[PenultimateManStanding]

Thanks, GASMON, that was a gas, mon!

[alpha480v]

Funny!

[AlexdeLarge]

In Defense of Drunken Sailors
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-defense-of-drunken-sailors.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') can’t take it anymore. I need to take a stand. Right here. Right now. Lately, so much hate and vitriol has been directed at drunken sailors.

Why has it become so chic in the blogosphere to make the analogy that the Congress, the States, the Municipalities all spend like drunken sailors? Why the sudden urge to besmirch, dare I say libel, drunken sailors?

I assure you, a drunken sailor is a harmless creature. I speak from experience. I have been a drunken sailor. Many of my best friends have been drunken sailors.

Whereas from my perspective, all flavors of government inflict great harm. To infer a resemblance between a politician and a drunken sailor should be actionable!

When pulling into a foreign port after many weeks or months at sea with the world’s finest navy, I always looked forward to sampling the native’s libations. Yes, I got hammered.

However, when I ran out of money I STOPPED DRINKING! I didn’t club the patron on the bar stool next to me over the head and rob him so I could continue drinking. I didn’t call me wife and ask her to cash in the kids college funds so I could continue drinking. I didn’t write my unborn grandkids an IOU so I could continue drinking. I just stopped and stumbled back to the liberty launch for a cheeseburger. I knew I’d have some cash next payday and I could hit the bars and clubs in the next liberty port.

So please, no more comparisons of deficit spending politicians to harmless drunken sailors. Drunken sailors have feelings too.

[rangerone314]

+1 Nice find Alex!

[Graeme]

The U.S. Navy and Biofuels – Part III

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his is the concluding installment of my recent interview with Tom Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Navy (Energy). Part I discussed the overall goals of the Navy’s biofuel efforts, and in Part II we covered why coal-to-liquids (CTL) is presently off-limits, and why GTL may be as well. Part III picks up with the human cost of moving fuel into the theater of operations.

The editor of Consumer Energy Report, Sam Avro, joined me in this interview and our questions below will be denoted as “RR” or “SA”. Mr. Hicks’ responses are “TH”.

RR: I saw a recent story that once fuel actually makes it to the theater of operations, it can cost $400 per gallon when all the costs are added up. So are you putting any emphasis on producing the fuel locally? For instance, are you funding efforts that could enable you to produce fuel onsite in Afghanistan?

TH: Yes, I can point you to several efforts. In terms of working with say the Afghan population, and looking to them to create alternative fuels; that’s something that the Department of Defense and my understanding is maybe some other federal agencies are working on to create and stimulate those opportunities. And that’s really more their role to do that. What we are looking to do is to make our expeditionary units more efficient and less reliant on fossil fuels, and we are doing that in a number of ways.

One great example of us reducing our fuel tether, if you will, is our experimental forward operating base. This is something that in March the Marine Corps created in Quantico, Virginia – at the Marine Corps Base Quantico; an experimental or mock forward operating base. And the purpose of that was to test a bunch of alternative fuel technologies, renewable energy technologies so that they could reduce the amount of fossil fuels that they use in theater.

[Graeme]

US navy chief: I'm on a mission to stop using oil

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Y')ou have set ambitious goals for reducing fossil-fuel dependence within the US navy and Marine Corps. What are they?

By no later than 2020, at least half of all energy that the navy and marines use afloat, ashore and in the air will come from non-fossil fuel sources.

Why have you set such a high target?
We depend too much on fossil fuels and particularly on foreign sources of fossil fuels. We would not allow the places overseas that we buy oil and gas from to build our ships, planes or ground vehicles. Yet we give them a say on whether those vehicles run, those ships sail, or those aircraft fly. We give them a say in a couple of ways: one is by supply and the other is by price shocks. Every time the price of a barrel of oil goes up a dollar it costs the navy $30 million.

Is fossil-fuel dependence your only motive?
We are also doing this to be better war fighters. A navy ship is at its most vulnerable when refuelling. The USS Cole was refuelling in the port of Aden in Yemen when it was attacked in 2000. It is incredibly hard for the Marine Corps to get a gallon of gasoline to a front-line unit. For every 50 convoys, a marine is killed or wounded guarding that convoy.

The 3rd Battalion 5th Marines deployed at Sangin, Afghanistan, are using alternative energy sources. A couple of their forward combat bases use no fossil fuels, just solar power. One of the marine foot patrols uses roll-up solar blankets to generate power for their radios and GPS. It saves them hauling 700 pounds of batteries.

[DomusAlbion]

Awesome! Now our fighting forces can fight for oil without using oil. That certainly reduces the EROEI.

