Great story from Mac McClelland of Mother Jones - inside look at BP's "clean-up" -read:
BP's got a mole working on its cleanup team. The company might be able to keep the press from getting to oiled-up Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, but as long as people have cell phones, it's going to have a hell of a time keeping Elmer's Island from getting to the press.
Late Wednesday night I talked to a spill worker involved in the efforts to clean up South Louisiana's barrier islands. Let's call him Elmer, because we spoke under condition of strict anonymity. Though he hasn't signed one of the BP contracts that bars workers from communicating with reporters, he has been told "500 times" that if he talks, he's fired. He certainly didn't contact me because his politics are similar to mine. "George Bush was too liberal for me," he explained. But: "I like the media. The country couldn't run without it, and it's important to have media from both the left and right."
He also called because on Tuesday BP told me (again) that I couldn't go to Elmer's Island with a producer from PBS's Need to Know because the road to it "needed more gravel." This was a lie: "Everyone else," Elmer said, "is driving on that road"—about 20 cars and vans going up and down a day, and the re-graveling had happened the day before we arrived. Since BP was making my job so much harder, Elmer wanted to make it a little easier.
BP's got good reason for wanting to keep insiders like Elmer away from reporters. Elmer says that last Thursday, when the Coast Guard was announcing that the top kill seemed to be working, the cleanup supervisors on Grand Isle had already been informed it was a failure—which, of course, was not publicly announced until several days later.
And as more and more oil continues to deluge Louisiana shores, the cleanup efforts are slowing down. Workers have spent inordinate amounts of time sitting around waiting to be utilized, a frustration echoed by other workers who talked to friends of mine who were on a day trip to the beach. The workers are also upset because last Friday, many of them weren't paid as scheduled. According to Elmer, the mostly white foremen (whom he welcomed me to picture as stereotypical gristly union-boss types) told their mostly black subordinates that they didn't want to hear any bitching about it and that if they had a problem they could go home. Such unpleasant work in such an unpleasant environment and for such low pay (as little as $10 an hour) is, not surprisingly, leading to superhigh attrition. Last week, there were 110 workers on Elmer's Island. Right now, there are only 60 cleaning up the 1,700-acre home to fish, shrimp, and crab nurseries. (I called ES&H, the subcontractor running the cleanup show, for comment, but it only has one person who talks to the media, and that person was not available today.)
Elmer's Island was already in bad shape when I was there two weeks ago, but the fire chief of nearby Grand Isle told me yesterday that a massive slick of concentrated oil had been seen just offshore. This morning, Elmer emailed me an update about the forbidden island. "I thought you might be interested to know," he wrote, "there's a LOT more oil out on the beach now."
Mac McClelland is Mother Jones' human rights reporter, writer of The Rights Stuff, and the author of For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story From Burma's Never-Ending War. Read more of her stories and follow her on Twitter.
Originally published:
My BP Mole Spills the Secrets of BP's Cleanup Ops | Mother Jones
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Friday, June 4, 2010
The Gulf Oil Spill: 9 Most Outrageous Moments So Far (PHOTOS/VIDEOS)
Image via CrunchBase
Heckuva Job, Tony! BP will pay, but nothing can help reclaim the animal and human lives impacted by their negligence.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
David http://wyl
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Tony Hayward To Step Down From Oil Spill Management In Surprise Move
Image via CrunchBase
If he's as successful at running the whole company as he has been at controlling the oil spill (and deftly handling the company's PR), I say....sel
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Watch his exit performance (at a cost of $50 million) at:
http://bp.concerts.com/gom/bp_response_tv_60_060310.htm
David http://wyl
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Mark Haines Makes Sexist Comment On CNBC, Refuses To Apologize (VIDEO)
Image via Wikipedia
Lucky she didn't punch him - but when talking about the graciousness of the baseball moment, that would have been out of line. Good for her for calling him out! Keep it classy, Erin!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Watch both the initial and the follow-up CNBC clips below:
More good PR for Erin Burnett, but Mark Haines may well end-up on the waiver wire over this...
