Two Oil Firms Link Rig Blast to 'Plug' - WSJ.com

Two Oil Firms Link Rig Blast to 'Plug' - WSJ.com

At this point it is common practice to pour wet cement down into the pipe. The wet cement, which is heavier than the drilling mud, sinks down through the drilling mud and then hardens into a plug thousands of feet down in the well.

The mud then is removed and displaced by seawater; the hardened cement plug holds back any underground gas.

In this case, a decision was made, shortly before the explosion, to perform the remaining tasks in reverse order, according to the expected Senate testimony of Mr. Probert, the Halliburton executive.

The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand

Didn’t anyone read “Tom Sawyer”? We’re whitewashing Zuckerberg’s fence.

People are creating fan pages on Facebook and then paying Facebook to
send them traffic. Let me explain this one more time: You’re PAYING
Mark Zuckerberg money to send traffic to HIS SITE. Think about it.

Oh yeah, and while he’s taking your money and page views, he’s
convincing everyone that they don’t need their own customer’s
information: Just use Facebook Connect!

Oh yeah, and if you’re stupid enough to give up your customer database
to Facebook, he will pay you back by screwing over your user’s
privacy! Yes, that’s right: give up your customer database, pay for
traffic to build Facebook’s page views and, by the way, if you would
like to use a virtual currency, Zuck will take 30% of that as well!

The Question, the Answer.

BP's Preparedness for Major Crisis Is Questioned - WSJ.com

BP's plan, as submitted to the Mineral Management Service, placed exceedingly low probabilities on oil reaching land in the event of a major spill. Even in the case of the worst spill, BP said, there was only a 3% chance that oil would come ashore after a month in any part of the Gulf other than Plaquemines, La., which juts into the Gulf south of New Orleans.

Mr. Gowers defended BP's clean-up operation. "We moved very rapidly to implement the approved response to the accident," he said. "The evidence for that is the huge containment effort on the surface and onshore."

So the age old question that must be asked of those up to their necks in failure: "Are you a liar or just stupid?"

And the age old response from those eager to avoid any response at all: "Well our intentions were good and we are trying really hard."

Our modern world is getting more practice at asking the question, as well as trying to probe its way around the non-answer.

We have asked or soon will be asking the question of those who have led Greece into a position well beyond bankruptcy. And then there are other countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, England, US states like California, Connecticut, Colorado, and the uncounted US cities who are cutting services while raising taxes while citizens scratch their heads.

Show an average citizen of any of the above entities a pie chart of where all the money goes and their jaws are sure to drop. But most of those published pie charts are incomplete, not including thing that are "off budget" (translation: secret from taxpayers) such as generous retirement programs for government workers. My favorite quote from sources above:

The party in power never seems to want to cut spending, but ultimately that is the only solution. The spending is unproductive to begin with, so eliminating it should be a net benefit.

Unproductive indeed. How many people in the US were inconvenienced by the "shutdown" of the federal government for three weeks? How many people even remember or were aware of it? If only that shutdown had involved unpaid leave for the many government workers told to stay home in what amounted to an extra vacation. For hose of us deemed "essential" productivity soared during the time we didn't have to deal with those deemed non-essential. Too bad the shutdown was more for show than anything else. Too bad that our future may hold shutdowns that are less orderly, taking productive workers along with the laggards.

So... Do we wait for all these things to happen to ask our leaders, the press, the pundits the question, remember the question: "Are you a liar or just stupid?"

And when the time comes will we accept the answer that we are sure to get: "Well our intentions were good and we are trying really hard."

Was The Market Mayhem A Mistake? Maybe Not. « Forbes.com's StreetTalk

Was The Market Mayhem A Mistake? Maybe Not. « Forbes.com's StreetTalk

Someone put on a bearish position in the S&P 500 just 10 minutes before the market took a dive Thursday, suggesting the market swoon was less a mistake and more the result of some traders exiting a carry trade, hedging, or outright speculating. In any event, the much discussed "fat fingered" trader might not exist.

No Pets, thank you.

I just spotted this batch of chicken wire marketed as an "Exercise Kennel".

This is why I think it wrong for most people to keep pets. They "love" their pets, until they become inconvenient.

Oil Spill: BP Suffers Setback on Containment - WSJ.com

Oil Spill: BP Suffers Setback on Containment - WSJ.com

BP lowered a concrete-and-steel structure known as a containment dome almost a mile to the seafloor in an effort to stop the flow of oil from the drilling site. But gas hydrates, ice-like solids that form when methane gas combines with water under certain conditions, clogged the opening at the top of the dome, preventing oil from being funneled to the surface, said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, on a media conference call. "I wouldn't say it has failed," Mr. Suttles said at a news conference. "What I would say is what we attempted to do last night wasn't successful."

Tragically funny.

The same people who are saying "It didn't fail" also assessed the risk of the drilling at near zero. Is english not their native language?

The trajectory of this is obvious. With ever bigger government employing a "too big to fail" philosophy, corporations get sloppier and sloppier with their risk assessment. "If this goes well, big payout, if not, let the public sector take over the clean-up... just like they did last time."

