‘Top kill’ fails: BP abandons effort
I don’t know what to say about this. So I’ll let the Washington Post do it:
BP’s three-day effort to throttle the leaking gulf oil well with multiple blasts of heavy mud has failed. The attempted top kill of the well was abandoned late Saturday afternoon, leaving the huge Macondo field deep beneath the sea floor once again free to pump more than half a million gallons of crude a day into the gulf.
“I can say we tried. But what I can also say is this scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing or haven’t succeeded in that so far,” BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said in a late-day press conference.
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369 comments Add your comment
Scout
May 30th, 2010
7:40 pm
I am 63 now …………… and I still consider the best friends I ever had in life as 19.
In my mind they are forever young ………………..
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
7:44 pm
Stands for…
You’re right that it’s far too complex to go into in a forum such as this…when Jay the other day made the comment that, and I paraphrase here, Indian “things” just aren’t that much of an issue in these parts, it was something of a slap in the face in this house, a wake-up call of a sorts on just how little even well educated people know of the Indians and their contribution to and participation in American society. Indians by and large “don’t raise a stink,” it’s not the Indian way, and because they don’t they are not considred beyond an occasional, “oh, yeah, now that you mention it…”
Georgia stands poised to be the first state to elect an enrolled tribal member as governor, and I have yet to see that brought up…once they achieve success, well, they’re just not Indian any more…it goes to what Scout says about those with Indian blood…
I know it’s one of my bones to gnaw on, but still and all….
TaxPayer
May 30th, 2010
7:50 pm
Seems like those folks at BP could just as easily get some pipe and a pump installed on that well and just start pumping that oil out into tankers and then let the tankers go to the nearest port and unload and lather, rinse, repeat. Then again, if they got stuck in a hurricane and spilled their cargo, why, that would just be terrible! It could be the worst oil spill to ever hit the US! Then, the poor folks carrying the oil in the tankers would get blamed for spilling the stuff and the people operating the pipes and pumps would be liable and none of them would be able to get the most basic insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions and, well, then the cases of folks in barely related industries being rescinded would start pouring in and folks would be calling on the government to do something… anything… but what can they do. What should they do. After all, it’s a free market and the government needs to keep its nose out of it. Right! Am I right!
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 30th, 2010
7:53 pm
Georgia stands poised to be the first state to elect an enrolled tribal member as governor,
A serious question. If you stopped 100 random people on the street, how many do you think would have ever even heard of the Lumbee (unless you were in NC)? Not many would be my guess. I think somewhere in a kid’s schooling they should at least hear the name of the 100 or so biggest tribes. My guess is I might have heard 10, maybe, at school.
A Toast
May 30th, 2010
7:56 pm
A toast to Joe McCarthy: A Great American.
On Memorial Day, it is fitting and proper that we give honor to those who gave their last full measure of devotion. As we salute our fallen heroes, we are reminded that war should always be a last resort. One of our most celebrated warriors was Robert E Lee. His worst moment came at Fredericksburg, when he noted that it is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it. Those words do a disservice to those who mourn casualties. No humane person could ever be fond of war. War forever should be a Last Resort.
Vietnam was not a war of last resort. Ike’s warning about how capitalism can default to war was fresh in our ears during The Gulf of Tonkin incident. I was thirteen and I smelled that rat. One radar operator on one destroyer thought he saw a blip? Fishing boats were out there…….fishing. I even think there was rough seas that day, so it could have just been a wave. The first casualty in war is truth.
The first sophisticated utterance from the baby boomers at 60’s pot parties was about the Domino Theory. First, it was cool to explain the theory, and suggest that the Vietnam war was justified based on the theory. Then, after a while, other stoners would start shouting the theory down. It died a quick death. The Domino Theory has never been relevant in any geo-political clash. It’s a fairy tale from the munitions industry. It also has never been replaced. “If not the Domino, then why are we fighting this war”, someone would venture at pot parties. “To fight communism”? No, because then we’d have to invade both China and Russia, if we were serious about the commie threat.
