Slashdot Mirror
Gulf Oil Spill Nearing Loop Current
An anonymous reader writes "Per The Weather Channel's tropical expert Dr. Richard Knabb, 'based on satellite images, model simulations, and on-site research vessel reports, I think it is reasonable to conclude that the oil slick at the surface is very near or partially in the Loop Current. The Loop Current is responsible in the first place for extending that stream of oil off to the southeast in satellite imagery. With its proximity to the northern edge of the Loop Current it may be only a matter of weeks or even days before the ocean surface oil is transported toward the Florida Keys and southeast Florida.'" Other experts are a little more cautious: "We know the oil has not entered the Loop Current," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said at a news conference Monday afternoon. "A leading edge sheen is getting close to it, but it has not entered the Loop Current. The larger volume of oil is several miles from the Loop Current."
What happens when you hit underwater sea life with a nuke?
The same thing that happens to anything else.
And we don't want green, muscular, lobsters?
What happens when you hit underwater sea life with a nuke?
The same thing that happens to anything else.
Ill-tempered mutated sea bass?
The press is focussing too much on the "what if" and not the "what is."
First of all, how do we even know that the oil is harmful? There haven't been any long-term scientific studies on oil spills of this much oil of this kind. Why, for all we know, it might be beneficial! We shouldn't rush to judgement until this has been properly studied.
Second, let's stop using loaded terms like "pollution." Economists say we should measure the value of something by what people are willing to pay for it. Oil is worth $72 a barrel. The price of enough Instant Ocean to mix up a barrel of seawater is $8.72. So let's stop talking about oil as "polluting" seawater, let's be rational and unemotional and say that the oil is "enriching" the seawater.
Third, hasn't it occurred to anyone that this oil might prevent the harmful sea surges that did so much damage to New Orleans during the Katrina disaster? Let's stop berating BP when all they're really doing is pouring oil on the troubled waters.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
There is no oxygen under water
Remind me, in H2O, what does the O stand for again? Oil?
This is why fire departments warn you to never, ever put water on a fire.
I think this story is a little old now
This. We real Linux geeks have been using tarballs since the 70s and BP comes along does it on a massive and claims it as something new. I'm sure they've even gone out and gotten patents on it (just because you add "in the water" doesn't make it patentable, goddammit!). I bet M$ put them up to it, the bastards.
Yup, I read that discussion with interest. Apparently the "tarballs" are actually globs of nano-sized Black Helicopters created under the Majestic-12 program at Area 51 by Haliburton on orders from the Tea Party and their New World Order masters, the Lizard Man Kings of the Houses of Saud and Bush.
Admittedly I kind of skimmed the comments, and in fact I wasn't sure that was the tarballs article - it could have been any DailyKos story.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Those guys are morons.
Everybody knows that Haliburton's patented petro-evil technology is the best in the business for artificially triggering earthquakes near impoverished nations as a pretext for the militarized export of neoliberal capitalism; but if you want nano-sized Black Helicopters, you need the nanotech that SAIC acquired when the reverse-engineered the Roswell Grey artefacts under contract from the Rand corporation...
On the plus side, with recent advances in DNA computing, we should just be able to introduce bzip2-capable e. coli into the environment, which will shrink the tarballs to a more manageable size in no time...
Furthermore, AFAIK, the effects of a nuclear bomb on underwater sea life are basically unknown.
Not so.
Maybe if they untar them they'll get a hint as to what caused them.
tar -xvf floridabeach.tar
They might find a README.TXT or a LICENSE.TXT that will explain what it's all about.
As this is a computer site, I think I have the correct meaning of 'tar' here.
Dunno about that. Looks more like somebody has lost their backups again.
Hope they're encrypted.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!