Yaakov Kirschen, The Jerusalem Post, Dry Bones
New Phone !
Mayport will be home for new Navy LCS ships
Jacksonville base could have 17 combat ships by 2020.
Jacksonville Times-Union, by Timothy J. Gibbons, MAR. 11, 2010:
WHAT’S AN LCS?
The littoral combat ship is a new Navy combatant, designed to go fast and operate in shallow, near-shore waters. The ship differs in two major ways than most other war ships: Rather than relying on a large number of personnel, the ship combines a more experienced crew with a great deal of technology and automation. Second, the vessel is designed to handle three missions — fighting submarines, finding mines and waging surface warfare — with specialized modules for each type of mission being swapped on and off the ship.
The Navy has had two version of the littoral combat ship built and plans to decide later this year which variant it will commit to. The first ship, the USS Freedom, deployed last month from Mayport. The second ship, the USS Independence, will stop by Mayport before deploying late this month or early next month.
Mayport Naval Station will be the primary homeport on the East Coast for the Navy’s newest class of ships, the service’s highest ranking officer said Wednesday, meaning the base would not suffer the personnel losses expected as its older ships are retired.
By 2020, Mayport could be home to 17 littoral combat ships, with the first one arriving six years from now.
By the time it arrives, the base is slated to have lost the 13 frigates that make up the bulk of its fleet, shedding thousands of sailors in the process.
Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of Naval Operations, discussed the LCS homeporting decision during an appearance before a House military construction subcommittee in Washington.
“They’re recognizing how strategic Mayport is,” said U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., a committee member. “I think the long-range future of Mayport is bright.”
It’s unclear exactly how many sailors the new ships would bring to the base: Although littoral combat ships only have about 40 full-time crew members — compared to about 200 on a frigate — each vessel is expected to have multiple crews assigned them, with some personnel afloat while the rest are training.
In addition, the small crew size means that some tasks typically handled aboard a ship — from ordering supplies to taking care of paperwork — are done by personnel on land.
The shore command would also be bolstered by the people needed for training operations, particularly important because the ship is designed to switch between different mission requirements.
Overall, that could mean more personnel ashore and active in the local economy than is the case now.
“It’s going to be a big deal,” said John Meserve, a former commanding officer of the base. “We’ve been thinking that these are the perfect fit for this coast forever.”
Roughead alluded to that fit as well, telling the subcommittee that “this ship is optimized for operations in areas like the Southern Command” — the Caribbean and the waters around South America.
That area is rife with the shallow, littoral waters the ship is designed to operate in and heavy with drug runners the speedy ship hopes to chase down.
The USS Freedom, the Navy’s first littoral combat ship, left for its initial deployment to that area in mid-February and seized a quarter-ton of cocaine a week later.
The Navy said Wednesday evening the Freedom had stopped another go-fast vessel, this one carrying 1½ tons of cocaine.
“The value of the speed of the ship has been validated,” said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello, a Navy spokesman. “The deployment is going very well.”
The second littoral combat ship, the USS Independence, is expected to have its crack at Caribbean drug smugglers toward the end of the month.
Coming on the heels of the Navy’s decision to base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Mayport, the homeporting announcement is seen as a blow to Norfolk, where the bulk of naval assets on the East Coast reside.
“They didn’t want to talk about it until they were pretty confident about the carrier decision,” said retired Rear Adm. Fred Metz, a Virginia resident.
Metz has argued that the Navy has not addressed the full cost of moving a carrier here but has said that basing littoral combat ships at Mayport makes sense.
Discussing the LCS homeporting, he said Wednesday, was a way of gauging the reaction in Virginia.
“I think this is a trial balloon to see if anybody here is going to fight about it,” he said.
If they are, they’ll have plenty of time.
The LCS program has had its share of delays, with the Navy scrapping its procurement process and started over earlier this year.
Current plans are for the Navy to buy another ship like the Freedom this year, plus a second copy of the Independence. Later this year, the Navy plans to commit to one version and then build about 15 copies of it through 2014. Eventually, the Navy says it wants 55 of the vessels.
timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com
21st Century Library
Manny Francisco, Manila, The Phillippines
Greeneville fighting vultures with vultures
Neighborhood's Vulture Problem May Be Solved
Sun Photo by Phil Gentry A dead vulture hangs from a tree off Sunset Street. Police recently killed several vultures in the neighborhood, after obtaining a permit to do so. The bodies of several of the dead vultures were then suspended in the trees in an effort, apparently successful so far, to prevent more vultures from roosting in the Sunset Street woods. The vultures have been considered a serious health problem in the neighborhood for years. Source: The Greeneville Sun
GREENEVILLE — After years of complaints about flocks of vultures vomiting onto playgrounds and houses, Greeneville is trying a novel approach to scare off the birds.
