Samuel L. Jackson is a treasure. And every copy of this video hosted elsewhere bleeps it, because we live in a world of cowards.

This one is pretty good, too.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2025/07/motherfucking-wind-farms/feed/ 34 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/05/crew-trapped-on-baltimore-ship-seven-weeks-after-bridge-collapse/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/05/crew-trapped-on-baltimore-ship-seven-weeks-after-bridge-collapse/#comments Wed, 15 May 2024 17:41:15 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/ykQW As a controlled explosion rocked the Dali on Monday, nearly two dozen sailors remained on board, below deck in the massive ship's hull.

The crew, made up of 20 Indians and a Sri Lankan national, has been unable to disembark because of visa restrictions, a lack of required shore passes and parallel ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and FBI. [...]

the crew has been left largely without communication with the outside world for "a couple of weeks" after their mobile phones were confiscated by the FBI as part of the investigation.

"They can't do any online banking. They can't pay their bills at home. They don't have any of their data or anyone's contact information, so they're really isolated right now," Mr Messick said. "They just can't reach out to the folks they need to, or even look at pictures of their children before they go to sleep. It's really a sad situation."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2024/05/crew-trapped-on-baltimore-ship-seven-weeks-after-bridge-collapse/feed/ 14 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/04/deepwater-horizons-14th-anniversary/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/04/deepwater-horizons-14th-anniversary/#comments Sat, 20 Apr 2024 20:22:52 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/ykPW A recent scientific expedition to the Gulf of Mexico seafloor shows just how little things have improved near the broken well.

The absence of life is noticeable, says McClain, and what is there doesn't seem healthy. Unlike other wrecks, which tend to become habitats for marine species over time, the sunken Deepwater Horizon has remained comparatively sterile. Organisms that typically inhabit the Gulf's seafloor -- such as sea cucumbers, giant isopods, corals, and sea anemones -- are simply missing, says McClain. Perhaps more concerning are the crabs. Naturally red, the crabs McClain and his team pulled up in their traps were tinted an oily black; many were also missing legs, while others had lesions. [...]

Benfield had visited the oil spill site before, including shortly after the explosion in 2010. He also joined the first scientific research expedition to the exploded wellhead in 2017. When Benfield saw the site then, he was shocked by how little it had recovered. Another seven years on, Benfield says researchers are slowly starting to see more animals. There's "more diversity of fishes and macroinvertebrates," he says. But compared with before the explosion, the site remains a desert, Benfield adds.

For those who embarked on the most recent expedition, the dire sight has them questioning how the Gulf will fare in the future. "We may not actually ever see recovery," [...] "Maybe in my kid's lifetime. But it's going to take a long time, I think."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2024/04/deepwater-horizons-14th-anniversary/feed/ 8 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/07/gulf-of-mexico-on-fire/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/07/gulf-of-mexico-on-fire/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2021 02:25:54 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yjok

The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex. Pemex said no injuries were reported, and production from the project was not affected.

PRODUCTION WAS NOT AFFECTED YOU GUYS!! THE LINE IS PLEASED!!

Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico's oil safety regulator ASEA, wrote on Twitter that the incident "did not generate any spill." He did not explain what was burning on the water's surface.

"The turbomachinery of Ku Maloob Zaap's active production facilities were affected by an electrical storm and heavy rains," according to a Pemex incident report shared by one of Reuters' sources.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2021/07/gulf-of-mexico-on-fire/feed/ 4 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/04/oil-factory-what-a-compactness/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/04/oil-factory-what-a-compactness/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2021 16:36:30 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yjnU kobateck:

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Carbon offsets are a voluntary penance mediated by an organization that promises to promote good elsewhere to make up for climate vice, much like indulgences paid to the church before the reformation. Essentially it's paying for the right to do wrong.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2021/04/murder-offsets/feed/ 10 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/03/bitcoin-mine-cargo-container-literally-incinerating-planet/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/03/bitcoin-mine-cargo-container-literally-incinerating-planet/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2021 02:23:32 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yjmQ

'Absurd' video of bitcoin mine hooked to an oil well sparks outrage

In states like Texas, where energy regulations are laxer, natural gas by-product can be vented, intentionally releasing gases, predominately potent methane, into the atmosphere. The other option is to set gas on fire in flare stacks to convert methane to carbon dioxide, slightly less dangerous when it comes to heating the planet in the short-term. [...]

