Brainstorming the BP Oil Spill
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Obama Administration has seriously called on James Cameron to help resolve the BP Oil Spill:
“Federal officials have called on director James Cameron to help stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to The Associated Press. The “Titanic” and “Avatar” director spent Tuesday in Washington brainstorming about the spill, and brought some engineer and techie friends with him, one source says.”
Who should the White House call — ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko and Marathon, who with BP are some the largest offshore drillers in the Gulf? Or James Cameron, the director of the movie Titanic? Only a Democrat would pick Cameron.
— DRJ
To be Fair, Cammerons presence (He’s not one of the majors) isn’t a bad thing. He did work a lot to help fund the development of a lot of deep water imagery and robotics.
It isn’t a case of star effing, cameron actually rates a place at the table, though a very short chair.
Douglas (2c3ce5) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:40 pmMaybe he can CGI the pipeline shut.
Or better yet, they can find that jewel that Kate Winslet’s old lady character threw into the sea and they can use it to offset the costs of the clean-up.
JVW (36eb17) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:45 pmIt actually makes a tiny bit of sense. For brainstorming sessions you want people who can both think “out of the normal way of doing this” and display their thoughts without self-censoring.
htom (412a17) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:46 pmGive me a break, “think out of the box”. This is engineering, people. Not the movies.
Makes this comic even funnier.
What a bunch of clowns.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:48 pmI was thinking more the Abyss, then again this might just be the Old Ones revenge
ian cormac (220f1f) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:57 pmPaging Mr Adair. Paging Red Adair…
gazzer (8324ed) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:58 pmExxonMobil has already offered assistance to BP in terms of resources and manpower.
But, true, why bother calling on the experts.
rudytbone (91fcfe) — 6/2/2010 @ 6:59 pmMaybe he should call on David Copperfield to make the oil spill disappear.
Richard (4c2ef6) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:06 pmObama probably thinks it was Sean Penn who saved all those people in New Orleans during Katrina.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:07 pmI agree with spqr. What a bunch of clowns these BP execs are.
Larry Reilly (fadcab) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:16 pmThey should have just filled the leaky pipe with the bodies of bureaucrats they bought over the years, all the way up to W.
Lot of mass and weight there to tamp down the spill.
But we’re faced with the here and now. I say let BP take care of its shareholders. Everything else will work itself out. Let the market work. Just ask John Galt.
A thread about “brainstorming” and Larry Reilly shows up.
Talk about irony overload.
You go back to thinking that Avatar was a documentary, Larry.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:22 pmYeah, a movie director is really the way to go.
Or, they could be talking to these folks:
https://gw.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9383447
Dr. K (1c5e6a) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:22 pmLarry, a really good idea.
What about the lack of disaster response by the Obama administration? You know, like waiting 8 weeks with their thumbs up their asses and their collective minds in neutral.
Why didn’t Team 0 give approval for Jindal to build the sand dykes? Why did the MMS administrator give permission to change SOP? Some system of regulation you got there.
And it’s more like Wyatt’s Torch. 5,000 feet below sea level.
Dr. K (1c5e6a) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:26 pmI liked it better when they were consulting better qualified people, like Kevin Costner.
TimesDisliker (6c143f) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:33 pmrudytbone,
I know all the oil companies have provided engineers and assistance to BP’s Houston office, but that doesn’t mean BP is doing what the other companies’ experts recommend. BP has made the final decisions. So I would want to know (and based on your comment, I think you do, too) if the other companies’ experts agree with BP’s decisions and, if not, what they recommend.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:37 pmI heard something like this earlier, but thought it had to be a joke. This is so far beyond parody …
JD (de02cc) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:38 pmSPQR (and others) “out of the box” because “inside the box” has had eight weeks. Only a tiny bit of sense, I said. Some engineer may have an idea good idea shaken loose by the session.
htom (412a17) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:39 pmhtom:
I guess that you have no expertise in these operations. I know I don’t and I am a Chem E with almost 25 years experience.
The accident was caused by people thinking outside the box and cutting corners – with the permission of the regulators.
So maybe a little conventional thinking from people who might have a little more first hand knowledge than you would be a better course.
So you are talking crap.
Dr. K (1c5e6a) — 6/2/2010 @ 7:55 pm“I’m the King of the Oil Spills!”
