Top Kill failed down in the Gulf, according to BP. Their next plan is to saw off a part of a pipe and attach a siphon onto the end of it, with the robots that have done such a wonderful job down on oceanbottom thus far. Even this won't stop the flow, just capture some of it. The only completely viable option to stop the gusher is the relief well- being drilled during hurricane season, which is prime to push the oil into the marshes.
I snapped this morning. Between reading about this, and reading another report about how Baby Boomers think that mine is the most spoiled generation- Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. If we're spoiled, first of all, who were our parents who spoiled us? You were. And now you've handed us this new disaster, another in a long line of catastrophes you're leaving us. My generation- the "Generation Me", which is another shot into our eye- runs from 1982 to 2002, apparently. Being born in '86, I'm one of the earlier ones, but some of my number are eight years old. Eight. They're going to be dealing with a world where unabated greed caused a global economic meltdown, which had tenuously recovered- until the Gulf disaster. Who knows what havoc this will wreak. They're going to be dealing with a world in which we armed Afghani rebels to fight the Russians, and then, oh no! They TURNED on us, a few years later? And now we're embroiled in war that we needn't be involved in? Thanks for that.
I'm so mad my hands are shaking at my keyboard. My generation is in large part so new its not even out of high school yet, and the baby boomers have the gall to point their finger at anyone else? Children to young to even understand what an oil spill IS are going to be paying for your greed and shortsightedness for decades. Their children are going to be paying for this. THEIR children could very well be paying for it too. Even those of us that are older- what defense did we have? We in large part went to college like you told us right out of high school, effectively delaying our adulthood for another four years. What defense could we have possibly had against the sort of institutionalized idiocy that had been established? And you're going to sit there and decry us as being spoiled, all the while believing that we should be the ones fixing it while you fade into Social Security-sponsored old age, which is another luxury my people aren't going to have? And you want us to help take care of you on top of that? WE'RE suffering from a sense of entitlement?
Fuck you.
My generation IS going to fix this, and every other goddamn problem you've given us. We're starting to come en masse out of graduate schools and colleges; the first of us will be done with our doctorates in a year or two. So we ARE going to be the ones to fix this. But if you ever tell me how we're so terrible and spoiled I'm going to beat you with your own fucking walker.
Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Moderator: Guild Officer
Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
[Fells] says: I LOBE DACNIEBG kiTTLES
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
The older generation always dislikes the younger generation. This can be irrevocably proven through historical records dating back to ancient Greece, if not even earlier.
I think in the grand scheme of things, every generation is an improvement on the last, certainly on a social/cultural level. We're more worldly, better informed, healthier, less prejudiced, equipped with increasingly awesome science and technology and, best of all, we've got at good few decades to improve further before we get all set in our ways--just in time for our own successors to step in and do even better. We still have a long, looong way to go...just to put in one obvious example, we're a hell of a lot less racist and sexist than we were in the 1950s, but nobody's going to claim that we lack in room for improvement in those areas and tons of others.
But yeah. My thoughts on the subject, which may seem too idealistic or optimistic on the subject depending on your mileage--or perhaps, you may say, coming from too 'sheltered' a perspective. I can't really argue the latter, 'cause I'm not down in the trenches (I'm one o' them spoiled me-generationers, you know), but as far as the former goes, you can never be too much of an optimist or idealist. The only things you shouldn't be are apathetic, unwilling to adapt, or get too caught up in figuring out who's to blame when things go wrong than to actually fix it.
I think in the grand scheme of things, every generation is an improvement on the last, certainly on a social/cultural level. We're more worldly, better informed, healthier, less prejudiced, equipped with increasingly awesome science and technology and, best of all, we've got at good few decades to improve further before we get all set in our ways--just in time for our own successors to step in and do even better. We still have a long, looong way to go...just to put in one obvious example, we're a hell of a lot less racist and sexist than we were in the 1950s, but nobody's going to claim that we lack in room for improvement in those areas and tons of others.
But yeah. My thoughts on the subject, which may seem too idealistic or optimistic on the subject depending on your mileage--or perhaps, you may say, coming from too 'sheltered' a perspective. I can't really argue the latter, 'cause I'm not down in the trenches (I'm one o' them spoiled me-generationers, you know), but as far as the former goes, you can never be too much of an optimist or idealist. The only things you shouldn't be are apathetic, unwilling to adapt, or get too caught up in figuring out who's to blame when things go wrong than to actually fix it.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Lansiron wrote:The older generation always dislikes the younger generation.
