Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Front Fell Off


You have got to be kidding me. This was formerly the Russian guided missile attack submarine Kursk, of latter days a mausoleum housing the bodies of over 100 men. Rumors have the cause of the boat's sinking as a faultyweapon, probably one propelled by a fickle hydrogen peroxide system. It's no surprise to a ship designer that the weapon guys would be to blame. The weapon designers are darlings to naval officials because their product is sexier than the giant chunks of steel that ship designers use, so the weapons are allowed a much narrower safety margin than the boats they are carride on. This brings us to a famous tenet of naval architecture
(narrow safety margin)=(resting on bottom)

I did find a few things interesting from the top picture, especially. Note the monstrous size of the boat, second only to the American Ohio and Soviet Typhoon Classes of submarine for length and displacement. Despite that, the drydock in turn dwarfs the submarine. What a facility! Note that the missile tubes straddle the central pressure hull on both port and starboard. The pressure hull itself actually appears elliptical, but that could just be due to the perspective of the photograph. The missile tube fairings are decoupled from the missile tube hatches themselves, and each fairing covers two hatches. There could be a separate hydraulic or electrical interlock, but there appears to be no mechanical link between the two. The fairings seem to have a couple of linear hydraulic actuators apiece, but with a very precarious alignment in the full open position. In other words, they look like a wave or missile launch wouldn't have a tough time breaking them. From the picture, there is no sign of the hatch operating linkage at all, so it must be pretty flimsy. As for the sail, it looks bigger than a double-decker bus. I wonder what they put in that thing.
On a lighter note, here is more lighthearted case of the front falling off.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

My Fair Ladies

The family recently spent an evening taking in a local fair. Where else can you:
  • watch riding lawnmowers belch white smoke and take corners at 25 mph
  • spend $23 for a greasy (albeit tasty) dinner and walk away thankful that the lady didn't charge for the bottle of water
  • see your child defy gravity
  • think it's OK that half of the teenage boys are wearing their high school football jersey
  • spend some quality time with livestock

The ladies are pumped for the carousel

Good looking? Yes. Resembling her father? No.

Sarah Joy momentarily decides the fair is overrated. Wifey momentarily decides Sarah Joy is overrated
Radial acceleration=(velocity^2)/(radius of rotation)

Daddy, the #4 tractor is running a little rich

Where's my soundtrack? I wanted 'Ride of the Valkyries'!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Raise Snorkel

Raising snorkel; it's what most of the world's submarines still do every so often as a way of getting a breath of fresh air. We have been beyond busy the past month or so. Bulletized rundown:
  • Samuel is doing GREAT. He has yet to catch up to his sister's for weight at 8 weeks of age, but he's smiling, and even laughing now. Very jovial, borderline jolly, he may be destined to be a gregarious fat man.
  • Sweetness just started her second year of preschool. The socialization is good, but the academics of Pre-Kindergarten aren't going to benefit her much, since she now reads letters & cards she gets in the mail on her own.
  • Sarah Joy is now talking, combining words and getting clearer by the day. Her feats of strength are already legendary in the toddler community. Seriously, she's BOSS, I'm afraid her build will be more like mine than Wifey's
  • Wifey has really bounced back well from the delivery of Samurai. In the past few weeks she has absolutely slaughtered the furniture & appliance market (see next item)
  • On the home front, I've cleared many vines, with more to go, prepared & sealed the deck, we're getting cable TV Sunday, have hosted many friends, purchased a used 21+ cubic foot freezer (like new, from acquaintances, $125!), Two wingback chairs (about $800, after an extended warranty), a futon for guests to sleep on (less than 1/2 price, $115!), and a patio set (couch, 2 large chairs, coffee table, originally $800, today only for $250!!!)
  • Think about this: we've been in this house for about 12 weeks, and have only had DVDs to watch, and not really missed a thing. Only football convinced us to get cable.
  • I've averaged 50 hours a week at work the past few weeks, and next week promises more of the same. Great timing! The gremlins have been at work again at our companion shipyard down South. It's worse than the papers let on. The best day had me at work at 5:00 A.M., leaving for 2 hours to pitch a softball game that went an unheard of (for that league) 90 minutes (we rallied from down 14-2 to win 22-21!), then back to work until 11:30 P.M. Wifey has been very supportive, but it's tough on the kids.
  • ...and Paul K. finally retired at work. The last guy with more experience than me at work. A 70 year old Vietnam Vet (USMC). I will miss that man. Not just for the extra burden I now have on the job, but for a little perspective.
  • Fantasy football starts in earnest on Sunday. I got Drew Brees as my QB... but I had Tom Brady last year.
  • Go Lions
  • Go Tigers
  • I bought a chainsaw, hope to break that out in a little over a week. Pray for my fingers.
  • I listened to the Neil Young album Harvest Moon last night, it was the first time I've had the time to enjoy an entire album at home in some time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a warm campfire, throwing off gentle light that somehow just makes the surrounding darkness even more overwhelming and oppressive.

Hopefully I won't go 6 weeks before posting again