Catastrophic Thinking: How to Ensure Oil Spill Disasters Do Not Happen Again: Scientific American

"The oilmen were drilling deep below the Gulf of Mexico when a rise of pressure from natural gas blew out the wellhead. A safety device intended to seal the well failed, and tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day began to shoot up into the Gulf waters. Engineers tried stopping the flow with mud and junk and lowering a cap over the leak. They spent months digging relief wells to plug the hole. Eventually they stanched the flow, but it took the better part of a year and contaminated the waters with millions of barrels of crude. Fisheries had to close, birds and other wildlife perished, and vast lengths of coastline were soiled."

That catastrophe happened in 1979, when the Ixtoc 1 drilling rig sank. The parallels between its demise and the Deepwater Horizon disaster that began in April are chilling. We do not know how the ongoing story will end, and we may never be certain what happened in the ocean depths. That two events 30 years apart have followed nearly the same script shows we—not just the oil industry but the entire nation—have failed to address the underlying reasons for these debacles."

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Catastrophic Thinking: How to Ensure Oil Spill Disasters Do Not Happen Again: Scientific American:

Slashdot Politics Story | WikiLeaks Publishes Afghan War Secrets

A point I've argued in the past -- why are we fighting and dying when we can simply buy them...?

"According to the CIA World Fact Book:

* Population: 29,121,286
* GDP (Per capita:) $800 (2009 est.)

So now, expenditure over six years (Jan 2004 - Dec 2009) is $300,000,000,000.00 divided by six is around $50,000,000,000.00 per year

Per capita is $1,716.96 or more than double the GDP per capita of the country!

I would think that the US would get better resultsif the money was simply given to each inhabitant, the $800 they already make plus $1,700 from the US, would triple the GDP per capita, no small feat."

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Slashdot Politics Story | WikiLeaks Publishes Afghan War Secrets:

6 Shocking Ways Conservatives Helped Cause the Economic Destruction of America | | AlterNet

So...

"It seems that you can look at a chart of almost anything and right around 1981 or soon after you'll see the chart make a sharp change in direction, and probably not in a good way. And I really do mean almost anything, from economics to trade to infrastructure to ... well almost anything. I spent some time looking for charts of things, and here are just a few examples. In each of the charts below look for the year 1981, when Reagan took office.

Conservative policies transformed the United States from the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation in just a few years, and it has only gotten worse since then.

Look at the influence of these entrenched interests on our current deficits, for example. Obviously conservative policies of tax cuts and military spending increases caused the massive deficits. But entrenched interests use their wealth and power to keep us from making needed changes. The facts are here, plain as the noses on our faces. The ability to fight it eludes us. Will we step up and do something to reverse the disaster caused by the Reagan Revolution or not?"

Nah, probably not.

But what it just ONE person got up and told 3 other people (or blogged about it and told almost nobody, but...)
and those 3 people told 3 others...
and they told 3 others...
pretty soon there'd be a MOVEMENT...
Nah.

(apologies to Arlow)


td

6 Shocking Ways Conservatives Helped Cause the Economic Destruction of America | | AlterNet: