When I watch a ship sink

I've been watching this video in half hour segments over the course of this week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs9w5bgtJC8^[1] . It is a real-time simulation of the sinking of the Titanic. To me it is sort of fascinating because of the historical detail, but also because it gives you a sense of the time scale of the event. Much better than to me than the '97 film, but then I am probably in the minority. I have always been fascinated by the characters involved, not so much Captain Smith, or the “unsinkable” Molly Brown, though they do offer an interesting historical footnote. I am most interested in those who discovered and explored the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, and similar such discoveries, such as the Bismark. I have always thought that if I hadn't been a computer programmer, I would love to be an underwater archaeologist. That is, if I weren't terrified of being underwater at any by the most trivial depths.

The personalities involved are interesting! Ballard, who originally discovered the wreck, believes that nobody else should explore it. He considers Titanic to be a grave and believes that there may be hundreds of undiscovered bodies within the wreck. Ballard is also a spy! Cameron on the other hand, loves to tinker and is pretty sure that there aren't any human remains remaining. Given that so far none have been discovered he may be right. Then there are the capitalists dragging up every memento they can find to make a profit.

Women and children first! In some cases crew forced male passengers out of lifeboats at gun point, despite the fact that most of the life boats left Titanic less than half full. It seems churlish to deny passengers a chance at life in such a situation, but these were the norms at the time. But then, the preparation and execution of the evacuation was clearly an example of gross negligence. When I watched the '97 film in theaters with Ronin, she told me that she'd die to save me. An curious sentiment, though I doubt it means much given her casual relationship with the truth and her callous disregard for my feelings. Men on the Titanic might not like their odds, but women in third class did not fare any better.

In other historical stuff, I hear they are putting Tubman on the $20 bill... eventually. I (badly) wrote an alternate history short story in the 2000s where Tubman was on the $1 note. All these things that I never expected to happen in my lifetime. Maybe some of the things that I still think will never happen might. All while I am learning to dance, equally improbable, as my wife and I went to the studio yesterday to practice.

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1. don't click on it expecting something exciting, I am just weird