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She not only debugged the problem but documented the bug in her notebook.

Look at the bottom of this page.

I can vouch for that. Here I am at my Army desk, for example. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/ac00001/ ac02175.jpg

All of the systems are provided with a Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) upgrade socket that permits easy installation of an additional Intel i486DX2-50 OverDrive processor.

1. The nuclear technology at North Korea does not come from China, but from Iran.

Iran and North Korea are beneficiaries of the Pakistani AQ Khan network. He hawked a Chinese plan for a nuclear weapon. Are you ignorant are do you choose to be obtuse?

2. Chinese government publicly denounced North Korea's nuclear test

The Chinese are duplicious, siding with and opposing the world community where it suits them. This is not new. Without China there would be no North Korea or Kim Jong Il.

3. Hong Kong is not in Europe and never was a part of UK but colonized in the Opium war

Yes, very successfully colonized, prosperous, and well administered. If that was conquest the world needs more. And that was thrown away because...?

And leap seconds. With the shuttle and calculating movement relative to two planetary bodies (the orbits of which can be calculated according to time/date) everything has to be dead-on precise - anything not precise and big, big problems happen.

I don't know exact specifics, but based on the information provided, I think this "glitch" will have to do with the data/time difference between ground stations and the Shuttle computers. Things like message time stamping between the Earth and the Shuttle, etc, will be wrong, and things could be garbled or just dropped all together.

Based on your guess, I wondered if the problem could have something to do with leap seconds, since these get added at the end of the year and might not be accounted for in the Shuttle's software. However, the US Navy's time service (actually, an international organization called the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service says that there won't be a leap second addition at the end of 2006. Still, it makes me wonder if the Shuttle computers are simply using a time base that's slightly different from ground-based computers, say using Julian dates and fractions of Julian dates that might get out of sync. due to calender issues at the end of the year. At least, this *seems* like a reasonable explanation. In any case, it would be interesting to know exactly where the real issue is in the software.

Why not read up a bit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/mission/i ndex.html
http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/

For example, this mission could be important for understanding how to protect humans out in the solar system.

Maybe it the first floating nuclear reactor to power something besides a ship but there are plenty of floating nuclear reactors. Check out http://www.enterprise.navy.mil/ - "The worlds finest nuclear powered aircraft carrier"

Circuit Boards:
Integrated Circuit Recycling from Finished Product Printed Circuit Boards
PCs Don't Die--They Become Road Fill
What to do with your printed circuit boards?
USNavy: PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD RECYCLING
Printed Circuit Board Recycling Equipment

CRT Glass:
Cascade's CRT Glass-to-Glass Recycling Program
EPA: Glass-to-Glass Recycling
WRAP identifies four potential markets for television glass (26.01.04)
Cathode ray tube glass recycling: an example of clean technology, mostly in Italian usage in ceramic tiles.

The general public should be informed about this new economic market segment.

A local control automation panel manufacturer here in Cedar Falls, IA who works with regional recycling centers nationwide described to me that many of the systems have a conveyor that in the case of computer monitors feeds the monitors into a 'crusher' which breaks it into small pieces.

These pieces are then mechanically and automatically separated into plastic, glass, and electronics bins each of which are then sold. The state of California has a good general information website about recycling plastic here .

The Control Panel Manufacturer also described how recycling centers alternatively have people take the plastic off first before it gets fed into the conveyor depending on their respective equipment and capabilities.

Regarding the electronics:
With gold ~$600/ounce, silver at ~$13.00/ounce, and copper at ~3.40/pound it's more economical to recycle these metals than to mine new.

Some additional recycled plastics prices:
12-27 cents per pound on the west coast.
Market prices for recycled plastic are currently $200 to $1000/ton from local recycling centers based on recent surveys in selected regions...

I wonder if Heinrich Hemme's calculations take into account the 10 missing days in the Gregorian calander between 4 October and 15 October 1582?

