Google Funding the Next Big One?

wdavies writes "According to this New York Times article, Google is funding a controversial deep drill geothermal project north of San Francisco. Apparently the company, AltaRock, omitted to disclose that the same deep drilling caused a major quake in Basel, Switzerland when it was last used. Given the notorious geological instability of the Northern Californian coast, this strikes me as kind of dumb — and given the known likelihood of this technique producing earthquakes, somewhat EVIL."

Comments

Is Google EVIL now?

[iCodemonkey]

Does this mean google is now a super-evil corporation(TM). Will we have James Bond types trying to bring it down? (disclaimer: not enough sleep, lack of coffee and to much TV are my excuses)

Re:Is Google EVIL now?

[ColdWetDog]

Does this mean google is now a super-evil corporation(TM).

No, you all have it exactly backwards. Look at this - California is bankrupt, they're planning on paying creditors IOUs. No money. Nada. They've already asked the feds to help and Obama has said 'No'.

Google knows this and knows that the only other ways to get money out of the feds is either to wage war on them or have a (presumably) natural disaster. Wars take time and are all sorts of messy, not to mention ethically marginal. A natural disaster on the other hand - who can argue with an Act of God? This is just a small down payment to help rescue the entire fucking state from themselves.

Brilliant, I say. Absolutely brilliant.

Re:Unfair Blame to Both Google And AltaRock

[mini me]

Yes, but unlike Google, the government's motto is "Do evil." At least I'm pretty sure it is.

Re:"the next big one"

[wellingj]

Que 70's chika-bow-wow

Re:Unfair Blame to Both Google And AltaRock

[tomhudson]

... or it's an easy way to "Terminate" California's budget problems:

1. Have California, along with the "underwater" housing literally slide underwater into the ocean, along with the debtors, the expenses of maintaining the infrastructure, the political, social, and financial problems dealing with illegals, etc.
2. PROFIT! - Get disaster relief funding

Think of it - land that was inland now becomes beach-front property ... how much of that land does Google have options on?

Re:Unfair Blame to Both Google And AltaRock

[Anonymous Coward]

And the locals, man, don't get me started.

Apparently they have mod points, and they are angry.

1 2 3 4 - Profit!

[StCredZero]

1 - Write a story involving Google
2 - Find a way to include the word EVIL
3 - Blog it, post it, spam it, be sure to put up Google Adwords advertising
4 - Profit!