Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[timferius]

Ok I have to freeken ask this.

If EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, knew that the lack of lifeboats on ships was a huge issue...

Why wasn't this changed far before the Titanic?

This whole "It will never sink and thus Lifeboats are not an issue" seems to not have been the prevailing theory now that I have dived deeper...

I saw the Titanic Movie and I originally thought it was weird for Rose to even mention "How odd, why aren't there enough Lifeboats?" It felt like forced dialog to give the characters "Super Progressive Precognition Powers" (Something I loathe in period pieces) but it seems like it was a constant hanging issue.

And REALLY the whole "cost shaving" thing is a dubious explanation in my head since frankly... how much extra cost could lifeboats add?

---

On a side note: I REALLY dislike "Super Progressive Precognition Powers"

To translate what that is: It is when a character in a piece of fiction is unusually progressive or has knowledge of the future in advance.

So a character might avoid smoking in a time period where it was considered healthy because it is "unhealthy".

Not just cost savings, but SPACE savings, these aren't inflatable rafts we're talking about, they take up a fair amount of space and look rather ugly to boot. Besides, if you have enough life boats for the richer passengers, what's your problem? We STILL have a pretty poor outlook on any classes lower than us in society, back in the 1910s I wouldn't be surprised if most people considered little rat lifeboats, before considering that the low class passengers might need lifeboats.

[Neonivek]

Neo, you forget, they (ie the designers) had confidence it wouldn't sink and people that could fund something like that are ALL about cost-saving.

It really wasn't unique to the Titanic it was in fact standard even on ships that weren't "unsinkable".

Also thanks timferius, that does make sense. The Lifeboats were for the rich patrons

[Frumple]

... well, in modern times...

What is the cost of a Lifeboat?

​A ‘D’ class inshore lifeboat costs £39,000, a ‘B’ class Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat costs £180,000 and a Tamar class all-weather lifeboat cost is £2.7M.

Looking into it a bit more, though, it would only have cost the titanic folks about 16k (compared to a 7.5m pricetag on the whole thing) more to outfit the ship with sufficient boats.

The actual reason seems to have been outdated safety regulations and a company that, *desultory gasp of shock and awe*, couldn't be arsed to put their brain on without the government beating them with a stick, and so only had enough lifeboats for a vessel a fraction of its size. To be fair, it was an incredibly common practice at the time. There was absolutely nothing unusual about the titantic doing it, and the best practice folks for upsized vessels at the time only had ~82% passenger coverage.

[Neonivek]

The second, from what I read is that even if it did have a full compliment of lifeboats. In an emergency where they would be necessary it could have never launched them all in time.

Which was actually true. While extra life boats would have diminished the casualties, it wouldn't have been a significant one.

It is why ships tried to make themselves "Unsinkable"

While Modern ships are made to have EXTREMELY prolonged sinking, enough that everyone could get into a lifeboat/raft in time. Rather then trying to be exceptionally sturdy.

A lot like "Instead of making all Cars tanks, we should make them collapsible"

[Bohandas]

Goddammit Neo. I planted that derail to prevent this discussion from happening!

*shrugs*

I guess what I mean is, don't take it so seriously and we should just move on.

---

So I beat Broken Sword 5

And I think it wins the record of game with the LONGEST CREDIT SEQUENCE EVER!

No really, it is over 30 minutes long and is unskippable!

Well at least its at the end of the game.

Have you ever played Skyrim? It's got 30 minutes of unskippable bs at the -beginning- of the game.

[Rolan7]

Don't be silly. It's the muscles that control everything, pulling the strings from within. The skeletons are just puppets. WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!

Oh and you really believe that do you? Tell me, when energy is running low is the skeleton forced to give up some of its mass for the good of the body? No of course not, that duty falls to the muscles long before the skeleton even has to think about it. You could say that the skeleton is just there for the convenience of the muscles, but it could just as easily be the other way around! And have you noticed how they're called the "skeletal" muscles?
It's no coincidence.

It's all a plot to enslave the mitochondria!  Skeletons and muscles and nerves, even cells themselves are just PARASITES!  Living off the true energy producers.

But one day, mark my words, the mitochondria will develop magic powers and group instinct and then you'll all be sorry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_Eve_%28video_game%29

[pisskop]

I will ask my mitochondria to pay its backrent should it try to liquefy me for some fiendish purpose.
  You think living space is free?  Protection cheap?

[Frumple]

Mitochondria, pah. Weak nuclear force will one day have its vengeance!

[scrdest]

Don't be silly. It's the muscles that control everything, pulling the strings from within. The skeletons are just puppets. WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!

Oh and you really believe that do you? Tell me, when energy is running low is the skeleton forced to give up some of its mass for the good of the body? No of course not, that duty falls to the muscles long before the skeleton even has to think about it. You could say that the skeleton is just there for the convenience of the muscles, but it could just as easily be the other way around! And have you noticed how they're called the "skeletal" muscles?
It's no coincidence.

It's all a plot to enslave the mitochondria!  Skeletons and muscles and nerves, even cells themselves are just PARASITES!  Living off the true energy producers.

But one day, mark my words, the mitochondria will develop magic powers and group instinct and then you'll all be sorry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_Eve_%28video_game%29

Jesus, the biology in that game was on par with history in a Dan Brown book *groan*.

[BlackFlyme]

Why was the DM asking me when the next game is? Should either be asking themselves or our host.

Also, my phone doesn't seem to want to receive calls. It keeps going straight to voice-mail on people most of the time.

[miauw62]

http://a.pomf.se/eyrqmg.swf

[timferius]

Why was the DM asking me when the next game is? Should either be asking themselves or our host.

Also, my phone doesn't seem to want to receive calls. It keeps going straight to voice-mail on people most of the time.

Are you wearing lead pants?

And Miauw, that is the sketchiest looking link I've ever seen, have you been taken over by kitchen bots?

[scrdest]

http://a.pomf.se/eyrqmg.swf

What the fuck did I just watch...?

[Sirus]

http://a.pomf.se/eyrqmg.swf

What the fuck did I just watch...?

[Iceblaster]

http://a.pomf.se/eyrqmg.swf

What the fuck did I just watch...?