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dimensionsunited · 4 years

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SEPTEMBER 2020 DIMENSIONS ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULES & REVIEW

Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of October 7 KST:

A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).

A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.

Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.

These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.

Reminder: August schedule posts are due by the end of September 7 KST. Please do not post schedule posts in the fmdschedule tag.

OVERALL COMPANY

As has become standard at this point, all idols under the company will be permitted a short, three-day break over Chuseok unless they have individual schedules (admin note: points claims) conflicting with the vacation. It is a true break, meaning idols may travel as they wish and are capable of doing within such a short time period and, if they don’t have individual schedules, their manager will be off the clock as well.

Important dates:

September 30(-October 2): Chuseok vacation (no activities save for any individual schedules).

DIMENSIONS SOLOIST 1

As her comeback approaches at the beginning of next month, she’ll spend the beginning part of the month perfecting her performance of the song before she shoots the comeback teaser photos and films the music video in the second half of the month. Earlier in September, she’s included in the performer lineup for this year’s Waterbomb festival in Seoul with a roughly twenty-five minute set (plus “Lalalay”).

Important dates:

September 5: Performance at Waterbomb 2020 in Seoul, South Korea (also performing: BC Soloist 1).

September 18: Comeback teaser photo shoot.

September 20: “Pporappippam” M/V filming day one.

September 21: “Pporappippam” M/V filming day two.

DIMENSIONS SOLOIST 2

After holding two concert dates in Seoul last month, this month, he continues his concerts with one date each in Bangkok and in Busan. The concerts have the same set list as last month, meaning the inclusion of his next release “When You Call My Name”. He’ll be in and out of rehearsals to make sure he gives his best performance possible for each date without error, but his schedule is relatively relaxed this month before he moves into final comeback preparations next month.

Important dates:

September 5: Zero concert at BCC Hall Central Plaza Ladprao in Bangkok, Thailand.

September 29: Zero concert at Busan Cultural Center Main Hall in Busan, South Korea.

DIMENSIONS SOLOIST 3

After the whirlwind since her solo debut back in April, it’s finally time for her to hold her first series of solo concerts, only five months after her solo debut. The quick turnaround signals both her success and how much faith Dimensions seems to have in her before she’s even made a solo comeback, so all of the staff involved in pulling the six concert dates off are aware of the importance of getting her good press by giving only successful shows.

Important dates:

September 18: Very Special Day concert at Nodeul Island Live House in Seoul, South Korea.

September 19: Very Special Day concert at Nodeul Island Live House in Seoul, South Korea.

September 20: Very Special Day concert at Nodeul Island Live House in Seoul, South Korea.

September 25: Very Special Day concert at Nodeul Island Live House in Seoul, South Korea.

September 26: Very Special Day concert at Nodeul Island Live House in Seoul, South Korea.

September 27: Very Special Day concert at Nodeul Island Live House in Seoul, South Korea.

GAL.ACTIC

Ahead of their comeback next month, the members of Gal.actic must continue rehearsing their performances and they have to complete their teaser photo and music video shoots. For this comeback, Dimensions has chosen to go with a “ style film” (flashing lights tw) to show off the more conceptual nature of the comeback. With Gal.actic having passed their ninth anniversary without a first win, the A&R department wants to attempt a gradual shift in image to something better designed to retain fans than the previous strategy of getting a blaze of press at the beginning of a controversial promotion run.

Important dates:

September 22: Comeback style film (flashing lights tw) and teaser photo shoot.

September 26: “Black Swan” M/V filming.

ALIEN

The next English single from their upcoming album is released mid-month and internally, a release date for the English album is confirmed for January of next year. The official release date hasn’t been made available to fans yet, but they won’t be releasing any more standalone English singles until the album comes out. In the meantime, Alien must return to the practice studio this month to get their concert set list back in their minds since they’ll be holding the Seoul finale concerts next month.

Important dates:

September 18: Release of “Middle of the Night”.

MARS

Dimensions had forgone any overseas promotion for the release of MARS’s new Japanese single this month in order to keep the group in Seoul to concentrate on preparing for their Korean comeback. This month, they move on to the next step of the usual comeback process: learning the choreography for “Chained Up” and “Hot Enough”. They’ll be given a more in-depth explanation of the concept Dimensions is going for with this comeback as they learn the choreography to best embody the concept in the way they’re so known for. Mid-month, they’ll also go in to shoot for next month’s issue of Cosmopolitan Korea as a precursor to album promotions in November.

