Slashdot Mirror
Reclaiming Oil Rigs As Oceanic Eco-Resorts
Mike writes "Here's an innovative reuse for those old abandoned oil rigs littering the ocean — convert them into eco resorts. Morris Architects' Oil Rig Platform Resort and Spa makes use of one of 4,000 oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico and transforms it into a beacon of sustainability, re-imagining an iconic source of dirty energy as an eco-haven that generates all of its power from renewable sources."
Why settle for something weak like a resort when you could have your own micro nation. If it worked for these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand why not you or I?!
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
Really though...I imagine the logistics of getting people to one of these out-weight the costs of going to Mexico or something. Whats the point? Enough with this "Green or bust" junk. There is a line and I think we're crossing it.
*kicks desktop recycling jar over*
*walks to corner of office and kicks over blue recycling bin*
*goes on office rampage*
*dies of compound foot fracture*
Bored at work? Play Game!
What do you use at your desk that will fit in a jar for recycling that you can't use over and over again instead?
Post-its mostly...they add colour and contrast to my work space and they're easy to replace.
Bored at work? Play Game!
It's common knowledge to anyone who pays attention that the only reason east and west coasters are so against oil drilling in their backyards is because they don't want it to affect beachfront property values. Oil rigs are largely a huge boon to the local fish populations, because they are essentially giant man-made reefs.
Abandoned oil rigs need to remain abandoned, at least during hurricane season. Last thing emergency officials need are a bunch of earth-firsters not following protocol and being stranded in the middle of a storm. It makes a lot more sense to topple the rigs.
They'll probably need to employ a pretty good sized security force if they want to ward off pirates--and yes, I'm being serious.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Luckily, although you wouldn't know it from the submission and have to pay close attention to the article to figure it out, no one is actually doing any of this.
It is just a set of drawings entered into a design competition.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Besides, there are a lot of smaller, "green and sustainable" resorts in Mexico available...
No sig for the moment.
Can the resorts withstand category 5 hurricane force winds? Seems to me that with only 1 helipad you may have a huge and dangerous bottleneck to evacuating quickly.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
As an avid 'urban explorer' - an oil rig has long since been a hot target.
Are there maintained lists of abandoned rigs?
Anyone in the know?
Clean and sink 'em.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
If you'd seen all of the work it took to clean San Francisco Bay up from one oil ship that just bumped a bridge pier, you'd not be writing that. Months of intensive work, then about a year of oil turning up in nooks and crannies that had to be scrubbed out.
Bruce Perens.
Why would things look different? After all, catering to the superwealthy does help get the economy back on whatever feet it needs to get back onto.
Seems it is:
When it is filled with fit Bikini clad women. However the truth is it will be filled with over 50 out of shape Bikini clad women.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
...an eco-haven that generates all of its power from renewable sources. What about all the fuel used for helicoptering in all the visitors and supplies? Are they planning on running the helicopter off of bio-diesel? Sure, they could use a sailboat to ferry people in and out... but I personally would rather just stay on the sailboat instead of a rusty old oil platform! I'm sorry, but when someone says "eco-vacation", a metal cage in the middle of the ocean is not the first destination that springs to mind. What's the scuba-diving like around an oil platform? This might make a good place to get scuba certified, just on the basis that there is absolutely nothing else to do there.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Where have these clowns been for the last 2 years? Big dollar theme vacations are dead for now - people are happy to have the money to go to the NJ shore.
I mean, ballooning over the amazon was neat when you could just pull the $10k out of the equity on your McMansion, but now?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Sounds to me like it "created jobs" and thus "stimulated the economy" though... ;) :)
Q. What do call a bunch of eco-tourists lost at sea when an abandoned oil rig collapses?
A. A good start
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Unlike a tanker, an oil rig (especially a nonoperational/abandoned one) is unlikely to contain significant amounts of oil. All oil would be removed from the rig prior to abandonment - it makes no sense to just abandon a valuable commodity on a structure.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Oil rigs don't store mass amounts of oil though, at least not the ones that have been decommissioned like these have.
Frankly the safety issues are a lot trickier. Oil rigs aren't the safest places to be to begin with, and when you neglect the maintenance for years it can't get any better.
I read the internet for the articles.
The only function of this oil platform which looks green is power generation. What about food supplies and waste disposal? The front of the oil rig is lined up with motor boats, which don't look all that green to me. This looks like the perfect vacation for those super rich hippie couples which live in a house with enough floor space for twenty families, with 3 or 4 cars in their entrance, but they're green because they get their power from solar, and their cars are all hybrids. Yep, some kind of green alright.