Space doesn't work like ground territory and airspace, because the Earth rotates, and satellites orbit. With the exception of geosynchronous satellites, extending borders into space is silly -- they would sweep through vast territory, and the satellites move with respect to them. Avoiding "space borders" around the Earth would be virtually impossible, and it is well established that any territorial claims end where the atmosphere does.

It has been shown many times historically that having more information, such as via satellites, helps to *stabilize* a confrontational military situation. That's why the USSR spied on the U.S. and vice-versa, and however much one side didn't like the other side doing it, they still wanted to be able to do it themselves, so they eventually agreed it was acceptable. Eventually, after the Cold War, that understanding even led to the Open Skies Treaty, where both sides allow aircraft to fly over each other's territory to verify treaties.

Unfettered surveillance from space should be *encouraged*, without interference, and allowed and protected by an analogous treaty to "Open Skies". If China wants to spy on the U.S., or any other country in the world from space, then they should go right ahead, as long as they understand that reciprocation is expected. Blinding of surveillance satellites in space should be outlawed (essentially space is international territory like the open oceans, and you can't start shooting at other vessels simply because they're out of their home territory).

Hell, there already are treaties against weapons in space, the only trick here is that the weapons are ground-based. That loophole should be closed. If countries want to fire up ground-based weapons in a time of war, and test weapons on their own satellites in the interim, fine, but intentionally directing damaging effects at other nation's satellites in orbit is employing a weapon and should be stopped, even if the effect is temporary.

I mean... haven't we (the computing industry) been doing that since computers were invented! Isn't it about time we stop putting computers in a box, and put them where they'll be useful? For example, why can't my Arnette's include a VRD that's wirelessly connected to the processors in the sole of my shoes, which are also wirelessly connected to my belt buckle, which also doubles as a high-speed removable USB flash drive?

Yup, and finding the error was just removing the mosquitoes. I still remember my first bug, damn that was good in those times!

is it's super-low up-front costs, not for the hand-sets, but for an operator to offer initial coverage.

With wired service, you have to invest up-front, burying cable throughout a population center before you can acquire your first customer. With wireless, you put up one tower, set it for maximum range, and open shop.

A single WiMax tower can reach 40 miles in radius. After Katrina, Intel donated $5M in hardware, and was basically able to cover the Gulf Coast. Bell South says they'll needs between $700M and $900M, and they're still not done with repairs. That cost might be fair, but it shows the advantages in bringing in wireless cheaply. Here's an Intel link:

http://www.intel.com/technology/magazine/communica tions/hurricane-relief-1105.htm

I think we should be using cheap wireless technology for IP based emergency communications, enabling people to help each other so they wont have to wait for FEMA to arrive. Check out what hams do for free:

http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html

A system built on the Internet model might enable neighbors to help each other, which is basically required after a mass disaster, since any emergency response team will be overwhelmed. Do you know how you'd find your neighbors after a disaster? How would they find you?

you haven't done it right until you use a steam catapult to launch boots.

Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) Designed by Bob Bruninga http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html it uses a GPS, an encoding circuit and a radio. Reports position and speed onto a national frequency with digital repeaters and Internet gates. Most systems also report speed and some people have set up their digipeaters to send out alerts if someone goes past a set speed. In most metros and everywhere else all the data is logged and posted online. http://www.findu.com/ The system has been expanded to include weather reports and other data as users see fit on the network.

With this I have LIVE position and speed reports from the car. I don't have to worry about it getting "knocked loose" or something else "happening" to the unit, I've got it installed in the car nice and secure.

If you want to give them similar features to this other "new" gizmo, install a TinyTrak http://www.byonics.com/ and set it to only report when going over a set speed.

Start by printing out a free chart for your area. You get on the train/bike/bus/car at the crack of dawn, arrive at work an hour later, and similarly step off that train/bike/bus/car at sundown. Tell them you are a vampire. Every moment of daylight belongs to the company, but not one minute more.

