Distortions about oil boom from Packgen

by DollyMadison

Over the last 2 months, I've read with great interest all the stories about how the Obama Administration and BP were messing up when it came to failing to purchase enough oil containment boom. Turns out that most of those stories weren't true.

In my latest searches for new news about the results of recent real-world trials of Packgen's boom product, I discovered some new and disturbing info to add to my collection of info about how dishonest this company has been.

They were out to get paid for untested oil containment boom before it had ever been approved in any real-world tests as a satisfactory product. They solicited references and praise from Republican elected officials in Maine, and those officials then portrayed the company as one that was not being treated fairly by BP and the Obama Administration. That portrayal is not accurate and was unfair to both BP and Obama.

Follow me below the fold for more.

continued at Daily Kos....

How the top kill would (hopefully) work (with animation)

by seesdifferent

This is a brief diary which is more of a pictorial explanation than anything else. To me, not an engineer but with a science background, the top kill idea didn't make any sense, with that riser kinked and leaking where it comes out of the BOP. The idea initially shown below is that under very high pressure a dense and viscous substance ("mud") would be injected into the "kill" and "choke" ports, and that this pressurized substance would force the oil back down the well, and then would be cemented over. However, it seemed to me that firstly, the mud could not be injected very rapidly through the small hoses, and, secondly, the mud would just come flying out the top and rip the already leaking riser pipe into shreds. Now I have run across an animation/explanation which makes the scheme seem more reasonable.

continued at Daily Kos....