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James Cameron successfully dives to deepest point on Earth

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I

Ithil

Member
Dash27 said:
Not sure how in depth you'd want me to go. I dont want to derail anymore and I said I'm cool with what he's doing here. I wonder why people find it so hard to believe that one could have a negative opinion of him?
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This isn't "negative opinion", here. You're calling a man who has been demonstrated to be a highly intelligent and educated guy stupid because...you don't like his movies?
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
Loving the new TEDEducation videos, check out this one:

Deep ocean mysteries and wonders

In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean -- from the deepest trenches to the remains of the Titanic -- marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and beauty of marine life. (Launching a series on Awesome Nature)
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C

ComputerMKII

Banned
James Cameron says today’s ocean exploration is “piss poor.” He’s right.

James Cameron is unhappy with the present state of ocean exploration. He's so unhappy that he's taken it upon himself to spearhead an effort to return to Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in all the world's oceans. In fact, he's making the trip this week — and he's making it alone.
To clarify, Cameron will be making the dive alone, but plenty of others will be assisting the mission in other ways — after all, Cameron isn't the only one unhappy with the current state of ocean exploration; he's drummed up experts from all over the world to make this excursion a reality.

Cameron's descent will be made in a custom-built submersible that he had specially designed for the almost 11,000-meter dive into the most cavernous reaches of the Marianas Trench. Conditions permitting, Cameron hopes to be on the bottom of Challenger Deep by this Wednesday.

Should he succeed, Cameron will become the third person in history to visit the deepest point on Earth. Go ahead and let that figure sink in for a moment. More people have walked on the surface of the Moon than have visited the bottom of the Marianas Trench. We've even been to the Moon more recently than we have the very bottom of the sea — the last (and only) time somebody visited Challenger Deep in person was in 1960. The overwhelming majority of our planet is covered in oceans, and yet we still know so few of their deepest, darkest secrets.


With this in mind, Cameron is working with researchers from around the world to make the dive a scientifically meaningful one. His seven-meter-tall submersible (named the DeepSea Challenger, featured up top and in this video) is equipped with a water sampler, a sediment collector, a "slurp gun" for nabbing animals, a robotic manipulator arm, cameras, and — of course — lots and lots of lights. He'll be accompanied by a trio of unmanned "landers," equipped with even more gadgets, samplers, and baited animal traps.

What is most remarkable about Cameron's expedition is how much potential is has for expanding our limited knowledge of the oceans' depths. Consider, for example, that if the DeepSea Challenger (or one of the three landers) returns to the surface with even a single fish from below 4,000 meters, it will be an unprecedented scientific achievement.

The Death of Deep Sea Science
The lack of knowledge surrounding the oceans' depths isn't particularly surprising when you realize that funding for deep sea research has been dwindling for years. And according to Craig McClain — chief editor at Deep Sea News, and a deep sea researcher, himself — more cuts to deep sea funding are imminent. McClain says that John R. Smith, the Science Director at the Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory, recently sent out an email notifying the community that

NOAA has zeroed out funding for the Undersea Research Program (NURP) for FY13 beginning Oct 1, 2012, and put all the centers on life support funding (or less) for the current year. Many other NOAA programs, mostly extramural ones, have been cut to some level, though it appears only NURP and another have had their funding zeroed out completely.

McClain says that what's especially striking about this "is that within the FY13 NOAA Budget, the Office of Ocean Exploration [the division that contains NURP] took the second biggest cut of all programs (-16.5%). Sadly, the biggest cut came to education programs (-55.1%)."

With any luck, Cameron's efforts will go a long way in piquing public interest in deep sea research. (We know, for example, that Pandora's oceans will feature prominently in the Avatar sequel, and that Cameron has even toyed with the idea of filming parts of the movie in the Marianas Trench.) Doug Bartlett, a marine microbiologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Cameron's chief scientist for the dive, thinks that the mission will help get kids "dreaming of the possibility of going into engineering and oceanography and all sorts of science fields." But Cameron says that reversing the decline of deep sea research will take more than his expedition, alone.

"I think we've got to do better," he told Nature News. "If it means getting private individuals together with institutions and bypassing the whole government paradigm, that's fine. Maybe that's what we need to do."

In the meantime, however, those interested in deep sea exploration would do well to fight for what little funding it has left. According to McClain, the best way to do that is to write a letter expressing support for deep sea research to Hawaii Senator Dan Inouye, with a copy to NOAA Director Jane Lubchenco. Their contact information is listed below, but you'll want to head over to Deep Sea News to learn more about the decline of deep sea science research both in the US.
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http://io9.com/5894566/james-camero...e-of-ocean-exploration-is-piss-poor-hes-right
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
JAMES CAMERON HAS DISEMBARKED FOR THE MARIANA TRENCH SITE - VIDEO HERE

Mr Cameron and his team have set sail to reach the trench and are now waiting for a clear stretch of weather to begin the dive.

