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X Prize To Offer Millions For Gulf Oil Cleanup Solution
Jamie noted that X Prize is offering prizes for a solution to the Gulf Coast oil clean up. This is in addition to categories for mapping genomes, making an incredibly fuel efficient car, and exploring the moon's surface with a robotic vehicle.
All we need is to get Superman to fly around the earth in reverse, sending him back in time, when he can cockpunch Tony Hayward before any of this happens.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Can't see how we can repair untold environmental damage, merely cover up some of the more obvious scars - but we sure can prevent it from happening again. Prosecute AND JAIL top executives... then keep going right up into the political appointee's whose job it is to police them. Then maybe we might have a chance of not seeing them happen again in 50 years or so.
Yeah, to seize all that oil would definitely help. The problem is how to do it. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Considering the amount of liability that BP has potentially accrued, I'd say it is in their best interests to get this race going as quickly as possible. This other oil spill today only highlights our need for this technology ASAP.
Oil on the surface is just a sheen. Oil below is mixed with water and dispersants. Oil on the beaches is mixed into marshes and sand.
That's a lot of stuff to churn and in doing so, greatly affects everything living in it.
Perhaps we could keep in mind that "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
SpongeBob and Godzilla should have children, so we can dip an enormous SpongeBob into the spill.
When I first glanced at "mapping genomes" I thought it said "mopping gnomes" and had this RPG inspired vision of gnomes on boats (clockwork/steampunk) using these special oil-soaking mops.
You have become better at Oil Mopping! (28)
BP and company should be paying every last dime of the cleanup effort. Anything less just encourages this sort of behavior.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-crude-mother-nature-breaks-slick/story?id=11254252
Sorry to preempt your Two Minutes of Hate like that...
shave the heads of all the protesting hippies and use it to soak up the oil. Problem solved. what else ya got?
according to some reports. If by chance it does dissipate to a degree that a gulf oil cleanup solution beyond what is already being done isn't necessary, I hereby claim that idea as mine and will await X Prize's communications requesting a destination US bank account.
I have no idea what they're doing now to clean it up, so chances are my idea sucks (ha!), but here it is:
Get a lot of that hydrocarbon-attracting fabric or whatever it is... maybe a few yards wide, but really really long (and loop it back to itself so it's like a belt)... have rollers send the stuff down into the water (how deep, I don't know... this would probably only work on somewhat shallow levels)... it'll bring up oil with it, which you squeeze off with rollers... I'm sure it'd also get some water, but it'll be somewhat filtered before it even gets onto the boat...
We could do it like we did in Iraq, where eight billion dollars (out of nine billion total) in oil revenue has simply disappeared.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Bounty, It's the quicker picker-upper!
When can I expect my check?
How about just dropping the Jones act and let foreign ships in to help, rather than this administration protecting its union cronies?
disclaimer: I loathed the last administration too.
So, where can I collect my money?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Oh boo hoo! BP screwed up so I'm going to jump on the hate bandwagon and pretend that everyone involved needs to be brutally skinned, murdered, and have their genitals flown to all parts of the world...
Because you blame yourself.
How dare we demand accountability, right? I mean, BP is a big corporation, with lots of power, and might makes right, so BP must be right. It is quite unnatural for the weak to attack the strong. The meek will inherit the Earth? Like that's going to happen. The meek will sit down, shut up, and not bother their betters, like they always have.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
[citation needed]
Now if only people like you would get this worked up about Obama breaking virtually every campaign pledge and allowing Goldman Sachs to continue pillaging this country.
This is not the first oil spill in the world. There are companies who do ocean oil cleanup all the time, but can't do it in the U.S. because of EPA regulations. You see, according to the EPA, any water dumped INTO the gulf can't have > 15ppm of oil. A skimmer will suck up oil and water, separate them, then discharge the water. If they can get 90% of the oil out, that's good, right? In the rest of the world, yes. In the world controlled by the EPA, no - they'd rather leave 100% of the oil in the water, rather than allow a skimmer to get most of it.
If you suck dirty water out of the gulf, and put back not-so-dirty water, isn't that better than leaving ALL the dirty water there? Hello, EPA? How long did it take them to waive this STUPID regulation?