Turning an oil rig into a sea-based hotel is proof to the world that if exhert enough resources and energy, you can announce to the world how much resource and energy that you are saving! Was it Hitler who said something like 'The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it'?? Although Mythbusters already proved it, this is further proof that you CAN polish a turd.
PS: Godwin's law!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Whoever the designer of this was, has no experience with offshore platforms.
You NEVER put the helicopter platform on the side. It's never in clear air then, you can't safely approach the pad and land. And it was too close to hotel rooms anyways, where they have it, if the pilot goofs he flies the rotor into the rooms.
Not sure if they have calculated the TCO completely?
...then you have to consider going through Customs, and the fact that there is no Police, Fire, EMS or 911 service, etc... A real Insurance Nightmare. I suppose there will have to be signed "EULA" Disclaimers... (under what jurisdiction?) (Though some might try to make it an Amsterdam on stilts, etc... it is possible the rich stoner crowd is not too worried about insurance.)
If State Farm is completely pulling out of Florida for profitability reasons, what makes the developers thing this thing will be insurable?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=State+farm+pulling+out+of+Florida
It also depends HOW FAR off shore it is and if is out of International Waters??
You don't know the difference between a tanker and a rig, so your point is moot and your opinion invalidated.
What do you use at your desk that will fit in a jar for recycling that you can't use over and over again instead?
Pee. He lives as a recluse in his mommy's basement.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
I'm not concerned with non-operational ones if the well has been properly capped. Operational ones have to be offloaded - to tankers.
Bruce Perens.
Smileys are appropriate because of course that's the Broken Window Fallacy. Oil operators are supposed to, collectively, keep recovery staff on retainer and ready to go at the harbor. So, I think they get paid whether there's an emergency or not. I don't know all of the details. A lot of them seem to be firemen.
Bruce Perens.
Tosh. Tankers pull up to the oil platforms to be filled with oil. There are a few that are very close to the shore that can pipe their oil in, but the far offshore ones have no other way of transporting the oil than to fill a ship with it.
Bruce Perens.
Nah!
Tourists are generally safe in CancÃn, Cozumel, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, etc... Even criminals are aware that a 90% of the cashflow of the town comes from tourism, so they avoid harrasing tourists and target wealthy locals instead
Now, in Tijuana, JuÃrez, Mexicali and other border towns, I agree that gringos are fair game
This is Abreu, reporting from Mexico City!
No sig for the moment.
Puerto Rico would be good too; Americans don't even need a passport for it!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The fact that the Mexican people and their corrupt government allow this situation to continue is a good enough reason to just boycott the entire country, IMO.
But it's not worth as much as the oil.
While I hate to be pedantic, there are oil production platforms off the west coast near santa barbara. You go past them when you take a ferry to the channel islands. They are Chevron facilities, put there before the offshore moratorium was enacted. In fact, I believe it was a famous oil seep from these facilities that pushed the moratorium through.
look about pen gppd article.... good_pen
You might be surprised about the party-line thing. I heard about the UN Law of the Sea Treaty (v3) from John Norton Moore, one of the people who negotiated it. According to him, UNCLOS III had the support of most of the Senate, Bush, and a coalition of scientific, industrial and environmental groups, with only conspiracy theorists having any objection to it. Never mind the still-odious seabed mining provisions, which basically grant ownership of the world's ocean metal/fossil fuel deposits to the UN! Moore described the treaty being held up, as of a few years ago, in committee.
It should be interesting to see whether the treaty is ratified in this new administration. One point to consider for its fate is Moore's argument that Iran, also not a party to the treaty, could continue to threaten the Strait of Hormuz. We're also seeing the attempt to use UNCLOS' provisions about continental ridges used to justify territorial claims in the Arctic Ocean.
Incidentally, I would be strongly in support of allowing legal recognition of such "seasteading" plans. However, the best chance for legal independence is to go at least 200 nautical miles offshore, outside the UNCLOS' "exclusive economic zone."
Revive the Constitution.
Nor, with the active presence of the US Coast Guard and a stable, cooperative Mexico, will pirates be a serious problem in the Gulf of Mexico.
A stable, cooperative Mexico is no longer a really safe bet. When narcotrafficking gangs are seriously challenging the legitimacy/stability of the government over a significant part of a country's territory, all bets are off.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Not if they build pipelines out to the well like what is done in the Gulf of Mexico.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs