Category Archives: General

Is The Age Of Carriers Over?

Could be.

Certainly, it’s very long in the tooth, and it lasted quite a bit longer than the age of battleships (the transition between the true was, arguably, abrupt, occurring on a quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii in early December 1941).

It will be interesting to see how new space capabilities start to trump conventional air power in the next few decades.

Ummmm….No, Dear

I just heard a Fox News half-hour announcer say “John C. Stennis has just left his home port…”

No. John C. Stennis “left his home port,” permanently, a dozen years ago. This news story was about a ship. It should have been read, “The John C. Stennis has just left her home port.” Yes, I know it sounds strange (particularly given how little gender-driven English is, compared to, say Romance languages or German), but that’s how it’s done.

A Week Too Late

If this happened tonight, it would make things seem a lot more like Christmas around here (currently in the eighties and muggy, with a forecast low in the seventies tonight). The current weather forecast for south Florida for New Years Eve is temperatures below freezing. We’ll see if that forecast holds up over the week.

[Christmas Eve update]

D’oh!

I’d forgotten that I’d switched my weather forecaster temporarily to Atlanta. Forecast for Boca is low of fifty degrees on New Years Eve…

What Does Your Robot Head Look Like?

Today’s Woot offering is pretty funny:

If the scientist is going to use a home entertainment projector for the head, which one would we prefer him to use?

Woot feels the answer might be the InFocus IN72 Home Entertainment Projector. First of all, just look at it. This thing has awesome robot head written all over it. Not since HAL has there been such a perfect anthropomorphic design, allowing you to choose between:

a) breaking the ranks of soldiers by causing them to flee before your electronic snarl as you march on your state capitol or the state capitol of others.
b) breaking the ranks of soldiers by inviting them to stop and enjoy high quality movies or television in your new living room theater.

Also, the thing has sold out already, and it’s not even 10 AM on the east coast.