"They're getting zero for this gas anyway so it makes almost no difference whether we're on that well-site or not," he said. [...] "We've had publicly-traded companies reach out to us and say, 'We don't even care if we lose money on this. We want to improve our public opinion." [...]

Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconomist which examines consequences of new technologies, and a data scientist focusing on financial economic crime for De Nederlandsche Bank, called the oil well-bitcoin mining rig set-up "absurd".

"It's mind-blowing the suggestion that it is somehow helping the environment to use a by-product of fossil fuel extraction for bitcoin mining," he told The Independent.

"We don't have a climate change problem because fossil fuel companies are not efficient enough. And if you make the operation more efficient, you are not helping the environment anyway. Intuitively it just doesn't make sense.

"Firstly, it's adding to the bottom line of fossil fuel extraction and secondly, it's still burning fossil fuels. We want to accelerate away from fossil fuels. We don't want to make fossil fuels more profitable. I can't wrap my head around it."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2021/03/bitcoin-mine-cargo-container-literally-incinerating-planet/feed/ 9 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2019/10/anything-done-for-the-first-time-unleashes-a-demon/ Sun, 27 Oct 2019 22:45:14 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yjSF Meet EXXON, Duke of Hell with dominion over FOSSIL FUELS and burnination of the souls of D̰̞͉̖̤̗̮̉̉̔ͬ̏̇͆͞I͍̱̰̳̒ͭͨ͂N͇̙̣̗͈͓ͬ̑ͧͬ̓̾O̧͎̖̙̠̥͔͊̋͂ͤ̀S̳͎͇͎̕A̗̐̊̓̓͠U͍̗R̄̾ͧ͡S̞̥̖̦ͮ̈ͭ̍ͭ̿.

(Awesome mask by @bueshang.)

"We used to power things by whale souls then we found out there's a ton of souls trapped under the earth just waiting to be burnt."

Fairly certain that crude oil is a genuine eldritch horror.

• lied in wait in the Earth's crust for literally millions of years
• made from the dead bodies of creatures nobody in recorded history has ever seen alive
• almost immediately granted us advanced technology
• naturally occurring, yet has a scent incomparable to any other natural substance
• pitch black liquid
• kills anything it touches
• using it to make anything kills everything it DOESN'T touch, but very slowly
• inexplicably addictive to the money-poisoned
• Is the cause of the mass extinction event we're currently experiencing, and that 95% of people are completely unaware of or outright deny.

ingdamnit:

we used to power things by whale souls then we found out there's a ton of souls trapped under the earth just waiting to be burnt

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2019/10/from-beneath-you-it-devours-2/feed/ 6 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2019/09/transocean-winner/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2019/09/transocean-winner/#comments Sun, 22 Sep 2019 18:13:45 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yjQ0 "Is this not a reasonable place to park?"

Within the offices of Transocean Ltd, such a journey might have been described with corporate seemliness as an "end-of-life voyage"; but in the saltier language heard offshore, the rig was "going for fucking razorblades" -- for scrap, to be dismantled in a shipbreaking yard east of Malta. [...]

Back behind the sand, where the beach narrowed and formed an uneven track up to the coastal road, lay the gravestones of a hundred or so islanders. A fractional difference in the gusts and tides overnight, and the runaway Winner might have brought her great weight down on the resting place of one Malcolm MacCauley, whose grave was set closest to the water. [...] However terrific a noise this made nobody was around to hear it, bar the seabirds and snails. The police started to arrive around 7am, as did the first stunned residents.

