Jan 28
Meet the luckiest sailor alive.
There’s nothing quite like the open ocean. I’ve put thousands of miles under the bow and still find myself speechless when confronted with the power and beauty of the sea.
I’m sure the guy in the story linked above has a decidely different opinion.
From the article:
Clements started to pray, then kicked off his boots and swam blindly in the darkness. In a stroke of luck, he bumped into one of the life rafts, which had capsized. “I was able to flip it over and somehow get in,” he says.
About an hour later a Navy helicopter, dispatched from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was on the scene and a rescue swimmer was in the water. Winds were blowing 50 knots, with 10-foot seas and driving sleet and snow.
Jan 25
MANAMA, Bahrain — The U.S. Navy says it overtook a suspected Somali pirate skiff that tried to attack a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden.
A Navy statement issued Sunday says a security team aboard the merchant vessel Napht Al Yemen 1 repelled the Jan. 20 pirate attack without U.S. help.
The USS Porter stopped and boarded the pirate skiff later that day.
Somali piratesThe commercial ship is Yemeni owned but sails under a North Korean flag.
The incident marked a rare example of the U.S. military
aiding North Korea, a reclusive rogue nation.
Piracy is among the fastest ways to make money in Somalia, a nation plagued by war and no functioning government.
Somali pirates seized 47 vessels last year. They currently hold about 200 crew members hostage.
[Source: Fox News]
Jan 22
Check out these incredible photos from our Airborne guys in the Wardak Province, courtesy of Uncle Jimbo over at Blackfive.
Jan 21
The Comfort was featured in God and Country. Outstanding command, manned by excellent and highly competent professionals.
U.S. Navy’s Comfort Hospital Ship Begins Treating Haiti’s Earthquake Victims | AHN
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Jan 18
For those of you who track such things, Publishers Weekly has a new set of deals listed here.
I find book deals fascinating, especially in the literary fiction and young adult categories. These genres are driven by cultural trends, to wit: zombies. If you write tight zombie fiction for teens these days, get yourself an agent, pronto. Vampires were recently hot thing, and still continue to generate sweet deals for new twists on a very old (and overplayed) theme.
What’s the next hot genre? If I knew I wouldn’t tell you. Heh.
Jan 06
If you own an HD TV, (which most of the newer ones are these days,) you can use old school rabbit ear antennae to pick up the digital signals available in your area. As long as there are towers nearby, you can draw in the signals with no extra boosters, boxes, or gizmos aside from the rabbit ears.
Yesterday I did and experiment with my LG television: unhooked Comcast cable, replaced it with a $10 antenna from K-Mart and w00t!, there it was. Or I should say, there they were. 11 crystal clear HD channels, all for free.
Dec 30
From GalleyCat:
Examining the year-end figures from Nielsen BookScan, Crain’s NY cautiously concluded that the bookselling business might not be as bad as the gloomy critics say.
The article began by noting the year’s declines. Compared to last year, “overall unit sales” fell by three percent and adult non-fiction plunged 7 percent–despite Sarah Palin’s blockbuster memoir. Nevertheless, adult fiction sales did not decline, and adult hardcover sales actually climbed by three percent.
Here’s more from the article: “‘Bottom line, it’s really pretty impressive,’ said Lorraine Shanley, a principal of consulting firm Market Partners International. ‘When you look at every other medium, and you look at books, and you see they held their own in one of the most difficult years we’ve had in a generation, that’s good news.’
