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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Titanic obsession
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Saturation coverage time again, this time it's the Titanic. TV programmes, radio programmes, news broadcasts, films, there are special events, two memorial voyages, the sealife centres and aquariums are having Titanic exhibitions, and there's spin-off merchandise. Even the National Trust have sent a reminder asking subscribers whether they've remembered it's the 100th anniversary. You can't get away from it.
It's everywhere. Literally - there are events worldwide. It's totally disproportionate. Yes, it was a tragedy, but other ships have sunk, planes and trains have crashed and there hasn't been this kind of hype. Nobody was particularly bothered about the Titanic in the past few decades.
Enough is enough. Stop bombarding us with Titanic memorabilia. Much of this is only done to make money out of a tragedy.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Trisagion
Shipmate
# 5235
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Posted
Count yourself you don't live near Southampton, where the mawkishness is near ubiquitous.
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ceterum autem censeo tabula delenda esse
Posts: 3923 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Herrick
Shipmate
# 15226
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Posted
Ariel i agree , even in Australia it has been an orgy of tales.
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A careless shoestring in whose tie
I see a wild civility
Posts: 1194 | From: NSW | Registered: Oct 2009
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MiceElf
Not your average mouse
# 4389
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Posted
Sadly I do live in Southampton..
I watched the ending of a programme about the musicians from the Titanic introduced by Suggs..
He was standing in front of the Titanic memorial for the Stokers and Engineers FFS!!!! Clearly seen behind him as he continued his drivel, were the images of the stokers shovelling coal, not a musician in sight. If you have to do something, at least get it right!
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What do we want.... Cure for Obesity
When do we want it.... After Dessert.
Posts: 1032 | From: OILOVWOIGHT | Registered: Apr 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I was in the pub the other week and they had a Titanic beer on tap. I fancy that goes down well I said to the barman but he just looked at me so I didn't add anything about sinking a pint.
Part of my native city has been redeveloped as the
Titanic Quarter - though I suspect it'll still be known as 'the dacks'.
I suspect it's all a bit more copeable with than the few hundred million other deaths from war, famine, genocide and assorted disasters there's been since. They had nice frocks on! And it wasn't too messy! And some people survived! And it was all a long time ago so we can feel a bit sad, but not to the point of being inconvenienced.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Two years from now it'll be the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. We can probably look forward - or backward - to four years of retrospectives of that.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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passer
Indigo
# 13329
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Posted
You're all just a bunch of heartless cynics. It's obviously Very Important Indeed - they've even re-released the film in 3D.
[cue iceberg jokes, which are strangely lacking from this thread thus far.]
I've intentionally avoided reading or watching in detail any of the many publicity items...... please tell me that they aren't laying flowers in cellophane wrapping anywhere, à la Diana etc.
I can only echo Trisagion's mention of mawkishness. Thank god we shall have the Olympics and the Jubilee to help take our minds off it.
Posts: 1289 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jan 2008
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Pyx_e
Quixotic Tilter
# 57
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Posted
It all cuts no ice with me.
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It is better to be Kind than right.
Posts: 9778 | From: The Dark Tower | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by passer:
[cue iceberg jokes, which are strangely lacking from this thread thus far.]
Lettuce hope there will be no further iceberg incidents.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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MiceElf
Not your average mouse
# 4389
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Posted
A friend of mine from these parts, now living in Londontown came to visit this week. She noticed that high street in Southampton now proudly boasted another title, namely " The QE2 Mile "
Hmmmm She asked, why did they call it that, it's hardly the Edinburgh " Royal Mile "by any stretch of the imagination.
I told her that it WAS going to be called the Titanic Mile, BUT....
It's amazing how many iceberg, sinking, lifeboat/ disaster jokes you can make between the corner of HMV and the coffee shop at Marks and Spensers.
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What do we want.... Cure for Obesity
When do we want it.... After Dessert.
Posts: 1032 | From: OILOVWOIGHT | Registered: Apr 2003
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
Radio 4Extra (formerly Radio 7) is running a series of 'Titanic letters'. Fortunately these are in five minute slots and mostly there is a tale from a survivor to balance that of a sailor who went down with the ship, leaving his widow and childern in poverty.
