In the news

Yep it’s how the found K-129, which led to Project Azorian. Which itself is nuts and worth a look into if you haven’t heard of it!

it would be unwise to google ghost ships

I'm much more concerned by rogue waves. They are double the height of the others, like one wave on top of another. They appear without warning and can snap any ship, however big, in half. They have been proven to exist, but very few have been recorded, because when they sink a ship everybody dies very fast without a chance to send a distress signal. About two big merchant ships sink per week. Two thirds of those are victims of weather. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/10/shipping-disasters-we-never-hear-about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_wave

https://twitter.com/FridaGhitis/status/1671120043126423553/mediaViewer?

Interviewer visiting the (sub). They’ve edited it for effect, but damn.

Stockton Rush:

"You know, at some point, safety just is pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything."

"In an interview with the Smithsonian Magazine in 2019, Rush complained that the commercial sub industry had not “innovated or grown – because they have all these regulations”."

I wonder if this libertarian-sounding guy will change his approach if he survives thanks to the massive public expense going in to finding him and the billionaires.

https://twitter.com/burgerkrang/status/1671159594155126784?s=46&t=8lj24O_Gv3ExOsxx6j_06A

I was just thinking that earlier.

Such free. So market.

People who became online ocean rescue experts in the last two days must be fuming he is taking his mind off it for a bit.

No way I'd lock myself in a can going 4km under water with just 2 rechargable AA batteries between me and meeting Mr Jones.

They do have several backup controllers on board, and to be fair the alternative would be some custom piece of kit which would be far less tried and tested and probably much less robust, Playstation controllers have to resist kids and rage-quitting teens.

meeting Mr Jones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s55W-oMsSYo

aaaaaand now I'm spending all day listening to Drexciya.

(Thank you!)

It's not even a PS controller. It's a shitty logitech copy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-F710-Wireless-Gamepad-Silver/dp/B00CJAEX5M/ref=asc_df_B00CJAEX5M/

this libertarian-sounding guy

Worst bit for me was reading it can only be opened from the outside....

Perhaps counter intuitively this is actually very sensible.

When people are trapped in a small space underwater and panicking the urge to open the hatch - however illogical - is very strong. What of course would happen is as soon as any water got in you'd get cut you in half if it hit you as it's under such high pressure, before the sub flooded and you'd drown anyway.

There was a very compelling interview with Dr Michael Guillen on PM on BBC R4 yesterday (from 48 mins) which covered this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001n1r3

He was the Science Editor for ABC at the time (2000) and he was the first journalist to report from the wreck, despite having a fear of water. The sub got stuck when it fouled the Titanic's prop in 2000 after being caught in a fast-moving underwater current.

The sub got stuck when it fouled the Titanic's prop in 2000 after being caught in a fast-moving underwater current.

This probably answers my internal 'why didn't they have it on a cable attached to the boat?' question.

You could do something crazy like ride the whole length of the River Lea, that would be adventurous.

If you're underwater, you wouldn't be able to open it anyway, would you? Because water pressure and such.

There was a journo who went down in the currently missing sub this time last year and twice had to abandon due to technical issue. Apparently it's so common they go for 5 days at a time so they get a few attempts for one to not have issues.

What of course would happen is as soon as any water got in you'd get cut you in half if it hit you as it's under such high pressure, before the sub flooded and you'd drown anyway.

Surely you wouldn't be able to open it under such high pressure. Like the reverse of aeroplane doors.

Fox in reply to @dicki

You could do something crazy like ride the whole length of the River Lea, that would be adventurous.

now that's doing the hard yards.

Sounds like it needs someone to drive a car into a swimming pool to test that out.

You'd have to roll down the windows first. Don't think subs have that feature though.

A car would probably better equipped than the sub though.

[Edit] curse your sneaky edit

When people are trapped in a small space underwater and panicking the urge to open the hatch - however illogical - is very strong.

They wouldn't be able to open it outwards because of the pressure, and inwards would I imagine be problematic as it would be holding the pressure the wrong way (is that right? the outside pressure wants to push the door inwards, which is also the direction the door wants to open.)

I guess bolting it on makes the most sense in a kind of KISS way, but from what's being released in the media this morning there seem to have been multiple dubious design decisions made which compounded the danger of this thing.

Presumably if it opens inwards it would be easy to open, outwards not so much!

I don't really know but if you listen to that interview the Dr explains how this was covered in their training. He mentions a guy who did it once, but he didn't say who this was or when and maybe it's something the trainer told them to scare them. But this was a different sub, a three man.

I'd compare it with going into space, there are a lot of similarities: the level of risk, the technical challenges, the opportunities for scientific research, the risk of death, the reality that you'll die a horrible death if you try and leave the vessel, monsters, alien species*, nobody can hear you scream etc.

But I guess implosion is more likely than explosion.

*there's still a lot of unidentified deep sea life

Think I'd prefer space tbh, rather keep stuff in than out.