BSR

One shade of gray I mentioned previously: the US government acknowledges the universal consensus in the deep-dive community is that the loud bang + simultaneous loss of comms and tracking mean that in all likelihood the sub is gone, but that search efforts will continue until the 96 hours lapses. At least that way the government isn't feeding false hope to the friends & family of the 5 men. @mike carey said, "There was still doubt about whether that was conclusive." OK then, who exactly doubted? Name names and list their credentials. And if this expert or experts doubted, what alternative scenario did they suggest could have caused the loud bang coupled with simultaneous loss of comms & tracking?

"Not trying to attack anyone" ... except you just did, LOL. You backpedaled only after I called you out for it. Let me ask the question I asked earlier but no one has answered: can you find one expert, outside the *coughlyingsackofshitcough* US government, who believed that in light of the loud bang + simultaneous loss of comms and tracking, there was a chance that the sub was still viable and its passengers were alive?

Feel free to report my post if you feel so strongly about it. Again, the entire diving community, including the US Navy, knew that the sub was gone. So why did the US government maintain the grotesque charade that there was still hope of rescuing the 5 men on board?

Making a big show about rescuing survivors when they knew the sub was gone. The entire diving community knew it, the Navy knew it. Yes, that qualifies as a lie.

I'm so sorry about all the psychological torture you've suffered. Please seek professional counseling.

As bizarre and nonsensical as your post is, I will try to respond. In my post responding to @mike carey, I thought I made it clear that I was citing James Cameron (I do mention him in the first paragraph). I admit to knowing next to nothing about deep-sea submersibles. Then you explode into hysterics about Jan 6, which I never mentioned. Oh my, you get so triggered when your precious darlings are under threat. I mention the fact that the 19yo's father was a billionaire to suggest a possible reason the poor kid was pressured to go on the dive despite being terrified. Billionaires wield enormous power, not just in business & politics but also in, or perhaps especially in their families. Your assumption that it was a comment born of envy is simply bizarre. Please calm down.

What folks' expertise are you questioning? James Cameron visited the site of the Titanic wreck 33 times. He descended into the Mariana Trench, the deepest submersible dive in history. If Cameron isn't an expert, he is at least very knowledgeable and has strong connections to many in the small world of deep-sea diving. A flurry of phone calls and emails were exchanged on Monday morning, and everyone came to the same conclusion: the sub was gone. Can you present one expert, outside of the Biden administration, who contradicts their conclusion?

Fair enough, but I would feel less deceived if government officials had presented the whole picture, i.e., that the pretty much unanimous consensus in the diving community is that the sub is gone but that rescue efforts would continue until the 96 hours lapses. Also, I disagree about 4 days being too short to distract from Hunter Biden's indictment. We live in a soundbite world in which attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. The Titan rescue effectively buried all Hunter Biden news during the worst of the scandal. Way too convenient.

It wasn't just the loud bang but that combined with the simultaneous loss of communications and tracking. The loss of tracking is particularly significant because the transponder that tracks the submersible has its own separate housing and power supply. James Cameron reported that within the diving community everyone knew on Monday morning that the loud bang + the loss of comms + the loss of tracking could mean only one thing: the sub was gone. Why the US government pushed a false narrative for 4 whole days is another issue. Maybe they honestly believed they could still rescue the 5 people aboard, even if the chances of survival were less than 1%. Or maybe they were just tickled pink no one was talking about Hunter Biden.

If I were the lawyer in charge of the father's estate, I'd lie during the reading of the will & tell this heartless piece of sh*t that he was disinherited, just to watch him drop a 40-pound cow in his shorts. Then a week or so later, I'd send him a text, "just kidding, LOL!" Yeah, OK, I'd probably get in deep sh*t for a stunt like that, but it would he so damn tempting.

People who seethe with hatred are almost always blind to their own hatred. Just as some (the number is far lower than the Cult of Victimhood wants us to believe) Christians hate gays yet deny to their very marrow their hatred, you hate the US, Christians, and Christianity yet are deep in denial about your hatred. I'm not mistaking anything, rather, drawing my conclusion based on dozens and dozens of posts you've written over the years. There are many forum members whose politics are very if not extremely different from mine, yet I don't accuse them of anti-American or anti-Christian hatred because as much as we disagree, I simply don't see that hatred in them. But I do see it in you.

I heard that the teenager on board was terrified. Mind you, he was 19yo (I'm assuming that's legally an adult in Pakistan) and made the decision to go despite his fear. Then again, when dad's a billionaire, it might be reeeeaaaally hard to say no.

