Two good ole' boys; some hay, oats, and water

[Grits]

Let's change it up a little . . . . some hay, water and oil. And two good ole' southern fellas. Country boy farmers kicking 'round an idea 'bout hay bindin' to oil . Might even be named Darryl and Darryl, or Bubba and Bubba. (Partial to this latter one.)

The BP engineers and CEO . . . .WELL . . . . (deep subject, pardon the pun, guys) they damn sure ain't come up with nuthin' yet.

http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/

Now and then, the answer to the complex might be found in the simple, and us Southerners we've sure been hailed as simple.

You guys will have a field day with this one. I'll check back in . . . . . :lol: (maybe.):lol:

[GameTheory]

Years ago (after the Exxon disaster) someone made a similar discovery -- that human hair has an incredible capacity to attract and soak up oil many times its own weight. There was a person with a barber shop that would scoop up the cuttings on the floor, put it in a pillowcase and it would create this super oil sponge (they had a similar demonstration as your clip) -- it would soak it up and hold it and could even be washed and re-used. A fairly small pillow would hold an incredible amount of oil.

But don't they already have such materials with similar properties in service already? The problem is the oil is spread out over so many square miles.

The other lesson of the past disasters is that for coastal and inland wetland areas that DO get hit, the best thing to do is NOTHING and it will recover. All the areas that were covered in oil where absolutely nothing was done are all fine now, and all the areas where they had people tromping around in boots scooping up stuff (it presses the oil into the surface you see) all became essentially barren, dead areas. (Caused by the "cleanup" instead of the actual disaster.)

During WWII there was a period after Pearl Harbor but before we had any coordinated coastal security where the German U-boats were sinking tankers up and down the east coast DAILY -- the environmental effects were monumental (probably greater than this), but eventually everything recovers.

[Robert Goren]

I heard the latest plan is tear up the track at Santa Anita and use it to plug the well.;)

[bigmack]

The other lesson of the past disasters is that for coastal and inland wetland areas that DO get hit, the best thing to do is NOTHING and it will recover. All the areas that were covered in oil where absolutely nothing was done are all fine now, and all the areas where they had people tromping around in boots scooping up stuff (it presses the oil into the surface you see) all became essentially barren, dead areas. (Caused by the "cleanup" instead of the actual disaster.)
While not an endorsement for inactivity, for want of doing something, it's true - Humans can become more meddlesome than nature in their level of trying to heal.