this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

i'm just glad this whole thing is over. what a sick world we live in where five billionaires in a submarine sparks wall to wall coverage and five hundred migrants lost at sea gets barely a passing mention

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In my country, they started the newscast 2h earlier than usual just to say "Debris were found; may be unrelated". I think they initially went live earlier because the conference was meant to happen earlier and they couldn't wait to show it; it had to be live. Then, when it got postponed, they spent 2h just talking about it with commentators and different specialists; all just theorizing what could have happened, and whether there might still be a chance for rescue or not.

But refugees you barely hear about.

I get this story has some more "thrill" and novelty to it, being a submarine near the titanic and all, but this really is ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The more prosaic explanation -- bordering on "banality of evil," but still -- is that a story about a rickety overloaded fishing boat full of desperate war refugees sinking in the Mediterranean has become a fairly common occurrence in the years since the Arab Spring turned into a decade of civil wars, but whiz-bang private subs going missing while diving on the most famous shipwreck of all time is unusual. Horses vs. zebras and all that.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I think it's more how uncommon the situation is, the complexity and odds of the rescue, and the 'ticking clock' effect that came from them only having 96 hours of oxygen. Stories need to be interesting to get mass media coverage (look at the Tham Luang cave rescue - none of them were billionares), and, as incredibly bleak as this sentence sounds, a boat capsizing with hundreds onboard just isn't interesting enough.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Yea it's totally not that every major news outlet is owned by and serves the interests of the rich.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Definitely shows where the media's priorities lie, ie the wealthy lamenting the loss of their own

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

4 billionaires and one guys 19 year old kid.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago

I find it incredibly sad that the teen, Sulemon Dawood, only agreed to go on the trip to appease his father. Left on his own, the teen was not interested in going. And although I’m saddened to hear all five perished, the four older adults made their own independent decisions to take the risk. I feel an extra sense of sadness for the teen though who was influenced by his father into going.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/shahzada-suleman-dawood-titanic-sub-imploded-b2362670.html

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Better that than them surviving all that time slowly dying on the seabed.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

If it were me or one of my loved ones, aside from rescue, this may be the best outcome.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It sucks that 4 other people were killed by the CEOs own hubris. But at least they don't appear to have suffocated to death. At that depth, it would have been instantaneous.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Yeah, that was my concern when we got reports of regular banging noises.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I ought to concede I have plenty of disappointment around this. I feel like there were well established means to do this kind of thing safely, and I think because Seagate failed to meet that, five lives were needlessly lost. I wouldn't be surprised if this story lives on for a while as a sort of fable in hubris. That's not even getting to, say, the sense of injustice invoked in comparing how this was handled to the recent shipwreck in the Mediterranean. I think all of those thoughts distill down to the Eat The Rich flavored fan faire, and I think there's already plenty of that here.

Still, the Rich and Foolish nature of this trip all said, I find it commendable that the likes of the US Coast Guard, the Navy, and international groups came together and put up a sizeable and respectable search and rescue effort. I think it would've been well in their right (and in fact realistic) for them to wave it off and say something like "they made the wine, they drink the cup." But they didn't. I can respect that the collective weight of the wallets on board likely played a big part in it to say the least, but I'd also wager that it also takes a mighty large amount of forgiveness in people being foolish to go through that kind of effort to try and save them. Similar can probably be said for rescue missions helping out others in equally foolish incidents.

There's a lot directly and indirectly connected to this disaster that doesn't reflect well on the bulk of society, but the effort to try and help others even if they don't necessarily deserve it? I'll admit it feels naive to say, but I'd rather live in that kind of society than one that errs toward extending a callous hand. I hope we'll hear more often about us extending a hand to those who indeed deserve it, like those in the Mediterranean, but I'm also in the camp of continuing to extend that kind of forgiveness to The Foolish we'll continue to stumble upon. I hope to have the will to do that, at least.

We're all going to be foolish from time to time in life, and I sure know I'd sincerely appreciate a kind hand when it's my turn.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We're all going to be foolish from time to time in life, and I sure know I'd sincerely appreciate a kind hand when it's my turn.

It depends on your net worth. I see Americans wish death on homeless people for lowering property values and insisting they did it to themselves. I see Americans telling student loan debtors who committed the crime of buying the lie and improving themselves being laughed at for their struggles.

Meanwhile a wealthy person can go to a fancy rehab for years of acting like a belligerent, intoxicated asshole, be called brave for it, and have their job with massive salary waiting for them after it all.