<unfortunate naming tangent>
Dunderheaded naming seems to be inevitable. When a housing estate was built on the site of RAF Hornchurch (a Battle of Britain fighter airfield) some houses were on Bader Walk. Well, he could, but it was pretty crass. I'll let a Mancunian describe the fuss over the naming of the home fan's end of the City of Manchester (now the Etihad) Stadium.
</unfortunate naming tangent>
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Beeswax Altar
Shipmate
# 11644
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by passer:
You're all just a bunch of heartless cynics. It's obviously Very Important Indeed - they've even re-released the film in 3D.
[cue iceberg jokes, which are strangely lacking from this thread thus far.]
I've intentionally avoided reading or watching in detail any of the many publicity items...... please tell me that they aren't laying flowers in cellophane wrapping anywhere, à la Diana etc.
I can only echo Trisagion's mention of mawkishness. Thank god we shall have the Olympics and the Jubilee to help take our minds off it.
Brilliant movie!!!
love story and a young Leo for the girls
fx and a nude Kate Winslet from when she had curves for the boys
PG-13 rating for parents
Cameron found a formula to keep the teenagers coming back again and again. Shame he couldn't find a way to justify a sequel. No movie since has followed that formula.
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Losing sleep is something you want to avoid, if possible.
-Og: King of Bashan
Posts: 8411 | From: By a large lake | Registered: Jul 2006
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passer
Indigo
# 13329
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Posted
@Sioni
would that be the Colin Bell memorial stand, by any chance?
Posts: 1289 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jan 2008
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
This far away (NZ) we're reaching for connections, but a local throwaway paper had a photo of the Captain playing bowls* in Lyttelton (local Port), and someone vaguely connected (First Mate's wife or somthing) is buried in the cemetry down the road.
*and no one even mentioned Sir Francis Drake. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
My wife's Granddad died at the grand old age of 102. He remembered attending a memorial service to those who'd died on The Titanic at the parish church in the South Yorkshire village where he grew up. Everyone was in tears.
I asked him whether they'd known anyone who'd been involved - they hadn't. 'News like that had more impact in those days,' he said.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
@Firenze, The Titanic brewery is in Stoke-on-Trent, home of the ill-fated Captain Smith. How someone who grew up so far inland ended up as a sea captain mystifies me ...
I'm not sure I'd want to name a brewery after it, though. I like their stout and their light ales are quite interesting, but not my favourites.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
The thing that annoys me about all the weeping relatives and so on is that there's a very high probability all those folk would have been dead by now anyway. I find it pretty damn hard to take seriously tears over great-great-grandfather Joe who would have been 162 next June if only is life hadn't been tragically cut short.
[ 16. April 2012, 00:36: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Beeswax Altar:
Shame he couldn't find a way to justify a sequel. No movie since has followed that formula.
Even Cameron can't justify a sequel when both his star character and his set sank to the bottom of the ocean.
George Lucas, on the other hand, would have made multiple movies about those times "Jack" regaled the 1st class passengers with as he tramped around Europe, probably by jetpack.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Soror Magna
Shipmate
# 9881
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Posted
Best Titanic advice I've received was to watch the movie from the beginning to the discovery of the wreck, and then jump to the iceberg and watch to the end. Goes by quicker, way more exciting. And no horrifically stereotypical Italian buddy. ![[Mad]](angryfire.gif) ![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif) OliviaG
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"You come with me to room 1013 over at the hospital, I'll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean." -- Tony Kushner, "Angels in America"
Posts: 5430 | From: Caprica City | Registered: Jul 2005
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
it is interesting how some things are remembered and some not. The General Slocum disaster, when a passenger ferry burned and sank, in New York City in 1904, killed almost as many people as the Titanic(aprox. 1021) but in all probability I'm the only poster here who's heard of it, and I only have because of a slight family connection (my grandfather was involved in rescue efforts). There were similar issues of safety concerns, not enough lifeboats and life preservers, and outrage at the time was tremendous. Yet it's all but forgotten today.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
too late to edit, but I wanted to add, the novel Ulysses takes place the day after the General Slocum disaster, and mentions it, so people may be aware of it through that.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
The Titanic ranks 7th on the list of peacetime maritime disasters. I think you would have a difficult time finding seven people here who have heard of even one of the first six.
