Hollywood to save the Gulf?

[dmccarty]

That's what euro-socialism will lead to, better skimmer boats. Seriously, I am curious as to why the Dutch have invested in better skimmers than we have.

Dave.

I asked my self the same question. My guess was being near the North Sea oil fields they built the skimmers just in case.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Also in the WSJ over the last week was an story about the accuracy of the estimates of oil spills. I can see how an oil rig spill has to be estimated. What I don't understand is how the spill amount is not accurate if an oil tankers sinks. The company does not know how much oil was on the ship? That is not believable.

The article in question mentioned that the amount of the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez has never been made public. That is assuming that Exxon knows. The article stated the spill was 11ish million gallons.

The problem with any number is that it was based on the amount of LIQUID in the tanks that had been breached. So all of the oil could have leaked an been replaced by sea water. It certainly seems that more oil was leaked than was reported.

Later,
Dan

 

[Chuck52]

You'd think that since the oil company knows the diameter of the pipe and has a good idea of the pressure differentials they'd be able to do a pretty good calculation of the flow rate. I know there's the mixed-in gas to consider, but even so they should have a really good idea what the flow rate is and the percentage of gas involved.

Chuck

 

[dmccarty]

You'd think that since the oil company knows the diameter of the pipe and has a good idea of the pressure differentials they'd be able to do a pretty good calculation of the flow rate. I know there's the mixed-in gas to consider, but even so they should have a really good idea what the flow rate is and the percentage of gas involved.

Chuck

I think they can get a good range of values but just watching the video feed you can see the flow changing by the second. How much is gas? How much is oil? How about water? Apparently there are "solids" in the flume as well which surprised me.

One of he questions with the failure of the BOP to close was did the "blade" penetrate the pipe and become exposed to the flow. Because of the pressure of the flow and solids in the flow the "blade" would be eroded. The engineers were concerned that this erosion could happen in a matter of days if not hours. I never would have guessed that this was a factor.

So I can see how they don't really know how much oil is flowing. Other than it is a gawd awful amount.

The article I read about the BOP said that they think that half of the BOP closed. The other side did not penetrate the pipe. They had to bring in radioactive sources that somehow allowed them to see what had happened in the BOP.

Later,
Dan

 

[tallyho8]

No doubt the flow has not been properly estimated but who cares? I want them to devote all their manpower to determining how to stop the flow instead of devoting valuable man-hours estimating how much oil is leaking.

 

[keegs]

I mean on a more global and grander scale. Like the Colonial Era, Roman Empire, Viking Conquest or similar. Events that unfolded over many generations that transformed or affected significant portions of the world.

Lots of things in the mix. Population explosion, industrialized manufacturing, the industrialization of agriculture, unheard of mobility, rapidly expanding energy consumption, science going mainstream, truly global wars and conflicts, the expansion of general education and almost universal access to knowledge. These are all powerful elements that help define the current era.

It would be interesting to know what it all looks like in hindsight after enough time has passed to enable a rational analysis devoid of current politics. None of us will be reading that book.
Dave.

History, with all her volumes vast, hath but one page..

My neace and I picked a half gallon of red raspberries tonigth Dave. The dry weather's made them extra good this year.

 

[dave1949]

History, with all her volumes vast, hath but one page..

My neace and I picked a half gallon of red raspberries tonigth Dave. The dry weather's made them extra good this year.

Lord Byron; 1812. You made me google.

Raspberries sound good. We don't get hardly any of those that grow wild, just a few here and there, and I don't have a cultivated patch. Ever had hot red raspberry sauce on vanilla ice cream? It is just too tasty. I think the berries are cooked down into a light syrup and seeds strained out as needed. It's a favorite treat in Germany during the raspberry season.
Dave.

 

[keegs]

Lord Byron; 1812. You made me google.

Raspberries sound good. We don't get hardly any of those that grow wild, just a few here and there, and I don't have a cultivated patch. Ever had hot red raspberry sauce on vanilla ice cream? It is just too tasty. I think the berries are cooked down into a light syrup and seeds strained out as needed. It's a favorite treat in Germany during the raspberry season.
Dave.

I might have mentioned I put these in four or five years ago by selecting out just the red raspberry bushes. There's a few blackberry in there too but almost only red.

We've made sauce and put it up in jars with wax on top. Oh yeah...over a bowl of vanilla icecream......mmmmm.....You guys get Breyers Vanilla Bean up there? I think they're out of Philly.

 

[dave1949]

I might have mentioned I put these in four or five years ago by selecting out just the red raspberry bushes. There's a few blackberry in there too but almost only red.

We've made sauce and put it up in jars with wax on top. Oh yeah...over a bowl of vanilla icecream......mmmmm.....You guys get Breyers Vanilla Bean up there? I think they're out of Philly.

Breyer's is good. I like this better:
Gifford's Ice Cream - The Ice Cream Stand Ice Cream™

Skowhegan is about 20 miles from us, so the freshness helps. They have summertime ice cream stands around this area that do a whopping business too. One of their sales reps was checking stock in the grocery store last winter. I took two quarts out of the freezer case and he actually said 'thank you'. :thumbsup:
Dave.

 

[dmccarty]

No doubt the flow has not been properly estimated but who cares? I want them to devote all their manpower to determining how to stop the flow instead of devoting valuable man-hours estimating how much oil is leaking.

Yeppers. BP needs to focus on closing the leak.

BP has no interest in guessing at the size of the spill since it appears that they might have to pay a fine for every gallon spilled.

I did see headlines last night and today that the Feds are letting equipment from other countries to clean up the spill. Though the Yahoo article stated that the Feds only mentioned Japan as one of the providers. What I don't understand is why it took over two months to get the equipment moving.

Even using the lower leak estimates the amount of spilled oil over a period of months is going to be huge. Why wait to get the cleanup equipment from overseas if it works, is needed and is available?

Later,
Dan