Important dates:

September 9: Release of “Can’t Say” Japanese single.

September 12: Photo shoot for Cosmopolitan Korea’s October issue.

7ROPHY

7ROPHY is once again focusing fully on Queendom this month to give their best performance. The show has begun airing and although the ratings aren’t huge, the show is steadily growing popular in fan communities and Dimensions sees 7ROPHY performing well as an important chance to grow their fan base. 7ROPHY’s lead vocal will be representing them in the vocal unit stage, while their leader/main dancer/lead vocal will represent them in the performance unit stage. Full details of Queendom filming for this month can be found here.

Important dates:

September 3: Episode two of Queendom airs.

September 7: Queendom episode five & six filming.

September 10: Episode three of Queendom airs.

September 17: Episode four of Queendom airs.

September 24: Episode five of Queendom airs.

September 28: Queendoom episode seven, eight & nine filming. (unit stages, Fandora’s Box stage)

UNITY

Unity ends comeback promotions early in the month, only to immediately jump into preparations for the repackage they’ll be releasing in November. Dimensions’ hopes are high for their next release to only lead Unity to an even higher repeak, so the pressure is on. They have to go into the studio to record their next title track “Punch” along with b-sides “Nonstop” and “Make Your Day” (a unit song sung by the group’s main vocals and lead vocals). This must be completed before the CHAMPION members leave on tour again, as well as the photo shoot they have for the November issue of Dazed Korea.

Important dates:

September 4: Fan sign in Seocho, Seoul.

September 7: End of music show promotions.

September 9: Photo shoot for Dazed Korea’s November issue.

↳ CHAMPION

On September 25, CHAMPION once again flies out from Seoul to return to finish off their tour dates in the US. The routine is the same as before, but the members will fly out almost immediately after finishing their last concert in the states in order to return to Seoul in time for them to still have their full Chuseok break.

Important dates:

September 26: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA, USA.

September 27: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, USA.

September 28: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at SAP Center in San Jose, CA, USA.

September 29: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at ShoWare Center in Kent, WA, USA.

LUCID

Lucid may not bring home the same number of music show wins with “Navillera” as they did with “Rough”, but it’s a clear hit and well-received by the public. As promotions draw to an end mid-month, this leaves the future of their concepts in a limbo as the public has made clear what concepts they’re interested in from the group and which they’re not. Management doesn’t plan for them to come back until quarter one of next year, though, so they won’t be finding out their musical and conceptual future right away. Instead, the time between the end of promotions and their Chuseok vacation is spent making sure they don’t forget their stages to continue their LOL Asia Showcase tour next month.

Important dates:

September 5: Fan sign in Yeouido, Seoul.

September 7: Fan sign in Seocho, Seoul.

September 13: Fan sign in Mapo, Seoul.

September 14: Fan sign in Yeungdeungpo, Seoul.

September 15: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.

September 17: End of music show promotions.

#fmdschedule #queued post

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zephyrthejester · 4 years

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Three Years Blog Anniversary!

Well, would you look at that. In the blink of an eye, an entire year has gone by! It has now been a grand total of three years since I started up this liveblog, and ever since, it's been a whirlwind of an adventure that has introduced me to amazing shows, amazing games, and above all, amazing people! As has become tradition, it's time for us to gather 'round by the fire, bundle up in blankets, sip some hot cocoa, and reminisce about the shenanigans we got up to in the year 2019.

You know the drill! Click "Keep Reading" to see the rest! Let's go!

January kicked off with the closing episodes to Steven Universe's fifth season, and what a finale it was! In true SU nature, it managed to be wholesome, funny, terrifying, and sad all at once! Not to mention the finale episode specifically, which was rife with both fan service and a breath-taking final confrontation. It even prompted me to type up three whole Addendum posts just so I could get all my thoughts out there. Intermingling with these episodes were some rather poignant and touching episodes of RWBY's 6th Volume, which saw some great plot advancements for some of my favorite characters. And of course, there was one liveblog session early on dedicated to Fate/Stay Night, a series I began back in 2018. And that would end up being the last I'd liveblog about it. Following the technical difficulties of the Visual Novel crashing at an important moment, I lost much of my motivation to keep going at it, putting Fate/Stay Night on the bench... For now. But more on Fate/Stay Night later.

