Recently in Apropos-of-Nothing Wednesday Category
Continuing coverage from the NYT on the Deepwater Horizon-BP-Transocean-Halliburton oil spill.
Citing a Congressional panel, the latest report tallies critical events on April 20th before the rig explosion occurred at 9:49 pm.
The major factors:
- Whether heavy drilling mud was prematurely replaced by seawater during Halliburton's temporary cement plugging of the well. There was evidently "intense discussion" among the rig's engineers about whether to remove the drilling mud on the basis of variable pressure readings in the well. When the decision was finally made, however, new pressure readings indicated the potential for a blowout.
- In addition, it appears that at least 1 seal in the well's blowout preventer was leaking on the day of the explosion. During the blowout, the preventer failed to activate automatically. The latest data indicate that the preventer's valves are partially closed and restricting the flow of oil into the Gulf.
Halliburton was contracted by BP to plug the well, so that the rig (which was leased by BP and owned by Transocean) could move to another job.
Eleven people died in the blowout.
BP, which is providing live video feed of the gushing, damaged riser, is poised to try an unprecedented version of the "top kill" method today.
Video still of burning rig from YouTube.
Addendum: The arguably premature use of seawater by Halliburton was reportedly performed at BP's insistence.
From The Onion*: Buddy Sneaks Into Chest X-Ray.
* America's and my favorite news source.
A breakdown of the 137 people who signed the petition to free Roman Polanski in "a case of morals."
|
Trait |
Number |
Percentage |
|
Male |
122 |
89 |
|
Non-US born |
118* |
86 |
|
Filmmaker** |
106 |
77 |
|
People I’ve never effing heard of |
116 |
85 |
* One undetermined.
** Either director or producer.
Of the 37 15 women who signed the petition, none were born in the United States. Most of the foreign-born signers are French, which makes you wonder how one country can support so many movie directors.
Among the 18 Americans who signed:
Woody Allen (cue spit-take)
Wes Anderson
Jonathan Demme
Buck Henry (who played the pedophilic babysitter, "Uncle Roy," on "SNL" during the 1970s)
John Landis (who was charged with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of Vic Morrow and 2 children on the set of the Twilight Zone)
David Lynch
Michael Mann
Martin Scorcese
The real heartbreakers are Demme, Lynch, and Scorcese.
AoNW returns, if only intermittently.
Fun 4 hours: My Rap Name
His next act as governor will be to run around naked with a tiara on his head.*
* And, in fact, my sister the lawyer would advise him to do so.
Image (right) from impressionsareeverything.com.
Where are all the real pictures of Rahm Emanuel as a ballet dancer? Did he have them removed from the web?
Image of a "cross between a hemorrhoid and a toothache" from http://www.house.gov/emanuel/.
Here's to the US government for bailing out AIG to the tune of $85 billion and the continued freefall of the US stock market.
According to my brother-in-law (God rest), a reinsurance lawyer (as exciting as it sounds), AIG is one of the most corrupt companies out there; they make Halliburton look like a bunch of baby Shilohs.
Image of label from Pure Evil Chardonnay, an excellent and (most important) inexpensive Aussie wine. It even has a screw top.
In the spirit of icanhascheezburger.com: LOLpalin.
