The image from May 24th is so eerie. It reminds of the veins of a leaf (in a sci-fi movie.) I was able to watch some of Pres. Obama's trip to the area. And I've heard the rerun of his speech about the spill. I really believe he has delegated people and I'm sure he has advisor's on this catastrophe just as any other.

Contrary to popular belief right now, I believe he does care. It's just so hard to watch on TV, especially after seeing what it's doing to the people and animals. I'm sure there will be many different species dying before this is over--which may take decades.

But after the immediate crisis, I'd like to see some people fired; beginning with Ken Salazar and Janet Napolitano.

I think there will be another foot to drop on this deal. I never had the chance to witness a hurricane on fire and no one else has either. This might be a very interesting event.

"Stopping the leak sooner rather than later would go a long way toward reducing the threat to shorelines not yet impacted by the oil spill and reducing the damage to areas already hit," according to AccuWeather's oil-slick forecast.

Really?...........sounds like they got some real "Einstein's" working at AccuWeather.

bp has such a terribly bad track record dealing with this crisis, how can we believe anything they are telling us anymore?

I also wonder what happenned to the original post I had made when I signed up with msnbc.

The question of the day- why don't they vacuum the oil plumes and surface oil spill into supertankers?? The former Shell executive on 360 said that would be a valid method or response. And why in God's name is the EPA letting them continue using the banned dispersant Corexit- in tens of thousands of gallons to this very minute when it's so toxic they can't use in Europe???

What happens when one p's in the pool?

Are we really at the mercy of these BP 'operatives'? Are they (BP) Really the very best people in the entire world to stop this leak? If not - does the President (Obama) have the guts to push BP out of the way and put the best people in the world to work and Stop This Leak?

Yes, the government is part responsible of this catastrophe, but not limited to this administration; we have to go back in time and investigate every corrupted politician up in Washington including presidents, who, like whores, have been in bed with British Petroleum, over viewing and ignoring a lot of safety and security policies on off shore drilling.

If the Feds were willing to go deep into such a probe, we would not be surprised to find out that many famous politicians and billionaires from this country are part of that Washington-BP oil mafia. What would probably happen next? Months and years of Congress investigations, of finger pointing, of many debates, of mutual accusations.

Finally, the issue will be defused, rested and forgotten. The world will not forget. The planet will get even with us; wait and see...

Very impressive,but what does this have to do with solving the problem-----this country needs oil,but at what expense do we want to pay??? I feel sure this could have been avoided with the knowledge this country has but for so long drilling has been put on the back burner so we could import and we already have wells that are closed and the government won't let anyone pump them---why??? there is more oil in this country under ground than anyone will have us to know for this will keep prices up this is a cheating, low down, dirty maneuver,to fleece the public and line the pockets of big government connected oil companies-----NOW look at the mess OBAMA has created(he said he takes the blame) now fix it FAST.--Something the DEMOCRATS can't do unless it is in a bill form they can set on their cans and debate and pass a law that means nothing for the situation.

you think if we can put a man on the moon .we be able to go to deep sea and fix this mess BP made the human race is slime we damage the earth without care. and the government dont care( oil co payoff )just like the job send them over to china .WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF CHINA. at the end the year my job will be gone when is government going to wake up no job no taxes

Does this really suprise anyone? You, Me, All of us, were all responsible. At what price does youre comfort come? Shut Up, Grow up, grow your own food, rise up from your computers sell your cars, trucks, boats, and toys. stop purchasing products we all know contribute to the problem. Buy Local, abandon the chains, and franchises that dont belong in your community. come on people less quack'n more action. U R THE PROBLEM!

Excellent timely topical article Alan! We've grown tired of watching the Three Stooges oil companies diddle around trying to fix their mess. BP Oil has done nothing but lie about the extent of the oil spill in order to minimize it's legal liability and it has failed to be prepared in the event of a calamity. Really sad to see all that devastation of wildlife and wetlands that will take years to recover. Hopefully now President Obama will have Salazar fire every corrupt oil industry lackey at MMS, time to sweep MMS clean of Clueless George Bush's legacy of conservative corruption and replace them with Liberal environmentalists who won't be bribed with sex and drugs to give away our oil store.