I think you're making a somewhat false equivalency. Of the 50 Muslim-majority countries, only 2 have Pride celebrations: Albania and Kosovo. Of the ~150 Christian-majority countries, almost all have Pride celebrations, except Uganda and a very few others. You lump the 2 together in the same "homophobic theocracy" basket only because you hate Christians and Christianity.

The CEO of the company that built the Titan is 1 of the 5 dead. He obviously believed in his product even though he admitted to cutting lots of corners and breaking all sorts of rules in the development of the vessel. I think of it more a case of an oversized ego desperate to believe his own hype. But you're right, it's still false marketing, even if the seller actually believes his own bullsh*t.

I wish you cited some examples of race-switch casting that worked so I could know what you're talking about. Two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, it's sad that so many p.o.c. roles were played by white actors in the past, but race-switch casting today doesn't undo that wrong. Sorry, I don't want to see a 3'11" dwarf playing Wilt Chamberlain. I think actors should be reasonably similar to the characters they play. Then again, maybe this is just my particular pet peeve. I go nuts when I see actors who are obviously many years older than the characters they play, but others seem able to overlook that discrepancy quite easily.

Not everyone is a fan of Audra McDonald. Yes, she's talented but also too actressy. Every performance is like "watch me aaaaaaaaaact!" Hey, just my opinion. My problem with race-switch casting is it's always just in one direction. If a black actor plays an Austrian abbess or a Russian Jew (a local production of Fiddler on the Roof) and you find it distracting or not credible, the wokety-wokes will scold and shame you. But if you ever cast a white actor in a person of color role, the same wokety-wokes will unleash hell. I once met a Mormon who spoke perfect Tagalog (did his mission in the Philippines). He was cute and I give him mad props for his Tagalog, but do I ever want to see him playing a young Ferdinand Marcos? Uh no, way too distracting. Enough with the race-switch casting. Find another way to signal your virtue.

Hmm, you actually started a thread with a clickbait headline just to try to trigger forum members who think you hate the US?? Like some old English guy once said: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Since I'm not a soccer fan, I missed all the World Cup excitement as it was happening. Only months later did I catch an interview with Bono (Yassine Bounou), the Moroccan goalkeeper who blocked 2 penalty kicks to beat Spain and put Morocco in the QF for the 1st time. Some Moroccans do speak Spanish, but not with this accent. Apparently Bono "speaks Argentine" despite playing in Spain because his coach & trainers in his first team Atlético Madrid were all Argentine. Handsome guy, but holy sh*t, his accent could melt buttah.

The Kroger app showed a digital coupon, a dozen eggs for $1.49. If I can buy a dozen eggs for just a buck & a half, I'm gonna get all Linda Richman vehrklempt at the self-checkout.

For years if not decades, San Franciscans called anyone who disagreed with them racist, white supremacist, stupid, bigoted, hate-filled, and so on. Now that San Francisco is going to hell in a handbasket, thanks to their own "enlightened" policies, do you really expect those of us SFans smeared as racist monsters to extend our hands and sing Kumbaya?

For the sake of the Millennium Tower residents and all their neighbors, I hope the plan to level the building works. But it's built on soft soil and is already leaning 29 inches ... oh boy. Best of luck 'cuz they're gonna need it.

You are the self-proclaimed man of science, yet you pack your posts with assumptions and accusations. O man of science, where are the peer-reviewed studies proving that millions (or even hundreds of thousands) of LGBTs are rejected by their religious parents? Where are the peer-reviewed studies proving that the preachings of Pat Robertson and similar figures directly cause these religious parents to reject their LGBT children? Present those peer-reviewed studies, stop the wild-eyed assumptions & accusations, and then we'll talk. Have a nice day.

What a great Roland Garros! Novak beat Carlos in the most anticipated match of the year. The match lived up to its billing for the first 2 sets, but unfortunately Carlos succumbed to cramps early in the 3rd. Muchova played Swiatek a lot tougher than I expected. The Czech was up a break in the 3rd when Swiatek decided to step up the aggression. 3 RG titles in 4 years for the just turned 22 Swiatek. Novak took the lead in the Slam race by winning his 23rd over now 2-time RG finalist Casper Ruud. Ruud fought hard and played better than I expected, but Novak in Slams simply operates on another level.

@augustus mistakenly identified the protesters as the lunatic fringe group, the Westboro Baptist Church, when they were actually another lunatic fringe group, Official Street Preachers. No real difference between the two, unless you want to get all hair-splitty. I actually don't know any gay person who has been rejected by their family. Granted, that doesn't prove the problem doesn't exist, just as the one case of your fiance doesn't prove the problem is rampant and widespread. O Man of Science, can you prove the causal relationship between Pat Robertson and your fiance's parents' decision to cut off ties with him?