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Cameron: Earth's deepest spot desolate, foreboding
Associated Press ^ | March 26, 2012 | SETH BORENSTEIN, AP

Posted on 03/26/2012 6:28:08 AM PDT by jmcenanly


WASHINGTON — Diving to the deepest part of the ocean, filmmaker James Cameron says the last frontier on Earth looks an awful lot like another planet: desolate and foreboding.

Cameron on Monday described his three hours on the bottom of the Marianas Trench, nearly 7 miles down in a dark freezing and alien place. He is the only person to dive there solo, using a sub he helped design. He is the first person to reach that depth, 35,576 feet, since it was initially explored in 1960.

Cameron says he worried about being too busy with exploration duties to take in just how amazing this place was. That happened to Apollo astronauts.

So he says he took time to stare at the moon-like barren surface and to appreciate how alien it is.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: exploration
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I don't know which is more amazing, that he was able to reach the deepest point on earth with his own money, 50 years after the government did it and then gave up, or that he was able to tweet it immediately.
1 posted on 03/26/2012 6:28:22 AM PDT by jmcenanly
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To: jmcenanly

One wonders when this kind of adventuring might go badly and end his life.


2 posted on 03/26/2012 6:44:48 AM PDT by lurk
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To: jmcenanly
he was able to reach the deepest point on earth with his own money

Considering I shelled out my hard-earned money to see Avatar in the theaters and purchase it on Blu-ray, I'd like to think I contributed in a very small way to this impressive achievement. And as soon as Cameron gives me Titanic on Blu-ray, I'll contribute a little more.

3 posted on 03/26/2012 6:46:30 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: jmcenanly
What is remarkable is the Trieste doing it in 1960! I remember the National Geographic magazine afterward. It had pictures and the whole story. It seemed back then that we could do anything as a country...

Look at us now...

Mike

4 posted on 03/26/2012 6:48:30 AM PDT by MichaelP (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools ~HS)
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To: lurk
One wonders when this kind of adventuring might go badly and end his life.

This has to be one of those cases of every man dies, not every man lives. There are some people who just have to know what is on the other side of the hill, or in this case what is on the bottom of the ocean.

I respect him a lot more than the Hollywood types who blow their money on big houses and parties.
5 posted on 03/26/2012 6:50:31 AM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: lurk

I do not care for Cameron at all, but I would do the same if i had the resources.... A life without risk,is not worth living.


6 posted on 03/26/2012 6:51:19 AM PDT by Walkingfeather
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To: jmcenanly

To quote Dennis Miller “It is amazing someone so shallow can go so deep!”


7 posted on 03/26/2012 6:52:57 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: jmcenanly

I’m not a fan of the man(leftie, overbearing man) but I do admire his work(although never saw Avatar). And that he has used his own money to fund these expeditions. I wish him well and safe travels. Can’t wait to see the footage he shares with us.

I was always thrilled by the likes of Jaques Cousteau...almost everything I learned as a child about the ocean was from him.


8 posted on 03/26/2012 7:04:33 AM PDT by SueRae (Tale of 2 Towers - First, Isengaard (GOP-e), then, the Tower of Sauron on 11.06.2012)
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To: jmcenanly
I'm not a fan of the man(leftie, overbearing man) but I do admire his work(although never saw Avatar). And that he has used his own money to fund these expeditions. I wish him well and safe travels. Can't wait to see the footage he shares with us.

I was always thrilled by the likes of Jacques Cousteau...almost everything I learned as a child about the ocean was from him.

9 posted on 03/26/2012 7:05:09 AM PDT by SueRae (Tale of 2 Towers - First, Isengaard (GOP-e), then, the Tower of Sauron on 11.06.2012)
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To: SueRae
And that he has used his own money to fund these expeditions

I enjoy an author by the name of "Clive Cussler". He's written a good handful of dime store novels, "Raise the Titanic" among them.

He blows his earnings on classic antique cars and on taking his friends diving to look for famous sunken ships - the Confederate sub Hunley, among them. Interesting guy. I think he'd be fun to sit down and have a beer with.

His book, "The Sea Hunters", details a bunch of his expeditions. Some of the details might even be true. :-)

10 posted on 03/26/2012 7:36:25 AM PDT by wbill
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To: jmcenanly

James Cameron actually DOES stuff. His various works undersea are fascinating.


11 posted on 03/26/2012 7:39:44 AM PDT by WoofDog123
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To: jmcenanly

I think what is most amazing is that he will find a statue of John D. Rockefeller down there-—the man whose cheap kerosene saved the whales-—and every year there is a whale pilgrimmage to Rockefeller/Mecca to give thanks :)


12 posted on 03/26/2012 7:42:29 AM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually (Hendrix))
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To: lurk
One wonders when this kind of adventuring might go badly and end his life.

I'm reminded of the line from Braveheart, which went something like: "All men die. Only some men truly live".

13 posted on 03/26/2012 7:44:28 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell)
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To: GonzoGOP
This has to be one of those cases of every man dies, not every man lives.

Very sage words.

14 posted on 03/26/2012 7:49:14 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: spetznaz

I think he means FORBIDDING, not FOREBODING. I’m sure the author went to public school.


15 posted on 03/26/2012 7:59:04 AM PDT by huckfillary (qual tyo ta)
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To: SueRae

When I was young our whole family would get together every Sunday evening to watch “The Wonderful World of Disney” and “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”. It seems that Jaques Cousteau was featured on the later a number of times.


16 posted on 03/26/2012 8:13:11 AM PDT by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: huckfillary
Correct. A mistake that is often made:

From: http://grammarist.com/usage/forbidding-foreboding/

Forbidding vs. foreboding

The adjective foreboding, meaning presaging something, connotes portent. When something is foreboding, one gets the sense that something bad is going to happen. The participle is more often used as a noun, meaning a sense of impending misfortune. Forbidding means hostile, unfriendly, or tending to impede progress. Things that are forbidding may cause fear, but they don’t necessarily presage anything.

The two words are often confused, especially foreboding in place of forbidding—for example: The iron gates of One Buc Place are strong and foreboding. [TampaBay.com]

Unless the iron gates suggest that something bad is going to happen, this writer means forbidding.

17 posted on 03/26/2012 8:14:56 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: jmcenanly
...desolate, foreboding...

What did you expect, the Macy's parade?

18 posted on 03/26/2012 8:36:41 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (obamacare is an oxymoron.)
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To: lurk

Life ends. He’s 58, so odds are growing that his will end in short order. Better to end by sudden heart failure while out for a walk, or by sudden capsule failure while exploring 7 miles under sea where none have ever been?


19 posted on 03/26/2012 8:43:40 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/)
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To: the invisib1e hand
Speaking strictly for myself, if I dived to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, I'd kinda hope to see this fellow:
20 posted on 03/26/2012 8:47:56 AM PDT by AnAmericanAbroad (It's all bread and circuses for the future prey of the Morlocks.)
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