Must admit there is a huge pontential in You Sir for a Nobel Prize in literature. You deliver in a compact energised pill more then my 10 minutes rumbling.
MY RESPECT and thanks for bailing me out from saying this myself , thus escaping the “wrath of the we crowds” and self-proclaimed solicitors of DoRSAL.
Cheers
1 Like
You might try to not use quite so many words in your posts. People who see a very long one from you might just skip it instead of doing the hard work of reading and then comprehending what you are trying to say.
I say this because I have done it myself.
1 Like
That is very true but on the other hand have You heard of a gold mine , that is not producing huge amounts of detritus. ? 
1 Like
Are you not the miner who is charged with extracting the gold and discarding the detritus? 
2 Likes
I haven’t got such noble aspirations but i will think abt it. 
3 Likes
An earned PhD in History from The University of any US State is major accomplishment, something to be very proud of, and worthy of everyone’s respect.
A PhD in History requires a tremendous amount of reading, research, critical analysis, and writing. It’s about a 6 to 8 year undertaking (that’s on top of previous undergrad and graduate education).
Typically, the first year or two of a PhD program consists of classes and seminars. That is followed by a year or two as a research assistant for professor. It’s often been said that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Next, comes a few years as a teaching assistant (actually teaching college courses). The final year is doing research and writing the dissertation. There are many people who are “ABD” (all but dissertation) who fail to complete an acceptable dissertation. A dissertation is a major accomplishment.
Society needs historians. As mariners we should see the need for maritime historians.
I certainly respect Dr Sal and his PhD in History.
However, I do not recognize him as qualified to have an “expert opinion” on modern day vessel operations or engineering.
2 Likes
I swore I was going to stay out of this thread.
But I must ask Mr Tugsailor.
Why do we need historians
What value do they give the modern world.
This is not a facetious question, but a real question.
And BTW
I welcome Dr Sal s videos, not all of them but most do explain to the average Joe how shipping works.
I was a bit wary of criticising his videos as this is a primarily American forum, and you guys can be very tribal, but I saw some big holes in his arguments but in all fairness he explains things fairly well to the average punter.
1 Like
This book and many others like it, explains in minute details why we need historians especially maritime historians .
1 Like
Looking at the past is the best way to avoid future errors.
Historians look at the past.
The USA was founded in 1776. How do we know that? Because historians tell us it is so. I wasn’t there. Neither were you. The fact that the Declaration of Independence exists is no guarantee that the event occurred. It might have been forged. We only know that it isn’t a hoax because historians tell us so. Sure, there are extant memoirs of people signing the document. But each of those memoirs could be a hoax, too. So how do we know of any of that–or anything else–in the past was true? Historians. People who study the data and try to get it right.
Or we can just run everything on “truthiness”, and end up with an idiocracy.
4 Likes
And we need art majors, philosophers, poets, sociologists, and many many other disciplines. Knowledge for knowledge own sake is valuable to society.
Academics can and should be more than job training.
End of rant.
4 Likes
A rigorous liberal arts education has intrinsic value.
This was particularly true when only the top 10% to 20% of kids went to college and affluent parents paid for it.
Now that almost everyone has a right to go to college and the government is paying for it with no interest loans that apparently may never need to be repaid, we have far too many low horsepower liberal arts majors with degrees that have little value in the job market.
Many Americans say that we need free college like Europe, but what most Americans don’t understand is that most European kids are tracked at an early age into trade schools. Only the top 10% or so can go to college for free, and they are tracked into particular fields of study.
Our German exchange student wanted to go to medical school, but the German government said no, based upon your academic record, you can study to be a Midwife, but not a doctor.
That is the major reason so many foreign students are studying in the US. Here, all it takes is money and modest intellectual horsepower, and they can study whatever they want.
2 Likes
Somebody important said something about those forgetting history being doomed to repeat it.
So if we forget about bridges getting knocked down by ships its likely more bridges will get knocked down.
So it follows the NTSB are historians.
2 Likes
Kindly ask Moderators to split my topic and open new interesting one on the importance of history and especially maritime history and higher education in general. NTSB acting as historians or may be hit-orians is an interesting observation worth exploring too. Many thanks in advance.
BRGDS
Sorry for dragging the thread off topic
Because past is prelude. More to the point, all recent history is written by the those whose truths may have little relevance to fact.
Even though I think you heap too much praise on Mercogliano, I am grateful for your disqualification of all his “expert” opinions he has been gushing forth over this accident however do I sense he might be getting a little quieter over these past couple of days?
1 Like
The loans are NOT “no interest loans”. They’re not even low interest loans.
2 Likes
It depends. Many student loans are high interest.
“Public Service” loan programs are quite generous and eventually forgive the loans. Those are government or nonprofit jobs. Medical care is a huge industry that’s a big slice of the economy, but it has a lot of high paying nonprofit jobs. So does state local and federal government. Education is nearly all nonprofit jobs. .
I read somewhere that the student loan default rate is now around 25%.
One of my friends is now 80. He still owes over $150,000 and growing. He’s never made more than a few nominal payments. He has his assets hidden.
Dear Gentleman. Can You move your deliberations regarding art, medical care , loans and banking someplace else. Is Dr. Salvatore also skilled in above mentioned specialities/disciplines??? .Seems to me his excellency Professore is a Jack of all trades. I am sure He is but the topic is abt : DEBUNKING DR.SAL VIDEO CLIPS. Hence my very polite request: stay on topic PLEASE. Makes me wonder why He is no more quoted in Splash247 or in Maritime Executive or Trade Winds .