The BBC met up with the director in Guam, just before he set out for the high seas. This tiny tropical island is the nearest major landmass to the Mariana Trench - the focus of Mr Cameron's ambition.

In the balmy heat, the team was making last-minute preparations for this journey to the deepest depth in the seas.
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God speed, Iron Jim! Be safe!
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
I'm scared as fuck for him. Forget any slight punctures being the instant death of him. What if something interferes with one of the flotation devices that are to be released and bring him back up? Motherfucker could be stuck down there, waiting to die.
 
W

Winnie the Pimp

Member
Scullibundo said:
I'm scared as fuck for him. Forget any slight punctures being the instant death of him. What if something interferes with one of the flotation devices that are to be released and bring him back up? Motherfucker could be stuck down there, waiting to die.
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then they'd just have to coordinate the most spectacular rescue operation in all of history to get him back up! now THAT would make a movie... (maybe it's even planned that way? whatatwist.jpg)
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Winnie the Pimp said:
then they'd just have to coordinate the most spectacular rescue operation in all of history to get him back up! now THAT would make a movie... (maybe it's even planned that way? whatatwist.jpg)
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Yeah....no. If something goes wrong, he is 100% a dead man. It takes more than four hours to surface again and he's in the only sub that can reach that depth.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Scullibundo said:
Yeah....no. If something goes wrong, he is 100% a dead man. It takes more than four hours to surface again and he's in the only sub that can reach that depth.
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I'm actually quite nervous about this. He's been doing testing at some good depths, but the only way to fully test the sub is to go down there. One person, tons of complex equipment, totally isolated, with so much that can go wrong.
 
V

VariantX04

Loser slave of the system :(
Yeah I am a little worried about what might happen down there but I'm sure they all prepared for this and took every possible precaution to guarantee his safety. Whatever the outcome, I have a newfound respect for this man.
 
K

Krev

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, I've been worried from the first I heard about this.
Hopefully he brings back some great quality footage.
 
T

tino

Banned
Scullibundo said:
I'm scared as fuck for him. Forget any slight punctures being the instant death of him. What if something interferes with one of the flotation devices that are to be released and bring him back up? Motherfucker could be stuck down there, waiting to die.
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But the aliens will bring him up.
 
F

Fry

Member
I have been reading through this thread. Man, those pictures showing how deep the ocean is are mind-blowing. I really hope Cameron can pull this off.
 
W

Winnie the Pimp

Member
Scullibundo said:
Yeah....no. If something goes wrong, he is 100% a dead man. It takes more than four hours to surface again and he's in the only sub that can reach that depth.
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Surely they'd at least TRY and do something in case something went wrong no?

Let's assume he gets stuck down there for whatever reason... If he's got water with him, he could technically last for almost a WEEK or more right? Unless the sub is not meant to withstand the pressure over time which i am not sure of, or nobody really knows yet how it will react anyway!

His team would then surely try and create another such sub to go down not AS deep but maybe deep enough to the point where they'd be able to reach his sub with a cable that had say, a magnet at the end or whatever to grab Cameron's sub!

Anyway, this may all well be complete nonsense but if something went wrong i doubt they'd simply sit on their asses and say "whelp, well that's that" and organize the funeral ;)
 
C

Casp0r

Banned
Scullibundo said:
I'm scared as fuck for him. Forget any slight punctures being the instant death of him. What if something interferes with one of the flotation devices that are to be released and bring him back up? Motherfucker could be stuck down there, waiting to die.
Click to expand...

They're testing it unmanned first. I'm sure any serious problems will be highlighted and fixed before he actually goes down in it.
 
K

Kung Fu Jedi

Member
Scullibundo said:
Yeah....no. If something goes wrong, he is 100% a dead man. It takes more than four hours to surface again and he's in the only sub that can reach that depth.
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It's not the only sub that can reach that depth, but there probably aren't any others close enough to assist if something goes wrong. That said, they have failsafe upon failsafe on the submersible. It would have to be a fairly catastrophic failure for him to not come back up alive.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Kung Fu Jedi said:
It's not the only sub that can reach that depth, but there probably aren't any others close enough to assist if something goes wrong. That said, they have failsafe upon failsafe on the submersible. It would have to be a fairly catastrophic failure for him to not come back up alive.
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I obviously meant available subs.
 
F

Foreign Jackass

Member
So we're saying that movies that make a lot of money are smart movies? I'm not saying that James Cameron doesn't know how to make MONEY. I'm saying he hasn't made INTELLIGENT movies.