One thing President Obama should do is get NASA involved in teaching the oil companies their awesome safety mindset and procedures. NASA can safely launch rockets and humans into space, something far more extreme than deep water oil drilling.

What happened to the critical press of the 70's? Since this debacle started the media has been content to relate whatever information was officially handed out without ever questioning the facts or the source. Even after several reports that the leak was much larger than the 5000 barrels, the press still used that number for the size estimates.

It's reported that BP keeps using the same dispersants after having been told to change but there is no reactionary comment. The idea that the EPA allowed what is basically chemical dumping in the first place hasn't even raised a single reporter's eyebrow. One reporter is told by the cost guard to leave an area as per instructed by BP or they will be arrested, and the reporter leaves. Since when does BP have the authority to arrest people? Way back inthe day that reporter would have challenged the Cost Guard to arrest them to bring the problem to public attention.

In another article, a news person suggested question for Obama. One of which was if anybody would lose their jobs over this. Wrong question! the right one being: Who will loose their jobs over this.

One article stated in a manner of fact that since Obama's "permit freeze" as many as 20 permits had been issued. But the reported stop there instead of really finding out what's going on.

Meanwhile local people were bogged down in red tape trying to get building permits from the reserve corps of engineer to build protective sand banks. No reporter seemed to notice that the corps should have been there building the dam things (pun) from the get go.

And nobody called BP's hidden agenda of trying first and foremost to recoup some of the spilling oil. The "top kill" being the actual first effort to plug the leak.

Where are Woodward and Bernstein?

On a separate note, It's ridiculously sad that the President has to personally oversee the operation of every single government department and organization.

Only the beginning, folks. In this time of America getting its wake-up call, there will be sacrifices and we have only begun. Black president, huge oil spill, world economy on the brink, Arizona Immigration and twleve other states considering same, all part of the wake-up call. We have been chosen as the generation that will make the changes needed, and we will continue to be bombarded until we stand up and take our country back.

As diificult as all seems, I can still say, "God bless America, we will need all the help we can get."

gaetanomarano

You are wasting your time posting so called "solutions" here.

Geeze Planet Claire , I thought you were going to start quoting revelations. You are a bigot.

You included a "Black President" in your tirade about "take America back"". From Barack??

I am amazed they posted that. But on the other hand, at least you are honest in your bigotry being exposed.

Thank you BP for screwing up the gulf coast states just in time for hurricane season to finish us off. We appreciate the loss of lives from the rig explosion and untold damage this will cause our fragile marshland ecosystem. The ruination of one of the biggest seafood fisheries in the nation and the possibility of making an entire species of whale extict must tickle you pink. You've made the horror of the Alaskan oil spill that occurred while I was in high school look like a drippy little oil stain in the driveway. But we all know you won't lose any money on this catastrophe in the long run you crafty buggers, you. Nope, you'll moan and complain about all the money this cap off and clean up is costing you and then you'll just pass the cost right along to the consumers. Some of which live (wait for it) in the gulf coast region. The least you could do is give us free gas for life as a token apology, but I won't hold my breath. At least not until the fumes catch up to me.

Why not just unbolt the riser from the blowout preventer and manufacture a fitting to replace it with.  Make the pipe diameter the same but include in the atachment a mechanical valve that can be closed once the fitting is attached and in place?

why not just remove the riser from the blowout preventer by unbolting it rather than cutting? Then replace the riser with a valve fitting that can be closed by the robot device at the well.

As a bit of follow-up, I suggest that by this time it should be abundantly obvious that BP has a very different agenda from the people of our great nation . . .

And as noted in a previous reply to another of Alan Boyle's virtual festival of "Cosmic Log" reports on the BP "Macondo" event, one of the most important documents to read toward the goal of understanding the actions and motivations of the executives and their cohorts at BP is "The Psychopath: The Mask of Sanity" (Hervey Cleckley), which is available as a free PDF download at the link in the left column of this page of the Cassiopaean website, for sure . . .