Dmac (3d61d9) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:13 pmCameron should arrange to have a Terminator come and plug the damn hole.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:17 pm“Best Administration EVAH!” (I copied that, apologies to the original author).
* Tax cheat for Sec Treas
* Crooked lawyer for Attorney General
* Dumb@ss for Sec HomelandSec
* Invisible Woman for Sec State
and now Hollywood Director for this national disaster.
(The sad part is, this may be the best pick he has made.)
Pons Asinorum (b96aea) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:19 pm“BP has made the final decisions.”
DRJ – I respectfully disagree. We all heard Obama say his administration is in charge and that BP has to do whatever they are told. According to his speech last week, Barky and the Obamanauts have made the final decisions.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:20 pmDr K–the point is, that Cameron has actual first hand knowledge of how robotics work in underwater conditions, and he wasn’t alone: and brought some engineer and techie friends with him, one source says. He may have more experience with robotics than some of BP’s staff.
kishnevi (7f89ad) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:20 pmAlso, he wasn’t talking to BP, but to the bureaucrats at the EPA, trying to explain how those machines actually work, I suppose.
Was there some contest titled “Make Brownie Look Competent” ? Imagine if President Bush had turned to a hollywood director.
JDl (de02cc) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:22 pmAnd Cameron knows what, exactly, about halting a deep-water well blowout?
Blacque Jacques Shellacque (78c9e7) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:22 pmBP done better than Cameron, yet? Oops, sorry, can’t say nothing bad about a multinational, I forgot. Like somebody said above, let the market work.
nk (db4a41) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:25 pmForget the engineers, we need more actors and directors!! Thank Goodness our President understands this — he just knows things. You know, from his vast experience and superior brainpower.
Pons Asinorum (b96aea) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:25 pmKind of related to this topic, in general, but what criminal activity is Holder suggesting that BP engaged in? Didn’t Barcky say that BP was working directly with his Admin? Wouldn’t that put them on the hook too? Or, are they suggesting that there was something criminal in the leak itself?
JD (de02cc) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:29 pmFrom where does Cameron’s underwater expertise spring? I refused to see Avatar. All the underwater scenes in the Abyss were filmed in containment tanks at an abandoned Duke Power nuclear power plant in South Carolina.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:30 pmLet’s vilify the experts, press criminal charges, point fingers, and otherwise keep our foot on their throats.
I know this, when we start building our new house, I want an actual home builder to do the work, not a director for an HGTV program.
JD (de02cc) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:35 pmJD – If you’re building a house, you’re gonna need a gene research scientist according to Obama logic. Trust me on this.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:39 pmIsn’t that one of nishi’s many claimed occupations, daley? Actually,, the way these clowns do things, I will have to donate to an SEIU and/or AFSCME fundraiser so I can get building permits, hire a team of lawyers and engineers to perform useless work, hire an environmental company to do an environmental impact survey, and other assorted and sundry tasks.
JD (de02cc) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:42 pmI don’t think insults and name calling is necessary among us. As several have said, I guess Cameron and associates have some experience with underwater robotics stuff.
Yes, it seems that attempts at “innovation” in the process is what originally cause the mess, but it doesn’t look like any old or new ideas have done much so far.
FWIW I looked up the link at #12 and told them essentially to use an “extra-large” balloon-angioplasty catheter.
MD in Philly (cb8efe) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:44 pmJD – If you were in Chicago you would probably have to grease a lot of palms, or at least you used to have to do that. On the commercial side I hear it has improved, less outright cash changing hands.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:47 pmGood grief, I thought this post was a joke! I hadn’t clicked the link at Politico until just now. Priceless.
What I found utterly ironic was the comment in Politico that Cameron “is clearly interested in trying to help and he has the connections.” because, what, the President of the United States needs someone with “connections”? Fer cryin’ out loud, he’s The President of the United States!
Borowitz: “If Avatar was any guide, it would take James Cameron eleven years to stop the oil spill.”
Dana (1e5ad4) — 6/2/2010 @ 8:54 pmFWIW, I followed some links from the Wikipedia entry on Cameron. Apparently he worked with the Russian deep water sub experts to investigate and film the wreck of the Titanic.
