowl from the ash tray.”  Even to a casual observer, this is quickly obvious.  This is because the observer has an understanding of the purpose for each.  Why not for the monkey and the man?

I propose that it is because you and I might one day create either the ash tray or the salad bowl, given enough patience and the right material and the desire to do so.  However, neither one of us will come close to creating a human or a monkey or any other of the wonders all around us.

You don’t buy it?  Well, go ahead.  Create something on the scale of the majestic world and universe we live in.  Try to create the moment that hundreds of thousands of people unwittingly share as they each observe a beautiful sunset, each from their own vantage point.  Try to create the feeling in your heart that happens when you hear a baby say “Dada” or “Mama” for the first time.  Want something easier?  Try creating a dung beatle, a cockroach, or a flea.  Where would you start?

This level of detailed work, the type of artistry that went into making just the few things we have discovered about our world, is just too much for most people to grasp.  So rather than looking up and acknowledging the wonder, we look down and wonder about knowledge.

We build tools and laboratories.  We create measuring sticks, and we create methods, and we create ways to quickly share the details of what we measure with others who are also measuring.  In all of this, we claim to build up a healthy detachment from what we are studying, we even claim to be “objective” and unattached to any method or theory, when in fact we know the opposite is true.

Just as the whole of creation brings a twinkle to the eye of the intelligent architect in charge of all, the author of a scientific paper will often defend the indefensible to the bitter end because his name is on it. Well folks, I think that we are the indefensible, and that grand architect has indeed gone the distance to defend us in spite of that, because of the love that develops between the creator and the creation.

Not only have we been allowed to search for truth, and to fail, but we’ve been allowed to keep trying again and again, with the encouraging promise of impending success.  This applies to everyone, regardless of whether you search for truth in a church or at a lab bench, as a journalist or as a laborer.  Today, tomorrow, and the next day you will have another chance to get it right.

The last eight years, also, have passed quickly.  I started that period by moving myself and my household from one region of our great state to another, in a sort of homecoming.  I had taken a new job in a new industry, an experience I would later write about in retrospect.

And now, again, it is time for a change.  I’ve parted ways with my beloved job in the natral products industry, and I am now off to a new beginning in an industry that is, in a way, also a homecoming.  I will again  be working in the agricultural sector, this time in an industry which is facing its own share of ups and downs right now, and I’m sure I’ll be sharing more details as time goes on.

Wish me luck!

This is a textbook demonstration of how to peacefully express your dissatisfaction with the way your representatives have been doing their jobs.

It is the latest in an escalating response from the governed to what is apparently either disrespect or complete neglect of duties on the part of lawmakers.

If you are a lawmaker and you spend your time in Washington social circles instead of in your district listening, you should be scared. We are in your district, and we are listening, and we WILL vote in the next election.

Don’t think that a party emblem is going to be your free pass – we brought the tea and we’re making enough for both parties.

So get your act together, review your voting record, compare it to your constituents’ interests, and maybe polish up that resume. You just might be with many of those constituents, in the job market, soon.

I have compiled a group of Midnight Blogger posts from previous months on Agriculture.  Below are links to a the posts, as well as a brief description if appropriate.  Enjoy!

• Cloning gets government approval:  Do we really want this?
• Las Vegas is building a vertical farm:  Sharing a news article
• Farm Broadcasting and its value
• Ethanol Industry – Part 1
• Ethanol Industry – Part 2
• More on Ethanol
• Ag Employment:  Leaving your first job can be a little like leaving your first love
• The Harvest:  A twist on harvest, and why I love the fall of the year

Be sure to drop a line in the comments and tell me what you think!