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Posted to maddowblog.msnbc.com today
May. 29th, 2010 08:56 pmThis doesn't really fit in to the Librarian category -- though I did think of it while writing a resume towards a job as a librarian -- but it is Engineering geekery.
The most recent tidbit of TV news I've watched on the subject of the Deepwater Horizon blowout shows a BP response leader saying that the next step is to cut off the existing broken pipeline somewhere above the broken blowout preventer, the attach a new down-pipe to the cut-off stump of the old. They must not be allowed to go forward with this plan!
The problem of aligning the end of a long down-pipe to an existing stub at a depth of a mile below you is not easy. It's made harder by the effects of ocean currents dragging the pipe around.
But if you can do that, you can also maneuver a supplementary blow out "preventer" onto that stub of pipe, because it's the same basic problem, simplified by the absence of a mile of pipe overhead being pushed around by the ocean.
Blowout preventer stacks as installed on the sea floor are complex devices with multiple mechanisms of closing off the pipe, presumably gushing oil, gas, and tarballs, after a blowout. Why they're called "preventers" when they only act after the fact is another whole ball of tar.
What is needed to close off Deepwater Horizon drill tubing is actually simpler than that: there needs to be just one mechanism which actually works. If cutting off the ongoing discharge of muck into the Gulf of Mexico were the main priority for BP, the plan would be to cut off the pipe, slide a blowout abatement device down over the pipe, and then firing it off.
But what BP is really concerned about is the effect of the spill on its bottom line. Reconnecting the existing drill hole to the surface would have BP operating that drill hole as a well in the time between when they were in a position to seal the existing blowout and the time when their relief well comes in.
If BP believe, as a corporation, that their liability for oil spill damage costs are capped, and especially if they believe that they have exceeded that cap, then their corporate drive is towards the approach that makes or saves the most money.
If they have the competence to cut off the pipe to install this new pipe segment to the surface, then they have the competence to do so to install a blowout abater and stop the outflow now.
The President, to the full extent of his Kagan-blessed operational Executive authority, make it clear to BP that they need to take stopping the blowout a life or death decision for their corporate and personal fortunes.
#11 - Sat May 29, 2010 8:52 PM EDT
The most recent tidbit of TV news I've watched on the subject of the Deepwater Horizon blowout shows a BP response leader saying that the next step is to cut off the existing broken pipeline somewhere above the broken blowout preventer, the attach a new down-pipe to the cut-off stump of the old. They must not be allowed to go forward with this plan!
The problem of aligning the end of a long down-pipe to an existing stub at a depth of a mile below you is not easy. It's made harder by the effects of ocean currents dragging the pipe around.
But if you can do that, you can also maneuver a supplementary blow out "preventer" onto that stub of pipe, because it's the same basic problem, simplified by the absence of a mile of pipe overhead being pushed around by the ocean.
Blowout preventer stacks as installed on the sea floor are complex devices with multiple mechanisms of closing off the pipe, presumably gushing oil, gas, and tarballs, after a blowout. Why they're called "preventers" when they only act after the fact is another whole ball of tar.
What is needed to close off Deepwater Horizon drill tubing is actually simpler than that: there needs to be just one mechanism which actually works. If cutting off the ongoing discharge of muck into the Gulf of Mexico were the main priority for BP, the plan would be to cut off the pipe, slide a blowout abatement device down over the pipe, and then firing it off.
But what BP is really concerned about is the effect of the spill on its bottom line. Reconnecting the existing drill hole to the surface would have BP operating that drill hole as a well in the time between when they were in a position to seal the existing blowout and the time when their relief well comes in.
If BP believe, as a corporation, that their liability for oil spill damage costs are capped, and especially if they believe that they have exceeded that cap, then their corporate drive is towards the approach that makes or saves the most money.
If they have the competence to cut off the pipe to install this new pipe segment to the surface, then they have the competence to do so to install a blowout abater and stop the outflow now.
The President, to the full extent of his Kagan-blessed operational Executive authority, make it clear to BP that they need to take stopping the blowout a life or death decision for their corporate and personal fortunes.
#11 - Sat May 29, 2010 8:52 PM EDT
things done
Mar. 12th, 2010 08:37 pmDysoned up the floors in my apartment. (Dysoning is like Hoovering, but it sucks more. Also, it encases the home in a sphere of material to capture its entire energetic output. This spherical shell is made largely of shed cat fur.)
Cleaned bathroom floor with wet mop.
Made elbow macaroni with Alfredoesque Sauce. Its principal audience appeared to enjoy it, and since it's a quarter the cost of the pasta Alfredo dishes at Joe Pizza, that is a good step in the right directions. One serving of it is also 92% of the USDA recommended intake of fat. Yummy, yummy fat.
The recipe procedure is to melt butter, add cream cheese and blend together along with cream or "Half & Half" and grated Parmesan cheese. I did the by-the-web recipe and used fresh garlic powder instead of a more conventional use of, you know, actual pieces of fresh garlic. Fifteen minutes or so of mild whisking later we had a nice warm cheesy sauce for the elbow macaroni. Mix together and serve to mildly surly teenager.
Surliness dissolves in Alfredoesque sauce, teenager voluntarily comes to dinner table with refill. Fat is the shorteningest path to a man's heart.
Mouth feel of this sauce as it cools is significantly different from that of Joe Pizza. I think maybe their sauce has kind of a two-phase deal going on, more of an emulsion than a set of fats/waxes with progressive melting points.
Not sure how Joe Pizza makes their Alfredoish with a roux. That at least seems more likely than the idea that they separate eggs and beat beaten yolks to a hot dairy fat emulsion. That would seem likely to require too much direct labour input per unit product to be profitable even at the prices they charge.
I feel that I need to find a different way to make this sauce if the kid's coronary arteries are to avoid looking like canoli by the time he's old enough to drink legally.
Posted a journal entry.
Cleaned bathroom floor with wet mop.
Made elbow macaroni with Alfredoesque Sauce. Its principal audience appeared to enjoy it, and since it's a quarter the cost of the pasta Alfredo dishes at Joe Pizza, that is a good step in the right directions. One serving of it is also 92% of the USDA recommended intake of fat. Yummy, yummy fat.
The recipe procedure is to melt butter, add cream cheese and blend together along with cream or "Half & Half" and grated Parmesan cheese. I did the by-the-web recipe and used fresh garlic powder instead of a more conventional use of, you know, actual pieces of fresh garlic. Fifteen minutes or so of mild whisking later we had a nice warm cheesy sauce for the elbow macaroni. Mix together and serve to mildly surly teenager.
Surliness dissolves in Alfredoesque sauce, teenager voluntarily comes to dinner table with refill. Fat is the shorteningest path to a man's heart.
Mouth feel of this sauce as it cools is significantly different from that of Joe Pizza. I think maybe their sauce has kind of a two-phase deal going on, more of an emulsion than a set of fats/waxes with progressive melting points.
Not sure how Joe Pizza makes their Alfredoish with a roux. That at least seems more likely than the idea that they separate eggs and beat beaten yolks to a hot dairy fat emulsion. That would seem likely to require too much direct labour input per unit product to be profitable even at the prices they charge.
I feel that I need to find a different way to make this sauce if the kid's coronary arteries are to avoid looking like canoli by the time he's old enough to drink legally.
Posted a journal entry.