Using the printout for Miami as an example, you'd be at work from 8:01a to 4:33p on December 17th (worst case from a company standpoint) and from 7:30a to 7:15p on June 28th (worst case for you) which may not be much different than what you already are doing.

At least during the equinoxes you are at work exactly ten hours, and then it averages out just plus or minus the same amount of minutes for the surrounding days on either side. Depressing, but nobody steals your nights and weekends if they already own every moment of every day.

Start by printing out a free chart for your area. You get on the train/bike/bus/car at the crack of dawn, arrive at work an hour later, and similarly step off that train/bike/bus/car at sundown. Tell them you are a vampire. Every moment of daylight belongs to the company, but not one minute more.

Using the printout for Miami as an example, you'd be at work from 8:01a to 4:33p on December 17th (worst case from a company standpoint) and from 7:30a to 7:15p on June 28th (worst case for you) which may not be much different than what you already are doing.

At least during the equinoxes you are at work exactly ten hours, and then it averages out just plus or minus the same amount of minutes for the surrounding days on either side. Depressing, but nobody steals your nights and weekends if they already own every moment of every day.

the first computer bug was not found by ada lovelace.
uit was found by Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USNR, (1906-1992)

http://www.maxmon.com/1945ad.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers- h/g-hoppr.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h 96566kc.htm

she was an excellent speaker who could make anybody understand anything, a real gift.

Even the most elementary exercise with your brain would ahve allowed you to figure why it couldn't have been Ada Lovelace.

the first computer bug was not found by ada lovelace.
uit was found by Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USNR, (1906-1992)

http://www.maxmon.com/1945ad.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers- h/g-hoppr.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h 96566kc.htm

she was an excellent speaker who could make anybody understand anything, a real gift.

Even the most elementary exercise with your brain would ahve allowed you to figure why it couldn't have been Ada Lovelace.

Much as I hate to quote Wikipedia when we're discussing a scientific topic, here's a quote from the Vesta entry and the discovery section of Ceres entry. It makes for quite interesting reading.

After the discovery of Vesta in 1807, no further asteroids were discovered for 38 years. During this time the four known asteroids were counted among the planets, and each had its own planetary symbol.

Ceres was discovered by accident. Piazzi was searching for a star listed by Francis Wollaston as Mayer 87 because it was not in Mayer's zodiacal catalogue in the position given (it eventually transpired that Wollaston had made a mistake -- the star was in fact Lacaille 87). Instead, Piazzi found a moving star-like object, which he thought at first was a comet.

Piazzi observed Ceres a total of 24 times, the final time on February 11, when illness interrupted. On 24 January 1801, Piazzi announced his discovery in letters to fellow astronomers, among them his fellow countryman, Barnaba Oriani of Milan. He reported it as a comet but "since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet" [4]. By early February Ceres was lost as it receded behind the Sun. In April, Piazzi sent his complete observations to Oriani, Bode, and Lalande in Paris. They were shortly thereafter published in the September, 1801 issue of the Monatliche Correspondenz.

To recover the asteroid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, then only 24 years old, developed a method of orbit determination from three observations. In only a few weeks, he predicted the path of Ceres, and sent his results to Franz Xaver, Baron von Zach, the editor of the Monatliche Correspondenz. On December 31, 1801, von Zach and Heinrich W. M. Olbers unambiguously confirmed the recovery of Ceres.

Johann Elert Bode believed Ceres to be the "missing planet" that Johann Daniel Titius had calculated to exist between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 419 million km (2.8 AU) from the Sun. Ceres was assigned a planetary symbol, and remained listed as a planet in astronomy books and tables (along with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 4 Vesta) for about half a century until further asteroids were discovered[5]. However, Ceres turned out to be disappointingly small, showing no discernible disc, and so Sir William Herschel coined the term "asteroid" ("star-like") to describe it.

That reference five is When Did the Asteroids Become Minor Planets, and is worth a read too.