You may remember Transocean from such previous hits as "Deepwater Horizon (Volcano of Oil mix feat. BP)", and:

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2019/09/transocean-winner/feed/ 8 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2018/10/an-act-of-god-under-the-legal-definition/ Mon, 22 Oct 2018 21:57:51 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yjGt A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history

Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. [...]

Hurricane Ivan unleashed 145 mph winds and waves that topped 70 feet as it roared into the Gulf. Deep underwater, the Category 4 storm shook loose tons of mud and buckled the platform. The avalanche sank the colossal structure and knocked it "170 meters down slope of its original location," researcher Sarah Josephine Harrison wrote in a postmortem of the incident. More than 620 barrels of crude oil stacked on its deck came tumbling down with it. The sleeves that conducted oil from its wells were mangled and ripped away. A mixture of steel and leaking oil was buried in 150 feet of mud. [...]

In 2010, six years after the oil leak started, scientists studying the BP spill realized something was amiss with the oil slicks they were seeing. "We were flying to monitor the BP disaster and we kept seeing these slicks, but they were nowhere near the BP spill," said Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network, which monitors the water from boats and planes. [...]

Meanwhile, Taylor Energy was down to a single employee -- its president, William Pecue.

At a 2016 public forum in Baton Rouge, Pecue made the case for allowing the company to walk away from its obligation to clean up the mess. Taylor Energy had been sold to a joint venture of South Korean companies in 2008, the same year it started the $666 million trust. A third of the money had been spent on cleanup, and only a third of the leaking wells had been fixed. But Pecue wanted to recover $450 million, arguing the spill could not be contained.

"I can affirmatively say that we do believe this was an act of God under the legal definition," Pecue said. In other words, Taylor Energy had no control over the hurricane.

But Ivan was no freak storm.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://www.jwz.org/blog/2017/04/implausibly-low-bp-spill-cost-estimate-17-2-billion/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2017/04/implausibly-low-bp-spill-cost-estimate-17-2-billion/#comments Fri, 21 Apr 2017 19:27:09 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yily When I read this headline I could not believe they would estimate it so low, and assumed the study was funded by the oil industry:

The scientists developed a survey to put a dollar value on the natural resources damaged by the BP Deepwater spill by determining household willingness to pay for measures that would prevent similar damages should a spill of the same magnitude happen in the future. Survey information included descriptions of damaged beaches, marshes, animals, fish, and coral.

On top of estimating the impact of the spill, the $17.2 billion represents the benefits to the public to protect against damages that could result from a future oil spill in the Gulf of a similar magnitude.

So their estimate of the cost of the spill is based on:

1. How much survey respondents claim they might be willing to spend to save the cute animals, and keep their vacation spots pretty;

2. Estimates of the cost of a program to prevent it from happening in the future.

That is now how you calculate costs!

We may still learn that this event was a civilization-ender.

And don't forget, nobody will ever do any prison time. The fact that the BP "Corporate Person" has not been executed for this is a crime against literal Humanity.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2017/04/implausibly-low-bp-spill-cost-estimate-17-2-billion/feed/ 17 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2017/01/facebook-still-literally-the-worst-2/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2017/01/facebook-still-literally-the-worst-2/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2017 01:26:41 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yiiu Facebook Hosts Trump Inauguration Party With Fake News-Pushing Website The Daily Caller:

Facebook may now profess to combat fake news, but that didn't keep the company from hosting a Trump inauguration soirée in DC along with the Daily Caller, a far-right news website whose frequent misinformation and lies keep fact-checking website Snopes rather busy.

I know! Who cares about being in cahoots with a publication that celebrated Obama commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning this week with the headline "Genetic Male Bradley Manning Pulls Off The Klinger Gambit," right? Not me!

