Dangermond.org

This from a relative of mine, a geologist, who knows what he is talking about:

As for my ‘take’ on the oil spill…. first I was somewhat sympathetic about the ‘accident’…. but as info was released to indicate that at several crucial junctures, extremely BAD decisions were made, all three parties, BP, Transocean, and Halliburton are INCREDIBLY at fault.  As the released data indicate, a poor cement job (to cement in the last string of casing in the well) was done, the poor decision was made to NOT do a cement bond log, even though Schlumberger technicians were onsite ready to do it, and then when the well “bumped” as they were adjusting the drilling mud vs seawater ratio, and thereby reducing the confining pressure…. suggesting that they had a well which was ‘wanting’ to blowout…. after all that… then they made the STUPID decision to go ahead and pump the heavy drilling mud out of the well so that the temporary seal of cement could be pumped in (can’t be done with drilling mud in the hole)…… then the well obliged with what was obviously a truly MAJOR oil/gas discovery.

The fact that then the blow-out preventers did not operate, wellllllllll, it seems that they had such issues as a leaky hydraulic line to it, etc., which indicates an extremely poor attitude…. and simply incredible LIABILITY.  The blowout preventer should have stopped the flow first with several sets of packer/seals which would have closed around the pipe, etc., but, without enough hydraulic pressure, quite probably the last back up, that of shearing off everything in the well, all pipe, etc. failed simply because it was not strong enough to shear, without full hydraulic pressure.

This ‘cap deal’ might actually work to recover much of the oil, but, probably not all of it….. and besides an incredible amount is already loose.  The only permanent solution is the one of literally ‘hitting a needle in a haystack’ by drilling up to the old well casing and then reaming a hole into the side of it, establish communication and then pump heavy drilling mud followed by cement to seal it.  That feat, actually hitting a piece of 9 7/8″ pipe at a distance of five or so miles, is literally a near miraculous feat, and quite directly, may require numerous attempts, miss, back up and drill out with a new bore (all directionally controlled of course) to attempt again, and maybe again……

You read it here first because I told you there was no contest when the Wall Street Journal said it was going to go after the New York Times – as if:

New York Times Co. president and CEO Janet Robinson says The New York Times has not lost circulation following the Wall Street Journal’s launch of a New York section.

There is a saying that it is easier to bounce back from failure than from success. And if you look at all the celebrities going to hell in a handbasket, there just might be some truth to it. But take New Orleans after the failure of the levees flooded our beloved city – I’ve been very proud of where we have come from there. Now where we’ll go after the oil spill is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile here is something from Leslie Jacob’s Educate Now that is reason to celebrate:

There are critics who claim that New Orleans high school students are no better off, and may be even worse off, than they were before Katrina. This is not correct.

Without a doubt:

1. High Schools Are Better

In 2005, 67% of high school students (grades 9-12) attended a failing high school. In 2010, this percentage dropped to 36%* – a huge improvement!

2. More Students Are Performing Basic or Above:

In 2005, only 40% of students scored Basic or above on the English section of the Graduation Exit Exam (GEE), compared to 52% this year. Math gains are even more impressive, with a 21 point gain: 39% in 2005 to 60% in 2010.

3. Senior Graduation Rates Are Up:

In 2005, only 79% of seniors graduated. This year, 90% of seniors graduated – an 11 point jump.

Our high schools are far from perfect, but the improvements in school and student performance provide a basis for optimism.

It’s a real head scratcher, why would one of the largest O&G companies in the world cut costs and risk a disaster of catastrophic proportions? I sit here trying to understand (did they need more money?) (were they incompetent?) (were they clueless?) and no answers come to mind. Over and over again I hear Hayward say he wants his life back and I think of that poem that a friend wrote many years back about doctors and their arrogance in saving one life when thousands or millions require help. Hayward’s life – a joke really. Hayward’s life past or present is so unimportant, it is a joke.

