What Use is a New-Born Baby?

On a Friday in March, scientists inserted over 1 million base pairs of synthetic DNA into Mycoplasma capricolum cells before leaving for the weekend. When they returned on Monday, their cells had bloomed into colonies.

“When we look at life forms, we see fixed entities,” said J. Craig Venter, president of the Institute, in a recent podcast. “But this shows in fact how dynamic they are. They change from second to second. And that life is basically the result of an information process. Our genetic code is our software.” _Wired

Wired
"Impressive!", you may say, "but what good is it?" Yes, what good is a newborn baby? Only time can tell. Here is a look at the coverage of the Venter Institute's achievement from a few prominent websites:

The cell was created by stitching together the genome of a goat pathogen called Mycoplasma mycoides from smaller stretches of DNA synthesised in the lab, and inserting the genome into the empty cytoplasm of a related bacterium. The transplanted genome booted up in its host cell, and then divided over and over to make billions of M. mycoides cells.

Venter and his team have previously accomplished both feats – creating a synthetic genome and transplanting a genome from one bacterium into another – but this time they have combined the two.

"It's the first self-replicating cell on the planet that's parent is a computer," says Venter, referring to the fact that his team converted a cell's genome that existed as data on a computer into a living organism. _NewScientist

"It is a big deal," geneticist and technology developer George Church of Harvard Medical School says of the achievement. "It's not incremental, but it's not final either," noting that other groups are already delivering useful products from partially reengineered genomes, such as biofuels from engineered E. coli.

Biological engineer Drew Endy of Stanford University clarified how to think of this creation. "It's not genesis, it's not as if mice are coming from a pile of dirty rags in a corner," he says. "The correct word is poesis, human construction. We can now go from information and get a reproducing organism. It lays down the gauntlet for us to learn how to engineer genomes." _SciAm

Using a method developed in 2008, the researchers, led by genomics pioneer Craig Venter, synthesized the genome of a tiny bacterium called Mycoplasma mycoides, containing just over a million DNA base pairs. Next they transplanted the synthetic genome into a related bacterium, Mycoplasma capricolum, in a process they had previously perfected using nonsynthetic chromosomes.

Once the recipient cells incorporated the synthetic genome, they immediately began to carry out the instructions encoded within the genome. The cells manufactured only M. mycoides proteins, and within a few rounds of self-replication, all traces of the recipient species were gone. The results were published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science.

To distinguish their synthetic genome from the naturally occurring version, the researchers encoded a series of watermarks into the sequence. They began by developing a code for writing the English alphabet, as well as punctuation and numbers, into the language of DNA--a decoding key is included in the sequence itself. Then they wrote in their names, a few quotations, and the address for a website people can visit if they successfully crack the code. _TechnologyReview

This publication represents the construction of the largest synthetic molecule of a defined structure; the genome is almost double the size of the previous Mycoplasma genitalium synthesis. With this successful proof of principle, the group will now work on creating a minimal genome, which has been a goal since 1995. They will do this by whittling away at the synthetic genome and repeating transplantation experiments until no more genes can be disrupted and the genome is as small as possible. This minimal cell will be a platform for analyzing the function of every essential gene in a cell. _GCC

What we now need are ways to construct and test billions of genome combinations using protein and RNA biosensors for many or all metabolic intermediates and cell-signalling states. In combination with the sort of techniques that the JCVI has just demonstrated — but at much lower cost — this would enable researchers to select for important products such as pharmaceuticals, fuels, chiral chemicals and novel materials.
_NextBigFuture

Ever since Watson and Crick, biologists and biochemists have known that it was only a matter of time before humans learned to bend biological mechanisms to the will of humans. The journey has just barely begun. It is likely to be a very wild ride.

A Stupid Stumbling Into Spain's Green Quagmire

On eight occasions, the occupant of the White House referred to the Spanish model as an example to follow. The paradox is that it is a model that Obama himself wants Spain to abandon, as made clear in his call to Zapatero last week in which he asked him to change his strategy on the crisis. _La Gaceta (English translation,)

For every green job created by the Spanish government, Alvarez found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed elsewhere in the economy because resources were directed politically and not rationally, as in a market economy. _IBD

ImageSource PDF
The US President Obama has bought into Spain's "green economic miracle" lock, stock, and barrel. According to Mr. Obama, the way of the "Spanish green" will be the path to widespread economic prosperity, employment, and well-being for all. Unfortunately for the US president, the Spanish green has proven to be a mass delusion of lies, incompetence, and criminality.

The president of the United States, Barack Obama, doesn’t seem to have chosen the right model to copy for his “green economy,” Spain. After the government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero demonized a study of different experts about the fatal economic consequences of renewable energies, an internal document from the Spanish cabinet that it is even more negative has just been leaked.

To one of the authors of the first report, Gabriel Calzada, “the government has leaked it intentionally in order to turn the media against renewable energies and to be stronger in negotiations with businesses.”

Because even though Zapatero himself opposes abandoning his grand bet, some voices — such as the minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastián — are beginning to express their worry over the enormous debt that has been generated by the investment in so-called clean energies, which could even delay Spain’s exit from the economic crisis.

On eight occasions, the occupant of the White House referred to the Spanish model as an example to follow. The paradox is that it is a model that Obama himself wants Spain to abandon, as made clear in his call to Zapatero last week in which he asked him to change his strategy on the crisis.

The internal report of the Spanish administration admits that the price of electricity has gone up, as well as the debt, due to the extra costs of solar and wind energy. Even the government numbers indicate that each green job created costs more than 2.2 traditional jobs, as was shown in the report of the Juan de Mariana Institute. Besides that, the official document is almost a copy point by point of the one that led to Calzada being denounced [lit. "vetoed"] by the Spanish Embassy in an act in the U.S. Congress.

The presentation recognizes explicitly that “the increase of the electric bill is principally due to the cost of renewable energies.” In fact, the increase in the extra costs of this industry explains more than 120% of the variation in the bill and has prevented the reduction in the costs of conventional electricity production to be reflected on the bills of the citizens. _La Gaceta_via_PJMedia

Anyone who has taken the time to educate himself about wind energy and "green energy" could have predicted the horrendous economic fallout for Spain and any other jurisdiction that fell for the slimed over green sales pitch.

And tragically, in the US, it is states such as California and Massacussetts -- states already drowning in public sector union obligation debt -- who are falling head over heels for the ruinous green energy scam.

You may be thinking that this economic quagmire is just one of many economic quagmires that Mr. Obama is leading the US into -- the greatest quagmire being the massive acceleration of government debt accumulation. You would be correct to a certain extent, but energy in a high tech society is the same as prosperity, and very close to life itself for the masses. Without energy there is no food and without food there is starvation, disease, insurrection, and widespread death. Without energy there is no industry, commerce, nor jobs.

