When human technology escapes human control
It takes some pretty amazing technology to stick a pipe a mile beneath the ocean, then drill another three or four miles into the Earth’s crust in search of oil. Until recently, we were told that the technology was so good that chances of something major going wrong were tiny.
Yet something did go wrong. The pipe in question has broken, and it has come as a shock to learn that it is beyond our capabilities to fix it. Thanks to incomplete mastery of our own technology, millions of gallons of oil now threaten the beauty and ecology of the Gulf.
As Lewis Mumford once wrote, when you give a 10-year-old a stick of dynamite, you don’t make him more powerful. You make him more dangerous.
Last week, as oil continued to spew from that pipe, scientists in Washington announced a major breakthrough in another area of technology. J. Craig Venter and his team announced creation of synthetic life, in this case a man-made bacteria with a chromosome designed by computer and then “built from four bottles of chemicals.”
In his announcement, Venter acknowledged the ethical concerns involved. But he pointed out that throughout his work, he has sought and heeded the advice of bioethics experts. According to Venter, those experts conclude that “there is a slight increase in the potential for harm, but there is an exponential increase in the potential benefit to society.”
For example, microbes could be designed to digest vast amounts of oil, in effect using technology to correct technology’s failure. Even better, Venter’s firm is working to engineer a species of algae that can convert the sun’s energy into a form of gasoline. Among those funding that work is BP, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
One of the concerns in creating new life forms is how to trace them should they be released “into the wild.” Venter’s team addressed that issue by putting nonworking code into the bacteria’s DNA as special identifiers.
One of those “watermarks” installed by Venter is a quote from the late Richard Feynman, a famed physicist:
“What I cannot build, I cannot understand.”
To Venter, who is driven by a need to comprehend the mysteries of life, the relevance of that quote is obvious. But the sentiment is dangerous.
We humans understood the Deepwater Horizon well — we built it. What we didn’t understand was how it would behave in deep sea conditions where it was beyond our power to fix it.
Likewise, Wall Street thought it understood the complex global economy. It just didn’t account for how it would be operated in real life by humans whose judgment was clouded by greed.
Every day, we build ever more complex technologies that defy full understanding even of their creators. Many, like the Deepwater Horizon rig, may have a very low probability of failure, but a very high consequence if failure comes. In that kind of system, you have to get it right every single day, day after day, without fail. Thousands of rigs have pumped oil from the Gulf for decades, but all it has taken is one mistake to bring tragedy.
In pursuit of that inhuman level of perfection, we install systems and systems of systems, which themselves become incredibly complex and capable of going wrong in ways difficult to imagine beforehand. They also give us a false sense of confidence and mastery.
Nobody knew that better than Feynman, whose fame broadened after he diagnosed the cause of NASA’s Challenger shuttle disaster. The problem, he discovered, was “management’s fantastic faith in the machinery” they had built and their failure to account for the stresses of the real world.
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled,” Feynman wrote.
I’d feel better if Venter had built that expression of humility into his creation, literally as well as figuratively.
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296 comments Add your comment
stands for decibels
May 25th, 2010
9:21 am
when God created life
Cite, please.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
9:22 am
Seems we have yet another spending program in the works. I beleive its $23Billion for the teachers. Keep tossing good money after bad…thats the liberal way.
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
9:22 am
“Bush and the Feds couldnt get into the Katrina “thick of things” until invited by the State govt. Thats Law my friend.”
OHMYEFFINGGAWD!!! not this BS again. how long will this lie live???
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:23 am
sfd,
“Cite, please.”
Genesis – chapter 1.
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
9:23 am
when God created life
Oh God, where are George Burns and John Denver when I need him…
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
9:24 am
them…
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
9:24 am
Sorry UK…is fact.
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
9:25 am
OGK – 9:24 – sorry, is not.
Normal
May 25th, 2010
9:26 am
Whiner,
” know this is like way above your pay grade but when God created life there were no scientists, laboratories or hollowed out hulks for you libs to experiment with, there was nothing.”
How do you know that? Were you there?
