In the giant scheme of things, this is a small problem....

But I need any helpful suggestions.

This morning after my husband my husband left for work at 5:45, I decided to take advantage of the cooler morning air and go back to sleep for an extra hour.

The minute my eyes closed again, is when the bedlam broke loose.

The cat started yowling, the dog started barking, all the birds outside started a loud drumbeat of chirping and I hear things start hitting the floor. It was complete mayhem I tell ya!

As I'm jumping out of my bed and my skin for that matter, I reach for some jeans to toss on because in my skewed view life, I never intend to not be dressed, however minimally, when headed directly into what now sounds like an old episode of Wild Kingdom.

I follow the sound of the barking dog and now hissing cat into another upstairs room where I find the culprit responsible for all the mayhem calmly basking in the glow of the morning sunrise:



That's right. A sparrow who had decided to build her nest underneath the old air conditioner:



has somehow managed to squeeze her body through the tiny space between the windows and is now trapped. She can't seem to figure out to go back out the way she came, in true bird fashion, she only wants to fly upwards.

Her mate is in a panic, perched out on the phone line cheeping endlessly, the baby birds are hungry and raising quite the ruckus.

I can't figure out how to get her out of there. If I move the air conditioner which is hard enough to do solo on a good day without a nest full of babies under it, I might make the nest unattractive for her to come back and tend to. I suppose I could always break the glass on one of the outside panes of glass after removing the storms and screens but I really don't relish having to fix it (being afraid of heights on a rickety ladder in a busy alley, doesn't help either.) I can't help but fantasize that I could break the cable so that I have to call the cable company and sweet talk the person with a good ladder to help me ; ).... but that wouldn't be right. If this was the 50's, I could call the fire department....

Any suggestions dear readers on how to free this bird and save the next generation?

P.S. Boy one sparrow can sure make a BIG mess in a short amount of time if you know what I mean.

Pretty darn cool.

Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

Who is Worse at Polluting Our Shores, BP’s Oil Spill or China Knock-Offs?

Who is Worse at Polluting Our Shores, BP’s Oil Spill or China
Knock-Offs?

This question was posed earlier this month by John Lawson, founder of http://www.colderice.com/ on his blog (a blog that, in my opinion, should be read regularly by anyone who does business on the Internet, because Mr Lawson is so generous with sharing his experiences and knowledge of running a very successful Internet business with the rest of us).

You can read his original post here: http://tinyurl.com/2b9fthy

I knew immediately upon reading his question I wanted to respond and I certainly intended to do so sooner. But in all honesty, I haven't been able to make up my mind.

BP, through what's looking more and more like corporate negligence (to me), has done to America what terrorists only wish they could have. Instead of attempting to destroy our infrastructure on purpose, BP has caused what I believe is going to be a complete melt down of America's eco-system.

You can read my layman's alarmist nightmare scenario here: http://tinyurl.com/2dng5wt

China on the other hand, by continuing to send us shoddy knock-offs of darn near everything is definitely polluting us too. But, in total honesty, I'm having a very hard time faulting China even though I hate what they are doing and have for a long time refused to be party to it by spending my money on the knock-offs Mr. Lawson talks about.

China has it made. They have the manufacturing and production jobs market pretty well cornered and they make the knock-offs, exporting both to wherever around the globe, probably using some fuel provided by BP.

Until consumers of ALL nations who want to maintain not just their own identity, but their own economic stability wake up and realize that corporations have sold the soul and spirit of their own countries for the sake of cheap labor and a few extra coins in their own coffers, well frankly, we are all screwed.

If you're in America, try and buy American.

If you're in the UK, try and buy things made there.

Wherever you are in this world, try and help your part of it survive.

It may cost a little more, but it's truly an investment in one's own future.

Sen. Bill Nelson: Reports of oil seeping up from seabed, well casing may be pierced.

at 2:36 in this video.

I really, really hope he's wrong.

Tony Hayward goes but not without trying one last trick....

When I read this headline of this article in The Guardian:

BP hives off 'toxic' Gulf spill operation to dilute anti-British feeling in US

Chief executive Tony Hayward hands responsibility for clean-up to American as new containment cap is placed on top of leak

(Article here: http://tinyurl.com/3ywhty5 )

I just had to let my readers know that most of us here aren't harboring anti-British feelings, we have anti-BP feelings.