Then came February! Where I proceeded to do absolutely nothing at all. For 42 days, I fell into a pretty bad funk that I called depression, at the time. Well! I must be in a better mental space right now, because until it came time to make this post, I forgot all about it! Moving past the shame I felt for wordlessly abandoning my blog and discord community for over a month, come March I pressed right into a brand new liveblog: Kill la Kill! A frenetic, frantic, freaky series that serves as the spiritual sequel to what was, once upon a time, my favorite anime ever: Gurren Lagann. I was immediately charmed by it's absurdist humor and over-the-top everything. However, it wasn't long before I succumbed to my greatest flaw. I'm exceptionally picky about what I liveblog, and sadly, Kill la Kill didn't tick the boxes that needed to be ticked for me to stick with it. I eventually dropped the series after only three episodes.

Needless to say, I was getting desperate to reinvigorate my lost momentum. It was then and there, at the tail end of March, that I introduced the most significant change to my brand ever: Liveblogging itself was being benched in favor of a fanciful second attempt at running my video game focused Youtube Channel! While I would certainly continue to liveblog new episodes of shows I had previously caught up with, my efforts would be redoubled and focused upon something I hoped would shake things up for me. I put in the effort of buying a new, fancy, high-tech microphone, and set about to new projects!

First up was a tense and troublesome self-imposed-challenge: A playthrough of Resident Evil 2 Remake on its hardest difficulty, with the added stipulation that I can never access the item storage box! My knowledge and skills of that game were put to the test as I skirted by the dangerous zombies and mutants while carrying only the bare essentials on my person. That series lasted 7 videos, plus a Highlight Reel, over about a week. My new microphone really brought out my screams of terror. Yes.

Immediately following the conclusion of the REmake 2 challenge run in early April, a new series debuted: A blind let's play of Subnautica! A simply incredible sci-fi survival game set on a planet that's nearly entirely an ocean... But much to my surprise, it was secretly a horror game all along. Spanning 18 episodes + a highlight reel between April 5th and May 23rd, we descended ever deeper into the abyss, deciphered alien riddles, fled from toothy leviathan-class predators, established a lovely home base, and had a great ol' time overall. A truly remarkable game with a surprisingly good story, for its genre, and it left me eagerly looking forward to making a Let's Play of its sequel: Below Zero.

Simultaneously, beginning on April 10th, I embarked upon yet another adventure that was of such a large scope, I made my channel's primary time slot dedicated to it. The Phoenix Wright Trilogy! A collection of the first three Visual Novels in a wonderful, wonderful series about the titular attorney at law. It wasn't long before I fell in love with this series, big time. It had everything! Immensely satisfying mysteries for me to solve, memorable and lovable characters, great pacing, and it knew how to keep things fresh and interesting. Although I started out the Let's Play by saying I wouldn't read everything aloud, that proved to be a lie. As of now, the series is a whopping 78 videos long (I do expect it to reach 100 before all is said and done), and I have given voice to roughly 50 unique characters so far. The series really helped awaken my Let's Play chops by improving my speech, vocal clarity, and focus. Swapping between my first video ever (for Legend of Grimrock II) and the most recent Phoenix Wright video is a real night-and-day difference! Overall, it's very safe to say that the series has stolen my heart. Unmatched hype, dizzying plot twists, and delightful shenanigans burst from the seams, truly. The Let's Play is currently ongoing, though the end is within sight...

As the Let's Plays of Subnautica and Phoenix Wright Trilogy progressed, so too did the production quality of my videos. I got a better grip on editing, improving the design of my video thumbnails and taking more care to edit out needless and dull moments of gameplay. I even introduced a brief and stylish video intro, which was my avatar appearing over a dark background before it faded off into gameplay. That would be the image up above! However, as we move into 2020, I’ve begun to feel that it could do with a slight improvement... Wink wink!

Following the end of Subnautica came a new Let's Play involving yet another sci-fi horror game: Prey! Spanning 25 videos + a highlight reel between June 3rd and November 19th, it immediately gripped me with its stunning attention to detail, marvelously crafted environments, and boundlessly creative gameplay. It was a pleasure to explore the varied regions of the Talos One space station, blasting aliens, uncovering secrets, untangling the connections between the employees there, and making some seriously difficult moral choices. A truly impressive video game that's just begging for a second playthrough on my own time at some point.