Not to be left out of the action, oil company BP was also a host. It was, according to the publication, "A veritable who's who of beltway bigwigs" at the Hay-Adams Hotel in DC, all talking Trump.

Mark Zuckerberg sues over 100 Hawaiians to force them to sell them their ancestral land:

In 2015, Mark Zuckerberg (who insists that privacy is dead) bought 100 acres of land around his vacation home in Hawaii to ensure that no one could get close enough to spy on him.

The Zuckerberg estate on Kauai North Shore engulfs several smaller pieces of land deeded in the 1800s -- kuleana lands that were granted to native Hawaiians. The owners of this land are entitled to easements through Zuckerberg's property, so they can reach their own.

Zuckerberg has filed "quiet title" lawsuits to force the owners of more than 100 of these parcels to sell to him. His lawyer says it's the easiest way to figure out who has title to these family lands so he can make them an offer. Hey, when I want to find out who someone is, I always sue 'em.

Zuckerberg has a staff of twelve just to delete abusive comments on his Facebook page:

Typically, a handful of Facebook employees manage communications just for him, helping write his posts and speeches, while an additional dozen or so delete harassing comments and spam on his page, say two people familiar with the matter. Facebook also has professional photographers snap Zuckerberg, say, taking a run in Beijing or reading to his daughter

In an internal Facebook post, Zuckerberg defends his company's ongoing association with Peter Thiel -- Facebook investor/board member and major donor to white-supremacist / pro-rape candidate Donald Trump.

This is your irregularly-scheduled reminder:

If you work for Facebook, quit. It is morally indefensible for you to use your skills to make that company more powerful. By working there, you are making the world an objectively worse place. I'm sure you can find a job working for a company that you don't have to apologize for all the time.

You can do it. I believe in you.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2017/01/facebook-still-literally-the-worst-2/feed/ 14 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/12/manslaughter-charges-dropped-in-bp-spill-case/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/12/manslaughter-charges-dropped-in-bp-spill-case/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2015 02:06:38 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yiTy Nobody from BP will go to prison

Rig supervisor Donald Vidrine instead pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act, a misdemeanor that likely will result in 10 months of probation and 100 hours of community service. Robert Kaluza, the other supervisor who also was being charged with 11 manslaughter counts, is going to fight a single misdemeanor charge that he also violated the Clean Water Act. [...]

David Rainey, a former BP executive, was acquitted this summer of manipulating calculations over how much oil was being released during the 3-month-long spill, and a federal judge dismissed charges that he hindered a congressional investigation.

Kurt Mix, a former BP engineer, won a new trial in July after he was convicted of obstruction charges in connection to allegations that he deleted text messages detailing how much oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. He was sentenced to six months probation after pleaded guilty last month to a lesser charge.

And a former manager of Halliburton, which sold concrete to BP, got a year of probation after pleading guilty to a charge of destroying evidence.

All of these people were way too far down the food chain to matter anyway, but it's kind of amazing that they can't even bring themselves to jail a scapegoat or two. The fact that the BP "Corporate Person" has not been executed for this is a crime against literal Humanity.

Previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2015/12/manslaughter-charges-dropped-in-bp-spill-case/feed/ 7 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/11/that-time-i-tried-to-buy-an-actual-barrel-of-crude-oil/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/11/that-time-i-tried-to-buy-an-actual-barrel-of-crude-oil/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2015 17:57:34 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yiTP "Don't buy a barrel of oil," the broker said. "It'll kill you."

Oil may be king of the commodities, but its physical form is tough to come by for a retail investor. Mom and pop can buy gold and silver. They can gather aluminum cans, grow soybeans, and strip copper wiring, if they choose, but oil remains elusive -- and for very good reason. Oil, as I would soon discover, is practically useless in its unrefined form. It is also highly toxic, very difficult to store, and it smells bad. [...]

