Monday Odds & Ends

1. MLB TV has had problems this season. Due to technical problems caused by a third party, watching on Roku has become a guessing game. Will the home or away feed be the one not working right, both, or should one just listen to the game instead? MLB is promising to fix the problem.

2. A Titanic exhibition in Estonia that recently ended broke attendance records for the museum. The Baltic Course reports that 220,000 people visited the “Titanic: story, findings, legends” exhibition that ran from November 2013 to March 2014. “Such a high visitors’ number at our museum landscape is undoubtedly extraordinary and exceeding or even repeating that would be rather complicated. The number of guests of the Titanic exhibition is proof and acknowledgement that we have offered to the public a world class museum experience,” said Maritime Museum director Urmas Dresen.
Source:Titanic Exhibition Breaks Estonian Museum Visitation Record(2 April 2014,The Baltic Course)

3. A letter written by the mother of Titanic survivor Eva Hart will be auctioned off next month reports the BBC. The letter is written on Titanic stationery was addressed to her mother in Chadwell Heath, England. The letter was found inside her husband’s jacket after they were rescued. Henry Aldridge & Son are the auctioneers for the letter and is perhaps the only one of its type to have survived.
Source: Titanic Last Letter To Be Auctioned(1 April 2014,BBC)

Titanic Belfast (side view) Image:Prioryman (Wikipedia)
Titanic Belfast (side view)
Image:Prioryman (Wikipedia)

4. Since opening two years ago, the Titanic Belfast Visitors Center has been visited by 1.45 million people reports Irish Times. It has drawn people from all over the world and broke all projections for attendance. 650,000 people passed through last year showing interest in Titanic has not slowed down. Needless to say, Titanic Belfast is “delighted” with the news.
Source:Titanic Centre Visited By 1.45M People Since Opening In 2012(2 April 2014, Irish News)

5. Hungarians @ The Titanic Film Festival(3 April 2014,Xpatloop.com)
This year’s Titanic Festival – running between 4-12th April – will also present the works of Hungarian film makers too. Erik Novák’s brand-new action-thriller and black comedy mixture Black Soup will have its premiere screening at the festival. Simon Szabó’s short film Wall that won the main award at the Tampere Short Film Festival, and Réka Bucsi’s animation short Symphony no. 42 that competed in the Berlinale can also be watched at Titanic. The original score for the Turkish movie The Long Way Home was written by Mihály Víg, and a special film selection and a round table-discussion will commemorate the recently deceased Miklós Jancsó.

6. Irish Titanic Survivors Featured At Irish-American Cultural Society Monthly Meeting(4 April 2014,The Current)
A journalist will provide a multi-media presentation about Irish-American Titanic survivors and the lives they lived out in the United States during the next monthly meeting of the Irish-American Cultural Society. Jim Curley, a journalist with personal ties to the story, will present a multi media talk on a County May village that sent a group of young women off for better opportunities across the Atlantic Ocean. Curley will give his presentation during the next meeting of the Irish-American Cultural Society at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 15 at the American Legion Hall, New Jersey Avenue and Mill Road, Absecon, NJ.

7. Rostron Cup Part Of Online Auction
Boston based RR Auction will be putting the Roston Cup and other Titanic artifacts up for auction online from April 17-24. Letters photos and other memorabilia will be up for auction and the Roston Cup will likely be the big ticket item for this auction. For details and information about the auction, go to rrauction.com.
Source: Online Auction For 240 Titanic Artifacts(4 April 2014,Business Standard)

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Titanic II Update: Clive Palmer Says It Will Be Built

White Star Flag Image:Yar(Wikimedia)
White Star Flag
Image:Yar(Wikimedia)
Clive Palmer is disputing claims Titanic II is stalled according to Sunshine Coast Daily. It has been recently reported that construction was stalled, no contract had been signed, and the Chinese were not as enthusiastic as Palmer had hoped. The attacks, Palmer now says, are politically motivated. He points out they just finished tank testing and that they have signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese group. Palmer points out that it took seven years to design Titanic and that they are ordering stuff for the ship. He also said the keel will be laid in the third quarter this year.

However Palmer is no longer committed to an exact date for the first voyage, which initially was to be in 2016.

If online polls are to be believed, most do not believe it will be built. Vegas odds makers are not taking bets at this time on Titanic II construction.

Source: Clive’s Titanic Not Sunk Yet(31 Mar 2014,Sunshine Coast Daily)


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Whatever Happened To….RMS Carpathia?

RMS Carpathia (date unknown) Image: public domain
RMS Carpathia (date unknown)
Image: public domain

I got a note asking what happened to RMS Carpathia, the Titanic rescue ship, after 1912.

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard line transoceanic passenger liner and primarily made runs between New York, Gibraltar, Genoa, Naples, Trieste, and Fiume. During World War I she retained doing commercial runs but did carry both Canadian and American troops to Europe.