July 20th saw the beginning of new activity on my blog. In a spur-of-the-moment decision that I didn't think out too well, I brazenly announced out of nowhere that I would be doing a re-watch of Steven Universe! I proceeded to liveblog the first 11 episodes of Steven Universe over a week, lovingly looking back at the series' origins, calling out moments of foreshadowing, and analyzing everything with the lens of all my knowledge about the show. And then... Nothing! Just as soon as it began, the project was dropped. I had hoped it would rekindle my interest in Liveblogging (outside of new episodes of SU and RWBY), but I had no such luck. You know I'm burnt out when even Steven Universe, my favorite thing ever, can't help...

By September 3rd, the Steven Universe Movie had finally released! Over a hype-as-hell two days, I liveblogged the entire film. It truly was Steven Universe at its absolute best! Touching, sincere, unexpected, and rife with some stellar songs that are STILL stuck in my head. It proved that the Crewniverse hadn't lost its spark since the conclusion of the original series.

November 5th was my 25th birthday! My family celebrated by all going out for an amazing sushi dinner. Good times! Sometimes, it's really hard for me to grasp that I'm actually 25... I'm a kid at heart, really! Or maybe it's that I'm a social recluse who enjoys watching anime a little too much. Regardless, I feel no shame!

November 10th saw the debut of RWBY Volume 7, and so far it has been an exceptionally strong season. I've long maintained the opinion that the show gets better and better every season, and Volume 7 has given me no reason to doubt that. One episode in particular became my second favorite in the series, right behind a certain one from Volume 6! I'm really enjoying how the characters, new and old, are playing off each other this go around, and the fights and art direction have been no slouch either. This season's a looker! I'm really looking forward to seeing how it ends.

Hot on the heels of the ending Let's Play of Prey, I immediately started up a new series on November 20th... Chrono Trigger! A legendary and widely loved JRPG from the SNES era of gaming that I had somehow gone all my life without playing. Better late than never to fix a mistake like that! I eagerly dived in and nearly immediately understood why it's heralded as an all-time great. The series is currently 13 episodes long, and each one is an endless stream of me being hyped and giddy. I’m already excited to record more!

December 8th saw the debut of Steven Universe Future, a very special epilogue series that's sure to tie a nice bow on the franchise as a whole. As of this post, I have liveblogged the first 8 episodes, and it's fair to say that while it's not holding back in giving the audience exactly what it wants, it's also doing something very unexpected and very, very interesting with Steven himself. Only time will tell how it all ends and whether every remaining mystery will be answered, but so far I have been more than satisfied with it.

And that brings us to the present! Wow, it felt like a lot less happened this year than you would think, huh? No, it's been jam packed with new adventures! I think I am very content with how the year has gone, and I hope you are as well. We'll be striding into the year 2020 with more Steven Universe, more RWBY, more Phoenix Wright, and more Chrono Trigger! Plus, it may very well be that we'll see the return of Made in Abyss and Madoka Magica, both of which (I believe) are getting continuation movies in 2020. I may or may not be entirely wrong about this. Forgive me if I am...

In the near future, the Phoenix Wright Trilogy will be followed up by a Let's Play of Fate/Stay Night! Indeed, the canceled Liveblog will be reborn in youtube video form! And following Chrono Trigger, well... It's mostly up in the air, though I do have a few good ideas. In particular, I recently got a Virtual Reality system set up... Wink wink!

So that's really all there is to it! Cheers, lads! Cheers to a good year, and cheers to the next year being even better! To our good health, our unbreakable friendships, and all the stupid bullshit we’ll get into together! 2020 has arrived!

#Zephyr the Jester #Blog Anniversary

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friend-clarity · 4 years

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The Men Who Walked Away

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau strode to the podium outside his home in Ottawa and said so many soothing words to a country reeling from the tragedy that had unfolded in Nova Scotia the day before (April 20, 2020). “We stand with you and we grieve with you. And you can count on our government’s full support during this incredibly painful time,” Trudeau said to the people of Nova Scotia. It would have been fine had the PM left it at that. Instead, he used this tragedy to start talking about his gun-control plans before the RCMP had even confirmed that all the bodies from this massacre had been found.

