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[Gulf Coast Oil Spill]It Ain't Over Yet

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    WarcryWarcry I'm getting my shit pushed in here! AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    MKR wrote: »
    I know I've read of at least a few cases of hurricanes and other big storms scooping up frogs and fish and depositing them other places when the wind drops just enough to lose them.

    It also rained ducks in some town in Europe when a large flock of ducks flew into a cold front that pretty much instantly froze them to death.

    The one unifying thing there is a non-rain event causing it. What mechanism is causing oil rain here?

    Are you aware of a little something called 'Hurricane season'? You'll have to really worry about it then.

    Warcry on
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    JepheryJephery Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    MKR wrote: »
    I know I've read of at least a few cases of hurricanes and other big storms scooping up frogs and fish and depositing them other places when the wind drops just enough to lose them.

    It also rained ducks in some town in Europe when a large flock of ducks flew into a cold front that pretty much instantly froze them to death.

    The one unifying thing there is a non-rain event causing it. What mechanism is causing oil rain here?

    Its entirely possible that a waterspout formed somwhere in the oil slicked areas of the Gulf of Mexico and carried the oil high into the atmosphere.

    Jephery on
    }
    "Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
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    MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Warcry wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    I know I've read of at least a few cases of hurricanes and other big storms scooping up frogs and fish and depositing them other places when the wind drops just enough to lose them.

    It also rained ducks in some town in Europe when a large flock of ducks flew into a cold front that pretty much instantly froze them to death.

    The one unifying thing there is a non-rain event causing it. What mechanism is causing oil rain here?

    Are you aware of a little something called 'Hurricane season'? You'll have to really worry about it then.

    I didn't see a hurricane in that video.

    MKR on
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    OgotaiOgotai Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    raining fish 3 months ago

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7345574/Australian-town-326-miles-from-river-hit-by-raining-fish.html

    That was about 2sec of google to find

    I think from oil it would be even easier as you may not need a water spout, expecially in any area with large wave action. You get a storm with high winds, you usally get alot of water kicked up into the air from the tops of waves by the wind. Some areas the surface is mostly oil so it would get blown up. Just gets carried by the wind till it dies down and the small particles of oil drop down. We have been getting isolated thunderstorms down here that have been pretty violent most afternoons, though I havent looked at the wather on the coast for a while since I'm in Baton Rouge. I've spent some time around Mobile Bay, some family is from dolphin island, its not exactly unusualy for thunderstorms to produce small waterspouts either.

    Not saying this definatly happened, especially if where ever the video is from is more than a few miles from the coast. But a storm blowing oil inland is something people have been expecting to happen since the oil got near shore.

    Ogotai on
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    SpacemilkSpacemilk Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    looking at the radar there is a storm moving up from the south across the yucatan peninsula, it's supposed to form into a "tropical depression" before making landfall in the States sometime next Monday/Tuesday. It's also projected to maybe scrape across the spill, potentially picking up some oil, and then dump it all wherever it hits the coast. (potentially Houston, FML)

    Spacemilk on
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    CanadianWolverineCanadianWolverine Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    And if it helps any, that video posted was just a mirror by another youtube user, the original user HistoryTour has a series of videos posted about his experience with this oil spill/leak and the oil rain video is one of four:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/HistoryTours

    I leave it up to others to determine what is going on there but IMHO it was oil picked up by a storm.

    CanadianWolverine on
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    HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I heard the chemical dispersants being used on the oil slick are making the oil able to evaporate with the water, it can come down - maybe not as oil, but as broken down chemicals - as acid rain in that sense right?

    I'm stupid with science so bare with me here.

    Henroid on
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    bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    Yeah, I'm not sure oil can...rain. It has to evaporate to condense and fall back down, but then it's mixed with a lot of other stuff and wouldn't come back down as oil.

    It shouldn't. That's not how it works. I mean yeah it'll be in your air because the chemicals do evaporate, but it doesn't condense back into the water. Plus, the different portions of it evaporate at different points. So at most you'd have a little hydrogen sulfide in your water maybe. You wouldn't have full blown oil.

    Followed the oil video link and noticed this as the response to a comment just like yours:
    @MastaRikta Do fish dissolve, do frogs dissolve, does sand dissolve? Yet they have all fallen with rain. It doesn't have to dissolve to fall with the rain. There are documented cases of the 3 things above falling with rain.
    bleibrandpolsky 50 minutes ago

    They don't fall with the rain. They fall because they got thrown into the air by something else.

    Plus, crude oil is a lot different than motor oil. That looks suspiciously like motor-oil. My diagnosis? Some asshole who wants more youtube visits on his profile.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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    CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    If it rained oil, I'd go out, listen to some Slayer and set myself on fire.