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
9:27 am
Yes Andy thinks he was there.
stands for decibels
May 25th, 2010
9:27 am
I got a black screen from your link, dB.
hmm… it’s cornelia funke’s official website. Maybe your computer doohickie doesn’t like her web animation.
Here’s her wiki page, just fyi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_Funke
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:28 am
Normal,
And if God had no laboratories to work in with all the creating stuff, did it all just come about like “poof” now yer there. I mean ….hmmmm…..
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
9:28 am
Normal, just ask him to answer this parable, “What are the three impeachable felonies?”!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS8Mg-JWSg
The stuff that dreams are made of
May 25th, 2010
9:29 am
Sorry…Bush and the Feds couldnt get into the Katrina “thick of things” until invited by the State govt. Thats Law my friend.
The jurisdiction for this oil spill belongs to the Feds.
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 defines responsibilities for cleanup, oversight, etc., and the federal government is fulfilling its obligations.
Normal
May 25th, 2010
9:29 am
Whiner,
For all you know, our universe is on a petri dish and we are being looked at through someone’s microscope. You have no clue, dude.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:29 am
sfd,
Anybody named “Cornelia” – I’m there.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:31 am
“our universe is on a petri dish and we are being looked at through someone’s microscope”
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
9:32 am
Normal – 9:29 – the bible says it … he believes it … that does it … (or some such nonsense)
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
9:32 am
Bosch – 9:31 –
indeed … you’d best put on some underwear
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
9:33 am
List of 3 impeachable offenses?
List of tax increases?
God’s true name?
Anything?… Bueller… Bueller?
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:34 am
USinUK,
Nah, commandos’ more fun. Now, I do feel sorry for them if they hear me singing in the shower while they watch.
Left wing management
May 25th, 2010
9:35 am
As the philosopher John Gray writes: “Technology is not something that humankind can control. It is an event that has befallen the world.”
One of the “events” of technology goes under the name “Manhattan project”. Another one will be “Deepwater Horizon”.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:35 am
Rightwing Troll and USinUK,
[Time out - waving hands over - what is this "three impeachable offenses" you speak of?]
N-GA
May 25th, 2010
9:36 am
USinUK – Andy is really no different than any suicide bomber…..really. His “faith” is more important than….well, anything! It doesn’t really matter to him if he’s wrong.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 25th, 2010
9:37 am
for Nature cannot be fooled,
One word, Kudzu. We can all see the negative effects of it and it’s supposed upside, erosion control was wrong, too. Given the nature of it’s root and crown system, it isn’t any good for that, either. Cut back a field of kudzu some time and look at what has taken place underneath the canopy. Often, the erosion is about as bad as if it had been bare ground. Thanks to the people back then in the State Extension service who bullied people into planting the stuff.
They also said that it had been modified so it wouldn’t come up from the seeds that it produced. That turned out to be wrong, too.
Humans have always had the hubris to think they could control everything. It’s never been true and it never will be.
deegee
May 25th, 2010
9:37 am
My right-wing, Fox News loving family member who happens to be from Louisiana is PO’d that the government isn’t doing enough to clean up after BP. According to the family member, the government should be spending whatever they need to spend to clean this up and sue BP to get the money back. It hasn’t occurred to family member that winning might be tricky if BP was operating within regulations, lax as they may be.
Until said family member’s Florida vacation was ruined by BP, family member was PO’d over taxpayer bailouts of private business. All politics is local.
Normal
May 25th, 2010
9:38 am
Bosch, USinUK…They are watching us…
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
9:39 am
Bosch –
Impeaches and Herb
Impeaches Geldof (actually, she really IS an offense)
Impeaches Pit (the hamburger joint from 90210)
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:40 am
Hillbilly,
“Humans have always had the hubris to think they could control everything. It’s never been true and it never will be.”
Totally agree. (But hey, lay off those state extension folks – they’re good people). I’ve always thought with all this global warming back and forth – it really doesn’t matter whose right – we are destroying our planet – and eventually we’ll be gone and the planet will heal itself.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
9:41 am
N-GA,
Which is why I’ve called some on the board “dangerous” – you know the ones who assume they know what we all think. To me, they are no different than the Taliban.