It’s quite the contrast to his reaction when asked several times last week about the blame China’s government should face over its actions and, at times, inactions that led to the spread of the coronavirus and the deaths of nearly 1,600 Canadians and growing. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-gives-china-a-pass-then-targets-gun-owners

Let’s recall the earlier "Montreal Massacre".

M Lépine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At eighteen, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the thirteen years since. ...

To return to Gloria Steinem, when might a fish need a bicycle? The women of Montreal's École Polytechnique could have used one when Marc Lépine walked in with a gun and told all the men to leave the room. They meekly did as ordered. He then shot all the women.

Mark Steyn, December 5, 2019

Friday December 6th marks the thirtieth anniversary of the "Montreal Massacre" - a grim day in 1989 when fourteen female students at the École Polytechnique were murdered by a man known to posterity as "Marc Lépine". Much followed from that terrible slaughter, including various useless "gun control" measures - and the formal annual commemorations that, three decades on, are attended by as many eminences as Remembrance Day or Dominion Day. The men present in that classroom are now in their mid-fifties; the women are not. I was far from home that December and was not back in Quebec until Christmas. And so I accepted the official narrative of events - until, that is, a few years later, when I looked into it myself.

At which point I marveled at how the Canadian state had succeeded in so thoroughly imposing a meaning on the slaughter that is more or less the precise opposite of what actually happened. I've written about it over the years, although my comrades in the Canadian media complain every time I do so, as if any questioning of the official fairy tale cannot be permitted. Here's what I said on the thirteenth anniversary, in The National Post of Canada on December 12th 2002:

I loathe the annual commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. I especially dislike the way it's become a state occasion, with lowered flags, like Remembrance Day. But, in this case, whatever honour we do the dead, we spend as much time dishonouring the living -- or at least the roughly 50 per cent of Canadians who happen to be male: For women's groups, the Montreal Massacre is an atrocity that taints all men, and for which all men must acknowledge their guilt. Marc Lépine symbolizes the murderous misogyny that lurks within us all.

Ah, well, I would bring that up, wouldn't I? Just for the record, I'm not saying that M Lépine is representative of Algerian manhood or Muslim manhood. I'm saying he shouldn't be representative of anything -- least of all, the best efforts of women's groups and the convenient gloss of that pure laine name notwithstanding, Canadian manhood.

This spring, there was an attempted gun massacre at the Appalachian School of Law in West Virginia. But, alas for the Appalachians' M Lépine, there were two gun-totin' students present who were able to pin down the would-be mass murderer until the cops arrived. Allan Rock stepping forward to recite the relevant portions of the gun registry requirements would have been far less effective. Generally speaking, when the psycho shows up and opens fire, your best hope is that there's someone else around with a gun to hand -- a situation Canadian law has now rendered all but impossible.

Extreme cases make bad law, and just because it's a cliché doesn't mean the Liberal Party of Canada can't take it to hitherto undreamt of heights. Our disarmed Dominion will be the first jurisdiction on the planet with a one-billion dollar gun-registry. It was supposed to cost two million, but, as Dr. Evil learned in Austin Powers, these days that's just chump change, they'll laugh at you. No self-respecting government plan should cost less than ONE BILLION DOLLARS!!!!!

According to police, the gun registry is officially 25 per cent inaccurate. I'd figure that makes it unofficially 40 per cent inaccurate. But last week, while cynical Liberal bigwigs were openly boasting that this record-breaking government fraud would just be another one of those things you hear about for a couple of days that then mysteriously vaporizes somewhere over Shawinigan, the radio call-in shows were full of concerned, earnest, reasonable, moderate Canadians saying that, even if it did cost a billion, it still "sends the right message" on gun control. Which is just as well, as it'll still be sending the right message when it's up to two billion...The gun registry is symbolic not of Canada's predisposition to mass murder, but Canada's predisposition to mass suicide.