While I am a bit tired of fuss, I do understand it. A brand new, massive ship, perceived to be state of the art sinks on its maiden voyage. Massively rich people died as well as lots of poor people. Tailor made to be regarded as a tragedy. Plus a sickeningly saccharine movie.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Beeswax Altar
Shipmate
# 11644
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Posted
The collision of the Dona Paz and Vector would make for an interesting movie. I don't see James Cameron directing it. Strikes me as being more of a Darren Aronofsky or Ang Lee type project.
[ 16. April 2012, 03:08: Message edited by: Beeswax Altar ]
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Losing sleep is something you want to avoid, if possible.
-Og: King of Bashan
Posts: 8411 | From: By a large lake | Registered: Jul 2006
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Sober Preacher's Kid
Presbymethegationalist
# 12699
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
The Titanic ranks 7th on the list of peacetime maritime disasters. I think you would have a difficult time finding seven people here who have heard of even one of the first six.
While I am a bit tired of fuss, I do understand it. A brand new, massive ship, perceived to be state of the art sinks on its maiden voyage. Massively rich people died as well as lots of poor people. Tailor made to be regarded as a tragedy. Plus a sickeningly saccharine movie.
The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is well-known in Canada but not elsewhere.
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NDP Federal Convention Ottawa 2018: A random assortment of Prots and Trots.
Posts: 7646 | From: Peterborough, Upper Canada | Registered: Jun 2007
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SeraphimSarov
Shipmate
# 4335
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Posted
Then there is the true disaster of Julian Fellowes' version known as "Drownton Abbey"
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"For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like"
Posts: 2247 | From: Sacramento, California | Registered: Apr 2003
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SeraphimSarov
Shipmate
# 4335
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Posted
Then there is the true disaster of Julian Fellowes' version known as "Drownton Abbey"
[ 16. April 2012, 03:48: Message edited by: SeraphimSarov ]
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"For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like"
Posts: 2247 | From: Sacramento, California | Registered: Apr 2003
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Sine Nomine
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 66
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Posted
It is a great story. And a true one. It resonates with people on all sorts of levels. It is part of our, or at least my cultural heritage. Part of history with a capital H. It is one of those events that was more than the sum of its individual parts.
I still find the thought of it very moving. I can even tear up a bit when I think of the band playing on the deck. Or of Mrs. Strauss choosing to stay with her husband. Or of John Jacob Astor handing his wife into the lifeboat, telling her he'd be along in the next one.
We probably have Walter Lord who wrote "a night to remember" to thank for a lot of this. His book sort of put the Titanic back on the map when it was published. And it stayed there pretty much ever since.
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Precious, Precious, Sweet, Sweet Daddy...
Posts: 16639 | From: lat. 36.24/lon. 86.84 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Evensong
Shipmate
# 14696
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Posted
Our cathedral converted itself into the titanic dining hall. Had first class passengers in one section and second class in another. Different menues and the whole shaboodle.
Impressive!
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a theological scrapbook
Posts: 9481 | From: Australia | Registered: Apr 2009
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
I so hate it when people are interested in things I'm not.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
The Titanic ranks 7th on the list of peacetime maritime disasters. I think you would have a difficult time finding seven people here who have heard of even one of the first six.
Preacher today pointed out it wasn't just a disaster in head count, it is a classic story of pride brought low (the theme of some classic Greek plays)"we built a ship that won't sink, we don't need enough lifeboats for all"; plus a story of faith in technology but we find out nature is bigger, plus a story of social class divisions in that first class passengers had much better survival chances.
Most sinking ships don't have all these dramatic sub-themes woven through the story.
Which reminds me, a friend said a novel told the story before the Titanic was built -- facts so parallel it was as if a premonition, a ship named Titan believed unsinkable but hit an iceburg.
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Part of my native city has been redeveloped as the
Titanic Quarter - though I suspect it'll still be known as 'the dacks'.
wow - nobody's mentioned what bad juju that is? especially all those big buildings right on the water... cue tsunami...
quote:
Originally posted by Sober Preacher's Kid:
The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is well-known in Canada but not elsewhere.
We got that one in school. Canadian teacher. had a lot of odd Canadiana in my education.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
[QUOTE]Preacher today pointed out it wasn't just a disaster in head count, it is a classic story of pride brought low (the theme of some classic Greek plays)"we built a ship that won't sink, we don't need enough lifeboats for all"; plus a story of faith in technology but we find out nature is bigger, plus a story of social class divisions in that first class passengers had much better survival chances.
