'The Loss of the Titanic' 100 years on.

Today, the incredible shipbuilding heritage and maritime historic city of Belfast marks the launch of the RMS titanic 100 years on. The 'unsinkable ship' hit an iceberg and fell prey to the sea en route to New York claiming the lives of 1, 500 passengers with just 700 survivors. 

Yes the voyage has been reminisced through such films as ‘Titanic’ starring Kate and Leo and the karaoke sound of Winslets ‘my heart will go on’. But at 00:13am this morning, exactly 100 years after Titanic rolled down her slipway, a single flare was fired over Belfast's docklands in commemoration. All boats in the area around the Harland and Wolff shipyard then sounded their horns and the assembled crowd applauded for exactly 62 seconds, the time it had originally taken for the liner to roll down the slipway in 1911. 

The Reverend Chris Bennett, chaplain of Titanic Quarter, read a passage from an eyewitness account of the launch of the ship and spoke about the centenary.

He said: “The reason we are gathered here is to celebrate the Titanic. We know what happened to it was a tragedy but the Titanic herself was not. It was a beautiful ship, well built by skilled Belfast craftsmen, right here on this runway."

I’ve compiled a brief photo journey of the titanic and her voyage in order to celebrate the ships 100 year anniversary and remember those 1500  lives that were lost at sea.

The titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast; funded by American J.P Morgan whose team began construction on the ship on March 31^st 1909. Her dimensions were as follows: Her length overall was 882 feet 9 inches (269.1 m), the moulded breadth 92 feet 0 inches (28.0 m),the tonnage 46,328 GRT, and the height, from the water line to the boat deck, 59 feet.

Indeed, the ships full capacity, including staff as well as passengers would be 3547- she was a ship beyond her time. Both big and magnificent- the Titanic's design and construction featured luxury and opulence. The First-class section featured a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a squash court, Turkish baths, an Electric bath and a Verandah Cafe.  First-class passengers paid a hefty fee for such amenities; the most expensive one-way trans-Atlantic passage was £875.

The vessel began her maiden voyage from Southampton 100 years ago today, bound for New York City on 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. On the maiden voyage of Titanic some of the most prominent people of the day were travelling in first class. Among them were millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeleine Force Astor, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, Macy's owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida,Denver millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown (known afterward as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" due to her efforts in helping other passengers while the ship sank) among various other sports men, authors, producers and actresses.

On the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was calm. The moon was not visible and the sky was clear. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the preceding few days, had drawn up a new course which took the ship slightly further southward. That Sunday at 1:45 pm, a missed message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in Titanic's path, later that evening, another report of numerous large icebergs also failed to reach the bridge.

At 11:40 pm, while sailing about 400 miles (640 km) south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Sounding the ship's bell three times, Fleet telephoned the bridge exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!” The ship made its fatal collision at an estimated 37 seconds after Fleet sighted the berg. The iceberg scraped the ship's starboard (right) side, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 299 feet (90 m). This opened the first six compartments to the sea as we see in the film ‘Titanic’ where the decks begin to flood. While the ship was designed to remain afloat with the first four compartments flooded, the collision caused flooding of the six forward compartments. The fifth and sixth water-filled compartments weighed down the ship's bow enough to allow more water to flood the vessel this caused the ship to begin to sink. The lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress call was sent out an it was estimated the ship would go down within an hour to an hour and a half. At 00:05, 25 minutes after the collision, Captain Smith ordered all the lifeboats uncovered; five minutes later, at 00:10, he ordered them to be swung out; then, at 00:25, he ordered them to be loaded with women and children and then lowered away. At 00:50, 4th Officer Joseph Boxhall fired the first white distress rocket. The rest is history.

The Titanic sunk at 2.20a.m. on the morning of 15th April, 1912. Back in Dublin, the initial reaction to the news was one of despair. As in Montreal, New York and Boston, the Dublin evening newspapers carried a very inaccurate version of the story. The headlines in the evening Telegraph ran:

Terrible disaster in mid-Atlantic 

 Ill-fated maiden voyage 

 Collision with an iceberg

 Women taking off by lifeboats 

 all the passengers saved 

Titanic on her way to Halifax.

Monuments commemorating the Titanic and its victims have been erected in several locations.

This final photograph by Frank Browne shortly after the ship sank of this Titanic memorial catches the sadness of the collision and yet the marvel a ship.

100 years on and still not forgotten.

-ZB

Twitters getting everyone in a flap.

After a long weekend of work (a ridiculous 18 hours on my feet) I've turned to my laptop and google-news to find out the days drama. Astonishingly what my trusty news sources report is that twitters causing quite a squawk on the public agenda.


One of the fun aspects of Twitter is that you can pretend to be someone else-or just make a name up for yourself-and express your true feelings about so very many things.

However, if your feelings happen to be seen as libelous, you might now have a problem. Cough-cough: Imogen Thomas. 

Should you have missed seeing Giggs' Manchester United humiliated by Barcelona in yesterday's European Champions League Final, you might also have missed that Giggs reportedly tried to sue thousands of tweeters who revealed some slightly humiliating information about him.

Giggs is one of many wealthy-but, perhaps, not ultimately wise-British people who took out a so-called superinjunction preventing a woman from publicly revealing details of a personal relationship with the married player. What resulted was that thousands of tweeters-some famous, some not--took to Twitter to reveal his name, until, ultimately, a member of the U.K. parliament decided to make it official by standing up and blurting it ou tloud. (Well, thats MPs for you.)

The question is whether Giggs-and anyone else who feels that they have been illegally besmirched on Twitter-will now go through with the idea of simultaneously suing tens of thousands of people?

Again- South Tyneside Council says Twitter has released information after it acted in a US court to identify a Twitter user behind allegedly libellous statements. The council went to court in California after three councillors and an official complained they were libelled in a blog called "Mr Monkey" (sounds dubious enough).