Believe it or not, that two-front invasion is exactly what the some powerful Americans in high places were proposing. Paranoid Delusions and outright disinformation led to wild strategic offensive contingency plans by the secret powers behind Tail Gunner Joe.
McCarthy was right, by the way. McCarthy was a great American, who probably saved the world. It was a fact that there were spies everywhere. Soviet Spies! And when Joe McCarthy was discredited, the commie spies had a golden age to spy freely because nobody in government had the heart to challenge anybody over anything suspicious. The political price was too high.
However, that turns out to have been the best thing that could have happened. If not for the reliable and reassuring reports from Soviet spies during the Cuban Missile Crisis and during the radar anomalies that sent Russia into a launch mode every now and then, the Soviets surely would have launched those missiles at us. It’s only because the Soviets had reliable spies in our own high places that they were able to stand down from their red alert status and control their impulse to press the button. If Vietnam could be started over a wave’s signature on radar, then Cold War could end in a nuclear holocaust over an unexplained blip on the radar.
So this memorial day I toast veteran Joe McCarthy: A Great American.
Del
May 30th, 2010
8:00 pm
josef,
Misadventures, not a good word for those who fought and died. It demeans their service to the country who sent them there. Believe me the Russians, ChiComs and North Vietnamese all learned with extreme concern that our infantry with a decentralized, operationally designed doctrine was far more effective than their centralized command structure. They haven’t been able to emulate it. The best at it? well you can search the late Army Col. David Hackworth who discussed and praised the United States Marine Corps’s philosophy that every Marine regardless of MOS or rank is a basic infantry riflemen.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:07 pm
Hillbilly
The curriculum gives a lesson on the Removal, and there only the Cherokee, the fact that the very name, The Trail of Tears, is from the Choctaw experience. A brief snippet on the WWII code talkers, then nada until the plains genocide, then nada again until Wounded Knee, Part II. As for the Lumbee, when I first brought them up, I was not surprized to find no small few of our more liberal and “educated” posters hereabouts posting in a “do tell…”
One of my greatest honors was when I was asked by a group of Indians and Mixed Bloods to design for them a course in American history from the Indian (specifically Choctaw and Chickasaw) perspective…the focus was on the “great events” of the American story common to us all and how they played out in Indian country and not from the point of view of “what it did TO the Indians but how the Indians participated AS Americans…
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:09 pm
DEL
The misadventures refers to the Iraq-Afghanistan situation and to the politico-economic rationale motivating the actions…not in the least to those serving…my boy is one of those…
Del
May 30th, 2010
8:12 pm
josef,
God hold and keep your son safe.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:15 pm
Hillbilly
Oops…put the code talkers between the plains genocide and the Wounded Knee… ouch on the time lining there….
BTW–
Charles Kurtis is not even mentioned in the curriculm nor is the Indian Citizenship Act…
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 30th, 2010
8:19 pm
Maybe obozo could lower the seas, like he said he would, and we could back a concrete truck up to this gusher, just wondering…
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:20 pm
Del
Thank you. He’s back stateside now…served in Bosnia, Kossovo, Iraq (Shock and Awe and another tour) then a tour in Afghanistan…don’t get HIM started on DADT!
bugatti
May 30th, 2010
8:21 pm
Josef nix
i visited Pine Ridge a few years ago. Learned a lot about Wounded Knee. Also learned that about half of what has been told is wrong or exaggerated.
i became a huge fan of Red Cloud and found his Seventh Generation Prophecies both as coming true and extremely troubling.
