Way back when on June 20 EST after searches were launched, India Travel Times had, on an analysis of the data available, indicated the probability of Titan undergoing a sudden and massive implosion (inward collapse) at great depths. (SEE: Titanic expedition goes missing: A ray of hope from sounds of bang) Now videos taken by a Canadian robot that reached the floor on Thursday evening, June 22, has confirmed it. The fragments are lying scattered. Horizon Arctic's ROV robot found the debris 1600 ft from Titanic bow.

The submersible imploded at 500 metres above sea bed, if we go by our calculations. The water pressure it had to withstand at that point was 2,345 kg per sq inch. The hull was not built to take that, as per the court cases fought by concerned people at the time of building the sub and going by the details revealed in the cancellation of booking by at least one ocean expert.

by RM Nair

St. JOHN'S (Newfoundland, Canada), June 23: At 1 hr 45 min after the dive proper began on Sunday morning off St John's, June 18, the Titan expedition to the Titanic carrying five passengers - submarine experts and business magnates included - lost communication with the Canadian support ship, Polar Prince, on the Atlantic surface anchored over the site of the century old wreckage. After four days of futile search by planes and ships sent by the US, Canada, UK and France, a robot finally dived to the bottom to discover the parts of Titan strewn around 1,600 feet from the Titanic following a catastrophic implosion.

Its scheduled duration for descent to the Titanic wreckage was 2 hrs 30 min total. Deducting 30 min for a slow dive as it nears the ocean bed, the actual time the vessel was to take in descending at normal speed for reaching the bed was 2 hrs. As it lost contact at 1 hr 45 min, the Titan, it can be assumed, faced the problem at a depth of approx 4,000 mts/120 min X 105 min (time covered) = 3,500 metres. Therefore, the mishap took place at a point 500 metres above the bottom. Or, taking into account the full duration of 2 hrs and 30 min at average speed, not giving a margin for slow dive, the disaster point is at: 4,000/150 min X 105 min = 2,800 metres depth, ie 1,200 metres above the ocean bed.

Therefore, the actual point of implosion or breakup is somewhere at a depth between 2,800 metres and 3,500 metres from the Atlantic surface. Or, somewhere between 500 metres and 1,200 metres above the ocean's bottom. Certainly it did not touch the ocean bed, which is 3,800 metres (12,467 feet) from the surface.

Below the surface, the water pressure increases by 1.96 kg per sq inch for every 10 feet of descent. That is, at the Titanic wreckage site on the Atlantic bed at 3,800 metres (12,467 feet) the pressure is 2,443 kg per sq inch. If the submersible imploded at 500 metres above sea bed, if we go by our calculations, the pressure it had to withstand was 2,345 kg per sq inch. The hull was not built for that, as per the court cases fought by concerned people at the time of manufacture and the subsequent cancellation of booking by at least one ocean expert.

Implosion at that level is so quick that it leaves no time to communicate, no time to even comprehend what is happening. Loss of communication is the communication!!! At that pressure, a human body becomes pulp in less than a second. In all probability, their end was not traumatic. No hypothermia, no hypercapnia, no decompression pangs!

Titan’s nose cone, view port, hull and other parts are strewn around. May have been carried apart by ocean currents, according to the data sent by the Canadian robot. Or, as it is thought, taking into account the duration of dive, the blast having taken place 500 metres above the bed, the debris would naturally have scattered all over.

A chronology of the disaster

On Sunday morning, June 18, the expedition was launched and the vessel was detached from the platform under sea at 10 am and the communication was snapped at 11.47 am. The actual journey was to be 2 hrs. It was expected back at surface at 6.10 pm. At 6.35 pm rescue operations started.

Titan was equipped with 96 hours of oxygen and life support.

It ws the Canadian P-3 aircraft that detected underwater sounds of banging in the search area every 30 minutes since Tuesday morning and continued on Thursday also which prompted the despatch of the robots. If that has discontinued? If that was false, what was it? There have not been any answers.

Canadian vessel Horizon Arctics' ROV robot reached Atlantic floor and started searching for the missing Titan at 4:26 PM Thursday. Later, French vessel L'Atalante deployed its ROV robot Victor 6000 at 5 PM. It could cut cables to free the submersible if it is stuck and put a hook so that the rescue ship on the surface can pull it up. The ROV has manipulating arms. And, the robot can work for 72 hrs.

