Oil Rig in the Gulf?
Why doesn't the government just blow the whole rig with 'bunker sealers' bombs to stop the leak, burn the top oil, and use Dutch skimming boat to get the rest? Why isn't Obama doing anything?
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Jun 17, 2010. 8:16 PMorksecurity
says:
Plenty is being done. If it was an easy problem it would have been solved by now. Unfortunately, it really isn't that easy. From what I've heard from experts (and, yes, I know people who work on this sort of rig), bombing would be a MAJOR gamble. The best guess is that a bomb would be at least as likely to make things worse as to make them better. The folks citing other countries which have tried this haven't done their research; it has not been particularly successful. Not a good choice. Some of the surface oil *is* being burned, when it can be gathered together well enough to be burned. Skimmer boats are out there and working hard. Everything which has good odds of working IS being tried. The only reliable solution at this point -- which is in progress -- is to drill an intersecting well and use that to seal off the leaking one. Everything else is strictly stopgap. The piece of equipment which *should* have acted as an emergency seal was not set up properly. If there's any criminal (as opposed to civil) liability here, that's where it lies. Like it or not, the government really doesn't have the equipment to deal with this particular problem. The transnational oil companies do. Which is why the government is largely acting in an advisory role and letting BP handle the mechanics. The only good alternative would be to bring in _another_ oil company to try to deal with it -- and they'd be fools to go near it and risk assuming any of the liability. One can ask "then why was deep-sea drilling authorized in the first place" -- but that's OUR fault, for not reducing our use of fossil fuels. If you want to do your part to reduce the risk of another such spill, invest in efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Jul 10, 2010. 8:44 PMorksecurity
says:
BTW, additional information: It turns out that this particular well had far higher natural-gas pressure than anyone had predicted; the crew had reportedly been struggling with it for a while before it got completely out of control and caused the explosion. I've been told that with that much pressure, it's quite possible that the blowout preventer wouldn't have held even if it had been set up perfectly and triggered immediately.
(Reminder: This is what I'm hearing from folks who have far more of a Clue than I do. I trust them; up to you to decide whether you want to trust my judgment about their judgment. "The Management Is Not Responsible.")
(Reminder: This is what I'm hearing from folks who have far more of a Clue than I do. I trust them; up to you to decide whether you want to trust my judgment about their judgment. "The Management Is Not Responsible.")
Hey ork,
I've noticed that you do *this* a bit, and I think I get the idea, but what does _this_ mean?
*Sorry*, a bit _off topic_. Was that right?
I've noticed that you do *this* a bit, and I think I get the idea, but what does _this_ mean?
*Sorry*, a bit _off topic_. Was that right?
Jun 18, 2010. 6:55 AMorksecurity
says:
Yeah, it's a digression, but since you will see this elsewhere...
These are ancient pre-web (probably pre-Internet) emphasis conventions for typed plaintext. Asterisks are roughly equivalent to bold, underscores are roughly equivalent to italic. Your last line is effectively
Sorry, a bit off topic. Was that right?
Since my computer experience does go back that far, I tend to think in terms of these rather than using the rich-text features when I'm just rattling off a note. Formatting for formal publication is a different matter, of course.
These are ancient pre-web (probably pre-Internet) emphasis conventions for typed plaintext. Asterisks are roughly equivalent to bold, underscores are roughly equivalent to italic. Your last line is effectively
Sorry, a bit off topic. Was that right?
Since my computer experience does go back that far, I tend to think in terms of these rather than using the rich-text features when I'm just rattling off a note. Formatting for formal publication is a different matter, of course.
Always good to learn something.
Looks like I should probably stick with the> RICH TEXT EDITOR.< though.
It's hard enough to work out the tone of a comment without adding the wrong emphasis as well.
I'm actually looking forward to hearing what the pirates think about all this.
Because Obama is an ingoranus. Other countries have offered to help, but he won't accept it. Obama doesn't have the authority to refuse the help, it's in the ocean. Do we own the ocean? No. I'm interested to see what the British side of Instructables has to say about this...
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