The stuff that dreams are made of
May 25th, 2010
9:42 am
Is Andy actually George Burns? Oh God! No! NOOOOOOO! I feel a moment coming. Like, almost heaven, somewhere in West Virginia… Wait. Scratch that. We’ve had the coal miner’s daughter come through since then and you know what sissy’s husband can do to a place that ain’t no country for old men.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
9:42 am
Perhaps our south of the border intellectual powerhouse, President MexiMelt could guide us, counsel us, as to how this mess might be cleaned up and at the same time offer his insight into making the USA a better place for Mexcians everywhere.
stands for decibels
May 25th, 2010
9:43 am
Anybody named “Cornelia” – I’m there.
Might want to start with The Thief Lord; it’s self-contained, a terrific story (only a passable movie version), fantastic setting and characters, and it’s quite compact.
If you decide to jump in with the first book, from her subsequent trilogy, Inkheart, I’d love to hear what you think and how you feel it compares to Rowling’s work. It is much more sedately paced, however, and takes its time sucking you in.
Byron Mathison Kerr
May 25th, 2010
9:43 am
We are approaching the 100-year anniversary of one of the first prime examples in which impressive technology, perceived to be infallible, met its demise through the greed, arrogance, and mismanagement of humankind: The Titanic.
N-GA
May 25th, 2010
9:43 am
DJIA down 250+ to 9800. Whew!
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
9:44 am
At least the Gulf Coast may soon have some of those famous Black-Sand beaches.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
9:45 am
N-GA…what ya think? “Sell in May and go away”?
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
9:46 am
“DJIA down 250+ to 9800. Whew!”
Is this the fourth impeachable felony???
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
9:46 am
OGK – 9:45 –
thanks for the new investing maxim! love it
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
9:46 am
Bosch,
Andy in one of his diarrea of the mouth episodes spouted off about 3 impeachable offenses that Obama has committed, but won’t tell us what they are.
I’d expect something like “Lied to country about WMD’s to start war” or “outed covert CIA agent for political payback to her spouse” or even “lied under oath about hummer”, but alas no examples or facts appear to be forthcoming…
I would also like a list of the tax increases the local wingnuts here keep moaning about (in between thier screams for the government to cleanup a mess inflicted by private corporation).
Jay's blog
May 25th, 2010
9:46 am
THE GULF LEAK is the new Three Mile Island, five miles down. It’s the China Boat Syndrome.
In the movie Failsafe, Henry Fonda sez, “We let our machines get away from us”.. or something.
Is this five mile deep leak unprecedented? I thought this happened all the time, but that they simply could fix it. Is this a new disaster?
OT: The way the reaction to Venus Williams is going, you’d think she tried to sell access to the Royal Family, or that she wore white sheets to the French Open.
Kamchak
May 25th, 2010
9:47 am
Of all the serial scifi/fantasy works that I’ve read, nothing beats the original—Tarzan of the Apes
Southern Comfort
May 25th, 2010
9:48 am
According to the family member, the government should be spending whatever they need to spend to clean this up and sue BP to get the money back.
If they are not willing to pay more in taxes to do that, tell them to shush it!! BP caused this problem, not the government. Therefore, BP needs to clean it up. It’s time out for the “nanny-statism”. No more government cleaning up behind private industry. If you want the profits, you deal with the losses.
Disgusted
May 25th, 2010
9:48 am
DJIA down 250+ to 9800. Whew!
Glad I got completely out of the market a couple of months ago. Those little old ladies that guide DJIA are standing on their chairs and yelling “Mouse!” this morning.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
9:49 am
THE GULF LEAK is the new Three Mile Island, five miles down. It’s the China Boat Syndrome.
More like The Pepsi Syndrome…Starring Dan Akroyd and Garrett Morris.
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
9:51 am
SoCo,
That’s how it is in my business. Sometimes you profit, sometimes you take the hit, sometimes you take the hit that isn’t even your fault, but I’ve never asked the government to clean up any of my mistakes…
Scout
May 25th, 2010
9:51 am
Jay:
Two things:
1) When these scientists “created” life did they also “create” all the chemicals they used? In other words, did they get their own “dirt” ?
