Well, they're now collecting as much oil as was originally estimated to be escaping but of course they're aware that the plug hasn't provided a 100 per cent seal and that some oil is still getting into the ocean. There has to be some recognition of just how difficult the situation is - perfection and instantaneous solutions are not always available.

km

Tell me, Slick, what part of this do you not understand?

Yeah, I'm eternally indebted to BP.

In your opinion do you think Obama is doing enough in this crisis with BP? There has to be a solution to this problem before things are really screwed up everywhere.J

I think Obama is doing what he can given that he's playing with a previously stacked deck. I'm not convinced that Salazar was the best choice for Sec. of the Interior. At the very least, I think Obama should have pushed him more emphatically and with more urgency to start cleaning up a compromised bureau. Especially the obviously corrupt MMS, which, starting in the Bush administration, was in bed — literally — with big oil.

I don't think anyone — not BP, not their subcontractors, not the administration — was prepared for a catastrophe of this scope. And I fault them all for not being prepared. Negligence, complacency, corruption, greed, and politics have all played a role. And what's maddening is that things like this keep happening, followed by outrage and posturing and vows to "fix the system so this never happens again". And then six months, a year, five years later, it happens again.

Heh, I love mexican/thai/any other kind of spicy food so the food there to me is rather.. well bland.

Instead of just criticising all the time it's about time you started showing some sense of appreciation for the enormous energy and skill that BP is investing into the response effort.


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You wouldn't have to make such a ludicrous suggestion if British Petroleum hadn't willingly screwed this our pooch from the get go. Rabbit on. You know as well as we do ~ this is pretty much the end of British Petroleum as a global entity. They may not go down in the next 6-12 months, but seriously. British Petroleum's share price will f'n implode when criminal charges are filed.

Oh. Wait. Do you own shares?

What Rachel Maddow calls a Head On Desk Moment.

To all who it may concern:

I've read that it's an accepted idea in quantum physics that when you measure —in that realm— a part of a system it produces a disturbance in the whole that leads to an error or uncertainty in the unmeasured part.

It's true that the measurement in this case is not a quantum measurement but BP's solution has introduced the 'disturbance' with the "siphoning" pumping tube into the out-coming flow of high-pressure crude-petroleum-and-gas, thus modifying the flow equation that existed before.

I wouldn't be surprised if we find out in the future (and i'd bet we will), that BP's "solution" (plan B? Or is it plan F?) made the problem worse because the increase in the rate of flow from siphoning brings about —according to this (my) hypothesis—, an increase in the volume of fluid escaping within the uncaptured flow of the exit tube and consequently, it increases the quantity escaping into the open ocean. The harder they pump fluid up to the tanker, the bigger the spill-out to the gulf.



[not sure about all this!]

To your point, when this "straw" or "siphon tube" was first broached, I read that the once the pipe was in place and drawing crude and gas, the next step is to seal the well breach around the siphon, which would mitigate the problem you've described, and stabilize the flow to the tankers above. I've heard/read nothing about that second step being initiated yet.

I'm guessing that this is another process that's manageable at depths of one or two hundred feet, but never attempted or tested at a mile down. Hell, even the Coast Guard has just stated that they don't yet know how they're going to assume the spill rate measurement task at that depth!

More evidence that BP is literally in over their heads without a clue or contingency plans.

Yeah that won't apply in this case because they're not pumping but siphoning.

km