David http://wyl
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Wal-Mart Launches Employee College Plan
Image via Wikipedia
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Cannot blame American Public University for taking part in this partnership. It is the goal of any supplier to do business with Wal-Mart, given the size and scope of the company. If you ran a service business and could gain access to all of Wal-Mart's employees - and financial support for buying your company's services from the company itself - you would take the deal in a heartbeat.
While some may debate the merits of online education, no traditional university or consortia of colleges could offer similar benefits and access. What is interesting though is Wal-Mart aligning itself exclusively with APU, as it does have the potential of being viewed as a corporate university (can anyone say "Hamburger University"?). Would have like to have seen 2-3 other accredited university options for employees to choose from (Kaplan and Phoenix maybe??), but I guess with Wal-Mart, it's all about volume and price.
Still, in the end, it is a great employee benefit (I know, I know, Wal-Mart could do a heck of a lot more on that end, but this is a start!).
David http://wyl
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New era in space flight? SpaceX to test launch rocket Friday
Great story from Rich Phillips of CNN - the future of space-flight appears to be in the hands of the private sector. You can learn more about SpaceX's plans for manned flights at http://www.spacex.com/dragon.php - David...
Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) -- Paid for by the money and dreams of a millionaire, a newly developed rocket stands ready to blast off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight. It serves as a symbol of the future and could carry astronauts and cargo to the international space station.
This commercial venture by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is scheduled to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on Friday. On top will be a mock-up of its space capsule, called Dragon.
Pay Pal co-founder Elon Musk is the CEO of the company. NASA hopes companies such as SpaceX can take over transportation to the international space station.
"It's time for NASA to hand that over to commercial industry who can then optimize the technology and make it more reliable, make it much lower cost and make it much more routine," said Musk in an interview with CNN last month.
Musk says he believes the U.S. is at the beginning of a profound, fundamental renaissance in space exploration, perhaps greater than when President Kennedy declared the U.S. was going to the moon during the infancy of the space program.
"If the country executes and the administration and Congress execute in that direction, the impact of these changes will be on par, perhaps even greater, than ... the task that Kennedy put us on to," he said.
This push toward the privatization of space is part of President Obama's blueprint to allow NASA to do bigger and better things with its budget, such as a mission to Mars.
NASA has been flying shuttles in low Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years now. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.
NASA selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the U.S. will not have its own way to get to the space station. The U.S. will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.
"They're standing on NASA's shoulders, so they're designing rockets based on the experience we've had for 50 years or more, going into space," said George Musser, editor of the Scientific American.
"And any enterprise that learns from past experience will hopefully do better," he said.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. So far, its spent almost $400 million to get there.
"They probably hate each other's guts, but the competition is really good for space and for all of us," said Musser.
"Ultimately, what do we want from this? We want to get into space cheaply, so our kids and grandkids someday can go into space and explore the planets," he said.
But SpaceX acknowledges there will be failures, as there have been since the the beginning of aviation.
Musk thinks they have a 70 to 80 percent chance on Friday for the 180-foot, two-stage vehicle to get off the ground successfully.
"There's a very good chance there will be some issues in the early launches," said Musk.
"This is an all-new rocket. There's a lot that can go wrong, and during the test phase -- that's why you have a test phase, because things may go wrong," he said.
On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Musk referred to a scene from the movie "The Deer Hunter," and while laughing said their chance of success was not quite as good as the game of Russian roulette.
Ken Bowersox is a vice president for SpaceX. In his previous life, he flew five space shuttle missions as a commander and pilot. He also lived on the space station for more than five months as its commander.
"Either way, we're going to learn something," he said. "If we have a problem, we can move forward accepting a higher level of risk. That's how we can be more cost-effective.
But NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach says this is a very complicated business. "It's a lot harder to fly rockets then anybody thinks it is," he said.
Leinbach says that every aerospace company and organization has had problems with new rockets, including the shuttle program.
