Just Sayin’ Open Thread [With Update]
By Bronwyn's Harbor on July 23, 2010 at 11:15 PM in Current Affairs
Just sayin’ — a world of hurt and misery for the Gulf of Mexico’s inhabitants, ecological future, and the humans who depend on the Gulf for their livelihoods COULD have been prevented for many reasons, including this, from the A.P., via NPR.org’s Web site:
Worker: Gulf Rig’s Alarm System Was Partly Disabled
An electronics technician aboard the ill-fated oil rig Deepwater Horizon told an investigative panel Friday that an alarm system was partially shut down on the day the rig exploded.
Mike Williams, who worked for rig owner Transocean Ltd., said a three-way alarm system to warn of fire, explosive gas and toxic gas was turned on to monitor conditions, but its sound and light alarms had been disabled.
He testified he knew the alarm settings from a computer monitor into which it fed. He said in 2009 he asked about the settings and was told the company “didn’t want people looking up at 3 a.m. to a false alarm.”
Williams said that if the system had been fully operational, an alarm likely would have sounded before the explosion … on the night of April 20.
There’s much more in the story, including this:
Williams also said the Deepwater Horizon was to be sent to a shipyard for extensive repairs. He said he was told the rig would be there for an extended time because “it was in very bad shape.”
UPDATE via Huffington Post: “Deepwater Horizon Alarm System Was Partly Disabled Prior To Explosion, Technician Tells Congress“. This is another A.P. story on the alarm system.
KENNER, La. (AP) — An alarm system was partially shut down the day the ill-fated oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico … an electronics technician who was aboard told an investigative panel on Friday.
Later in Washington, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating the spill, asked Transocean Ltd. for documents concerning safety and the condition of equipment on the rig. Transocean owned the rig, which was being leased by BP PLC. …
Technician Mike Williams told the panel that the alarm system was turned on to monitor for fire, explosive gas and toxic gas but that its sound and light alarms had been disabled. The Marine Accident Investigation panel was meeting in Kenner. It is made up of Coast Guard members and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement – formerly the Minerals Management Service. …
Did I miss the renaming of MMS? When did this happen?
In the second A.P. story, there is this reference to a NYT story that I haven’t seen. Have any of you? Can you assist in finding this?
The House committee also cited a New York Times story this week which reported rig workers’ concerns prior to the explosion about safety and the condition of some equipment on board.
Of Note: Huffington Post has a thorough special section on all the news pertaining to the oil spill. Among the many new stories today is “Dems Demand That Salazar Stop Dragging His Heels And Investigate BP Whistleblower Allegations.”
ON AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT NOTE: My initial reason for visiting the NPR Web site was to view their story on the death of journalist Daniel Schorr. The NPR report on Schorr’s life includes links to several NPR interviews with Schorr.
I remember many, many years ago when Schorr’s sharp, biting commentaries were a regular feature on CNN. Like too many features and programs I enjoy on TV, CNN did away with Schorr’s commentaries. It was one of many of CNN’s dubious decisions that made the network less and less interesting to view.
Here’s a snippet from part of NPR’s coverage of Schorr’s passing:
Schorr joined CBS News in 1953 as one of “Murrow’s boys,” the celebrated news team put together by Edward R. Murrow. He reopened the network’s Moscow bureau, which had been shuttered by Joseph Stalin in 1947. Ten years later, Schorr scored an exclusive broadcast interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the U.S.S.R. Communist Party chief — the first-ever with a Soviet leader. Schorr was barred from the U.S.S.R. later that year after repeatedly defying Soviet censors.
He covered the building of the Berlin Wall as CBS bureau chief for Germany and Western Europe. In 1962, he aired a celebrated portrait of citizens living under Communist rule in East Germany.
He was reassigned to Washington in 1966. Other reporters in the bureau were already covering major institutions such as Congress or the State Department, so Schorr assigned himself to cover the implementation of President Johnson’s Great Society programs.
“No one had such a beat,” recalled his bureau colleague Roger Mudd. “He was everywhere. He had almost carte blanche to cover Washington.” …
Often, I disagreed with Schorr’s views, but that never stopped me from listening to him, and I was glad he was on NPR for many, many years. Scott Simon of NPR also wrote a moving tribute to Schorr.
What’s on your minds? What have you found today?
by Ronald Scott
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