On 3 August 1991, the Oceanos set out from East London, South Africa, headed to Durban. It headed into 40-knot winds and 9 m (30 ft) swells.
While off the Wild Coast of the Transkei, a muffled explosion was heard and the Oceanos lost her power following a leak in the engine room's sea chest, a scoop-like device which brings in system cooling water. The ship's engineer reported to Captain Yiannis Avranas that water was entering the hull and flooding the generator room. The generators were shut down because the rising water would have shorted them. The supply of power to auxiliary equipment which ran the engines had been severed, so the ship was left floating adrift.
The water steadily rose, flowing through the 10 cm (3.9 in) hole in the bulkhead and into the waste disposal tank. Without valves to close on the holding tank, the water coursed through the main drainage pipes and rose like a tide within the ship, spilling out of every shower, toilet, and waste disposal unit connected to the system.
Realizing the fate of the ship, the crew fled in panic, neglecting to close the lower deck portholes, which is standard policy during emergency procedures. No alarm was raised. Passengers remained ignorant of the events taking place until they themselves witnessed the first signs of flooding in the lower decks. At this stage, eyewitness accounts reveal that many of the crew, including Captain Avranas, were already packed and ready to depart, seemingly unconcerned with the safety of the passengers...Wikipedia
...All 571 people onboard were saved, following one of the world’s most dramatic and successful rescue operations of its kind. Entertainers Julian Butler and Moss Hills recorded their efforts to assist the passengers with a home video recorder. Butler, Hills and Hills' wife Tracy were among the last five to be rescued from the ship just before it sank...
...Captain Yiannis Avranas was accused by the passengers of leaving hundreds behind with no one other than the ship's onboard entertainers to help them evacuate. Avranas claimed that he left the ship first in order to arrange for a rescue effort, and then supervised the rescue effort from a helicopter. Avranas stated, "When I give the order abandon ship, it doesn't matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people want to stay, they can stay."
The year after the sinking, Avranas and several members of his senior crew were found guilty of negligence by the Greek Maritime Board.
mat used to tell US that once this technology was proven, why we could replace 300 million vehicles in ... well, he never did provide a timeline.
ReplyDeleteYOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co took the wraps off its much-awaited electric car on Sunday, naming the hatchback "Leaf" and taking a step toward its goal of leading the industry in the zero-emissions field.
Japan's No.3 automaker and its French partner, Renault SA, have been the most aggressive proponents of pure electric vehicles in the auto industry, announcing plans to mass-market the clean but expensive cars globally in 2012.
The kicker, to the story, the bottomline that proves the point, that electric cars will take decades to even have major market penetration.
... Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn drove up to a stage in a sky-blue Leaf prototype, carrying former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and two other guests to greet a throng of journalists who made the trip from all over the world.
...
"We are seeing electric cars not as a niche car but as a mass-market car," he told reporters after the inauguration.
"The big problem is going to be (production) capacity."
On this, almost everyone will agree.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Avranas, no grit.
Coming home
ReplyDelete200 hp more on E-85, Rufus!
ReplyDeleteThat link, doug, led me to the days of futures past.
ReplyDeleteAny excuse for a party.
Yikes! Garofalo at Big Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteMust be the hormones talking
As we're often told, they won. Still, having a Treasury Secretary like this is a bitter pill to swallow.
ReplyDelete"Or do they want this country . . . to go another several decades without doing what every other serious country has done. Which is to give their citizens access to basic quality of care," Geithner said.
More
It's too bad that Treasury Secretary is a political position but that's the system we have.
He says that we must reduce deficits in order to have economic recovery.
Hold on to your wallets. The other side will tax you out of house and home.
Tere's really only one side, in DC, whit.
ReplyDeleteMr Lieberman will attest to that, as can Mr Specter.
Mr Grassley, Senator Lesley Graham and "Maverick" McCain, bi-partisans, all..
A man in the US accused of killing his 11-year-old diabetic daughter by praying instead of seeking medical care has been found guilty of second-degree reckless homicide.
ReplyDeleteDale Neumann, 47, was convicted over the death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes.
Prosecutors contended he should have rushed the girl to a hospital because she couldn't walk, talk, eat or drink. Instead, Madeline died on the floor of the family's rural home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called an ambulance when she stopped breathing.
Sitting straight in his chair in the near-empty courtroom yesterday, Neumann stared at the jury as the verdict was read. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse.
Defence attorney Jay Kronenwetter said the verdict would be appealed. He would not comment further.
Prosecutors also refused to comment, citing a gag order.
Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified on Thursday that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.
"If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," Neumann testified. "I am not believing what he said he would do."
The whirled is "chock full of nuts."
ReplyDeleteHis testimony about his faith was said to be very emotionally moving, Deuce.
ReplyDeleteMight that not negate the picture of a bunch of morons watching a young girl dying before them?