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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    CanadianWolverineCanadianWolverine Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    Yeah, I'm not sure oil can...rain. It has to evaporate to condense and fall back down, but then it's mixed with a lot of other stuff and wouldn't come back down as oil.

    It shouldn't. That's not how it works. I mean yeah it'll be in your air because the chemicals do evaporate, but it doesn't condense back into the water. Plus, the different portions of it evaporate at different points. So at most you'd have a little hydrogen sulfide in your water maybe. You wouldn't have full blown oil.

    Followed the oil video link and noticed this as the response to a comment just like yours:
    @MastaRikta Do fish dissolve, do frogs dissolve, does sand dissolve? Yet they have all fallen with rain. It doesn't have to dissolve to fall with the rain. There are documented cases of the 3 things above falling with rain.
    bleibrandpolsky 50 minutes ago

    They don't fall with the rain. They fall because they got thrown into the air by something else.

    Plus, crude oil is a lot different than motor oil. That looks suspiciously like motor-oil. My diagnosis? Some asshole who wants more youtube visits on his profile.

    You didn't look at this HistoryTours' vids, did you? The four vids show what he is taping at different time periods, even zooms in on some foamy sludge and shows it in a drainage ditch where the rain has collected in amounts far beyond risking the fines (and stigma for doing such a thing at such a sensitive time) for dumping a container of motor oil. That on top of his other vids trying to document the impact this spill has had on the place he lives.

    Oh well, guess that is price of citizen journalism like this, being labeled a fraud, liar, and criminal for whipping out your vid recorder on your day to day life.

    CanadianWolverine on
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    bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I didn't see a video.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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    BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    Yeah, I'm not sure oil can...rain. It has to evaporate to condense and fall back down, but then it's mixed with a lot of other stuff and wouldn't come back down as oil.

    It shouldn't. That's not how it works. I mean yeah it'll be in your air because the chemicals do evaporate, but it doesn't condense back into the water. Plus, the different portions of it evaporate at different points. So at most you'd have a little hydrogen sulfide in your water maybe. You wouldn't have full blown oil.

    Oil is a fairly broad term. It's pretty much anything that's liquid at room temperature, repels water, and can be dissolved by organic solvents. And the water-repelling properties can be overmatched by surface tension. The distillation process used to create rose water is basically water-cycling the oils found in rose petals.

    BubbaT on
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    bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I think it's pretty obvious what kind of hydrophobic material we're talking about.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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    CanadianWolverineCanadianWolverine Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    I didn't see a video.

    Oh, here is the link again, should be 4 videos there in this guy's collection with regards to this. The video linked earlier in this thread was a re-post of one of his videos by another youtube user.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/HistoryTours

    CanadianWolverine on
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    BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    bowen wrote: »
    I think it's pretty obvious what kind of hydrophobic material we're talking about.

    The people talking about raining oil aren't talking about goopy tar falling out of the air, they're talking about oily water that's more like Italian salad dressing.

    BubbaT on
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    NoquarNoquar Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I don't know if I am late, but i did notice this on Yahoo today -

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2851_8


    Kevin Costner saves the Water...World.

    Noquar on
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    override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Noquar wrote: »
    I don't know if I am late, but i did notice this on Yahoo today -

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2851_8


    Kevin Costner saves the Water...World.

    If I'm understanding their volume capabilities correctly, that could well save much of the wetlands

    They really need like 300 of those things though, but it's at least something

    override367 on
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    LynxLynx Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Noquar wrote: »
    I don't know if I am late, but i did notice this on Yahoo today -

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2851_8


    Kevin Costner saves the Water...World.

    I'm pleasantly surprised that it works so well. It's by no means a fix, but it sounds like it'll be a big help in helping clean up what's already out there.

    Lynx on
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    AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Noquar wrote: »
    I don't know if I am late, but i did notice this on Yahoo today -

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2851_8


    Kevin Costner saves the Water...World.

    If I'm understanding their volume capabilities correctly, that could well save much of the wetlands

    They really need like 300 of those things though, but it's at least something

    They bought something on the order of 31 of them which is a nice start.

    ...Of course, if they had some on hand in the past 20 years of him trying to get them accepted in the industry to begin with they'd probably already have a better number to roll out and faster.

    Aegis on
    We'll see how long this blog lasts
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    TaramoorTaramoor Storyteller Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    BubbaT wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    I think it's pretty obvious what kind of hydrophobic material we're talking about.

    The people talking about raining oil aren't talking about goopy tar falling out of the air, they're talking about oily water that's more like Italian salad dressing.

