Page 28 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 10. 2013 to put it more bluntly, sheer negligence. Icebergs were not an isolated occurrence in 1912. Lowry runs through a list of ships that were damaged or sunk by icebergs in the North Atlantic before 1912. The list contains more than 100 names. In 1893, two steamers, the “Horn Head” and the “Naronic,” disappeared. Both ships vanished entirely, but months later, notes that were tucked into bottles as the ships went down described collisions with icebergs. The ship known as “Vaillant” lost 74 crewman out of 78 in an iceberg collision. The danger was well known, but the size of “Titanic” may have insulated Captain Smith against the fear of iceberg damage. However, given the mass and speed of “Titanic,” the force of the collisions was subsequently estimated as having the power to lift 10 Washington Monuments from their pedestals. Cut to the fatal day, April 14, 1912: Ten iceberg warnings had been sent out by wireless and “Titanic” had the best wireless system afloat. At 11:45, the steamer “Amerika” reported ice in a message that was addressed to “Titanic” by name. At 1 p.m., Captain Smith had an ice warning from the steamer “Baltic” in his hand. “We will speed through the ice,” Captain Smith decided. Then he posted the ice warning on the board in the officers’ chart room. No one at dinner saw him take a drink, and the urban legend that he was drunk is entirely bogus -- but he did not reduce speed. At 10 p.m., a passenger named C.E.M. Stengel, experienced in mechanical matters, remembered that “the engines were running faster than ever before.” About that time, Captain Smith went to bed. At 11:45 p.m., he was awakened by the bump and returned to the bridge. Appalled by the deaths of so many prominent Americans -- and many British and other foreign passengers -- the U.S. Senate convened extensive hearings. “No general discussion took place among the officers; no conference was called to consider these warnings; no heed was given to them; speed was not relaxed,” they concluded. In short, an experienced captain actually increased speed, which continued after darkness, despite iceberg warnings. Once the spotted the iceberg, the crew on the bridge was unable to reduce speed, reduce the impact, or steer clear. When they attempted to swing away from the iceberg, “Titanic” struck the mass diagonally and opened seven compartments below the waterline. The watertight compartments were not watertight on top. Water that flooded the first seven compartments spilled over the tops, one after the other, until the water and the angle knocked out the engines and pumps. The ship sank with an inadequate number of lifeboats. Of the 2,223 souls aboard there were only 706 survivors, predominantly women and children from first class. Most of the crew drowned -- as did most of the immigrants in third class, which Dr. Lowry, in a rare error, calls “steerage.” There was no “steerage” on the “Titanic” and even third class passengers had decent accommodations and meat at every meal. What they did not have was enough lifeboats. Arrogance has always been the principal theory in the huge loss of life. The inadequate number of lifeboats, in hindsight, is appalling, but at the time it was entirely legal. No one appears to have been killed in the first impact, and evacuation of the passengers was rather orderly until the lifeboat seats ran out. The failure of other ships -- one of them with lights visible in the distance -- to respond to wireless calls for help and the “Titanic’s” distress rockets probably doubled the number of fatalities. But the reason for the collision has never been explained better than Dr. Lowry explained it: Early Alzheimer’s impacting on habitual self-confidence and the habit of absolute authority. Yet some people will not have it. Perhaps nobody in his mature years wants to think about Alzheimer’s disease, or perhaps the other theories -- human vanity and arrogance of nation, race, or class -- are grounded in personal psychology or politics. There are theories, and there are facts -- and there are opinions that will never allow the theories to be examined to find out whether they may be facts. Max Planck used to say the problem with new physics was old physicists. Once physicists got to a certain age, they simply could not alter what they had been taught or had discovered in order to deal with new information. Einstein flabbergasted a number of the old-timers in 1906. Planck and his contemporaries later put more old-timers on the shelf. You do not need to be a physicist to experience the phenomenon. History also has its examples. If a writer who has the facts straight offers any version of what happened, or might have happened, which does not comport with the prejudices or politics of what the readers believe, want to believe, or desperately need to believe, he or she has big troubles. Dr. Thomas Lowry was a licensed psychiatrist before his voluntary retirement. He was an experienced yachtsman and, as a young man, had shipped on tankers and other merchant vessels on the high seas. He is also the author of more than 30 books on topics where medicine interfaces with military or social history. The one expert review I have seen on his latest book, “Titanic Madness: What Really Sank the Great Ship,” suffered a hatchet job with a very blunt ax. The reviewer dragged in references to Marc Antony and Cleopatra and Shakespeare’s Queen Elizabeth to savage Dr. Lowry for using psychology in history – something almost