When Pluto was discovered it was considered a planet. After several other Kuiper belt objects were discovered, making Pluto just one object in a belt of similar object, we get:

"I think we have done something that will make the Plutocrats and the children of the United States happy." - Gingerich

"People love Pluto, children identify with its smallness. Adults relate to its inadequacy, its marginal existence as a misfit." - Dava Sobel

How about we let historians keep making the children from the USA happy, let writers continue relating to Pluto's inadequacy; and let scientists call Pluto just another KBO until they have more information? Kinda like how a lay person would call an untestable idea "just a theory", while scientists keep faffing around with their theories of evolution, anthropogenic climate change, etc.?

Yes. It used to be illegal to name any Navy ship after a living person. Then, in the 1980s, we got the USS John Stennis, named after the then-current Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. That was really tacky.

The embarassing thing does happen. Los Angeles once had a Richard Nixon Freeway. It was renamed in the 1970s.

Then there's the whole "naming rights" thing for stadiums. "Staples Arena". "3COM Park". (formerly Candlestick Park, now "Monster Park", which confuses everyone.) That's just silly.

Pssh, any hard vibration alone will screw a vacuum tube over.

What, because they don't drive POVs in the military? Or because they only hire good drivers?

What, because they don't drive POVs in the military? Or because they only hire good drivers?

guys, There's a lot of conspiracy mongering and mininformation being spread around about Galileo and the GPS systems and how they work. Here's three links that should help address this: Here's the link to NIST's time and freq. group. http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/index.html Here's the link to the United States Naval Observatory site, which oversee's the GPS system (with airspace commant). http://www.usno.navy.mil/ And here's the link to the link farm of the ESA, or rather to the EU's overall scientific administrative body. http://www.edpsciences.org/index.cfm?niv1=useful_l inks For specific information about the Galileo project, search "ESA" "Galileo" and Technical specifications... I posted more specific links on the difference between the Galileo and US GPS systems elsewhere on slashdot, in particular regarding the encryption schemes and hard science related to each systems operations. Galileo relies on the L1 carrier freq. used by the US GPS system, but this carrier freq. is "public", and "degraded" by definition (the C/A, or Coarse Acquisiton, signal). This is NOT proprietary to the EU's Galileo system, and it's dishonest for the EU to sell it as such commercially. The dual and multi-channel navcom services that the EU claims it wants to commercially exploit are not designed independently of the L1 carrier signal that the US system offers to everyone (conditionally). Please, just check the sites above. Thanks, Grouchy

When they land tail first, the air(or gasses left over from combustion) gets trapped in the tube and this is what makes the SRB buoyant. I did notice from the rear camera view, that the SRB appears to almost get horizontal right after landing, but it still seems to remained pitched at such an angle that gas should still be contained inside. Then it settles in an upright orientation. Check this out: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/146685main _srb-et.pdf And: http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/undersea/srbnp/s rbnp.html

Cool.
I'm sure IBM is not showing us everything, (wink, wink) what they do for the DoD, NSA and the rest of the alphabet, I'm sure would give us nightmares.

(Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences (LTS) -programs continue to emphasize transmission of quantum communications through optical elements.
Quantum communications, quality of service, and high- speed network interfaces)

http://www.er.doe.gov/ascr/NITRD05supplement.pdf

August 19, 2002
IBM, RIM Drafted By Defense Department

http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/1 448711

"Big Blue Monday said its AIX 5L was the first UNIX operating system certified by the DoD to run COE Version 4 (Common Operating Environment), a user interface which utilizes the same commands regardless of what operating system is running on the server."

Fun huh?

