Spill, baby, spill

[nolawitch58]

My good friend swampytad has an inciteful write-up about the current disaster to befall Southeast Louisiana. Click through to read it. Lots of good links and informative points. I commented over there that we wait until the shit hits the fan to mitigate problems.

I'm personally tired of trying to drag whining, sniveling mental infants forward. Can't we simply dismiss their idiocy and move on with or without them?

It's time to ignore the teabaggers until they shut up. By using terms like fascist and socialist interchangeably, they prove their unworthiness to be heeded. Of course, their real purpose is to muddy the waters of constructive criticism. I'm reticent to say that I don't like something President Obama did or said for fear of being lumped in with the wingnuts.

At this point, I think I'd welcome the supervolcano in Yellowstone to erupt or a giant asteroid to hit the planet. We are unworthy of considering ourselves sentient beings if this is the best we can do. You've heard the saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link? Look around at the weak links braying into cameras on Faux Noise or dangling teabags from their hats or obstructing all progress in government. Vast numbers can't even be bothered to task a few of their brain cells to try to understand the problems facing us all. Ignorance is bliss and license to refuse to act. In the face of such repulsive idiocy, my misanthropy feels justified, though it gives me no joy.

Comments

[saminz.livejournal.com]

My heartfelt commiseration for that unholy mess... There is a Swiss firm involved somewhere down the line, actually. And we HATE it here, believe you me. Been all over the news for days.

I have been thinking of you all.

There's always a mass of misinformation about this kind of thing

[tomo2k.livejournal.com]

There's the various groups who try to minimise it, and the groups who try to maximise it.

Thus in this particular case, I have literally no idea how serious (or not) this accident really is - I can't even tell how big the slick actually is, as everyone is using different ways of estimating it. The sequence of 'slick sizes' on several news sites even show it changing size and shape very radically - spreading north, then retreating and spreading south, retreating and going west etc.

The direct comparisons to Exxon Valdez are definitely bogus:
The Valdez was a ship containing a precisely known amount of partially refined oil, >99% of which was released to the ocean surface from essentially a 'point source'. The size of the problem was known

This 'release' is from an undersea reservoir of estimated size, that is a mixture of various grades - which may evaporate, rise to the surface, or stay on the seabed.
The rate of release will be variable, as it depends on the instantaneous pressure differential between the contents of the reservoir and the seawater.

So the predicted scale of this current disaster and other oilfield accidents are based entirely on estimates piled upon estimates - any of which could be very wrong in either direction.
- And the estimates will be very different depending on who you ask, and the agenda of the respondent.

To be honest, all of these estimates and denials are really irrelevant.

The real question is "Why did it happen?"
What protective equipment/technique failed or was missing that allowed a small mistake* somewhere to become a huge accident?

_{*Almost everything like this is caused by a small mistake that escalates, usually also with a chain of missed opportunities to prevent it.}

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

I heard on Bill Mahr over the weekend that BP posted record profits of 3-6 Billion dollars (I forget the exact amount) which indicates to me that they can bloody well afford to clean up their own messes.

I really hope they can cap this well before the pinched pipe erodes and oil starts really pouring into the Gulf.

Shit like this is precisely why I will NEVER trust corporations and why we NEED government regulation. Eventually, it will come out that someone decided to cut corners on safety to save a few bucks, thinking "well the odds of XXX happening are very low and I'm willing to take that bet"

We haven't had a shortage of fossil fuels since the early 1970s. I don't remember any rationing since then.

The supervolcano or asteroid is too quick and easy a death for the human race.

As far as teabaggers go, they will always be heard because they make for good entertainment and that's really what news is all about these days.