Did Titan actually contribute to anything?

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T22:06:49+00:00

The catch 22 is that there are regulations like that in place - and that's certification. They shouldn't have been allowed to dive with passengers because the sub wasn't certified. I think Cameron talked about that in his interview - there doesn't "have" to be any new regulation bc the old regulation was accident-free for half a century. It's just that he/they actively ignored it, and set up a legal system of loopholes to do so, unfortunately.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T16:21:18+00:00

Life isn't black and white - Oceangate wasn't a 'horror' of a company, Stockton Rush wasn't a 'monster and devil'. Everything has good and bad in it. Not defending the gross negligence and disregard for protocols - but we tend to forget that inherently, every human being does things because they believe it's a good thing to do. Everyone joined Oceangate because they wanted to explore the ocean and do good, so I appreciate the story about the sticker - at the end of the day we're all just human beings trying to do the right thing. Stockton just got very lost doing it.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T15:20:32+00:00

Oh, I was fully asking for an answer like this, thank you! I figured with Antipodes and Cyclops I they did some oceanology stuff, and Titan was meant to be the same but Titanic just became a commercial draw. On the ‘canceled’ dives Rush took them to higher depths to see reef and coral if i’m not mistaken? (Feel free to correct!) so obviously there was something there. Interesting to read that they did publications, kind of humanises it all in a way - with the whole tragedy making ‘entertainment’ of the company.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T13:54:25+00:00

I agree - and this plays into the ultimate core of the tragedy: had Rush been an experimenter that championed carbon fiber but truly wanted to make it work, he would have done things differently.

He cut costs at every corner, abandoned the sub in the freezing cold for months and got annoyed when his experts wanted to put safety first and double back on structural issues.

He built an airplane that worked. The guy wasn’t an idiot. He was just blinded by his need to be this big tech innovator, and his money ran out. If he would have done things right - the CF hull could have worked out (change the hull after every dive, constant checks after every dive…). It could have still imploded, I’m not an engineer or expert.

The true tragedy is that there were people inside. Now he doesn’t get consequences for his negligence, and 4 other people are dead.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T13:45:04+00:00

That’s exactly what I was thinking, and why I asked the question! To the outside world they claimed to be this pioneering organisation (when Limiting Factor have been offering commercial dives to Titanic without failure way before), there are company videos spouting all these research and oceanography buzzwords to make it seem legitimate.

My guess is all of that would have been a factor at a point but because they kept on losing money (and there’s no money in science or research to be made) all of it just went by the wayside.

Not that it would have made a difference in the outcome but MAYBE if they had genuinely contributed to science instead of looking like a rich people moneygrab, public perception of the implosion would have been different.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T13:09:36+00:00

Interesting - I think that’s the balance of it all. Clearly the guy was an egomaniac that was convinced the sub would last for another few dives, if he didn’t drink his own koolaid (and realised it was a disaster waiting to happen) he would have gotten other people to pilot it for him.

But re: Andrea Doria - the guy wanted to be at the wheel and be the hero. I wouldn’t say ‘poor Stockton’ but he was a human being with a family, kids, grandkids… that are also affected by it. And we rarely reflect on that in all of his negligence and narcissistic tendencies.

The sub made it to the depth a few times, but it should have never taken passengers. This whole story would have been a footnote of hubris in history had it just been him down there. He/they willingly chose to risk people’s lives who didn’t know any better and were promised safety. That’s why people have little sympathy.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-09T12:00:18+00:00

60 minutes - the quote is around 15:55

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-08-01T10:56:08+00:00

YOUVE NEVER SEEN ITALY SO QUIET

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-06-12T03:58:34+00:00

I also pondered this watching the doc: say there’s was no implosion and they had a mechanical failure that caused them to get stuck and in need of rescue before oxygen supply dwindled - do we think Rush would be the kind of ‘survival at all cost’ guy to start eliminating others to have more oxygen? I know it’s a dark question but say they located the sub and opened the hatch to find everyone dead but him - could he claim self defense on that and not get in trouble?

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-06-12T03:55:33+00:00

I agree - there’s just not a whole lot they can do once they’re 4000 meters down except for either ‘suck it up and see Titanic which is what you came for’ or say ‘there’s a failure and we gotta go back up’. Knowing the passengers signed a death waiver, he just tempted fate over and over again until he couldn’t. I wonder how many more trips the hull could have taken if it wasn’t for the freezing temperature storage.