VMware: US military staff and do not recommend VMware for secure environment:

http://www.cs.nps.navy.mil/people/faculty/irvine/p ublications/2000/VMM-usenix00-0611.pdf

Apple's foray in DOS add-on cards

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112 244

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadra_610

http://www.ralentz.com/old/mac/faqs/source/houdini .html

http://homepage.mac.com/olivers/DOScard/DOScard.ht ml

http://lowendmac.com/archive/06/0407.html

The Navy doesn't collect royalties, they collect license fees. Go here to browse some patents. If you license one of mine, I get a percentage of the fee :)

It really is a method to allow information to flow between secure and insecure networks without creating security leaks (as you mentioned). Here is an article published by some of the inventors: http://chacs.nrl.navy.mil/publications/CHACS/1998/ 1998kang-IEEE.pdf Also remember, this was filed for in 2003.

Lightning is a very fast pulse. Therefore, it is actually a form of RF energy.
https://ewhdbks.mugu.navy.mil/wavelet.pdf
http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/tentec/2003- December/040019.html
RF would much rather travel on the surface of an object than internally.
http://www.conestogac.on.ca/eet/courses/microwave_ techniques/skin_effect.html
So, yes, the skin effect applies.

Did you even bother to read the article? It was produced for STA (Semiconductor Technology Associates), who developed the chip for the Astrometry Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

No doubt they're going to use it in some kind of telescopy application where every bit of digital resolution counts.

I think in a round about way, yes.

Freshwater ice is less dense than fresh water (which is less dense than salt water). As the ice melts it occupies a smaller volume (which is of course why ice floats). The difference is a fairly significant percentage and may explain the sea level drop. This in turn is evidence of large amounts of fresh water forming in the arctic and this leads to the theory behind slowing the gulf stream down.

However most ice on oceans is from seawater: "Sea ice, formed in saltwater, accounts for about 95 percent of ice found in the oceans. Ice covers about three percent of the world's water surface." - http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/pao/Educate/OceanTalk2/i ndexseawater.htm

So there's really two processes going on here. One is the melting of glaciers (mostly on Greenland) which results in freshwater being deposited in the oceans (and leads to the gulf stream slowing). The other is the melting of seawater ice. I'm guessing that the seawater ice is responsible for more of the melt than the freshwater ice. This would still lower sea level as the density of seawater is obviously more than seawater ice (or the damn icebergs would sink...). So my conclusion, half arsed as it sounds, is that seawater ice is melting at a much faster rate than the freshwater ice from glaciers. I'm sure someone can do the calc to compare the density changes between both types of ice and the rate at which you need to melt one in order to counter the other.

The key point I think is that freshwater ice melting is from land based ice masses (which add to sea level) and seawater ice is from sea based ice masses (like most of the polar cap ~95% according to that web site i referenced earlier, and doesn't add to sea level - in fact it looks like it lowers sea level).

• U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM); Computer simulation of current currents with counterclockwise swirl NW of SW tip of Australia.
• WA ocean movies, 1993-2000
• The Leeuwin Current - life of the west

However, the "death trap" viewpoint is somewhat different from this one:

"The canyon begins at a depth of 50 metres and falls to 5,000, making it one of the worlds largest submarine canyons. It is a fascinating area that annually attracts pygmy blue whales, drawn by an abundance of krill. During summer, as many as 20 whales may be found at one time at this site. The whales eat up to 10 tonnes of krill a day and we want to find out whether there is a correlation between the presence of the canyon and the physical oceanography and the biological productivity of krill."

For my computer I am testing an old Heath Most Accurate Clock II* with its RS232 attachment that goes to the serial port on my HP Pavilion. The only problem is the brick sized power transformer gets very hot because its supplying two amp heavy circuits. Use ThinkGeek's KillAWatt to measure power consumption. AWK the transformer is hungry. I guess for real use eventually I will peek at time once a day or so.

*Heath Most Accurate Clock II, synchronizes with WWV at 10 meters.

I think that the network, with all its erratic latency, is not really the best source to use as a timing transport.

