Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Spread the Word!
The web badge is here! Help spread the word about the Letters to the Gulf Project by posting this badge on your site. Simply cut & paste the code below and you'll be all set!
Monday, June 7, 2010
I can plug it
A 21 year old engineer is getting attention for her idea to help the spill. This is the point of letters to the gulf -- ideas and inspiration.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Just ask any plumber
The Gulf oil situation is like a leaky outdoor faucet.
To stop the water in the inside pipes from dripping out of the outside faucet, an air bubble inside the pipe between the exit valve and the water supply, at the correct pressure, will stop the passage of fluid. Just ask any plumber.
Another solution, sort of a solid variation of the previous liquid one, involves plugging the leaking end of the pipe (now that its in two pieces) with a lead weight--like a sinker. The scientists can calculate the inner diameter of the pipe and manufacture the sinker to have a slightly smaller diameter, so it "slides" in the pipes open end. This will at least greatly reduce the volume of oil and gas, if not stop it entirely.
My background? Im a high-tech communications consultant who pays attention, pulls together disparate thoughts, and creates alternatives.
Let me know your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Seth Kaplan
KAPR
A name. A point of view. A sense of humor. A way with words. Passion.
To stop the water in the inside pipes from dripping out of the outside faucet, an air bubble inside the pipe between the exit valve and the water supply, at the correct pressure, will stop the passage of fluid. Just ask any plumber.
Another solution, sort of a solid variation of the previous liquid one, involves plugging the leaking end of the pipe (now that its in two pieces) with a lead weight--like a sinker. The scientists can calculate the inner diameter of the pipe and manufacture the sinker to have a slightly smaller diameter, so it "slides" in the pipes open end. This will at least greatly reduce the volume of oil and gas, if not stop it entirely.
My background? Im a high-tech communications consultant who pays attention, pulls together disparate thoughts, and creates alternatives.
Let me know your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Seth Kaplan
KAPR
A name. A point of view. A sense of humor. A way with words. Passion.
Close Shave
The best idea I've heard so far is to cut the pipe much closer to the sea bed and insert an inflatable balloon-like device (sort of like a stent) to plug the leak until the well can be capped. BP is trying to save the wellhead, an admittedly large structure, but it's that large structure that is in the way of stopping the leak. BP needs to stop trying to save the well itself at the expense of the Gulf of Mexico.
I am Chip Haynes, author of "Peak of the Devil", a book on global oil, to be released by Satya House Publishers later this year:
www.peakofthedevil.com
Chip Haynes
Clearwater, Florida
I am Chip Haynes, author of "Peak of the Devil", a book on global oil, to be released by Satya House Publishers later this year:
www.peakofthedevil.com
Chip Haynes
Clearwater, Florida
Blow it up!
I have no engineering experience, but why not just drop some explosives down deep into the well to blow the pipe apart so that the ocean floor can simply collapse in on itself?
Jason Edwards
Rogue Bear Press, New York
Jason Edwards
Rogue Bear Press, New York
Capture and Divert
I'm so grateful that you are willing to listen. I spent two very frustrating days after the Haitian Earthquake trying to submit an idea to people who could use it. (Rounding up military and humanitarian relief workers who are old enough to remember how to communicate when there were no cell phones. Dropping leaflets, erecting loud speakers, ham radio towers, etc)
I have two ideas that may spark a solution for the oil spill.
It is nearly impossible to lower a CLOSED cap over something gushing at high pressure. So lower a very large OPEN tube over the gushing pipe. Use a special open tube that is pre-rigged so that it can be closed off on both ends AFTER it is in place. Top closure is fairly easy. There are many types of closures that will work. Getting the bottom closed with the oil pipe threaded up through it will be much trickier.
I'm not completely clear why everybody is so focused on CAPPING the oil. Why not capture? What do you do with rainwater is causing trouble because it is going where it shouldn't? You can't cap it so you DIVERT it. Capture and divert seems a lot easier because you don't have to fight an amazing pressure. You harness that pressure. Would it be possible to drop a very large, inverted funnel over the gusher? The top of the funnel could branch out into several long tubes that could fill up tanker ships.
Beth Anderson
Silver Spring, MD
P.S. You might also want to contact the guy from Michigan who made this YouTube video. Wally Wallington obviously has a lot of common sense if he figured out how to move a barn or a many ton cement block with his bare hands!
I have two ideas that may spark a solution for the oil spill.