[NOTE: The essay in the center column is superb, and it can be read in 10 to 15 minutes, which if this is new material for you certainly is a stellar use of 10 to 15 minutes . . . ]

http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath.htm

For sure!

The greatest difficulty that most folks have these days is the direct result of not having sufficient self-esteem to trust their good common sense, which in part is based on centuries and millennia of being misled, confused, and tricked by sneaky weasels . . .

We want to believe politicians with big teeth when they smile at us and say, "I feel your pain!", "We will solve this problem together!", "Mission accomplished!", "I will not rest until this is fixed!", and all the other pablum that they feed us, in part because they know full well that most of us simply are too ignorant to recognize that it is all a big lie . . .

The fact of the matter is that anyone who has a computer, mouse, and keyboard and is at least somewhat literate in English can write anything, but so what . . .

So what!

Simply being able to write or to say something does not make the words factual . . .

For someone who has a conscience and makes a diligent effort to be honest and sincere, it is virtually mind-boggling that anyone could stand in front of a group of people and tell lies with a straight face, but this is the reality for psychopaths and sociopaths, because in great contrast to most of the people on this planet, psychopaths and sociopaths do not have consciences; they do not have the ability to feel guilt and shame; and this makes them the most dangerous biological creatures and automatons perhaps in the known universe . . .

Consider the following hypothetical scenario that might occur somewhere in another dimension of spacetime . . .

Knowing that a team of accountants, actuaries, and financial planners, with the help of a virtual festival of scientific consultants, have determined that the least expensive but optimally profitable strategy for dealing with a huge man-made disaster involves delaying and postponing actually solving the problem--since among other likely probabilities it should become possible to shift the blame for everything to the aftermath of some combination of a series of extreme hurricanes and seismic events--the best solution simply is to pretend to do something for purposes of "buying time" for pennies on the dollar until nature inevitably transforms an "Act of Man" into an "Act of God", at which point there are few if any problems for the "men" whose total incompetence and egregious disregard of likely consequences caused the original problem . . .

And since few folks at the dawn of the early 21st century stayed awake during science classes, and most folks certainly appear to believe that magic is more real than physics, all that is required to fool most folks is a few words spoken by an authoritative spokesperson with big teeth and a happy but authoritative smile in a believably sincere way . . .

Most folks might have a few doubts every so often when time after time the glittering generalities prove to be lies, but since few people know enough basic science to distinguish glittering generalities and fake science from real science, all such folks can do is to have a few concerns, lingering doubts, or suspicions that they might be on the receiving end of an highly orchestrated festival of deception and trickery . . .

And so long as the lies are delivered by a big set of teeth, a happy but authoritative smile, and a caring look, all the concerns, lingering doubts, and suspicions vanish into thin air as if it were magic, which basically is what it is . . .

From the cold-blooded perspective of a psychopath or sociopath who more than anything loves money and power, saying that there are thousands and thousands of clean-up workers all over the region when in fact there are only a handful of clean-up workers who are moved from one place to another in a patently surreal type of theater on wheels performed for the express purpose of deluding the media and common folk costs nearly nothing but provides the much-desired magical illusion that something is being done, when in fact by design nearly nothing is being done, since the overall goal is to do as little as possible in expectation that nature and the weather will change the definition of the problem and will provide a plausible rationale for blaming the problem on someone or something else, provided the carefully calculated data on the 2010 hurricane and earthquake seasons are "spot on" . . .

Yet, the sneaky weasels made a big mistake when they presumed that folks in the Gulf Coast never venture into the local bayous, rivers, marshes, and swamps, hence can be shown a few carefully staged photographs and never know what really is happening . . .

The sneaky weasels failed to understand fully the fact that folks in the Gulf Coast have gator boats, swamp buggies, air boats, and all sorts of other land and water vehicles which specifically are designed to go wherever there might be something tasty to add to the menu that is really good in a spicy bowl of gumbo or jambalaya . . .

