The Oil Spill

I'd like to thank a friend of mine for taking me through the steps BP is going through to come up with a solution to their problem in the Gulf.

I've asked him to produce a drawing of the shelf the drilling has occured upon in order to help you understand the problem being faced by the BP guys.

The current "fix" being offered by BP isn't, and probably wasn't meant to be, a long-term solution to the current blow out. It's hard to imagine the pressures that this company is being challenged to deal with. And I'm not talking about the political pressure. I'm talking about the physical pressure of working hundreds of feet under the ocean.

If any of you have gone diving, you know there is a great deal of difference between snorkling and diving. Snorkling can create a lot of problems for the swimmer. There is a great deal of difference between swimming ten feet under water and twenty feet under water. This difference is magnified when you approach 100 feet under water.

They are drilling under some three thousand feet of water, before they hit bedrock. Let's assume that the pressure at that depth is 2,500 pounds per square inch. And, we're drilling with a ten inch pipe. How much pressure is in that pipe?

After they hit bedrock they stop using pipe. Instead, they put a cap in space and start drilling into bedrock. On top of this cap is a stand pipe, with a sub-bedrock depth of ten feet, around which will be placed the future tailings of the rest of the drilling process. After the intial ten feet of drilling of ten inches, BP continues to drill, but with an eigth inch drill. For another two to five thousand feet. As they drill, the tailings will be used to hold the cap in place.

This is all good, unless there is a blow out.

We had a blow out. There was too much pressure under the cap, although the design of the cap was adequate, given certain preconditions. Like, lower pressures in the hole they were drilling. It seems obvious that the pressure the sub-continental oil was held was greater than was predicted by the engineers.

Who knew?

Challenges like this shouldn't stop oil drilling. If anything, it should encourage drilling at shallower depths. But nobody is making this argument.

Near land oil rigs have greater safety than deep water rigs. It's obvious.

We need oil. Wind and solar will never replace more "sustainable" energy sources. It will take us, perhaps, decades to prove the point. Until then, we can be assured that the anti energy lobby will take us further and further into debt. Free health care, without the means to pay for it. Legislating brilliance by reducing the standards of merit for both teachers and students. At a certain point, we'll stop thinking we're smart and start acting smart. Not today, but soon.

But understanding the way we extract oil from the sea will help us get on the right track. What is the pressure under twenty-five hundred feet in the ocean? What is the pressure under five thousand feet?

It's great that our President is taking charge, but has anybody explained the math to him, or to his supporters?

There's a reason why we teach math in grade schools. I just think it would be neat if we could require math for our talking heads during the news.

How does BOP Work?

Stolen from Greg Mankiw's site. It's a macro thing.

Reading U.S. History In 500 Years

How will historians write of us in the centuries that will follow American independence?

Perhaps you will find this instructive.

Corrupt Election Officials In Your County

Here's the election outcome. The sad thing is, election officials are discarding ballots based upon a failure of signature matching. Nobody ever said "mail-in" voting was a better system than voting on polling day at a local polling booth. Nobody. Systemic fraud is more likely with mail-in ballots than actual personal visitation of a polling place.

Here's the latest count.

	Susan Castillo		Ron Maurer		Write-in Votes		Total
Baker	1,717	45.27%	2,065	54.44%	11	0.29%	3,793
Benton	10,754	60.41%	6,972	39.16%	76	0.43%	17,802
Clackamas	30,325	47.32%	33,603	52.44%	157	0.24%	64,085
Clatsop	4,424	54.48%	3,661	45.09%	35	0.43%	8,120
Columbia	4,774	47.92%	5,140	51.59%	49	0.49%	9,963
Coos	8,325	54.31%	6,955	45.37%	49	0.32%	15,329
Crook	1,943	41.80%	2,692	57.92%	13	0.28%	4,648
Curry	2,594	46.19%	2,985	53.15%	37	0.66%	5,616
Deschutes	13,539	43.83%	17,261	55.87%	93	0.30%	30,893
Douglas	11,369	45.15%	13,768	54.68%	42	0.17%	25,179
Gilliam	281	49.21%	290	50.79%	0	0.00%	571
Grant	647	37.16%	1,086	62.38%	8	0.46%	1,741
Harney	850	43.57%	1,097	56.23%	4	0.21%	1,951
Hood River	2,523	53.14%	2,210	46.55%	15	0.32%	4,748
Jackson	14,363	40.52%	20,973	59.16%	114	0.32%	35,450
Jefferson	1,800	46.83%	2,040	53.07%	4	0.10%	3,844
Josephine	5,444	28.77%	13,426	70.95%	53	0.28%	18,923
Klamath	5,596	42.47%	7,534	57.18%	46	0.35%	13,176
Lake	784	39.52%	1,193	60.13%	7	0.35%	1,984
Lane	46,947	60.55%	30,367	39.16%	225	0.29%	77,539
Lincoln	5,806	55.21%	4,677	44.48%	33	0.31%	10,516
Linn	9,232	44.75%	11,323	54.89%	75	0.36%	20,630
Malheur	1,906	38.64%	3,021	61.24%	6	0.12%	4,933
Marion	21,661	41.43%	30,498	58.33%	129	0.25%	52,288
Morrow	827	42.58%	1,113	57.31%	2	0.10%	1,942
Multnomah	70,709	60.46%	45,718	39.09%	521	0.45%	116,948
Polk	6,502	42.17%	8,873	57.55%	44	0.29%	15,419
Sherman	252	47.82%	275	52.18%	0	0.00%	527
Tillamook	3,217	53.38%	2,788	46.26%	22	0.37%	6,027
Umatilla	4,267	42.70%	5,706	57.09%	21	0.21%	9,994
Union	2,515	45.26%	3,020	54.35%	22	0.40%	5,557
Wallowa	1,004	47.97%	1,079	51.55%	10	0.48%	2,093
Wasco	2,629	50.41%	2,578	49.43%	8	0.15%	5,215
Washington	40,114	50.34%	39,341	49.37%	237	0.30%	79,692
Wheeler	182	43.54%	234	55.98%	2	0.48%	418
Yamhill	9,233	46.30%	10,637	53.34%	73	0.37%	19,943
Totals:	349,055	50.04%	346,199	49.63%	2,243	0.32%	697,497

Now, the good news is, most of Oregon is squared away. There are a few exceptions, like Multnomah, Benton, Clatsop, Coos, Hood River, Lane, Lincoln and Tillamook, Wasco and Washington counties. And I'm going to give a pass to Washington County for being basically well-educated.

For the rest of the state, education is important, and the people of 26 counties learned enough about a non-partisan race to make an important decision. Susan Castillo is a joke.

Now I find out that the county clerks in Oregon are withholding information from the Maurer campaign because the voter’s signature didn't match from outside of their May 18th ballot with what their County Elections have on file.

Republicans and others with intelligence must find out if their vote was counted, or not.

Voters have 10 days from election day to fix this with their County Elections office. By the way, the Secretary of State Elections Division and every County Elections office has officially refused in writing to supply a list of folks receiving this letter. So now it’s up to you and me to reach as many of these folks as possible without knowing who they are!

If you voted, you must call your local elections office to find out if your ballot was accepted. Hit this link for your local elections office. For Clatsop County, call Cathie Garber at 325-8511.

Das Is Culch

חֻצְפָּה

Chutzpa.

It's all about the personal responsibility. Yeah. You want the Left in charge.