The green Spanish quagmire represents not only an increase in economic hardship, unemployment, and a massive waste of resources. It represents the intentional neglect of genuine energy -- which is the neglect of life.

Update: More on the "Green Jobs Myth"

For every green job created by the Spanish government, Alvarez found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed elsewhere in the economy because resources were directed politically and not rationally, as in a market economy.

"The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices," the professor told the press.

Alvarez's findings, of course, were rejected by the environmental left, which tried to smear him as a stooge of the oil industry.

But inconveniently for the eco-conscious, his results have been backed up by Carlo Stagnaro and Luciano Lavecchia, a couple of researchers from the Italian think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni. _IBD

BP Claims Oil Leak Into Sea is "Visibly Reduced" Top Kill Sunday

Oil spill video: Times-Picayune reporter update

NOLA 20 May 2010 Update

Oil spill video: Times-Picayune reporter update

NOLA 19May2010 Update
BP now claims to be retrieving roughly 5,000 barrels per day via the riser siphon tube, with continued leakage of oil from the site. If BP's retrieval estimates are accurate, then the total well leakage is clearly above the NOAA's estimate of 5,000 barrels per day total.

How much more is gushing? A BP spokesman stated that there was a visible reduction in oil flow into the sea, when BP achieved its highest retrieval rate -- 5,000 barrels per day. That suggests that the true rate is probably not much more than 20,000 barrels per day. (Probably not much more than 10,000 bpd, more likely _AF) If the true rate were anywhere near the Purdue mechanical engineer's estimate of 100,000 barrels per day, it is not likely that the retrieval of 5,000 barrels per day would show a noticeable reduction.

A Federal task force has been formed to arrive at a better estimate. NOAA chief Lubchenco is not yet prepared to release a new estimate.

BP officials currently plan to attempt the "top kill" procedure on Sunday, if all goes well between now and then. The top kill has the potential to stop the oil leak entirely -- although the two relief wells would continue being drilled, as before, for absolute securing of the well.

Here is a little more on the sabotaged oil booms. It is not yet known whether these are isolated instances of vandalism, or whether it is part of a larger attempt by groups unkown to create a larger environmental disaster than would occur without their help.

BP Drawing 3,000 Barrels Per Day Thru Siphon Tube

Nola
BP's riser tube is siphoning 3,000 barrels per day, about 60% of the estimated 5,000 barrels per day ongoing gusher. The top kill procedure for plugging the well will not be tried until Sunday or Monday.

Shore crews are having to deal with definite sabotage of oil booms by unknown eco-terrorists. Whether those involved are from groups such as Greenpeace or Earth Liberation Front, or whether they are simply members of bored bird rescue crews longing for something to do, the willful sabotage of shore prevention efforts demonstrates a desire on the part of some to create a worse disaster than has already occurred.

The growing oil slick has remained at sea for the last month, and the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls for it to remain away from local shorelines through the end of this week.

...The Gulf Coast received good news earlier this week when a riser tube -- essentially a giant straw that sucks oil from the well to a surface vessel -- was inserted. Suttles said that the tube is removing about 3,000 barrels of oil per day, about 126,000 gallons.

...Ken Eslava, Fairhope's assistant public works director, said several sections of oil containment boom were vandalized along the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay overnight Tuesday or early Wednesday morning.

"We're not talking about boaters trying to move the boom so that they can get around. We're talking about sabotage," Eslava said. "It was apparently done with a knife or a razor blade. It's clearly malicious." _al.com

al.com

The 835-foot drill ship Discoverer Enterprise, which began collecting oil Sunday through a straw-like tube connected to the broken well a mile below, flared-off gas from a pipe sticking out the side like a giant Olympic torch while water keeping the gas pipe cool generated steam.

About a half mile away sat the Development Driller 3 rig, which began boring a relief well May 2 in hopes of shooting concrete into the well to close it. The rig has drilled about 9,000 feet -- about halfway to reaching the original well -- but has paused drilling to install the blow out preventer, the safety device that was supposed to stop the original well from exploding. Another rig with a tall tower, the Development Driller 2, began drilling a back-up relief well over the weekend in case BP encountered problems with the other relief well. The first well isn't expected to be completed until August.

The operation is huge, with maybe 15 vessels operating at the core. Surrounding the drill ship and rigs were at least three dive support vessels with helipads, giant crane arms capable of lowering the remote operated vehicle and repair equipment down to the sea floor. There were also a slew of supply vessels that may have carried things like fuel, water, drilling mud and chemicals to the site, tug boats and utility boats.

....on many days, C-130 military style planes drop the disperants from about 75 to 100 feet above the water, while boats in the distance corral oil and burn it in fires that get smoky like burning tires. _NOLA

Is This "NASA" Image Actually a Photo-Shop Fake?

Space.com

NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible satellite image of the Gulf oil spill on May 17 at 16:40 UTC (12:40 p.m. EDT) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Instrument on-board. The oil slick appears as a dull gray on the water's surface and stretches south from the Mississippi Delta with what looks like a tail.
_Space.com

Normally I would not question a Space.com image attributed to NASA, but this particular image has some suspicious features, and so far I have been unable to find the image on the NASA Images website or on the Terra satellite website.

NASA Terra Website
The photo above is what I find on the NASA Terra site, which lacks the long, evil looking tail pictured on the topmost photo.

The problem with that ominous tail that jumps out at you, is that you would expect for the density of the slick to diminish, the further away from the leak site you look. But that is not what happens in the famous topmost photo here. In fact, if you follow the tail down its smooth, dense arc, you find an inexplicable blackness -- like a dark exclamation mark.

If anyone out there has better luck finding the photo in question on an official NASA site, please let me know.

Update: The image below was found at NASA's Earth Observatory site:

On May 17, 2010, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image, a large patch of oil was visible near the site of the accident, and a long ribbon of oil stretched far to the southeast.

So the image is indeed on an official NASA website. But is the image realistic? I suppose we will find out from subsequent images from the Terra satellite.

If NASA claims the image, we will assume for now that it is real -- even though everything about it screams fake. NASA has made some bizarre claims in the realm of "climate change", so you really have to keep a close watch on government agencies -- particularly in the age of Obama Pelosi. Stay tuned.

Update #2: You can find a fun interactive graphic of the oil spill progression from 22 April 2010 thru 19 May 2010 at the NYTimes. The NOAA graphic for 17 May is not compatible with the NASA image above showing the long "tail".

Update #3: You can see a NOAA graphic of the Gulf Loop Current below:

It appears that the loop current has a small component tending east to west at the tip of the Mississippi delta, and a larger component south of that tending roughly west to east. While ocean currents tend to drift and sway, there really does not appear to be a likely current to explain the shape of the "tail" of the purported satellite image.