And while most of the media might not be wandering around in the middle of nowhere in the local bayous, rivers, marshes, and swamps of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, there are a lot of folks who are out there every day looking for something to put in a cooking pot along with a bunch of okra, tomatoes, onions, rice, beans, and incredibly hot spices, since this is what folks who enjoy good eating in the Gulf Coast do with some of what to less observant folks might appear to be their free time . . .

Applying a bit of common sense and science, is it so difficult to understand that there is a well, which basically is a vertical hole in the seabed that is very well-defined and has a diameter ranging from 36 inches to approximately 7 inches over its approximately 18,000 feet depth?

Not really . . .

Is it so difficult to understand that if a ship on the surface with a massive crane can lower a concrete and steel box with attached pipe-which in total weighs approximately 125 tons--onto a very precise location atop the blowout protector, then it should be be just as easy to lower something else that weighs 125 tons, with the same precision?

Not really . . .

And keeping with the generally surreal concept of plugging the leak with an upside-down "V2" rocket filled with tampons, I think that it might make a bit more sense to drop a 125 ton iron or steel plug into the wellbore, since according to the well logs I have seen, the well bore diminishes in diameter in steps or stages as the depth of the well increases, as follows:

36 inches diameter at 5,321 feet
28 inches diameter at 6,217 feet
22 inches diameter at 7,937 feet
18 inches diameter at 8,969 feet
16 inches diameter at 11,585 feet
13 inches diameter at 13,145 feet
11.875 inches diameter at 16,103 feet
9.875 inches diameter at 17,168 feet
7 inches by 9.875 inches at 18,360 feet

Considering that a cubic foot of iron weighs approximately 480 pounds, when the overall weight of a tapered cylinder is 125 tons, this maps for example to a cylinder which is 22 inches in diameter for 200 feet and then 18 inches in diameter for another 200 feet . . .

If this is too long, then one might suppose that a heavier metal could be used as a filler for the hollow interior of a steel plug, perhaps something like lead, if it were fully and securely encased in stainless steel and would not create an environmental problem . . .

And while the pressure in the oil and gas reservoir probably is so massive that it might be able to overcome the weight of this type of cylinder, some extra resistance could be provided by explosive bolts inside the cylinder that punched through the sides of the wellbore . . .

Since concrete and cement slurry weigh approximately 150 to 200 pounds per cubic foot, and since the wellbore originally was sealed with what appears to be a grand total of 51 barrels of concrete or cement slurry, which at the industry standard of 40 gallons per barrel maps to a total weight of approximately 41,000 pounds or about 20.5 tons, which is only a sixth of 125 tons, one might presume that a stainless steel tapered cylinder filled with lead and weighing 125 tons would do a better job . . .

And if the device that lowered the lead-filled stainless steel tapered plug into the wellbore happened to be connected to a hose that could pump concrete or cement slurry into the wellbore as soon as the 125-ton cylindrical plug was dropped into the wellbore, then it might work nicely, since the lead-filled stainless steel tapered plug only needs to block the wellbore for enough time for the cement slurry to set or perhaps for long enough to weld steel plates over the top of the blowout protector, or whatever . . .

Whatever . . .

The physics involved in plugging a hole with a cork might never have been featured in an episode of "Mr. Wizard", but it works very nicely for champagne bottles, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

In the grand scheme of everything, it might appear to be a stupid idea, but I suggest that it is no more "stupid" than the fact that you can extinguish a match by dousing it with liquid gasoline (where the key bit of information is that the gasoline must be in a liquid state, otherwise if it is in a gaseous state, it explodes), really . . .

Really!

And it is no more "stupid" than the fact that in certain conditions boiling water freezes faster than cold water, which for reference is called the "Mpemba Effect", for sure . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect

For sure!

I stopped buying BP gas since the English Goverment worked out a deal with the Lebanese goverment to release one of the Lockerbe airline bombing terrorist, so that BP could gain exclusive rights to their oil distribution. I will never buy any gas or oil product from their company again. This gross lack of concern for safety or the enviroment has show me what kind of company they are and that goverments will do anything for anyone who has enough money. God help us all if this thinking continues and the lack of responsibility by both the company and the goverments that refuse to do the right thing.

