The caboose here is the submersible Titan which imploded with all five souls aboard on its way to visit the RMS Titanic, resting 12,500 feet below the sea.
We’ve since learned that the CEO of OceanGate Inc. which owned the Titan, viewed safety not as a costly, time-consuming necessity, but as a trivial pursuit, the enemy of innovation, a complete waste of time.
In this way, Stockton Rush is much like the anti-vaxxers who not only don’t believe the laws of physics, but dismiss them because they interfere with their political and financial agendas.
Two Canadians have led the way in calling out Rush for what he was: an aging tech-bro driven by fame and fortune, with all the moral ballast of Elizabeth Holmes.
The first naysayer is James Cameron, who has travelled to the Titanic many times. He was circumspect in his criticism of Rush, possibly because he was speaking on CNN the day after the tragedy. Not so Cameron’s underwater mentor, Dr. Joe MacInnis, who this week called Rush “a high-functioning sociopath.”
Dan O’Connor, the head of Disaster Security at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, asked me: “I wonder how many other affluenza accidents lurk with risky scams and initiatives?”
Good question. When we step into an airplane, we don’t ask to see the pilot’s licence, or enquire where our surgeon went to med school as we’re being wheeled into the OR. But these are highly regulated activities. It’s the ones that are wildly adventurous, that lots of money can buy you a seat on, the ones that have insistent charismatic owners…their cabooses will kill us.
Meanwhile…
1. It is stormier now than 20 years ago. Your eyes and ears and iPhone alerts do not deceive you. And on that, here’s how to create a smoke-free home…plus a shiny new climate dashboard from the CBC.
2. A superlative world. What’s the deadliest beast in North America? Deer, who are responsible for 440 of the estimated 458 Americans killed in physical confrontations with wildlife in an average year. What are the happiest, least stressful jobs? Agriculture, logging and forestry.
Note, they’re all outdoors. Plus, the world’s worst award show and the world’s worst sheepdog.
3. How Apple grew to $3 trillion. Like this. For context, Canada’s economy produced US $2.2 trillion last year, Russia’s US $2.1 trillion, and America’s, US $25 trillion.
4. When the police quit, crime drops. Half the police force in Golden Valley, Minnesota walked off their jobs (they didn’t like the new Black female police chief). The town became far safer. The same thing happens when doctors go on strike; the death rate falls. Why? People quickly learn to take better care of themselves.
Speaking of racism, it’s not just humans who create racist, sexist, ageist bots; AI does it as well.
5. Chasing colour. Steve McCurry sharpens our eyes to the colour in everything and everyone. Cuttlefish change colour to survive and even magic does too.
6. Lots of thots on bots. The internet is awash on what AI “means.” Here are some of the latest and best.
Marc Andreessen, kajillionaire co-founder of Silicon Valley’s premiere venture capital firm, on the glories of AI.
Benedict Evans on how AI will change work.
The U of T’s Karina Vold and Daniel Harris on the existential (as in “our very existence”) risks of AI.
Max Tegmark on how AI might take over the world.
7. Revenge is best served up old. You can buy an AI bot that will waste hours of your phone scammer’s time pretending to be an old version of you about to give them your credit card number. But never quite.
Speaking of old, the world’s oldest newspaper printed its final paper edition last week.
8. Free talks for 426 years. Gresham College in the UK has been offering free lectures since 1597. That’s quite the archive. Here are the latest.
9. New takes on illness. First, psychiatric hospitals are much more orderly than we thought. Next, when it comes to Alzheimer’s, laughter may be the best medicine. Finally, and best of all, there’s been a huge leap in breast cancer survival rates.
10. The food of love. Two gypsy guitarists go nuts. Plus the music business and the mob. Plus McGill neuroscientist Daniel Levitin on how fetuses learn music.
11. What I’m liking. My friend Peter Sever, former arts presenter, computer geek, motorcycle adventurer and professional Czech, who now lives happily north of Vancouver, and sends me those strange and beguiling photos and snippets of odd information that end up in these pages, like this. Thanks, Peter.
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WHAT’S MORE THRILLING THAN SPOTTING A RARE WHITE SPIRIT BEAR WHERE THOUSANDS OF GRIZZLIES LIVE?
Doing that in BC’s fabled Great Bear Rainforest…aboard the National Geographic Venture…on a Lindblad Expedition.
For more information, click here.
Bob Ramsay
Here are the other trips RamsayTravels is hosting in the coming months.
In order of appearance…
October 2-10, 2023 — Bicycling and the Kardamyli Literary Festival in Greece.
February 25 to March 9, 2024 – Sailing off to the Pacific
May 29-June 5, 2024 — Sail down the west coast of Italy, from Nice and Genoa, to Naples and Amalfi.
Just e-mail Bob Ramsay at bob@ramsayinc.com if you have questions.
Thanks for coming this far with us.
Bob Ramsay