By David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American merchant marine captain made famous by a Tom Hanks movie after being kidnapped by Somali pirates warned on Thursday that looming U.S. budget cuts could sink part of a program that keeps U.S.-flagged ships ready to ferry military supplies and aid around the world.
Richard Phillips, who was held hostage after Somali pirates seized his vessel in 2009, is backing a campaign to halt the budget cuts, saying they could reduce by a third the size of the 60-strong U.S. commercial fleet that regularly carries cargo for the military.
His ship, the Maersk Alabama was carrying U.S. food aid when it was boarded by the pirates.
Captain Steven Werse, an official at the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, the union that represents U.S. commercial ship officers, said the example of the Maersk Alabama should show the importance of the program.
"Unfortunately, we're under attack. What the pirates could not take away from the captain and his crew, the Congress could take away," he said. "The Maersk Alabama is one of the vessels that is part of the 60-ship Maritime Security Program."
"Everyone understands belt-tightening. It's just that we've had our belt tightened to the point where we could lose our pants," he said.
The Maritime Security Program run by the U.S. Department of Transportation spends $186 million annually to ensure the 60 ships are at the ready to carry cargo for U.S. troops at war and other government uses. The subsidy per ship is $3.1 million this year, according to congressional testimony.
Data released by the captains at a news conference said that during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, vessels enrolled in the security program carried 95 percent of Defense Department cargo shipped by sea to the region, from tanks to food.
The Maersk Alabama is one of the vessels potentially affected by the cuts.
Phillips was held hostage in a lifeboat after the pirates seized his vessel and attempted to hold it for ransom.
A five-day standoff with a U.S. Navy ship ended when snipers shot and killed Phillips' three captors on the lifeboat. "Captain Phillips," a movie about the incident starring Tom Hanks, opened in U.S. theaters this week.
Phillips said he didn't view himself as a hero and downplayed the incident, quipping: "We've always dealt with piracy. It's ... the second oldest profession we deal with in the Merchant Marine."
Werse said some $12 million could be cut from the Maritime Security Program under automatic budget cuts due to go into effect this year, which would eliminate four ships from the program.
Similar cuts, which would further reduce the fleet, are expected in subsequent years unless Congress acts to stop some $500 billion in automatic reductions to projected defense spending over the next decade.
Eliminating ships from the program could also force the U.S. military to rely on foreign-flagged vessels to deliver hardware and supplies during wartime, raising security and safety issues, the captains said.
"Our companies need support," Werse said. "If this program goes away, there's an estimated cost of capital investment by the DoD (Department of Defense) to replace these ships of $13 billion. This is a cost-effective program."
The U.S. Merchant Marine comprises fewer than 500 American flagged, civilian-owned ships. In the past it has been called upon to serve as an auxiliary to the Navy in wartime. The Maritime Security Program supports about 2,700 maritime jobs.
(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/real-captain-phillips-warns-cuts-could-hit-pentagon-010807807--business.html
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To think that all traffic is created equal could be one of the most crippling mistakes you ever make in this business, and one that you should strive to eliminate entirely if at all possible. There are different kinds of traffic (even when you’re talking about traffic pushed from a single source), and it’s important that you understand the “ins and outs” of traffic generation if you’re going to have any real success whatsoever.
Eliminate untargeted traffic while embracing targeted traffic
Thanks to Instagram, we rarely see photos taken from camera phones without some type of filter on it. Even Twitter’s photo service uses Aviary to drop an earthy overlay or black-and-white treatment onto your digital masterpiece. Google Glass users aren’t going to be left out of this craze thanks to an app aptly named Glassagram. Again, this is the type of app that we’re seeing early on, consisting of the very basics that consumers will look for when thinking about whether Glass is a device for them, once they become available to the general public. Adding filters to photos is pretty consumery. Once you sign up for Glassagram, you simply share a photo with the service, then a card is sent back to your Glass timeline with all of your filtered options: The timeline card is going to be a main component in every Glass app that we see, as it will be the primary way for users to interact with what they’re seeing. For now, options like “share” are all we have, but I could see a day where more advanced controls like editing could be available. Something like Glassagram would be a perfect case for this. Once you get your options, simply scroll your way through them and reshare the one that tickles your fancy. It looks like you’ll get five different filtered options for your photo. The nice part about this is that it’s all done through the Glass UI, so you don’t need your phone or the web to do anything: Technological marvel? No. Handy app and an example of what’s to come from Glass developers? Yes. As I’ve been speaking with members of the Glass community, I’ve learned that quite a few companies are starting to look at the device to develop their own official apps, like Twitter. There seems to be interest in the developers who are getting a head start in the Explorer program from the companies, as well. This means that those poking around the Mirror API to figure out everything they can do might be able to land themselves a sweet job focusing on the device specifically. Will a company like Facebook dedicate a small team to figuring out the right experience for its users on Glass? It’s a safe bet that they will. Until then, we get to enjoy these small, but evolutionary, apps coming from Glass explorers. It feels