The videos taken by the robot showed the debris scattered. The vessel's nose was found 1,600 feet from the Titanic bow.

The Polar Prince used a hydrophone to receive and translate the data.

Titan was 22-ft. long, 9.2-ft. wide and 8.3-ft. high and made of fibre and titanium. It weighed 10,500 kg and could carry a load of 680 kg. It could go to a depth of as 4,000 metres (13,123 feet) in the ocean. The Titanic wreckage is lying at a depth of 3,800 metres (12,467 feet).

The Titan was operated by the US-based company, OceanGate Expeditions. Its CEO Stockton Rush (one of the five passengers on board) had founded it in 2009 with a view to study the depths of oceans.

OceanGate has been operating undersea expedition to the Titanic wreck since 2021. Ticket costs $250,000 per person, according to the company's website.

Delhi has recorded the hottest night (35+ deg C), unheard of since the beginning of time! For 30 consecutive days the maximum temp is above 40 deg C and in the nights too the mercury stayed high as there is hardly any earth around to absorb and dissipate the day's heat. Add on to the nightmare the acute water shortage in the national Capital due to the power-hungry, low-grade politicians squabbling for one-upmanship. More than 200 people died in Delhi-NCR in the past two days. Most of them are poor people, labourers, the homeless, beggars.

An anatomy of NEET 2024: From the start till finish NEET will stay put as a conundrum jinxed as it is. What if it was thought angels would come down from the heaven to conduct the entrance exam if done at the Centre and if in the States, they would be conducted by the corrupt mortals. So NEET was born... It's 'guaranteed' that no party will ever be able to do what is required to be done in the country. Because of their genetics. Frauds will only multiply. Is there anything worse? Yes. Shoot the messenger!

A video shows the terrifying scene of the chopper swirling and dropping nose down mid-air around the helipad. In fact, the rear rotor had gone for a toss and the pilot was performing autorotation for a crash-landing. He pulled it off! Congrats!

True or false, Savitri claimed her husband had told her to throw Vinod into the canal as all that he does is eat. "How much torture can my son endure?" She picked him up when he was asleep.

Marking a decisive stage in the ongoing tussle between Governors and the Governments in some States, the Governor of Bengal has thrown down the gauntlet to the State police, asking the Raj Bhavan staff to refuse any enquiry from the cops in the sexual harassment case filed by a woman employee against him.

COMMENT: In many a case complaints can be frivolous, made under certain circumstances. So it is more in the interest of the accused that there is an investigation to clear his name. Denial may only mean acceptance of the guilt. Besides, quoting Constitutional immunity in sexual harassment cases is nothing short of a vulgarity of the feudal landlord. Nobody is above the law.

While the universal apprentice scheme will enable the educated youth to stand up (literally) in a country where the people are trampled by wretched politicians, and look about for avenues to earn a living confidently, the provision of student credit cards of up to Rs 10 lakh will ensure each and every student of this country receives equal opportunities to fulfil their aspirations of higher education irrespective of their financial conditions. It will be a game changer. These are on the lines of what US Vice-President Kamala Harris visualised to be happening to the Third World when she hailed Ajay Banga as a transformative World Bank President.

Peter Higgs is the father of the mysterious Higgs boson, otherwise called 'God Particle', which gives mass to all elementary particles, and created our universe. His contribution helped other scientists understand how the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.8 billion years ago. The equations of particle physicists which did not have a leg to stand on till then, the 'God Particle' came as a Godsend. The theories so far to describe the universe did not hold water.

It was only by 2012, after 50 years of the boson discovery, that scientists at CERN could make the big announcement that they had finally found a Higgs boson using the Large Hadron Collider.

Higgs instantly broke into tears, tears of profound satisfaction, in the lecture hall where the announcement was made.

LEGAL REMEDIES: Last year, on the directive of the Supreme Court, the Governor granted assent to one Bill, and referred seven Bills to the President. The petition against the President also challenges the Governor's action of referring the Bills to her.

The unprecedented step by the State may also establish that it always upholds the Constitution and the rule of law in order to pre-empt any eventuality of getting dismissed on flimsy grounds invoking provisions of the Constitution later on; and, also provide a thrust to an emerging platform of regional forces pitted against the ongoing centralisation of every subject and activity in the country under one umbrella where the States will ultimately 'wither' away (for some time).

