Us 2 months ago - our kids have never been to Newcastle, they're huge #NUFC fans, and we haven't been back in a decade. Let's go this summer! Us today: Will US citizens be allowed into the UK by the summer - should we really spend money on tickets? This is the stupidest timeline ever.

Russia fucks up and Sweden joins NATO and their first NATO operation is a show of force in Greenland to protect it from the United States. That's a hell of a plot twist.

A disaster of our own making. This was not widely discussed this during the campaign, I think because the majority thought this was all bluster www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Joint statement by 4 former officials in Democratic and Republican Administrations—including four NATO Ambassadors, 3 Assistant Secretaries of State for Europe, and 3 NSC Senior Directors. Excellent opening in particular.

Philadelphia sheriff Rochelle Bilal: “No law enforcement professional wears a mask…No law enforcement professional shoots at a moving vehicle. “What Trump’s private army is doing…is not only against legal law, but moral law.” Vows to arrest agents on site who commit crimes.

The DIY foam added to the ceiling is so reminiscent of The Station fire… www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

This account will always be an ASEM stan account.... www.linkedin.com/posts/nswcca...

At the end of 2024, I expected 2025 to be a year when much of the zero-carbon fuel uncertainty would be resolved for the maritime domain, and work would start on scaling up solutions (probably multiple fuels). I significantly underestimated the Trump administration's power to slow decarbonization..

Has anything been published on the operational concept or design development of the USSR Kirov and Slava classes? I am trying to get materials together for student teams interested in exploring the golden battleship concept, and figure those two plus the 1990s Aresnal ship are worth exploring.

The problem of maintaining a coherent shipbuilding plan in a country with a 2-4 year political cycle remains undefeated. DDG(X) was making steady progress behind the scenes but apparently no more…if BBG-1 goes in 3 years we’ll have lost another 48 months.

Borderlines by @lewisbaston.bsky.social is a great read! Using borders as a lens for recent European history is both highly engaging and revealing given the present world situation. It’s not pure travel book but it has more than a bit of the Colin Thubron British travel writing pleasure to it…

It appears at least two student groups want to explore a BBG-1 concept this winter for their capstone project. Now I have homework to figure out what defines a battleship. Biggest/most weapons is what comes thru from the announcement, but that seems rather limited for students to explore.

Some initial thoughts on BBG-1: 1: It’s more restrained than I expected, the railgun is the only high risk development item I see. No nuclear power, no large diameter guns. 2: The cancellation of DDG(X) is the most worrisome aspect so far. Even if we build 25 of these it won’t replace the DDG-51

The missing (G) makes this both a reasonable parent hull approach and a potentially limited platform… news.usni.org/2025/12/19/s...

When this thing was being towed ( with some difficulty) from Ukraine, I don’t think many of us would have it running successful 40-50 sortie days off Japan in our future predictions…last steam (non nuc) carrier?

The grounding of tanker Kairos off the coast of Bulgaria highlights the danger of the Russia shadow fleet. 1️⃣No registry or insurance 2️⃣Ship now becomes the problem of Bulgaria 3️⃣Impending environmental disaster as the ship breaks up 4️⃣Increase in War Risk across the Black Sea

My thoughts on 90% of the frigate discourse I am reading are well captured below. My take on the frigate (in more detail): a2navarc.substack.com/p/the-end-of...

What happened (and did not happen) with FFG-62? Why are we struggling to design surface combatants? open.substack.com/pub/a2navarc...

How does this thing get salvaged? It took seven months for the dark fleet vessel Pablo to be moved after its explosion. And is commerce raiding back?

There's a lot to unpack when the report comes out. Overriding the cooling water shutdown might buy tens of seconds, but the fuel system is also running down at the same time, which is going to cause power loss too... www.ntsb.gov/news/press-r...

Even as a Newcastle fan, I hope @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social looks at the lead picture on this piece! www.theguardian.com/football/202...

The 60-yard throw seems to be a major escalation from the direct-play crowd against the followers of Pepball.

Great start to #PRADS2025 at the Big House! Looking forward to 4 days of discussing the state-of-the-art in Ship and Offshore Structure design and analysis with experts from around the globe

I'd expect the EU to proceed at full speed with decarb. Looks like the fragmentation of the global fleet will continue to accelerate...the post-WWII dynamics of shipping are dissolving. www.lloydslist.com/LL1155147/IM...