I suggest looking at the list of highest grossing movies of all time. I'll provide a list for you. Let me tell you, it ain't exactly populated with masterpieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

And to Sculli, who actually posted a video of SPIELBERG to defend CAMERON? Come on, man. Spielberg has made more masterpieces than Cameron has directed good minutes. I love the guy.

I don't hate moneymakers. I just don't like James Cameron, and don't think he's much of a filmmaker.

Sorry that my answer's late, too, but hey, I've been replied to over and over, I had to post something when I saw this thread pop up again.

That said, I'm curious about whatever the hell comes up from this, be it a spectacular submarine implosion or the discovery of a new sub-eating species.
 
D

Dr. Zombutler

Member
Yeah, I have nothing against James Cameron personally; some of the stuff he does(such as this underwater experiment) is pretty damn cool. I just think he's a terrible filmmaker.
 
F

FGMPR

Banned
Dr. Zombutler said:
Yeah, I have nothing against James Cameron personally; some of the stuff he does(such as this underwater experiment) is pretty damn cool. I just think he's a terrible filmmaker.
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I'm not a fan of his last two films at all, but calling him a terrible filmmaker?

Take your hand off it. The guy directed T1/T2/Aliens/True Lies etc. How on earth could he be deemed a 'terrible' filmmaker?
 
J

jmdajr

Member
Pretty exciting stuff!

To add to that I have no problem with James films. If anything his biggest problem is that he's kind of an asshole. But well, lots of great visionary people can be.
 
F

Foreign Jackass

Member
FGMPR said:
I'm not a fan of his last two films at all, but calling him a terrible filmmaker?

Take you're hand off it. The guy directed T1/T2/Aliens/True Lies etc. How on earth could he be deemed a 'terrible' filmmaker?
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T2 and Aliens are good movies, yeah. But those came more than 20 years ago, dude. But yeah, maybe terrible is a bit harsh.

I guess he's what Chris Nolan will be in 5-10 years.
 
J

jmdajr

Member
Foreign Jackass said:
T2 and Aliens are good movies, yeah. But those came more than 20 years ago, dude. But yeah, maybe terrible is a bit harsh.

I guess he's what Chris Nolan will be in 5-10 years.
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Number of movies he's made since true lies... 2!
And neither are even close to being "the worst movies ever" or any other sentiment to that degree.

No.1 factor against the uber hate of those movies was INSANE mas appeal. It clouds judgement. People also hate Cameron's ego and want him to fail.
You can't remove that bias.

But I should stop ranting.

Where are the underwater aliens?!
 
T

Tom_Cody

Member
Count me among those who is super pumped for this. I read/watched most of the content on the site yesterday.

Cameron's Aliens of Deep 3D is still one of my favorite things ever. I can't wait to buy whatever documentary comes out of this.
 
F

Foreign Jackass

Member
jmdajr said:
Number of movies he's made since true lies... 2!
And neither are even close to being "the worst movies " or any other sentiment to that degree.

No.1 factor against the hate factor of those movies was INSANE mas appeal. It clouds judgement. People also hate Cameron's ego and want him to fail.
Click to expand...

I don't like his ego, yeah. But Titanic and Avatar are awful, whatever the mass appeal. Watching it these days, Titanic has aged incredibly bad, and I saw Avatar pretty early before knowing if it was going to be a major success or not, and I hated it. The guy I went with to watch the film actually went for a cigarette break in the middle of it, and I almost fell asleep, which I never does.
 
E

equap

Banned
Scullibundo said:
I'm scared as fuck for him. Forget any slight punctures being the instant death of him. What if something interferes with one of the flotation devices that are to be released and bring him back up? Motherfucker could be stuck down there, waiting to die.
Click to expand...

Everything is going to be fine. Chill out you guys.
 
J

jmdajr

Member
Foreign Jackass said:
I don't like his ego, yeah. But Titanic and Avatar are awful, whatever the mass appeal. Watching it these days, Titanic has aged incredibly bad, and I saw Avatar pretty early before knowing if it was going to be a major success or not, and I hated it. The guy I went with to watch the film actually went for a cigarette break in the middle of it, and I almost fell asleep, which I never does.
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There ya go.
 
C

Casp0r

Banned
Foreign Jackass said:
I don't like his ego, yeah. But Titanic and Avatar are awful, whatever the mass appeal. Watching it these days, Titanic has aged incredibly bad, and I saw Avatar pretty early before knowing if it was going to be a major success or not, and I hated it. The guy I went with to watch the film actually went for a cigarette break in the middle of it, and I almost fell asleep, which I never does.
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So basically you hate movies and enjoying yourself.
 
T

Tom_Cody

Member
Is there a website with updates as they happen? I just checked the main site and the twitter feed and I wasn't able to find anything.
 
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