Rilbur

There usually is. I'm sorry I waited as long as I did to break the time, but there wasn't really a better way to do it earlier. And I thought it pretty obvious, once I started talking about nanotech

I sure as hell hope I didn't so much as imply the doctor was a line officer! (Though I'm not sure if that distinction exists outside of the Navy, now that I think of it...)

BTW, to touch on why I'm releasing the 'old' chapters one day at a time... I'm trying to avoid flooding the entire 'new stories' section by spacing them out, rather than having the story publish, and then chapters one through ten, all up there bumping other people out.. If there's a better way to do that, please do let me know.

Yes, yes it is.

Well, I have a thread on the subject already (the last post is what you want) but I guess I should go over it again. Trillion Dollar Family was a story originally written for the novella contest. But I wasn't happy with it, then or now. The ending was rushed because of the time deadline, and the entire story was rushed because I had to fit it in 70,000 words. It was too big of a story for the novella contest, and I didn't realize it until too late (unlike my current batch of stories, which look like they're going to be too short for the next novella contest...). I was shocked and amazed that I won any prize for it (I honestly felt Altimexi's work Fish out of Water should have taken first, which would have bumped me out altogether). My solution was a complete rewrite of the story. In addition to edit work -- some chapters have major revisions, others just minor -- I've also added new chapters. The old story was nine chapters long, this one is nineteen. Nine of those ten chapters occur after what used to be the end. I've put a notice in the 'story note' about this being a rewrite; how can I make this clearer to someone who stumbles across it, without hitting brand new readers over the head with it with a 2x4?

Please tell me that's a f**king joke. The navy is not, and has never been, a police force, and therefore don't have to worry about Miranda rights. (Human rights are another matter) Um, destroyers are exactly what the US Navy would use to fight 'highly maneuverable vessels'. They wouldn't use torpedoes on them, but the 5 inch gun (shells) are essentially designed for exactly that kind of fight. How the hell do you dodge a bullet? Also, a modern destroyer can maintain a speed of '35+ knots' -- I don't know how long they can maintain that speed before they run out of fuel, but that easily matches the specs Red_A gave for the pirates skiffs. Add in armed helicopters off their flight decks, and they can shut down large regions of coastline if they have to. No, my assumption was they operated over thousands of miles of coastline. That's why I thought mines wouldn't work. Mining the ports where the resupply vessels are based would be a very smart, economical use of mines, however, and if they don't have the entirety of Somalia to launch from, that makes life even easier. Which is patently impossible. Too many of them, and more will spring up while you're attacking a given group. Just make the entire business unprofitable instead. Destroy any of them that try to take a ship, and if they do take a ship, kill them. And if they take hostages, 'millions for defense, not one penny in tribute' -- even if you kill all the hostages, they don't make money off them. You don't negotiate. You don't debate. That just opens the road to more deaths.

HH5, 'armed speed boats' are exactly what the Somali's are using. While I won't deny that a destroyer is overkill for this type of mission, it's still a very effective type of ship for this type of mission. Frigates might fit better, except the US navy has been phasing them out lately (they're so small they don't have the 'multi-role' capability the Navy wants), leaving destroyers as the smallest, ocean-going vessel available. (Note: they are starting to continue construction of the class, but I don't think they've gotten approval for the funding yet) Their radar has a (very large) reach, letting them keep an eye on hundreds of miles of ocean at a time, while their guns can destroy entire fleets of Somali boats if it comes to that. And if a Somali boat gets too far out of line, while a missile is probably overkill, a destroyer still has plenty of those (and torpedoes) waiting for any real threats. As for using mines to blockade their coast, that's a terrible idea. First, it'd be much more expensive than throwing a couple of carriers at the problem, because the minefield density required would require something like billions of mines -- and then you're a threat to navigation, even if none of the mines manage to drift off position. Not only do you have to produce the mines (expensive, even at a few bucks apiece, because of the scale), then you have to place them, and replace the ones that get used. Using 'the tactics they use' is also a very, very bad idea. We aren't talking about an organized government -- which is, of course, the problem. The problem here is the lack of an organized government in Somalia capable of cutting the pirates off at the source. Killing the pirates who poke their noses into the water is a band-aid; the real solution is putting a real government in place. But that's just flat not going to happen, so the best bet is just a few destroyers shutting down their harbors, backed up by some ground troops to go in after the ones that slip out anyway. Edit: I've been doing some reading on the new Independence and Freedom class frigates, now that the conversation has come up, and they would probably be a good fit for this mission, properly equipped. But there aren't enough of them in service at this time to really count.

“What's going on with my son? Oh, and while we're at it with me!” Jared demanded. The doctor's had taken several hours to 'examine the data', and were finally willing to talk to him. He'd profitably spent the same time finding clothes and talking to his kids. The General had been kind enough to send over a selection of civvies in his and his kids' sizes. “I have no clue. He shouldn't still be awake, but clearly he is,” Major Williams said apologetically. “I have, literally, no clue what

Eventually, the blood will run so heavy the bleeding heart liberals will let the military get off their asses and do something. I weep for how long that day will come, all because some idiots think 'violence never solves anything'. We don't have to nuke them 'till they glow; from what I recall, the so-called government there is such a joke we could just station a few destroyers off their coast and simply shut down all their harbors... with maximum prejudice. And if somebody (UN, US, I don't care who) took a 'take a hostage, we shoot you' approach, they'd learn real quick hostage-taking doesn't pay.

