True enough, lots of OAPs and other pensioners are going to be hurt, but that is the consequence of ownership. British gov't is going to lose quite a bit of revenue at a very inopportune time as well as I understand it.

One cannot recieve the benefits of ownership and shared management meanwhile protesting the consequences of failure. Its their burden to bear, not the resident's and businesses of the Coast nor the wildlife nor the environment. If they cannot afford to pay for their mistakes, they should not have been taking the risks in the first place.

Technically the legal cap for spill damages was $75mm IIRC... Obviously that will not apply in this case and is now being ammended.

I do find it rediculous that BP are being asked to pay other oil company's wages as they've been told they can't drill until inspections have been re-done. The reason they've haulted drilling as the gov don't trust the gov't inspection body or industry standards. Somewhat unfair to put all of that on BP.

It will be interesting once all is said and done who pays... The failure here is the actual blow out preventor which hasn't done its job...

I hope what I said doesn't happen. The way this Stock Market is going, a thing like BP filing for Bankruptcy will make things look even worst. BP has already lost a nice amount of it's market cap which I think is greater than the profits they posted last year. I've heard of many companies worldwide with good profit get taken over by Gov., file for bankruptcy forced by the chair (board) members, stock took a dive and what ever other reason money hungry people can think of.

I just hope the good people suffering from this disaster gets the help they deserve.

Few more I found-

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Gotta throw a little humor in...

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Not sure how to begin this one, maybe a little disclaimer is in order. If you are the blind optimist type, stop reading now.

Here are some of the latest numbers.

The actual wellhead pressure is being estimated at between 20,000, possibly as high as 70,000 psi, this is a 'mud volcano', not an oil reservoir. The media blackout appears to be in place to prevent the public from seeing that nothing is being done, other than applying the Corexit dispersants. My own opinion at this point is that they are well aware there is nothing that can be done, this MAY be beyond our ability to contain. Fissures have been located up to 20 miles from the original drill site, and the new LOW estimates are now 4 MILLION gallons per day flowing from the main leak and fissures combined. They may have weakened the seafloor of the surrounding area irreversibly. And every second this drags on, the erosion is enlarging the drilled hole and the wellhead, further lessening the possibility of a fix.

This is the first time in history that a super-deep well was attempted IN deep water. Russia apparently holds the record at just over 40,000 feet (that's nearly 8 MILES deep). But Russia was at least sensible enough to drill that particular well ON LAND. BP had the audacity to try this in nearly mile-deep water, and three failsafe measures all failed. This is now being called a doomsday scenario. Estimates are up to 50 million people may need to be evacuated at a moment's notice. The immediate threat is not the oil however.

The EPA numbers are out, you can verify all these yourself. I'll list safe levels, then actual levels for the three they tested for in the Gulf.


Benzene- safe levels: .024 PPB, actual 3000 PPB, one and one-quarter MILLION times safe levels

Hydrogen Sulfide- safe levels: 5-10 PPB, actual 1200 PPB, 120-240 times safe levels

Methylene Chloride: 61 PPB, actual 3000-3500 PPB, 50-57 times safe levels

These are levels sufficient to knock large birds out of the sky, dead.

Keep in mind this is excluding Methane, Vanadium, Mercury, Sulfur, and many more extremely toxic agents emanating from the well.
Also excluded is the Corexit dispersant, which is approximately 4 times more toxic than the oil/sludge itself.

As far north as Tennessee, plants/crops are being killed by what many think is the chemical fallout from the dispersants, or a combination of factors directly attributable to the Gulf situation. The rain will spread all of this, and the hurricane season is around the corner. They are even talking about having to evacuate the entire eastern seaboard at some point. Please put your opinion of myself aside, this is incredibly serious. You have likely all seen the numbers ballooning in the past weeks, this is absolute proof of the fudged info, disinfo etc things have been far more severe all along.

BP IS the government, they are in charge of police, including having their own hired army. Info is being stifled and would-be journalists ARE being arrested. No cameras, no flyovers, and residents are being intimidated. Crews are being instructed to stand down as the crap comes ashore.

At this point, it may be prudent to at least CONSIDER preparing for relocation BEFORE the evacuations begin.
Guys I am not trying to be alarmist or put anyone in a panic, but God help us this is becoming very dire.
Any of you who know how the EPA downplayed the numbers at ground zero after 9-11 are acutely aware of the govt's tendency to lie at every turn. I plead for you to take responsibility for getting the info yourself.

If this turns out to be nothing, I am prepared to be the butt of all of your jokes. I am not providing any links, you are going to go to YouTube and search, and form your own biases. Or Google (make sure you don't get sucked toward BP's site) search terms such as 'BP oil volcano', 'BP media blackout', 'Corexit 9500',etc. Be Creative.

There is much more info I have not listed, none of it good.

Let us all pray for a solution, NOW!

Jason

Lindsey Williams is a very smart man.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/worst_case_scenario.png

:whistle:

Wow, thanks for posting the info on the toxins we are dealing with. I have been gone for the week, haven't been able to update on the situation. I hope the people will wake up, stand up, and then throw the damned government/oil companies/world bank/IMF/etc/etc to the lions. Let's just hang them all.

You only need look back at the Exxon Valdez "cleanup" to see what the future holds...

http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/recovery/lingeringoil.cfm

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A bunch of shady BS going on there ?
This whole scene is making me worry and sad knowing the Gulf is F**ked.

Yeah Jeff, anytime the media is barred from such a massive tragedy, you can assume the worst. You know many people have been saying for years- the corporations run the country. Or run politics, and by extension, the country.

Here's their proof.

I spoke to some people about this, the usual response is a shrug. Most of them are just too young to realize we USED to live in a free country. Some days I wish I could be young and ignorant and never know what we've lost.

Sad but True my Friend.

I'm responding to this notion, not so much your post redshift...(Disclaimer: I'm not trolling, I'm just commenting. I'm happy to discuss but not argue)

I hear these types of comments all the time & I wonder which aspect of change has tweaked the angst. Nearly every American I know or have conversed with will at some stage refer to the freedoms they enjoy (presumably when compared to less free societies) or the freedoms they have lost (like now) but almost without exception when I dig a little deeper, they know nothing of their 'freedom' & what they do or don't have...it seems like a rose coloured look over your shoulder that can't really be substantiated and has become an adjective to describe frustration

I wouldn't accuse you of trolling PBO, you've been a helpful member. We've had some spirited exchanges :) and probably annoyed the hell out of some people, so it's all good.

I had to wait a bit to see if someone wanted to jump in on that one, apparently they're all just fine and dandy.... so I guess I have the floor for a minute.

There's no way could I answer that in a short post, but I actually appreciate your interest. If only most born Americans would show some...


On the surface not much looks different, it's in the details.

I must say it's hard for me to articulate well. In some ways the decay of freedom is subtle,in other ways it's glaringly obvious.

It's no one thing, it's a million little things, most of them not even really tangible. But I'll try to give you some of the more solid examples.

Number one would be the video above. Whan a nation does not have (or loses) freedom of the press, you no longer have a free country. This is hardly the first time that has happened, the difference is the players are now making themselves known, without shame. And those players are not involved in what usually passes for "politics", or any actual democratic process. I hope that's clear.

This used to be a place where people not only thought for themselves, but also took responsibility for their action, lawsuits were rare, and our Constitution was revered. Even a crook could at least respect the document at one time. Over the decades, and at an ever-accelerating pace we have seen our Constitution mocked, and gutted. Our famous former chimp-in-chief referred to it as a "G-ddamned piece of paper".

I try to put myself in the shoes of someone 20 years younger. I wouldn't have much interest in politics (still don't) I have an interest in decoding deception. Let's call it what it is. But truth be told, if I was 17 today, I would not know what the hell 'I' was bitching about. And that is one of the operating procedures of creeping Fascism/Socialism/whatever we've become. Those in power know that as each new generation is coming of age, most of what they know about the previous generations will be faded memories. That's what my 'freedom' is becoming. Fading memories.

And a quick thought on the Gulf...

Whether or not BP thought they knew what they were doing is irrelevant now, we have a catastrophe on our hands. I could care less if it was a British company or an East German one, we're all going to be affected by this. But we are not to know what's happening at the scene, that would be un-American.

At least the kids know who's running the show.