Besides, as Pons said above, “The sad part is, this may be the best pick he has made[yet].
MD in Philly (cb8efe) — 6/2/2010 @ 9:08 pmMD beat me to it.
At least Cameron does know something about making underwater movies. Maybe he’s remaking “Hellfighters” and has some special insight on capping oil wells. Under water. Without John Wayne. Or something.
Ag80 (1b8eea) — 6/2/2010 @ 9:17 pmObama should be demonized on this matter, but mainly for supporting any kind of new, off-shore drilling, least of all this kind of deep-sea operations, where clearly no one knows what they’re doing. His rhetoric is shifting more toward the “boot on the throat” variety (getting rid of cushy tax breaks for Big Oil; suggesting potential criminal prosecutions, etc.) and good for him. He is officially the last major Democrat to go full throttle for off-shore drilling. How ridiculous he now looks touting the safety of off-shore drilling in relatively recent video clips.
This tragic spill is a wake-up call for him to listen to what his base his been telling him all along: “Drill Baby Drill” is a spiral ending in destruction.
He can use this moment to push us into a more energy-responsible future. One immediate goal is to strip any new drilling from the cap-and-trade bill, or add enough regulations where only the companies serious about safety would even think about new drilling. The moratorium on new exploratory operations, especially the one planned for a remote part of Alaska, hopefully will continue indefinitely.
Democrats often find when they “go Republican” and adopt the opposition party’s worst ideas, they wind up with a mish-mash approach that is disliked by both sides. Such as stripping the public option out of the health care bill.
Obama will recover from this, having learned, one would hope. But what an ecological and economic tragedy BP and Congress, through lax regulations, have caused on the coast. This throws Three Mile Island into the shade.
Myron (a79d53) — 6/2/2010 @ 9:43 pmThe really sad part of this is that if the “environmentalists” had not had their way, this drilling would be taking place in fify feet of water. The solution to the blowout, if it happened, would be to build a drywell around the leak and pump the product to the closeby refineries, which wouldn’t have all shut down.
nbindo (8b5ad5) — 6/2/2010 @ 9:44 pmAhhhhhhh, the usual sophistry from the usual suspects. Myron never misses a chance to prove that he is nothing other than a leftist ideologue.
JD (de02cc) — 6/2/2010 @ 9:49 pmDr. K — about such drilling operations, I know maybe an infinitesimal. Not at all an expert. About getting people to think differently, to see possibilities where others see only impossibility, still not an expert, but I suspect that I’m better at it than you are. Much (not all) of becoming an engineer or a scientist is learning how to generalize what will and won’t work from history. Along the way, we learn to not bother to mention ideas that we know or suspect will fail, even in brainstorming sessions. (If male, we also seem driven to shoot down such foolish ideas, even in brainstorming sessions.) Bringing in people who are known experts in other fields can free up the discussion.
If talking crap is effective, I can, will, and do; clients pay me to be effective, not conventional.
The Won … I’ve stopped trying to understand. As far as I can tell, he’s a Pachinko machine; he’s going to be lucky occasionally.
htom (412a17) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:01 pmMyron:
Great hyperbole marks to you. You’ll win every time with those.
I hear freezing in the dark is a real vote-getter.
Ag80 (1b8eea) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:08 pmPish — Myron expounds for five paragraphs and forgets to blame all this on George W. Bush. Must be losing his touch.
JVW (36eb17) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:31 pmnbindo: It is the height of absurdity to blame this oil company’s screw-up on environmentalists.
Myron (a79d53) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:33 pmHyperbole to you. The end of livelihoods and the destruction of ecosystems for people on the coast.
Myron (a79d53) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:34 pmJVW: You have a record of me blaming everything on Bush, or are you just running your yap?
Myron (a79d53) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:35 pmIn other news, the Web site is still experiencing problems with the comments showing up.
Myron (a79d53) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:38 pmMyron, I am lumping you in with the rest of the obnoxious lefties who come in here armed with the talking points from Media Matters or Kos or wherever. Maybe you haven’t matriculated to the advanced Bush-bashing curriculum yet. My apologies if I mis-overestimated you.
JVW (36eb17) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:39 pm” … lumping you in with the rest …”
So, the answer’s no, JVW, and you concede to just running your yap.
OK, just checking.