It is nearly impossible to lower a CLOSED cap over something gushing at high pressure. So lower a very large OPEN tube over the gushing pipe. Use a special open tube that is pre-rigged so that it can be closed off on both ends AFTER it is in place. Top closure is fairly easy. There are many types of closures that will work. Getting the bottom closed with the oil pipe threaded up through it will be much trickier.
I'm not completely clear why everybody is so focused on CAPPING the oil. Why not capture? What do you do with rainwater is causing trouble because it is going where it shouldn't? You can't cap it so you DIVERT it. Capture and divert seems a lot easier because you don't have to fight an amazing pressure. You harness that pressure. Would it be possible to drop a very large, inverted funnel over the gusher? The top of the funnel could branch out into several long tubes that could fill up tanker ships.
Beth Anderson
Silver Spring, MD
P.S. You might also want to contact the guy from Michigan who made this YouTube video. Wally Wallington obviously has a lot of common sense if he figured out how to move a barn or a many ton cement block with his bare hands!
Suck it Up
I'm just an average guy with no special expertise. But it seems to me that those underwater plumes of oil could be vacuumed up into a specially equipped tanker that would filter out the oil from the water, discharge the water, and keep the oil, which could be treated and used. I'm willing to bet that the technology for this exists now.
David R. Yale, Author
Pun Enchanted Evenings: 746 Original Word Plays
www.bestpuns.com
David R. Yale, Author
Pun Enchanted Evenings: 746 Original Word Plays
www.bestpuns.com
Big Shop Vacuum
This idea may already be in use but here is what I envision. Create a large shop vacuum (the wet type that can pick up liquids) on a ship. Rather than have one hose like a vacuum cleaner, hook this hose to a boom of nozzles supported by floats. This array of sucking nozzles would be towed by the boat to suck up the top few inches of oil/water. Once this mixture is sucked up it would be allowed to separate in the hold of the ship with the water being decanted from the bottom. This will leave only oil in the holding tank.
Sincerely,
Donald Lester
Ventura, California
Sincerely,
Donald Lester
Ventura, California
Domes & Dogpiles
I am not an engineer but I have come up with some creativesolutions to solve really big problems in the past.
The Dome
1. Containment - the first step is the leak has to be containedfrom the rest of the ocean (think top hat solution). The problemis that the force of the leak is so great that its hard to put a cap in place. I suggest that what they do is build a dome aroundthe perimeter of the well. They could add panels to the dome piece by piece while they are taking measures to reduce the pressure.
2. Reducing the pressure - have several large tanker ships with pumpsthat are able to pump up water and oil and have them begin to pumpthe water and oil mixture from the area of the dome as you are buildingit. This will reduce the pressure on the outside of the dome by the amount of the water and oil that is being pumped out. We just needto reach the point where the pumping exceeds the amount of oil thatis coming out of the well.
3. Clean the water - since oil and water don't mix there must be a wayto seperate the oil from the water and then pump the "clean" water back into the ocean extending the usefulness of the tankers in place.
The Dog Pile
Here is another idea that is well a bit crazy - think kill shot but MUCH bigger...What if instead of being precise we just dump massive amounts of materials...rocks, sand, whatever, over the top of the well site....couldn't we drag up massive amounts of sand and soil from the areas around the well site andjust dump it on top of the area until the pile is so high nothing can rise outof the pile. If there are tons of material all over the service of the hole spillingoil wouldn't that stop the leak?
John Paul Engel is motivational speaker and consultant. He compiled the bookProject Be The Change which brings advice from highly successful people fromaround the world for free to parents, teachers, and students. You can get a free copy at www.projectbethechange.com. John is a Phi Beta Kappa graduateof the University of Iowa and he earned his International MBA from the Universityof Chicago.
The Dome
1. Containment - the first step is the leak has to be containedfrom the rest of the ocean (think top hat solution). The problemis that the force of the leak is so great that its hard to put a cap in place. I suggest that what they do is build a dome aroundthe perimeter of the well. They could add panels to the dome piece by piece while they are taking measures to reduce the pressure.
2. Reducing the pressure - have several large tanker ships with pumpsthat are able to pump up water and oil and have them begin to pumpthe water and oil mixture from the area of the dome as you are buildingit. This will reduce the pressure on the outside of the dome by the amount of the water and oil that is being pumped out. We just needto reach the point where the pumping exceeds the amount of oil thatis coming out of the well.
3. Clean the water - since oil and water don't mix there must be a wayto seperate the oil from the water and then pump the "clean" water back into the ocean extending the usefulness of the tankers in place.
