X Prize To Offer Millions For Gulf Oil Cleanup Solution 171
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the just-pull-the-drain-plug-and-refill dept.
from the just-pull-the-drain-plug-and-refill dept.
Jamie noted that X Prize is offering prizes for a solution to the Gulf Coast oil clean up. This is in addition to categories for mapping genomes, making an incredibly fuel efficient car, and exploring the moon's surface with a robotic vehicle.
Tough problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Oil on the surface is just a sheen. Oil below is mixed with water and dispersants. Oil on the beaches is mixed into marshes and sand.
That's a lot of stuff to churn and in doing so, greatly affects everything living in it.
Perhaps we could keep in mind that "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Re:Prevention is better than cure (Score:3, Insightful)
You only prosecute and jail if something illegal was done, not to prove a point. I'm not saying they didn't do anything illegal, they very well might have. If they didn't though, it's purely a civil matter and should not end in jail time.
Re:U.S. Cleanup Solution: Step 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh boo hoo! BP screwed up so I'm going to jump on the hate bandwagon and pretend that everyone involved needs to be brutally skinned, murdered, and have their genitals flown to all parts of the world...
Because you blame yourself.
How dare we demand accountability, right? I mean, BP is a big corporation, with lots of power, and might makes right, so BP must be right. It is quite unnatural for the weak to attack the strong. The meek will inherit the Earth? Like that's going to happen. The meek will sit down, shut up, and not bother their betters, like they always have.
Re:Prevention is better than cure (Score:5, Insightful)
Their company knowingly violated over 700 safety regulations and they knowingly ignored their own engineers in order to rush the project, Why shouldn't they be held accountable? The 11 deaths that resulted from the explosion alone are a good enough reason to lock these guys in prison let alone the billions of dollars in jobs and the ecosystem they destroyed through negligence.
Re:U.S. Cleanup Solution: Step 2 (Score:1, Insightful)
I am this worked up over that conservative in liberal's clothing. Of course, he has passed the reform bill, which nearly all conservatives opposed. Obama is a corporate conservative, but even that isn't enough for Republicans. Obama could be a Bush clone and they would still hate him.
WHY? (Score:4, Insightful)
They wanted the profit, they can accept the consequences.
Re:Prevention is better than cure (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember this post when your car spring a leak and you don't call the EPA and clean it up right away with the kitty litter you keep in your trunk at all times in case it happens. You do keep kitty litter in your trunk, right? I mean, how irresponsible can you be to not be prepared for a disaster!!! You should be forced to spend every remaining cent in your savings to clean up any accidents you have. You should also be lambasted on the evening news so everyone will be aware of how horrible you are.
I can't be the only one sick of the stupid comments people are making? Basically asking for the heads of people.
Because accidentally elbowing someone in the nose is the same as mowing down thousands with machine gun fire to make a few extra dollars.
Re:my solution... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hehe, I read this as "I can't stand it when the hippies are right, and I have no argument against them, so as usual, I shall punch the hippies." You meant it as a joke, but it comes out as a statement of defeat.
Re:Here you go (Score:4, Insightful)
It's just a bit overpriced.
http://costofwar.com/ [costofwar.com]
Re:Here you go (Score:5, Insightful)
Did anyone actually think that when we said "we're going to Iraq to steal their oil" what we meant was "So we can have cheap oil?" That's ridiculous. It was so the rich could have cheap oil to sell at a high cost.
Re:Here you go (Score:3, Insightful)
It's almost as if major portions of the US population have developed Stockholm Syndrome and empathize with their oppressors. They think they are in the same class of people as their oppressors. They think of the United States as 'us.' I guarantee that the rich do not think that way.
Re:Prevention is better than cure (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Dutch (Score:3, Insightful)
using it as an opportunity for demagoguery
pot, meet anonymous kettle
The truth is sometimes annoying (Score:3, Insightful)
ahhh yes, (R) bad (D) good .. sock puppet. You're almost as annoying as the Bushbots.
Am I wrong though? You see, you were claiming the government is bad, because they did not regulate. I'm saying, we have one party that is rabidly anti regulation, and has proven it will work underhandedly against regulation. So why blame 'government' in general, when in fact it is the people who hate government and stand in its way that have caused the problem in this particular case.
I would like to make it clear: one party is at least nominally pro regulation, the other is rabidly against it. The party that is against it is to blame for the lack of regulation leading up to this disaster.
I welcome any attempts on your part to argue against this position, no matter how pathetic they may be. But ad hominems will get you nowhere, you know that right? Around these parts, ad hominems are taken as a sure sign of defeat. Rather than attacking me, you may as well just admit I've won for all the good your ad hominems do.
Re:The truth is sometimes annoying (Score:2, Insightful)
Um, the problem isn't (D) vs (R) which is what you're trying make it.
The problem isn't "regulation" of things, as some regulations are needed. And MORE Regulation isn't the answer to fixing a problem of NOT ENFORCING regulations that are on the books.
And since the REGULATIONS on the books would have, or at least SHOULD HAVE helped prevent this mess weren't being enforced, the problem becomes the administration that FAILED to enforce the regulations already on the books.
And as much as you'd like to blame BUSH for this, it wasn't HIS fault, directly or even indirectly. IF you want to blame an admin, blame the one that was in office a FULL YEAR and could enforced any and all regulations they wanted to. Don't blame Bush for something that was clearly under the EXECUTIVE branch of Obama, on HIS watch.
Bush has his own issues (wars, financial mess), as does Clinton, Bush 1, and back further. It is a mess because people can't take responsibility for the things they clearly could do(or undo).
And We should toss people in jail if they hold a government job, and fail to do it properly to the point of criminal negligence.
IF you go through my posts, you'll find I am not a corporate apologist, even calling for a corporate death penalty (revocation of corporate charter) in the most extreme cases.
Government has a fiduciary responsibility to oversee the entities they have created and give license to. Likewise, if government people don't do their jobs, they should be canned, and in some cases prosecuted for violation of public trust.
If we held people more responsible for the actions they take, we'd have more responsible actions by people
Passing the buck has become a national pastime.
Re:The truth is sometimes annoying (Score:2, Insightful)
"Republicans are bought, lock stock and barrel, by moneyed corporate interests."
And Democrats are bought, lock stock and barrel by Unions, Hollywood, and race baiters. and many others groups.
If you're opposed to being bought(on principle), then I applaud you. If you are just opposed to being bought by people you disagree with, then we have a problem.
Oh, Obama was one of the largest recipients of BP campaign cash [reuters.com]
Again, my point, which you can't seem to admit, is that both sides have the exact same problems. And excusing your side (left OR right) because it is "your side" is just stupid and a BIG reason why nothing good comes from it all.