It's all gone a bit far hasn't it ..... now where IS my lucky pig??
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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Pyx_e
Quixotic Tilter
# 57
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Posted
To be clear this sick obsession is only a perversion of our God given gift of love and kindness. As such it is not to be mocked, more pitied. That our lives have fallen so far that we thrash around like children in the dark pouring out our inner heart break and loneliness on this thing that did not happen in living memory. Turning our backs on our children, our neighbours and our God. Weeping at some half known story, never thinking of the cowards that survived or the stupidity and pride that caused the accident. And certainly never questioning our own lack of reality. Don’t get me wrong I cried in the film, (I cry a lot) I just know the difference between the fiction of the past and the reality of the present and would prefer to live in the later.
AtB Pyx_e
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It is better to be Kind than right.
Posts: 9778 | From: The Dark Tower | Registered: May 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
.... we thrash around like children in the dark pouring out our inner heart break and loneliness on this thing that did not happen in living memory ....
People often need an excuse to pour out their inner heartbreak. This doesn't mean they turn their backs on the present imo. Far from it.
I avoided all the Titanic coverage - my radio and TV have off switches.
I used them.
[ 16. April 2012, 08:14: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Beeswax Altar:
The collision of the Dona Paz and Vector would make for an interesting movie.
It will never be made, the villains didn't have BBC english accents...
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by comet:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Part of my native city has been redeveloped as the
Titanic Quarter - though I suspect it'll still be known as 'the dacks'.
wow - nobody's mentioned what bad juju that is? especially all those big buildings right on the water... cue tsunami...
In the Irish Sea? Ireland itself is about as aseismic as they come. No, what you have to worry about is slow absorption by eight metres of sleech.
[ 16. April 2012, 08:26: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
Lol, you got there before me. A tsunami coming up Belfast Lough would make a class movie though.
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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pjl
Shipmate
# 16929
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Posted
I recall years ago sailing across the North Atlantic on a merchant vessel.We were informed that the following day at 1900 hours we would be at the aprox location of the Titanics sinking.
As I was on my watch in the engine room at the allotted time I glanced the sea temp gauge which indicated 31F, which was the reported sea temp at the time of the sinking.
Years after I was hurled into an outside swimming pool 'for a laugh' where the temp was 3C. I only spent about 15 secs in the water but it took hours to ' thaw out.'
When I watched the film it was the poor souls in the water that got me.
Posts: 576 | From: england | Registered: Feb 2012
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by fletcher christian:
Lol, you got there before me. A tsunami coming up Belfast Lough would make a class movie though.
I can see it now ... panic rises as, for the first two-thirds of the movie, politicians argue over whether it's a Catholic tsunami or a Protestant tsunami.
I caught a bit of a tv show a couple of weeks ago that debunked some of the Titanic legends. No-one, for instance, seems to have called it "unsinkable" until after it sank. So the Titanic-as-hubris story doesn't seem to ... um ... float.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
I avoided all the Titanic coverage - my radio and TV have off switches.
I used them.
So did I. I just haven't managed to find one for the placards outside newsagents' shops, the advertising posters around and about, the cunningly disguised articles in newspapers that you have to get past the front page to see, various things on the internet or overheard conversations in public places. It's now at the ridiculous stage where there’s some reminder of it on an average of about four times a day.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
The Titanic ranks 7th on the list of peacetime maritime disasters. I think you would have a difficult time finding seven people here who have heard of even one of the first six.
I've heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff. I was a student in Germany in the 1950s, and some of the students I met had fled from the advancing Russians. Obviously, they weren't on that ship, but they knew all about it. Apparently it was so crowded that people could not sit down even on the decks; they had to stand shoulder-to-shoulder.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
Incidentally, during World War 2 the Queen Mary was used as a troopship and on some voyages carried more than 16,000 people. If it had been torpedoed, there would have been an unbelievable death toll.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Sine Nomine
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 66
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
I just know the difference between the fiction of the past and the reality of the present and would prefer to live in the later.
As far as "fiction" goes we're certainly on firmer ground – so to speak – with the Titanic story then we are with either the Christmas or Easter narratives so I'm not quite sure where you're going with that.
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Precious, Precious, Sweet, Sweet Daddy...