"You run into problems in developing and testing and flying these things you just don't anticipate. I expect that same thing will happen with the commercial providers," said Leinbach.
Friday's test flight will last about eight to 10 minutes and is scheduled to deploy the mock Dragon capsule into a 155-mile orbit. It would orbit for about a year and eventually burn up in the atmosphere.
If all goes as planned after a series of test flights, Musk says SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year. If NASA awards SpaceX a contract, Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years. He says his company is profitable, but his motivations go beyond dollars.
"We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," Musk said.
Originally published New era in space flight? SpaceX to test launch rocket Friday - CNN.com
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Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) -- Paid for by the money and dreams of a millionaire, a newly developed rocket stands ready to blast off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight. It serves as a symbol of the future and could carry astronauts and cargo to the international space station.
This commercial venture by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is scheduled to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on Friday. On top will be a mock-up of its space capsule, called Dragon.
Pay Pal co-founder Elon Musk is the CEO of the company. NASA hopes companies such as SpaceX can take over transportation to the international space station.
"It's time for NASA to hand that over to commercial industry who can then optimize the technology and make it more reliable, make it much lower cost and make it much more routine," said Musk in an interview with CNN last month.
Musk says he believes the U.S. is at the beginning of a profound, fundamental renaissance in space exploration, perhaps greater than when President Kennedy declared the U.S. was going to the moon during the infancy of the space program.
"If the country executes and the administration and Congress execute in that direction, the impact of these changes will be on par, perhaps even greater, than ... the task that Kennedy put us on to," he said.
This push toward the privatization of space is part of President Obama's blueprint to allow NASA to do bigger and better things with its budget, such as a mission to Mars.
NASA has been flying shuttles in low Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years now. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.
NASA selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the U.S. will not have its own way to get to the space station. The U.S. will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.
"They're standing on NASA's shoulders, so they're designing rockets based on the experience we've had for 50 years or more, going into space," said George Musser, editor of the Scientific American.
"And any enterprise that learns from past experience will hopefully do better," he said.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. So far, its spent almost $400 million to get there.
"They probably hate each other's guts, but the competition is really good for space and for all of us," said Musser.
"Ultimately, what do we want from this? We want to get into space cheaply, so our kids and grandkids someday can go into space and explore the planets," he said.
But SpaceX acknowledges there will be failures, as there have been since the the beginning of aviation.
Musk thinks they have a 70 to 80 percent chance on Friday for the 180-foot, two-stage vehicle to get off the ground successfully.
"There's a very good chance there will be some issues in the early launches," said Musk.
"This is an all-new rocket. There's a lot that can go wrong, and during the test phase -- that's why you have a test phase, because things may go wrong," he said.
On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Musk referred to a scene from the movie "The Deer Hunter," and while laughing said their chance of success was not quite as good as the game of Russian roulette.
Ken Bowersox is a vice president for SpaceX. In his previous life, he flew five space shuttle missions as a commander and pilot. He also lived on the space station for more than five months as its commander.
"Either way, we're going to learn something," he said. "If we have a problem, we can move forward accepting a higher level of risk. That's how we can be more cost-effective.
But NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach says this is a very complicated business. "It's a lot harder to fly rockets then anybody thinks it is," he said.
Leinbach says that every aerospace company and organization has had problems with new rockets, including the shuttle program.
"You run into problems in developing and testing and flying these things you just don't anticipate. I expect that same thing will happen with the commercial providers," said Leinbach.
Friday's test flight will last about eight to 10 minutes and is scheduled to deploy the mock Dragon capsule into a 155-mile orbit. It would orbit for about a year and eventually burn up in the atmosphere.
If all goes as planned after a series of test flights, Musk says SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year. If NASA awards SpaceX a contract, Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years. He says his company is profitable, but his motivations go beyond dollars.
"We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," Musk said.
Originally published New era in space flight? SpaceX to test launch rocket Friday - CNN.com
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