#or would this be 'too on the nose'?

[moonwoodhollow]

Busy day ahead at Green Hill at Bagley Barns before | next

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[secretmellowblog]

On the subject of the Titanic ‘submersible’ that was lost in the deep with all its wealthy tourists— it’s so insane/eerie in hindsight to read this article from the Smithsonian that interviews the CEO Stockton Rush long before the disaster.

Despite the Smithsonian supposedly being an organization that cares about science and truth, and the fact that there were SO MANY obvious red flags from the beginning and so many people criticizing the company…..the article is a puff piece uncritically glorifying the CEO’s obviously terrible submersible project. It compares him in glowing terms to Elon Musk. It is an article about how private ventures like those of Stockton Rush and Elon Musk can and should be the future of the world.

We’ve obviously learned now that there were whistleblowers at the company who were warning for a long time that Stockton Rush’s submersible was unsafe— only to be fired and then sued. It makes sense the submersible was so unsafe, because the CEO in this interview is open about how he has no background in underwater engineering and is annoyed by quote “regulations that needlessly prioritize passenger safety.”

Soon after, the private [submersible] market died too, Rush found, for two reasons that were “understandable but illogical.” First, subs gained a reputation for danger. Working on offshore rigs in harsh locations like the North Sea, saturation divers, who breathe gas mixtures to avoid diving sicknesses, would be taken in subs to work at great depths. It was the world’s most perilous job, with frequent fatalities. (“It wasn’t the sub’s fault,” says Rush.) To save lives, the industries moved toward using underwater robots to perform the same work.

Second, tourist subs, which could once be skippered by anyone with a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license, were regulated by the Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993, which imposed rigorous new manufacturing and inspection requirements and prohibited dives below 150 feet. The law was well-meaning, Rush says, but he believes it needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation (a position a less adventurous submariner might find open to debate). “There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years. It’s obscenely safe, because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown—because they have all these regulations.”

The fact that Stockton Rush (who was piloting the submarine when the disaster happened) is on record complaining about the evils of regulations that prioritize people’s safety, and the Smithsonian uncritically regurgitated that rhetoric in their glowing puff piece about how rich tycoons like Elon Musk and Stockton Rush are going to save the world is just…..in hindsight of how everything ended it’s just so much horrible black comedy? It’s like a satire about the dangers of uncritically worshipping the rich.

It is mentioned in the article that Rush chose to make his submersible in a different shape, and with a different (cheaper) material than is usually used for submersibles. The article frames this as a result of daring innovation, and not of negligence/ignorance. This passage in particular, which in context is supposed to portray Rush’s critics as joyless naysayers who were proven wrong by the noble tycoon, is pretty foreboding in hindsight:

Rush planned to pilot the sub himself, which critics said was an unnecessary risk: Under pressure, the experimental carbon fiber hull might, in the jargon of the sub world, “collapse catastrophically.”

And then!!

The exact problem that happened to Titan this weekend, happened on Titan’s very first test voyage to the Titanic! The experimental carbon fiber hull had an issue and it caused communications to break down!

The dive was going according to plan until about 10,000 feet, when the descent unexpectedly halted, possibly, Rush says, because the density of the salt water added extra buoyancy to the carbon fiber hull. He now used thrusters to drive Titan deeper, which interfered with the communications system, and he lost contact with the support crew. He recalls the next hour in hallucinogenic terms. “It was like being on the Starship Enterprise,” he says. “There were these particles going by, like stars. Every so often a jellyfish would go whipping by. It was the childhood dream.”

Both Rush and the article writer treat this as a fun quirky story, instead of a serious safety failure and red flag with his experimental macgyvered regulation-flaunting submersible.

Other highlights from the article include:

Stockton rush saying that if 3/4 of the planet is water, why haven’t we monetized it?

