You are illustrating a theory on opiate effects. There are (at least) two components of pain: the localized, detailed physical sensation, similar to touch, and the element of discomfort or "suffering". Opiates ameliorate the latter without affecting the former. When I was interested in this feely-touchy stuff like patients' subjective experiences, I questioned a guy who had just had a massive MI and was in an ICU after the first round of meds (morphine was and AFAIK still is the first drug you ordered for an MI). He said it still hurt but it didn't bother him. He felt like the world was behind a pane of glass and he was detached from reality. Very Timothy Leary talk from a middle-aged working class guy.

I'm now an amateur on this stuff, but if enough of the unpleasantness is still getting through I might consider: low-dose trial of SSRI like Prozac, low-dose benzodiazepine like Librium, Marinol, hash, in roughly that order.

Will see if I can dig some stuff up for you soon - I'm chasing several nasty deadlines at the moment.

One thing that I just remembered is that DPW bought CSX in Feb 2005 - presumably they were cleared by the USG then, as CSX was an American port operator if I remember right.

Waterboy

I am thinking it is going to be an iterative post, so any sharing along the way that you can is greatly appreciated.

I think CSX is a rail freighting company, not ports per se.

But I need to check, I've grown ignorant of North America.
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Update
Dubai Ports International Completes Acquisition Of CSX Corp.'s World Terminals
2005 Feb 22 9:50 PM
CSX Corp. announced that Dubai Ports International (DPI) has completed the acquisition of CSX World Terminals (CSX WT), the international terminal business of CSX Corporation, for closing cash consideration of $1.142 billion, subject to final working capital and long-term debt adjustments. The conclusion of this transaction means that DPI is now one of the world's top 6 operators. DPI currently has extensive operations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and India. The acquisition of CSX WT gives DPI a strong presence in Asia for the first time, including CT3 and CT8W in Hong Kong, Tianjin and Yantai in China as well as operations in Australia, Germany, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. DPI now has a truly international network with the capacity to service the needs of customers across the globe. The combined portfolio consists of interests in 15 operational terminals in 13 locations with a combined capacity in excess of 24 million TEUs.

COl,

Col is correct - CSX is primarily rail transport.
Info on CSX here:

http://www.csx.com

Brief history here regarding Conrail - relevant as Conrail and CSX merged a while back:

http://www.conrail.com/history.htm

It is intersting to note that Conrail was formed in the wake of some of the older rail companies going bankrupt in the 70s. Conrail was largely funded by the US government until 1981.

CSX (and Conrail) are relevant as is illustrates one example of the push towards standardization and integration of freight transportation, especially in the realm of inter-modal operability (DFW aquiring CSX makes sense vis-a-vis containerization).

A few more opiates and we'll need to replace the Pierce Brosnan photo with this.

If by some chance you end up with questions re: rail freight and intermodality, let me know - Dad used to work in the field, and even has a couple of patents. Plus he is a huge geek who loves to share his knowledge.

Eva,

I'd be interested in anything regarding rail freight and intermodality - this issue ties in nicely with the DPW port operations stuff and interests me as I'll be teaching a course this spring on transportation security.

Hey, I'll see what I can extract from him - e-mail me if you have specific questions, particularly ones that aren't on point in this forum.

The CSX thing was for their ports operations (CSX World Terminals) in Latin America and Asia.

They've also bought a shipping company I think, though I don't have my notes to hand.

Basically the primary objective is to build an integrated logistics hub at Jebel Ali - Sheikha Lubna was talking in Amman last year about how it worked out cheaper (somehow) to ship goods to Dubai from Asia and then fly them to Europe. Fits well with just-in-time supply chains at any rate.

The CSX deal was a carbon copy of the P&O deal, just smaller. DPW outbid PSA because PSA can't raise money as easily as DPW - Western banks are basically throwing money at Gulfi firms at the moment because they have more than they know what to do with. Deutsche and Barclays gave them a war chest for P&O of $6.5 bill, and they're restructuring that debt with a bunch of sukuk offerings through Dubai Islamic Bank.

Right. Interesting information. The DPW bid for P&O was way over PSA's.

Rather feels like an over-paying sort of situation, but I've not done the numbers so what do I know.

As I made progress on my due diligence file, will try to genuinely expand my basic points post tomorrow. Any guidance out there on the issue of the Treasury Department committee would be helpful. I understand it's basic form and practice, but some literature on it would be useful.

Yeah, they paid 70% more than what P&O was worth before the first bid.