Deep Sea Challenger making its way through D.C. city streets to National Geographic Society building earlier this week. It will stay for two days before heading off to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
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1. The Belfast Telegraph is reporting complaints people are making about paying a fee to visit Nomadic and another one for Titanic Belfast. Currently people wishing to board Nomadic pay £7.50 for adults,£5.00 for children 5-16. Family tickets are also available (£22-27 depending on family size). However if you want to visit Titanic Belfast, a separate fee is required for entry. Which has got some visitors angry at having to dig deeper into their pockets. The Telegraph reports that Nomadic Charitable Trust is in negotiations with Titanic Belfast to set up a joint ticketing scheme.
Source: Call To Streamline Nomadic Ticketing After Complaints(6 June 2013, Belfast Telegraph)
2. James Cameron, who recently gave his DeepSea Challenger to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, believes that one day expeditions such as his would help scientists predict deep sea earthquakes and their tsunamis. In an interview to CNN, Cameron says “Building technology vehicles like the DeepSea Challenger to get down there, is a first step to planting large instruments which could allow us to survey seismic activity. Ultimately it could lead to some predictive modeling which tells us ‘look we’ve got pressure building up here, maybe this could be a tsunami in the Pacific rim, get ready, brace yourselves”
Source: James Cameron: ‘Deep Sea Exploration Could Help Predict Tsunamis’(6 June 2013, CNN)
3. Australian MP Uses Titanic Cliche
According to ABC News Online, a backbencher decided to throw out Titanic in reference to the Labor party. Here are the choice quotes from Yahoo 7 News:
“It’s like the Titanic – we’re in the final scenes”
“Third class has realised the doors are locked and they’re not getting out.”
“And first class are running around looking for a dress to put on.”
Wow. One hopes you do not find the lifeboats all gone when you get there! For misusing Titanic, you get our infamous Titanic Cliche Award with fractured finger.
Source: Labor Going Down Like The Titanic And Rudd Won’t Be Coming Back: MP(6 June 2013, Yahoo 7 News)
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1. A local school in the UK has developed a unique connection to Titanic due to a local man descended from J. Bruce Ismay. Terry Ismay, a great-grandnephew (with several greats in that) of J. Bruce Ismay, has been given a spot on Titanic II by Clive Palmer. His two children attend Cordeaux Academy in Louth so he decided to give them access to the new ship through the Internet. They will have access to the ship’s development with regular updates and where the construction is going on. There is also the possibility they will have their own flag on the ship.
Source: Louth School Forges A Unique Link With ‘The New Titanic”(16 May 2013,Louth Leader)
2. James Cameron is to be be honored by Scripp’s Institution of Oceanography in California with the 2013 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest. The award is given to those who further understanding of the sea. Cameron’‘s sole dive in the one man submarine Challenger Depth on 26 Mar 2012 went 6.8. miles down, the first solo diver to that depth. Additionally he donated the lander used on that mission to Scripps. He also plans to donate the $25,000 Nierenberg prize money to Scripps for the new Lander Lab.
Source: Filmmaker, Explorer James Cameron To Be Honored With Science Prize(16 May 2013, UPI)
3. Writing in Huffington Post, Stephen Coan–president and chief executive of Sea Research Foundation–is not happy with Titanic’s salvage and that artifacts raised by RMS Titanic, Inc, are to be auctioned off. He cites a Marist poll indicating the wreck ought to be a memorial. 65% of those polled agree with the proposition it ought to be a memorial site. I am puzzled by the timing of this piece. There are not going to be further salvaging by RMS Titanic, Inc (now part of Premiere Exhibitions) which holds the legal right awarded by a federal court in Virginia. And it has been declared a maritime preserve by the United Nations with the consent of the Canada, Britain, France, and the United States. There will be no further dives down to look at it either (which cost about $30,000) for tourists to look at the wreck. As for the auction, that is still up in the air. No one is saying what is going on in that regard. It seems the only point of the piece is to tell the world that Mystic Aquarium has a Titanic exhibition without using Titanic artifacts.
Source: Let Titanic And Its Victims Rest In Peace(17 May 2013, Huffington Post-blog)
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The famed movie director is donating his deepsea vehicle used in the dive to Challenger Deep in 2012. Challenger Deep is the lowest point of Mariana Trench, one of the deepest seabeds in the world. Its innovative features and design got praise from scientists. No other deepsea vehicle can go as deep as Deepsea Challenger, making it a very important craft indeed.
