LONDON: Titanic submersible pilot Stockton Rush was "extremely" serious about safety, his former business partner said on Friday (Jun 23) after mounting criticism following a deadly implosion.
William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, a voluntary industry body, said OceanGate was "not willing" to undergo a standard certification process for the Titan submersible.
But Guillermo Soehnlein, who started OceanGate with Rush in 2009 before leaving the company in 2013, denied his late friend was reckless.
"He was extremely committed to safety," Soehnlein told Britain's Times Radio, while stressing he was not involved in Titan's experimental design.
"He was also extremely diligent about managing risks, and was very keenly aware of the dangers of operating in a deep ocean environment," he said.
Soehnlein noted that Cameron himself had conducted many submersible descents, including more than 30 to the Titanic site, and to the Earth's deepest point in the Pacific Mariana Trench.
"I think he was asked about a similar risk and he said, 'look, if something happens at that depth, it will be catastrophic in a matter of microseconds'.
"To the point where the implosion happens at almost supersonic speeds and you'd basically be dead before your brain could even process that anything was wrong."
Earlier this week, a tweet went viral claiming that a schoolteacher from Malaysia had secretly filmed the contents of her students’ bags without their consent and posted it on TikTok.
The now-deleted tweet tagged education minister Fadhlina Sidek and said: “YBM, I received this video via WhatsApp. The teacher is going through her pupils’ things and posted a video on this. I don’t know her profile name on TikTok, but the teacher is wearing a REAL school lanyard.”
Teachers of TikTok
The teacher in question is Shi Qi, on TikTok she is known as @notqiwiie, and specializes in creating educational content featuring her students, with the consent of their parents.
As expected, the internet was inundated with both criticism and support regarding the teacher’s actions. Some argued that while parents may have given consent, the children themselves might not agree or fully comprehend the potential impact of having their faces exposed on the internet.
Following the controversy, Shi Qi apologized and revealed that the viral video was actually sponsored content intended to promote a children’s vitamin product.
In response to the backlash, Shi Qi’s TikTok account, which had over a million followers, now only features a single video—an apology—while the rest of her content has been removed due to the uproar.
“I would like to apologize to the parents and individuals who were offended by a recent video I posted. I am really sorry. The video was sponsored content. It was filmed during break time and I placed the gummies into the bags before the shoot. I looked through the student’s bags, took out a gummy, and ate it,” the apology reads.
As someone who has viewed her content, it is evident that Shi Qi genuinely cares about her role as a teacher, and the students in her videos appear to genuinely like her.
This indicates that she has a strong connection with her students, likely facilitated by her adeptness in navigating social media and content creation.
Shi Qi is not the only teacher who has gained influence through social media. In fact, it has become quite popular for teachers to document their daily activities in the classroom or participate in TikTok trends with their students.
However, this situation raises an important question: where should the boundaries be drawn?
Students are not money-making objects
Michelle Tan, a preschool homeroom teacher at an international school in Kuala Lumpur, expressed her belief that it is commendable for teachers to document their professional lives. However, she emphasizes that it becomes problematic when students’ faces are exposed to the public.
“I think that it’s great for teachers to create content on TikTok and everything but at the same time, you also have to be responsible for what kind of content we put up on the internet,” she told Coconuts.
“I do it too, I post about my experiences as an educator on TikTok but I do not reveal their faces,” she added.
“Teachers must also exercise caution when it comes to creating content in the classroom because it can be construed as using your students to make yourself famous or monetize from it,” she said.
Protecting the kids
Michelle also pointed out the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential risks for underage children whose faces are shared on the internet.
She noted that there is a risk of their images being misused in pornographic materials.
To mitigate these concerns, Michelle ensures that she seeks permission from parents whenever she includes her students’ faces in teaching materials or assignments.
Similarly, Azhani Fisal, a 26-year-old teacher based in Selangor, shares Michelle’s sentiments.
She believes that educators must exercise utmost discretion when it comes to their students’ identities. Azhani emphasizes that teachers should prioritize their students’ well-being rather than creating content.
“Documenting our daily classroom activities is acceptable, as long as we take precautions to avoid posting or making students’ faces go viral,” she said.
“It is crucial to hide their faces, even if their parents grant permission. Children themselves may not fully comprehend how media operates and might object to their images being shared.”
“Sometimes, it is not only up to the parents to give consent; the children themselves should also be aware of what to anticipate,” she added.
She said teachers need to remind themselves that their role is not to create content but to ensure the well-being of their students.
In summary, this incident involving Shi Qi has sparked a broader conversation about the appropriate boundaries for teacher-influencers and the potential risks associated with exposing students’ identities on the internet.
Socialite-influencer Jamie Chua, who caused a buzz when she showed off her huge walk-in wardrobe in 2019, has given a mini-tour of her new closet.
In a video shared on Instagram on Thursday, the 49-year-old showed off the space in her new home, which she began moving into in March.
The mini-tour, titled 10 things In My Walk-In Wardrobe Which Just Make Sense, starts with her entering the room through doors equipped with a face- and fingerprint-recognition lock.
Inside the spacious room – she did not state its floor area – there is even a separate walk-in unit, encased in glass and temperature-controlled, for her collection of designer handbags.
She is said to have one of the largest collections of Hermes bags in the world, numbering more than 200 pieces and valued at more than US$2 million (S$2.7 million).
Other features include dehumidifiers in every closet, LED lighting sensors, velvet-lined drawers and customised storage for her jewellery, sunglasses, scarves, watches, belts and socks.
In the video, her vast collection of footwear and gowns can also be seen behind glass doors.
Chua had earlier in June teased her 1.3 million Instagram followers with a video of her getting ready for a party while twirling about in her walk-in wardrobe, and many fans had been calling for her to share a closet tour.