"Could a barrel of crude really kill me?" I asked a petrochemical engineer captive to my persistent, doubtlessly annoying questions. It absolutely can, he said. Hydrogen sulfide gas -- H2S, for short -- has a terrible propensity to evaporate from crude, knock out your olfactory capabilities, and slowly suffocate you to death. [...] "If you inhale ethyl alcohol vapors in a concentration of 1,000 ppm (0.1 percent by volume) for eight hours, you may get drunk. If you inhale hydrogen sulfide in a concentration of 1,000 ppm (0.1 percent by volume) for only a few seconds, you will be dead." [...]

"That [is] all good and well until you learn it's not Bakken but Kurdish oil, under strict embargo. Well done [for] supporting ISIS," the consultant replied by e-mail. Adding insult, the consultant informed me that the glass bottle was worth more than the oil inside it, anyway.

Previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2015/11/that-time-i-tried-to-buy-an-actual-barrel-of-crude-oil/feed/ 2 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/10/exxon-knew-everything-there-was-to-know-about-climate-change-by-the-mid-1980s-and-denied-it/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/10/exxon-knew-everything-there-was-to-know-about-climate-change-by-the-mid-1980s-and-denied-it/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2015 04:25:15 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yiS5 And thanks to their willingness to sucker the world, the world is now a chaotic mess.

This one comes from months of careful reporting by two separate teams, one at the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Inside Climate News, and the other at the Los Angeles Times (with an assist from the Columbia Journalism School). Following separate lines of evidence and document trails, they've reached the same bombshell conclusion: ExxonMobil, the world's largest and most powerful oil company, knew everything there was to know about climate change by the mid-1980s, and then spent the next few decades systematically funding climate denial and lying about the state of the science. [...]

A few observers, especially on the professionally jaded left, have treated the story as old news -- as something that even if we didn't know, we knew. "Of course they lied," someone told me. That cynicism, however, serves as the most effective kind of cover for Exxon (right alongside the tired argument that it's "not the fault of the companies -- they're just meeting demand from all of us"). What's beginning to sink in is the horrible impact of their lies: Exxon, had its leaders merely stated directly what they knew to be true, could have ended the pretend debate over climate change as early as the 1980s.

Washington Monthly:

A fossil fuel company intentionally and knowingly obfuscating research into climate change constitutes criminal negligence and malicious intent at best, and a crime against humanity at worst. The Department of Justice has a moral obligation to prosecute Exxon and its co-conspirators accordingly.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2015/10/exxon-knew-everything-there-was-to-know-about-climate-change-by-the-mid-1980s-and-denied-it/feed/ 30 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/08/bee-pee/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/08/bee-pee/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2015 01:58:36 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yiQN

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2015/08/bee-pee/feed/ 1 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/04/ill-have-the-shrimp-cocktail-with-a-teratoma-on-the-side/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/04/ill-have-the-shrimp-cocktail-with-a-teratoma-on-the-side/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:18:47 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yhJy Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets."

"Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes... they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."

Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within... they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".

Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.

"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills."

Transocean Ltd., owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, awarded millions of dollars in bonuses to its executives after “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history,” according to an annual report and proxy statement released yesterday.

“Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate,” Transocean states in the filing. “As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our Company’s history, which is a reflection on our commitment to achieving an incident free environment, all the time, everywhere.”

Flying from the Source directly to the coastal area of eastern Alabama, the team discovered the shocking fact: the flow of oil from the Source was a constant slick all the way to the shore of Alabama. Slow and steady, a mixture of dispersant and crude oil was yards from beach lines that had people sunbathing in beach chairs. The most shocking realization was that everyone had bits and pieces of information, but really no one had any idea where it was going, when it was going to hit and who was safe. [...]

One of the ways BP controlled the media coverage of the oil spill was booking up virtually every available seaplane hour in the Gulf coast area. Luckily, our seaplane captain Dickie was fed up with how BP was trying to control the airways. A lucky situation arose which gave this rogue pilot complete flight clearance, even to the `Source'. Dickie and his seaplane was a rare find for the Gulf Coast during this time. [...]

