“You can’t set her on fire, you can’t sink her, and you can’t catch her.” - William Francis Gibbs
William Francis Gibbs was an engineer with the soul of an artist. By the time his masterpiece, the ocean liner SS United States, debuted in July 1952, Gibbs was heralded as America’s most successful naval architect. Tall, gaunt and sharp-tongued, Gibbs had a photographic memory and a single-minded passion for ship design. Yet he did not rise to the top of the naval architecture profession by traditional apprenticeship. Born to great wealth in 1886, Gibbs dropped out of Harvard after his somewhat shady speculator father lost his entire fortune. Neither of his parents, who aspired to proper Philadelphia status, encouraged their son’s passion to become a naval architect, pushing him instead towards the law. Gibbs was also lousy at math. It took the support of his devoted brother Frederic, an avid reading of engineering books in his spare time and a prominent mentor in the U.S. Navy to give him the knowhow (and confidence) to pursue his professional dream.
I-BRIDGE's blog (Link Campus University's Research Centre on Global Affairs) - editor, Marco Emanuele - Critical thinking, complexity, international relations (Twitter, @Glob_Eye - Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/marco.emanuele.50)
Showing posts with label Americas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americas. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 February 2016
Why Black Lives Matter Is in Trouble (Marjorie Romeyn-Sanabria, The National Interest)
The end is nigh for #BlackLivesMatter—and its leadership doesn’t even see it yet.
DeRay Mckesson announced last week in a soporific Medium post that he is running for mayor of Baltimore, and the general response has been a collective cringe. Mckesson is one of the Black Lives Matter activists with the most promise, but by attempting to leverage a social movement into a political force for good, he’s likely headed for trouble.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-black-lives-matter-trouble-15179
DeRay Mckesson announced last week in a soporific Medium post that he is running for mayor of Baltimore, and the general response has been a collective cringe. Mckesson is one of the Black Lives Matter activists with the most promise, but by attempting to leverage a social movement into a political force for good, he’s likely headed for trouble.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-black-lives-matter-trouble-15179
Monday, 8 February 2016
The Sobering Truth About the Pentagon’s Acquisition Failures (Daniel L. Davis, The National Interest)
During the State of the Union Address last month, President Obama catalogued many of the reasons he said the United States was strong and the future bright. One of the biggest, he claimed, was the quality of the U.S. Armed Forces. “The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period,” he proclaimed. “Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world.” The audience of the most influential and powerful people in America then interrupted his speech with thunderous applause. A closer examination of a few critical facts, however, might have restrained some of that chest-thumping pride.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-sobering-truth-about-the-pentagons-acquisition-failures-15138
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-sobering-truth-about-the-pentagons-acquisition-failures-15138
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
Monday, 10 August 2015
Sunday, 26 July 2015
Monday, 20 July 2015
Sunday, 5 July 2015
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