Posts: 16639 | From: lat. 36.24/lon. 86.84 | Registered: Dec 2002
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kankucho
Shipmate
# 14318
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I was in the pub the other week and they had a Titanic beer on tap. I fancy that goes down well I said to the barman but he just looked at me so I didn't add anything about sinking a pint.
Part of my native city has been redeveloped as the
Titanic Quarter - though I suspect it'll still be known as 'the dacks'.
I suspect it's all a bit more copeable with than the few hundred million other deaths from war, famine, genocide and assorted disasters there's been since. They had nice frocks on! And it wasn't too messy! And some people survived! And it was all a long time ago so we can feel a bit sad, but not to the point of being inconvenienced.
As a frequent visitor to your native province, I'm waiting for Bushmills to produce a Titanic-commemorative whiskey, which we can all enjoy ordering over ice.
Best o' luck to them down the Dacks. The Titanic Centre is a fine piece of construction. And, as they're so fond of saying, "it was perfectly ok when it left here."
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"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself" – Dr. Carl Sagan
Kankucho Bird Blues
Posts: 1262 | From: Kuon-ganjo, E17 | Registered: Nov 2008
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dj_ordinaire
Host
# 4643
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by fletcher christian:
Lol, you got there before me. A tsunami coming up Belfast Lough would make a class movie though.
I can see it now ... panic rises as, for the first two-thirds of the movie, politicians argue over whether it's a Catholic tsunami or a Protestant tsunami.
I caught a bit of a tv show a couple of weeks ago that debunked some of the Titanic legends. No-one, for instance, seems to have called it "unsinkable" until after it sank. So the Titanic-as-hubris story doesn't seem to ... um ... float.
This is true enough.
But, as the Onion headlined it 'World's Largest Metaphor Sinks'. It's hard not to be drawn in, regardless of the facts and the unseemly hype.
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Flinging wide the gates...
Posts: 10335 | From: Hanging in the balance of the reality of man | Registered: Jun 2003
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by kankucho:
As a frequent visitor to your native province, I'm waiting for Bushmills to produce a Titanic-commemorative whiskey, which we can all enjoy ordering over ice.
Only over this ice
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Sober Preacher's Kid
Presbymethegationalist
# 12699
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Posted
I'm an engineer by training. I love to see how things fail and how we can make them better. Titanic was important in that it was the first accident to be given something like an "after-accident investigation". Until then if you went to sea, you took your chances. There was lip-service about lifeboats, but North Atlantic shipping at the time believed that another ship could be summoned to rescue a vessel in distress. The Titanic showed that model was wrong, wrong, wrong.
There were two inquiries which led to substantive changes in marine practices. Shipping lanes were moved south after the Titanic incident to avoid ice and the International Ice Patrol was formed. The Lifeboat requirement was changed to make sure everyone could get off.
The Titanic was a systematic failure, it showed that much of what we thought was adequate was deeply flawed. It wasn't negligence, it was flawed assumptions.
Engineers always get a kick out of debunking flawed assumptions.
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NDP Federal Convention Ottawa 2018: A random assortment of Prots and Trots.
Posts: 7646 | From: Peterborough, Upper Canada | Registered: Jun 2007
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Sine Nomine
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 66
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Posted
For some reason I was just now thinking about Eleanor Widener who lost both her husband and her son that night. One result of this loss was the Widener library at Harvard, given in memory of her son Harry.
Sure she was rich and we don't like that anymore. And sure it happened a long long time ago. And sure there are many needs that we need to address in the world today.
But to me it is a great story and stories are important. And it's okay to remember them and to even celebrate them. I don't think it takes anything away from today. I think it enriches it.
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Precious, Precious, Sweet, Sweet Daddy...
Posts: 16639 | From: lat. 36.24/lon. 86.84 | Registered: Dec 2002
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by comet:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Part of my native city has been redeveloped as the
Titanic Quarter - though I suspect it'll still be known as 'the dacks'.
wow - nobody's mentioned what bad juju that is? especially all those big buildings right on the water... cue tsunami...
In the Irish Sea? Ireland itself is about as aseismic as they come. No, what you have to worry about is slow absorption by eight metres of sleech.
I understand, I wasn't really trying to say that a tsunami was likely; just that naming the place after the Titanic is almost like throwing down a glove. "hey God, let's see what you've got!"
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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