When we departed the Deepwater site and Dickie communicated to the Orion (call sign "Omaha 99") our intent, the controller came back quite quickly saying, "You've created a hell of a ruckus with your flight today. We've got flights in and out of this airspace and you've been interfering with them." We got chewed out for several minutes straight. The funny thing is that we hadn't been given any advisories or instructions by the controllers the entire time we were orbiting the site. Furthermore, there were no other flights that came or left the immediate area while we were there. We'd have photographs of them if there were. Something tells me that we weren't quite welcome there and our presence was merely tolerated. [...]

The shed was deserted. A small sign read "Come see the truth. I will take you there. Boat trips for photographers and journalists. Call Al at..." I called Al.

"I switched to the other side. I work for BP now. Sorry, I can't take you out or talk to you."

Apparently this isn't an isolated incident. BP's buying up every boat and every boat captain they can lay their hands on. It makes our jobs a lot harder.

Methane or CH4 gas is being released in vast quantities in the Gulf waters. Seismic data shows huge pools of methane gas at the location immediately below and around the damaged "Macondo" oil well. [...] With the emerging evidence of fissures, the tacit fear now is this: the methane bubble may rupture the seabed and may then erupt with an explosion within the Gulf of Mexico waters. The bubble is likely to explode upwards propelled by more than 50,000 psi of pressure, bursting through the cracks and fissures of the sea floor, fracturing and rupturing miles of ocean bottom with a single extreme explosion.

First Tsunami with Toxic Cloud

If the toxic gas bubble explodes, it might simultaneously set off a tsunami travelling at a high speed of hundreds of miles per hour. Florida might be most exposed to the fury of a tsunami wave. The entire Gulf coastline would be vulnerable, if the tsunami is manifest. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia might experience the effects of the tsunami according to some sources.

Second Tsunami via Vaporisation

After several billion barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of gas have been released, the massive cavity beneath the ocean floor will begin to normalise, allowing freezing water to be forced naturally into the huge cavity where the oil and gas once were. The temperature in that cavity can be extremely hot at around 150 degrees celsius or more. The incoming water will be vaporised and turned into steam, creating an enormous force, which could actually lift the Gulf floor. According to computer models, a second massive tsunami wave might occur.

BP is accused of destroying the wildlife and coastline of America, but if you look back into history you find that BP did something even worse to America. They gave the world Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Ethanol Trap

The most disgusting aspect of the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico isn't the video images of oil-soaked birds or the incessant blather from pundits about what BP or the Obama administration should be doing to stem the flow of oil. Instead, it's the ugly spectacle of the corn-ethanol scammers doing all they can to capitalize on the disaster so that they can justify an expansion of the longest-running robbery of taxpayers in U.S. history.

Some random guy on the Internet says:

Contrary to what most of us would think as logical to stop the oil mess, actually opening up the gushing well and making it gush more became direction BP took after confirming that there was a leak. In fact if you note their actions, that should become clear. They have shifted from stopping or restricting the gusher to opening it up and catching it. This only makes sense if they want to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed..... and that sort of leak is one of the most dangerous and potentially damaging kind of leak there could be. It is also inaccessible which compounds our problems. There is no way to stop that leak from above, all they can do is relieve the pressure on it and the only way to do that right now is to open up the nozzle above and gush more oil into the gulf and hopefully catch it, which they have done, they just neglected to tell us why, gee thanks. [...]

This down hole leak will undermine the foundation of the seabed in and around the well area. It also weakens the only thing holding up the massive Blow Out Preventer's immense bulk of 450 tons. [...] If you have been watching the live feed cams you may have noticed that some of the ROVs are using an inclinometer... an inclinometer is an instrument that measures "Incline" or tilt. The BOP is not supposed to be tilting... and after the riser clip off operation it has begun to... [...]