Some people have occasionally picked up old cesium clocks from ebay to set the PC's time. Most are from labs and after purchase, probably gather dust in the garage.
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cesium.html

For my wrist, myself and lots of us geeks, use a Casio G-Shock (GW-700a) that updates its time from WWV three times a night. Its more accurate than the clocks at our local public DART train station. They are always four seconds slow.

I also have a great little Nixie clock kit that gets its info, not from WWV via radio, but from satellite GPS time. Its the dinky one at the bottom of the page. Looks fantastic though.
http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/clockpage.html

While it's easy to be paranoid, the important (and easy) place to have checks and balances to to insure that evidence collected without a warrant can't be used against one in court...But the judicial branch can check this nicely by simply making it clear that any such database is *entirely* inadmissible as evidence.

I think you are missing the problem. Certainly if your case gets to court, it will most likely not be admissable evidence. Unfortunately, you may not get your day in court.

We had working hardsuit designs in the 1960s. I've seen one on display at some museum someplace, think it was the SJ Technology museum. We also regularly use them in diving. Obviously a whole different set of problems, but you can dive to 2,000 feet in the one linked above...

According to this page three pairs of TU-95 Strategic Bombers operated from a base in Cuba while Soviet Navy ships were deployed there beginning in 1970. So clearly by 1972 and 1973 the Air National Guard along the Gulf Coast would have been tasked with countering the Soviet operations in Cuba.

How can you die happy without ever having seen the photo of the log book with the moth taped into it?

How can you die happy without ever having read about Maurice Wilkes' Aha! moment: "It was on one of my journeys between the EDSAC room and the punching equipment that...the realization came over me with full force that a good part of the remainder of my life was going to be spent in finding errors in my own programs."

You have a rather unique view of history.

The presumption on your part is that America had some sort of intrinsic responsibility to spend billions of dollars that it didn't really have on a war effort to save millions of Europeans who are now largely ungrateful, that corrupted our society and has caused us nothing but grief since. Up 'til the time of World War II, America was a relatively insular nation. We didn't want to be in that war, tried hard to stay out of it (see: Lend Lease) and yes we got into it when Japan foolishly attacked Pearl Harbor (which was a military base, in case you've forgotten.) Like it or not, we expended vast resources to put the lid back on when you Europeans raised yet another demagogic dictator and were yet again unable to handle him. So watch it with the snide remarks. They're not much appreciated at all. If the United States hadn't stepped in when it did, the results would have been very different. The remnants of the British Empire were no longer up to the task, and the rest of Europe combined couldn't stand up to the Axis. Yes, a lot of Russians died in that war ... but a lot of other Allied personnel died as well, and ask yourself just how far Hitler and Japan would have gone if the Allies hadn't gone after them.

By the way, here's a picture of the Arizona resort to which you were referring.

Jawohl!

Speaking unofficially from an "unnamed branch of the U.S. Government", we can't switch as much as we'd like to. We are locked into Windows XP and we can only use the applications on the "gold disk". At least it's cheap, it only costs us $4,200 per year per low end laptop.

Yes, here's the timeline.

http://www.nmci.navy.mil/Press_Room/NMCI%20AT%20A% 20Glance

NMCI was talked about while I had a summer job doing network support at a Navy base as an undergraduate. The contract was awarded in October, 2000. Bush wasn't even elected yet.

Of course, since UAV communications are though an open standard, you could always try to hook in yourself. Then you can see what 'big brother' is looking at.

This is the TCS specification. Used in the U.S.

This is the NATO standard, a bit newer.

Of course, people should use VPN or similar, but it isn't required.

But seriously, most of our energy comes from dams, which are getting bigger and more numerous, much to the dismay of many environmentalists here. As you point out, a lot of the energy goes into aluminum processing - in fact, all of the energy from the dam at Kárahnjúkar will be used for yet another aluminum smelter. Now that the Americans are closing down their Navy Base at Keflavík, there is discussion over planting a new smelter there or expanding the one that's there already to generate jobs instead of the ones that will be lost in that area. This seems to be the goverment's standard solution for any employment problems, anywhere - just build an aluminum smelter. But now I risk sounding overly political, so I'll stop. Regional politics in Iceland are probably not something that interest a lot of people.

