LBJ (DDG-1002) Christening

I attended the christening of the USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) at Bath Iron Works in Maine. The LBJ is the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer. It was christened by Johnson’s daughters, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson and a variety of public officials, both civilian and military, spoke.

USS Lyndon B. Johnson Christening

Manufacturing each ship costs over $4 billion. $12 billion dollars was spent on R&D for the class. Originally 30 were planned.

USS Lyndon B. Johnson Christening

It has two specially designed 155mm cannons that were designed to attack land targets in support of amphibious landings. However, since the cost of each shell is $1 million, the Navy has decided not to procure this ammunition leaving the ships without any way to use their cannons. The Navy is looking for a new future for the three ships.

USS Lyndon B. Johnson Christening

The bow uses a tumblehome design that adds to the stealthy quality of the ship…

USS Lyndon B. Johnson Christening

…as does the shape of the superstructure.

USS Lyndon B. Johnson Christening

They are still working on the LBJ and it is expected to be at Bath Iron Works for at least another year. At least four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were in various stages of construction with the Daniel Inouye the furthest along. The production process is quite modular.

The ceremony was live streamed and is available on-line. You can also view larger versions of my photos.

MoS Butterflies

In early April, we went to the Museum of Science. There we visited the Butterfly Garden.

Here are the pictures I am most pleased with. Some were very patient, others weren’t. Focus on the patient ones and play with your f-stop and composition. A decent macro lens can really help, but oh how the depth of field can be thin if your f-stop is to small. A place like the Butterfly Garden, which has a decent amount of light, helps.

Butterfly @ Museum of Science
Butterfly @ Museum of Science
Butterfly @ Museum of Science
Butterfly @ Museum of Science
Butterfly @ Museum of Science

Latest 1/2400 GHQ Ships

I haven’t posted the 1/2400 modern warship miniatures pictures I have accumulated in a while. Since it has been over half a year and the number of pictures is so large, I plan to post the best pictures from a manufacturer each week.

This week the miniatures are from GHQ. Painters are included in the description. You can find the whole archive at When Imagination Fails.

JMSDF Hyuga by gak8346
PRC CV Liaoning by Pete Skaar
PRC FFG JiangkaiII (Type054A) by gak8346
US CVN Ford by rriggles
US LHD Wasp by gak8346
US LPD San Antonio by gak8346
US DDG Burke IIA by gak8346
US FF Knox by gak8346
US LCS2 Independence by gak8346

Several Random Photos

Usually when I am going to/from work, I don’t take my camera, but rely on my mobile phone to capture things I run into in my travels. I cannot say any of them are good, but the more times I get to play with composing photos, the better I’ll get hopefully. Enjoy!

Inspiring hope and fear

My aim was to capture the graffiti on the ground with the wall art. The people in the top left were a bonus. It would be a more compelling composition if I had captured the backs of the people closer to the graffiti on the ground.

Inspiring hope and fear

Abandoned gloves

With Spring upon us, someone discarded their gloves in an office stairwell. I decided to play with the perspective.

Abandoned gloves

Shadow within a shadow

The harsh morning light, seen in the top right, reflected off of the glass building behind me to cast me in shadow within the shadow of the building in front of me.

Shadow within a shadow

Reflections in Glass and Wood

Another photograph playing with reflected light. I liked the way the light reflected off the glass window as well as off the wooden counter and then off the glass window.

Reflections in Glass and Wood

All rolled up with nowhere to go

A job left undone.

All rolled up with nowhere to go

4/25 Protest Photographs

On 4/25/2019 I briefly attended the Boston Free Chelsea Manning protest of the incarceration of Chelsea Manning co-organized by BU Students Against Imperialism and MIT Students Against War.

Speakers advocated for pardons for Reality Winner and American Indian Movement Leader Leonard Peltier, as well as stopping the extradition proceedings against Julian Assange and US support for the war in Yemen.

You can find some of the photographs I took of it:

4/25/2019 Boston Free Chelsea Manning Protest

Earlier that day I came across the Protected Bike Lanes Save Lives stand out in Porter Square, Cambridge and took this photograph that I hope communicates the need for separating bike lanes from lanes for automobiles:

Cambridge Bike Safety #RedCupProject Protest

App Privacy Workshop (Updated)

I gave an application privacy workshop at Code for Boston on Tuesday. They recorded my talk on Facebook:

and on YouTube:

I posted the slide deck as a PDF. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comments.

Some of the topics I need to add to the presentation:

  • highlight privacy and security testing;
  • having development/test servers and how to sanitize the data in the development/test database;
  • more about SQL/XSS Injection attacks;
  • review the video for other topics to add.