Stockton saying we will “colonize the ocean long before we colonize space”

Lots of weird pro colonialism stuff in general??? This article loves colonialism and thinks it’s cool

Rush saying he plans for this to eventually help find more underwater resources for the US to exploit and profit from

Elon musk comparisons. The article writer does not mention that Elon Musk’s rockets explode and therefore it would be a bad idea to get in one of them, because that would imply it’s a bad idea to get into the submersible

Stockton rush seeing himself as Captain Kirk

The article writer comparing the tourists who plan to join Rush to Englishmen who went on colonialist journeys to Africa as if that’s like, a good thing. So much pro colonialism stuff in this article

So many sentences about Stockton Rush being handsome when he literally just looks like some guy

The article beginning with an editor’s note from years later disclaiming that the extraordinary submersible they’re advertising in this article is uh. It’s now uhhhh

But yeah it really does just bring home how so many organizations that supposedly care about scientific truth or journalistic integrity are willing to uncritically platform propaganda for wealthy CEOS. It’s frustrating how easily people fall for the fake myths that careless wealthy people invent for themselves, and even more frustrating that supposedly respectable institutions will platform irresponsible lies that end up getting people killed.

Rush is such an obvious and simple example of this, and his negligence is “only” killing five people including himself. But to me it feels like a cautionary tale to bear in mind when it comes to uncritical puff piece media coverage of similar “daring tycoon innovations” by people like Bezos or Musk.

[zhongrin]

i feel like zhongli would be the type to be absolutely and utterly horrified when he knows you've skipped a meal.

he understands that your job make you busy and sometimes it's best to not break your focus from the task you're currently doing. and he understands that most of the time, when you miss your mealtime, there are lots of factors that makes it hard to leave your post just to shove some nutrients into your stomach.

still, he thinks you being in a hungry state for an extended period of time is a crime. it's simply unacceptable.

so he tries hard to always make sure you always have a snack with you. maybe a thermos full of tea to go with it too. and of course he'd also try to get you to eat a whole meal.

if you work from home, be prepared to be hounded by a worried husband who would literally spoon-feed you your lunch while you're working. if you're really not in the situation which would allow you to eat, rest assured that he'll go as far as putting milk into your tea or get a boba delivered right onto your shared abode's doorstep. if push comes to shove, he'd walk in with a tray of food while you're on an internal video call and gently reminds everyone in the room that you're going to eat lunch first and that's final.

if you work from the office, sure, it would be harder for him to dote on you. but he's not above subtly messaging you to indirectly ask/remind you to eat. expect pictures of the lunch he's having along with messages like "i had a nice lunch. what did you have for lunch, my love? may i see it?" and if, god forbid, you continue with the habit of eating lunch late, don't be surprised if he pops into your office and smiles warmly at the receptionist as he declares that he's there to pick you up for lunch.

all in all, 10/10 husband who feeds you as an act of love.

[st-hedge]

Finally had the time to draw phantom Ganon and dark link how I’d imagined them to be in totk before I played the game (no dink sadly lol)

[cemeterything]

a fun fact about me is that i'm genuinely incapable of crying or throwing up unless my bodily functions are overridden by an extreme loss of control which has pretty dire implications for my psychological state but does unfortunately fuck severely symbolically. don't worry i'm getting help.

[sweeterthansucrose]

Gay people can't flirt properly. It's always something like:

'Punch me in the face.'

'Punch you?'

'Yes, punch me, in the face, didn't you hear me?'

[filibusterfrog]

[falmerbrook]

Some old Morrowind character design stuff I was doing before my hands started acting up and nuked my ability to do nice line art. I might redo these (but just headshots) now that I have a more clear picture of these characters in my head since I don't vibe with all the choices I made in these anymore. Not my best art but there's enough ok stuff in these to warrant posting I think.

(the Vivec one is here btw)

[fromtheseventhhell]

The "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles" to "Lady of Winterfell and helping to rebuild the North after the Long Night" pipeline is real

[non-un-topo]

Thinking about Yusuf and Nicolò as young men again

[clownsuu]

So, I noticed Emo Robbie has a little wiggling tail…. So the original Robbie has such a cute little, just a lovely tail. it's so sweet to know <3

sadly only emo has a lil tail, but Robbie with a tail is cute regardless!

[pumpkinnkidd]

i want it to be my legacy that i catify all the characters i love

[gingermaple]

design concepts for the watcher etho au!

[lotuso3o]

i need a vampire in a way that is concerning to my asexuality

[unluckyhorseshoecrab]

NEVER MEANS FOREVER IN THE LAST SONG THEY RECORDED BEFORE THE HIATUS