On 17 Jul 1918, she was sunk by a German U-Boat in the Celtic Sea. Three torpedoes were fired and one hit the port side and the other the engine room killing two firemen and three trimmers. A third torpedo hit as they were lowering lifeboats. All 57 passengers and 218 surviving crew members got off in lifeboats. The German submarine did surface and threatened the lifeboats. Fortunately the HMS Snowdrop arrived on scene and drove it away and rescued the survivors.

The wreck was thought located in 1999 by team headed up by Graham Jessop on an expedition sponsored by National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). However that proved to be the liner Isis that sank in 1936. Noted author Clive Cussler announced in 2000 that his organization (NUMA-the fictional agency in many of his books that Dirk Pitt works for) had found the wreck at a depth of 500 feet and upright on the seabed. The wreck is now owned by Premier Exhibitions, the same group that also owns RMS Titanic, Inc which obtained salvage rights to Titanic. The company has recovered artifacts from the wreck for display in the Rescue Gallery in its Titanic:The Artifact Exhibition.

Source(s):
1. RMS Carpathia (Wikipedia)
2. Press Release:Artifacts From Titanic’s Rescue Ship, Carpathia, to Make World Debut at the Science Museum of Minnesota(9 April 2009, 4-traders.com)
3. Cunard Line: Carpathia (Encyclopedia Titanica)

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Titanic News For April Fool’s Day 2014

film reel1. Those who use the Netflix streaming service will be happy to learn that Cameron’s Titanic will be available. Also coming via streaming are A League Of Their Own, Fox Network’s House, and B0b’s Burgers(season 3), see Lindsay Lohan before she became a hot mess in Mean Girls, those wanting a Scottish adventure will have Braveheart to watch. Saturday Night Live fans may recall the Coneheads movie and Robin Williams made everyone wary of boardgames in Jumanji. If you have been hankering to see the Rocky movies, fear no more as Rocky 1-5 are now streaming. For those who like horror gag movies, Scary Movie 3 is on. And just in time for Easter, The Bible: The Epic Miniseries is available.
Source: From House to Titanic: A Viewer’s Guide to the New Additions to Netflix(31 Mar 2014,E! Online)

2. Have you wondered about dogs on Titanic and what happened to them? The Smithsonian has compiled a guide about those 12 dogs. In The Definitive Guide to the Dogs on the Titanic , small dogs survived while the bigger ones perished. They were kept in kennels on F Deck and looked after by the ship’s carpenter. They got exercise, food, and a bathroom break. And there was a dog show planned but that never occurred. The dogs were let out at some point and were seen running about as the ship sank. There was no truth to oft-told tale that First Officer Murdoch’s dog was on a lifeboat and alerted Carpathia to the lifeboats by barking.
Source:The Definitive Guide to the Dogs on the Titanic(31 Mar 2014, Smithsonianmag.com)

3. Although doubts have been raised about a new Titanic being built by Clive Palmer, there are hopeful signs it may yet come to pass. There was a little noticed passage in a Asia Times about discussions to construct a cruise ship based on a historic, well known ship. No name was mentioned but some speculate it might be Titanic. Considering the source was within the Chinese government, speculation is that perhaps they will want to help fund this new ship to demonstrate how world class China has become in the 21st century.
Source: Chinese Government Considering Cruise Ship Business(1 April 2014, Asia Times)

Warning! Titanic Cliche Ahead
Warning! Titanic Cliche Ahead

4. Titanic Cliche Alert:Reshuffling Cabinet=Rearranging Deck Chairs on Titanic
In the wake of losing power in local elections, French President Francois Hollande has named a new prime minister and now says (after supporting higher taxes) he wants to lower taxes and worker contributions. Rainbow Murray,associate professor at Queen Mary University of London, says “I think it’s really rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Until they sort the economy out, nothing else is going to fix the major reason why the French are so unhappy with the government.” And if you have to fall back on this old tired cliché to make a point about French politics, you need to re-read Shakespeare for tips on how to better use wit to make your point.
Source: Hollande confirms Valls as PM, stands by pro-business pact(31 Mar 2014, CNBC/Reuters)


 

 

Item#3 above is the fake story. April Fools!

Welcome To April

Daisies(1894) William Bouguereau(1825-1905) Image: public domain
Daisies(1894)
William Bouguereau(1825-1905)
Image: public domain

The Romans called the fourth month Aprilis which is how it became April under the Gregorian calendar. April (in the northern hemisphere)is the transition from winter to spring and farmers are generally busy during this month. In olden times, specific festivals to deities were often performed but fell out of use as people become more urbanized and Christianity replaced many pagan beliefs.

Passover and Easter are often celebrated in April. The diamond is the birthstone for April, while the flower is either the daisy or sweet pea.

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