Update #4 20May2010: The following image was obtained by radar satellite on 17 May 2010, and you can clearly see the "tail" feature plus a lot of other details that were missing from the topmost natural colour image from NASA's Terra sat. It is the extra detail that one can see in the radarsat image that makes the image much more believable.

Below, you see a radarsat image from 18 May 2010, demonstrating how quickly the shape of the oil slick can change.

H/T WattsupwithThat and blogs.tampabay.com.

Now if we could only get good quality images showing the subsurface oil along with the surface oil, we would have a much better idea of the scope of the total spill as of now.

A Brain Within a Brain: Growing a Parallel Brain In Place

The brain consists of two major cell types: neurons, which transmit information, and glial cells, which support and protect neurons. Interestingly, evidence suggests that some glial cells, including astroglia, can be directly converted into neurons by specific proteins, a transformation that may aid in the functional repair of damaged brain tissue. However, in order for the repaired brain areas to function properly, it is important that astroglia be directed into appropriate neuronal subclasses. In this study, we show that non-neurogenic astroglia from the cerebral cortex can be reprogrammed in vitro using just a single transcription factor to yield fully functional excitatory or inhibitory neurons. We achieved this result through forced expression of the same transcription factors that instruct the genesis of these distinct neuronal subtypes during embryonic forebrain development. Moreover we demonstrate that reactive astroglia isolated from the adult cortex after local injury can be reprogrammed into synapse-forming excitatory or inhibitory neurons following a similar strategy. Our findings provide evidence that endogenous glial cells may prove a promising strategy for replacing neurons that have degenerated due to trauma or disease. _PLOS

Scientists from the Helmholtz Center and Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, have used a virus to reprogram brain helper cells -- astroglia -- into actual neurons. They were able to convert astroglia from early post-natal and adult mouse brains into either excitatory or inhibitory neurons, depending upon the transcription factors which were introduced.

The study adds to growing evidence that certain cell types can be transformed directly into other cell types without first being converted into stem cells. Researchers have previously transformed skin cells into neurons, and one type of pancreatic cell into another. Marius Wernig, a coauthor of the skin cell study and a stem cell biologist at Stanford University, says there's a growing awareness that it may not be necessary to erase a cell's existing identity before giving it a new one.

...this latest study "means that these astroglial cells could be converted in the brain" without the need for a transplant. Berninger says that one of the next challenges is to determine whether these reprogrammed neurons can survive and function in a living brain.

Fortunately, the brain seems to have a ready source of astroglia. When the brain is injured, these cells proliferate, similar to the way the skin repairs itself after a wound. The researchers found they could also derive neurons from injury-induced astroglia taken from the brains of adult mice. _TechnologyReview

More:

we first aimed at a more potent neuronal reprogramming by inducing higher and more persistent expression of neurogenic fate determinants in astroglial cells. This allowed us not only to obtain fully functional neurons that also establish synapses from astroglial cells in vitro but also to demonstrate that distinct neurogenic transcription factors, such as on the one hand Neurog2 and on the other Dlx2 alone or in combination with Mash1, can indeed instruct the selective generation of different neuronal subtypes, such as glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons, respectively. Moreover, we found that the reprogramming efficiency of postnatal cortical astroglia towards GABAergic neurons by Dlx2 could be enhanced by first expanding the astroglial cells under neurosphere conditions prior to forced expression of Dlx2. Given that following brain injury reactive astroglia from the adult cerebral cortex de-differentiate, resume proliferation, and can give rise to self-renewing neurospheres in vitro [16], we finally show that neuronal reprogramming and subtype specification are not restricted to postnatal stages but can also be achieved from adult cortical astroglia responding to injury. _PLOS

The findings are a striking reminder that nature offers us many more possibilities than we can presently conceive of. But perhaps we will grow in our conceptual capacity, over time.

The possibility of regenerating brain tissue in situ -- without the need for inserting new cells from elsewhere -- offers new hope for brain trauma, infection, infarct, atrophy, and senility. But it also offers a distinctly new possibility which most observors are not quite ready to think about -- much less discuss.

I am referring to the possibility of growing entirely new neural networks in situ, from astroglia. The possibility that humans can induce their own brains to create entirely new brain centers and pathways, using more advanced forms of such techniques, should not be overlooked.

There is currently a race between biological methods of repairing and enhancing human organs, and technological methods of compensating for organ damage or loss -- the cyborg approach. A cyborg may utilise nano-technological enhancement, and thus manifest no outward sign of distinction from standard normal humans. The same would be true for most biological enhancements or remediation.

This lack of overt differences between ordinary persons and enhanced persons is quite important to most military uses of enhanced individuals, and to virtually all covert uses by government and other organisations.

But these tools of transformation are not likely to remain limited to deep pocketed groups and individuals. Garage biohackers are not as uncommon as you might think, and are performing a similar service for bio-hacking as the garage techno-hackers performed for microcomputers in the early days. And it is also extremely likely that persons involved in expensive and large scale research into bio-transformation technologies will set off on their own as they discover the ability to profit from their technical knowledge and skills.

Cross posted to Al Fin Longevity

More on this topic later.

BP Collecting 2,000 Barrels per Day "40% of Spill"

Al.com

BP says its mile-long tube siphoning oil from a blown-out well is bringing more crude to the surface. In a news release today, BP PLC said the narrow tube is now drawing 2,000 barrels a day for collection in a tanker, double the amount when it started operation Sunday. A barrel equals 42 gallons. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles has said the company hopes the method can draw about half the leaking oil. _al.com

The 2,000 barrels per day recovered is estimated to be 40% of the total ongoing spill rate.

You can see the recovered natural gas being flared in the image above.

The NOAA is projecting the possibility of a long "tail" flowing southward from the main spill and being engaged in the "loop current" of the Gulf westward. There is also speculation regarding the possibility that currents could pull some oil eastward and around Florida.

A tendril of oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill is "increasingly likely" to be captured over the next few days by the warm Loop Current, an extension of the Gulf Stream into the Gulf of Mexico, and could be pulled towards the Florida Straits and the rich coral reefs of the Florida Keys in eight to 10 days, a NOAA administrator said Tuesday.

..."That oil, if it gets into the Loop Current, will become very, very dilute and will be highly weathered," said Jane Lubchenco, a marine scientist who leads the federal agency overseeing ocean issues. "Its state will be in continuous change as it moves farther along. As it travels, it will become more highly weathered and more dilute. _NOLA

Tar balls from oil seeps are not that infrequent along the Gulf. The hysteria surround the current spill is so high that any trace of tar within 5,000 miles of the Gulf will likely be attributed to the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Some online "news" providers have taken to photo-shopping satellite photos of the spill to make them appear many times larger and more ominous. Many online photos purporting to display environmental damage from the current spill are actually taken from oil spill disasters many years old. The purpose of this media deception is clearly to inflame hysteria and anger in the reading public.