Proceed to argue against the strawmen you create. Don’t let me get in the way.
Myron (a79d53) — 6/2/2010 @ 10:47 pmThe MSM just needs a little CGI assist to prettify the whole thing.
Anon Y. Mous (510e42) — 6/2/2010 @ 11:16 pmCameron himself is not an expert, but he commissioned a lot of innovations for his Titanic documentary, as well as dipping his fingers in a lot of automated aquatic equipment.
Maybe he can apply those resources, and lend them out to the real experts to facilitate the capping.
Like I said, a small chair.
Douglas (2c3ce5) — 6/2/2010 @ 11:24 pmWell, DRJ, he’d probably be an improvement over the BP crew. If there were 10,000 viewers of their video last night when the saw blade hung up, probably 9000 of then groaned. They could not position the sled for the saw so that it was siting down the same direction as the downed pipe. That’s almost the correct direction to make “the first cut.” This cut should be above the intended final cut and should get the broken “branch” down. Then you make the smooth cut on the stub.
They setup with the saw blade’s left edge (right edge of the viewer looking at the saw with the motor behind it) in a position such that a cut would tend to open up. But the viewer’s left hand side, the aaw’s right hand side. was set so that as the cut progressed the weight of the remaining pipe would tend to squeeze the cut shut. I’ve never cut down a tree branch incompletely broken off in windstorms. I’ve watched it being done. And could, as an engineer, easily figure out why they did it the way they did. First they cut a notch upwards under the branch to create an intentional controlled weak spot. Then they cut on the side away from the branch. Eventually it collapsed falling the rest of the way to the ground. The stump of the limb was flattened with a third easy cut.
The branch almost always falls in such a way that it may scrape the tree as it falls. With the BOP stack that would be highly undesirable. The solution is to be pulling up on the pipe with just about enough force to stop it from falling with the force spread into at least places along the pipe. This upwards force would have made their cut have a chance of working by preventing the deadly pinch. And it would prevent a fall into the BOP stack causing serious damage.
I watched the view-point ROV survey the situation very carefully from all sides to discover why the sled could not be positioned properly. I suspect he and his immediate crew KNEW how to cut off a branch.
Yhere was a LONG “potty break” before cutting commenced to my anguished scream, “NOOOOOO!” I am utterly guessing here but I suspect somebody high up in BP, perhaps reacting to POTUS pressure, ordered the cut to proceed rather than the have the necessary modification made to the sled and an upward pull on the bent pipe installed.
This smells like a Harvard MBA ordering around a team of engineers. And I cannot imagine such a critter having ever watched a branch being taken down let alone tried to understand how and why or done it himself.
It was STUPID STUPID mismanagement that has this latest attempt all balled up.
{^_^}
JD (9ac83d) — 6/2/2010 @ 11:26 pmI wonder if Nancy Reagan’s astrologer is available, or some Budhist priests to check the Feng-shui; and let’s not forget Norm Abram?
AD - RtR/OS! (db90f3) — 6/2/2010 @ 11:54 pmThe President’s solution — go get a Hollywood director for help.
Forget those silly engineers with all their years of experience.
Forget the US Navy Divers with decades of expertise in working underwater environments, with sate-of-the-art equipment, manned and unmanned (and yeah, they can think out-of-the-box with the best of them, and they know when not to. Life and Death experiences kinda make you that way).
But hey, bet Avatar had its moments too.
The people of the Gulf Coast can feel the leadership just oozing out of their President. No worries — sleep-well. The Mediocre One is hard(ly) at work on this. He feels their pain, even on the golf course (day 4, day 5, day 19, day 22, day 27, and day 33), or during his comedy performance with Leno (day 12).
If you voted for him, maybe you should just apologize rather than act as his apologist. Start with the People of the Gulf Coast and work your way toward the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers (something the President couldn’t be bothered with).
If you can’t do that, then maybe you should say nothing.
Pons Asinorum (b96aea) — 6/3/2010 @ 12:00 amRe: Avatar
Icy Texan (6104f0) — 6/3/2010 @ 3:46 amPlug the damn plot holes!!!
So, Robert Ballard — you remember him, the actual RESEARCH SCIENTIST who actually FOUND THE TITANIC — wasn’t available?