2) I have read that the Russians (and maybe the Chinese) used a very low yield atomic bomb to “seal” some similar underwater oil well problems. It may come to that if it is the only answer. The lesser of two evils.
Southern Comfort
May 25th, 2010
9:54 am
RwT
I guess that’s one thing I don’t understand about those on the Right. They scream for less tax and less regulation. They don’t want the government in private business. However, the first time somebody breaks or spills something, they go crying to Uncle Sam demanding he clean it up. They act like petulant children. They want private profits but socialized risks. That dog don’t hunt!!
Normal
May 25th, 2010
9:55 am
Bosch, USinUK,
I read a good short story a few years back. Scientists had created a world in a bell jar. In that world, a generation would be born and die within the scientists normal day, but to the people of the bell jar, it would seem like the normal passage of time.
The scientists were appalled at the constant generational wars and destruction caused by the weapons of mass destruction they created, so they figured out a way to communicate with them and told them they(the scientists) was God. Shape up or die. The bell jar world made peace out of fear of “God”. Then “God” used their intellect and short lifespan to create cures for all sorts of things in the scientists world.
To me, this story was a case study of slavery. Slavery from the demands of “Gods” on their children…
N-GA
May 25th, 2010
9:56 am
OGK – I’m not a believer in market timing. This so-called rally for the past year had little technical support. By that I mean the market was rising IN ANTICIPATION of good things ahead (earnings). Many companies have had improved earnings, but there is some question about how they achieved them (cost cutting, productivity, or an improving economy). IMO the economy is improving, albeit VERY slowly. You should continue to be cautious and pick stocks that tend to be sensitive to these economic conditions. For example, the auto parts industry has seen strong sales because people are repairing their vehicles rather than buying new ones.
In January gold slid to about $1055/oz. I took that opportunity to buy more precious metals mutual fund, and have been rewarded with about 12% return in 4 months.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
10:00 am
sfd,
Will do. I will check it out next.
Normal,
Sounds like a good story – so, did they eat them?
mit
May 25th, 2010
10:01 am
Normal, that was a South Park episode.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
10:03 am
Sidebar. With the burning of all this oil our partners at BP could very well find themselves listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding the largest Fish Fry.
mit
May 25th, 2010
10:03 am
yes scout, if you order bottles of chemicals somebody on earth made them and put them into bottles.
Normal
May 25th, 2010
10:07 am
mit
May 25th, 2010
10:01 am
Don’t watch South Park, but the story came from a Hugo(?) selection
of Si Fi short stories…
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 25th, 2010
10:08 am
How do you know that? Were you there?
No man, this all just popped out of the TV screen one day.
Can’t you reason, stooge?
Scouting out answers
May 25th, 2010
10:08 am
Where did God come from.
NRB2
May 25th, 2010
10:09 am
Jay, write another column about how the economy is improving even though the market has tanked, unemployment is up, and foreclosures are back up.
Not to mention that reality has finally caught up to Europe’s socialist “utopia” and the bedwetters have to start paying the piper, and will likely effect our economy due to falling euro/lower exports etc.
Then follow up with a column about how racist the tea party is to keep people even more off track.
Your bosses upstairs might take you out to lunch for your efforts.
joan
May 25th, 2010
10:09 am
Godzilla is coming.
md
May 25th, 2010
10:10 am
One word describes this topic:
Kudzu
And the felony in question is bribery in the Sestak/Specter primary. Whether there is a case or not, only time will tell.
“The Constitution defines impeachment at the federal level and limits impeachment to “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States” who may only be impeached and removed for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”.”
stands for decibels
May 25th, 2010
10:12 am
One word, Kudzu.
Two more words: Asian Carp.
(but I was thinking Kudzu when I posted the first message on this thread, atchully.)
Fix-It
May 25th, 2010
10:13 am
Gee would this have happened if we where drilling ON LAND IN ALASKA, NO I don’t think so. But remember the fish do not have as many rights as the moose do.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
10:13 am
“And the felony in question is bribery in the Sestak/Specter primary. Whether there is a case or not, only time will tell.”
Hmmm…Should be interesting.
N-GA
May 25th, 2010
10:13 am
It’s incredible how a wonderful economic system like capitalism has been laid low by the actions of a bunch of greedy, laissez-faire fools. Just look around at which countries have suffered the least in this global economic crisis.
FrankLeeDarling
May 25th, 2010
10:14 am
As long as we are talking books and technology gone awry I highly recommend reading William Gibson
mit
May 25th, 2010
10:16 am
SOA, god came from the hopes and dreams of people that would rather pray for something instead of getting up and doing something. oh wait, that’s now. god came from the hopes and dreams of enslaved isralites, wait, wait, that’s still too early. which one you talking about?
md
May 25th, 2010
10:16 am
“Axelrod acknowledged that if White House officials dangled a job in front of Rep. Joe Sestak’s face to keep him away from challenging incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter, that would “constitute a serious breach of the law.”
Axelrod also acknowledged that there were “conversations” involving White House officials and Sestak, but said that those had been “looked at” by White House lawyers and “their conclusion was that it was perfect — the conversations were perfectly appropriate.””
WH lawyers at it again?? Didn’t we here this in regards to waterboarding??
Could get very interesting.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
10:16 am
“is bribery in the Sestak/Specter primary. ”
Huh? I obviously missed a news story.
Soothsayer
May 25th, 2010
10:16 am
A slow-growth real economy has been replaced with a credit-based speculative financial economy dependent on low interest rates and systemic fraud to survive. It is now imploding on a global scale.
Governments around the world have attempted to replace the real economy of value produced with a financial model based on credit growth and speculation. They have failed, and their constructs are imploding before our eyes.
The grand experiment of the State controlling the private economy has failed. The grand experiment was to eliminate capitalism (risk, loss, destruction of wealth via competition) from “Capitalism” and thus banish pesky competitors to the Plutocratic Elites, and vanquish the business cycle of rising and falling demand and credit from affecting the State’s collection and redistribution of taxes.
As the needs of the Savior State, its various fiefdoms and the financial Power Elites exceeded the production of the real economy, the State/capital partnership expanded globally in order to stripmine the unplundered resources, assets and populations not yet burdened with debt.
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:16 am
“…BP could very well find themselves listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding the largest Fish Fry.”
OGK, are you referring to those “controlled burns”?!
Scouting out answers, we answered that question yesterday. (Read the album liner to Jethro Tull’s Aqualung…)
Welcome to Florida’s Gulf Coast! The Prince William Sound of the South!
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:17 am
Speaking of waterboarding, when is Blood & Guts Hannity gonna get his?
(It’s for the needy children, you know.)
md
May 25th, 2010
10:18 am
“But remember the fish do not have as many rights as the moose do.”
Not more rights, just a crappy attorney/lobbyist.
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
10:21 am
Our friends at the UN are at it yet again.
Cash for Clinton — in the U.N.’s New Haiti Peacekeeping Budget
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/25/cash-clinton-uns-new-haiti-peacekeeping-budget/
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
10:22 am
Axelrod is snarky little gnat.
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
10:23 am
“And the felony in question is bribery in the Sestak/Specter primary. Whether there is a case or not, only time will tell.”
I’ll give you that one. It just may end up being on Andy’s list. That would make item #4.
Please fill in the blanks:
#1 impeachable offense by Obama is ____________________________
#2 impeachable offense by Obama is ____________________________
#3 impeachable offense by Obama is ____________________________
#4 impeachable offense by Obama is possibly the attempted bribery to subvert the will of the people in a local election.
Bud Wiser
May 25th, 2010
10:24 am
Responding to morons is like talking to rocks, so I’ll pass on that offer. One little wet boy needs to go back to his Playstation and do some more pretending to be a soldier, and the other needs to grow a functional brain to ever entertain debate.