The Dog Pile
Here is another idea that is well a bit crazy - think kill shot but MUCH bigger...What if instead of being precise we just dump massive amounts of materials...rocks, sand, whatever, over the top of the well site....couldn't we drag up massive amounts of sand and soil from the areas around the well site andjust dump it on top of the area until the pile is so high nothing can rise outof the pile. If there are tons of material all over the service of the hole spillingoil wouldn't that stop the leak?
John Paul Engel is motivational speaker and consultant. He compiled the bookProject Be The Change which brings advice from highly successful people fromaround the world for free to parents, teachers, and students. You can get a free copy at www.projectbethechange.com. John is a Phi Beta Kappa graduateof the University of Iowa and he earned his International MBA from the Universityof Chicago.
Hair-brained containment idea from a Santa Barbara Spill of '69 survivor!
If I were dealing with a household leak I couldn't shut off, I'd try to at least channel the flow in the general direction I wanted it to go. I used an industrial rubber glove to make up for a broken downspout--cutting off a couple of fingertips to bridge the gap between the remains of the downspout and the drain.
Why not, while waiting for all the high-tech stuff, trying to steer the jet of oil and gas with some sort of flexible, wrap-around "fabric" funnel that would at least pen the oil into a floating 'tank'? I'm thinking of products like Tyvek--that indestructible paper product, or the heavy-duty vinyl they make contractor garbage bags out of? Or the industrial rubber glove material used by electrical lineworkers?
The chemistry, depth of the pipe, and all that may preclude those substances, but the "steering the column of oil" idea seems to make sense. Even drop a bigger pipe over the existing pipe--the stuff'll go UP by itself--the key is to keep it from spreading. Corral it in a flexible column of some kind, and then use tankers to suck it out of the water.
And for God's sake stop using the toxic dispersant!
Marsha Iverson
Seattle, WA
Bend the Pipe
Been to the Gulf numerous times out at Keaton Beach, or Steinhatchee. Grouper, or Sea Trout. Like to scallop too. Lots of good memories and times out there.
What I dont understand is if the pipe is sticking up, why they dont just pinch the pipe and then bend it over like you can a straw or garden hose? Maybe they dont have the leverage underwater necessary to do it, but that seems like that would be the simplest or easiest way to handle it. It probably wouldnt stop the oil leak completely, but it sure would slow it down.
William Golightly
What I dont understand is if the pipe is sticking up, why they dont just pinch the pipe and then bend it over like you can a straw or garden hose? Maybe they dont have the leverage underwater necessary to do it, but that seems like that would be the simplest or easiest way to handle it. It probably wouldnt stop the oil leak completely, but it sure would slow it down.
William Golightly
Realtor @ Poole Realty, Inc- Live Oak, FL
Here we go...
My name is Anthony David Adams. I do a lot - there is plenty online if you want to know more.. but this isn't about me -- it's about the future of the gulf and the future of how we can work together to solve problems.
I had lunch with Bobby Chang (Incase) this week, and one of the things I brought up with him was "why aren't we crowd sourcing solutions to the gulf crisis". It seemed that the biggest, most innovative companies over the last several years have been started by 20 something innovative students.. not to say age is an issue -- more to the point that innovation is coming from non-traditional places.
I then was sitting in the opening remarks of the Personal Democracy Forum, and heard the MC say something along the lines of "Crowdsourcing is great for lots of things, but not for things like the Gulf Crisis." He was neither an expert in crisis management, crowdsourcing, or oil rigs - so I didn't take his comment too seriously -- but it got a laugh of approval from the audience.
It reminded me of something my first angel investor and business partner Bowen Dwelle (CEO of AdMonsters.org) told me, that "When someone tells me something is impossible, I know right away they have no idea what the fuck they are talking about."
I had already sent a request out to Peter Shankman's HARO, and said, I'm looking for some solutions, some ideas from experts, amateurs, and everyone in between who has an idea for how we can solve this issue. So over the course of the day, I started to get dozens of ideas sent in. I felt that, if nothing else, this would be an outlet for discussion and at best, it could be a place for outside the box ideas which could serve as inspiration and innovation. (In a former life, I was a professional brainstormer with and F50 companies of which we often had no i would pay $20k for a 3 hour session for us to play with products and riff about new ways to use them. We'd come up with hundreds of ideas, and often dozens of them immediately went into a patent pipeline.)
So, here you are.. I'm going to start by posting each idea as a post. You can rate them, forward them around, etc. comment and vette them, etc. Read. Set. Go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)