"Like" us on Facebook.com/TrendingNow and follow Trending Now on Twitter: @Knowlesitall and @YahooTrending
The social news-sharing site Reddit has a knack for exposing people and situations. The latest topic of discussion to generate controversy is a series of tweets from people who did not know that the sinking of the Titanic was a real historical event.
Apparently, an entire generation of people associate "Titanic" with the Hollywood blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Here is the disambiguation for you. The RMS Titanic sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. The tragedy is considered one of the deadliest of peacetime maritime disasters. More than 1,500 people died.
"Titanic" the film was released December 19, 1997, and was an instant success. It became the highest-grossing film of all time for 12 years, until "Avatar" debuted in 2009.
For all the history buffs reading this, the next couple of sentences may be too painful to contemplate. A couple of the tweets from the uninformed read, "Nobody told me titanic was real? How am I just finding this out?" Another tweet read, "Guys, the Titanic was real! #mindblown."
Most people aware of the existence of the RMS Titanic are in disbelief. One such person tweeted, "The ignorance is astounding." Another person said he was "weeping for the future" at finding out that so many young people are unfamiliar with such a well-known fact.
______________________________________________________________________
If you are a Chicago-area resident or a frequent visitor to the Windy City, and you can't locate your favorite food truck, there is a reason they seem to have disappeared. Food truck operators say they're being run off by police.
Food truck vendors often use social media to send messages about their location and make it easy for their hungry patrons to get their food fix. The vendors are now blaming the media-savvy technique for possibly ending their business. Vendors say police are using their mobile updates as a way to track them down and issue tickets. Food truck vendors in Chicago must adhere to several restrictions -- they can't part within 200 feet of a real restaurant, and they're not allowed to cook the food onboard the truck. Breaking one of these rules carries a penalty as high as $500.
A group of food truck vendors met with city officials to express their grievances and to try to come up with a solution. City officials casually asked the vendors where the best locations were for setting up shop, and over the course of the next few days, police were at those locations to ticket the vendors or order them to move.
When one vendor was ticketed before even opening up operations for the day, he commented, "You can't get me for premeditated selling of a cupcake."
In reaction to the vanishing food trucks and their problem with the city, one person tweeted, "didn't realize the relationship between food trucks and city of chicago/CPD is so contentious." Other fans of the mobile meals the trucks provide are saying that the police crackdown just does not seem fair.
The summer of 2011 saw an emergence of food trucks all over the city of Chicago. The trucks had mass appeal, especially in the downtown area. The vendors are afraid their business model could be in permanent jeopardy if they're unable to come to a solution with city officials.