Paper Navy Tiger

We spend $600 billion on defense and this is what we get?

In the middle of the night our U.S. Navy DESTROYER crashes with a ginormous container ship.

The commercial vessel (yes it’s bigger, but it’s a civilian ship) is lightly damaged, but the U.S. Navy BATTLESHIP (after having undergone a recent $21 million upgrade) has 7 dead, the captain injured, and it can barely make it back to its port except with tugboats for extensive repairs. 

WTF!

How does an battleship with the latest sensors and technology collide with a civilian ship–how did such a foreign vessel even get close to our navy ship let alone collide with it–was someone completely “asleep at the wheel?”

This is no joke!–this is our first line of defense in our ability to project force globally. 

What if this had been a terrorist ship laden to the hilt with high explosives or an Axis of Evil Iranian or North Korean fast attack craft or even a Russian or Chinese attack submarine–surprise!

Doesn’t a battleship need to be ever-vigilant and -ready for battle? 

How can we fight sophisticated 21st century militaries with advanced ship-killer cruise missiles, torpedos, and mines, if we can’t even avoid the essential sinking of one our own fighting ships in peacetime. 

Our brave men and women who take up the uniform to serve this great nation–and this country–DESERVE BETTER!

Does this paper navy ship with a punched hole in it represent a larger forgotten or war-weary military in dire need of modernization and genuine readiness to defend the beautiful and free America? 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal via The Guardian)

Help Is Coming

So I used to have a boss who said something really funny.

He used to go, “Everybody says they want to help us” and then bemoaningly he would seem to repeat that a few times. 

The next part which he didn’t need to explicitly say was that “But no one does!”

It was the words, but also much the tone–yes, the walls could be caving in, the ship could be sinking, everything going up in flames, and of course, everyone is there looking on, shaking their heads pitifully, and seemingly stretching out their hand in an offer of help. 

For this boss though, the help couldn’t come fast enough or with enough resources to help resolve all the issues going on at the time. 

I suppose first and foremost, we have to help ourselves. 

Secondly, there needs to be a core understanding from the beginning of what is really doable and what is simply fantasy fare. 

Third, if help is on the way–great, but it’s got to be timely enough and come with enough raw horsepower to make a genuine difference. 

Finally, sometimes miracles do happen and everything works out great–the day is saved–but even then so much underlying damage has been done that you need to rebuild from the core foundations again. 

And for the next time, you’ll need to ensure capabilities beyond what was ever imagined before. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

I Drive This Way (NOT)

I took this photo in downtown Washington, D.C. 

Unlike the Google Car, which is purported to drive itself…this one let’s the rider sit on top (that’s a joke people)!

Doesn’t matter if you bend the roof with your butt. 

The view is much better from on high, and it’s oh so comfortable on the white aluminum with your pants bottom shining it up. 

Maybe this is a give-a-way for the next carathon or something equally prizeworthy. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Survivable Water Pipes

When an earthquake strikes, it is not just the immediate loss of life that is a concern, but the longer-term damage to critical infrastructure and the effect on human survival.

As we know, water is critical to every living creature, and in an earthquake, when there is damage to the water infrastructure, such as the underground piping, people can be left without this basic life-sustaining commodity.

When traditional solid cast-iron piping is used, an earthquake can cause these to deform and buckle. However, with a new ductile pipe design by Japanese company, Kubota–the pipes are built in a chain-like fashion and expand and contract, flex and bend, but do not easily break.

According to the Wall Street Journal (14 April 2011), Kubota earthquake-resistant pipes even withstood the 9.0 quake in Japan in 2011, and it can withstand “shaking, landslides, and extreme temperatures.

Now Los Angeles is piloting this pipe along 2 miles of its 7,000 miles of piping–they are focusing on “the most vulnerable, fault-line-adjacent areas,” since the piping is 2 1/2 times the price of regular piping.

In the absence of having a device like the Star Trek Replicator to synthesize food and water on the fly, it makes a lot of sense to upgrade our water systems and other critical infrastructure to protect us from the disasters that come.

“Tea, Earl Grey, Hot” needs to be available not just in good times, but also in bad. 😉

(Source Photo: Kubota)