College Orientation Open Thread

Sorry for the non-existent posting; I'm off at College Orientation with our middle child. I finally found the Computer Lab, so here's some links to submarine news that's making the rounds:

1) India launched its first indigenously-produced nuclear submarine, making them the 5th 6th country to join the SSN club. Pakistan isn't happy. (Notably, the Pakis say they won't be "entering an arms race", as if they stood a chance in hell of making a working SSN anytime in the next several decades.)

2) Former First Lady Laura Bush will travel to Connecticut to take part in the Change of Command ceremony for USS Texas (SSN 775). Unlike another First Lady who couldn't make time in her schedule to even attend the Commissioning of "her" boat, it looks like Mrs. Bush is putting forth the effort to be a good Sponsor. (All three of the Sponsors of the boats I was on did a pretty good job of being involved outside the two big ceremonies; Elizabeth Dole for USS Topeka and Rosalyn Carter for USS Jimmy Carter are the ones you'll know best.)

3) Commando Subs Sending Drones, Robo-Torpedos into Combat (!!!111!1!{3-2}!1!{[e^iπ]+2}!) : Nothing more needs be said.

4) Not in the news, but interesting to me: I got an E-mail from "Central Navy Portal FLOT.com" telling me that all my content that had linked the navy.ru site has moved, and asking me to fix my links. I don't think I will, but they were kind enough to let me know all my posts that had the now-bad links:

http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2006/04/happy-birthday-us-submarine-force.html
http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2008/11/at-least-twenty-deaths-reported-on.html

So yes, I guess the Russians do read this blog -- or at least their 'bots do. (If you do want the new links, just change the "navy.ru" part of the URL to "flot.com" in the links in those posts. The English version of the new Russian Navy website is here.)

Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves...

Bell-ringer 1906 01 Aug: Updated to correct a mistake in how many countries have built nuclear submarines. Also, here's a report about Mrs. Bush in Groton.

Update 1125 02 Aug: Here's a story about how the Indians are using a land-based "prototype" to prove the submarine reactor before installation. Sounds to me like a tried-and-true method of getting it done.