Icy Texan (6104f0) — 6/3/2010 @ 3:51 amJesus, the solutions so simple even a Special Olympics Bowler could figute it out.
Just drill the friggin relief well allready and pump out the remaining oil, of course it’ll embarass the “Peak Oil” idiots when the well produces oil for the next 100 years.
The U.S.S. Arizona’s been leaking oil for almost 70 years and its only a few hundred feet deep, and Hawaii seems to be doin fine.
Frank
Frank Drackman (550e6d) — 6/3/2010 @ 3:56 amThe Obama administration actually did appoint a panel of experts weeks ago. Then they found out that one of them had written In Defense of Homophobia.”
I’m sure Myron can find enough politically correct scientists to stop the leak. We don’t want those other guys, like Kary Mullis, with those crazy ideas.
Mike K (82f374) — 6/3/2010 @ 5:07 amHey, on the other hand James Cameron hasn’t made a movie on time and on budget in almost 25 years, so in a way he’s a natural fit for the Democrats.
Sean P (6f6c60) — 6/3/2010 @ 5:44 amHe should have chosen Spielberg.
Better movies, better plot, better director, name closer to “spill” but still as loony.
cedarhill (35c3ce) — 6/3/2010 @ 5:44 amWhere did all the comments go? Main page says 58 – I can see only 17….
Dr. K (0e9868) — 6/3/2010 @ 5:51 amAnd there they are
Dr. K (0e9868) — 6/3/2010 @ 5:51 am@41:
Gee, I don’t know, a PhD in Chemical Engineering, a PE license, and 25 years of experience somehow makes me a better judge of the technical challenges than a damned movie director. Regardless of his expertise in underwater robotics.
Yes, I get paid to come up with solutions, and to develop them through brainstorming.
And I will grant you this. You sure seem effective at talking crap.
Dr. K (0e9868) — 6/3/2010 @ 5:58 am“The President’s solution — go get a Hollywood director for help.”
Pons – That’s what celebrities do.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/3/2010 @ 6:00 amDRJ,
rudytbone (913207) — 6/3/2010 @ 6:35 amI haven’t spoken with our Upstream production people about the BP efforts. I’ll see if I can get in touch with a couple of engineers that I know and get their opinions. If I get something (I may not, there may be a general order to not comment), I’ll let you know.
60+ comments and nobody seems to have noticed yet??? Um… Can’t anyone think of an important job for a big Hollywood director in the middle of a national crisis that is making the President look bad? As some people have pointed out, he was involved in deep water “filming” of the Titanic – not fixing it – not raising it – not welding it back together. Since we’ve already got the classic bad guys and the disaster scenario, all we need is the grand entrance of the man in the white hat. POTUS was having a little trouble making that work on his own, so naturally he called in the expert!
Gesundheit (cfa313) — 6/3/2010 @ 6:39 amTo all those saying that offshore drilling operations should cease –
rudytbone (913207) — 6/3/2010 @ 6:41 amIf a doctor loses a patient during heart surgery, should all heart surgeries cease? There are inherent risks in all activities. Drilling for oil in 5k feet of has risks. Drilling for oil in 500 feet of water has fewer risks. One of the questions to ask is: Why are we drilling in 5k feet of water and not 500 feet of water?
Charles Krauthammer made a funny comment the other night about sending an avatar to deal with the mess. Makes about as much sense as asking movie director to take on plugging the pipe.
Rochf (ae9c58) — 6/3/2010 @ 6:59 amIt will be nice if someone will eventually be able to interview people and get the story as to what has been going on, it should be mandatory reading for every engineer, MBA, public policy pundit, and politician.
I can only presume that a bit of CYA, big egos, and blame shifting has contributed to such a feckless response so far. I really don’t believe that this problem is bigger than good minds at BP, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others pulled in.
Duct tape saved Apollo 13, how can duct tape be used here? Have the authors of Duct tape books and millions of amateur duct tape users been cunsulted? This could be the shining moment for the DTEA (Duct Tape Engineers of America).
We need a “Wile E. Coyote” cartoonist, the equivalent of a giant “pop gun” with an explosive charge pushing a plug in it. It could be that if they took Obama at his word it would actually work.