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
I am this worked up over that conservative in liberal's clothing. Of course, he has passed the reform bill, which nearly all conservatives opposed. Obama is a corporate conservative, but even that isn't enough for Republicans. Obama could be a Bush clone and they would still hate him.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Instead of offering prize money, how about the person with the 'great idea' is given prestige and recognition, while the $1,000,000 is given to help the communities directly affected by this mess...
...get to keep all the oil they collect?
It's the only way to be sure.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-funds-20100727,0,3856364.story
You see, when all us crazy liberals were saying we were going to Iraq to steal their oil, we were right. That's what we did.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Funny that Goldman Sachs' stock actually went UP after the the financial reform bill passed, no? That bill is widely viewed as a gift to GS wrapped in consumerist rhetoric.
You only prosecute and jail if something illegal was done, not to prove a point. I'm not saying they didn't do anything illegal, they very well might have. If they didn't though, it's purely a civil matter and should not end in jail time.
You aren't making any sense. We prosecute to prove the point that someone needs to go to jail. If it looks as though someone, say, willfully violated safety regulations over 760 times in a three year period where the next most egregious offender had all of nine willful violations, I'd say that is enough evidence to warrant a thorough, crawl up their ass with a microscope sort of criminal investigation.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Why is someone OTHER than BP paying for this? This is just like asking for volunteers to help clean the waterfowl etc. To clean this up the BP board should be hauled in (with a gun to their head if needed) and forced to clean it up with their own fucking money and their own hands. WHY tax payers and any other private source is putting one cent into this is beyond me.
They wanted the profit, they can accept the consequences.
Funny that Goldman Sachs' stock actually went UP after the the financial reform bill passed, no? That bill is widely viewed as a gift to GS wrapped in consumerist rhetoric.
Widely and falsely touted by conservatives who actually want even less regulation. It's not as though they were advocating for more oversight. The stock went up because the uncertainty was gone. The reform bill isn't perfect, but it is a step in the right direction.
Obviously, you must agree that we need more regulation of the financial industry. You wouldn't be lying about wanting more as a ruse to convince people to do away with the reform because you actually want less regulation. Nope. No one would be that underhanded.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Apparently, the Dutch have developed the technology to clean up the oil spill long ago. Unfortunately, for various reasons, they aren't allowed to use it.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
with cigarettes. A $5/gallon gas tax is the obvious solution. There's no magic bullet - you need lots of people with lots of rags - not only would the tax pay for it, it would go a long way towards breaking the addiction.
Just pile the 20 billion in $1 bills on top of the busted well. The paper money will absorb the oil with the resulting mountain of cash with form an island that can be used as a tourist destination. A similar technique could be used on the terrorist. Just launch bails of money at them then later collect the terrorist as they sun themselves on beaches in Dubai. This technique would save billions and thousands of lives.
That was supposed to stop you from asking questions, asshole.
Involves taking chickens... ok, i see i got your attention there, putting them in the gulf. Then selling their remains to kfc. Not only is this totally green but profitable but extremely tasty.
About time, someone tried to invest in recycling, or cleaning of our planet, good for you XPrize, just wish many more companies were like you to help fund development of things this planet really needs.
Especially when they can't find it
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Well, if we can't find it, it must not be a problem, right? Whew. Glad that's over. I was actually worried for a while.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Read the link before you spout off.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
The meek will sit down, shut up, and not bother their betters, like they always have.
Yeah, because never ever has the opposite happened!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_(1917)
I assume the US signing off from the British empire wasn't as graphic but well, at least they left.
I did read the link. What was I supposed to be looking for? The story says what I just said? You don't say. I just thought it was important to preempt the idiots by pointing out the important fact that 'we can't find it' does not mean 'it is gone.'
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
is going to be hard.
Or do we just arbitrarily punish people based on job title? Maybe we can just zing the ones with high salaries!
Get them where it hurts, the pocketbook. Nice large fines to be used to better the safety of the industry as a whole. Set it equal to the costs to clean up the mess plus at least a quarter's or more profit. Stock holders won't take kindly to a board that allows this to go on long.
Jailing executives over decisions underlings performed would be great, but damn why not start with our government first. Would we even have any President or Cabinet official living free?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I see you are unfamiliar with sarcasm. ;)
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment. "
While not all of it is gone, apparently a good portion of it is.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
"experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment. "
While not all of it is gone, apparently a good portion of it is.