I thought that only the USN suffers from cost overruns and a declining, under-capitalized industrial base... www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...

This is continuing to get uglier. I doubt the EU back down, especially as their shipping companies have already made significant investments in decarb that they can't let become an albatross on their continued success. gcaptain.com/us-threatens...

Two weeks to PRADS 2025 starts! The preliminary agenda is now up, we are very excited to welcome over 130 technical papers and 190+ attendees to Ann Arbor to discuss the cutting edge of marine design and shipbuilding! The preliminary agenda is pasted below. prads.org/wp-content/u...

Signs of strain in the system? Beyond the Red Sea will the USTR port fees start making this event worse? From UNCTAD 2025 Review of Maritime Transport: unctad.org/publication/...

Word has been released that after 79 years, the Ship Structure Committee is being dissolved, the much-discussed maritime "rebirth" coming too late to save it. Reports have been moved to OnePetro (onepetro.org/SSCReports) website will go dark on Jan 1st 2026. I'm not sure how many professors...

Great Newcastle architect. The Quayside & the Life Center are A+ spaces. I remember seeing the Center for the first time in 2001 as a PhD student its confidence & color contrasting with Central Station. The language may be different ashore vs. afloat, but great design has the same emotional impact.

Newcastle says no to fascism. The far right brought a hundred or so with them, bussed from far and wide. This city turned out 1000s, from local communities, estates and streets. Geordies of all backgrounds coming together and outnumbering the purveyors of hate by some distance. Newcastle united.

The double collapse here is still strange - if it is a box failure in the aft stack first, even without lashings it did not looks like boat moved that much that you'd expect a second stack to fail. The static heel angle is large but not so large that you think collapse...

Well that's one way to keep people talking about the event...somewhat like holding a scarlet and gray themed party to celebrate U of M....

While the dark fleet is busily undoing the 20th-century flag-and-regulation consensus, this seems to be undoing the right-to-approach for flagless/stateless vessels and replacing it with the right-to-blow-it-up, but I'll leave it to the maritime lawyers to chime in...

Continued switch of focus away from renewable energy (which has supported significant shipbuilding, ports, and maritime jobs). Not unexpected, but given the long lead time and capital-intensive nature of maritime projects, this will cause damage. www.transportation.gov/briefing-roo...

After reading numerous Cold War stories of the UK planning to secure export orders, only for those to fall through, the Type 26 is making up for lost time... gcaptain.com/norway-selec...

Tanker Fenris, homeport Oslo, in drydock at Newport News. Unsure when, but given the ship's history and large flag / name marking under the bridge, maybe fall 1939-spring 1940 while Norway was neutral?

Something to look forward too...

It will be interesting to see how fast this repair is completed - it is in no way comparable in complexity to recent USN repairs (DDG-56 and 62), but will still be an interesting data point. gcaptain.com/damaged-chin...

Having done capstone project courses only during my sabbatical last year, I realize this is the first class lecture I’ve done in almost 18 months…which explains why I can’t find anything 🤦‍♂️

Ahh yes let them play to LFC scores stoppage time rules in effect….

Carbon sequestration at scale...

Bulk cargoes, like just about everything else at sea, can kill you in countless unexpected ways...

One traditional mission (of many) of a University is to preserve core knowledge that is not a "hot topic" so that when it becomes a hot topic again, society isn't starting from zero. This mission is in direct conflict with the metrics used to judge the administrative class.

New Article - China seeks a strategic advantage in underwater drone technology. What The World Is About To Learn About China’s Extra-Large Underwater Drones www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...

Hopefully that finishing was just first game nerves #NUFC

File under "the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, and the second best time to plant a tree is now" news.usni.org/2025/08/12/n...

Maneuverability, bridge visibility - often an afterthought on requirements docs or "just like the last one" but 3184 really wishes it could have turned faster...

Not sure that was an ad for the championship...but entertaining off the ball #BIRIPS

And happy Friday to you too -- the Moby Dick bot certainly picks some dark passages, I don't remember the book being so dark at the sentence level (the obsession story is plenty dark overall, but my memory was the prose was more neutral)