    What on Earth do you do when it starts raining salad dressing?

    Taramoor on
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    MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Taramoor wrote: »
    BubbaT wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    I think it's pretty obvious what kind of hydrophobic material we're talking about.

    The people talking about raining oil aren't talking about goopy tar falling out of the air, they're talking about oily water that's more like Italian salad dressing.

    What on Earth do you do when it starts raining salad dressing?

    Make a salad

    MKR on
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    TaramoorTaramoor Storyteller Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    MKR wrote: »
    Taramoor wrote: »
    BubbaT wrote: »
    bowen wrote: »
    I think it's pretty obvious what kind of hydrophobic material we're talking about.

    The people talking about raining oil aren't talking about goopy tar falling out of the air, they're talking about oily water that's more like Italian salad dressing.

    What on Earth do you do when it starts raining salad dressing?

    Make a salad

    Incorrect.

    The correct answer is:

    "Lettuce pray."

    Taramoor on
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    His CorkinessHis Corkiness Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Why the hell does the MMS (now BOEMRE) have the ability to arbitrarily (and without any checks) exempt sites from regulations? Isn't that something you'd give them if you wanted them to be hilariously corrupt?

    His Corkiness on
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    Professor PhobosProfessor Phobos Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Why the hell does the MMS (now BOEMRE) have the ability to arbitrarily (and without any checks) exempt sites from regulations? Isn't that something you'd give them if you wanted them to be hilariously corrupt?

    Yes. We occasionally have Republican lawmakers, after all.

    Professor Phobos on
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    enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Why the hell does the MMS (now BOEMRE) have the ability to arbitrarily (and without any checks) exempt sites from regulations? Isn't that something you'd give them if you wanted them to be hilariously corrupt?

    dick-cheney.jpg

    enlightenedbum on
    Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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    His CorkinessHis Corkiness Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Touché.

    His Corkiness on
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    CervetusCervetus Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Aegis wrote: »
    ...Of course, if they had some on hand in the past 20 years of him trying to get them accepted in the industry to begin with they'd probably already have a better number to roll out and faster.

    Haven't the last forty years of politics taught you anything? We need to look forward, not back. Trying to examine the past and utilize information about how things went wrong so as to prevent or assuage future tragedy is just wrong-headed.

    Cervetus on
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    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Aegis wrote: »
    Noquar wrote: »
    I don't know if I am late, but i did notice this on Yahoo today -

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2851_8


    Kevin Costner saves the Water...World.

    If I'm understanding their volume capabilities correctly, that could well save much of the wetlands

    They really need like 300 of those things though, but it's at least something

    They bought something on the order of 31 of them which is a nice start.

    ...Of course, if they had some on hand in the past 20 years of him trying to get them accepted in the industry to begin with they'd probably already have a better number to roll out and faster.

    I'm just staggered it's a real, scientific thing.

    ...We should probably blame Madonna, Tom Cruise and the like for ruining any benefit of the doubt one might give a celebrity who makes such an offer.

    electricitylikesme on
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    BarcardiBarcardi All the Wizards Under A Rock: AfganistanRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    It is coming out that the judge that ruled against the moratorium isn't only an owner of oil stocks, he sold oil stocks the days he ruled on the moratorium. IE he found out about certain oil stock the night before he ruled, then sold them after he ruled.

    Barcardi on
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    CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Aegis wrote: »
    Noquar wrote: »
    I don't know if I am late, but i did notice this on Yahoo today -

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2851_8


    Kevin Costner saves the Water...World.

    If I'm understanding their volume capabilities correctly, that could well save much of the wetlands

    They really need like 300 of those things though, but it's at least something

    They bought something on the order of 31 of them which is a nice start.

    ...Of course, if they had some on hand in the past 20 years of him trying to get them accepted in the industry to begin with they'd probably already have a better number to roll out and faster.

    I'm just staggered it's a real, scientific thing.

    ...We should probably blame Madonna, Tom Cruise and the like for ruining any benefit of the doubt one might give a celebrity who makes such an offer.

    Kevin Costner has achieved Crazy Awesome Philanthopist status, and shall rule alongside Ted Turner.

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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    FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Barcardi wrote: »
    It is coming out that the judge that ruled against the moratorium isn't only an owner of oil stocks, he sold oil stocks the days he ruled on the moratorium. IE he found out about certain oil stock the night before he ruled, then sold them after he ruled.

    He better be fucking out.

    Fencingsax on
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    CervetusCervetus Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Barcardi wrote: »
    It is coming out that the judge that ruled against the moratorium isn't only an owner of oil stocks, he sold oil stocks the days he ruled on the moratorium. IE he found out about certain oil stock the night before he ruled, then sold them after he ruled.

