Sorry it has been so long… again. Last week I had to learn about “translating” a ship on land. To explain, clearly we must start building ships on dry land but once they are between 70 and 75% complete we must float them to continue. This is primarily so the major sea water systems (A/C, fire pumps, radar cooling skids) and propulsion systems can be tested similar to the way they will be operated. A 75% complete ship looks close to a completed ship on the outside and weighs about 6700 long tons. I will try to post some pics of this later in the week with some float off pictures. In short, we translate (or roll) the ship on rails using about 75 little cars onto a sinking dock. Then we incrementally sink the dock to float the ship. As you can imagine there are many steps to this process and this is my first rodeo so I am learning a great deal.
Char and the kids were watching Dancing with the Stars for the first time while I was gone to DC and found out that Binh really loves the show. So tonight I tried to get a little video of him watching a routine. From what I understand he was not as in to it as he was in previous weeks but you can get the picture. BTW: the fall at the end looks worse than it was.
I was in DC the first part of the week getting “connected.” Most naval engineering concepts and solutions come out of Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington. It was eye opening to see where all those folks worked and hear about the issues they deal with. Contrary what one might think, there are a great deal of very talented people working very hard there.
Just before heading to DC, the family met up with some close friends and hit the outlet malls. Our friends have a daughter close in age to our kids. Usually the dads would watch the kids while moms hit the girlystores and vice versa. Well, we were in Old Navy and it was my time to watch the kids and my heart sank! Were did Binh go? I started to go into search and rescue mode, performing an expanding square but initially did not see him. However, I did see a group of kids near the changing room so I moved in that direction… Ahh… Not only was I happy to see Binh but I was happy to see what he was doing… hangin with the ladies!
At the end of the day we all had good fun. Did manage to get some good video so I will post a Youtube Tuesday next week.
Oh, how history repeats itself. I just read an article that stated President Obama suggested a deal to eliminate the proposed missile shield deployment in the Czech republic and Poland for help with Iran’s nuclear program. WHAT! Why would one do such a thing? Actually, I think I know why but that is not the point. The key here is judgement.
So the new administration has decided to make a deal with the devil… I mean the former Soviet Socialist Republic. As we know, the best indication of future behavior is past behavior, so what can we expect? Well the last time we had a significant relationship with this government was prior to the second Iraq war. Remember the whole “Oil for Food” program scandal? That’s the one where both Russia and France set up intricate webs of companies and individuals stretching from Europe to Asia in order get money from Saddam. Going back a little in history, one might recall the fact that we spent a significant part of the twentith century in a nuclear standoff with this communist nation. From the 60s through the early 80s, Americans were inclined to build bomb shelters because of this new “partner”. During the cold war, the missile shield was the one thing that got a reaction out of the Soviet regime. Have they changed? They still sell lethal weapons to many of our enemies as well as nuclear secrets to Iran. Russia has had a nuclear cooperation agreement with Iran since mid to late 2002, allegedly for a civilian reactor. Do you trust either of these two parties?
Let’s look at Iran for a moment. A country who’s government absolutely hates the U.S. and would seize any opportunity to get the upper hand on Israel. Now that the U.S. is making deals with Iran through Russia to reduce our influence in Europe. Such a deal proposed by the Obama administration would be perfect! Isolate Israel, reduce influence in Europe, and reduce influence in the Middle East.
One field of engineering involves controls and control networks. We seek to design systems that require single degrees of control or Single Input Single Output (SISO) control networks to reduce the complexity of the control network. One thing you always try to avoid are control problems with two or more degrees of freedom that cannot be decoupled. A U.S. deal with Russia to control Iran is exactly that, an impossible control problem. Decoupling a relationship between Iran and Russia when money and nuclear materials are involved sounds nearly impossible to me. Additionally, like the appeasement deals of the past between the free world and Stalin, a single deal with a regime like the current one in Russia or Iran alone is ill advised. With two degrees of America hating, we are guaranteed to loose!
So the new administration has decided to make a deal with the devil… I mean the former Soviet Socialist Republic. As we know, the best indication of future behavior is past behavior, so what can we expect? Well the last time we had a significant relationship with this government was prior to the second Iraq war. Remember the whole 
One field of engineering involves controls and control networks. We seek to design systems that require single degrees of control or Single Input Single Output (SISO) control networks to reduce the complexity of the control network. One thing you always try to avoid are control problems with two or more degrees of freedom that cannot be decoupled. A U.S. deal with Russia to control Iran is exactly that, an impossible control problem. Decoupling a relationship between Iran and Russia when money and nuclear materials are involved sounds nearly impossible to me. Additionally, like the appeasement deals of the past between the free world and Stalin, a single deal with a regime like the current one in Russia or Iran alone is ill advised. With two degrees of America hating, we are guaranteed to loose!