When China, Cuba, Russia, and Venezuela drill in the Gulf and the Caribbean, they will not care about a few small spills of this nature. The offshore will be drilled regardless of environmental hazard -- so it is important that the lessons of this spill be applied to future offshore drilling by more responsible western oil companies. (responsible is a relative term -- eg see the Obama Pelosi regime)

Oil will become very important over the next 20 to 50 years in bridging the transition to cleaner and more sustainable energy sources such as advanced nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, enhanced geothermal, and perhaps some more esoteric technologies waiting in the wings. Perhaps even more important than oil will coal.

So it is vital that we not allow western industries and economies to succumb to the energy starvation and carbon hysteria policies of Obama Pelosi, and the rest of the scam rackets out there.

Anticipations of Dopamine

Dopamine is famous for two things: 1. When it is depleted from the substantia nigra, it can cause Parkinson's disease 2. It is popularly thought of as the "pleasure neurotransmitter". It is also well known for being involved in schizophrenia.

Two new studies cast an interesting light on dopamine's variable effects -- depending upon the individual's genetic complement:

Highly creative person's have dompamine systems similar to schizophrenics.

"The study shows that highly creative people who did well on the divergent tests had a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus than less creative people," says Dr Ullén. "Schizophrenics are also known to have low D2 density in this part of the brain, suggesting a cause of the link between mental illness and creativity."

The thalamus serves as a kind of relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning.
"Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus," says Dr Ullén, and explains that this could a possible mechanism behind the ability of healthy highly creative people to see numerous uncommon connections in a problem-solving situation and the bizarre associations found in the mentally ill. _SD

This suggests that creative people are born and not made. But creativity is also a skill that can be improved in virtually anyone with practise. The higher realms of creativity may be reserved, however, for those with a combination of very high IQ and a genetic predisposition to creativity via brain structure.

Another fascinating finding relating to dopamine: Some people are genetically predisposed to have a strong dopamine response to drinking alcohol.

Using human positron emission tomography (PET), an imaging technique that allowed the researchers to analyze dopamine activity in the brain, they compared dopamine release in two groups of people that had been given a dose of alcohol. The groups consisted of those who carried a copy of the gene for the 118G mu-opioid receptor variant, and those who carried only genes for the more common 118A variant. They found that only people with the 118G variant had a dopamine response to alcohol -- no such response happened in subjects with the 118A receptor variant. _SD

The authors of the study suggest that persons with the 118G mu-opioid receptor variant may experience an enhanced pleasurable reaction to alcohol, predisposing to a greater risk of addiction.

Dopamine is not really a pleasure neurotransmitter -- it is more of an "anticipation of pleasure" neurotransmitter. It helps motivate the animal or person in pursuit of anticipated pleasure. Thus the connection of dopamine to addictions.

Another interesting line of research on the dopamine system involves the use of apomorphine to "kick-start" the dopamine system in vegetative patients.

One reason Fridman chose apomorphine was that it reaches dopamine receptors directly, even if the body's own ability to make the neurotransmitter is damaged. Apomorphine also binds to many types of dopamine receptors. Some other drugs, such as levodopa (L-dopa), are actually precursors—they are converted into dopamine by the body rather than acting directly on the receptors, so if that conversion mechanism were impaired they would be less helpful. Other drugs, such as amantadine, boost cellular production of dopamine, but if those cells are damaged or less active then they can only be boosted so far. Yet others only bind to certain dopamine receptors. _SciAm

Dopamine and Reward Seeking Behavior PDF

The dopamine reward circuit

The Dopamine System (short learning videos)

Dopamine by itself does not control behaviour. The neurotransmitter acts within the complex anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of each individual brain. But humans tend to think in narratives, assigning each neurotransmitter its particular "role" to play, as if it were an independent actor.

Humans are constrained by such metaphorical thoughtways, and are often led down dead end streets of investigation. Perhaps the greatest challenge in learning about the universe around us, is rising above our own limitations in as many ways as we can.

Movement of Oil Sheen Further From Gulf Shore

NOLA

This graphic shows the forecast for Tuesday, May 18, and Wednesday, May 19. The shapes of the oil slick are created from information by pilots during flyovers, as well as trajectories created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration _NOLA

The main part of the surface oil spill is expected to move further away from shore somewhat over the next two days. This should allow shore crews more time to prepare, should the wind and currents shift back toward shore.

NOLA oil spill coverage
Al.com oil spill coverage
Deepwater Horizon Response website
Miami Herald oil spill coverage

A Graphic Look at BP's Top Kill Procedure to Stuff Well

NOLA
Although the "junk shot" has been cancelled -- due to fears that it might make the leak worse -- the "top kill" procedure is planned for sometime in the next week or so. This will involve the rapid pumping of kill mud into the well at high pressure, in the attempt to "stuff" the well, and shut down the flow of hydrocarbons.

With its [siphon tube] containment effort under way, BP is now turning its attention toward permanently shutting down the well responsible for the leaking oil.

Late this week or early in the weekend, BP will perform a "top kill" on the well, Suttles said. That process requires injecting 40 barrels a minute of "kill mud" into the broken well and then sealing it with cement. The material will be pumped at high pressure down the choke and kill lines of the blowout preventer, which failed to seal the well after the rig exploded on April 20, to push the oil back into the reservoir. Choke and kill lines are used to control the amount and pressure of drilling mud in the wellbore, so that surges of oil and natural gas can be kept under control.

BP had initially planned to precede the top kill with a "junk shot," or pumping debris such as golf balls and shredded tires into the blowout preventer to clog the leak, before adding the mud. But Suttles said the company decided not to do the junk shot under concerns that it might cause more damage. BP spokesman Mark Proegler said the junk shot carried certain risks, specifically that the debris could shoot through the well causing more oil to leak.

"If (the top kill) is successful, we would be bringing this incident to a close," Suttles said.

Suttles also said that BP began drilling a second relief well Monday, a back-up to the well that is scheduled for completion in August.

The relief well will permanently intersect with the damaged well and shut it down by pumping concrete into it. Though the relief wells are generally considered to be an effective means of permanently shutting off the well, they are also a more time-consuming option. Drilling relief wells could take months because the drilling process requires frequent starts and stops for safety testing. _NOLA

Again, BP is going with the most cautious approach which might shut down the well fairly quickly -- rather than waiting the 6 to 10 weeks that it will take to get one or both relief wells into position.

Engineers at the BP crisis centre are learning these procedures as they go, since everything when done for the first time at great depth under water, is a new experience.