What eventually will happen is that the blow out preventer will literally tip over [... ] as the well casings cannot support the weight of the massive system above with out the cement bond to the earth and that bond is being eroded away. When enough is eroded away the casings will buckle and the BOP will collapse the well. [...]

All of these things lead to only one place, a fully wide open well bore directly to the oil deposit... after that, it goes into the realm of "the worst things you can think of". The well may come completely apart as the inner liners fail. [...] the very least damaging outcome as bad as it is, is that we are stuck with a wide open gusher blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw oil or more. There isn't any "cap dome" or any other such fixer device on earth that exists or could be built that will stop it from gushing out and doing more and more damage to the gulf. While at the same time also doing more damage to the well, making the chance of halting it with a kill from the bottom up less and less likely to work, which as it stands now?....is the only real chance we have left to stop it all.

I was confused about why people keep harping on nukes when there are conventional weapons that are almost as powerful, and could do just as good a job of converting what might merely be a civilization-ender into a mass extinction event.

But, oh good, here it comes.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2010/06/paging-dr-strangelove/feed/ 16 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2010/06/an-infusion-of-oil-and-gas-unlike-anything-else-that-has-ever-been-seen-anywhere-certainly-in-huma/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2010/06/an-infusion-of-oil-and-gas-unlike-anything-else-that-has-ever-been-seen-anywhere-certainly-in-huma/#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:26:00 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/EwPI Scientist Awed by Size, Density of Undersea Oil Plume

Researchers aboard the F.G. Walton Smith vessel briefed reporters on a two-week cruise in which they traced an underwater oil plum 15 miles wide, 3 miles long and about 600 feet thick. The plume's core is 1,100 to 1,300 meters below the surface, they said.

"It's an infusion of oil and gas unlike anything else that has ever been seen anywhere, certainly in human history," said Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia, the expedition leader.

Bacteria are breaking down the oil's hydrocarbons in a massive, microorganism feeding frenzy that has sent oxygen levels plunging close to what is considered "dead zone" conditions, at which most marine life are smothered for a lack of dissolved oxygen.

Joye said her team also measured extremely high levels of methane, which is also spewing from the gushing BP well at up to 10,000 times background levels in Gulf waters. "I've been working in the Gulf of Mexico for 15 years," Joye said. "I've never seen methane concentration this high anywhere in the water."

When this blew out there had to be resevoir pressures of 40-50,000 pounds per square inch other wise the fire wouldn't have been so intense and what would have come out first is the blowout preventer would have popped out of the water more like a cork. And then what would come out second is the casing. [...] And so we have an open hole that's spewing I would guess somewhere between 100-150,000 barrels a day of oil which is why you now have over a hundred mile oil lake at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that's apparently 4-500 feet deep. [...]

I would think by the end of the week we will discover that we have an open hole with no casing in it which sits about seven miles away from where BP had been trying to fix these little tiny leaks in the drilling riser. I bet where (inaudible) of the drilling riser is still connected to the (inaudible) of it and so they've done everything wrong. [...]

They basically are trying to patch a little leak in the drilling riser. You've got to remember that what we're seeing on television, the drilling riser is 22.5" in circumferance. Most of it is a elastomers to make it bouyant. In the middle is a 7" column with the annulus where the drill bit goes down, so coming out of that is a little plume of gas. It's not oil and it's only about four feet high.

That could not by any way have actually covered 40% of the Gulf of Mexico, so what we're going to find when the Thomas Jefferson finishes its work is we have an open hole with no casing in it and the only way we'll shut it off is either let it complete which might take 30 years, which could maybe not only poison the Gulf of Mexico but maybe the Atlantic Ocean, or to put a nuclear device down the hole like the Russians did in the 70's and actually encase it by turning the turning the rock into (inaudible).

Previously. ]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2010/06/god-dammit-bob/feed/ 4