OPINION: Made to happen as it does just weeks ahead of the general elections, the arrest may signal, if not the cause of, far-reaching consequences in the course of Indian politics. The Opposition charges that the ruling party at the Centre has unleashed the police to catch a leader every other day for corruption allegedly indulged in in the present or the remote past in order to incapacitate any concerted opposition to the ruling dispensation.

The “My way or the highway" man, Trump has predicted 'apocalypse' for Americans if he is not elected the President in the upcoming election. He sounds “extremism, affection for violence." As always, he is also seeing what others don't, and repetitively using words like "(2020) election was stolen"! And that's a symptom! Delivering a no-holds-barred speech at a rally in Ohio, he also predicted the US won't see another election if he did not win the November battle against the incumbent President. With his savage push against the God-fearing Catholic, and the heap of criminal cases pending in the courts, the unpredictable Trump's nomination exposes a season of drought of leadership of calibre in the United States.

The much-touted 'one-nation, one-election' argument was purportedly to prevent wasteful expenditure of the people's money, manpower and deceleration of development, but the committee report when implemented will end up paving the way for holding more elections than currently being held. Because of the logistics and democratic limitations involved, the committee was not expected by commonsense to be out of a loose end either! Those who are alive at that time, and further for ten more years thereafter, can count the rounds and compare with the present numbers. Therefore, either the agenda is different or the 8-volume presentation is faulty/made-up!!!

The manager has defended himself saying that dry ice got mixed with mouth freshener by the negligence of the staff...After taking the mouth freshener the customers felt a burning sensation and started vomiting blood. Five of them were hospitalised. Two are in critical condition.

Harmful effects of dry ice: Ingested, dry ice can burn your mouth, esophagus and stomach as it sublimates on contact with the moisture of the organs and turns into CO2, apart from other damaging physical and chemical changes it induces. The pressure building up in the stomach due to sublimation can also rupture the stomach muscles. It turns lethal. In normal direct handling it leads to frostbite due to the cold temperature.

One of them is seen in CCTV being shot at close range. The motive is suspected to be personal enmity.

TAILPIECE: Almost every other day we hear of shootings in one place or other in the country. India will very soon replace the US as the world's No 1 in the incidence of mass shooting. It will eclipse terrorism as a source of concern. Who can help? At least, has it occurred to anyone's mind?

'This Moment' of Shakti fusion won the Best Global Music Album at the Grammys. Zakir Hussain has won two other awards too. In a great victory for Indians, five of them have won the Grammys this time. In other sections, Taylor Swift got her fourth Album of the Year award and Miley Cyrus got an award for the first time.

The Government scheme provides ₹ 51,000 per wedding of which ₹ 35,000 goes to the girl, ₹ 10,000 for wedding materials and ₹ 6,000 towards expenses for the ceremony.

“Two activists from the environmental movement ‘Riposte Alimentaire’ sprayed pumpkin soup on the armoured glass protecting the Mona Lisa, this Sunday, January 28, 2024, around 10 am (4aET),” a statement from the museum said.

It is not understood how undesirable elements are allowed to get so close to her and play havoc with the artwork. Several times over this has happened in the past, deranged minds masquerading as tourists and cultists venting their frustration.

A Spicejet passenger had a harrowing experience inside a tiny claustrophobic lavatory aboard a Mumbai-Bengaluru flight when he found to his bewilderment that the door was not opening.

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Tailpiece: Sometimes appearing to outnumnber men and women on the streets, the stray dogs are turning more and more daring with sections of anti-social elements out there to feed and protect them in order to find a window for their unfulfilled love! There is an all-pervading feeling of lack of authority.

Ankit Tiwari had told the employee that “instructions had been received from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry” and reopen the “already disposed of” case and asked him to appear before the ED office at Madurai on October 30, DVAC said. The doctor was allegedly threatened with arrest and told to pay a bribe of Rs 3 cr to avoid the ED probe, which was later negotiated down to Rs 50 lakh.

Tailpiece: We are made to believe RBI, CBI, ED, Judiciary as sacrosanct and all others like railways, transport, revenue, education, PWD departments are composed of us the mortals, absolutely corrupt! As if in the sacrosanct places the angels descend from the heavens to work in the night and fly away before day-break! Let's be true to ourselves, we are all cut from the same cloth.

Apart from cash, Gill had also taken three planes as bribe and two of them were leased out to Redbird Aviation Academy. With the result, flying schools compromised on safety requirements and trainers met with accidents several times.