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It has been 100 years since the Titanic that famously got the attention of media world-wide and dubbed as the “Unsinkable Ship”, “The ship even God can’t sink”, “God himself couldn’t sink this ship” etc., suffered a fatal collision with an ice-berg and sank within 4 days into sea on it’s maiden voyage.

Here is the story of Titanic, one that will always remind us not to be arrogant.

It was 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, a moonless, freezing Sunday night 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Most of the 2,224 passengers and crew were asleep, though a boisterous game of bridge was going in the First Class Smoking Room.

The jolt was so mild that many sleepers did not wake until the massive ship rumbled to a stop.

Even on the bridge, the captain and his officers didn’t yet realize that the brand new liner — her paint still fresh and her fittings still shiny — had been mortally wounded.

But she had only two hours and forty minutes to live. So did 1,522 of those aboard.

The Titanic’s maiden voyage came to an abrupt end that night. But in the public fascination, she steams ever on, a dazzling treasure ship of legends and stories that, in the end, has proven unsinkable.

“Only Jesus and the Civil War have been written about more,” says Harvard historian Steven Biel.

The 75-foot-tall iceberg scraped 300 feet of the Titanic’s starboard hull, popping rivets, buckling steel plates and opening her to the sea in six places.

The liner was built with 16 watertight compartments to keep her from sinking, but they had no tops. Like an ice cube tray, they filled with water and began spilling over into the next compartment. Titanic’s bow began to sink and her prow began to rise.

Captain Edward Smith, a beloved figure who was set to retire after this final trip,

summoned Thomas Andrews, the ship’s builder. Together they went below to find, to their horror, that the mailroom and squash court had already flooded.

Lifeboats were considered an eyesore, so the Titanic carried just 20 — enough to save only half of those aboard.

On a night so cold and still that survivors said they could see stars reflected in the glassy sea, Smith knew half the people on the liner were not going to be saved.

He told the wireless operators to start sending distress calls.

In an era when millionaires were the biggest celebrities of the day, the cream of New York and London society was on board: millionaire John Jacob Astor and his scandalously young child bride, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, Macy’s owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, socialite Molly Brown, journalist William Thomas Stead and film actress Dorothy Gibson were among the 324 First Class passengers.

Wealthy fashion writer Edith Russell paid for two staterooms — one just for the clothes she was bringing home from Paris.

Below decks, immigrants from 28 countries — some who had never had indoor plumbing — enjoyed another version of luxury.

On deck, bewildered passengers had to be coaxed into the lifeboats. By the time the danger was apparent and panic set in, most boats had pulled away half-empty.

Chivalry dictated that women and children should take priority over men. In the confusion, one officer loading boats ordered “women and children first.” The other enforced “women and children only .”

This led to heartbreaking goodbyes as men put their wives and kids into the lifeboats, knowing they would not be reunited. Some men even stepped back onto the sinking ship from half-empty lifeboats so as not to appear ungallant.

Guggenheim went to his cabin and changed into his top hat and evening clothes. His valet did the same.

“We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen,” were the last words Guggenheim was heard to declare.

Some couples refused to be separated.

“Where you go, I go,” Ida Straus told her husband. The elderly couple was last seen in a pair of deck chairs, calmly awaiting the end.

While 61% of First Class survived, only 22% of Steerage did. Titanic became famous for “women and children first,” but it could more accurately be called “first class first.”

Rockets were fired to alert any nearby ships and the wireless operators sent out a new distress call — SOS — the first time it was ever used.

The RMS Carpathia, 58 miles away, was the closest ship to respond. It would take her four hours, going at top speed and risking her own hull in the ice field, to reach the Titanic.

Much nearer, close enough to save everyone, floated the SS Californian. Her radioman had turned off his wireless and gone to bed just 15 minutes before the Titanic began begging for help.

As the Titanic sank, Catholic priest Father Thomas Byles heard confessions at the stern and the ship’s band played sprightly airs to cheer those about to die.

Capt. Smith was last seen at the bridge, the quintessential captain who went down with his ship.

But White Star Line Chairman J. Bruce Ismay, the man responsible for the lack of lifeboats, escaped in one.

The Titanic slipped beneath the waves at 2:20 a.m. It broke in two under the surface and began its slow two-mile fall to the bottom.

Those who watched from the lifeboats said they were forever haunted by the unearthly sound that went up then: the cries of hundreds of people in the icy water begging for help.

Fifty-three were children.

The lifeboats, though mostly not full, did not go back to pick up the swimmers, fearing they would be swamped.

The cries did not last too long.

Chief Baker Charles Joughin famously made it through with unusual panache, largely due to his being completely pickled.

He strolled the decks, easily keeping his balance as everyone else fell over, and found himself standing on the outer rail of the ship as it sank. He rode Titanic down like an elevator, stepping off when he reached the sea and swimming away smoothly into the icy night.

“I do not believe my head went under the water at all,” he later told an official inquiry.

Full of whiskey and buoyed by his lifejacket, he paddled around for two and a half hours until he was pulled into a lifeboat. He lived another 44 years.

The Carpathia arrived at 4 a.m. and began pulling people out of lifeboats. A number had died overnight.

Carpathia Capt. Arthur Rostron set course for New York with the 706 human and three canine survivors, arriving at Pier 34 at Little West 12th St. on the evening of April 18.

Forty thousand New Yorkers stood on the waterfront — news of the sensational sinking had electrified the world.

Titanic has become part of history.

Credits : NyDailyNews.com

The Russians are developing a secret weapon that will turn people into Zombies, literally! There isn’t really much information about where the weapon is being made only some shady comments by Russia’s defense minister which tells us it is not a happy story.

Russian President Vladmir Putin confirmed that his country is working on the creation of an electromagnetic gun that attacks its target’s central nervous system, putting them in what we hope is a temporary, zombie-like state. According to Russian defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov, “when it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a frying pan.”

“We know very little about this weapon, and even special forces guys can hardly cope with it,” added Serdyukov. That doesn’t sound very comforting.

While this technology is certainly disturbing, thankfully, it’s unlikely to be the cause of the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Victims of the gun don’t — as far as we know — develop a taste for human brains. And since the zombie effect isn’t viral, those dissidents won’t be able to go around turning other people into the restless undead. Phew.

Jim Marshall popularly known as the Lord of Loud the pioneer on guitar amplifiers has died today. He was 88. He his known to have worked for some of the greatest names in Rock Music.

A spokeswoman for the company he founded said he passed away in Milton Keynes, southeast England, on Thursday morning. She could not confirm reports that he had been suffering from cancer and had a series of strokes.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved founder and leader for the past 50 years, Jim Marshall,” said a statement on his company’s website.

“While mourning the Guv’nor though, we also salute a legendary man who led a full and truly remarkable life.”

Tributes poured in for a man credited with helping to shape the sound of guitar rock.

“The news of Jim Marshall passing is deeply saddening,” former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash said in a message on Twitter. “R & R will never be the same w/out him. But, his amps will live on FOREVER!”

His company said in a written tribute: “Your memory, the music and joy your amps have brought to countless millions for the past five decades and that world-famous, omnipresent script logo that proudly bears your name will always live on.”

Marshall is revered as one of the four forefathers of rock music equipment along with Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover.

The French police has arrested over 10 people across France over crackdown of Muslim Radicals. All this without any evidence and just to prove a point.

The arrests were carried out as part of a preliminary investigation opened Monday into terror-linked activity in France, a judicial official said.

Another official close to the investigation said the 10 were suspected of links to Islamist websites and of threatening violence in online forums. Some of them may have been trying to attend jihadist training camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he added.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

On Tuesday, preliminary charges were filed against 13 people who were picked up in a sweep last week, all members of a banned group, Forsane Alizza, or Knights of Pride. Nine of them were jailed. The four others were released but must report to officials.

France is turning into a hostile nation for foreigners.

Dr. Leila Denmark, the world’s oldest practicing physician when she retired at age 103, died Sunday in Athens, her family members said. She was 114.
Denmark became the first resident physician at Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children in Atlanta when it opened in 1928, said her grandson, Steven Hutcherson of Atlanta. She also admitted the first patient at the hospital, now part of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

She loved helping children, and it showed in the way she would turn to the next family waiting to see her, Hutcherson said.

“She would say, ‘Who is the next little angel?,” he said.

Denmark began her pediatrics practice in her home in Atlanta in 1931 and continued until her retirement in 2001. That year, she earned the distinction of being the world’s oldest practicing physician, said Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records. She was also the world’s fourth-oldest living person when she died, Young said.

Throughout her career, she always kept her office in or near her home, where children and their parents would show up at all hours in need of care, family members said.

“The kids would come in and she would spend as much time as she needed with the parents to help fix that baby or that child,” Hutcherson said. “What she would do is figure out how to help them stay well.”

Denmark also received several honors during her career, including the Fisher Award in 1935 for outstanding research in diagnosis, treatment, and immunization of whooping cough.

She received alumni awards from Tift College, Mercer University, Georgia Southern and the Medical College of Georgia; and honorary degrees from Tift, Mercer and Emory University.

Denmark’s funeral is planned for 1 p.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church in Athens.

“Everything about her was always trying to make a difference, first and foremost,” Steven Hutcherson said.

Source: Yahoo News

Simon Cowell does not only have an heavenly instinct to spot talent but also knows when he is losing to competition. Simon has asked the production team of Britain’s Got Talent to make the new season the ‘greatest’ ever to compete with The Voice.

Simon has returned to BGT to help it take on The Voice, but has told everyone else involved in the programme they need to raise their game to win the ratings war.

‘Knowing that was on the horizon, I got all of our team over to America last year,’ he told the Sun.

‘I said, “We’re in a completely different place, this show has got to be the greatest series ever produced”.’

He added the BBC’s decision to buy The Voice had been a ‘wake-up call’ for him.

‘If someone beats or competes, it means you’ve got to work better. And in a funny way the viewers benefit,’ the 52-year-old said.

BGT’s revamped panel, which features Alesha Dixon and David Walliams, together with talent show stalwart Amanda Holden, has already unearthed a potential star.

One Ad at the Washington DC Metro Station, read, “Barack Obama wants politicians and bureaucrats to control America’s entire medical system. Go to hell Barack”.

A perfect way of campaigning. Lol! i believe the heat of campaign pressure to make the general public listen to them made someone go beyond the line and guess what this ad is ok as per American Law of Free speech.

I am afraid the ad is going to be displayed not only in the metro station but also all over the states for a long long time.

An ad at a DC Metro station — which starts off criticizing Obama’s health care reforms and ends up telling the president to “go to hell” — goes beyond the pale, says Jim Moran, a Democratic congressman from Virginia.

The advertisement is for “Sick and Sicker: When the Government Becomes Your Doctor,” a documentary that interviews Canadian doctors and patients in the hope of showing how dangerous “Obamacare” is for the American people.

Moran wrote a letter to Metro general manager Richard Sarles calling for the removal of the advertisement.

“The ad is deeply disrespectful of the President of the United States and does not belong in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) network,” he wrote.

It turns out that such language is within the accepted limits of American law and such advertisements are protected under the First Amendment of the US constitution, guaranteeing free speech.

“WMATA advertising has been ruled by the courts as a public forum protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, and we may not decline ads based on their political content,” the Metro authority said in a written statement.

“WMATA does not endorse the advertising on our system, and ads do not reflect the position of the Authority.”

Democrats have accused Republicans of lowering the tone of the political discourse in the United States during this election season, in particular with highly personal attacks on the president.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, was widely condemned recently by Democrats for poking her finger at the president during an angry exchange on the tarmac after she greeted his arrival in Phoenix.

But conservatives argue that the treatment Obama gets is no worse than what liberals dished out to former president George W. Bush, especially in his second term after the US-led invasion of Iraq.