Real Engineering's deep dive on the "questionable engineering" of Oceangate's Titan

[nosaj]

@Brainspore

there is very little anyone can do to stop a bunch of well-funded dipshits from endangering their own lives in international waters. Governments just aren’t set up to prevent that kind of thing.

And honestly, when you look at the risk / benefit of intervening and of not intervening, it becomes clear they shouldn’t.

[spetrovits]

Point taken, from you and from @VeronicaConnor. I guess I’m frustrated that even journalists like David Pogue, who has the kind of platform that should have encouraged him to never stop talking about the ticking time bomb, barely managed to raise any red flags at all.

[jaded]

@spetrovits

I’m all for innovation, but there are reasons certain ideas have never actually been built, and that’s because sometimes, theory is enough.

So the deepest dive I’ve ever done in a submersible is a ride at Disneyland. I have no idea what it takes to innovate in the field. Even so, I’ve had enough experience with carbon fiber to understand to know that it’s not well suited to repetitive strain. Once it starts to fail, it usually doesn’t stick around long enough to fix – it needs to be replaced.

I can’t imagine why anyone rational would choose it for this application.

[Gordon_Simpson]

I watched a Thunderfoot video on youtube last night and he is of the opinion that the carbon fibre did not fail but rather the joint between the titanium endcaps and carbon fibre body due to the differential rates of compression due to pressure. He estimates that the diameter of the carbon fibre cylinder would be around 1cm smaller than the titanium cap at those depth. Repeated dives would ultimately cause the glue to fail and cause a leak which would flood the sub within minutes. The end caps would blown off due to a water hammer effect.

[VeronicaConnor]

Except that that guy is a fascist and raging misogynist. He was a key architect of the GamerGate movement. So maybe don’t watch him. He also doesn’t know fuck-all about deep sea submersibles. He plays video games and hates women for money.

[Mindysan33]

@VeronicaConnor

He plays video games and hates women for money.

I thought that name sounded familiar… I wonder why some people believe that doing that kind of thing makes them an expert on anything…

@Gordon_Simpson - he’s a chemist… doesn’t make him an expert on all fields of science. He’s also a raging misgynist and utter asshole.

@Gordon_Simpson

I agree he was completely unhinged when it came to gamer gate.

This shit matters. I get maybe it didn’t impact, YOU, but this is part of the larger spread of fascism happening all over the world. Stop supporting fascists, this fuckwad included.

[jerwin]

How a Bogus Lawsuit Led to the Titan Sub Tragedy

[Gordon_Simpson]

I agree he was completely unhinged when it came to gamer gate. He wasn’t and isn’t a gamer though he’s a scientist of some type, he started with YouTube atheist stuff, and when that lot lurched rightward he unfortunately went with them for a while. He was completely unhinged when it came to gamergate and when that happened I avoided him for many years. His videos are generally now science focused again although he now has obsession with dethroning Elon Musk. You have made think however, I’m not sure if he has apologised in someway for his previously terrible behaviour.

-edit-

I did not wish to upset/anger anyone here and although I still think the glue failure hypothesis is plausible and worth discussion I am not going to defend any past or present sexist behaviour from him.