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Ask HN: How can the oil leak (edit: was 'spill') be stopped?

2 points by ra88it 16y ago

Is there a good idea out there that isn't being considered?

jacquesm 16y ago
There are lots of good ideas, but the fact is that the people that are trying to solve this right now have: 1) tons of experience in deep sea work 2) a pretty good idea of the situation (which the rest of us mostly lack) 3) a very large budget and an inventory of resources at their disposal 4) are far from stupid. So if this is going to be solved in the short term I doubt it will be an outsider. Occasionally outsiders do come up with great solutions, one I remember was the jet engine strapped to a tank to blow out the gulf war fires. That was sheer genius. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/stilling_the_fires_of_war-feature/big_wind_page_4 http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/stilling_the_fires...
- seasoup 16y ago
  That is all kinds of awesome!
- ra88it 16y ago
  I totally agree. But, like you illustrated with your comment, outsiders (perhaps because they are outsiders) occasionally come up with good solutions. Or at least new ways of thinking about the problem.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  In Arthur C. Clarke's "A Fall of Moondust", there is an accident and a bus full of tourists sinks into the lunar dust, is covered over and lost. This presents massive engineering challenges as the dust is so fine, the location unknown, resources limited to what's on the moon base, and the trapped people have a limited air and water supply so there's a tight time limit. There's a scene where they are trawling for suggestions from the public in a TV show contest - people suggest ideas, and an a panel of experts rip the ideas apart. A side effect is that it's a great publicity boost for the difficulty of doing things on the moon and the achievement of having a base there. I wont spoil the rest of the book for you, but has anyone tried doing this with the oil leak? Engaging the public in that kind of way, not just asking for blog comments on a news article, but a real challenge in an X-Factor style big-hype approach?
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    I wonder if the 'hive mind' is really that much smarter than an expert in the field, but for brainstorming (which is what this is about) it might be useful. I'd hate to be the BP exec to sign off on some harebrained scheme coined by a non-expert, they'd have a problem even if it did work. It may come to that yet though.
_pius 16y ago
One thing I'd like to point out: this is not an oil spill. Rather, this is an undersea gusher, an ongoing, uncontrolled oil leak that is dumping the equivalent of the Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill into the Gulf of Mexico about every four days.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Yep. It probably already is the largest man made ecological disaster and the magnitude of it is still largely hidden from view. It won't be for much longer. If I was living at the south east coast within 200 miles of the spill I'd be selling my property at a very good price right now.

2 points by ra88it 16y ago

Is there a good idea out there that isn't being considered?

There are lots of good ideas, but the fact is that the people that are trying to solve this right now have: 1) tons of experience in deep sea work 2) a pretty good idea of the situation (which the rest of us mostly lack) 3) a very large budget and an inventory of resources at their disposal 4) are far from stupid. So if this is going to be solved in the short term I doubt it will be an outsider. Occasionally outsiders do come up with great solutions, one I remember was the jet engine strapped to a tank to blow out the gulf war fires. That was sheer genius. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/stilling_the_fires_of_war-feature/big_wind_page_4 http://www.caranddriver.com/features/01q2/stilling_the_fires...

seasoup 16y ago
That is all kinds of awesome!
ra88it 16y ago
I totally agree. But, like you illustrated with your comment, outsiders (perhaps because they are outsiders) occasionally come up with good solutions. Or at least new ways of thinking about the problem.
jodrellblank 16y ago
In Arthur C. Clarke's "A Fall of Moondust", there is an accident and a bus full of tourists sinks into the lunar dust, is covered over and lost. This presents massive engineering challenges as the dust is so fine, the location unknown, resources limited to what's on the moon base, and the trapped people have a limited air and water supply so there's a tight time limit. There's a scene where they are trawling for suggestions from the public in a TV show contest - people suggest ideas, and an a panel of experts rip the ideas apart. A side effect is that it's a great publicity boost for the difficulty of doing things on the moon and the achievement of having a base there. I wont spoil the rest of the book for you, but has anyone tried doing this with the oil leak? Engaging the public in that kind of way, not just asking for blog comments on a news article, but a real challenge in an X-Factor style big-hype approach?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  I wonder if the 'hive mind' is really that much smarter than an expert in the field, but for brainstorming (which is what this is about) it might be useful. I'd hate to be the BP exec to sign off on some harebrained scheme coined by a non-expert, they'd have a problem even if it did work. It may come to that yet though.

_pius 16y ago

One thing I'd like to point out: this is not an oil spill. Rather, this is an undersea gusher, an ongoing, uncontrolled oil leak that is dumping the equivalent of the Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill into the Gulf of Mexico about every four days.

jacquesm 16y ago
Yep. It probably already is the largest man made ecological disaster and the magnitude of it is still largely hidden from view. It won't be for much longer. If I was living at the south east coast within 200 miles of the spill I'd be selling my property at a very good price right now.