She had also offered a glimpse of what she called her “vanity glam room” in a YouTube video in April, sharing on beauty products she uses as well as her luxury jacket collection.
Other parts of her abode have also been featured on her socials, including the dining area with a fancy chandelier and the open-concept kitchen, which was mainly in white and stocked with Smeg appliances.
BOSTON - A multinational mission to find a missing submersible near the Titanic wreck is still focused on rescuing the five-member crew alive, the US Coast Guard insisted on Thursday, despite fears that the vessel’s oxygen may already have run out.
But as that possible deadline passed, US Coast Guard Rear-Admiral John Mauger said rescuers were “fully committed”.
“People’s will to live really needs to be accounted for as well. And so we’re continuing to search and proceed with rescue efforts,” he told NBC’s Today show.
A remotely operated vehicle deployed from a Canadian vessel reached the ocean floor to begin searching, the US Coast Guard said on Thursday morning, while another robotic craft from a French research ship was also preparing to dive to the seabed.
The minivan-sized Titan, operated by US-based OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent at 8am on Sunday but lost contact with its support ship.
Despite the fading hopes, Rear-Admiral Mauger told broadcaster NBC the search would continue throughout Thursday.
The French research ship Atalante, equipped with a robotic diving craft capable of reaching where the Titanic lies about 3,810m below the surface, had arrived in the zone as of Thursday.
It was first using an echo-sounder to accurately map the seabed for the robot’s search to be more targeted, the French marine research institute Ifremer said.
The robot, Victor 6000, has arms that can be remotely controlled to help free a trapped craft or hook it to a ship to haul it up. The US Navy is sending a special salvage system designed to lift large undersea objects.
Organisers of the multinational response – which includes US and Canadian military planes, coast guard ships and teleguided robots – are focusing their efforts in the North Atlantic close to the underwater noises detected by sonar.
SINGAPORE — There is a high likelihood of severe haze occurring in Southeast Asia this year, a Singapore think-tank reported, although the situation is unlikely to be as severe as in 2015, when the pollutant standards index (PSI) here reached hazardous levels.
This is based on experts' predictions that there will be a severe dry spell hitting the region due to the El Nino weather phenomenon that brings with it hotter and drier conditions.
The annual Haze Outlook 2023 report was released on Wednesday (June 21) by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), and it is the first time since the institute started publishing the yearly reports in 2019 that it has given a “red” rating for 2023.
The scale goes from “green” (low risk) to “amber” (medium risk) to “red” (high risk).
The forecast is in line with an announcement made last month by the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre, which monitors and assesses land and forest fires as well as the occurrence of transboundary smoke haze affecting the region where the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) lie.
The centre determined that there may be a higher risk of transboundary haze occurring between June and October in the southern Asean region. It said that with a high likelihood of El Nino conditions developing in the coming months, the dry season is expected to be more intense and prolonged compared to recent years, and extend into October.
For the latest report by SIIA, its high-risk assessment was based on three main factors, namely:
The weather: Meteorological forecasts such as temperature and rainfall, where a heatwave may increase the chance of forest and peat fires burning out of control and creating haze
Government policies: Actions taken by governments as well as the cooperation and coordination between public and private sectors
Market conditions: Companies in the agricultural business sector respond to markets and prices, and smaller plantation operators may expand irresponsibly in response to price signals by doing land clearing that leads to deforestation
Associate Professor Simon Tay, chairman of the institute, said of the significance of the red rating: “Although we have seen bad haze in the years before the outlook was published, the outlook has never been so pessimistic, so concerned as we are today.”
SIIA is a non-profit and independent think-tank that analyses Asean-focused policies as well as issues driving environmental sustainability, among others.
Its report carried a forecast by the United States National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, where there is an 84 per cent chance that this year’s El Nino will “go beyond the moderate range into a strong event”.
There is even a 25 per cent chance of a “super El Nino” occurring.
Mr Aaron Choo who co-authored the report said that a “moderate” El Nino is classified as when the sea surface temperature is recorded at about 1°C above normal, while a “severe” or “super” El Nino is classified as when the sea surface temperature is recorded at about 2°C above normal.
The senior assistant director of special projects and sustainability at SIIA added: “In 1997 and 2015, there were over 2°C temperature differences. When it hits that, it’s super El Nino territory, and we are in a very high probability that there will be severe haze.”
However, he said that even in the worst-case situation, the severity of the haze “should not be as bad as 2015”, owing to the Indonesian government’s progress on fire prevention, fire suppression as well as strong policies in place.
Mr Choo added: “Preventative actions and proactive responses are critical. It is important that officials continue to closely watch the situation on the ground as weather conditions turn.”
On this point, Assoc Prof Tay said that if the El Nino effect is not severe, the policies in place could make the severity of the haze in Singapore more akin to 2019 rather than 2015.
In Singapore, the 24-hour PSI reading crossed the 300 mark to the hazardous range in 2015, while the reading went beyond 100 to the unhealthy range in 2019.
A study by researchers from Nanyang Technological University once placed the total cost of the two-month-long haze in 2015 at an estimated S$1.83 billion. At that time, schools had to close and more than 40,000 Singaporeans claimed medical subsidies for illnesses linked to the polluted air.
Late last month, the National Environment Agency issued an advisory warning of the risks of a severe haze.
It reminded the public to prepare for what may come, such as by having enough N95 masks and if they have air purifiers, that these appliances be in “good working condition”.
Standing by this advice, Assoc Prof Tay pointed to the shortage of N95 masks in 2015 as an example of the importance of haze preparedness.
“I think our red alarm does warrant everyone taking certain steps, which are low-cost options. It is better to be prepared than caught off guard.”