I'm not even old enough to start complaining about the 'new generation', and I agree with this wholeheartedly; especially when it comes to music. That in itself is a rant that contains enough explicit language to make even all of my drunken friends blush. So I'll skip that one. In regards to all the problems the Baby Boomer generation has left us? Yeah. There's a few boners that weren't necessary in the slightest. My favourite is probably all that nuclear waste that they want to bury into the Canadian Shield - my backyard. Lousy beatniks.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I think, will be a very harsh lesson for many people. I am hoping that the hole in the bottom of the sea will be fixed, or mitigated or somehow resolved to the point that the seafloor will stop its bleeding. How, I'm not sure. I'll give them a *slight* bit of a break given that this is a bit of a unique problem, and so the fix isn't exactly a textbook procedure yet. But I do know that its taking much longer than we thought, and hell, this is a problem that SHOULDN'T HAVE FUCKING HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE if they'd had the right safety measures active. I knew well before the media jumped on it that we were fast approaching hurricane season in the Atlantic - on the chance that one big storm hits that oil slick, that sky is going to turn black - it's just like tossing a big clump of semi-liquid shit into a turbine. Whatever. We know this. I'm trying to remain optimistic about this - and maybe that's easy because I live quite a distance away from the affected regions. The way I see it, if we can't help the problem at hand? We need to be smart enough to make sure that mistake isn't made a second time.
It makes me wonder what the "Generation Me" will become in 30 years. I'd hope that our 'ways' revolve around cleaning up the crap that the baby boomers left - better environmental stewardship, greater tolerance for ethnicity, better defenses against corruption? If nothing else, our generation likes to learn things - isn't that why we took all that extra schooling like they said we did? Let us be that, then. Let us be smarter and wiser than the last generation and prevent this garbage from continuing.
You didn't ever make metal, buddy.
Metal made you.
Metal made you.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Generally I like to lump the whole as pathetic and cattle until proven otherwise on an individual basis, to hell with age and generation, we all have our representations of that mouse that repeatedly beats its head into the corner as opposed to running the maze. So not going to join in on ranting about who/what/where's entitled, other than I know my own children (when I finally do decide to spawn) will have one hell of a long pull ahead of them.
As to this Gulf business, I have to be concerned, because this -is- technically my backyard that it's happening in, I live in the Tampa/Largo area, I happen to fish in the Gulf, the ocean is a big part of the whole picture for us down here. And this was a major ballsup on multiple levels, and now we're going to be paying for it, now and for years to come. I'm not an optimistic sort, I can hope that some sort of damage control can occur, but the realist just says that there's going to be nothing but a good bit of government running around in circles while the baby is on fire, as opposed to, say, throwing water to put it out or knowing not to give the little thing gasoline and matches in the first place.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/05/25/27551.htm
And reading things like that don't help my stance on it anymore.
As to this Gulf business, I have to be concerned, because this -is- technically my backyard that it's happening in, I live in the Tampa/Largo area, I happen to fish in the Gulf, the ocean is a big part of the whole picture for us down here. And this was a major ballsup on multiple levels, and now we're going to be paying for it, now and for years to come. I'm not an optimistic sort, I can hope that some sort of damage control can occur, but the realist just says that there's going to be nothing but a good bit of government running around in circles while the baby is on fire, as opposed to, say, throwing water to put it out or knowing not to give the little thing gasoline and matches in the first place.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/05/25/27551.htm
And reading things like that don't help my stance on it anymore.
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
I've been in the middle of writing(and rewriting, and rewriting...) an essay for the past week now about optimism that this ties into, but I think Ulth said it perfectly in his rage:
I've said that line to my parents when they call my generation greedy and lazy for years. And it really is true, even when you remove the anger: Our generation, I'm confident, is going to be the second Greatest Generation. Sure, that might sound hyperbole-tastic, but think about it- our generation is going to be the generation that utilizes the internet to accomplish things that were never thought possible before. We're going to enable projects and ideas to sprout that will fix problems that have spanned human history. We will be the generation to solve energy, hunger, and poverty.
Not all of those accomplishments will be in our lifetime, mind you(specifically, hunger and poverty, and especially the latter)- but they will be as direct results of what we did. Perhaps I'm too much of an optimist, but we're finding ways to cheat scientific laws that have held up for hundreds of years. Someone just the other day created life in a laboratory. If the rest isn't easily within our reach, then it will be to the generation after us.
I just hope our generation is smart enough to look at the next generation, and tell them that their music sucks, their hair looks stupid, but never, ever, tells them that they are worse than us, or to stop dreaming.
Ulthanon wrote:Fuck you.
My generation IS going to fix this, and every other goddamn problem you've given us.