theeyeshaveit
May 30th, 2010
8:27 pm
josef, I have used the old skim and scan to get moderately caught up here. I could not help but see exchanges by Bada, Saul and you. Just a few thoughts here. First of all, I would not get too concerned about Bada. He strikes me as what is known elsewhere in the blogoshere as a “troll”. I certain that you and others have noted that he has neither the intellect nor the maturity to say anything of substance here. Accordingly, I would treat him just as we Andy. Secondly, I have tried to find quotation attributed to Ben Franklin without any success. But old Ben once said something like “Patriotism is a fine and noble thing like an eagle soaring above a mountain; but jingoism is mean and ignoble like a crow atop a dung heap.” Something like that. I took poetic license in light of Google’s failings. Third, my god do we much in common. Some day, just ask me. But my status on the Census seems to change every 20 years or so. Like the government cannot figure out what to think of me. Just a hint…my paternal grandmother used to tell my grandfather, “Don’t you argue with me, viejo, my grandmother was a full-blooded Comanche.”
And for Bada..:-)
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:28 pm
Bugatti
Glad to know you went to Wounded Knee and learned from them there…the Southeastern experience is not cut from the same cloth…here’s my own hero
http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/letters/1831DecemberGeorgeWHarkinstotheAmericanPeople.htm
Should be, in my opinion, required reading in all American History courses…
theeyeshaveit
May 30th, 2010
8:31 pm
josef, by the way, did you see Spielberg’s TV series on TNT called “Into The West”?
A Toast
May 30th, 2010
8:32 pm
A Memorial remembrance for my Uncle, who died in a B24 over Italy in 1944. He was pulling in extra duty so he could go to my mother’s graduation. He was volunteering for flights he didn’t have to be on. He was a bombardier, and a good one. His plane was hit by flak, and he was the only crew member who didn’t make it out. Back in Detroit, my grandmother got the news about her son on the very day my mother graduated from high school. Grandmother still held the graduation party for my mother. She insisted on it. It held her together. After it was over, my grandmother went into mourning. My grandfather smashed all the furniture in the dining room in a fit of rage. He was never the same and it also marked the beginning of the end of his marriage. His life dissolved in alcohol. My grandmother often recalled how her son had promised that after the war, he would buy her a red convertible and they would tour the country together in it. He played the violin very well, and would entertain at parties.
A toast to my uncle, who I never met, but I knew him through my mom and grandmom.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 30th, 2010
8:37 pm
Josef
Believe it or not, sounds like they may teach a little more now than they did back in my day.
And by the way, I found an arrowhead in the garden the other day. Still find one every two or three years. My Grandpa used to find one or two a year but that was a long time ago and he was tending a lot bigger area.
From the size of it, I would guess it was for deer. That’s usually the size but I have found a couple that were about half that size. They were for small game, I would assume.
Del
May 30th, 2010
8:44 pm
A Toast,
I can relate to your loss somewhat. My Uncle who I can’t remember either was a bombardier navigator who died in 1944 coming back from an otherwise successful bombing mission when two ships in the squadron collided over the English Channel, his being one. His body was found washed up on the beach. Only one crew member survive, the tail gunner.
bugatti
May 30th, 2010
8:46 pm
theeyeshaveit
I saw Bada offer some pretty good ideas about how to fix the oil spill problem. For that he was attacked over and over. No one else was offering anything, but he was.
He said one thing that could have been considered offensive and that was that he thought smiley faces were gay. That’s a term, like it or not, that has been used in hundreds of movies and is pretty common to hear in normal conversation.
A troll is someone who comes onto a forum or blog and is there to offer no logical discussion and is there only to disrupt any civil discussion that might be going on. I didn’t see him doing that. I did, however see that being done to him over and over and slamming every idea that he offered. I’m amazed that he was able to be as civil as he was.
Sometimes i feel that you guys just set and wait until someone says the wrong thing so you can hammer him. This doesn’t do much for the blog or the exchange of ideas here.
It really doesn’t matter if someone is offering civil discussion here. If they are a conservative, they can expect troll like attacks over and over until they are gone. There are a few here that will offer a counterpoint or even question an idea, but it is more likely than not if the conservative is making strong and valid points that they will be continually attacked and more often than not, incessantly lectured about what they should or shouldn’t say.
