I find the oil spill very efficient.

Instead of all the things we do to oil before ruining the Earth, we're just cutting out the middle man and letting it go directly into the environment to kill Nature.

The biggest ecological disaster in U.S. history?

Uh, modern civilization is the biggest ecological disaster in history.

This is the most efficient pollution distribution system we have devised yet.  Cost effective.  Collateral damage affecting everything, including humans.  Showing the cost of oil on all other economic activities.  I must say, this should be a Harvard Business School case study, if not M.I.T.

What a waste of an oil spill. 

Sorry, cynical morning.

Thanks for the link, Kay.

I hear that it's capped now.  We'll see if it lasts.

Check out the Alberta oil sands (sorry, tar sands) whatever project re disasters.

@Graeme 

From National Public Radio

In early July, the freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was standing on a public street in the town of Texas City, Texas, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. He was taking shots of street signs and of a nearby BP oil refinery — one of the largest in the country.

A few minutes later, as he filled his car's tank at a gas station, Rosenfield found himself penned in by police cars. A BP security guard was close behind. And, beckoned by his colleagues, a local police official assigned to an FBI task force arrived as well. They asked Rosenfield about the story he was working on. Over the next 20 minutes or so, the photographer gave his name, address, driver's license and Social Security number — and was convinced — or pressured, take your pick — to show his photographs. All of the material was shared with the BP security guard.

Rosenfield's story is the latest sign of what some journalists say is the extent to which law enforcement agencies, government officials and BP employees are willing to go to obstruct their ability to cover the devastating BP/Deep Horizon spill and its aftermath.

.................

Marjorie Esman of the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated that she gets complaints all the time from people, both journalists and civilians, who are strong-armed into leaving oil-covered beaches/wetlands and places where people are working on the cleanup.

Also speaking about the apparent rash of censorship in the Gulf was FBI special agent Shauna Dunlap, who said that the security precautions came in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and that "critical infrastructures" (like oil rigs) are targets of terrorists. However, this statement seems to ignore the common sense notion that no terrorist would be stupid enough to go around and shoot the spill with dSLRs and/or professional TV cameras and that, on top of this, pictures of these "sensitive" places can be found all over the Internet on places like Google Earth. 

I keep thinking of a pressure cooker and all the tubes that are looped to lead the escaped steam back into the pot AND the escape valve that releases the pressure that builds up. So what are they doing with all the pressure that must be building under this "CAP"?