If nothing else, all of those fishing boats that are sitting and watching the disaster could be out skimming or using nets to corral it, unless the oil is a fire hazard to boats going through it, though I doubt that because if the stuff was that volatile it would have evaporated already.
Hundreds/thousands of fishing boats did save England, and maybe the world, from the Nazi’s. Of course, there will always be a shortage of Churchill when they are needed.
Now, on the other hand, I just saw a BP PR commercial describing a massive effort of thousands of boats and people “on the beaches” dealing with the oil clean up.
I guess we still don’t know for sure what is going on. So much for journalism in the 21st Century.
MD in Philly (cb8efe) — 6/3/2010 @ 7:02 amStuff still isn’t showing up.
Dr. K (0e9868) — 6/3/2010 @ 7:06 amMy understanding – from BP – is that they’ve already been working with other oil suppliers on the spill.
JEA (dffa7e) — 6/3/2010 @ 7:08 amPeople need to realize that the only real solution to the well blowout are the two relief wells being drilled. The rest of the nonsense is futzing around to impress the impatient and the gullible.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/3/2010 @ 7:28 amOF COURSE the Obamoids called in a movie director. They knew perfectly well that the general public has nearly no knowlege of heavy mechanical operations a mile down, but that Cameron would be positively associated by the public with ‘breathtaking underwater exploits’, AND THAT ASSOCIATION WITH CAMERON’S ‘EXPLOITS’ WOULD REFLECT BETTER ON THE OBAMOIDS, IN THE PUBLIC EYE, THAN ANY ASSOCIATION WITH BP. He’s there for political theater.
Insufficiently Sensitive (8906ed) — 6/3/2010 @ 7:40 amSPQR – I watched a segment on MSNBC, MadCow I believe, that outlined how everything they are trying now have proven to be unsuccessful in the past, but is being done essentially for the impatient and show, as the relief lines are the only known and proven solution.
JD (d55760) — 6/3/2010 @ 7:48 amA friend of mine said it best: “perhaps it’s simply an application of the principles of homeopathy to the question of competence.“
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/3/2010 @ 8:07 amPersonally, I think standing on the throat of someone is the appropriate reaction to this. And seeking criminal charges for a process approved by MMS seems entirely reasonable. And Myron is an idiot. And holding press conferences to tell everyone that they are on top of things and having the idea that simply going there makes a lick of difference is a great example of leadership. And … well, I think you get my point.
JD (d55760) — 6/3/2010 @ 8:33 amIs Red Adair still around?
Yeah, I know. Not a fire. But it seems to me the soul of his work is “getting control of the well”…..
Larry Sheldon (86b2e1) — 6/3/2010 @ 10:54 amThe “discussion was really out in the weeds”?
That’s appropriate; that’s usually where the jackasses graze.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 6/3/2010 @ 1:55 pmIncorporating those who are bright but not experts in the subject matter in brainstorming sessions can counteract group think and surface new ideas and approaches.
I can’t believe I’m actually defending either Obama or Cameron on this but at this point the ‘experts’ have clearly failed big time and going outside the box is not necessarily a bad move.
DaMav (6ab8ce) — 6/3/2010 @ 2:11 pmRed Adair died in 2004, IIRC all of the bits of his operation (there were several splits) are now owned by Halliburton. Not only fires, they fixed a deep-sea rupture in the North Sea.
htom (412a17) — 6/3/2010 @ 2:28 pmTEAM OBAMA IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
• During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to Politico.
• Last year, Obama administration’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) awarded the rig for its safety history, according to Beacon.
• A detailed review of the records conducted by The Associated Press indicates that the MMS, which was responsible for ensuring that the Deepwater Horizon was operating , didn’t make the required checks on the unit.
• A Interior department report shows that MMS employees (including some inspect offshore oil rigs—accepted sporting-event tickets and other goodies from oil and natural-gas companies, according to The Wall Street Journal.
I thought the premise of having federal regulators oversee “evil corporations” is that they would….actually oversee “evil corporations”.
Mutnodjmet (f37485) — 6/3/2010 @ 2:38 pmCameron says he doesn’t know how to solve the drilling issues but he thinks the government should hire someone to monitor what BP is doing. So I guess Cameron wants the government to hire someone to observe but with no responsibility to solve the problem. He should go into politics.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 6/3/2010 @ 2:42 pm