The Greeneville Sun reports the city is hanging dead vultures from trees.
Police Chief Terry Cannon said vultures roosting on playground equipment in the Sunset Street area have made it unusable because they vomit the remains of dead animals they have eaten onto the equipment.
Cannon said artificial noisemakers and blank gunshots failed to scare the birds away, so police applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill some of them.
Public works crews then hung some of the dead birds from the trees at the suggestion of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee.
It may be a strange sight, but Cannon says it has worked — a least so far.
So you think that I am obsessed
I'm sure my friends and family are convinced that I am obsessed with tech gadgets in general and cell phones specifically. Here is a photo of my "Cell Phone Museum" in my office at my home. You can see more of my photos at www.ALS-Cells.com.
However, if you think I'm nuts, take a look at KodakCollector's Kodak collection.
KodakCollector describes his collection:
My camera room basically contains a few of my favorite items along with items I have displayed for people that have come to visit, trying to account for what they might want to see. Things have been mixed up quite a bit as items come off shelves and then are returned to a different spot. As you can see I am running out of shelf space. I have hundreds of xerox paper boxes filled with the rest of the collection on racks in the next room. There is no list of what I have or nothing that indicates where a particullar item might be. So it generally takes a while to find something that has not found its way to a spot on the camera room shelf.
You can see more of his collection on his website at KodakCollector.com.
Orca- Whale Killer Not Killer Whale
With all the recent news about the tragic accident at Sea World where the trainer was killed by the Orca, I did a little research about the animal. I was surprised to learn that the Orca is not a whale. The mammal is actually the largest member of the dolphin family and is know to kill whales. Originally called "whale killer," the words were reversed and it is now commonly known as a "killer whale."
from National Geographic:
Orcas, or killer whales, are the largest of the dolphins and one of the world's most powerful predators. They feast on marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and even whales, employing teeth that can be four inches (ten centimeters) long. They are known to grab seals right off the ice. They also eat fish, squid, and seabirds.
Orca Size relative to a bus
and from The Marine Mammal Center:
People often wonder why orcas are also called killer whales. Mariners and whalers observed transient orcas eating other whales. Thus they were named "whale killer." The name has since been reversed to "killer whale." There are no confirmed records of orcas ever killing a person in the wild.
Malcolm Forbes
"It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem."
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes
Malcolm Forbes on a Harley-Davidson. Millionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes was a larger-than-life character. He was a politician, art collector, sportsman, internationally famous balloonist and motorcyclist. During the 1970s and '80s, Forbes put a new face on motorcycling. Largely due to his highly publicized international motorcycle trips with Hollywood celebrities, business leaders and the press, Forbes helped changed the general public’s perceptions of what motorcyclists and motorcycling were all about. He showed that motorcycling was not only socially acceptable behavior, but even a highly desirable pastime for people of all social walks.
The third son of B.C. and Adelaide Forbes, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was born in New York City on August 19, 1919. His father founded Forbes magazine in 1917. At the time, it was the only business magazine in the United States. Growing up in Englewood, N.J., Forbes’ family experienced good times and bad. Things went quite well for them until the Depression. During the 1930’s, Forbes’ father barely kept the magazine alive, often making payroll by borrowing against the family’s assets. After graduating cum laude from Lawrenceville School in New Jersey in 1937, he enrolled at Princeton, where he majored in political science. While at Princeton, he was awarded the Class of 1901 Medal "as the member of the class who contributed the most to Princeton as an undergraduate." While he was in school, Forbes worked summers in the mailroom at the Forbes publishing offices. Of education, Forbes was quoted as saying, "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." After receiving a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his bravery at the Battle of Aachen in World War II, he joined the family publishing business. He won the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey in 1957, but was defeated in the election by Democrat Robert Meyner. In 1957, he also became editor and publisher of the magazine founded by his father. Forbes magazine was floundering when he took over, but under his management, circulation and profits soared, making him a multimillionaire. He became known for his extravagant parties and colorful hobbies, from hot-air ballooning to collecting Fabergé eggs. Forbes took up motorcycling in the late 1960s. He purchased a motorcycle dealership in New Jersey that became one of the largest in the country. Forbes became a leading goodwill ambassador for the sport of motorcycling. His international riding trips were covered extensively not only by motorcycle magazines, but also by the mainstream media. Forbes made his thoughts on motorcycles and politics quite clear. "I think legislative assaults on motorcyclists are totally emotional, disproportionate and totally unfair... They are instigated and implemented by people who know nothing about motorcycling, but have a prejudice. It's easy to curb the freedoms of others when you see no immediate impact on your own." In 1973, Forbes became the first person to fly successfully from coast to coast in one hot air balloon. He planned a more spectacular feat in 1974, a trip across the Atlantic, but it ended in failure when a group line was accidentally tripped, releasing the balloons into the air before final preparations for the launch were completed. Forbes was described by an interviewer at Newsday as genial and witty and lacking the aura of barely controlled tension evident in many corporate heads. Forbes was awarded the AMA Hazel Kolb Brighter Image Award in 1987, the Association's highest award for activities that generate good publicity for motorcycling. Forbes died on February 24, 1990. He and his wife, Roberta, had five children. His son, Malcolm Jr. (known as Steve) became President and CEO of Forbes, Inc. in 1990.