The DDX is hardly a model of automation. Well, at least in the area of communications. American ships still break communications and information systems up into stove pipes of external comms, etc, etc... See
http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/getfile.cfm?cont entId=555&type=C

Take a look at some of the solution offered by the Europeans, there deployed and already a generation ahead in thinking.

If there were less people on board, the fires would have gone out of control. The Forrestal is the most important one to look at. Fire on the deck, fire teams sent in, munitions explode, killing most of the firefighters and damaging the hoses. Aviation fuel drips down into the interior of the ship through holes in the deck from the munitions cooking off. To stop the fires on the deck, human wave attacks were required.

Reducing the crew reduces casualties and it reduces redundant crew members, which in a war or accident are needed when there are casualties.

If the Forrestal had a smaller crew and all the firefighters are out of commission, what is going to put out the fire? A computer?

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers /histories/cv59-forrestal/forrestal-fire.html

http://navysite.de/cvn/cv59.htm#acc
"On July 29, 1967 the USS FORRESTAL was operating on Yankee Station off the coast of North Vietnam conducting combat operations. This was the fifth such day of operations and at 10:52am the crew was starting the second launch cycle of the day, when suddenly a Zuni rocket accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom into a parked and armed A-4 Skyhawk. The accidental launch and subsequent impact caused the belly fuel tank and a 1,000 pound bomb on the Skyhawk to fall off, the tank broke open spilling JP5 (jet fuel) onto the flight deck and ignited a fire. Within a minute and a half the bomb was the first to cook-off and explode, this caused a massive chain reaction of explosions that engulfed half the airwings aircraft, and blew huge holes in the steel flight deck. Fed by fuel and bombs from other aircraft that were armed and ready for the coming strike, the fire spread quickly, many pilots and support personnel were trapped and burned alive.
Fuel and bombs spilled into the holes in the flight deck igniting fires on decks further into the bowels of the ship. Berthing spaces immediately below the flight deck became death traps for fifty men, while other crewmen were blown overboard by the explosion.
Nearby ships hastened to the FORRESTAL's aid. The ORISKANY (CV 34), herself a victim of a tragic fire in October 1966, stood by to offer fire-fighting and medical aid to the larger carrier. Nearby escort vessels sprayed water on the burning FORRESTAL and within an hour the fire on the flight deck was under control. The crew heroically fought the fire and carried armed bombs to the side of the ship to throw them overboard for 13 hours. Secondary fires below deck took another 12 hours to contain."

"Once the fires were under control, the extent of the devastation was apparent. Most tragic was the loss to the crew, 134 had lost their lives, while an additional 64 were injured, this was and still remains the single worst loss of life on a navy vessel since the USS FRANKLIN (CV 13) was bombed in WWII. The ship proceeded to Cubi Point in the Philippines for temporary repairs. In only eight days enough repairs were made that she could start the long trip back to her home port of Norfolk, Virginia for permanent repairs. On her way home she was capable of operating aircraft if needed.

FORRESTAL would spend seven months in the yards being repaired, she was re-built from the hanger up and forward to aircraft elevator number four, this accounts for about 1/5 the ships length and 5 decks. On April 8, 1968 FORRESTAL was once again ready to take her place in the fleet, she was never to return to Vietnam."

Skiff vs. CG and DDG, wonder how that's going to turn out.

The idea of an aircraft carrier is not to enguage in close combat; they are designed to project thier power over long distances by launching aircraft. Also notice how carriers travel in carrier groups. If they were designed for close warfare, they would not have the need for many ships around them at all times. (http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carrier s/powerhouse/cvbg.html) In the end, carriers do not need armor to defend against a battleship; they want to destroy the opponent before it gets in range.