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Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

bbc.com

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Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#411

Post by jhugo »

anyfoo wrote: post #407
jhugo wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many? No idea. But it's common to find it offered as a commercial activity — in a similar way to skydiving or other "extreme sports" — all over the world, as a quick web search would show you…

Can you show me a few? I did the quick web search as suggested, but cannot find the right keywords to find a lot. What I did find is that BASE jumping is apparently often illegal (but definitely not everywhere per se), that everyone who did it can claim a “number”, and that 2000 numbers total have been claimed since 1981. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I know next to nothing about BASE jumping. I’m curious what compani…

Check my reply to your sibling comment for some links.

The only place I know of where it's specifically illegal is US national parks (only national parks — you're fine in Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service territories).

Of course, if you have to trespass to make the jump, that's itself illegal, but that has nothing to do with BASE jumping.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#412

Post by ummonk »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #369
gymbeaux wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m getting Virgin Galactic vibes. They’ve cut a lot of corners over there and they’re starting commercial flights this summer despite not having I’m convinced the most-safe aircraft. They’re out of money and they’re out of time. That’s what it always seems to come down to, not so much “time vs money” but “safety vs money”.

A reminder to everyone that corners cut included having a control lever, which if pulled during re-entry, would immediately cause destruction of the craft, and for which there were no interlocks. That lever was pulled by the pilot and did indeed almost immediately cause the destruction of the ship. Also, when Branson was aboard, they had a failure during launch that put them off-course and violated their flight plan…

Don’t forget Scaled Composites (Virgin Galactic’s partner) blowing up a pressure tank and killing three employees because they didn’t properly investigate nitrous oxide compatibility with composite materials and did a cold flow test on a hot day without any safety precautions.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#413

Post by anaganisk »

aaron695 wrote: post #156
wnevets wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately this sounds like "move fast and break things" in the worst possible way.

It gets boring hearing people who can't program or manage blurt out 'move fast and break things' whenever they hear of failure. Learn to code. Or if you're not smart enough learn project management. Alternatively stop using sayings in other peoples fields. Do something dumb like journalism.

Learning to code is smart? Astronauts, doctors, lawyers, bankers and other gazillion jobs be damned. Coding is the dumbest job in my opinion compared to PM, or journalism. Could you survive the Ukraine war coding?

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#414

Post by Swizec »

jhugo wrote: post #395
Retric wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s also business supporting people climbing Mount Everest, but their profits are severely limited by the number of people with means willing to take such risks.

It's a pretty robust and long-lasting industry, so the idea that their profits are "severely limited" doesn't pass the sniff test. They no doubt just increase their unit cost accordingly. Anyway, although fewer than 1000 people summit Everest each year, 500 people per day reach Everest Base Camp, so there's plenty of room for profits.

It’s a matter of scale, right? 500/day sounds pretty low, if you’re trying to start a new airline or taxi company. But if I could sell 500 books per day that’s a huge slamdunk success.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#415

Post by profsummergig »

spoonfeeder006 wrote: post #344
jacooper wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He got lucky

Just like this persian who was given a lot of money to go on the Titanic's maiden voyage, but gave the money to charity instead. He came to the USA in 1912 and spoke out against the racism here https://www.huffpost.com/entry/abdul-baha_b_1419099 > Throughout his U.S. visit he swept aside the social protocol of segregation by insisting that everywhere he spoke be open to people of all races. Not the biggest crowd plea…

The Baha'i religion is pure free thought. Truly admirable. Pity it didn't catch on (and probably never will).

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#416

Post by jhugo »

Swizec wrote: post #414
jhugo wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty robust and long-lasting industry, so the idea that their profits are "severely limited" doesn't pass the sniff test. They no doubt just increase their unit cost accordingly. Anyway, although fewer than 1000 people summit Everest each year, 500 people per day reach Everest Base Camp, so there's plenty of room for profits.

It’s a matter of scale, right? 500/day sounds pretty low, if you’re trying to start a new airline or taxi company. But if I could sell 500 books per day that’s a huge slamdunk success.

Sure. A guided trek to Base Camp is, at a minimum, a few thousand dollars, and there's a good chance that's not the only tourist dollars you're spending while in Nepal.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#417

Post by swader999 »

sokoloff wrote: post #242
m_0x wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course the risks were considered. Billionaire: "Tell me about the risks" OceanGate: "We use military grade equipment! It's risk-free" Billionaire: "Sign me up" Jokes aside, I wonder if billionaires do assess more thoroughly the risks than any normal person. They can easily dedicate a team to assess the risks to their various activities.

Based on their results from helicopters, I’d say they have a higher risk tolerance than many would be comfortable with. Helos seem to me to border on being a natural predator of billionaires.

Helicopters can at least auto rotate.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#418

Post by sbrother »

jhugo wrote: post #397
discodave wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard of bungie jumping, and sky diving businesses, any examples of base jumping businesses (not counting gear makers).

From a quick Google search… Some "experience" operators: https://www.basejumpmoab.com https://www.tandembase.com Plenty of "course" operators too: https://www.snakeriverbase.com https://www.learntobasejump.com http://www.brentobaseschool.com

Holy crap, I can't believe they're able to offer commercial BASE jumping to untrained customers. There's no way anyone would sell them liability insurance is there?

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#419

Post by kristofferR »

rsaxvc wrote: post #232
lb1lf wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the sub was designed like a few other deep-sea craft I've looked at, they'd have positive buoyancy and weights to overcome this; the idea being that having to blow ballast tanks at 400 bar pressure differential is rather inconvenient and failure prone. Instead, the weights (attached with electromagnets) are simply jettisoned when it is time to recover to the surface and off you go. The upside to such a simple syst…

Yes, that sounds a lot better. From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/19/he... "Pogue also shows the vessel uses construction pipes as ballast." I'm having trouble finding the interview video, but dropping ballast involves the crew and passengers rocking the vessel to drop the pipes off the side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29co_Hksk6o

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#420

Post by sokoloff »

Balgair wrote: post #399
sokoloff wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah geez, my bad. I was crossing this with the sub thread on the relative risks of K2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36395397

Ok, now I'm curious. How do you read and comment? I'm a one-thread-at-a-time kinda person. I read, I comment on things if I want to, then I move on to other threads.

I more or less do that as well, but after each comment, I’m dropped back on the thread that I’m still halfway through. Depending on how I scroll and how the comments are re-ordered (as they’re voted on), I’m subject to crossing sub-threads, especially on mobile and when I’m partly killing time. In this case, I was in an Uber and then an airport so a little more prone to start-stop even within the one article.

That’s an explanation and not really an excuse. This one was sloppy, as I guess they all would be.

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