Memorial Day News

Good Morning, Conflucians. Today is Memorial Day. This holiday began informally as Decoration Day, a day to honor the Civil War dead by decorating their graves. The day was widely celebrated for the first time in 1868. …after World War I, observances also began to honor those who had died in all of America’s wars. [...]

Out of Big Oil into Big Nuke

The oil gusher in the Gulf is bad. It’s turning people away from fossil fuel, which could be good. If it turned the powers-that-be to clean, sustainable energy, that would be very good. But here’s what I bet will happen. Once the weeping and gnashing of teeth has subsided to a numbed realization that we [...]

Sunday News Grab Bag

Good Morning Conflucians!!! It’s been quite a week of underestimated oil tsunami and staged photo ops and faux cleanup crews and failed attempts at stopping the leak and more than a month of inaction and ineptness. It’s been depressing, aggravating, and frustrating. We’re not particularly surprised by the lack of concern from this president or [...]

Oil Spill update: “Top Kill” has failed

Supposedly an email was sent from BP saying “Top Kill” has been killed: Earlier today, BP COO Doug Suttles had no good news for local reporters following the company’s “top kill” effort to plug the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, telling them that it had not yet worked and he did not know whether [...]

Field testing the iPad

Long time, no see, guys.  My work life has gotten interesting lately and I find myself back in the lab after 20 years.  And I just have to say that all in all, this has been a very good move for me.  I recommend it to any former lab rat who has found themselves behind [...]

Lazy Saturday Oil News: BP Atlantis and Other Dangerous Gulf Oil Rigs

Good morning Conflucians!! This morning I’ve been trying to educate myself a little bit about oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. BP ATLANTIS Did you know that BP has another oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that is drilling even deeper than the Deepwater Horizon–more than 7,000 feet under water? It’s called Atlantis. [...]

Friday News and Views

Good morning Conflucians!!! TGIF!!!!! BP Chief Tony Hayward has finally decided that the oil spill his corporation caused is an “environmental catastrophe,” CNN reports. And the “junk shot” has begun: Also Friday, engineers in the Gulf tried the “junk shot” method in an attempt to stop a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, [...]

What we had, and What we lost…

Our Hillary says it plain: The rich are not paying their fair share. Ben Smith at Politico: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a rare foray into domestic politics today, offering her view that — given America’s high unemployment — wealthy Americans don’t pay enough taxes. “The rich are not paying their fair share in [...]

Oilpocalypse Update: Top Kill Setback

The New York Times reports: BP had to halt its ambitious effort to plug its stricken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday afternoon when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid they were injecting into the well was escaping along with the leaking crude oil. A technician at the BP [...]

We are all but props in the Land of Oprecious

Politico: President Barack Obama battled with Senate Republicans in a tense closed-door meeting Tuesday, facing tough criticism from his GOP adversaries — including John McCain — on issues ranging from health care to border security. Senators and other sources inside the meeting described the gathering as “testy” and “direct” — and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) [...]