Titanic survivor's letter says 'captain drunk when ship hit iceberg'

The captain of the Titanic might have been drunk when the liner hit an iceberg, according to a never-seen-before letter of a survivor. The survivor, Emily Richards, claimed that she saw Captain Edward Smith drinking in the saloon bar of the ship in the run-up to the disaster. History books record the white-whiskered skipper attending a first class dinner party a few hours before the collision and then retiring to his cabin. He was woken just before midnight and was last seen alive on the bridge after making the heroic decision to go down with his ship. One of the many myths surrounding the 1912 tragedy is that the 62-year-old captain was drunk, although no evidence has ever been produced to support this. However, the newly found account of second-class passenger Richards does appear to support this theory. Her allegation comes in a letter she wrote home from the rescue ship Carpathia two days after the Titanic sunk. Richards, from Penzance, Cornwall, and her two sons were saved in the disaster but her brother George was one of the 1,522 people who perished. "The boat struck an iceberg at 11 o'clock on Sunday night. The Captain was down in the saloon drinking and gave charge to someone else to steer the ship. It was the Captain's fault. My poor brother George... drowned as far as we know now," a grief-stricken Richards wrote to her mother-in-law. "I hope I shall never see no such thing again. It was a dreadful sight. The water was like a mill pool. Me and mother and the children were on the last boat. The poor men had to come after. I hope my poor George is safe. I am thankful to say me and the two dear children are safe, and my dear mother and Ellen. I have lost all my things. I don't care as long as I am safe from a watery grave," she wrote. The letter, together with a second one she wrote home after arriving in New York, has come to light on the 100th anniversary of the sinking. They remained unseen in her family for 75 years before being bought by a private collector and have never before been made public. Richards, who was 24 then, was heading to join her husband James who had already emigrated to Ohio, US, and was taking their two young sons William and Sibley. She was accompanied on Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York by her younger brother George, 23, sister Nellie and mother Elizabeth. After the liner struck the iceberg at 10.20 pm on April 14, 1912, the three women and two children were helped into a lifeboat but George remained on board. In her second letter from the Star Hotel in New York she wrote: "George, poor boy, is gone. "Willie was dressed in a ship's blanket made into a coat, the baby has got a cold - but Willie is alright. "The Americans were kind concerning clothes for the night. This city is a city of mourning." The letters are now being sold by Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers of Devizes, Wilts, with a combined estimate of 20,000 pounds. "This was a woman whose emotions would have been incredibly raw having lost a loved one in the sinking. She would have wanted someone to blame and clearly she blamed the captain. As far as we know there are no other witness reports that put the captain in the saloon drinking on the evening of the sinking," the Sun quoted auctioneer Andrew Aldridge as saying. "So Emily Richards' account is not consistent with the dozens of others that exist. It is very controversial, but you can't ignore the fact she was there. It puts a very different perspective on the events if it is true. "Captain Smith was largely exonerated by the British enquiry into the disaster and there are numerous accounts of him dying an Englishman's death by choosing to go down with the ship. "First person accounts written on Carpathia headed notepaper are incredibly rare. I think only a handful have emerged over the last 15 years so there is a great deal of interest in this," he added. The auction takes place on March 31.

Listening to music daily 'may improve health'

Listening to music everyday could be a simple and effective way to enhance well-being and health as it may evoke positive emotions and reduce the listener's stress levels, a new study has revealed. The new doctoral thesis in psychology from the University of Gothenburg is based partly on a survey study involving 207 individuals, partly on an intervention study where an experiment group consisting of 21 persons listened to self-chosen music for 30 minutes per day for two weeks while an equally sized control group got to relax without music. The results of the studies show that positive emotions were experienced both more often and more intensively in connection with music listening. The experiment group did also perceive less stress and had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The more the participants in the survey study liked the music, the less stress they experienced. "But it should be pointed out that when studying emotional responses to music it is important to remember that all people do not respond in the exact same way to a piece of music and that one individual can respond differently to the same piece of music at different times, depending on both individual and situational factors," said the author of the thesis Marie Helsing. "To get the positive effects of music, you have to listen to music that you like," Helsing added.

My inconclusive travel plans 2012

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there. I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore. I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often. I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm. Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get! I may have been in Continent, and I don't remember what country I was in. It's an age thing. PLEASE DO YOUR PART! Today is one of the many National Mental Health Days throughout the year. You can do your bit by remembering to send an e-mail to at least one unstable person. My job is done!

Now, violin strings made of spider silk

A Japanese researcher has spun thousands of strands of spider silk to create a set of violin strings. The strings apparently have a "soft and profound timbre" compared to the traditional gut or steel strings. That may arise from the way the strings are twisted, resulting in a "packing structure" that leaves practically no space between any of the strands, the BBC reported. "Bowed string instruments such as the violin have been the subject of many scientific studies," Dr Shigeyoshi Osaki of Japan's Nara Medical University said. "However, not all of the details have been clarified, as most players have been interested in the violin body rather than the properties of the bow or strings." Dr Osaki used 300 female Nephila maculata spiders - one of the species of "golden orb-weavers" known for their complex webs - to provide the dragline silk that spiders dangle from. For every string, Dr Osaki twisted between 3,000 and 5,000 individual strands of silk in one direction to form a bundle. The strings were then primed from three of these bundles twisted together in the opposite direction. He then measured their tensile strength - a vital factor for violinists wishing to avoid breaking a string in the middle of a concerto. The spider-silk strings endured less tension before breaking than a traditional but infrequently used gut string, but more than an aluminium-coated, nylon-core string. A closer study using an electron microscope revealed that, while the strings themselves were perfectly round, in cross-section the strands had been compressed into a range of different shapes that all fit closely together, leaving no space between them. Dr Osaki suggested that it is this feature of the strings that lends them their strength and, importantly, their unique tone. "Several professional violinists reported that spider strings... generated a preferable timbre, being able to create a new music," he said. "The violin strings are a novel practical use for spider silk as a kind of high value-added product, and offer a distinctive type of timbre for both violin players and music lovers worldwide," he added. The study has been published in a forthcoming edition of the journal Physical Review Letters.