Reabsorbed into the environment. Like ducks, and seaweed, and marsh grass. Fantastic. Why didn't we think of that before? Just let the environment soak it up. That will sure keep the oil out of the... oh wait.
BOOM! Headshot.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
That's why we need fearless environmental engineers who are not afraid to do a little social engineering to correct the situation. Those with lots of money and power should fear their collapse. Those with nothing have nothing to lose, true willpower.
ahhh yes, (R) bad (D) good .. sock puppet. You're almost as annoying as the Bushbots.
Am I wrong though? You see, you were claiming the government is bad, because they did not regulate. I'm saying, we have one party that is rabidly anti regulation, and has proven it will work underhandedly against regulation. So why blame 'government' in general, when in fact it is the people who hate government and stand in its way that have caused the problem in this particular case.
I would like to make it clear: one party is at least nominally pro regulation, the other is rabidly against it. The party that is against it is to blame for the lack of regulation leading up to this disaster.
I welcome any attempts on your part to argue against this position, no matter how pathetic they may be. But ad hominems will get you nowhere, you know that right? Around these parts, ad hominems are taken as a sure sign of defeat. Rather than attacking me, you may as well just admit I've won for all the good your ad hominems do.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Exempting the SEC from nearly all requests for disclosure, including FOIA requests is a step in the right direction? You call that better oversight?
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/07/28/sec-says-new-finreg-law-exempts-public-disclosure/?test=latestnews
Please refrain from the usual ad-hominem attacks on Fox and try to address only the substance of the article. As hard as it is for Obama disciples, please also limit your use of red herrings and strawmen.
Ah, I see the problem. You've mistaken me for an Obama disciple. I don't support right wing corporate tools.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Now only an expert can deal with the problem
Because half the problem is seeing the problem
And only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem
So if there's no expert dealing with the problem
It's really actually twice the problem
Cause only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem
Now in America we like solutions
We like solutions to problems
And there's so many companies that offer solutions
[...]
So when experts say, "Let's get to the root of the problem
Let's take control of the problem
So if you take control of the problem you can solve the problem."
Now often this doesn't work at all because the situation is completely out of control.
Cause only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem
So who are these experts?
Experts are usually self-appointed people or elected officials
Or people skilled in sales techniques, trained or self-taught
To focus on things that might be identified as problems.
Now sometimes these things are not actually problems.
But the expert is someone who studies the problem
And tries to solve the problem.
[...]
And sometimes, if it's really really really hot.
And it's July in January.
And there's no more snow and huge waves are wiping out cities.
And hurricanes are everywhere.
And everyone knows it's a problem.
But if some of the experts say it's no problem
And other experts claim it's no problem
Or explain why it's no problem
Then it's simply not a problem.
But when an expert says it's a problem
And makes a movie and wins an Oscar about the problem
Then all the other experts have to agree that it is most likely a problem.
Cause only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem
[...]
Only an expert can see there's a problem
And see the problem is half the problem
And only an expert can deal with the problem
Only an expert can deal with the problem.
exempt from "Only An Expert" by Laurie Anderson
Kevin Costner. He has the answer.
1 - Design a cheap "cleanup kit" that almost anyone can afford, or a small range of cleanup kits. ...
2 - Design a process for turning the gunk harvested by the above "cleanup kits" into usable oil.
3 - Pay people to bring in barrels of the gunk, sell the oil back into the supply chain.
5a - Profit!!
5b - Cleanup!!
This is a combination jest/serious. Probably the biggest problem would be making step 2 cheap enough that you can pay people for barrels of gunk, yet still sell the oil back into the supply chain.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
You have to be deliberately misreading that to come to that conclusion.
As in eaten by microbes, evaporated, etc.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Maybe if the US stop crying like big fucking babies (why do Americans have to be such drama queens over anything that happens to them) and right some of their wrongs such as Bhopal, Karma will give them a big payback in not ruining their coastlines for the next few years.
I'm deliberately misreading that?!? Please. You've got one quote, from one guy, about one small part of the spill being eaten by microbes, evaporated, etc. Toxins in the oil eaten by microbes bio-accumulate, as the microbes are in turn eaten by other organisms. And evaporation means that the volatile part of the oil evaporates into the atmosphere (bad) while the other parts sink (also bad).