Country’s New Face: It’s Young and Blond
ReplyDeleteYou think roses, are a waste of time
ReplyDeleteCause in three days, they'll just wilt up and die
We want em anyway
Yeah
It's a girl thing
You think we're pretty, at the break of dawn
When we wake up without make up on
We turn the other way
Hey
It's a girl thing
Chorus:
We love romance,and candle lights
You like a cold beer, we like a fine wine
You hardly talk, we can talk all night
You wanna fix it, and we just wanna cry
It's a girl thing
It's a girl thing
We're impulsive, but you think it's cute
Cause the last thing we need is a new pair of shoes
We got a closet full
Yeah
It's a girl thing
We say be honest, does my butt look fat
You say the same thing no matter how much we ask
Cause you ain't no fool
Yeah you know
It's a girl thing
Chorus:
We love romance,and candle lights
You like a cold beer, we like a fine wine
You hardly talk, we can talk all night
You wanna fix it, and we just wanna cry
You wanna go dancin', we think it's kinda sweet
When you step on her toes with your two left feet
Turn the radio up when our song comes on
We just can't help but sing along
It's a girl thing
It's a girl thing
Yeah
We love weddings,and diamond rings
You want a girlfriend, but you don't want strings
We want a four course meal, you want Hooters wings
A football game on the plasma screen
Chorus:
We love romance,and candle lights
You like a cold beer, we like a fine wine
You hardly talk, we can talk all night
You wanna fix it, and we just wanna cry
It's a girl thing (Yeah yeah)
It's a girl thing (Yeah yeah)
Boys it's a girl thing (Yeah Yeah)
It's a girl thing (Yeah yeah)
time to let me go
ReplyDeleteWhere's the EB Cycling Team?
ReplyDelete- Wild At Heart -
"You wanna fix it, and we just wanna cry"
ReplyDeleteLet me give you the executive summary of countless conversations during the first ten years of our marriage:
Trish: This went wrong, this other thing is going wrong, and there are five more things on the horizon with enormous potential to go wrong.
Trish's husband: Prioritizes the perceived FUBARs and comes up with a general plan of attack for each one.
Trish: Continues to wallow in a little pool of woe-is-me.
Trish's husband: Fetches box of tissues and continues to strategize in a fruitless attempt to help relieve her misery.
Trish: Points out for the umpteenth time that she does NOT want advice on how to fix the source of any complaint, but merely to complain and to receive sympathy for her plight, whatever it may be.
Trish's husband: Soldiers on in a state of bafflement, looking eagerly forward to whatever hot mess tomorrow's day at work holds, because it will be invariably easier to deal with.
By the time his daughter entered adolescence, the "girl thing" became much, much clearer to Trish's husband.
Venuvians
ReplyDeleteGuy grew up with three brothers and no sisters. Poor soul never got an early heads-up on Venuvian culture and custom.
ReplyDeleteRe: the girl thing
ReplyDeletePoor Adam didn't stand a chance.
Adam said, "Psst...G-d, just between us guys...What do you do when Mrs. G-d gets a headache? Like I said, 'just between us'...no need for the whole neighborhood to know...Right?"
ReplyDeleteAnd G-d said
Meanwhile, things are getting pretty sour between between Colombia and its neighbor. Pretty, pretty sour.
ReplyDeleteSome more folks waiting to be recalled. Or sent packing. Depending on who gives the order.
And Stockholm still waiting impatiently to hear back from Caracas.
"Fell of the back of the truck," or "Planted by the evil imperialist." Take yer pick.
Geithner was on This Week with Geo Stephanopoulis discussing the recovery. Geo mentioned that despite the increased housing sales and appreciation, consumers aren't spending. He said that we need to get consumers spending again.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that rich? For years we have been chastised about our "materialist, consumer economy". Now that the left is at the helm, they need the American people to buy, buy, buy!
LMAO.
Yeah, Whit, now that THEY own Citibank, they, suddenly, realize that we "really, really" need to partake of some more of that 30% Credit Card Debt.
ReplyDeleteAnd, some more of them "Suicide Loans."
The U.S. isn't populated, entirely, by Rocket Scientists, but most of us can feel that "chill wind" blowing. We know that when things get really "iffy" it's the money that WE have in the bank that's going to carry us through. Not, the Bazillion Dollars some executive at JP Morgan is taking home (and, then sending to the Caymans.
Hope you enjoyed your time out on the coast, allen. (Grrrrr.)
ReplyDeleteHave to go tooling around town for a couple of hours. Hope no asshole yanks out a sideview mirror at an intersection. One of the most bizarre rackets on the face of the earth.
trish,
ReplyDeleteSincerity is a virtue, even when feigned ;-)
Yes, I did enjoy the coast.
Can any one pick out the supply clerk?
ReplyDeleteCould it be the one with the new boots?
ReplyDeletelinearthinker said...
ReplyDeleteCan any one pick out the supply clerk?
Pallbearer. Rear, right side?
Can any one pick out the supply clerk?
ReplyDeleteSun Aug 02, 04:50:00 PM EDT
Nope.
Charlie Rangel was on FoxNews Sunday. His mouth was moving so what does that tell you about his veracity? He claims to be ready to work with Republicans but insists that the alternate to private insurance is a Obamacare's Public Plan.
ReplyDeleteHe also threw out the 50 million uninsured business but that went unchallenged.
Not a word was mentioned about Torte Reform or the fact that we subsidize the pharmaceuticals for other countries with Socialized medicine.
I would love to know how much it costs the American consumer because foreign countries refuse to pay a share for drug development.
ReplyDeleteIf the Dems were serious about providing health insurance to everyone, they could easily modify the rules and fund Health Savings Accounts.
ReplyDeleteBarney Frank's admission that Obamacare is the quickest way to a single payer plan is confirmation that this is an effort to institute socialized medicine in the United States.
It's an embarrassment to Progressives that the US is the only civilized country without National Health Care.
You bet, whit, there are any number of alternative options, other than "public pays".
ReplyDeleteBut when the Republican half of our binary governmental system had the helm, they stayed the course. They did not take the initiative, sieze the day, or even dare to win.
Knowing full well that when they lost control of the Government, their peers across the aisle would take the initiative, sieze the day and know in their heart of hearts, that who dares wins.
The Pubs holding the line, until the center collapsed. Arlen Specter, he well represented the center of society. Look where he's hold up, now.
And the fellow to take him on, another life time career long government man. A retired Admiral.
Quite the somber image, lineman.
ReplyDeleteAnyway we can tell which of those in uniform were truly deserving of Imminent Danger Pay?
Seems that before he died, a well decorated veteran, Col David Hackworth was telling US the reality of the lifers' IDP scam.
... he gave me the hot skinny that his organization has been studying what's really going down with Imminent Danger Pay (IDP) in order to inform the American public and the U.S. Congress and hopefully cause change. "Combat pay is a misnomer. Today there's no such thing as combat pay if you're talking about extra pay that goes to those who actually trade rounds with the bad guys. Military personnel who serve in cushy posts hundreds of miles from Afghanistan and Iraq earn the same amount as those who kick in doors in Fallujah or drive fuel trucks through RPG Alley and IED Boulevard between Mosul and Baghdad."
So I made a few phone calls. And sure enough, the guys living the good life in places like Kuwait and Qatar - for example that bronzed, handsome lifeguard saving lives at the base pool - get the same $7.50 a day as our heroes facing the bear on the mean streets of Iraq and in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan.
...
Another loophole creates an even more gross inequity: senior officers - read generals and colonels - regularly fly into Afghanistan and Iraq on monthly 48-hour useless VIP visits in order to both collect their combat pay for the entire month and rack up tax breaks that can run almost seven grand a month. Not bad double-headers for Perfumed Princes who can barely tell a foxhole from a bidet.
Colonel Hackworth made a further observation, about monies being well and deservedly spent.
ReplyDelete"The problem of our paying an equitable combat pay is the Pentagon's bottom line," says DefenseWatch Editor Ed Offley (SFTT.org). "Two years ago the ink hadn't dried on the last Imminent Danger Pay increase when the Pentagon bean-counters were hustling to cut it."
So instead of an additonal $28,000 or so to paid on demand for every one of our 1.5 million folks in uniform, we should reward those that are actually in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and not just shooting hoops at the Rec Center at Camp Anaconda.
The base is so large and has so many occupants that it has its own 16-page, weekly newspaper, the Expeditionary Times (Anaconda Times before the base name change), which serves residents of the base, as well as all logistical servicemembers in Iraq and their families at home. The newspaper is staffed solely by Army journalists, usually the sustainment command's public affairs detachment, as well as a print team from a mobile public affairs detachment. Camp Anaconda has also been more colloquially-termed "Life Support Area Anaconda"
...
In fact, life is more than tolerable, in Balad, Iraq.
We do have 2 gyms with a third one opening up.
There is also a movie theater, which shows all the current movies.
Also we have a Burger King, Pizza Hut and Subway. They don’t taste like home but it’s not half bad.
Oh, I forgot we do have two swimming pools; one is Olympic size if your son likes to swim.
There is also MWR’s that provide some sort of entertainment. Such as game rooms (play station), a few pool tables, big screen TVs to watch movies. Computers with internet access.
...
No don’t get me wrong, it’s not all that bad. I have been here a year already and I am planning on doing at least one more year. So living here is tolerable.
Let’s see things you might want your son to bring. I would defiantly bring plenty of sun glasses. They easily get scratched from the dust storms or lost. The PX over here is a major rip off, they are over priced for junk, but we don’t have any other choice other then mail order. If he listens to music I would avoid any cd players. The sand will ruin them in no time. We all went to having mp3 players.
Oh and Lora, Let your soon know that there is no charge for using the computers with internet access ...
Now in Balad Iraq (Camp Anaconda) August 08, 2005.
And things have only gotten 'better', since 2005, to say the least.