Trying to CAP the Gulf Oil Well

LIVE: Watch the video streams as
BP tries to CAP the Gulf oil spill.
(You may need a plugin to watch the video streams.)

This is AMAZING stuff.

I can see them, right now, trying to cap the bleeding well, LIVE on the PBS site.

There are 12 video streams, 8 of which are live right now, 10 of which were live ten minutes ago, 1 of which shows oil still boiling out. All this over a mile down below the ocean with a pressure of thousands of pounds per square inch in water of just above freezing.

In the midst of all this, there are little fishes swimming in and about the well. "Hello little fishes." *waves to the fishies* I wonder how they'd taste on a cracker with a bit of cheese. Oily, I suspect.

Enjoy the show. With a bit of luck -- and by "a bit" I mean one hell of a lot -- the well might be capped this weekend.

Failing that, the two relief wells continue to be bored, with BP asserting they remain on track for a mid-August interception with the blown well. Hitting a target seven inches wide, after going through a mile of water and then digging down another four to five miles through rock, sand, and other nasty gunk.

Say what you will about BP -- Lord knows I've said plenty, starting with the word "fuck" and including the words "arrogant" and "assholes", repeated in varied combinations and grammatical forms -- however this kind of engineering genuinely amazes me.

Come on BP. Make it bloody happen. Today.
LIVE: watch for yourself.

H/T: Slate -- 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea: The insanity of deepwater oil wells.

There's more...

Repeat After Me: "Status Quo Ante"

Amidst the discussions of BP and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the issue of liability comes up. Apparently the current liability of any oil company for a spill in US waters is limited to $75 million by statute. The senate is trying to up that to $10 billion but Lisa Murkowski (R - Alaska & Big Oil) is blocking it.

$10 billion is not enough. There's only one way to put it.

Entities causing a spill should be responsible for spending whatever it takes to restore the local ecosystem affected by the spill to the status quo ante. In other words, to the way it was before.

If you can't afford to do that, don't spill the oil.

Repeat after me: Status Quo Ante


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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