It is possible that this tragedy will cause the leadership of the US government to wimp out -- like Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and abandon offshore oil and gas drilling entirely. Such a choice would partially handicap US industry, transportation, utilities, and commerce. And certainly many other countries would step in to grab such offshore resources very close to US national waters. Countries such as China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, and so on.

If such countries suffer a similar or worse oil spill accident as Macondo, it is not likely that they will be inviting US government officials to contribute to the mitigation efforts, nor will they be giving interviews to the US Congress or the 60 Minutes news propagram. Nor will they be particularly upset if US fishing or tourism is inconvenienced.

GCC

Meanwhile, In the Crisis Center Somewhere in Houston . . .

BP's crisis centre for the Macondo spill is located in Houston. Needless to say, it is a busy place, running at a hectic pace 24 / 7.

In Houston, the hub of BP's crisis response, the company's campaign has become an industrywide effort. Drilling and well-control experts from rivals like Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips are in BP's offices, as are officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service.

The pace of work there telescopes into just a few hours some tasks that might normally take years. "We usually spend months in concept selection," said Mr. Lynch. "Here you're doing it in the morning and starting fabrication in the afternoon."

In one room in the crisis center, a team guides the robotic submersibles that performed the task of inserting the tube. Live pictures transmitted by the robots are fed to a huge bank of video screens. Updates on weather conditions and wave heights flash on another screen at the side.

Next door is Simops, or simultaneous operations, which choreographs the complex dance of drill ships, drill rigs and service vessels that crowd the sea above the leaking well. "It's like air traffic control on water," says Geir Karlsen, BP's expert on such operations.

In another room, about a hundred BP employees work on a "top kill"—the main option being explored to shut off the ruptured well. That starts off with a "junk shot," in which material such as rubber tires and golf balls is pumped into the shut-off valve, or blowout preventer, that sits atop the well.

The procedure was simulated on land to model potential obstacles. For instance, the elaborate system of manifolds and pipes had to be designed to avoid any 90-degree corners, so the bulky material used in the junk shot didn't get stuck.

With that leak sealed, the plan is to inject heavyweight "kill mud" into the lower part of the blowout preventer, followed by cement that will effectively entomb the well. _WSJ

And so on . . .

Meanwhile, the tube inserted into the leaking riser is withdrawing over 1,000 barrels per day -- and increasing gradually over time. BP has given up on the leaking well, and plans to plug it permanently. The International Bird Rescue Center has cared for 10 "oiled" birds so far -- (meanwhile hundreds to thousands of birds are killed by wind turbines every day, and millions are killed by cats every year).

The environmental hysteria just keeps rising -- driven by attorneys, politicians, the media, bureaucrats, faux environmentalists, and political activists of all stripes. Meanwhile, problem solvers continue to work to solve the problems, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But in a society of blame and incompetent hysteria, fewer and fewer problem-solvers are produced every year.

Next BP Attack: Smother the Well With Mud?

After three days of intensive work, BP engineers have managed to begin pumping oil and gas from the leaking riser through a 4 inch suction pipe up to the surface. They believe they will be able to remove most of the leaking oil via the suction pipe. But now they have a plan to overpower the oil well itself at the wellhead: by smothering it with a rapid injection of drill kill mud, followed by a concrete seal.

The 4-inch-wide tube began extracting oil and natural gas early Sunday afternoon from the busted 21-inch-wide riser pipe resting on the ocean floor. Three rubber baffles around the insertion tube are meant to keep excess oil from continuing to spew into the sea. Wells gave no clear picture Sunday about whether any oil was still leaking out from around those seals.

He said the extraction began slowly and will be accelerated as long as no problems occur.
Gas was being burned off at the surface, Wells said. The broken pipe is contributing an estimated 85 percent of the crude in the spill.

While still an initial victory, the insertion tube project didn't come without its hiccups. Using remote-controlled robots, engineers had inserted the tube Sunday shortly after midnight. Four hours later, however, the tube became dislodged, Wells said. Engineers had to reposition it Sunday morning.

...The priority now is injecting the kill mud into the well, Wells said. BP has 50,000 barrels of the stuff waiting at the site. The material will be pumped into the well just below the blow-out preventer, which failed to seal the well after the rig exploded.
Using a 30,000 horsepower engine, the high pressure of the mud will push back against the oil, giving engineers time to pump in cement and kill the well, Wells said.

...The tube is the first step in what Wells said will be a seven-to-10-day project to inject 40 barrels a minute of "kill mud" into the broken well and eventually seal it with cement.
"Ultimately, it's a winning game that we out-pump the well," he said. _NOLA

A 30,000 hp engine. Is that over 20 Megawatts? Very powerful. I wouldn't want to pay the fuel bills over that 10 day period.

Despite all the politicians, attorneys, academics, journalists, and lowlifes of all types who are attempting to make a life's career out of this tragedy, it truly is not an apocalypse. In my personal opinion, anyone who carries on and on about how devastating this oil spill is to the environment -- but has nothing constructive to add -- should probably be shot as a useless piece of human overbaggage. But that's just me. ;-)

BP Reports Siphon Tube Stopping Most of Oil Spill Now

Update:

The tool [siphon tube] was reinserted Sunday morning and "It's working as planned," Wells said.

Both oil and natural gas are being pumped to the surface; the natural gas is being burned off while the oil is stored on a vessel, said Wells, who spoke at a news conference in Houston.
Wells said the insertion tool is extracting "some" of the flow from the leaking pipe.
"We will continue to increase the amount" of oil being extracted, but will do so slowly, Wells said. "It will take a little time.

"We will do everything we can to capture as much as possible," he said. He had no estimate on how much of the leaking oil is being captured by the tool.

The amount of oil and gas being pumped to the surface will be increased slowly. Wells said it has to be increased slowly or there is a danger the tool will take in seawater.

Ultimately, the plan is for BP to kill the well after the flow of oil can be slowed and encase the wellhead in concrete, Wells said. _NOLA

BP said early Sunday afternoon that the mile-long tube is working, drawing most of the leaking oil to the tanker from the Gulf seafloor.

...BP spokesman Mark Proegler said the contraption was hooked up successfully and sucking most of the oil from the leak. Engineers remotely guiding robot submersibles had worked since Friday to place the tube into a 21-inch pipe nearly a mile below the sea.

...A relief well, considered the permanent solution the leak, is still being drilled and is months away from completion. _NOLA

The siphon tube was initially filled with pressurised nitrogen gas, which was slowly released from the upper end of the tube -- allowing the oil to be pulled to the surface for storage in a tanker, and storage barges. This was necessary to keep cold seawater from entering th pipe and creating methane hydrate ice crystals -- which would clog the pipe if allowed to enter.