Obowo is the most ignorant, incompetent loser of a human to ever inhabit the WH, and the mindless trolls that support that sap are beyond mentally challenged. He has shown no leadership skills at all, NOT ONE, in this disaster. As usual with this moron, he is quick to point the finger of blame (GWB maybe?), but leads in NO direction. He has appointed a commission????? to study this? What an incompetent fool. All efforts should have been made to stop or slow this leak, but he continues to do NOTHING.
Microbes? Perhaps you reference the Anointed One’s brain capacity, or leadership skills. Technology? This fool would be lost without his teleprompter, so don’t confuse him with anything beyond what he can understand.
November 10.
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
10:25 am
Please follow that up with a list of taxes that have increased.
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
10:25 am
And somebody look up seepage fer cryin out loud…
Kamchak
May 25th, 2010
10:26 am
Gee would this have happened if we where drilling ON LAND IN ALASKA, NO I don’t think so.
Yeah, because nothing bad ever happens on land.
Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution.
West was the special agent-in-charge at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division who had been probing alleged crimes committed by BP and the company’s senior officials in connection with a March 2006 pipeline rupture at the company’s Prudhoe Bay operations on Alaska’s North Slope that spilled more than 200,000 gallons of oil across two acres of frozen tundra – the second largest spill in Alaska’s history – which went undetected for nearly a week.
West was confident that the thousands of hours he invested into the criminal investigation would result in felony charges against BP and the company’s senior executives who received advanced warnings from dozens of employees who worked at its Prudhoe Bay facility that unless immediate steps were taken to repair the severely corroded pipeline, a disaster on par with that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was only a matter of time.
In fact, West, who spent nearly two decades at the EPA’s criminal division, was also told the pipeline was going to rupture – about six months before it happened.
N-GA
May 25th, 2010
10:26 am
Soothsayer – It’s just my opinion, but the author of your post is an idiot. It would seem that the PRC (a vivid example of the government controlling the economy) isw doing better than the western world. It is really a shame that we allowed the greedy financiers lead us into the wilderness. They only looked at short-term gain while the Chinese looked at long-term survival.
I believe capitalism to be the way, but it must be governed. Even the PRC realized that loosening control (allowing limited capitalism) was needed to give people incentive. The problem with our version is that it favors the elite capitalists with influence over everyone else.
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:27 am
Some may infer that I don’t care about the oil washing up into the marshes, wetlands, tributaries and ecosystems in Louisiana. They are correct.
They serve no purpose whatsoever.
It’s not like you can build condos there…
Normal
May 25th, 2010
10:27 am
Can’t you reason, stooge?
Whiner, and I’ve got to ask you…can’t you give a straight answer?
Outhouse GoKart
May 25th, 2010
10:28 am
Appears the Albatross is headed West…Good luck Boxer…lol.
President Obama Heads to the West Coast to Help Democrats
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/25/president-obama-heads-to-the-west-coast-to-help-democrats/?test=latestnews
FrankLeeDarling
May 25th, 2010
10:28 am
the machine speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJKbDz4EZio&feature=player_embedded
Normal
May 25th, 2010
10:28 am
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:27 am
Oh, I don’t know…I always liked those houses on stilts you see on the Amazon…
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
10:29 am
No but he can drop some mean F bombs… he’s got mad skilz there…
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:33 am
Oops! Looks like the ever-enraged aggressive/aggressive (or is it passive/passive?) Wiper is slowly going postal, a bit more each day, each week, each month.
But he brings up a great point; why isn’t that Uppity Muslim sans a Birth Certificate down there in a diving bell fer chrissakes???
Southern Comfort
May 25th, 2010
10:33 am
Obowo is the most ignorant, incompetent loser of a human to ever inhabit the WH, and the mindless trolls that support that sap are beyond mentally challenged. He has shown no leadership skills at all, NOT ONE, in this disaster. As usual with this moron, he is quick to point the finger of blame (GWB maybe?), but leads in NO direction.
And what, All-knowing and Wise One, would you do in this situation?
N-GA
May 25th, 2010
10:37 am
AmVet – There you go! “… why isn’t that Uppity Muslim sans a Birth Certificate down there in a diving bell fer chrissakes???”
