@jimnms: Having a pipe running through the plug is a great idea -- then they can stay in production, which I agree with @MaxWilder is BP's main goal.

@xxovercastxx: An inflatable plug is another excellent idea, the tricky part will be securing it before inflation so it can withstand the upward pressure of oil as it seals against the pipe, otherwise it will get blown out. It could also just be made heavy enough to overcome the pressure.

@MycroftHomlz: The taper length is definitely relevant, but unless the blowout preventer itself has some inner geometries that prevent a long taper, there is nothing stopping it from being as long as possible. The horizontal pipe on the sea bed has been cut off.

OK. So I see the confusion. Let me explain.

If you have horizontal pipe on a sea bed with a pipe leading to the surface, then you can think of the pipe as a sideways laying "L" like this ____|. The stub that goes to the surface is some distance 'x' long. So the maximum length you can make you taper, until the diameter is equal to the diameter of the pipe is some length less than 'x', the length of the stub.

Does that make more sense?

This means there is a limited length you can make the taper. Experimentally, the force needed to cap the pipe will increase with "increasing taper angle". If you think of the limiting case where the taper angle goes to 180 degrees, then there is no taper. So the point that the taper length is limited is very relevant.

I think that is clear.

>> ^arvana:

The pipe has now been cut so it's vertical at the top of the blowout preventer.

The pipe has now been cut so it's vertical at the top of the blowout preventer.

evryone watched the 60minutes video right? The one where it was revealed they used a faulty Blowout preventer, faked the pressure (integrity) tests, and skipped safety procedures when they filled the hole w/ seawater.

I understand that it's not absolutely PROVEN they did those things, but we have eyewitness testimony that explains the situation with clarity.

Yet the corporate media seems to ignore ^that shit. I consider it fact. Am I wrong?

http://news.videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-1
http://news.videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-2

evryone watched the 60minutes video right? The one where it was revealed they used a faulty Blowout preventer, faked the pressure (integrity) tests, and skipped safety procedures when they filled the hole w/ seawater.

I understand that it's not absolutely PROVEN they did those things, but we have eyewitness testimony that explains the situation with clarity.

Yet the corporate media seems to ignore ^that shit. I consider it fact. Am I wrong?

http://news.videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-1
http://news.videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-2

On another video I posted a link to a table of blowouts. They've been happening since 1955. You would think, that this kind of thing would have been planned for by now.

http://videosift.com/video/BP-Responds-to-Comparisons-to-30-year-Old-Oil-Spill


For those of you who aren't old enough to know about Ixtoc I oil spill; myself included.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I_oil_spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_%28well_drilling%29

Look at this table below. Proof enough that Humans do not learn from their mistakes, and are doomed to repeat them. Un-fucking-believable and un-fucking-acceptable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_%28well_drilling%29#Notable_offshore_well_blowouts

>> ^chilaxe:

>> ^NordlichReiter:
>> ^deathcow:
he looks absorbent, put him to good use

Lulz. He's absorbent alright, like a sponge. A green, money grubbing sponge.

BP and its executives have experienced huge losses from this, so the problem doesn't seem to be so much that they pursued profits, but that they did a terrible, irrational job at it (for their bottom line and for ours).


>> ^deathcow:

This whole thing is a stupidity tax on the world. They will continue to fuck up huge sections of environment every few years. We will continue to allow our congress to be bought and sold by large corporations. We will continue to create laws which make businesses more important than humans or the Earth. We will continue to fund alternative energy less than weaponry or wars.
We broke it, we buy it.

For some reason this video won't play for me. It just plays the advert and then nothing. My Canadian IP maybe?

[Based on comments above]
I think the idea of preventing people from photographing the coastline of this disaster is absolutely unenforceable. I feel bad for the people working for coast guard, just trying to do their jobs as best as they can, based on what they are told to do by superiors.

There's a good 60 minutes report on here about who should be accountable for this mess:
http://videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-2

[redacted]

proof?
ok..lets use the same anecdotal evidence you used from the very SAME interview.
http://videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-1
part 2.
http://videosift.com/video/60-Minutes-Deepwater-Horizon-s-Blowout-Part-2
notice anything that may ADD to what you posted?
would you like me to post the senate hearings from c-span while those companies involved all try to pass the buck?
would you like me to also post the comparisons of regulations comparing the countries in the north atlantic with the USA?
or the fines over the past ten years levied against haliburton for similar malfeasance?
would you like me to spoon feed this to you?


listen man.
you want to believe this was all just a small random quirky accident that nothing or nobody could have stopped..well,that is your choice.
but dont come to the table with that flimsy flaccid thing you call an argument,because it is small,wimpy and weak.
the next time you want to spout off do a bit of leg work so you dont get tagged in the nose.
you have a right to your opinion but not to your own facts.
and the fact is:BP used political influence to avoid having to keep safety standards by having regulations thrown out the window.the result of this was 11 dead and whole communities and eco-systems wasted.
so you call this a random freak accident.
well..sure.you are correct..
BUT if BP had been forced to be inspected every month and haliburton had to keep strict production values.
FOUR failsafes would have never failed.
at least not all of them at the same time.
and then...using your anecdotal premise...look at how the BP manager dealt with the destroyed rubber.
so you are right about the freakishness of the events but EACH one was due to malfeasance on BP's part.
why?
greed and profit.

[redacted]

[redacted]

Awww, thanks, you are so sweet! I definitely have been thinking of returning lately. I probably would not be quite as active as during my heyday, but it would be nice to be posting again. I'll probably have to wait until this 'choggie was kicked off, let's just have a huge blowout!' thing cools down.

I am working less hours now, so I should have some time to sift and do other fun stuff

Again, thanks, it is nice to hear I am being missed and remembered! I promise to do some sifting real soon, IF I am fast enough to find some goodies.

Yay!

In reply to this comment by EDD:
Now that choggie's gone, do come back - please, mint. I am also taking a break of sorts, but while I was still active (and boy was I active during 2009) I really did miss having you around - having someone other than arvana (and then only occasionally) to compete with in what I guess we might call rapid-reponse-sifting And I know *some* of our sources overlapped, but nowhere near the majority, and you always brought impressive and interesting clips to the table that me and my Mrs. would both enjoy.

What I'm getting at is, you have most definitely not been forgotten. The Sift lost hell of a lot more than choggie's unintelligible redneck antics and a horde of useless avantgarde 10-vote "filler" videos the day you left us.


In reply to this comment by mintbbb:
Choggie never did anything nasty to me personally - however, my dear hubby, NetRunner, cannot say the same. Choggie was not the reason why I stopped sifting. I simply just burned out. But when Choggie was reinstated, I definitely didn't want to come back.

It is the Internet. I have been online since 1992. I know what goes on, just these days I have enought choices to just leave when a place becomes too much to bear. I am ignoring a lot, and I have had a thick skin. But enough is enough. You hurt my loved ones, you hurt me.

Yes, I am sorry, but I still am fragile! I am emotional! I take things personally! You might say nasty things because you think you are anonymous, and people who take things seriously are silly, but that's not true. You might be a troll and all you want to do is hurt, and it is silly to take you seriously, but people like me still do.. And the attacks might not be directed to me, but I don't want to be around trolls, or people who cannot say anything nice, or people who just have to add at least one kind of insult to any comment they make. I know, I can just sift and never pay attention to any comments, or any other videos. But I used to love this place and was happy to be here.

I might not come back just because Choggie is gone - but if/when I do, I am going to appreciate not having him here.

No drama for me any more. Sorry for being a princess, but I do have a choice. A Choggieless VS is a lot better than a Choggiefull one. Like I said, now I might be back. MIGHT.

I do miss sifting, but these days most people don't even remember me, or know me to begin with. Sigh.

*rant off*

>> ^Mcboinkens:

>> ^BoneRemake:
"can someone fill me in on why the Blow out preventer did not work ? The B.O.P is in the picture, right above it its leaking, is the bop messed up or non functional or what ? "
Well I am glad I did not post that before watching it all. So mr BP president, WHY OH WHY THE HELL DIDNT THE BOP WORK ? thats the things main job.. thats it only job. When all is said and done and independent investigations are away with , I really hope that its not because of a old bop that bp just did not want to replace. They should have two blow out presenters then !


BP doesn't produce the Blow-out preventers, they just use the ones that were on Transoceans rig, which Transocean placed on their rig. If you are going to blame this all on a blowout preventor fail, find the source of who makes the BOP that was used on the rig. Not only that, but do you know how hard it is to simply replace a BOP when it is in that deep of water? Not to mention the fact that they didn't know it would not work. Many of the workers on those kind of rigs say that the rigs managed by BP are some of the safest in the industry.


As for another earlier comment, "Those amoral greedy motherfuckers at BP are STILL trying to deregulate offshore drilling practices, even in the Arctic where the environment is way more vulnerable to these kinds of disasters."
Can you provide some evidence? And if its true, I'm sure the entire industry feels the same way. Don't just pick one company.


Furthermore, this rig wasn't even BP's. It is owned by Transocean. BP was essentially renting it to help them drill the well. BP has spent millions of dollars trying to clean this up, because they felt it was their duty since they were renting it. Putting all the blame on them is unfair.


You're inadvertantly falling for their racket- BP rents the rig precisely because it allows them to minimize liability and provide a level of deniability for their responsibility when- and I do stress when- these types of disasters occur. It is very exactly fair to blame them for this catastrophe, but don't shed a tear for poor BP. The US's tax laws will allow them to write off every penny of the clean-up costs.

[redacted]

Halliburton did it. They also did same thing in Australia with EXACT SAME foundation problems. Oh yeah, guess who makes the blowout valve thingy??? Cheney's buddies and Bush donors.