As long as the recovery effort can continue removing most of the oil spill directly to the surface storage vessels, surface remediation should be somewhat easier in the long run. Even so, the next logical step might seem to be the double assault on the blowout preventer (BOP) -- the (1) "junk shot" of rubber junk and matting into the pipe below the BOP, followed by a (2) "top kill" rapid injection of concrete into the top of the pipe above the BOP.

The problem with that approach is that if it goes wrong, it could create an even worse leak than BP and the Coast Guard were dealing with at the beginning.

So, there will be an extended observation period of about 2 weeks, perhaps, while officials at the scene determine whether the siphon tube is successful enough to forgo any other assaults on the leak until the relief wells come in -- between 6 and 10 weeks from now.

BP Announces Successful Insertion of Siphon Tube

It's still unclear whether the new siphoning operation will work. Even in the best-case scenario, the tube won't capture all the leaking oil.

The pipe connected to the tube is full of nitrogen, which will gradually be pulled back to allow oil and gas to flow into it. But the process must be done slowly to avoid seawater entering. Seawater could form hydrates that might block the pipe and stop the flow of oil to the surface.

BP has also received permission from federal authorities to resume spraying chemical dispersants into the leaking oil underwater, a method it says has proved effective in curtailing the oil slick. _WSJ

BP has just announced the successful insertion of the 6 inch 4 inch stoppered siphon tube inside the 21 inch riser pipe. The siphon tube is not expected to collect all of leaking oil -- only a portion.

BP Plc said it made a breakthrough today in its attempts to control oil leaking from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, successfully inserting a tube that will funnel oil to a ship on the water’s surface.

It was BP’s second attempt to insert the tube to capture oil gushing from a well 5,000 feet below the water’s surface. A first attempt failed when the frame that holds the tube shifted, Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, said yesterday.

The tube will capture only some of the spillage. “While not collecting all of the leaking oil, this tool is an important step in reducing the amount of oil being released into Gulf waters,” the statement said.

After the tube was successfully inserted and working to funnel the oil, it was dislodged, halting the test. Technicians inspected the system and have reinserted the tube, BP and government authorities said today in a statement from the oil spill’s Joint Information Center.

The tube is made from a 4-inch (10.2 centimeters) pipe wrapped with a rubber flange and inserted by remote-operated vehicles into a larger pipe leading from the leaking well.

The idea is that undersea pressure will force the oil into the pipe and up to the surface, where a drill ship will separate and store the oil for processing at a refinery. After it was in place, the tube was successfully capturing oil and gas and funneling it to the ship, BP and government officials said in the statement. _Bloomberg

We will have to wait for futher analysis of oil discharge to determine whether this success will make a long term difference to the effort to limit environmental damage.

Brian Wang Premiers First Carnival of Nuclear Energy

Brian Wang's NextBigFuture blog is hosting the first edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy. Here is one entry -- a highly informative Rod Adams -- John Horgan dialogue (63 minutes), which looks at the relationship between nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear power.

From Nuclear Fissionary via NextBigFuture

Brian features 14 entries in all, dealing with fission, fusion, nuclear produced process heat for industry, nuclear terrorism issues, some global plans for new nuclear plants, and the above video dialogue between (pro-nuke) Rod Adams and (anti-nuke) John Horgan.

Brian's new carnival is a timely addition to the blog carnival scene. There is a good deal of nuclear expertise available online via various blogs and websites. A nuclear energy carnival will increase the exposure of notable blog articles and inform general readers about important nuclear issues as they come up -- and provide a general education to nuclear energy topics.

Be sure to check out the first Carnival of Nuclear Energy

First published at Al Fin Energy

Attempts to "Thread the Needle" on the Seafloor Continue

BitToothEnergy

Efforts continued early Sunday morning to insert a mile-long tube into a ruptured pipe that has been gushing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more than three weeks. The tube is meant to help siphon the oil to a surface vessel.
BP official Doug Suttles cautioned that the tactic is designed to contain the flow, not stop it. _CNN

An undetermined quantity of oil and gas continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico. Efforts to diminish the flow of hydrocarbons by threading a suction tube into the leaking riser pipe continue into the third day.

The blowout preventer (BOP) at the well head is reducing the flow of oil somewhat -- which has caused decision makers at the site to stay away from the BOP for now, in their efforts to stem the gusher. Eventually, however, they will have to bite the bullet and go to the source to stop the flow. The "junk shot" or "top kill" approach seems most likely at this point -- sometime in the next two weeks.

Even if the ongoing "siphon tube" approach reduces the spill rate by half, the sense of urgency to do something more definitive to stop the leak is mounting. Some news outlets describe "monstrous underwater oil plumes", Obama administration officials are describing this as possibly the worse Gulf environmental disaster in history, the lawyers are lining up in New Orleans, and some academics are predicting that the Gulf could be a dead zone for many decades.

In reality, oil has been present in Gulf of Mexico waters for hundreds of millions of years at least. The oil itself contains the interlocking bacterial colonies which will break it down to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Most of the hydrocarbons being released at the Macondo well will evaporate into the air and disperse with the wind. Much of the rest will form into "tar balls", which interact only very slowly with the environment. A pelican will not dive into a tar ball looking for fish, for example. Solid tar balls will not coat the feathers of sea birds or the fur of sea mammals.

Regardless of the extent of environmental damage from this spill, the usual suspects will present it as a complete apocalyptic collapse of nature. That is the best way to get academic grants, to receive the largest jury awards at trial, to inflate your bureaucracies' budgets as much as possible, and to sell as much ad revenue as possible for your newspaper or broadcast outlet.

It is this culture of hysteria -- the ability of cynical politicians, lawyers, journalists, academics, and activists of all types to manipulate the public at will -- which holds entire societies on the circular treadmill of stasis. This type of stasis cannot survive a real crisis. And a real crisis is on the way.

Stalwart Blowout Preventer Reducing Oil Flow Into Gulf

The much-derided Cameron blowout preventer (BOP) at the Deepwater Horizon well is significantly impeding the out-gushing of oil. The incoming pressure from below the BOP has been measured at between 8,000 and 9,000 psi, while the outflow pressure into the Gulf is only 2650 psi. If not for the BOP, the flow rates would be much higher.

He [Admiral Thad Allen] said an X-ray type analysis of the failed blow out preventer indicated that it had worked partially and was limiting flow from the well to some degree. He said officials had been able to measure the pressure, learning that oil was flowing into the device at 8,000 to 9,000 pounds per square inch and flowing out into the Gulf at around 2,650 pounds per square inch.

As Allen briefed reporters Friday at Dauphin Island, there were dozens of workers nearby, clad in white suits and brown boots, scouring the public beach for trash and debris.

Allen, the Coast Guard's commandant, characterized attempts by BP PLC to cap the well as a mitigation effort, not a permanent fix.