You tend to be one of the ones that will offer a counterpoint, even though you do like to lecture. Some like Kamchak and a few that come on as a slew of different names are true trolls. they never offer any sort of logical discussion and they will hammer and hammer until someone either leaves or someone engages their viewpoint.
My point is that Bada was offering civil discussion but was being attacked for it, as per usual, on this blog.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:48 pm
eyes
A Cherokee singing an Apache song for your Comanche soul sent to you from a Choctaw-Cherokee..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I31Ic697pQk&feature=related
bugatti
May 30th, 2010
8:52 pm
josef nix
Are you familiar with the 7th generation Prophecies? It was part of the Ghost Dance that resulted in the deaths at Wounded Knee. In fact, it resulted in lots of deaths of both settlers and Oglala.
TnGelding
May 30th, 2010
8:52 pm
Mother Nature is reminding us not to forget her on this Memorial Day.
Hats off and a big salute to those that were sacrificed by clueless politicians. And an apology from the spineless cowards that continue to let them do it, myself included.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
8:56 pm
eyes
didn’t see the Spielberg…need to…
Hillbilly
Good old benighted Mississippi always did a pretty good job of bringint the Indian aspect into our history classes…kinda hard not to when so many of the major figures in the state were Indians…a lot of people don’t know it, but a third of the Choctaw nation took advantage of Article 14 permitting them to stay east of the river and become United States citizens…current governor Haley Barbour is himself a descendent of Greenwood Leflore…
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
9:01 pm
Bugatti
I am familiar with them in passing.
Scout
May 30th, 2010
9:01 pm
Del:
“Why in hell can’t the Army do it if the Marines can. They are the same kind of men; why can’t they be like Marines”.
Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, US Army; 12 February 1918
“I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world!”
General of the Armies Douglas MacArthur; Korea, 21 September 1950
“We have two companies of Marines running rampant all over the northern half of this island, and three Army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner, doing nothing. What the hell is going on?”
Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., US Army, Chairman of the the Joint Chiefs of Staff
during the assault on Grenada, 1983
“The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.”
Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing, U.S. Army
Commander of American Forces in World War I
bugatti
May 30th, 2010
9:12 pm
josef nix
You understand that you are part of that Prophecy.
As you probably know, Red Cloud was not a warrior, he was a shaman. He dreamed that all Indians outside his sphere (The Oglala Sioux believed that most Western Tribes were their brothers, but other tribes were from a different celestial mother.) would take the wealth back from the White man and that would happen 7 generation from his death. You are that generation.
And it was your generation that started to establish casinos on the reservations. Of course, most Western Tribes were under different treaties. The Sioux still lives under the Laramie treaty of (I think) 1872. That restricts them from having any commercial enterprise on their reservation. That same kind of treaty applies to most western tribes.
i just thought that you might want to know that Red Cloud saw you coming.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
9:30 pm
Bugatti…
I’m not an Indian…just have shared beads and blankets with one..
One two many
May 30th, 2010
9:42 pm
I was beaten up and thrown out of an Indian Gambling Casino once for counting coup.
Native of the Americas
May 30th, 2010
9:50 pm
I’m a descendant of Native American Indians (as opposed to those non-Native to the Americas Indians) so that must make me as much, or likely more, a part of a tribe as a Lumbee. What is their latest attempt at getting Federal recognition, er, strike that, I mean Federal money? What was that. The Cheraw. Uh huh. And that crock, the Ox, that is running for Georgia Governor looks like he has more Irish blood than anything.
walker
May 30th, 2010
9:55 pm
Chuck Norris says that BP was laying pipe wrong. And Chuck knows a thing or two about laying pipe, if you know what I mean. Wink wink.
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
9:58 pm
bugatti, you are a gentleman. You know, the Gov’t should hold a contest with a large cash prize given to the person who comes up with an idea to stop the leak. Why not? The experts(?) can not do it. Pick up the phone, give us a call.