But what really happens is that governments use these "mistakes" as ammunition for more government "preventative" measures. More government supervision, more government picking the favorites, accelerating the "shit rises to the top" phenomenon. We trade glad-handing corporate types for glad-handing federal types and revolving doors as we see in the finacial sector. And then?

And then there is no accountability. Oh well, the government officials did their best. Suspend them for two weeks if they downloaded any porn. No firings, no loss of generous retirement benefits. The taxpayers will pay, now and into the distant future. True believers in the media will hush it all up for us.

Capitalism can work. But companies must pay for their mistakes, to the point of extinction for the big mistakes. In the US we use every disaster as an excuse to expand government, making blame placing harder rather than easier. In China the top guy hangs himself. Neither system does it right. But I would say that at least the Chinese model does something to discourage others from making similar mistakes. Hanging isn't necessary. Bankrupting the top management would be a much better approach. Branding them with felonies would make it harder for them to repeat.

Steven Pearlstein - Greece and the myth of the easy economic fix

Steven Pearlstein - Greece and the myth of the easy economic fix

It is now with the same misguided determination that some European officials have tried to shut down any discussion of a restructuring of Greece's debt, or that of any other eurozone country, on the theory that a default for one would be a default for them all.

In fact, markets are fully capable of distinguishing between the finances of different countries that may use the same currency, just as they can distinguish the bonds of the state of California from those of Utah. And although any country that defaults will surely face the prospect of being shut out of credit markets for years, that punishment is no different than what was meted out in the past to countries such as Greece and Italy, when they were free to escape financial predicaments by repaying their debts in devalued currency.

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

Google to Show TV Software in May - WSJ.com

Google to Show TV Software in May - WSJ.com

The technology—designed to open set-top boxes, TVs and other devices to more content from the Internet—is attracting interest from partners that include Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International SA, which are expected to offer products that support the software, these people said. None have so far discussed the efforts publicly.

Google, of Mountain View, Calif., is currently planning on sharing some details about the technology with more than 3,000 developers expected to attend its Google I/O conference in San Francisco May 19 and 20. One person familiar with the matter cautioned the company could also decide to delay discussing it until the technology is more mature. Google uses the annual conference to showcase a range of technologies of interest to developers.

Google to Launch Digital Books by Early Summer - WSJ.com

Google to Launch Digital Books by Early Summer - WSJ.com

The company is hoping to distinguish itself from incumbents like Amazon by allowing users to access books from a broad range of sites using multiple devices.

Google says its new service—called Google Editions—will allow users to buy digital copies of books they discover through its book-search service. It will also allow book retailers—even independent shops—to sell Google Editions on their own sites, taking the bulk of the revenue. Google has yet to release details about pricing and which publishers are expected to participate.

Clinton Says Iran Is 'Flouting the Rules' - WSJ.com

Clinton Says Iran Is 'Flouting the Rules' - WSJ.com
The only surprise is how often some people can be surprised.

American Thinker: Progressive Death

American Thinker: Progressive Death

Here is the essence of the problem with progressives and their movement, which is a gigantic problem for all of America: One of the only things we really know about progressives, and that they know about themselves and their ideology, is that they favor constant "change," "reform," an ever-shifting, ongoing "evolution," or, yes, progression. And therein lies an inherent, significant difficulty: Progressivism offers no clear, definable end. The goal post is always moving, forever pushed farther away. Ends are never ends; they always "progress" with culture and society -- all along relying on the ludicrous assumption that the changes are always (or largely) good.

Nihilism in a cheap suit. And it chafes at the collar. We don't know what we want, but it isn't this. We don't know when we will get there but it isn't now. Everything we have is bad and must be thrown out, forever. Progressives cannot and will not ever grow up. The Peter Pan syndrome of political philosophies.

Obama vs. Common Sense | Cato @ Liberty

Obama vs. Common Sense | Cato @ Liberty

He explained, “what we should be asking is not whether we need ‘big government’ or a ’small government,’ but how we can create a smarter and better government.” Which is pretty much what every politician says when he wants big government and voters want small government.

For Sale - Fake and Stolen Facebook Accounts - NYTimes.com

For Sale - Fake and Stolen Facebook Accounts - NYTimes.com

“We’re seeing this activity spread over to the U.S.,” he said.

Criminals steal log-in data for Facebook accounts, typically with “phishing” techniques that tricks users into disclosing their passwords or with malware that logs computer keystrokes. They then use the accounts to send spam, distribute malicious programs and run identity and confidence fraud.

Facebook accounts are attractive because of the higher level of trust on the site than exists in the broader Internet. People are required to use their real names and tend to connect primarily with people they know.

IPs Continue To Dwindle | Linux Journal

IPs Continue To Dwindle | Linux Journal

It's widely known, at least within geekdom, that the number of available IP addresses is on a collision course with the number zero. The depletion of the IPv4 address space, and the necessity of migrating to the next-generation IPv6, has been discussed ad infinitum in geek circles since RFC 2460 was published in December 1998.