The long-term answer, Allen said, is a relief well that BP is working on - a solution that is likely at least two months away.

Allen described BP's response to the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion as relentless, "and we have been relentless in our oversight."

When asked whether an estimate of 5,000 barrels of oil leaking every day is still accurate, Allen stressed that any number reported is simply a best guess.

"We are operating in an environment where there is no human access," Allen said of the well 5,000 feet down on the seafloor. "I think it has the potential to be catastrophic. I am going to act as if it is. We all should." _al.com

Meanwhile, deep sea remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have been trying to limit the oil leaking from the damaged riser pipe, by inserting a 6 inch stoppered suction tube inside the 21 inch riser, to divert the leaking oil to a storage vessel on the surface. This effort is taking place beyond the leaking BOP, so there is no risk of making the leak worse -- only a possibility that a portion of the leaking oil will be retrieved, and kept out of the Gulf. That is why this effort has been described on this blog as "ultra-cautious."

BP engineers say the current effort involves placing a tube inside a broken oil pipe that has been leaking oil for the past four weeks. Engineers hope the tube, which is fitted with a rubber cap, will enable them to pump most of the oil to a surface ship.

Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen said the tube is one of several techniques that BP is developing to stop the leak.

"I would caution everyone that this is a leak mitigation effort," said Admiral Allen. "It is not intended to completely capture all the oil that is leaking from there. But it should substantially reduce it, if it is successful."

BP representatives say a permanent fix for the leak is to drill a new well, which could take three months.

Earlier this week, BP released video from a remote controlled submarine, which showed oil spewing from a gash in the undersea pipe. Some scientists and oil experts say the video shows that far more oil is leaking than official estimates of 5,000 barrels a day. BP representatives say that number is hard to determine, because the leak is 1.5 kilometers below the surface.

Commander Allen says the debate over leak estimates has not affected the response from the U.S. Coast Guard.

"Whether it was one, five, 10 or 15 [thousand barrels of oil], our mobilization of resources has been for something far beyond that, because we are always prepared for a catastrophic event," he said. _VOANews

Knowing that the BOP is reducing well head pressures by 75%, explains much of the caution being exhibited by engineers on the site. They do not want to do anything to increase the oil gush into the seawater.

On the other hand, the relief wells are still several weeks from being in position to secure the original well, so the situation is still urgent. The Gulf coast has been very lucky so far. It is up to the engineers to make sure not to push that luck too far.

More:

The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced they have authorized BP to use dispersants underwater, at the source of the Deepwater Horizon leak. Oil spill dispersants are chemicals that attempt to break down the oil into small drops and prevent it from reaching the surface or the U.S. shoreline. Dispersants are generally less harmful than the highly toxic oil leaking from the source and they biodegrade in a much shorter time span.

The use of the dispersant at the source of the leak represents a novel approach to addressing the significant environmental threat posed by the spill. Preliminary testing results indicate that subsea use of the dispersant is effective at reducing the amount of oil from reaching the surface – and can do so with the use of less dispersant than is needed when the oil does reach the surface. This is an important step to reduce the potential for damage from oil reaching fragile wetlands and coastal areas.

“We will continue our relentless efforts to secure the source of the spill. In the meantime, we will employ every available technique we can to minimize the environmental impact on coastal habitats, communities and the marine ecosystem. This requires a responsible assessment of the risks and benefits of specific tactics,” said Coast Guard Admiral Thad W. Allen, the national incident commander for the spill.

“Based on the scientific analysis of the EPA and NOAA and review by the National Response Team, it has been determined that the use of dispersants at the subsea source is the prudent and responsible action to take along with other tactics including surface dispersant, skimming and controlled burns."

"We believe that the underwater use of dispersants could lessen the overall impact of the spill,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Dispersants are not the silver bullet. They are used to move us towards the lesser of two difficult environmental outcomes. Until the flow of oil is stemmed, we must continue to take any responsible action that will reduce the impact of the spill, and that is what we are doing.”

This course of action was decided upon with thorough evaluation and consideration of many factors as well as consultation with stakeholders. Because subsea use of dispersants is a novel approach, several tests were done to determine if the dispersant would be effective in breaking up the oil and helping to control the leaks. _DeepHorizonResponse

The use of dispersants has been criticised by "environmental" spokespersons as being untested and unproven. Of course, the same "environmental" spokespersons have declared that the effect of the oil itself will be apocalyptic on and below the surface, and on shore. It is clear that the only problem-solvers here are the engineers and the military personnel. The media, academics, faux environmentalists, lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats all tend to exacerbate the problem, rather than helping to solve it.

Amazing Time-Lapse Video of CO2 Effect on Plant Growth

WattsUpWithThat
Clearly, plants love CO2. Not only land plants, but sea sponges and photosynthetic plankton and sea bacteria throughout the oceans love CO2. Just a quick glance at the white chalk cliffs near Dover will tell you that sea life can make very good use of much higher concentrations of CO2 than humans have ever seen.

And yet, people who make a living by promoting a fear of CO2 continue to claim that CO2 is a pollutant, and that CO2 threatens land and sea life.

Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide interfere with plants’ ability to convert nitrate into protein and could threaten food quality, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The scientists suggest that, as global climate change intensifies, it will be critical for farmers to carefully manage nitrogen fertilization in order to prevent losses in crop productivity and quality.

The study, which examined the impact of increased carbon dioxide levels on wheat and the mustard plant Arabidopsis, will be published in the May 14 issue of the journal Science. _WUWT

Notice the careful fudging: "could threaten" food quality. Of course, given the "butterfly effect" of chaotic dynamics, your choosing to go out to the market for a quart of chocolate milk "could threaten" food quality for the future. The authors of the paper are therefore quite safe.

An earlier study at Stanford was able to demonstrate that a careful manipulating of Nitrogen, water, and temperature of crops was able to cause a paradoxical response to raising CO2 levels. But the added CO2 did not stunt the plant growth! It merely reduced the growth stimulation from the artificial manipulation (of water, temperature, and nitrogen) from 84% down to 40%. The reasons for this lesser stimulation of excess growth are no doubt complex, but when the phenomenon is expressed truthfully -- rather than apocalyptically -- it loses its alarmist overtones.

Rather than to manipulate growing conditions outside the realm of natural possibility in order to promote a fiction that CO2 is harming plant growth, would it not be better to perform honest and open experiments, and let the chips fall where they may? As in honest science? Or perhaps, there is no money in that type of thing these days.

Check out the plant growth database at CO2 Science

New Estimates of Oil Leak Rate Stoke Widespread Hysteria

New media estimates of leakage rates from the Deepwater Horizon seafloor gusher range from 20,000 barrels per day up to 100,000 barrels per day. These estimates were hastily arrived at by various remote methods by a number of academics: a mechanical engineer at Purdue, an astrophysicist at Berkeley, an oceanographer at Florida State University, and others who are willing to go on record with a public estimate. The official NOAA estimate of the leak rate remains constant at 5,000 barrels per day.