The Mr Monkey blog has made a number of accusations against the council's Labour leader Iain Malcolm, as well as David Potts, the former Conservative leader who now serves as an Independent councillor, Labour councillor Anne Walsh, and Rick O'Farrell, the council's head of enterprise and regeneration.

These aren't the only flaws to the twitter news today- Only Way is Essex star; Chloe Sims, revealed she cried over critical Twitter posts she read on the micro-blogging site, which criticised her for being 'false' over her fake boobs and facial plastic surgery. 

Not alone in the abuse-Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati was left shaken up after being bombarded with vile racist abuse on Twitter. And New York City Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner reportedly says that a nefarious hacker infiltrated his social network's undercarriage and posted a photo with..um..little discretion shall we say...

But I think these examples in the news aren't a fair depiction of the usual use of twitter- to stalk celebs and follow our friends that we cant be with for now. And as the United Kingdom struggles to deal with the conflict between freedom of speech and the laws on privacy, privacy will innately win. Because the one is more potent than the other, and as privacy is seemingly only a mechanism for the wealthy to invoke, the rest of us have to face the fact that freedom of speech comes second to the injunction-ridden culture we have found ourselves in.

-ZB

Pirates 4 is a Shipwreck.

I thought id take this time (as I can't sleep) to write a review on the recent swashbuckling blockbuster to hit the screens. Me and my boyfriend- armed with our Orange Wednesday- took to the cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It is the fourth installment of the popular film franchise and the first among them which doesn’t include the characters we've learned to love; Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann (it also lacks the zany director of the first three films, Gore Verbinski). 


I recall hearing talk from dyed-in-the-wool POTC fans that they felt the series was – pardon the pun – sinking under the weight of it’s own bloat – having become congested with multiple, superfluous characters and confusing story-lines. So I, amongst other fans felt a hopeful buzz about the fourth film, as it promised to be pared down from the albatross that was the third film – focusing primarily on the beloved character Jack Sparrow and keeping the story somewhat simpler. The sad fact is it is simple-yes, but it is also incredibly dull.


If not for Capt. Jack Sparrow there would be absolutely no fun to be found in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the latest edition of Disney's waterlogged franchise. But Johnny Depp's  magical portrayal as Jack Sparra' back again as the swashbuckling miscreant somehow manages to keep this ship of fools afloat. But just barely. 

 With Rob Marshall newly at the helm as director, the hope was for a significant course correction after the bloat and confusion of 2007's “At World's End.” Though just why the studio turned to a director who has been struggling since helping “Chicago” win a best picture Oscar nearly a decade ago, is stranger than the tides. 


Depp, as I mentioned however, is in top form, Capt. Jacking his way along, charming the socks off of everyone with those mischievous, ever shifting, slightly winking, always twinkling eyes. A cameo that puts Depp across from his inspiration for the character, the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, as lad and dad locked in a conspiratorial conversation is pure pleasure at least for the 12 or so seconds it's on screen. Most of the film's two-plus hours is taken up by the hunt for the legendary Fountain of Youth, but an unfolding storyline of what should have been a battle of good vs evil and a myriad of mermaids, pirates, zombies and enchantment was really a lull of endlessly new and boring characters who really couldn't replace Keira, Orlando or Bill. 


Newcomers Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane who play Angelica and Blackbeard, respectively, merely serve as a cosmetic purpose as fearsome and sex-candy pirates, as both failed to project any real menace or meaning to the plot – something especially surprising in regards to Ian McShane, who does horrifying better than anyone.





I didn't see the film in 3D but from rumours I hear its really not much better, and for double the price frankly- id save your money.


But with the film opening with $90.2 million just domestically, it's proven that Disney's franchise still has life, and the fandom has not wavered. But this POTC fan is going over board on this one-sorry Disney.  


-Abandoning ship-ZB

Geordie Cheryl Cole’s XXX Bad Language!

The 'three words' that Cheryl certainly didn't premeditate: You are fired.

Yes- Geordie lass Cheryl has been dumped from this year’s inaugural US X Factor. After months of speculation, it was confirmed earlier this month that Cole had landed the coveted spot on the judging panel alongside former American Idol judge Paula Abdul, Antonio LA Reid and Simon Cowell. But- today we found out our Cheryl just didn't make the cut. 


But why is the 'fight for this love' star not going to be on the panel? Media rumours have sparked over her Northern accent playing havoc on the ears of the American public. The Daily Mail opened proceedings with the well-hashed theory that poor Cheryl’s Northern tones would leave Americans even more confused than normal:


 “Last night sources said Cole was dropped from the judging panel because producers were concerned her Geordie accent would be too difficult for an American audience to understand,” they said proudly. 


Oh yes, that old chestnut- but while Cole’s lilt probably didn’t help matters, such an explanation doesn't explain the last minute nature of FOX’s decision to axe the Geordie lass. After all she didn’t exactly catch wayayitis over the weekend..


But the media's gossip fountain has dripped down into public domain and people are claiming that Cheryl had been sacked due to a lack of spark between her and Paula Abdul. Ooooer- hand bags at dawn?

But did Cheryl just quit? Many people are tweeting that Cheryl simply walked. A very unlikely story don't you think? Coming from the singer of "anything that's worth having is sure enough worth fighting for." Has Cheryl given up the fight?


Former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, who had been lined up to host, will replace her, reports say. That 'bad girl power' that Nicole's got has certainly led her to an envious role in of one of the most anticipated TV programmes. 


But as our Cheryl barricades her front door and stocks up on L’Oreal, gorgeous Welshy Steve Jones will host the US X Factor. Oh yes the Welsh accent is no threat to tender American ears. Iawn Da!








-ZB