BarackPetroleum Prize Claims Dept
May 30th, 2010
10:03 pm
the Gov’t should hold a contest with a large cash prize given to the person who comes up with an idea to stop the leak.
The entry deadline is August 15, 2010.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
10:05 pm
Native
And, Sir or Ma’am. may I see your CDIB card? The Cheraw and the Lumbee are two distinct groups. At least, though, you do have some concept of what’s at work here or you wouldn’t be making the snip-a33 comments you made…
One Two Many
Don’t go messin’ with them buffalo chips…
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
10:06 pm
BADA BING
A contest? Said in jest, but there’s a great deal to recommend it…
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
10:07 pm
Act now, fix the leak and get this added extra prize…….
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
10:11 pm
Nix, my hat is off to a Native American. I travel to Latin America often and see indiginous native groups. The Inca in Peru, the Maya in Central America, Amazon natives on the Amazon River. Kings of their domain. I admire their pride and their work ethic.
Native of the Americas
May 30th, 2010
10:19 pm
josef, the non-native of the American Indians,
Perhaps you should try to stay abreast of the attempts taken by these so-called Lumbees for Federal funding/recognition. Their latest claim is that they are descended from the Cheraws. At least you do give some indication that you are somewhat familiar with a few names though. For that you get a polite golf clap.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
10:19 pm
Unmentionable says to tell y’all thanks for talking about Indians for a change. It sort of takes the sting out of the Bruin’s slap the other day…
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
10:20 pm
Stretch large bladders on the open pipe (think large water balloons). When they are full, float them to the surface and load on tankers with large nets that will not puncture the bladders. Install next bladder and repeat. This idea is as good as the ‘Top kill’.
Sinka de Maya
May 30th, 2010
10:21 pm
Bada Boing,
Your calendar is ready.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
10:23 pm
Native
I am familiar with the hooplah over the Lumbee…goes back to Virginia Dare…I think what it boils down to is that they have done well enough in the mainstream to present a case that many find uncomfortable. The Cheraw case is an intriguing one as well, considering that they have yet to sign a treaty with the feds…messy can of worms to open…
Not being snarky at all here…but are you enrolled?
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
10:27 pm
BADA BING
Bladders? There’s something there…would it work? I’m no engineer…sounds logical to me…I mean, who’d've thought golf balls…
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
10:44 pm
Attach a huge , thick, rubber bladder to the mouth of the pipe. As the oil flows into the bladder, pressure builds. There is around 15,000 lbs. of water pressure at that depth. When the pressure inside the bladder is equal to the sea pressure, the oil will stop flowing. It is a stopgap method until the relief wells can be drilled. I have no training, why can’t the experts do better?
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 30th, 2010
10:47 pm
Josef
I’m not an engineer either but there might be a problem with bladders and pressure. If there is enough oil in the bladder at the one mile depth to withstand the pressure of the sea, as it rises it might burst as it rises and sea water pressure decreases. The pressure in the bladder would increase relative to the pressure of the water, I would think. Don’t know that for a fact; just a question I’d ask if I was in the brainstorming session. I might also ask if that was a problem, is there a way to release some of the pressure as it rises without releasing the oil.
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
10:53 pm
You are correct about the pressure increasing as it rises. Leave a lot of room for expansion. That would be the biggest problem. Doing nothing is a bigger problem.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
10:54 pm
Hillbilly and Bada Bing–
Wow! Ask for details! G-d, I admire the h3ll out of brains like y’all’s…and I mean that sincerely..,
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 30th, 2010
10:56 pm
Bada
Well as it is now, I’d keep throwing things at the wall until something sticks.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
11:00 pm
Hillbilly
As the old folks say, “nothing beats a failure but a try.”