These new inflated media estimates of the leakage flow rates are having the desired rate of ramping up public concern -- in the cases of some online commenters, outright panic. Here are a few articles reporting the newer, higher leakage estimates:
Marketwatch
LA Times
Denver Post
The Guardian

According to the new estimates, the Deepwater Horizon marine spill has already eclipsed the Exxon Valdez disaster in volume of oil released, and may have even made the top ten list of all time marine spills.

But are these estimates credible? Are these huge new estimates compatible with what is seen on the surface of the Gulf? Do we see many times the environmental damage as was seen from the Exxon Valdez?

If the Deepwater Horizon gusher has been spewing 100,000 barrels a day for the past 24 days, it would have released 2.4 million barrels of hydrocarbon, or about 100 million gallons (roughly 300,000 tons).

The distribution of oil spilled on the sea surface occurs under the influence of gravitation forces. It is controlled by oil viscosity and the surface tension of water. Only ten minutes after a spill of 1 ton of oil, the oil can disperse over a radius of 50 m, forming a slick 10-mm thick. The slick gets thinner (less than 1 mm) as oil continues to spread, covering an area of up to 12 km2 [Ramade, 1978]. During the first several days after the spill, a considerable part of oil transforms into the gaseous phase. Besides volatile components, the slick rapidly loses water-soluble hydrocarbons. The rest - the more viscous fractions - slow down the slick spreading. _offshore-environment

So if one ton of oil spreads to cover an area of 12 km2, 300,000 tons of oil would cover an area of 1.6 3.6 million km2 (or about 600,000 1.4 million sq. miles). The entire surface area of the Gulf of Mexico is 1.5 million km2.

Of course much of the short chain hydrocarbons will have evaporated, and some of the oil has sunk beneath the surface. But dispersants tend to spread the remaining oil across a larger area, somewhat magnifying the apparent area of the slick. In other words, had as much oil been released as is claimed by the mechanical engineer, the astrophysicist, and the oceanographer, would it not be reasonable to assume that virtually the entire Gulf would be covered by now?

Here is the rub: a very large part of the hydrocarbon release is in the form of natural gas, which evaporates into the air straightaway. Without knowing the proportion of gas to oil fairly reliably, one cannot truly predict how much oil is being released by watching (or taking rough measurements of) the seafloor gusher. And the lighter the crude oil, the more quickly the short chain hydrocarbons will evaporate in the warm Gulf waters. So one must also have a good idea of the type of crude that is leaking.

Certainly a couple of oil soaked birds and several dozen rubbery oil clumps washed ashore does not come close to matching the devastation of the Exxon Valdez spill.

If the engineer and scientists being quoted by a ghoulish media were honest, they would admit that their estimations are too crude to be taken seriously. Certainly too crude to be used to drive a national hysteria. But the media is not picky, as long as it gets its story.

Regardless of the rate, the gusher needs to be stopped so that top-side cleanup can be definitively carried out.

BP (BP 46.51, -1.59, -3.31%) attempted to thread a smaller siphoning tube into a larger pipe gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico early on Friday, according to a company spokesperson in London. It's BP's latest attempt to slow down the oil spill that began on April 22 after the Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire. The company used remote control robots on the sea floor a mile below the surface to move the 6-inch tube into the 21-inch riser pipe, according to a report from the Associated Press. The pipe could be in place on Friday. _Marketwatch

The "siphon tube" approach is not a real solution to the seafloor gusher. It will merely suck up a portion of the oil being spilled. But if it is successful, it may improve the chances of other supplementary seafloor oil recovery approaches. It is certainly an ultra-cautious approach on the part of BP.

Information about the causes of the disaster are slowly coming to light, and there will be plenty of time for judging the actions of those involved. But for now, whatever the rate and composition of oil leak -- it needs to be stopped.

More:
Very little oil washed ashore to date
Louisiana re-opens large fishing area
Attempts to siphon oil flow from seafloor riser continues The "top hat" attempt to cap the main gusher at the BOP will wait until the weekend.

Even More: Times Picayune video update on oil spill:

Oil pill video: Reporters give latest update

Ideas to Save the Day: Supertanker Suckers to Oil Gelatinisers

The video above demonstrates the use of C.I. Agent to convert toxic hydrocarbons such as diesel to a harmless gel that can be safely recycled.

The latest idea to prevent the slick caused by the explosion on the BP rig last month from reaching land is certainly ingenious. It consists of using a chemical formula called C.I. Agent that, when added to oil, turns it into a gelatinous compound that can then be used to make asphalt.

...The U.S. Army, which is coordinating the clean-up, has put up Hesco baskets filled with the C.I. Agent powder in the water along the northwest shore of the island. They will be filled with the powder and then, when the slick reaches the baskets, turn the oil into gelatin. If successful, the resulting rubbery polymer can then be deployed either in landfill, or re-used to make all sorts of products, from disposable cups, through condoms and glues. Twelve years in development, C.I. Agent has been used successfully as an aid to cleaning up oil leaks, but it's unproven on a disaster of this scale. _FastCompany

FastCompany
A former Shell Oil top exec is promoting the use of multiple skimming supertankers to suck up surface oil spills:

"[They] figured out how to deploy supertankers that had the ability to both intake and discharge liquids in vast quantities with huge pumps," Hofmeister explained. "The supertankers could simply suck in seawater and oil simultaneously--they can hold millions of barrels--and when full, they could discharge oil at a port into tanks where they could separate oil from water. The idea is novel in that you can get massive of oil amounts quickly." Once the supertankers make it to to the port, water can be treated and discharged, and oil can either be used or destroyed.

After learning about the supertanker technique a few weeks ago, Hofmeister decided to bring it to the government's attention. "I've been trying to connect engineers with decision-makers at the Coast Guard and in the interior department," he said. BP is also evaluating the idea.
But even if BP and the government both approve the technique, it will take a while before it can be implemented. "A lot of these supertankers are sitting on the ocean full of oil. How do you get them empty? It may take some time to organize," Hofmeister explained. And, of course, organizers will have to make sure that the massive supertankers don't crash into each other. _FC

And of course there are ideas to sop up the oil spills with hay, hair, aerogels, specialised oil sponges, chemical herding agents, and superbugs to eat the oil. Oil skimming robot swarms are in the works, as well.

By the time human technology is able to deal with significant oil spills quickly and efficiently, humans may no longer have sufficient need for petroleum to pull it up from the deep sea floor. But since far more oil spills into the sea from natural causes than from oil drilling or shipping, it would still be nice to have some oil cleaning robot fleets on hand -- just in case.