"If I did Titanic today, I'd do it very differently. There wouldn't be a 750-foot-long set. There would be small set pieces integrated into a large CGI set. I wouldn't have to wait seven days to get the perfect sunset for the kiss scene. We'd shoot it in front of a green screen, and we'd choose our sunset."

At this point in his career, Cameron has pretty much of proven himself as a technician beyond all reasonable criticism. But I must admit, a little part of me dies when reading that, today, the world's most powerful filmmaker—one who operates with complete freedom under near-unlimited budgets—would sooner digitize one of nature's daily miracles than capture the real thing. [Slate]

Or, if you're interested, this remote control RMS Titanic is a mere $2,500 away.

What do you get for that lofty sum? Well, aside from the inevitable date with an ice cube you're already planning in your heads right now, you'll get a six-foot 1:150 scale model that's been hand crafted from 300 pieces over the course of 400 man hours.

Some of those 300 pieces sound pretty impressive too, like the real mahogany and cedar used in the superstructure and detailing. The three propellers guide this Titanic lite around at 5mph for up to three hours. [Hammacher Schlemmer via OhGizmo]

Ballard agreed, and in 1984 set off to investigate. Thresher had been the most advanced attack sub of its time, but in 1963 had an accident during testing that left it without power. Ballard's robotic survey discovered that it had sunk so deep it imploded, turning into thousands of pieces. His 1985 search for the Scorpion—which had disappeared in 1968 with 99 crew, and was thought to be a victim of a Soviet attack—revealed such a large debris field that it looked "as though it had been put through a shredding machine." The survey data revealed the most likely cause of the loss of the sub was one of its own torpedoes going rogue and hitting the sub after firing.

Once the two wrecks had been visited, and the radioactive threat from both was established as small, Ballard was able to search for Titanic. Due to dwindling funds, he had just 12 days to do so, but he used the same debris-field search techniques he'd used for the two subs, and, of course, it worked. [The Times via Danger Room]

Furthermore, the entire pen has a nautical design with rivets, propellers and funnels dotted about. The theme continues even inside, where a ship's wheel-shaped gear operates a propeller that pushes ink to the nib, all visible through a little sapphire-glass porthole.

There're only 88 in existence, and considering the Titanic metal, and the gold and palladium elsewhere in the construction, we can only imagine that the price would've surprised even Titanic's owners. [Vialuxe via Born Rich]

We're guessing a watch made out of parts of a sunken ship won't be "affordable," but what better way to time exactly when it is Kate Winslet gets topless than this baby? Oh wait, people have already done that for you. – Jason Chen

Product Page [RomainJerome via Wrist Dreams via Oh Gizmo]