There is a huge difference.

Huge.

The idea that BP thinks it can get buy in from us just because they have decided as a strategy to put a US citizen at the helm is just one more showing of just how arrogant this company is and how stupid they think all the rest of us on both sides of the pond are.

Disgusting.

The Color of Success

On the radio show I'm listening to this morning, the host just commented that BP and Admiral Allen would be making an announcement later today that the latest fix has been effective (no doubt while in the company of President Obama) and that the majority of oil is being captured.

If this turns out to be a true statement on the part of this show host, here is what success looks like:

Meanwhile, the oil will continue to wash up on shore and the destruction of the ecosystem will go on.

What is the color of success in your world?

If anyone else would like to see all the BP feeds at once, here's the link:

http://www.jtnog.org/

**** Sure enough... while I was writing this post BP's Doug Suttles announced that they are collecting some of the oil......

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37463005/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf

My heart cries

This picture of an oil soaked seabird was taken today by AP Photographer Charlie Riedel. Please go to:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html

and look at the rest of his pictures and forward them to anyone and everyone you can think of.

It is urgent that people be made to see how much damage BP has done to America. These birds are but the tip of the iceberg.

Thank you.

Things BP's CEO Tony Hayward Says

I have decided to keep track of the things that BP's CEO Tony Hayward says.

I need an outlet. My contempt for him has quickly outpaced the arrogance he continues to display towards the rest of us.

I will be adding to this list, so please feel free to let me know in the comment section if I've missed a quote you would like to see included .

______________________


"I think we have the opportunity to set a new benchmark in industrial safety, you earn your reputation through performance." 2007 interview Houston Chronicle

"We had too many people that were working to save the world"- 05/12/09 (from a lecture he gave at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business)

“What the hell did we do to deserve this?” 04/30/10

“BP will honour all legitimate claims for business interruption” . Asked for examples of illegitimate claims, he said: “I could give you lots of examples. This is America — come on. We’re going to have lots of illegitimate claims. We all know that.” 05/05/10

“This is like the Normandy landing,” he said. “We know we are going to win. We just don’t know how quickly.” 5/06/10

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume" 05/14/10 (thanks to Truth247 for this one)

"In the last four or five years we have made major improvements in safety performance. It has made the company much better … Four years ago it could have been very different" 05/14/10

"I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest. 05/18/10

“The operation is proceeding as we planned it.” 05/26/10

"The oil is on the surface, there aren't any plumes." 05/30/10

"There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back" 05/30/10

“I’m sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill. You know, food poisoning is clearly a big issue when you have a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps, temporary accommodation, it’s something we have to be very, very mindful of, It’s one of the big issues of keeping the army operating. You know, armies march on their stomachs.” 05/31/10

"We did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit" 06/02/10

"It's an important milestone, but in some sense, it's just the beginning. The next 12 to 24 hours will give an indication of how successful this will be." 06/03/10 (on the 8th attempt to stop the gusher)

“My number one priority is to steer BP through this crisis, and that is exactly what I intend to do” 06/04/10

"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me, or however the phrase goes" 06/04/10

Good Question.Why Does The BP Disaster Affect You?

We went to dinner with some friends last night and I took quite a bit of the kind of good natured chiding only friends and loved ones can give for how much time I've been spending following the BP disaster. (It's been alot)

One friend, who has been watching the story on the news finally asked directly "I get that this is an environmental catastrophe, I get that life on the Gulf is going to be forever changed but you're in Minnesota, why does the BP disaster affect you so personally?"

Good question and one that I think everyone should be asking.

Here was my answer:

"You mean besides the fact I haven't seen hide nor hair of the Fabian Shrimp truck?

Here's the effect that I believe this will have on me and everyone else. When I was in grade school, we learned about rain and just how much rain we receive here began as water evaporating in the Gulf of Mexico and then then rode the gulf stream north to become clouds and rain down here only to start the process all over again. (Funny how some simplified lessons stick with you isn't it?)

