Babeled

1. Someone cuts you off on the freeway and you silently tell yourself to “lock S-Foils in attack positions.”

2. You notice when others speak Klingon with an accent.

3. You keep things in your house that you’ll need when the zombies come.

4. Your friends make fun of you because you never use contractions in an attempt to sound more like an android.

5. Your flashlights are full of dead batteries because you’ve had too many mock saber duels.

6. You can easily distinguish between a TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, TIE Interceptor, or TIE Advanced, AND you know what TIE stands for.

7. You can cite technical readouts, fictional units of measure, and common tactics when arguing with your friends about which fleet would win in a battle between Babylon Five, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica.

8. You’re upset that I did not mention Star Gate in #7.

9. Rearrange your sentences to sound like a Jedi Master you do.

10. You’re confused by Han Solo’s assertion that the Millennium Falcon can make the Kessel Run in less than five Parsecs because you know that a Parsec is a unit of distance and you’re angry at George Lucas for not researching this before writing that scene (kudos to Family Guy).

OK fellow geeks.  I know you’re out there.  Let’s show each other just how lame we all are.  If you feel that any of my technical assumptions or opinions are false, misleading, or in need of clarification than let the world hear it in the comment section.  Points are awarded based on numerical proofs, anecdotal evidence, and expanded story lines that you might otherwise feel embarrassed to cite.

~Man Overboard

On November 3, 2008 the New York Times published a letter by one Paul R Epstein, an Instructor in Medicine at Harwavrd University, in which he does his best to conjure up fear using tainted information to scare the public away from Nuclear Energy.

Well, Mr. Epstein, in the words of the great Samuel L. Jackson – “Please, allow me to retort.”

The three reasons he cites are safety, storage, and security. In the interests of being systematic, I shall dissect these false assumptions one at a time:

1. Safety: Mr. Epstein does not mention one iota of fact or one single statistic on this issue. He simply and briefly calls Nuclear “unsafe” and then moves on. Why, you ask? Could it be because there has not been one single public death in nearly 40 years of operation in the American nuclear industry?

To put that in perspective, according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, one child died in 2004 by means of suffocation under a pile of stuffed animals. Given this data, it can be said that more members of the public are killed annually in the United States by Teddy Bears than Nuclear Energy! Surely Mr. Epstein will now publish a dissertation citing the inherent risks to the public posed by Teddy Ruckspin and the corporate conspiracy surrounding Mr. Ruckspin that the government is covering up.  Right, Paul?

2. Storage: Epstein says, “Ten seismic faults lie within a 20-mile radius of Yucca Mountain.” I’m sorry Mr. Epstein, but earthquakes do not destroy mountains. It is very easy to say earthquake and nuclear waste in the same sentence, but I would like to see some documentation as to what exactly an earthquake would do to a hardened facility underneath a mountain other than a potential cave in. Ok, so it caved in. Now what? It’s still buried isn’t it? So what happened? Nothing.

3. Security: Again he offers no facts to support his claim. He merely calls it “insurmountable.” Now observe as I surmount. Anyone who has been to an American Nuclear Power Plant since 9/11 will tell you that there is no more protected facility on this Earth. Besides that, If you claim terrorism as a reason to deny us this resource than you and the New York Times are guilty of using terrorism to scare the public into submission. This, after all, is the same newspaper that accuses President George W. Bush of doing exactly that. I’ve said it before and I will say it again – terrorism is a terrible excuse to not do something. Besides, there are far easier targets that would produce far more damage and visibility than an attack at a nuclear site.

He goes on throughout his letter to try to use issues like startup cost and the environment to make it seem impossible to make nuclear work. What he does not mention is that nuclear is the cleanest means of generating any significant amount of energy available to us. Also, he forgets to tell you that the Nuclear Industry has operated for decades without government subsidies while wind, solar, and Ethanol have all been given grotesque sums of taxpayer dollars for research and development and are still unable to compete with a self sustaining nuclear industry.

Rest assured ladies and gentlemen, people like Dr. Epstein and Alec Baldwin can ramble on and on using words that scare children and statistics that don’t hold water. However, this Babeler believes that most Americans are smart enough to listen to science instead of fear. One day, America will achieve energy independence and Nuclear Power will be at the center of it.

~Man Overboard

“There is nothing I can’t do.”   This is what I told myself.

Mistake #1

When I was 24 years old, for the first time I clumsily clamoured aboard the FV Miss Maddy, a sixty some odd foot Scallop Boat birthed in Barnegat Light, NJ. I was about to embark on my Greenhorn Voyage as a Commercial Fisherman in the North Atlantic. I would soon learn just how tough I wasn’t.

When I first set foot on the boat, it was late April of 2004. The weather was fair, low 60’s if I recall correctly. I struggled to make my way through the entrance into what I called “the kitchen.” Mistake #2.

Let’s get this straight right here and now boy – it’s not the kitchen; it’s the galley. It’s not the wall; it’s the bulkhead. It’s not the floor; it’s the deck. It’s not a bed; it’s a rack. It’s not the toilet; it’s the head – and there isn’t one.