Delhi-based reggae group nominated for British award

New Delhi-based music group Reggae Rajahs has been nominated in the best international band/group award at the British Reggae Industry Awards (BRIA), to be held in October. The BRIA are aimed at promoting reggae music and ensuring that the genre develops and grows not just in Britain, but internationally too. The Reggae Rajahs is a trio of Diggy Dang, Mr. Herbalist and DJ MoCity. The group came together early 2009, and since then, they have been introducing the Indian masses to an eclectic mix of reggae, dub, lovers rock, ska and dancehall. An excited Dang said: "We've been nominated in the best international group or band and it's a privilege just to be nominated. We're sharing nominations with bands that have almost given birth to the reggae scene, like The Mighty Diamonds, Toots and the Maytals among others. "It would be huge even if we got into the top five. I think it's also brilliant because it will help us get recognised for the work we are doing in promoting the scene and it will be greatly helpful in giving the scene a boost. I'm hoping we get noticed in those terms," he added. The winners of BRIA will be decided upon through votes, and the last day for voting is April 30. Votes can be cast on www.britreggae.com/vote.php Meantime, Reggae Rajahs are set to tour Europe this summer, having been invited to play at Outlook Festival (Croatia), a fest celebrating sound system culture and bass heavy music. They are also planning to release their first single and music video this year.

New software assigns appropriate melodies for pictures

Scientists have developed a new software called Picasso that can help users in assigning appropriate background music for pictures in an instant, by utilizing the technical skills of movie directors. Sebastian Michel, head of a junior research group at the Cluster of Excellence at the Saarland University, designed the software together with Ph.D. student Aleksander Stupar. "Usually, directors select consistent melodies for a particular movie scene," said Michel. The program utilizes the expertise of movie producers in assigning appropriate background music for pictures, enabling users to select music that will harmonize with their impressions of their last summer vacation without putting in an extraordinary amount of effort. A three-level algorithm carries out the elaborate process. First, the picture the user has chosen is compared with a huge database of movie scenes and their corresponding soundtracks. The software creates a ranking of the scenes that look most similar to the user's picture. This database was compiled by Michel and Stupar by splitting 50 movies into screenshots and their accompanying soundtracks. In the next step, the software creates a list of the selected tracks. And finally, the total number of tracks gets reduced to a few selections through a mathematical calculation; these are at last proposed to the user. Here, a list of suggestions makes sense because particular pictures bring up different associations for different users, according to Michel. "Some people might connect a picture of a little house surrounded by an idyllic landscape with a romantic weekend for two, while others might think about loneliness," Michel explained. Interested people can experience the software on the demo website and get an idea of Picasso's hit rate. Or they can use the free smartphone app "PicasSound," which is programmed to pick out an appropriate soundtrack using the music, which is already saved on the smartphone. It is free available for the mobile operating systems iOSX and Android. Next, Michel and Stupar will try to expand the software system to support automatic sound recording of audiobooks on a textual basis. Furthermore, the researchers are planning to integrate a function inside the system that will take the individual preferences of the users into account.

Whitney Houston 'died in bath' after 2-day booze binge

Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub by her hairdresser, with her face underwater and legs in the air. The singer - who battled drink and drug addiction in the past - had reportedly been on a 48-hour alcohol binge in the days preceding her death and is thought to have passed out before slipping under the water. Half a dozen bottles of prescription drugs including Lorazepam, Valium and Xanax - used as sleeping aids, relaxants and to ease anxiety - are also said to have been found in Houston's fourth-floor suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. After the hairdresser screamed, one of Houston's bodyguards came into the bathroom and dragged her from the tub before attempting to revive her. Unfortunately nothing could be done and the mother-of-one was pronounced dead at 3.55pm and her body was finally removed from the hotel on Sunday morning, Contactmusic reported. On the Thursday before her death the 'I Will Always Love You' hitmaker looked disorientated and wild-eyed as she left Hollywood nightclub Tru in the early hours and had scratched on her wrist and blood running down her leg. She was spotted downing tequila and went "berserk" when she saw on/off lover Ray J talking to US 'X Factor' contestant Stacy Francis. Witnesses who saw her leave said she seemed "wasted". Houston then went out drinking again on Friday and onlookers say her group was loud and boisterous. She was also displaying erratic behaviour during the daytime and on Thursday she was seen wandering around the hotel lobby with soaking hair and mismatched clothes. One source said she appeared bloated and "smelled of alcohol and cigarettes". Following her untimely passing, Houston's family issued a statement saying, "This is an unimaginable tragedy and we will miss her terribly".