Breathing, and only because it’s not really a choice.
2 Likes
Look, not many people are really looking FORWARD TO breaking out the guillotines… Only a few of the rich use their money to push our politics into nonsense land.
The wealthy are against inflation, because inflation is a tax on wealth. The wealthy people who see political contributions in a transactional manner (guillotine nominees) are against higher income taxes too. That’s why all the poor people need to die.
Tax the wealth, or tax the income. Either way, THIS rich guy would be able to afford his neat toy, and I’m glad some scientists might get a turn.
If you want to repair Flint’s water supply, improve schools, or whatever you think this adrenaline junky should have spent his money on, then organize and take on the donor class. Preferably with unions, not guillotines (they are more afraid of peasants getting a seat at the table than they are of death anyways).
After-tax money is his to spend as he sees fit, with the exception ONLY of things specifically forbidden by law.
Remember kids, we didn’t get the new deal because it was right, or wise, or smart. We got the new deal because the donor class became afraid of the labor movement.
4 Likes
This is much, much better than space tourism, in just about every way imaginable. The carbon footprint for getting to astronaut altitude has got to be larger than that for touching the deeps. And there’s actually something to be learned both for the science and the engineering. The jeering and the scorn Im hearing for this guy, really should go toward the space tourists.
2 Likes
Given that quite a bit of our deep sea diving exploration (including things like finding the Titanic and the first exploration of the deepest sea trenches) has turned out to be cover for various intelligence projects, I’m curious if Victor Vescovo is just amusing himself or if there’s some spook component. Interestingly enough, Vescovo is presumably quite familiar with military intelligence, among other things, he has a degree in Defense and Arms Control Studies from MIT and his resume lists 20 some years in Navy Intelligence. So, is he chasing Chinese undersea cables? Installing listening devices for subs/drones? Looking for lost Russian subs? Recovering lost Nazi loot? Sure seems likely that, oh, 20 years from now we’ll find out that Vescovo’s not just taking pleasure cruises . . . to the bottom of the sea.
3 Likes
How so?
#1: Person whose greatest fault is curiosity wakes Cthulhu. And it’s very likely that Heroes Will Step Up to save the day.
#2: A submarine specifically designed for mass murder gets lost at sea. Immediately, people from various factions who have a long history of threatening to murder each other (and literally everyone else) try to be the first to get there. The US military steps in and endangers the lives of everyone aboard a private mining rig. A soldier’s aggressive tendencies escalate due to high-pressure nervous syndrome. Meanwhile, on the surface, humans step up their threats to kill everyone on the planet. Things keep getting worse until the only a selfless intervention by benign aliens can save the day.
Now seriously, not counting the actual appearance of old ones/aliens, which version sounds more like the reality we are living in?
Apart from the ethical/moral considerations of the rich guy going on an adventure, why has BB linked to the Smithsonian article when that piece itself points back to the Guardian article from which it is summarised and which has a lot more detail and cool numbers and diagrams (but no more justification for the Big Adventure)?
2 Likes
OK- I get it. Some extra detail from the Popular Science article.
https://www.popsci.com/victor-vescovo-five-deeps-submarine
Still- the Smithsonian seems to be an unsatisfying compromise.
Also I can’t entirely disapprove of somebody who travels in “Limiting Factor” AND “Pressure Drop”
1 Like
Well, damn. From the headline I thought someone had actually, physically touched the bottom of the Atlantic. I’m so unimpressed.
1 Like
I’ve had a few discover my living room in my day. The real adventure is finding out how long they “plan” on being there for. The less forthcoming the longer the adventure!
And wouldn’t he be the first ALIVE person to touch the bottom (even though he didn’t actually touch it)? I’m sure there are a few of them resting down there taking the old fish sleep.
2 Likes
That’s whale vomit. I;m not sure what happens to whale poo.
Luca Brasi
Occupation: mob enforcer and deep sea explorer.
Usually poo, it’s from the bile duct. They usually vomit the beaks that it is thought ambergris protects the gut from.
I’ve eaten it (in a pudding) from a friend’s project to cook the madly exotic recipes from her family’s 17th - 19th century cookbook.
When I saw this my immediate thought was so have I, paddling in the freezing water in West Cork and Claire as a kid.
Also: I love the archaic English usage of the word adventurer, something of a cad, gambling other people’s money for their gain.
or is that a bounder?
1 Like
I think that adventurers and adventuresses where those who tried to secure a good marriage to extract themselves from debt and to finance a high living life-style. Cads, bounders and rotters, are more along the lines of modern “players”.
“I say, ding-dong. rather, what?”
You ate Ambergris Pie? What does it taste like?
3 Likes
I came across the term most recently in a description of Winston Churchill (from before his sainthood which wiped away the stains of most of his life) and I felt that reckless adventurer (in an old sense) was perhaps the one way Boris Johnson actually resembled his putative hero… But yes now you mention it, it must have been a misuse as I think your usage sounds more correct.
Pie? Obligatory plug for my friend’s book
Ambergris didnt add taste as such to the pie (a kind of rice pudding IIRC) but rather a subtle flavour/aroma. Declaration of interest:I was wined and dined in the making of this post.
3 Likes
I just looked it up on thar nets and merriam Webster says…
Definition of adventuress
: a female adventurer: such as
a : a woman who seeks dangerous or exciting experiences
b somewhat old-fashioned : a woman who seeks position or livelihood by questionable means
B is somewhat old fashioned? Surely a is somewhat old fashioned and the second usage is obsolete. But, or am I mistaken, does American usage veer more towards having gendered nouns such as actress etc. where other variants of English just say actor for male and female, it not usually being necessary.
1 Like
I’ve only come across “adventuress” in fiction from the 19th and early 20th Centuries; so I guess it is probably obsolete. It was certainly replaced by “Gold-digger” for women on the make in the first half of the 20th Century.
I can heartily recommend “Gold Diggers of 1933”.
1 Like
I guess that Ambergris can’t be too unpleasant smelling, as it is valued by the perfume industry.
On the subject of Churchill, a friend’s grandmother (a staunch communist around the era of the General Strike) used to curse people by saying, “May you burn in hell with Winston Churchill!” Churchill was still alive at the time, but I think that granny had a firm idea of where he was going.
I can certainly see the similarity between Churchill and Johnson.
2 Likes
After I get round to watching Dawson City frozen time, which I really need to find the right frame of mind for.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
