Re: Mission Impossible: Obama Taps Crack Team Of Scientists To Do The Job BP Can't

On May 15, 12:08 pm, Frogwatch <ohara...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 15, 10:07 am, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:



On May 14, 9:16 pm, Frogwatch <dboh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On May 14, 3:33 pm, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Remember Richard Feymann, yeah, I know he was coached, but he broke
through the institutiolized bullshit.

Mission Impossible: Obama Taps Crack Team Of Scientists To Do The Job
BP Can't
Zachary Roth | May 14, 2010, 5:36PM

Scientists tapped by the Obama administration to help fix the Gulf
Coast oil spill. From left to right: Richard Garwin, Tom Hunter,
Alexander Slocum, Jonathan Katz and George Cooper

President Obama's new plan to fix the Gulf oil spill is so crazy it
just might work...

As BP's high-priced industry experts flail, the president has turned
to a rag-tag band of big-think scientific renegades, and sent them on
a mission to somehow MacGyver a way to stop up the leak -- before it's
too late.

OK, maybe that's going a bit far. In fact, the news that Obama and his
energy secretary, Steven Chu, have sent a team of leading physicists
and engineers to the Gulf to work with BP offers further evidence of
the administration's essentially technocratic approach to governance,
and its faith in knowledge-based expertise. That might seem like
common sense, but it represents a shift from the Bushies' faith in the
problem-solving power of industry, and its willingness to let science
take a backseat to the concerns of its religious base.

Still, asking one of the key inventors of the hydrogen bomb, along
with an engineer who helped develop techniques for mining on Mars,
counts as out-of-the-box thinking. Here's a quick rundown on the
president's unlikely team:

The Old Hand: Richard Garvin

In 1951, 23-year old Richard Garwin was working at the Los Alomos
nuclear laboratory,
when he was asked by Edward Teller to devise an experiment that would
demonstrate the principle of "radiation implosion." Garwin's detailed
sketch served as the basis for "Mike," an 80-ton device, that was
detonated the following year as the world's first hydrogen bomb. "I
wasn't the inventor," Garwin has said. "I was sort of the architect.."
In 1952, Garwin went to work for IBM -- where he remains a fellow
emeritus -- on the understanding that he could spend a third of his
time working with the federal government on national security issues.
He's a recipient of the national medal of science, and a member of the
JASON, an elite think tank that studies complex scientific problems on
behalf of the U.S. government. In 1991, Garwin convened a symposium of
experts to discus ways to stem oil flows from Kuwait wells, set on
fire by Iraq during the Gulf War. For Garwin, now 82, could this be
his last hurrah?

The Establishment Man: Tom Hunter

Tom Hunter yesterday announced his resignation as the president of
Sandia National Laboratories, an outpost of the U.S. nuclear weapons
complex that conducts high-level research for the National Nuclear
Security Administration. He had been at Sandia since 1967, and served
as president since 2005 -- a job that reportedly paid him $1.7 million
a year. He has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of
Wisconsin. Hunter said yesterday he had no particular plans for what
he'd be doing in retirement. That may have changed.

The Maverick Genius: Alexander Slocum

Alexander Slocum, a professor of mechanical engineering at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teaches a world famous design
and manufacturing class that culminates in a remote-controlled robot
competition. He holds more than 60 patents for inventions relating to
biotechnology, robotics and computer science, but his research
interests also include "going faster on my snowboard, staying down
longer SCUBA diving!," according to his website. A colleague told
Bloomberg: "He has a lot of creative ideas. One in 10 are really
brilliant ideas, but nine are dumb. You can't miss that one that is
brilliant." Here's hoping genius strikes in the Gulf.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/mission_impossible_...

Do any of these people know ANYTHING about oil drilling?  Obambi has
watched too many crappy sci fi movies.

It should be obvious that none of the people on site know enough to
stop this leak. I have come to the conclusion that they do not want to
plug the leak, they want to recover the oil.

The problem is that these academics are likely to step on the rig and
immediately break a leg falling into the rathole.  Even worse, they
will think the rathole is the well or try to use some drill pipe
knowing how strong it is and then finding that all its strength is in
tension and torsion and not compression.  Maybe they will try to get
drilling mud mixed up with really high weight only to find it doesnt
mix with anything but diesel or that it has no ability to carry
plugging material, etc.  These guys truly know nothing at all about
drilling so I fail to see how they can be of any use at all.  Other
wildcatters ARE the people with knowledge because they have generally
solved every crazy kind of drilling problem because the average
wildcatter does not work for a well funded oil company but is
operating on his own dime.