“Dad!” David screamed with a volume level only a thirteen year old boy, his voice cracking as he screamed out a single word, could possibly hope to manage. “Davey!” Jared cried out, tears in his eyes as he fell to his knees. “Dad, oh Dad!” David cried, throwing himself into his father's embrace. “They said you were gonna die, then they said you weren't but I couldn't see you, and then they said you were gonna wake up and they let me see you and you looked fine but they said you couldn't wak

Jared would have screamed, if he could have controlled his mouth. Every part of his body hurt, hurt bad enough to cut through the haze of morphine and other painkillers to wake him up. The worst part of the problem was that he wasn't lying in bed. He was sitting up and looking around the room with unnaturally keen eyesight. He was staring, for the moment, at a screw in the wall opposite his bed; and he wanted to scream. He could see the top of the screw as clearly as if it were three inche

Sergeant Major Jared Brent Warren bit his lip and forced himself not to snarl. His kids couldn't see the white knuckles he was getting from gripping the steering wheel too hard, but there was no doubt in his mind they'd notice and understand that their parents were fighting if he gave in and tore that bitch's head off. And maybe not merely in the figurative sense, either. If it weren't for the kids, he'd have hurt her long since. "And Angela has this simply wonderful diamond ring her husba

Sometimes, life just sucks. Jared Warren knows this better than anyone. His 'loving' marriage has had thirteen long, long years to explain it to him. In detail. But when the choice between an experimental life-saving procedure and dying comes up, he doesn't hesitate. After all, he has to protect his kids!

Alex sighed as he unlocked the door to the apartment. It had been a long, hard day at work and he just knew Alyssa was going to be pissed over his being late. "I'm home!" he called out, frowning at the lack of response. She must be out grocery shopping, he shrugged. Alex wandered over to the kitchen, ditching his tie on the way. He was over an hour late, but hopefully Alyssa had left him something for dinner. He wasn't expecting to find the note pinned to the fridge. Alex stared at the n

Alex loves Alyssa, but then she decides to take off with a strange note that almost invites him to come after her. He's not about to let her go... If he can just get there in time.

That was incredible! A great laugh! Edit: And I suspect the problem is Guitar Hero just couldn't compete against Rock Band, if only because it was too expensive to develop new peripherals to match the new Rock Band ones.

Thanks for letting me know what you think!

Less to do with Christa, may she rest in peace, and more to do with the fact that you don't often see multi-billion dollar national pride symbols blow up.

What school did you go to? We may not have covered every single crime of the past, but we discussed plenty of them. Slavery, and it's horrors. The shameful way the Native Americans were treated. 'Manifest Stupidity'. The Civil Rights movement. I'm not ashamed of what our nation is, however ashamed I am by it's past. We've grown so far beyond our roots, and have hope for growing further.

I think one reason I have an advantage is that I've managed to mostly avoid schools that don't understand that learning isn't just about the acquisition of knowledge, it's about learning how to use it -- how to reason, think, speak using the things we've learned.

I started with Nifty for... ah.. 'special' reading... then found my way to Cracker's Den as a result of a story being cross-posted there. From Cracker's Den I found the entire Fort Family series of sites, which actually ended up being my original 'home' for my writing when I got hosted at Castle Roland.

But when would you need cursive? The only time -- the only time -- I've used it in the last several years is to sign my name.

I'm sorry, but I don't see the connection between the two. Lets break this down part by part. Spelling and printing aren't part of penmanship. Penmanship is the absurdity of asking students to learn and practice a second script -- cursive -- that has little relation to the primary script -- printed text -- that they are expected to learn. Cursive made sense once because it's quicker to write with, but in the modern era there is little to no point. I can type as fast as most people can speak, and I can type far faster than even the best hand writer can manage in cursive. Learning to write in print is a basic, grade-school level task that I wouldn't expect to last past 3rd or 4th grade, about the time typing takes over. Spelling would remain just as important as ever. Arithmetic on the other hand is important because it's a fundamental building block to types of higher math. If you don't understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division you can't hope to learn fractions, algebra, trig, calculus... Each layer of math is build on the layers that came before it. Simply because a calculator can do it for you doesn't mean you don't need to know how to do it yourself, because if you don't understand it yourself you aren't going to be able to set the equations up for a calculator to crunch. Basic arithmetic is also a skill that needs to be ingrained at such a level that we don't need machines to do it, true, and the good news is that for most people, that's true. There are some, I will admit, who don't get it, but most people in my experience can make change without help. Percentages depends on the nature of the numbers involved -- if it's an easy one, sure, if it's not grab a calculator or paper and pencil. Square roots? The only way I know of to get to a square root is a calculator, or tons of guess and check. I prefer the former.

[qoute] I think, since we're losing ground in Math and Science, we need to phase out the History/Government and the Social Sciences.. make it more about the area of studies. Lets not. Do you really want more people who think impeachment is throwing peaches at the president, or that it actually means removing him from office completely? How about people who don't know what Rome was, much less Carthage? Hell, who don't know who the puritans were, and how they f**ked our country up royally. (OK, so the latter part is PURE OPINION). How about more people who think Abraham Lincoln was black? We need to buckle down and understand that learning is work, and that it's work no one is going to do unless society and their elders makes them do it, makes them understand how important the acquisition and use of knowledge is important and that they are darned well expected to do it. Which starts, frankly, by tearing down the 'no child left behind' standards in favor of something more realistic. Not everyone can be educated to the same level, so your goal should be to educate the greatest number of people to the greatest standard possible, not dumbing everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

"The saddest words of tongue or pen, are simply these..." (Well, if it's a good story anyway)