Boston TV’s first weatherman, Don Kent, dies
As a kid in Quincy, Mass., I grew up listening to and later watching Don Kent's weather forecasts. I remember many a snowy morning, listening to the Quincy radio station, WJDA, hoping to hear that the snow had caused Quincy schools be closed for the day. I was sad to read that he had passed away.
Don Kent began doing weather reports for WBZ radio in 1951 and joined WBZ-TV in 1955. He stayed with the TV station until he retired in 1983.
The Patriot Ledger, Mar 03, 2010, By Allison Manning:QUINCY — He was the guy New Englanders turned to before heading to the beach for the weekend, or battening things down before the next storm.
Boston’s first television weatherman, Don Kent, died early Tuesday. At 92, he was still predicting the next day’s weather.
Weather was always a hobby for Kent, who grew up on Hamden Circle in the Wollaston section of Quincy. That hobby turned Kent into one of the most familiar personalities in Boston TV history. He spent 28 years as the face of weather for WBZ-TV.
“He was right. He knew,” Quincy historian and former neighbor Tom Galvin said. “And he was in weather his whole life.”
Kent did some of his earliest broadcasts atop Kent’s Carpetland, the business he and his brother, Roger, owned on Quincy Shore Drive. He built a little office there and, in 1947, between rug sales, began forecasting for WJDA in Quincy.
Everyone believed what Don Kent said, even if his tools were a bit rudimentary, Galvin said.
He recalled Kent saying, “(Meteorologists today) spent all these millions of dollars on satellites and ships and computers to predict the weather. I used to just open the door of that little shed and put my finger out.”
WBZ radio hired Kent away from his makeshift office in 1951. He joined WBZ-TV in 1955.
Retired Channel 5 meteorologist Dick Albert remembered visiting Kent at WBZ as a kid. He said Kent was his inspiration, and Albert would keep a diary of Kent’s forecasts and their accuracy.
“I was glued to every broadcast of his,” Albert said.
Kent wasn’t talking to a camera, Albert said. He was talking to the viewer. He told gardeners what days they didn’t need to water their beds. He let beachgoers know when to pack sunscreen. And he let his fellow sailors know what direction the gustiest winds would be coming from, all in his thick accent.
“He related to what people did,” Albert said. “He had a great way of relating the weather to how it was going to affect every aspect of the community around them.”
After retiring from WBZ in 1983, Kent started a new career as the weather forecaster for WQRC on Cape Cod, said his oldest son, Doug. He would compile reports from his home in Sanbornton, N.H.
“It was his hobby, so even after he stopped earning a living at it, he would still be involved,” Doug Kent said. “Anytime there was a storm brewing, that would get the juices flowing.”
Albert said he received letters throughout his career proclaiming, “Don Kent, he could have outforecasted you!”
“He was the first real meteorologist that had that kind of presence on television,” Albert said.
The presence hasn’t faded, even nearly 27 years after Kent signed off at WBZ.
“We’ve had some guys come and go on TV who have been popular, but Don Kent was a legend,” Galvin said.
In this 1996 photo, Don Kent, left, watches then-Gov. William Weld unveil a Don Kent Park sign on Quincy Shore Drive in Quincy. The park is the former site of a carpet store that Kent and his brother owned.
Warren Tell
I've always been a fan of Gary Larson's "Far Side" cartoons. Here is one of my favorites:
You can find more of his work on The Far Side website.
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Why I Love The South (Click to View Photos)
- Helen and I grew up in the heart of the land of The Pilgrims, Quincy, Massachusetts. After enlisting, the Navy sent me to Norfolk, Virginia, where I spent the better part of five years. In 1970, we moved to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, where we have lived ever since. As a young 18 year-old sailor from New England, I experienced quite a culture shock when first visiting the South. Over the years, I have learned to love living in Dixie. Although, I didn't personally photograph the subjects here, they well represent, the culture of the South.