Considering the facts (a) that I worked all night on the basic rhythm section for the new Surf Whammys song, "Maríta de la Luna y Pablito el Petardo (No Es Tanto Lo Que Es Como Lo Que No Es)", done in the Surrealería subgenre of Flamenco that I created last month while consuming a virtual cornucopia of Massimo Zanetti Master Chef Coffee made in the ratio of 1/4 cup of ground coffee to 12 ounces of water at the ideal brewing temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit and (b) that I am just now awakening and am working on my second cup of extraordinarily strong coffee, if there were any doubts regarding the hypothesis that the "Reptillians" are launching an orchestrated attack on our great nation and our island neighbor to the north-northeast (Iceland), I encourage everyone to take a few moments to study the photograph of the perfectly cylindrical "sinkhole" that appeared sua sponte in Guatemala over the weekend, really . . .

[NOTE: This is the prototype for the prologue, verses, and choruses, and it does not include the bridge and extended interlude during which for the YouTube music video I plan to do a stylistic Flamenco Dance and Mime reenactment of The Mayan Story of the Creation of the World while wearing black and white ballet tights with an impressive codpiece, a Venetian mask, and fuzzy cloud slippers, presuming that I can teach myself how to do the Mashed Potato Dance, which certainly looks to be a lot easier than Moonwalking, which I learned last month . . . ]

http://www.surfwhammys.com/Surrealeria-05-31-2010.wmv

http://www.worldinterestingfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/most-amazing-hole-in-the-world-guatemala-sink-hole.jpg

Really!

What possibly could be a tiny bit strange about a perfectly cylindrical, 30-story deep "sinkhole" appearing sua sponte after an intense preseason tropical storm ("Agatha") that traveled in a west-to-east trajectory rather than in the usual east-to-west direction?

I have no idea!

And of course, this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the "discovery" nearly exactly two years ago of Aztec ruler Montezuma's palace in Mexico City and its Casa Denegrida (the windowless underground "Black Room" with a solid basalt floor that one might suggest served Montezuma in the same way the sound isolation studio serves me, since it is very important to have an extraordinarily quiet place when one seeks to hear as much of the subatomic transmissions of the aliens from outer space as possible) . . .

Of course!

The subsequent "discovery" in the palace area of what archeologists described as a "portal to the underworld" also is just a curious coincidence, for sure . . .

For sure!

And on a related note, since at least one recent news report--which probably "disappeared" mysteriously just a few hours after it was made available to the public, as is typical for these types of news reports--indicated that the "top fill" procedure was halted by the federal government over concerns about the possible effects caused by increased pressure on the wellbore during the "drilling mud" injection experiment, we now know that a top secret cadre of scientists working for the federal government actually is running the show, although officially the spokespersons for the federal government strongly deny that anyone within the federal government knows much at all about the well, oil and gas "exploration", the "Reptillians", the aliens from outer space, and so forth and so on . . .

One might suggest that the most likely concern of "unidentified government officials" is that the dome of the oil and gas reservoir does not collapse, thereby releasing either (a) a currently well-constrained horde of "Reptillians" or (b) a few trillion gallons of crude oil . . .

And while BP and the federal government appear to have released little if any specific information about the dome and reservoir in this region of the Wilcox lower tertiary, it is common knowledge in the oil exploration industry that domes occasionally collapse catastrophically in land-based scenarios . . .

The key difference in an ocean-based dome collapse, as contrasted to a land-based dome collapse, is governed by the basic rules of chemistry and physics, which make it abundantly clear that crude oil has a lower specific gravity than water, which tends to suggest that a massive dome collapse could release trillions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, as well perhaps as a few "Reptilllians", since we know from observing alligators that at least some "Reptillians" tend to float easily . . .