Second chances (and third, and fourth...) are for capital holders. Poor people half to walk a tightrope from birth and be both lucky and perfect to improve their station, with plenty of people ready to scold them for trying the moment they fall.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I do feel awful for their families. But I feel more awful for the refugees in the Mediterranean.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The CEO's wife lost her parents to Titanic and now also her husband.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Her parents? Wouldn't that make her more than 110 years old..?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It was her great great grandparents

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna90336

good thing we put so much effort into saving a billionaire with a deathwish while we let all these poor people die. Good thing so many peasants were more interested in a billionaire's life than our brothers and sisters the billionaires oppress and exploit out of proud, insatiable, sociopathic greed.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (15 children)

The more I have read about this, the more disgusted I am. This company generally, and the CEO personally, took all sorts of shortcuts to build this thing.

The CEO stated that he didn't want to have any ex military submarine experts as part of the team, because they were "uninspiring" and "50 year old white guys", and he'd rather have young college grads who are inspiring. The real reason: the college grads were simply cheaper. He didn't want to pay the ex military experts. That's it.

The CEO lied to CBS news in their CBS Sunday morning report and told them that Boeing and University of Washington consulted with them on the design of the submersible. Both organizations told the NY Post today that they had no involvement with it. So that was a fucking lie. All he did was use the UW lab after hours.

The use of a Logitech PS3 style controller to navigate the vehicle...what the actual fuck.

Because this was a submersible in international waters, there are virtually no regulations. That needs to change. If the UN needs to draft a treaty for countries to ratify to regulate these things in international waters, then that's what needs to happen.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I don’t see the issue in using a controller, the US Navy does the same

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/18/17136808/us-navy-uss-colorado-xbox-controller

I do think it’s ironic that they used a Logitech controller instead of an Xbox controller, but the reasoning is probably similar to the US Navy’s

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don’t see the issue in using a controller, the US Navy does the same

I do. I've been an avid PC Gamer my entire adult life and I've never had a Logitech product that wasn't terribly glitchy. When I heard that bit it made me feel like Moss in The IT Crowd.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Using a controller is fine, but I'm sure they are hardwired. There is a Today show interview where the CEO specifically said they use them over bluetooth.

Absolutely all shit made up in my brain from my hatred of bluetooth. I could definitely see the controller dying because they forgot to charge it, tried to connect the spare but bluetooth being bluetooth wouldn't. Then they drift into the Titantic, get a puncture and implode.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Vivid imagery befitting the general reliability of Bluetooth (witness me covering one of my EarPods to get the other one to connect up and sync with my phone at least once a day) but putting all the pieces together, my best guess is that the pressure vessel split at one of the seams between the cylindrical carbon fiber center section due to fatigue at the joint, well above their target depth. There's a reason why every other DSV designed to reach those depths uses a single-piece spherical pressure vessel.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

The big difference I see is what it's controlling. Sure, the Navy used Xbox controllers for intuitive use of the periscope. I bet if you asked them "please make all ship attitude controls, and therefore crew safety, reliant on this," they would laugh at you and walk away.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

I'm so glad this story is done now. Rich people dying paying huge money for dumb things makes me 😴😴.

Literally couldn't care less...

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

With all the red flags I've seen in the 4 days of them looking for it, I cannot understand how anyone spending that kind of money on this didn't see enough to back the fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i'm sorry but the cables on the OUTSIDE of the sub? hell even just LOOKING at the damn thing. And once I saw the controller I'd be out so quick.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

For those wondering about James Cameron's comments, I'd thoroughly recommend watching the Deep Sea Challenger documentary. It is enthralling. I have a friend who actually worked on the sub and went on the expedition with Cameron. In his words: "to underestimate the safety requirements is, put simply, to die."

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

This is incredibly sad but at least it was a quick death.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel sorry for thecreww members who were just there to drive the thing, but the rich I could care less and I'm pretty hungry

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

A sudden implosion is the best-case scenario, given how else it could have gone.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Better that than suffocating to death slowly on the bottom of the ocean. Sympathy for their families.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

"catastrophic loss of pressure"?

Wouldn't it be a catastrophic increase of pressure? They were at the bottom of the ocean.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (6 children)

No, it's catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber, the thing that keeps the squishy humans inside separate from the tons-per-square-inch of water outside.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Nice going with the breaking report. At least they went painlessly.

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