This is better?


''We've never done such operations before and we need to take our time
to get it right,''

''Our concerns about the use of these dispersants underwater is based
on the fact that there is virtually no science that supports the use
of those chemicals,''


May 15, 2010
Latest Effort to Stop Gulf Oil Leak Hits a Snag
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:55 p.m. ET

HAMMOND, La. (AP) -- At first, BP tried to stop the oil rushing into
the Gulf of Mexico by flipping a blowout preventer switch. A week ago,
they attempted to capture the leak with a 100-ton box. Now they've hit
a snag as they try to guide a mile-long tube into the gusher to siphon
the oil.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said BP PLC had a problem Saturday with
the latest effort to stop the leak, but was continuing its work at the
ocean floor.

''There was a problem. They had to reconfigure. They are back down
again ... trying to get it inserted,'' he told reporters during a
briefing at a bird rescue facility in Louisiana, declining to offer
further information.

BP has offered scant details of its progress in trying to thread the 6-
inch tube into the 21-inch pipe spewing oil from the ocean floor.
Company spokesmen said technicians are continuing the methodical work
that began early Friday of using joysticks to guide the deep-sea
robots that are manipulating the contraption. They wouldn't elaborate
on Salazar's report.

''We've never done such operations before and we need to take our time
to get it right,'' spokesman Jon Pack said in an e-mail Saturday after
Salazar's comments.

The company planned to brief reporters on the tube work in the
afternoon. The tube is intended to suck oil up like a straw to a
tanker on the surface, while a stopper surrounding it would keep crude
from leaking into the sea.

Other efforts to fight the spill continued above and below the
surface. The company received word Friday that federal regulators had
approved spraying chemical dispersants beneath the sea, a contentious
development because it has never been done underwater.

More than three weeks after the oil rig explosion that killed 11
workers and set off the disastrous spill, President Barack Obama
assailed oil drillers and his own administration Friday as he ordered
extra scrutiny of drilling permits. He condemned a ''ridiculous
spectacle'' of oil executives shifting blame in congressional hearings
and denounced a ''cozy relationship'' between the companies and the
federal government.

''I will not tolerate more finger-pointing or irresponsibility,''
Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by members of his
Cabinet.

''The system failed, and it failed badly. And for that, there is
enough responsibility to go around. And all parties should be willing
to accept it,'' the president said.

But the president, who had earlier announced a limited expansion of
offshore drilling that's now on hold, didn't back down from his
support for domestic oil drilling.

Obama's tone was a marked departure from the deliberate approach and
mild chiding that had characterized his response since the rig went up
in flames April 20 and sank two days later. At least 210,000 gallons
of oil has been leaking into the Gulf each day, and BP has sought to
burn the crude off the surface of the water, as well as use the
chemical dispersants.

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said Friday that three
underwater dispersant tests conducted at the leak site proved helpful
at keeping oil from reaching the surface. Traditionally used on the
surface, chemical dispersants act like a detergent to break the oil
into small globules, which allows it to disperse more quickly into the
water or air before currents can wash it ashore.

So far more than 517,000 gallons of dispersants, most of which is a
product called Corexit 9500 previously approved by the Environmental
Protection Agency for use on the sea surface only, have been dropped
over the spill or shot undersea.

Corexit 9500 is identified as a ''moderate'' human health hazard that
can cause eye, skin or respiratory irritation with prolonged exposure,
according to safety data documents. Louisiana Health and Hospitals
Secretary Alan Levine said federal regulators dismissed state worries
about the chemicals.

''Our concerns about the use of these dispersants underwater is based
on the fact that there is virtually no science that supports the use
of those chemicals,'' Levine said.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said she reserves the right to halt
the use of chemical dispersants at any time if new data show more
serious environmental harm is occurring.

The Obama administration insists its response has been aggressive ever
since the spill started, and the president said he shared the anger
and frustration of those affected. He announced that the Interior
Department would review whether the Minerals Management Service is
following all environmental laws before issuing permits for offshore
oil and gas development.

BP's drilling operation at Deepwater Horizon received a ''categorical
exclusion,'' which allows for expedited oil and gas drilling without
the detailed environmental review that normally is required.

Obama already had announced a 30-day review of safety procedures on
oil rigs and at wells before any additional oil leases could be
granted. And earlier in the week Salazar announced plans to split the
much-criticized Minerals Management Service into two agencies, one
that would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil
companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would
oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in
royalties. Salazar has said the plan will ensure there is no conflict,
''real or perceived,'' regarding the agency's functions.
.

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