But the gun-registry boondoggle is just big-government business as usual. In a certain sense, the men present that day in Montreal were more profoundly disarmed. From my book After America:

Which is the more disturbing glimpse of Canadian manhood? The guy who shoots the women? Or his fellow men who abandon them to be shot? For me, the latter has always been the darkest element of the story. From my column in Maclean's, January 9th 2006:

Every December 6th, our own unmanned Dominion lowers its flags to half-mast and tries to saddle Canadian manhood in general with the blame for the Montreal massacre -- the fourteen women murdered by Marc Lépine, born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, though you wouldn't know that from the press coverage. Yet the defining image of contemporary Canadian maleness is not M Lépine/Gharbi but the professors and the men in that classroom, who, ordered to leave by the lone gunman, obediently did so, and abandoned their female classmates to their fate -- an act of abdication that would have been unthinkable in almost any other culture throughout human history. The "men" stood outside in the corridor and, even as they heard the first shots, they did nothing. And, when it was over and Gharbi walked out of the room and past them, they still did nothing. Whatever its other defects, Canadian manhood does not suffer from an excess of testosterone.

Your average Western feminist lobby group doesn't see it that way, naturally. "The feminism I think of is the one that embodies inclusivity, multiculturalism and the ability to change the world through the humanity that women do bring," says Stephanie Davis, executive director of Atlanta's Women's Foundation. "If there were women in power in representative numbers -- 52 per cent -- I think that the World Trade Center would still be standing."

That's a familiar line. If only your average Security Council meeting looked like a college graduating class, or that room at the École Polytechnique after the men had departed, there would be peace on earth.

I don't think so. Look at the current rape statistics under one of the most thoroughly feminized regimes on earth - the Government of Sweden. More from After America:

To those who succeeded in imposing the official narrative, Marc Lépine embodies the murderous misogynist rage that is inherent in all men, and which all must acknowledge.

For a smaller number of us, the story has quite the opposite meaning: whatever M Lépine embodies, it's certainly not (if you'll forgive the expression) Canadian manhood.

In 2009, the director Denis Villeneuve made a film of the story - Polytechnique. "I wanted to absolve the men," he said. "People were really tough on them. But they were 20 years old... It was as if an alien had landed."

But it's always as if an alien had landed. When another Canadian director, James Cameron, filmed Titanic, what most titillated him were the alleged betrayals of convention. It's supposed to be "women and children first", but he was obsessed with toffs cutting in line, cowardly men elbowing the womenfolk out of the way and scrambling for the lifeboats, etc. In fact, all the historical evidence is that the evacuation was very orderly. In real life, First Officer William Murdoch threw deckchairs to passengers drowning in the water to give them something to cling to, and then he went down with the ship – the dull, decent thing, all very British, with no fuss. In Cameron's movie, Murdoch takes a bribe and murders a third-class passenger. (The director subsequently apologized to the First Officer's home town in Scotland and offered £5,000 toward a memorial. Gee, thanks.) Mr Cameron notwithstanding, the male passengers gave their lives for the women, and would never have considered doing otherwise. "An alien landed" on the deck of a luxury liner – and men had barely an hour to kiss their wives goodbye, and watch them clamber into the lifeboats to sail off without them. The social norm of "women and children first" held up under pressure.

Today, in what Harvey Mansfield calls our "gender-neutral society", there are no social norms. Eight decades after the Titanic, a German-built ferry en route from Estonia to Sweden sank in the Baltic Sea. Of the 1,051 passengers, only 139 lived to tell the tale. But the distribution of the survivors was very different from that of the Titanic. Women and children first? No female under 15 or over 65 made it. Only five per cent of all women passengers lived. The bulk of the survivors were young men. Forty-three per cent of men aged 20-24 made it.

"There is no law that says women and children first," Roger Kohen of the International Maritime Organization told Time magazine. "That is something from the age of chivalry."

If, by "the age of chivalry", you mean the early 20th century.

As I said, no two maritime disasters are the same. But it's not unfair to conclude that, had the men of the Titanic been on the Estonia, the age and sex distribution of the survivors would have been very different. Nor was there a social norm at the École Polytechnique. So the men walked away, and the women died.

Whenever I've written about these issues, I get a lot of e-mails from guys scoffing, "Oh, right, Steyn. Like you'd be taking a bullet. You'd be pissing your little girlie panties," etc. Well, maybe I would. But as the Toronto blogger Kathy Shaidle put it:

When we say 'we don't know what we'd do under the same circumstances', we make cowardice the default position.

I prefer the word passivity – a terrible, corrosive passivity. Even if I'm wetting my panties, it's better to have the social norm of the Titanic and fail to live up to it than to have the social norm of the Polytechnique and sink with it.

~The above includes material from Mark's book After America. If you disagree with Steyn and you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, then feel free to have at him in the comments.

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