These would be the first words spoken to me on my first trip by John, the Deck Boss.

The deck boss went by the acronym HNIC, an acronym that I will not spell out due to the inappropriate nature of the title. The Deck Boss did the same job all the Deck hands did, worked in the same conditions, and earned exactly the same pay as the other Deck Hands. The difference being he was the most experienced and by default, third in the pecking order behind the Captain and Mate.

Before my intimidated mind could compute the fact that John had just told me I would not enjoy the privilege of a toilet for two weeks, it was the First Mate’s turn to chime in.

Congratulations, B*#%! You’re the twelve-hour man. Which means as soon as we throw the lines, you get to washin’ them dishes.

A Scallop Boat was allowed a 7 man crew. This odd number presented a challenge when attempting to evenly distribute manpower throughout the day. The result was two crews or “watches” consisting of three men. The watches were made up of either the Captain or his Mate (second in command) and two deck hands. Each watch would be “on-deck” or working for 6 hours while the other watch slept. The odd man out, the 7th man, was known as the twelve-hour man. He would work two consecutive watches, one with each crew, and then be off for two.

I made my way into the bunk room and looked around. The room, which slept four men, was about the size of my closet as a child. Standing in the middle of the room with my sea bag slung over my shoulder, I took up the entire space. I threw my gear onto the only rack available, a 5-foot long bunk with a foam rubber mattress covered with an unidentified black residue from the last guy who occupied it. I was in a hurry to get out on deck and make a good impression with my new shipmates, so I put off making my bed and stowing my sea bag and went right to work. Mistake #3.

Several minutes later, the captain looked down from his perch overlooking the deck and made the call “Let’s go Fishing.”

I had no idea what was waiting for me beyond the buoys of Barnegat Inlet. The next twelve days would prove to be the longest, most painful days of my entire life.

~Man Overboard

Recently at Babeled we have added a new feature that is not so new - Gravatars (globally recognized avatar).  These beauties are the little avatars (images) that you can now see in the comment section of all of the posts on our site.  Since we are a multi-author blog it seemed appropriate for us to add some pictures of ourselves in a hopeless effort of bringing a little more personality to this place.

Of course, we want to encourage everyone else to do the same.  The steps are simple and the service is FREE.  All one must do to obtain the almighty Gravatar is follow this simple incantation:

1. Traverse the perils of space, time, and the internets to gravatar.com
2. Select the link to Sign up now! - Do not be fooled as it is cleverly named Sign up now!
3. Enter in the e-mail address you use when commenting on various blogs or sites supporting Gravatars.
4. In moments you will receive a confirmation e-mail from Gravatar sent to said address asking you to merrily click the link for activation of your new Gravatar account.
5. Now simply upload a picture, crop it to your liking, click finish and wait a few minutes for your Gravatar to appear.

Once the blood, sweat, and tears that five minutes of sitting down can bring has passed - you too can look like a tool cool when babeling on our site.

Northrop Grumman announced last week that it has teamed up with AREVA, the largest Nuclear Energy producer in the world and backbone of the French Nuclear Industry.  The joint venture will be known as AREVA Newport News LLC.  

This company will combine the depth of French nuclear expertise provided by AREVA with the manufacturing technology and large skilled labor force of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding.  The resulting powerhouse will provide the manufacturing capacity necessary to usher in the American Nuclear Renaissance.

This new joint venture will provide a means of building the largest components of nuclear reactors right here in the USA.  It will have the capacity to produce Reactor Vessels, Steam Generators, and Pressurizes - the critical components in Pressurized Water reactors (PWRs).

Currently, there is only one such facility in the entire world, Japan Steel Works.  This world-wide lack of manufacturing capacity has caused a bottleneck in production due the expanding nuclear industry in Europe, China, and India with US companies scrambling to merely buy a place in line in the event the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) grants licenses for new nuclear power plant construction here in the United States.

The new Virginia facility, which will begin construction in early 2009, will demonstrate just how powerful an effect the Nuclear Renaissance can have on the US economy, environmental stewardship, and most importantly energy independence!

Already AREVA Newport News LLC plans to invest $363.4 million for construction.  Building the facility will produce 540 new high paying jobs, with additional jobs created to staff the plant.  Additional stimuli to the economy include road construction and job training programs to support plant operations and construction.

The new outfit will take advantage of existing infrastructure in the area including skilled labor from local ship builders, and transportation via air, rail, and sea.

But perhaps the most important benefit of this new operation is American workers will be building American nuclear reactors to promote American energy independence and at the same time help to pull the American economy out of a slump.

With a 30-year safety record behind it, The American Nuclear Industry has shown it can meet our current and future energy demands. This announcement is just one more indicator of the growing support for the Nuclear Industry here in America. Rising fuel prices, climate change, and national security all feed into this growing sentiment of approval for clean, safe, and reliable nuclear energy.  

As a patriot and young professional in the nuclear industry there is little I can do to hide my excitement over the potential this new facility holds for my career, my environment, and my country.

~Man Overboard