Showing posts with label Dependability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dependability. Show all posts

August 17, 2021

Disastrous Politics

This Afghan withdrawal and the Taliban overrunning the country is a complete fiasco. 

- 20 years of blood and treasure: $2,000,000,000,000, and 2,500 lost US military personal and G-d knows how many casualties (oh, about another 20,000)!

Now complete and utter chaos, and a turnover to terrorism.

Reminiscent of Iran's overthrow of the Shah and the U.S. hostage crisis for 444 days and when we lost Vietnam and the helicopters frantically evacuating US embassy personnel from the rooftop. 

BTW, what happened to our "Red Lines" on chemical weapons in Syria?

Where are our inherent values and the dependability of who we are and what we stand for?

Now we are once again emboldening Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia. 

Moreover, US Admiral says China is within 6 years of potentially taking Taiwan (guess where most of the computer chips are made and we already have a shortage)!!!

On top of this we have the Delta variant of Covid (and fears of worse coming) for this 1.5 year long pandemic with the CDC mask on again/off again non-sensical guidance. 

Then we have a $1,200,000,000,000 infrastructure bill and a $3,500,000,000,000 social welfare bill in the works to put on top of the US already almost $29,000,000,0000,000 national debt

Any ideas what that will do to the value of the US currency in the world and inflation rearing its ugly head.

I am starting to see a run on food and home stables in the stores again with items sold out.

Consumer confidence is shaking and the stock market is teetering off at a very high precipice. 

Oh, don't forget the border crisis which is getting out of control again. 

What the F*** is going on here?  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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March 21, 2018

Measurement And Standards Are Our Friends

So I learned that Metrology is the science of measurement. 

And measurement is the foundation of scientific research and creating standards. 

Scientific research and measurement are about exploration, discovery, and innovation.

Further, it is about finding the facts; it is objective; it is truth; it is essential to maintaining integrity. 

Standards also help to ensure dependability, because there is a common reference and you know what you are getting. 

A great true story that demonstrates the importance of measurements and standards is the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

This was the third worst urban inferno in American history. 

It destroyed over 1,500 building across 140 acres. 

Fire engines responded from as far as New York and Virginia. 

But the problem was that they invariably could not help. 

Why?  

Because their fire hose couplings could not fit on the Baltimore fire hydrants--they were not standardized.

Without standards, we don't have interoperability. 

We don't have a reference that everyone can go by. 

It's as if we're all working on our own desert islands. 

This defeats the power in numbers that make us together greater than the sum of our individual parts. 

Science and technology help us advance beyond just ourselves and today. 

Measurement and standardization help us to build a better and stronger society. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 18, 2017

Paper Navy Tiger

We spend $600 billion on defense and this is what we get?

In the middle of the night our U.S. Navy DESTROYER crashes with a ginormous container ship.

The commercial vessel (yes it's bigger, but it's a civilian ship) is lightly damaged, but the U.S. Navy BATTLESHIP (after having undergone a recent $21 million upgrade) has 7 dead, the captain injured, and it can barely make it back to its port except with tugboats for extensive repairs. 

WTF!

How does an battleship with the latest sensors and technology collide with a civilian ship--how did such a foreign vessel even get close to our navy ship let alone collide with it--was someone completely "asleep at the wheel?"

This is no joke!--this is our first line of defense in our ability to project force globally. 

What if this had been a terrorist ship laden to the hilt with high explosives or an Axis of Evil Iranian or North Korean fast attack craft or even a Russian or Chinese attack submarine--surprise!

Doesn't a battleship need to be ever-vigilant and -ready for battle? 

How can we fight sophisticated 21st century militaries with advanced ship-killer cruise missiles, torpedos, and mines, if we can't even avoid the essential sinking of one our own fighting ships in peacetime. 

Our brave men and women who take up the uniform to serve this great nation--and this country--DESERVE BETTER!

Does this paper navy ship with a punched hole in it represent a larger forgotten or war-weary military in dire need of modernization and genuine readiness to defend the beautiful and free America? 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal via The Guardian)
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