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
11:02 pm
They will not stop it until they can install a valve or hose connections on that jagged, broken pipe. The robotic drone should drill a series of smaller holes, tapped for screwing in some valves or pipe connections. As the oil flows through the many new holes, the flow will decrease at the broken mouth. It can then be sealed in some manner, (welded, capped). when the mouth is sealed, the newly installed, smaller valves could be closed one at a time to seal it completely.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 30th, 2010
11:14 pm
Josef
I’ve read a little bit about the Russians having this problem before and setting off a “small” nuclear device to stop it. Bigger than what we dropped in WWII, by the way. I don’t know but I would think this would involve drilling and detonating under the sea bed. Don’t know that I’d want to do that but I hope somebody has at least been talking to the Russians about it.
I think the idea of building artificial barrier islands has merit. I would imagine that would create some unintended ecological problems down the road but not as bad as letting the oil into the marshes. From what I understand, Bobby Jindal and others, have been begging to do this for a couple weeks but the EPA is doing a study or something. I’d say make an exception and study it as you go.
My fear is that this is going to wind up being the death of what’s left of the seafood industry in the Gulf. Eventually they’ll get the leak stopped, and maybe even cleaned up, but by then, most of those people will be out of business.
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
11:15 pm
The most important thing to do now, is to send every underwater robot that the Navy and private firms have, to the area. The pipe has to be cut off straight and tapped, so that something can be attached to stem the flow. They have nothing on that jagged pipe to work with. A screw on valve can be attached after tapping the pipe. Come on people, try something simple. KISS….keep it simple stupid.
theeyeshaveit
May 30th, 2010
11:20 pm
Bada, hmmm. I do not know where my mind is going, but the imagery is there….bladder fitting snugly over a pipe to stop its flow…hmmm…..With all the terminology we have been learning from the folks at BP to date, perhaps, your approach can be aptly named the Condom,.
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
11:25 pm
Hire Master Plumbers to devise a plan. I know that the distance and depth make it more difficult, but basic plumbing can be used to stop the leak. Tools and equipment will have to be strong enough to take the pressure, but it should be the same procedure as fixing a leaky pipe in your home.
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
11:29 pm
the eye shave it, good name for the bladder.
BADA BING
May 30th, 2010
11:31 pm
We can use it to keep BP from screwing the country.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 30th, 2010
11:31 pm
This may be a dumb question but does anybody know the diameter of the broken pipe we’re talking about?
Michael H. Smith
May 30th, 2010
11:32 pm
theeyeshaveit
May 30th, 2010
8:27 pm
I’d be inclined to say you took quite a good bit of liberty in using your poetic license concerning old Ben Franklin views in respect to Americanism and jingoism:
Franklin expressed his opposition toward German immigrants, whom he ridiculed:
“why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements and, by herding together, establish their Language and Manners, to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Angli-fying them .. .?”
You’ll find the writings of Jefferson and Adams concerning assimilation and use of the English language no less – as you would say – jingoist.
PS. Josef, Choctaw are Muskogee like the Creek. We probably share direct ancestral ties.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
11:34 pm
As much as I’m looking forward to being able to stay up and chat with the late night crew. I’m still not yet on summer schedule and am fading fast…besides, did have grandboys over this weekened and all three of them at one time…well…a blessing, but a draining one…I’m an old f*rt now…
and, Native, I’ve got a vague idea of who you are as a regular, but our exchange is one I’d like to continue at some juncture in the future. I’m interested in what you have to say….
Hillbilly and Bada Bing…am looking forward to catching up with y’all’s exchange in the a.m.
eyes–
oh, yes, it would appear that we have a lot in common…
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
11:37 pm
Michael
I’m glad to see you here. Last year at D-Day you made a post that has stuck with me as something that I respected and admired greatly…if you know how, I would greatly appreciate you reposting it.
josef nix
May 30th, 2010
11:41 pm
PS to Michael…
I have no Indian blood…my ties there are via Unmentionable and our young’uns…
Michael H. Smith
May 30th, 2010
11:56 pm
Someone mentioned the Electric car earlier and wanted to know whatever happened to it?
You can find the entire documentary on Who Killed the Electric Car at YouTube.