Cameron, the New York Times reports, said it is the ideal outcome. The main goal is to “capitalize on the engineering advances to the highest possible degree.” Woods Hole will be getting the vehicle in June. Cameron will become an advisor to Woods Hole. Woods Hole, of course, is quite happy to be getting the vehicle. Susan Avery, president/director of Woods Hole says “Partnerships such as this one represent a new paradigm and will accelerate the progress of ocean science and technology development.”
The donation also is another example of a transition from government funded research to private sector. Something that has been slowly been going on for a while. Perhaps one of the first cracks was way back in the heady days of the space program. They needed pens to work in space, which is a problem in free fall (commonly called zero gravity) where common ballpoints fail to work. Fortunately Paul Fisher had been working on a better refill for ballpoint pens. He perfected one using a cartridge pressurized by nitrogen so that it did not rely on gravity to work. This resulted in a pen that worked in space, underwater, upside down, or in freezing cold or hot deserts. NASA had been working on such a pen but had not been successful. Fisher patented his ingenious design in 1965. In 1968 the Apollo 7 astronauts were the first to use the Fisher space pen (it took two years of NASA testing). The rest, as they say, is history.
Source: Titanic’ Director Donates Deep-Sea Craft To Institute(26 Mar 2013, New York Times)
For information about Apollo 7:
NASA
Wikipedia
James Cameron’s Expedition – Bismarck
Exploring the Deep: The Titanic Expeditions
Fisher Space Bullet Space Pen – Matte Black, Gift Boxed (400B)
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What are the ten top reasons for liking Titanic? I have never really given it a thought (though Dave Letterman might). Over at AMC, Corey Abbey has given it some thought and lists the top ten reasons we cannot get enough of Titanic.
Here are just a few of them:
10. The Death of an Evil Billy Zane?
“Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find a character more loathsome than his Cal, the arrogant fiancé of Rose (Kate Winslet). This guy’s a first-class jerk, a spousal abuser, and an all-around bully.”
No argument here. Zane’s character is pretty vile and knowing he ended up badly in the end is pretty good.
8. The Most Anti-Nostalgic Moment in a Nostalgic Film
” But after telling her story, Rose, it turns out, has the necklace and rather than give it up secretly throws it — nostalgia be damned! — right into the ocean, in the movie’s most triumphant scene. The act seems to free her, once and for all, to enjoy her memories of Jack (DiCaprio).”
Not sure if that is a reason but possibly a factor. Not much nostalgia though when the story is about a tragedy like Titanic.
7. “My Heart Will Go On”
” The song kept the soundtrack at No. 1 on the charts for a whopping sixteen weeks and proved inescapable for anyone who listened to radio, went on an elevator, or attended a drag show. As ubiquitous theme songs go, this track has few rivals.”
Originally, as I recall, there was not going to be song for the movie, just theme music and background vocals. Dion was called into test a possible song and voila! The rest of course is history.
5. “I’m the King of the World!”
That is one line that now has entered the common use and will be with us for a long time.
3. Young Kate Winslet & 2. Younger Leonardo DiCaprio?
It certainly made them more famous and able to demand higher fees for future movies. Not sure which has really come out better, Winslet or DiCaprio.
1. The Blockbuster, Redefined
“Yet really all Cameron was doing was returning to the days of epic romances like Gone With the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia. They ruled the box office; Titanic did, too.” No argument here. The film broke records and dvd sales went through the roof.
You can view the whole list by clicking here.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, movie executives are interested in re-releasing two of James Cameron’s movies, “Titanic” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” in 3D format. But the newspaper reports that converting many movies into 3D will be limited to well known classics.
Still, though several Hollywood majors also might tread that path eventually, only select projects are likely until 3D home entertainment takes hold, and that’s maybe five years down the road. Only the most well-known film classics would merit the considerable costs of converting 2D pics, not to mention the marketing expenses of 3D rereleases.
I am somewhat baffled by this trend to 3D. When I was a kid it had been long discarded by movie studios. And for good reason as after a while it lost its appeal (it mainly was for horror and sci-fi movies). I just wonder how big the market really is for 3D. With all the advanced digital tech we now use and advanced computer rendering that is done, one wonders if 3D is just one of those niche trends that comes and goes with the wind. After all, do you really need to see the iceberg in 3D?