With BP having decided to use chemical dispersant to break down the oil in the ocean (as opposed to bringing some tankers in to suck it up and clean it later (as described in an article I read this morning http://bit.ly/93Gns6 ), I believe that when this now chemically infused water evaporates and becomes rain elsewhere, hell everywhere, BP will not only be responsible for the largest oil spill we have ever seen, but they will also be responsible for poisoning all of us, when, in a few years, the water systems and food systems are proven to be contaminated.


If we don't stop only living in the immediate moment and force ourselves to cast a wary eye on the future and then start demanding more responsibility from BP and the people in charge who are deferring to BP's expertise which got us in to this mess, well, let me just say it ain't going to be pretty. I now believe that this is going to make us wish global warming was our worst problem....."

Dinner went on, conversation kept flowing and hopefully, a few seeds were planted.

An aside? Today Robert Dudley from BP was on Meet the Press:

(You can read the whole article here: http://tinyurl.com/2562aeh )


BP is optimistic that its latest attempt to stop the gush of oil from a broken well in the Gulf of Mexico could show results by the end of the week," the company’s managing director said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.

The new strategy is being tried after company abandoned its most ambitious bid yet for a temporary fix Saturday when BP said the “top kill” option — an attempt to overwhelm the broken well with heavy fluids and junk — had failed.

That strategy, which sought to stop the flow of oil, was always a long shot, Robert Dudley, the company’s managing director and head of disaster management, told NBC’s David Gregory on Sunday.

The probability is “much better” that the new approach, which seeks to contain the spread of the oil, will show good results this week, he said.

As I commented on the article: So BP now wants to contain the oil instead of stopping it? From where I'm sitting, with the exception of a top kill which most experts seemed to agree from the outset wasn't going to work, that seems to have been their goal all along.

I hate this company.

Will a junk shot or top kill work?

I have long considered myself to be environmentalist, doing my part, however small it seems in the giant scheme of things and trying to set an example that hopefully someone somewhere will feel is worth emulating.

On the other side of the coin, I have never been mistaken for someone who works in the oil industry.


Because I believe power comes from knowledge, I have spent the past few days wandering around various websites where oil-riggers (and others who know the industry) have gathered to discuss the whether or not any of BP's proposed solutions to stop the oil from spewing will work and why or why not.

My goal was to wrap wrap my mind around what exactly a junk shot and top kill process is and how it is supposed to work. I wanted more information than was being put forth in the soundbites from BP endlessly repeated by the talking heads on TV.

I wanted facts. Explained to me so I would get it.

I've poured through posts filled with more terms that are meaningless to me as a industry outsider but finally one man explained it with enough clarity that even a boob like me could understand.

I didn't like his answer because made me more scared about the scope of this disaster, how long it will take to actually get the oil to stop gushing (BP and the talking heads should be using that term as opposed to leak or spill if they were being honest about the magnitude of what's happened) and what the long term effects mean to all of us.

As bad as his answer is to hear, it is worth sharing:

Goose -- "I KNOW nothing but I suspect it might not be working. I thought of a way folks could look at the effort in a manner they can more easily visualize. Here goes: there is a fire hydrant open full force. Putting out 7 ppg water at 80 psi at a RATE OF 500 GALLONS PER MINUTE.. Now I want to stop that water from coming up the main by pointing another fire hose at it. Unfortunately I can't connect the hose directly to the hydrant because the threads are messed up (i.e. bad BOP). So all I can do is hold the end of the hose close to the opening of the hydrant. My hose is putting out 500 gallons of 16.5 ppg mud at a pressure of 80 psi. So can I stop the water flowing from the hydrant? Nope...the pressures are the same. At best the two streams hit each other and the total flows out of the gap.

This is the problem I've had with the top kill from the start. I've been on rigs where we've pumped a successful kill pill. But the well was shut in. All we had to do was pump in at a pressure greater that the shut in pressure of the well. The pressured mud would push whatever was in the well downwards. But the BP well isn't shut in...it's flowing. How much force do you need to apply to a river to make it flow upstream? I know folks were holding out for the top kill to work so I didn't want to be too negative. But if they couldn't get a very tight seal on the BOP I couldn't envision how they could get the flow to stop let alone flow backwards down the csg. But as I've said before I'm not an engineer...just pretend to be sometimes on TOD."

Thanks Goose for your honesty however brutal.