dmv wrote:

Marc Levinson explains why the shipping container, along with the microchip, should be considered one of the great inventions of the second half of the twentieth century.

Sounds like a great book; shipping containers have been a recent source of fascination for me, starting upon my visit to the Panama Canal. I kind of want an excuse to play with some, like build a second home.

In the summer they soak up heat, and are like ovens inside. The metal gets too hot to touch, and I measured an air temperature of 131F towards the top of the container. Be sure to get a refridgerator container for your second home, as they are insulated and remain a bit cooler.

But I agree they are fascinating. After a summer spent unloading mostly China Shipping containers, I get terrible flashbacks every time I see one of these containers passing through Atlanta. That awful blue-green.

I think I got alot of insight into the global economy the day I unloaded several million oscar myer weenie whistles by hand.