Death of the Idiot Box

Well I was blog-shying for sometime now. My health was on the downside. It still is for that matter. Anyways...

In the 21st century, I do not see Television as a source of Trashed entertainment and don;t think it qualifies to be called an Idiot Box. With some channels (like below) TV viewing is a continous intellectual harvest of sorts

• History Channel
• Discovery
• Travel & Living
• National Geographic
  

Today I was feeling very listless and in my confused state i turned to the TV. { I believe most of us do the same and TV is meant to lighten the spirits }

But the moment I was on National Geographic channel my heart missed a beat. The program which was on air was about the Kursk Submarine disaster. While the whole episode had me hanging on the edge of our sofa, at the end of it I was shaken and stirred completely. Kursk was a Russian Nuclear Cruise missile Submarine.

The Program was aptly titled "Splits seconds away from Disaster".
It shows how some faulty soldering in one of the Torpedoes caused a major catastrophe Russians can never forget in their History or lifetime. Until that time I was of opinion that some American Torpedoe had hit the Russian Sub. 110 Russian Navy Officers perished in what could have been a Blot on the Face of the earth.

The program shows how a brave Russian navy officer on board the KURSK had averted the mishap into turning into a Major Nuclear Blast and Catastrophe. He powered ON the 2 Nuclear Reactors safety mechanisms which averted the engufing of the Nuke Reactors. Hats off to this guy bcoz from all accounts it appears that Sailors had a split second for this. and They still saved Humanity from the Dangers of a Nuclear Blast and a Radio active ocean.

Surely another Chernobyl was in the making.

I would advice the reader to watch this episode again if possible. So that I will not divulge the details here. After this I wud never call my Samsung Plano TV an idiot box ;-)

Some Kursk Info : Barents Sea, 12 August 2000:

1. It is believed that fuel leaking from a torpedo ignited, causing fire and a devastating explosion in the Kursk's forward sections

2. Russian rescue subs tried and failed to open escape hatches. Further rescue attempts abandoned after Norwegian divers finally managed to open a hatch, and found the boat totally flooded

3. It was later discovered that some 23 sailors survived in compartment 9 at the stern for several hours after the explosion.

{Please don't attach any pun or irony to the blog heading and the latter part of the blog. I respect all the Brave Russian Navy officers who laid their Life in the line of duty}

~P