But the reality is, this article talks about the oil slick, not the deep water plumes. BP was using dispersant underwater to keep the oil from making it to the surface and becoming obvious. We've got these huge plumes of oil frappe emulsified with the most toxic dispersants available.
Your case is weak and your argumentation is poor. It's almost as if you are parroting back right wing talking points without understanding the underlying data.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
You can argue it with ABC News and their expert.
Since they didn't cite you, I'll presume you are not an "expert".
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
What's to argue? An unbiased reading of that article would lead anyone to my conclusion. I'm satisfied with my debunking work here, so unless you have further information to add, I'll bid you good day.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
You've mistaken me for an Obama disciple. I don't support right wing corporate tools.
Obama is a Left Wing corporate tool.
Remember, there were rich people in the USSR, it's just that the peasant couldn't buy bread or blue jeans.
They're trying to do away with the problem in America.
The opposite of progress is congress
So, it is the biggest, and affects hundreds of thousands of people (myself included).
Just because it's the biggest spill ever, and nations from around the world (who have had spills of their own to deal with) offer help, we should say NO because the EPA doesn't like them spewing oily water (even though the oily water comes from the watery oil they are sucking up)?
To misquote... nothing to do with it, my ass!
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
Obama's favorite president is Ronald Reagan, so said his law school adviser on The Daily Show election night coverage. Obama is about as far from socialist as it is possible to get.
You are basically saying that the rich are engaging in class warfare against the poor, using any tool they can manipulate? Color me shocked. There is a simple solution, though: take money out of politics, and then tax the hell out of the rich so they don't have the resources to engage in class warfare and steal our money using the government. Tax them until their eyes bleed. Transfer all that wealth they've stolen back to the people that actually worked to create it.
As you are against corporate tools, I'm sure you'll support this plan. Unless you are actually a corporate tool in disguise. You'll pardon my mentioning it, but those seem to be common these days, don't they?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
False dichotomies are lies.
..if you happen to invent a time machine!
There's little point in singling out BP. Every last one of the companies is being cheap in the wrong places and risking disaster while the US Govt fails to do anything about it. They're all responsible. Even more, we're responsible because we continue to demand oil and gasoline. BP just got unlucky, but they're all doing. Hate the industry and hate the demand that's creating the industry. Also, realize that that demand is us.
You are flat out wrong about this.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1658137/infographic-of-the-day-bps-horrifying-safety-record
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bps-dismal-safety-record/story?id=10763042
http://www.businessinsider.com/bp-has-been-fined-by-osha-760-times-has-an-awful-track-record-for-safety-2010-6
There is every point in singling out BP for this. No one else even comes close to being as cheap about safety as BP. They had 760 willful, egregious safety violations in a three year period where the next worst oil company had 9.
The US government failed because George Bush inserted sleeper agents into Federal agencies. These were people that Bush appointees hired, so they are simply career bureaucrats and were not replaced when Bush left office. Their job was to stand in the way of enforcing regulations.
We create a demand for oil and gas. We do not create a demand for unsafe extraction of oil and gas. Plenty of oil companies make a fine profit while playing it safe. BP did not.
You know, I'm not a dualitic thinker by nature, and I understand that everything affects everything else, but trying to blame everyone but the criminals involved in this disaster is just taking that concept too far.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
... and fix it?
It strikes me that the notion of promising a prize for a miracle invention ignores the process involved in research. Prizes are fun and all, but this is rather tawdry when one thinks of how much work and risk goes into developing an invention or solution to a problem of this magnitude. Researchers who pursue this goal take on substantial financial burdens in doing so, as the project requires both time and resources. This organization seems to keep itself a safe arms length away from the real blood sweat and tears of the undertaking by planting itself safely at the finish-line with a big check to congratulate a lucky few. It is unscientific to ignore the fact that invention requires highly competent people to fail who must be funded as well. Providing a prize for the winner has all the glamor of big-bucks but lacks the courage required for legitimate research.
Apparently eight billion dollars is enough to plug every leaking well in the world (so long as it is in $100 notes and stuffed in very hard)