The BP gulf disaster

[mabudon]

Yeah, in Canada and from what I've heard from a few places in the US, the "owners" of gas stations (actually more like franchisees) basically don't make money based on how much gas they sell. When I was thusly employed, the manager guy actually instituted a policy where anyone asking for under 10$ worth of gas was to be told to take a hike (it was funny to do it to asshole Lannies, but it sucked when a genuinely good, regular customer came in and only had 5$ on them, in which case I would chance the manager not noticing and not make a fuss)

Since maybe 1/3 of customers were of this type, plus the "good" folks who got angry when they got caught short and thus never returned, it actually did drive overall numbers down somewhat, and that made the boss-man happy

And now the reason for me returning to this topic
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/0 ... 04812.html

Funny thing is, I distinctly remember in the early going of the BP slick, there were reported to be 3 or more actual leaks- and I remember seeing cam feeds of obviously different leaking pipes as well, one was definitely a rupture in the middle of a horizontal pipe whereas the other was just the jagged, open end of a pipe sticking straight up, leading me to believe that BP is covering up parts of their mess.

The thing in the link I posted is a completely different deal, and from the looks of it, they decided that if they just kept quiet maybe nobody would notice- the company refusing to comment until now is fairly damning.

So I guess if it's true (and I see no reason to doubt it, the facts presented add up) then to use a classic quote "it's worse"

[vynsane]

jesus fuck (seems to be the appropriate response to a lot of todays' posts...)

there's a great infographic about the spill and its consequences, and also its relative size compared to other such oil disasters. i don't think it's really fair to compare it to the man-made purposeful disaster of the 520mil gallons that were spilled by the iraqis during the first gulf war, but it does display the magnitude of their basic contempt for all living creatures and the planet in comparison...

http://www.iglucruise.com/images/oil-sp ... l-size.jpg

also, this could've gone in the youtube gems threadtopic, but it's apropos here...

BP Execs Mismanage a Coffee Spill
(by the Upright Citizens Brigade)