The rig was having a PR party for seven years of safety the day that Schlumberger told the company man that the mud wasn’t working. He was ordered off the rig. Eleven guys died, the driller, the roustabouts, the rough necks, and two mud guys. A week before the blow out was failing – it has a 50% failure rate. The materials BP used were inadequate.

My neighbor tells me that what CNN is reporting is damn close to the truth and that Anderson Cooper is actually doing more to illuminate what is going on than any other resource. They’re missing some pieces like some areas that are slick saturated and everything there is dead. People here are puzzled by BP’s arrogance in not entertaining outside consultants – the Danish, the Russians, anyone but what we have right now.

3,000 dog kennels were ordered for the pelicans that are diving at the fish who are jumping to the surface to get oxygen since the waters are becoming deprived of it, on top of the water sits a thick slick and the birds are diving right into it. They ran out of kennels and ordered more. My birds. These are my birds, these pelicans and I’m pissed.

Oyster and fish and shrimp – will the be safe to eat? We don’t know, but my neighbor is doing tissue samples and he assures me there is strict oversight because they’re has to be. Any seafood that is not seriously inspected and gets someone sick would be the end of days for us here in the Gulf South. But tell me, do you expect a restaurant in New York to be labeling fish on their menu, from the Gulf? anytime soon?

There is a guy studying the Yucatan where an oil spill was disrupted by a hurricane that seemingly dissipated the oil. Really, we should be thinking a hurricane rather than no hurricane as the answer to our prayers? Good grief.

I received this letter via email from President Obama via Joe Biden’s email address yesterday

Rachel —

Yesterday, I visited Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana — one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle’s Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.

Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his oyster bed has likely been destroyed by the spill.

Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he’s earned his living during shrimping season — working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year-round. But today, the waters where he has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he will be able to return to the life he built.

Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It has upended whole communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they have lost. It is about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.

These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe — one that is not their fault and beyond their control — their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole.

That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis. Today, there are more than 20,000 people working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill. I have authorized 17,500 National Guard troops to participate in the response. More than 1,900 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort. We have convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world. This is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.

We have also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and this week, the federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In addition, after an emergency safety review, we are putting in place aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I have appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill. If laws are inadequate, they will be changed. If oversight was lacking, it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice.

These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. The people of this region have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe them is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience they have shown. That is our mission. And it is one we will fulfill.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

My neighbor said he stopped reading at paragraph two as it was such complete bullshit he couldn’t go on. Nobody knows oyster beds like him, he has been working as a biologist in the oyster beds of Louisiana for 35 years. His view is that the oyster beds aren’t prime right now even though oyster season is underway – the real premium money time is fall through winter. And they aren’t dead yet, he says, because only the sheen is visible in the marsh, not the slick. There are three tiers in layman’s terms one produces a sheen which doesn’t sink and eventually evaporates. The slick is worse, that is what you see the birds coated and dying in. And then there are the tar balls which wash to shore.

That’s a joke this colleague of mine told me one time on his way to the can. Funny, huh. Anyway, Saturday is errand and chore day. So that means you work Monday through Friday, you do errand and chores on Saturday and on Sunday, you HOPEFULLY rest. Now that the entire European Union is facing collapse because of the Greek way of life vs the German way of life, I wonder if so goes the 30 hour work weeks, pensions, and long unemployment periods with free money coming in? Because damn it, I was hoping we were going to move to be more like the Europeans, but now it seems the Europeans are going to move to be more like the Americans.

So let’s just put aside the fact that Europeans are scared to death of drafts, and perish the thought of keeping on a sweaty shirt – IT’S WET, TAKE IT OFF! Another thing about the Euro-American divide is the belief that Americans kick their children to the curb when they’re 18 and put their parents in nursing homes. I was speaking with a European woman the other day and she asked how the visit with mom is going and I said it’s testing. She said, “I’d kill myself if my mother came to live with me.” I said well I thought it was the international way – my aunt took care of her father, her mother, her brothers etc. She was always wiping someone’s butt. My friend said, “My mother had her mother in the house and they fought every day.”