Is that a mixed metaphor or irony when you mention Muslim and Christ in the same sentence?
Soothsayer
May 25th, 2010
10:37 am
Rather than being the new leader of the global economy, China is the bag-holder in global Capitalism’s last ‘fix”: exploitation passed off as globalization.
N-GA: First of all thanks for taking the time to actually read the post. (I’m assuming you did actually read it.) And secondly, you may want to read the above post.
Unfortunately, I do not agree with your assessment of Charles Hugh Smith. He is a visionary who sees through all the facades and tells it like it is. Every single word in both of these posts is the unvarnished truth that will be borne out in the upcoming days and months.
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:39 am
Wiper’s younger sister had it right…He’s an Arab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8XmerZEyHE
And as Newt correctly notes, he’s more dangerous that the Nazis…
md
May 25th, 2010
10:42 am
RT,
In reference to your list of 4, that is between the 2 of you, but, it only takes one of the 4.
The way I see it playing out, somebody is going down. Either the WH is not telling the truth or Sestak is not telling the truth. I envision Sestak taking the fall, but doubt an Admiral is going to go done quietly. If he was going to go down quietly, he would have taken the job.
Could get messy.
Bosch
May 25th, 2010
10:43 am
AmVet!
It’s Crazy McCain Lady. I so loved Kristen Wiig on SNL making fun of her.
Scouting out answers
May 25th, 2010
10:44 am
Did Bud vote for G.W.B for a third term.
Southern Comfort
May 25th, 2010
10:44 am
Bud
You don’t have to answer that. I’m sure you would have had the Gulf of Mexico spotless by now. Anyway, time for me to go create some taxable income to pay for the latest mop-up of corporate hubris.
Later y’all…
deegee
May 25th, 2010
10:44 am
“synthetic life, in this case a man-made bacteria with a chromosome designed by computer and then “built from four bottles of chemicals.”
I am less concerned about the prospect of this synthetic life getting out of control than I am about the out of control human life that is spawned by drug and alcohol addicted people that don’t know each others’ first or last name after hooking up at motel party. Is anyone besides Maury Povich working on a solution for that?
AmVet
May 25th, 2010
10:45 am
N-GA, when it comes to the three Abrahamic mythologies, including the one I was born into, I hold them all in the same “esteem”!
OK, off to help pay for the cleanup.
See y’all later!
Normal
May 25th, 2010
10:47 am
Whoops…
Navy plane drops buoy on house
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 25, 2010 6:15:20 EDT
MANDARIN, Fla. — A sonar buoy from a Navy plane on a training flight crashed through the roof of a north Florida home.
Officials say the P-3 Orion had just taken off from Jacksonville Naval Air Station Friday morning when the 3-foot-long, 40-pound cylinder fell more than 500 feet.
The device went through the roof of a house in Mandarin, Fla., landing next to a bed. Resident Marwan Saman says his daughter had just gotten out of that bed about a half hour earlier.
The Navy sent an explosives demolition team to retrieve the buoy. No injuries were reported, and the Navy was making arrangements to pay for the damage.
A P-3 can carry dozens of the devices to help track submarines. It’s possible a malfunctioning launch tube caused the plane to drop a buoy Friday morning.
Oh well, just put in a sky light…
thomas
May 25th, 2010
10:47 am
I have seen many make the argument that BP should pay for all of this because they caused the disaster, that could affect us all!
Did all of you advocating this strategy also disagree with any and all financial bailouts of the past few years? If not please explain how you are not a hypocrit……. because the financial institutions that were bailed out CAUSED that too.
Or did the financial coorporations not cause the financial meltdown?
Gale
May 25th, 2010
10:49 am
Kudzu. I actually heard a perfect solution for kudzu… sheep. It seems sheep thrive on kudzu and after grazing the area until the kudzu is gone, the ground has been cultivated by those sharp little feet and fertilized by, er, used kudzu. Our only problem all along has been applying the wrong solution to kudzu. Actually, the same applies to the Asian carp. Use it for pet food.