I've said that line to my parents when they call my generation greedy and lazy for years. And it really is true, even when you remove the anger: Our generation, I'm confident, is going to be the second Greatest Generation. Sure, that might sound hyperbole-tastic, but think about it- our generation is going to be the generation that utilizes the internet to accomplish things that were never thought possible before. We're going to enable projects and ideas to sprout that will fix problems that have spanned human history. We will be the generation to solve energy, hunger, and poverty.
Not all of those accomplishments will be in our lifetime, mind you(specifically, hunger and poverty, and especially the latter)- but they will be as direct results of what we did. Perhaps I'm too much of an optimist, but we're finding ways to cheat scientific laws that have held up for hundreds of years. Someone just the other day created life in a laboratory. If the rest isn't easily within our reach, then it will be to the generation after us.
I just hope our generation is smart enough to look at the next generation, and tell them that their music sucks, their hair looks stupid, but never, ever, tells them that they are worse than us, or to stop dreaming.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
As a fellow Florida resident, I've been spreading this about. It's a NOAA fact sheet about hurricanes and the oil spill.
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/NOAA_fact_sheet_on_hurricanes_and_oil_spills.572167.pdf
Oil rain doesn't seem likely but a storm surge could definitely be nasty.
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/NOAA_fact_sheet_on_hurricanes_and_oil_spills.572167.pdf
Oil rain doesn't seem likely but a storm surge could definitely be nasty.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Grizz wrote:As a fellow Florida resident, I've been spreading this about. It's a NOAA fact sheet about hurricanes and the oil spill.
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/NOAA_fact_sheet_on_hurricanes_and_oil_spills.572167.pdf
Oil rain doesn't seem likely but a storm surge could definitely be nasty.
Good info, that. I don't live in Florida anymore, but I'll make sure my family there gets it, too.
I suppose it's a relief that the oil itself probably won't get pulled up and subsequently ignite on contact with lightning, thus creating wind and rain literally made of fire, as we were theorizing (somewhat worriedly, somewhat excitedly...the same feeling you got when you were eight and you thought of a tyrannosaurus suddenly rampaging into your classroom and eating everyone) at work the other day (I mean really, that's the age where you thought it was totally possible, and honestly, who knows...as far as apocalypses go, pretty impressive. The hurricane made of fire, that is, not the t-rex. Nothing against t-rexes).
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Lansiron wrote:I suppose it's a relief that the oil itself probably won't get pulled up and subsequently ignite on contact with lightning, thus creating wind and rain literally made of fire, as we were theorizing...
Would a hurricane made of fire blow itself out?
I had a full rage-on post in my head but really, there's no sense fuelling that fire, and not much to say that hasn't already been expressed.
<Fells> I SEE YOU DELIPON
<Fells> YOU'RE A KLITTY
<Fells> YOU'RE A KLITTY
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1492
This is another good look at what could happen if a hurricane hits the oil slick. It's mostly the same information, but in a narrative.
(Anyone interested in hurricane science, forecasting, and how that particular weather phenomenon works would do well to follow Dr. Masters' blog - he flew with the hurricane hunters for many years, including the expedition that went into Hurricane Hugo, and he presents a lot of complex science in ways that even artsy fartsy types like me can understand.)
As for the rest of this, it makes my head hurt and my heart hurt. Especially being that (like Grizz) I live in an area likely to be affected by this particular clusterfuck. There's not more I can add to the discussion really.
This is another good look at what could happen if a hurricane hits the oil slick. It's mostly the same information, but in a narrative.
(Anyone interested in hurricane science, forecasting, and how that particular weather phenomenon works would do well to follow Dr. Masters' blog - he flew with the hurricane hunters for many years, including the expedition that went into Hurricane Hugo, and he presents a lot of complex science in ways that even artsy fartsy types like me can understand.)
As for the rest of this, it makes my head hurt and my heart hurt. Especially being that (like Grizz) I live in an area likely to be affected by this particular clusterfuck. There's not more I can add to the discussion really.
[5.OOC] Beltar: Hammer of What The Fuck Were You Thinking
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
I'm going to refrain from concurrent angry rantage, for the nonce, and say instead that the intelligence and investment on display here in our little World of Warcraft community - presumably ground zero for the sort of self-centered apathy that the BB poll refers to - is a pretty good indication that hey, we can work this out.
Keep on rockin.
Keep on rockin.
Now hang me by this golden noose
'Cause I never been nothin' but your golden goose
Silver tongue don't fail me now
And I'll make my way back to you somehow
'Cause I never been nothin' but your golden goose
Silver tongue don't fail me now
And I'll make my way back to you somehow