Stated another way, one reasonably might suggest that if a perfectly cylindrical "sinkhole" over 30 stories deep can appear sua sponte in the center of a city in Guatemala, then a similar "sinkhole" might appear in the center of the dome into which the BP "Macondo" well is drilled, which considering that the publicly available well log for the BP "Macondo" well indicates that its diameter at the seabed surface just below the blowout protector is 36 inches does not require an advanced degree in Rocketry to do the arithmetic required to calculate the virtually geometric increase in the volume of the oil gushing from the well if the 36" diameter wellbore instantly is transformed into an approximately 100 feet diameter perfectly cylindrical "sinkhole", since in addition to being a massive portal to the underworld, the intrinsic pressure of the oil and gas in the reservoir will be increased by what effectively will be the weight of all the ocean water in the Gulf of Mexico, which among other things should make it abundantly clear that staying awake during science classes when one is in school is an extraordinarily bright idea, because pretty much everything one needs to know is covered fully in most third-grade elementary school science textbooks when one knows how to connect the dots, really . . .

Really!

And while it might be a tiny bit odd for someone to spend hours and hours inside a sound isolation studio composing songs about ladies underpants and devising various scientific hypothesis based in part on the intriguing idea that an upside-down "V2" rocket filled with tampons needs to be built and launched posthaste into the BP "Macondo" well, so what . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecAFV-6rQ7Q

So what!

Being the source of all knowledge in the known universe tends to make one a tiny bit eccentric at times, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

we haven,t been able to trust there words so far,what makes you sure we can trust what they say now.if this next plan(G) doesn,t work,then all they have done is make it worse....come to think of it,that's what the have been doing all along. you have to know they,re scrambling at this point with no real idea as to what to do. they should have thought about this situation BEFORE drilling a hole in the bottom of the ocean!

You guys are ALL crazy..and you're driving me crazy !

It appears my image of a someone holdingtheir hand over or sticking their

finger into a forceful garden hose isn't far off.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37412412#37412412

As more information becomes available, which curiously is coinciding with less information appearing to be available due to BP embarking on what looks to be a massive PR campaign, it is becoming easier to connect a few of the more puzzling dots, since while in an obvious way there actually is considerably less information in the media, one of the most useful rules comes into play, which for reference was explained perfectly in the outstanding motion picture, "The Russia House", where to be specific it is possible to determine a lot of apparently hidden or secret information based on the amount of effort exerted by the people, companies, governments, and groups seeking to keep it hidden and secret . . .

In other words, the less is said, the more informationally overloaded the words that are said become, really . . .

Really!

And while I was getting very near to determining the long range goal of BP for its "Macondo" well, it was not abundantly clear until I watched a report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN, during which there was a segment on BP's safety record that provided some insights into the financial aspects of making decisions based on a patently bizarre and truly psychopathic variation of what generally are called "actuarial tables" and "risk tables" . . .

Specifically, the CNN report suggested the possibility that the strategy BP uses in making decisions regarding the environmental, health, and safety aspects of is various projects is based on a ruthlessly brutal formula that seeks to determine the optimal monetary gain based not on doing what is ethical and moral but instead on what is least expensive over the long run, regardless of the consequences for the environment, health, and safety of its workers, the inhabitants of this planet, and the planet, itself, which mostly is a matter of optimizing long-term rewards at the expense of short-term risks . . .

Of course, this is only my opinion, but as The Source of All Knowledge in the Known Universe™, I think that I am "spot on", as the British say . . .

Specifically, I think that BP knows without doubt that it has "hit oil" in a big way with the "Macondo" well, and I think that BP knows that the probability of being allowed to drill additional wells--other than "relief" wells--in this particular lease is nearly zero . . .

I also am convinced that it is not the least bit difficult to plug a well when the goal simply is to decommission the well forever and forever . . .

From the readily available well log of the "Macondo" well, we know (a) that near the blowout protector the diameter of the wellbore is 36 inches, (b) that the diameter of the wellbore decreases as the depth of the well increases, and (c) that at the deepest section of the wellbore, the dimensions become rectangular where they are 7 inches by 9.875 inches (at 18,360 feet below the seabed, which does not include the approximately 1 mile distance from the seabed to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico) . . .

