Stick to what you know, "reporter"

Or, read the helpful commenters on your blog.

Bettina Chavanne, a blogger at Ares recently posted this piece of idiocy in a post about ship construction in FY10 budget:

Virginia-class: The world's most expensive sub? The Navy is asking for $4.18 billion for its Virginia Class submarine, although in the same breath it promises to get costs down around $2 billion per boat (as measured in FY '05 dollars) by FY '12. Roughead said the subs are coming in "within budget and ahead of schedule." For that kind of money, they should also build themselves.

Now the fact that she doesn't understand enough to know that $4.18B is not for one Virginia, but for a Virginia, plus advance procurement for a congressionally accelerated ship in FY11, plus any other Ship Construction, Navy (SCN) expenses in that particular line item.

No, what I'm really taking her to task for is that she posted essentially the same error (crap reporting) in a previous post and was corrected by a commenter (Solomon).

Heres what she says about herself:

About Me: Bettina Chavanne is the Pentagon reporter for Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

My Company/Organization: Aviation Week & Space Technology

My Job Function: Pentagon reporter

My Areas of Expertise: Rotary-wing programs, USMC ground vehicles, ship building

My Areas of Interest: Helicopters and stuff that goes "boom"

Now that's the way history should be written

Playing a bold game in the enemy's own seas, the USS GUARDFISH (SSN 217) scored heavily in its twelve war patrols.

That's the way the history of that WWII submarine starts. Read more here.

52 Boats Memorial

The San Diego Chapter of SUBVETS is moving forward with a memorial to the 52 subs lost in WWII. This will be at the Brac'd NTC San Diego - now called Liberty Station.

They have a fascinating history of the American Liberty Elm trees being used in the memorial.

Northern lights from the ISS

USS JOHN WARNER

This one was not expected. SSN 785 will be named after the recently retired Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Former Petty Officer 3rd Class and Capt in USMC, he was on the SASC and Sea-Power subcommittee. Loyal part of the submarine friendly VA-CT-RI delegations.

Political correctness

The following is the winning entry in an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term: This year's term was Political Correctness.

The winner wrote:

Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

H/t: gomids.com

Monstrously clever

How to get the junk off of a bank's balance sheet.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s investment bank has found a new way to reduce the risk of losses from about $5 billion of its most illiquid loans and bonds: using them to pay employees’ year-end bonuses.

From Ritholtz.