The EV-1 should never have died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Mpe7XfODk
What you were talking about, using electric cars, is being done in Israel presently. For America a slightly different approach would be better at the beginning for a number of reasons. However, no question that going to hybrid electric cars is a very viable alternative, even with the present electric grid and electric generating capacity. To go completely to total electric cars, America will have take make some hard choices, like accepting more nuclear power plants or natural gas fired power plants(which means drill baby, drill). Solar and wind just won’t get us the amounts of electrical power we will need to do the job of using total electric cars on a very large scale presently.
Michael H. Smith
May 30th, 2010
11:57 pm
My bad josef.
BADA BING
May 31st, 2010
12:26 am
Float a new drilling rig over the leaking pipe. Cut off the pipe, or blow it off with explosives, if there is an elbow installed, until you have just the original pipe straight down to the oil under the sea floor. Install a smaller pipe, length by length, straight down the original pipe. This will be fast because nothing needs to be drilled, you are inside a larger pipe. pressure will be no problem because the smaller pipe is still open. Once you reach the bottom, the oil will come up the smaller pipe, and then you seal it off on the drilling rig the same way as is currently done. You now have control of the leak.
Michael H. Smith
May 31st, 2010
12:31 am
josef, doubt I can remember a verbatim account but I think what you are getting at is the ridiculous policy of don’t ask don’t tell and how many gays have died for the freedoms of straight people. Being a conservative and straight doesn’t require me or any other conservative to be an idiot and think homosexuality will go away if I hate it enough and make life unreasonable hard for anyone who is gay by denying them everything humanly possible.
Thank you gay veterans for your service to our country and for my freedom to speak with liberty.
theeyeshaveit
May 31st, 2010
1:02 am
Michael Smith, BRAVO!!
BADA BING
May 31st, 2010
10:11 am
To expand on my earlier blog from last night. There is already a drilled, lined pipe from the sea bed to the oil resevoir. The new platform would just connect the new smaller pipe piece by piece and insert it into the existing pipe (think of inserting a drinking straw down a larger straw). Where the pipes connect (let’s say the pipes are 100-200 feet long) there would be a joint a little larger than the new pipe. As the pipe is inserted, the joints will provide a sealing effect, as more and more pipe is connected (think piston rings). Oil and gas pressure will be minimal because the new pipe is still open, the flow will go with the path of least resistance. The new pipe will be lubricated by the oil as it is inserted. At that depth, the oil will be extremely thick and would soon provide a seal around the new pipe and joints. When the smaller pipe reaches the resevoir, the last pipe would be tapped and a large screw on valve would be attached and closed. Hell, they could propably still use it as an oil well and not have to abandon it. Business as usual. Any engineers, mechanics, plumbers out there? Would it work?
BADA BING
May 31st, 2010
10:19 am
This would be extremely fast because no drilling is necessary. There is probably an oil rig available in the area that could be floated there, or BP could close down a nearby working rig for this emergency. I don’t care what it may cost them. IT must happen fast, round the clock workers if necessary, or it will leak thru June, July, and into August. The oil will foul all of the Gulf down to South America, Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.
Eli Jones
June 1st, 2010
3:15 pm
“Only 16 Percent Approve of Obama’s Handling of “The Obamaspill” /// ZOGBY SURVEY
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Positive opinion about Obama’s government’s handling of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill is down 13 points from two weeks ago, dropping from 29 percent to 16 percent, a new Zogby Interactive survey finds.
Currently, only 16 percent rate Obama’s government’s response to The Obamaspill as excellent or good. The same question in a May 7-10 Zogby Interactive survey found 29 percent giving a positive rating. Opinion of BP’s handling of the spill is also down from the previous poll, going from positive ratings of 25 percent then to just 15 percent now.
The Zogby survey of 2,085 adults was conducted from May 25-27
Almost 60 percent agreed with the assessment that The Obamaspill is “a disaster that will cause long-term environmental and economic damage.”