And while I have not done the calculations, yet, since nobody is paying me to do any of this, intuitively I think that a 125-ton stainless steel cylinder with a tapered end and perhaps filled with lead to make it more compact should be more than sufficient to plug the well at least for enough time to allow the entire wellbore above the cylinder to be filled with some type of super strong concrete or glass-bead reinforced cement slurry, even if it requires a series of such tapered cylinders, since at some point whatever pressure is exerted by the oil and gas in the reservoir will be insufficient to overcome the weight of all the stuff put into the wellbore . . .

Instead of playing bizarre games with a goofy version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", which at this point certainly has wandered into the world of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", where one might suggest that the current effort makes as much sense as anything the Mad Hatter says, I think that some combination of basic chemistry, engineering, metallurgy, and physics is quite capable of providing an outstanding and permanent solution to the problem of plugging the well forever and forever, or at least for several centuries . . .

And if there is some type of special circumstance that makes it troublesome simply to drop a huge tapered cylinder into the wellbore, then there are other ways to handle whatever troublesome aspects might exist . . .

For example, by consulting with a mathematician who specializes in geometry, who one might suppose is called a "geometrist", I think that there probably are several geometric shapes that have very useful interlocking aspects, similar to the way a set of "Jumping Jacks" interlock . . .

These interlocking metal objects could be encased in some type of substance to transform them temporarily into spheres that could be injected into the wellbore immediately after dropping the huge tapered metal cylinder, and if the substance was selected to melt or to become liquid based on interacting with salt water, crude oil, various gases, or whatever, then once the spheres were inside the wellbore at the desired depth, the outer shells would liquify, which then would allow the interlocking metal objects actually to begin interlocking among themselves and the metal casing of the wellbore . . .

To the point, since I see few if any problems with plugging the well forever and forever--or at least a few centuries--the fact that BP is not working diligently actually to put the "Macondo" well out of production for all time but instead is doing everything possible to keep the door to future production open, I think that BP is making yet another monetarily based, ethically and morally deficient, and extraordinarily stupid decision in complete and total disregard for the consequences to the people of our great nation and our neighbors, the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and the countries and states bordering the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic Ocean, and so forth and so on . . .

In other words, I think that BP is guided by the belief that the long run value of the oil and gas it has discovered at the "Macondo" well far outweighs whatever damage the blowout and oil spill might cause in the near term, since one might suppose that the future value of the oil and gas in the reservoir could be as much as 1.5 trillion dollars, which tends to make a few hundred billion dollars in various fines, penalties, and clean-up costs a drop in a sneaky weasel's bucket, really . . .

Really!

P. S. In the process of doing a bit more research, I discovered that there actually are 42 gallons (US) in a barrel of oil, so when I wrote earlier that there were 40 gallons to a barrel of oil, I apparently forgot that it is based on one of Lewis Carroll's "Wonderland" numbers, but so what . . .

So what!

I allow a bit rounding when I do "what if" arithmetical scenarios, since more than anything I am . . .

Unencumbered by Knowledge!™

Coast Guard approves OSE II for BP Spill

U. S. Department

of Homeland Security

United States

Coast Guard

Commanding Officer 1 Chelsea Street

U. S. Coast Guard New London, CT 06320

Research and Development Center Staff Symbol: Contracting Office

Phone: (860) 271-2807

July 10, 2010

OSEI Corporation

P.O. Box 515429

Dallas, TX 75251

Attn: Steven Pedigo, President/Owner

DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE BAA HSCG32-10-R-R00019, TRACKING #2003954

We are pleased to inform you that the initial screening of your White Paper submitted under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) HSCG32-10-R-R00019 has been completed. It has been determined that your White Paper submission has a potential for benefit to the spill response effort.

Your White Paper has been forwarded to the Deepwater Horizon Response Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) for further action under its authority. Subject to the constraints and needs of the ongoing oil spill response, you may be contacted by the FOSC or the responsible party.

We appreciate your interest in supporting the Deepwater Horizon Response effort.

Contracting Officer /s/

USCG R&D Center