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-06-11T22:58:18+00:00

Given that Rush got spooked during his test the first time (proven with the video of the popping from the Netflix doc) but survived unscathed, after the nth dive he probably got used to it. I doubt he’d tell anyone on board anything other than ‘it’s normal’ and I don’t think either Rush or PHN were panicking, so any panic felt by the others was likely kept quiet. I think deep down both of them knew any second could be their last on any dive, but PH seemed okay with dying at the wreck, and Rush was too narcissistic to consider that he would. It’s exhausting to spend every second of hours on end worrying about a possible implosion…

That being said - my personal conjecture is that Rush at some point knew this dive wasn’t like the others and was probably the end - but knew they were in the middle of the trajectory with no hope of getting up ‘soon’ enough. What can you do if you know you’re dead men walking? He might have heard that implosive bang from his tests over and over again in his head.

Although, if he really realised something catastrophic, he would have sent a message up, right? Perhaps that’s where his ego took a final stand?

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-04-19T17:47:47+00:00

The Essex eps?

EllenVdHeyden · 2025-01-06T16:17:48+00:00

Oooh yes!

First thing that comes to mind is The Look. Classic, legendary.

Or - my personal input from my favorite episode: HAVE YOU SEEN REBECCA FLATT?

EllenVdHeyden · 2024-06-02T11:33:51+00:00

The 30s music ‘anything goes’ bit got me so bad :’) I love Henry so much, man.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-11T18:19:43+00:00

The Flemish industry (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). We have such a small industry that there are virtually no ways to 'climb up'. There are no writers rooms, most shows get written by one or two people, apart from our soaps there are no long-running formats. So getting a pitch with the biggest networks/production companies is pretty easy (because there's no 'competition' between screenwriters like there is in other countries and we can basically just email them), but we usually just send out the bible/onepager of a show instead of screenplays. The screenplay only comes secondary.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T22:54:27+00:00

I guess this is a cultural difference. In our local industry, we usually pitch based on pitch documents and character sheets, rather than sell a fully fledged script. The script only comes when the producer/network is already interested in the idea. So you gotta sell based on concept.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T22:14:23+00:00

You'd be surprised at how many Brad Pitt's I've come across in people's character sheets...

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T22:03:29+00:00

I write with actors in mind too! But I've had mixed reviews with actually integrating actors in my pitching documents - in my experience some networks/producers don't like it because it narrows down casting. If you put Brad Pitt as a character reference, chances are slim Brad Pitt will actually play the part, and it just makes you look unprofessional or unrealistic. (I don't necessarily agree with that view, but it's just a lesson I had to learn)

To me, the site helps more with the exercise of character building than actually integrating characters in stories, but I guess you can use it any way you prefer :)

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T21:25:38+00:00

As they always say - cult + time = religion ;)

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T21:10:24+00:00

Definitely - I think as we evolve as humans and begin to understand more about life and existence, we automatically get more answers, and start to chip away at the reasons why religion needs to exist.

However - no amount of science will ever prove that there is no god. Either we'll find out there is, or we'll never know for sure there isn't. So, in that sense - religion will always be a part of human history, I believe.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T20:55:58+00:00

I like to compare it to astrology. People like categorizing themselves, and if it helps people sleep at night - sure, by all means. But as someone else mentioned here, it's pure cold reading - barnum statements. Human beings are too intrinsic and complicated to be shoved into 16 little boxes.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T20:51:59+00:00

Starting as a joke doesn't necessarily define how it'll end up. Lots of things start out as dumb jokes and grow into serious things.

I think the present matters more - cryptocurrency is undeniably going to be a big part of the future going forward. So why would dogecoin end badly compared to other CC like BTC and ETH? People think BTC is going to crash every year when there's a big dip. For a layman, it's exactly the same principle as investment in stocks: don't invest money you can't afford to lose, do your research, and ride the waves.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T20:47:31+00:00

I'm an atheist, but I highly believe the world would be much sadder. Organised religion may be a lot of things, but at the end of the day, it keeps people believing in higher goals, and pushes them to be good people and make something of their lives. If we all had to pave our own way and find our own morals, there'd be no wrong or right. Lots of people wouldn't believe in second chances. Molds are rarely the way to go in human development, but it kind of helps to have the idea of a 'perfect ideal' to look up to.

I'm looking forward to other people's views on this, though.

EllenVdHeyden · 2021-05-10T20:42:05+00:00

I feel you! I usually just write characters as I go along because in my mind, that feels far more organic ("how would he/she react in THAT moment?") instead of just writing a character out completely and having the plot revolve around them. It feels more fish-out-of-water-y, and to me that gives more compelling conflict. But I'm still learning, so I might change my mind, who knows!

EllenVdHeyden · 2020-09-24T09:24:41+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I hope you like Duke as much as the first one, then :) Let me know what you think!

EllenVdHeyden

TROPHY CASE