all modern historians do to some extent. The hostile reviewer tipped his hand when he mentioned that his own father died of Alzheimer’s disease at 88. This was not a reference to Dr. Lowry, but to Captain Edward Smith, the 62-year-old master of “Titanic.” Daniel Bernoulli, one of a family of brilliant Swiss mathematicians, published his description of Bernoulli’s Hydraulic Principle as early as 1738. Bernoulli said that as a ship under way moves past a moored ship, the water rushing between the two hulls creates a suction that, instead of pushing the water aside, pulls the two ships together, sometimes violently. The bigger the ships, the worse the bump. Captain Smith was on the bridge of the “Olympic” when that ship inexplicably collided with the British cruiser “HMA Hawke” in 1911. The British Admiralty and the White Star Line sued each other, and the protracted trial included evidence for the fact that something akin to Bernoulli’s Hydraulic Principle had led to suction between the huge liner and the large cruiser, throwing their navigation into disarray and leading to a collision at sea. A year later, as the “Titanic” was setting out for her maiden voyage, she passed the moored American liner “New York” and the suction of water flowing between the ships pulled the “New York” loose from her moorings, snapped the hawsers like threads, and almost led to another collision. Ships of this size had not existed when Captain Smith first went to sea, and Dr. Lowry believes that, at least on a subconscious level, Captain Smith had never absorbed the idea that suction between ships led to a danger that had not existed in earlier generations. This does not explain the physics of the collision between the “Titanic” and the fatal iceberg -- it explains the psychology that led to the collision through overconfidence or, A titanic problem Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: I think everyone in Midland Park needs to ask him or herself: Do I love this town? Do I care about Midland Park’s future? Do I want to continue to take pride in being a Midland Park resident? Fellow residents, it is raining in our schools...literally raining… because the school roofs need to be replaced. They are beyond “patching up.” Would it be acceptable to you if it were raining in your home or place of business during storms? If you truly love Midland Park, show it by investing in our town’s future. Don’t be complacent or bullied by those who spread misinformation, fear, and rumors for their own personal gain. We are better than that. We are smarter than that. Who, in any surrounding town, can say they know their neighbors for blocks upon blocks? The love, sup- Our town is worth the investment port, and trust of neighbors are woven into the fabric of Midland Park. Our children need this support now. Our property values need this investment now. Our community needs this pride now. Midland Park is a rare gem of a town, and like anything so precious, it needs to be invested in, cared for, and nurtured in order to survive and thrive. Every “yes” vote for the school budget and the roof proposal on April 16 is a “yes” vote for our children, our property values, and our community pride. In a community as small as ours, every single vote counts. Please get everyone who is registered to vote in your household out to vote “yes” on April 16. Your fellow residents are counting on you to pass the school budget and roof proposal. Joan and George Doumas Midland Park How to make your diet work for you (continued from page 14) treadmill or start lifting those weights. Choose the right snacks. A snack before exercising is fine -- just make sure it’s the right snack. A bag of potato chips, for example, is not an ideal snack, as it might produce an adverse effect, making you feel sluggish as you prepare to exercise. Fresh fruit, energy bars or drinks, granola bars or even a fruit smoothie will quell hunger and help maintain proper blood sugar levels. Find something to eat after you exercise. Eating after you exercise is also important. After working out, eating a meal with carbohydrates will promote muscle growth and recovery, restoring your fuel supplies that were lost during your workout. This will come in handy tomorrow when you want to work out again. Eating protein after a workout is also important. Doing so is beneficial when trying to build muscle -- and protein promotes muscle repair. Many fitness experts feel the meal after a workout is the most important meal of the day, but just be sure yours contains both carbohydrates and protein. Don’t forget fluids. Fluids are part of your diet, and they are especially important when exercising. Whether your typical exercise routine is vigorous or not, you are going to lose fluids when working out, sometimes a large amount of fluids. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends men and women emphasize drinking fluids, ideally water, before, during, and after their workouts. It’s important to stay hydrated throughout the day, but it is very important to begin a workout with adequate fluids in your body and to replenish those fluids during and after your workout. Water is adequate for those whose workouts are 60 minutes or less, but choose a sports drink if you work out for more than an hour at a time. The sports drink will help maintain your electrolyte balance and give you more energy as you are working. Diet and exercise make great bedfellows, and men and women can use their diets to make their workouts that much more effective.