Maybe we’re all the same – we want to kick our kids to the curb after high school, we want someone else to wipe our aged parents’ butts, we want to work less, starting at 30 hours a week – but whatyagonnado? No matter where you live, it’s life. [In case you don’t speak Croatian, here’s Tin wanting to leap in the bayou and grandma preventing him and then reprimanding Mama that he is too close to the water {read: it’s wet in there).]

Israel is getting drummed from all sides for its embargo against the Gaza Strip. The entire world is standing on its soap box and telling them they are horrible and they need to do better. Meanwhile, in the U.S., we have an embargo on Cuba, where some of my family still live in dire poverty conditions – but no one is standing on the soap box pointing a finger now are they? And borders, what about Arizona – stop and search at police discretion – are you kidding me?

Imagine all the people living life as one. You might say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. But I digress.

The New York Times recently had an interesting review by Harold Bloom of antisemitism as it crops up in British literature. I have to say that Israel’s response is always paranoid and defensive – and maybe it has good reason. But at this point in world history maybe its time to move past the fact that Gaza houses Hamas whose pure intention and cited M.O. is to destroy Israel and its people and just let them get the aid. And so what if if a few rockets and bombs get sent in under the toothbrushes and cans of tuna fish?

Oy vey.

In the midst of BP and the daunting bad news that comes across CNN every day, the shakiness of the economic recovery that we are in, and botched wars and raids, we went to a wedding last night. It was at St. Louis Cathedral in the middle of Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter – just beautiful. There were some noticeable differences about this wedding from many others that I have attended, and let’s just start with this – the bridesmaids had serious biceps. Then when the priest asked who was married in the audience, there was a noticeable absence of hands on the bride’s side of the church, mainly because her mother is a lesbian and practically everyone on her side is gay. Now mind you, there were many couples there who have been together twenty years plus, but none could raise their hand and say they were married.

Then the wedding party made its way to Angela King’s art gallery on Royal and Bienville where the reception was held and amidst the art hung on the walls and sculpture, we all began to dance to what seemed like a playlist from every bar mitzvah I’ve attended in my life. One glance around the room and you could see how diverse the attendees were – black, white, Hispanic and everything in between – my kind of party. There were old relationships, new relationships and question mark relationships ending and beginning all under one roof. But we all got down and partied nonetheless.

And perhaps most striking was the couple themselves – two young kids who don’t fit anyone’s particular cookie cutter image who love each other so much their email address is XlovesY, now doesn’t that hold so much promise?

It was nice to spend the night among friends, to help celebrate the joyous occasion of a friend’s daughter getting married, and to know that while these rituals of marriage, of Catholic churches, of religion, are all antiquated and maybe not even relevant to any of us anymore – they still held, last night at least, the promise of what they could be in a perfect world.

Tin is having his eye procedure next Thursday and now, we found out on Friday that T has to have knee surgery, so she is going to have that on Tuesday. From Monday to Friday we are going to be at the doctor every day. It’s nutty! But hopefully by the end of the week Tin’s eye will be fixed and T’s knee will be on the mend.

I thought maybe Tin might not have to go but this morning as he ate his breakfast through tears, I realized it is the best thing to get it over with. And T, who knew that she had torn her meniscus Mother’s Day weekend; well, she knew right when it happened that it was bad, but I kept telling her it would get better.

I guess I kept thinking all of these things would get better on their own – and they didn’t.

I planted a lot of butterfly milkweed in the front yard and the other day was so delighted when I walked out and saw tons of caterpillars all over them. These are my monarchs that I can’t wait to sit on the porch and see. Then to my horror, as Tin and I were returning from going to hear Musica del Camera in the Botanical Garden, a friend was visiting with her children and one was picking off all the caterpillars – STOP – I cried out. My butterflies!!!

Good grief.