    That sounds like the sort of thing that should definitely be illegal but isn't. I hope it is though so his ass can burn.

    Cervetus on
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    Professor PhobosProfessor Phobos Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Cervetus wrote: »
    Barcardi wrote: »
    It is coming out that the judge that ruled against the moratorium isn't only an owner of oil stocks, he sold oil stocks the days he ruled on the moratorium. IE he found out about certain oil stock the night before he ruled, then sold them after he ruled.

    That sounds like the sort of thing that should definitely be illegal but isn't. I hope it is though so his ass can burn.

    It's possible he sold the stock at a loss, however, to eliminate the conflict of interest- some places are reporting that he probably lost out.

    Professor Phobos on
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    Just_Bri_ThanksJust_Bri_Thanks Seething with rage from a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited June 2010
    He should have recused himself.

    Just_Bri_Thanks on
    ...and when you are done with that; take a folding
    chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
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    BastableBastable Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    He should have recused himself.

    uh yeah!

    Bastable on
    Philippe about the tactical deployment of german Kradschützen during the battle of Kursk:
    "I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."

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    lazegamerlazegamer The magnanimous cyberspaceRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Why the hell does the MMS (now BOEMRE) have the ability to arbitrarily (and without any checks) exempt sites from regulations? Isn't that something you'd give them if you wanted them to be hilariously corrupt?
    Why? One reason is the provenance of the service; since Congress did not create it, it did not feel the same responsibility. Another is the fact that the MMS, despite the outrageous giveaway of royalties to oil companies, also pulled in a pretty penny from the industry, enabling it to be both self-financing and a source of revenue for a cash-starved government. If the service were subject to an appropriation, it would have at least received some ongoing attention from the appropriators, who have been key sources of real oversight in the past. And another, not surprisingly, was the close relationship between the industry and Members of Congress, made concrete through the campaign finance system.

    If the problem were simply money, it would be awful but not disastrous. But when the next scandal erupted, in 2008, with the bombshell report that the MMS' royalty collection office in Denver had workers who had sex with industry types, took drugs and accepted major favors such as gifts and trips from those they oversaw and regulated, Congress promised much more aggressive and serious oversight. It was, however, déjà vu all over again--the same office, along with its Dallas counterpart, had had a scandal involving sex with prostitutes in 1990! Yet again, not much happened--and in particular, nothing serious happened to look beyond the tie of sex, drugs, job offers and gifts to royalties. For an agency corrupted and in the pocket of industry, the logical extension was to look for flaws in its oversight of safety.

    That did not happen. For one thing, Republicans and some Democrats feared that a serious and tough-minded look at the MMS might put a crimp in the effort to expand offshore drilling. The "drill, baby, drill" advocates, with a big issue and traction in the presidential campaign, had no interest in pursuing a scandal that might tarnish their issue and slow their momentum. For another, there had not been the kind of disaster that usually triggers a real and meaningful legislative reaction--the offshore industry had gone decades without any significant spill across tens of thousands of rigs.

    Here is another article noting that shuffling the top levels of the MMS have been attempted to clean up their act with short term success and long term failure. They suggest that the cycle needs to change:
    Tenner wrote:
    One specific problem of technological bureaucracy is the lack of independent review of vital rules developed by industry. When one set of such standards was published recently by the MMS before adoption, no environmental organization offered comments; only Baker Oil Tools and the Offshore Operators Committee did, according to this analysis. If Barack Obama found a way not to repeat but to break the reorganization cycle -- that would be radical change.

    tldr: The MMS was a cash cow that the legislature didn't want to touch so they shrugged off responsibility to the executive. A lack of independent oversight and half-assed attempts to fix the agency have hastened the corruption and ineptitude of the agency.

    lazegamer on
    I would download a car.
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    NoquarNoquar Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I am not sure of the reasoning behind this move by BP.

    http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12713682

    Noquar on
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    DragonPupDragonPup Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    At this point, I'd wager mustache twirling.

    DragonPup on
    "I was there, I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor." -Cpt Garviel Loken

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    Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Noquar wrote: »
    I am not sure of the reasoning behind this move by BP.

    http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12713682

    They don't want Shell to get good PR for cleaning up the mess BP made.

    Hexmage-PA on
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    HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    Noquar wrote: »
    I am not sure of the reasoning behind this move by BP.

    http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12713682

    They don't want Shell to get good PR for cleaning up the mess BP made.

    Why are they the ones who get to make the decision?

    HamHamJ on
    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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