Titanic Exhibit at the Henry Ford

We went to the Titanic exhibit at the Henry Ford museum today. The Henry Ford is located in Dearborn, Michigan near the Ford World Headquarters and R&D Facilities.

Filled with artifacts and photographs, you are given an actual person’s boarding pass as you enter. The pass I got was for first class passenger Mr. Jacques Heath Futrelle. Mr. Futrelle  of all things wrote mystery novels,  so I found that eerie and familiar. As you leave the exhibit, you look up the person on your boarding pass and see if they survived. I told Barb as soon as I received Mr. Futrelle’s card and read it, “he didn’t make it.”

Mr. Futrelle wrote a mystery series starring the Thinking Machine beginning with The Problem of Cell 13. As the Titanic sank Futrelle forced his wife into a lifeboat and refused to board.

Quotations were on the walls throughout the exhibit. I saw one that said something like, “For God’s sake, get in the boat. It’s your last chance!” This is what Mr. Futrelle said as he  forced his wife Lily into the lifeboat.

The temperature decreased in the dark room where a large chunk of ice shaped like an iceberg was on display. Visitors are encouraged to touch it. I put my hand on the block of ice and was shocked how cold it felt. The temperature of the ice was warmer than the frigid Atlantic salt water. People that went into the water could only have lasted minutes. Jacques Futrelle was 37 years old when he went down with the Titanic.

If you’re in the Detroit area up to September the Titanic Exhibition is well worth seeing. Here’s a link for more information: http://www.titanicdetroit.com/

The System – A Detroit Story – Chapter 1 Part 2 Podcast

I just posted the podcast for Chapter 1 Part 2 of The System – A Detroit Story. Go here to listen: http://johnsilverbooks.com

The System – A Detroit Story – Free Podcasts

I’m putting out The System – A Detroit Story – as a free audiobook. The first part of Chapter 1, Chris, Clarence and Zippy Boost Escalades can be found here: http://johnsilverbooks.podbean.com/

Minutes and Seconds

Here’s a bit of trivia I read in an old calculus book. Why are seconds called seconds? Back in the Queen Elizabeth I days minutes needed to be further subdivided for more precise time measurements. One minute was therefore subdivided into 60 increments, and those were called “second minutes“. Soon, common speech dropped the minutes part and they were just called seconds. You never know what you will learn by picking up an old book…

SITE Z REFERENCE BOOK

Here’s one of the reference books (Volume III) I’ll be using for SITE Z. Richard Feynman is a minor character in the book.

Welcome to Detroit

I pulled into the Millender Center parking structure in downtown Detroit, which is supposedly under video surveillance, and here’s what I saw on the first level so I snapped a picture:

All four wheels are missing on this nice new car. In the novel, The System – A Detroit Story – Zippy Sanchez teaches Pauli Tucci how to boost wheels like this.

Welcome to Detroit!