[mattduke]

What's next, environmentally friendly, recyclable bullets? For efficiency they can probably mechanize bullet removal from corpses.

http://www.firearmsid.com/Feature%20Art ... ullets.htm

[Novus]

Maybe he wants to go back to having a tall ship Navy. The Navy is the one branch of the military that could probably get away with using very little oil.

[nobodypanic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DomusAlbion', 'A')wesome! Now our fighting forces can fight for oil without using oil. That certainly reduces the EROEI.

[dukey]

To really go green we should recycle dead people and turn them into oil. I am sure the military industrial complex will be able to supply the feedstock needed.

[Shaved Monkey]

The meat eating robot is being developed (obviously scared a few people so it was re badged as Vego

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut, contrary to reports, including one that appeared on FOXNews.com, the EATR will not eat animal or human remains.

Dr. Bob Finkelstein, president of RTI and a cybernetics expert, said the EATR would be programmed to recognize specific fuel sources and avoid others.

“If it’s not on the menu, it’s not going to eat it,” Finkelstein said.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTQTUYCUwAAK2F7.jpg[/img]


Los Angeles UFO was actually a missile test, U.S. navy says

Social media from California to Arizona lit up on Saturday night with reports of streaking lights across the skies, but the phenomenon turned out to be an unarmed U.S. nuclear missile launched off the Southern California coast, the Pentagon said.

A Pentagon public affairs spokesman said a U.S. navy Trident II (D5) missile test flight was conducted at sea from the USS Kentucky, a nuclear-powered, ballistic missile submarine.

Users of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook posted photos, comments and video of the lights, wondering whether they might have come from everything from a meteor to a UFO.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/los-angeles-ufo-was-actually-a-missile-test-u-s-navy-says-1.3309668

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')o wonder California freaked out! New pictures show spectacular launch of nuclear-capable Trident missile over Golden Gate Bridge that sparked UFO scare - and a host of conspiracy theories

With no prior warning and no immediate explanation - a nuclear-capable Trident missile was launched from a U.S. submarine off the coast of California and sent streaking in all its blue and white glory across the bay.




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3310577/Photographer-captures-awe-inspiring-pictures-nuclear-capable-Trident-missile-streaking-San-Francisco-fired-coast-California.html

[Subjectivist]

Now that the President is not down on fossil fuels many things may change in these off limits catagories so casually dismissed by the authors.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')size=150]USS Lexington: aircraft carrier scuttled in 1942 is finally found[/size]

Wreck from second world war’s Battle of the Coral Sea is located off eastern coast of Australia by search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

Wreckage from the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier that sank during the second world war, has been found in the Coral Sea by a search team led by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The wreckage was found on Sunday by the team’s research vessel, the R/V Petrel, about 3,000m (two miles) below the surface and more than 500 miles (800km) off the eastern coast of Australia.

The team released pictures and video of the wreckage of the Lexington – one of the first ever US aircraft carriers – and some of the planes that went down with it.

Remarkably preserved aircraft could be seen on the seabed bearing the five-pointed star insignia of the US Army Air Forces on their wings and fuselage.

On one aircraft an emblem of the cartoon character Felix the Cat can be seen along with four miniature Japanese flags presumably depicting “kills”.

The search team also released pictures and video of parts of the ship, including a nameplate and anti-aircraft guns covered in decades of slime.

The Lexington and another carrier, the USS Yorktown, fought against three Japanese aircraft carriers from 4 to 8 May 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first ever between carriers.

The badly damaged Lexington, nicknamed “Lady Lex”, was deliberately sunk by another US warship at the conclusion of the battle. More than 200 members of the crew died in the battle but most were rescued by other US vessels before the Lexington was scuttled.

Admiral Harry Harris, who heads up the US military’s Pacific Command (Pacom) – and whose father was one of the sailors evacuated – paid tribute to the successful research effort. “As the son of a survivor of the USS Lexington, I offer my congratulations to Paul Allen and the expedition crew of Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel for locating the ‘Lady Lex’, sunk nearly 76 years ago at the Battle of Coral Sea. We honor the valor and sacrifice of the ‘Lady Lex’s’ Sailors – and all those Americans who fought in World War II – by continuing to secure the freedoms they won for all of us.”

The Lexington was carrying 35 aircraft when it went down. The search team said that 11 planes had been found including Douglas TBD-1 Devastators, Douglas SBD-3 Dauntlesses and Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats.

Search teams led by Allen have discovered the wreckage of a number of historic warships including the USS Indianapolis, a US heavy cruiser that sank in the Philippine Sea in July 1945 after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.