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'Top kill' BP operation to halt US oil leak fails

Page last updated at 0:56 GMT, Sunday, 30 May 2010 1:56 UK

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Doug Suttles of BP: "We have been unable to overcome the flow"

The latest attempt to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil leak has failed, the oil giant BP has said.

BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the firm was now shifting to a new strategy to stop the spill.

In the failed procedure - known as "top kill" - the firm had been blasting waste material and heavy mud into a ruptured well.

US President Barack Obama said the continued flow of oil was "as enraging as it is heartbreaking".

The worst oil spill in US history began when a drilling rig exploded and sank last month, killing 11 people.

The thick crude has already permeated more than 70 miles (110km) of Louisiana's coastline, threatening fragile wetlands and putting the vital fishing industry at risk.

Pollution fears

Mr Suttles said BP had determined that the "top kill" method - which had been going on since Wednesday - had failed after studying the results for three days.

"We have not been able to stop the flow," he told reporters on Saturday.

"This scares everybody, the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven't suceeded so far," he said.

The company says it pumped 30,000 barrels of mud into the well, in three attempts, at rates of up to 80 barrels a minute, but it had not worked.

PAST ATTEMPTS TO STEM OIL LEAK

Continue reading the main story

• Oil booms - partly successful
• Controlled burning - causes serious air pollution
• Dispersant used - scientists warn it may kill marine life
• Huge dome placed over leak - became blocked by ice crystals
• Mile-long tube - fails to suck up large amount of oil
• "Top-kill" method to pump heavy mud - abandoned

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It is the latest procedure to have failed since attempts to plug the leak began, with BP having spent more than $940 million (£645 million) so far.

An initial plan to place a 125-tonne dome over the leak failed when it became blocked with ice crystals.

A mile-long tube designed to capture some of the gushing oil was also unsuccessful.

The next option after the failure of "top kill" is called the lower-marine-riser-package (LMRP) cap containment system. It involves an underwater robot using a saw to hack off the leaking pipe and place a cap over it.

The LMRP cap is already on site and the operation is expected to last four days.

BP says it cannot guarantee that the new method - which has not been carried out at depths of 5,000 feet before - will be successful.

At least 12,000 barrels (504,000 gallons) are leaking into the Gulf every day.

'Lost lifestyle'

The BBC's Andy Gallacher says the failure is another blow for the region.

Our correspondent says that people in Louisiana are growing increasingly impatient and angry.

Some fishermen have nailed up signs, with one reading "BP, you ruined our futures and our heritage", our correspondent adds.

"Everybody's starting to realise this summer's lost. And our whole lifestyle might be lost," Michael Ballay, the manager of Cypress Cove Marina, told Associated Press.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama toured oil-hit areas, saying the US would "do whatever it takes" to help those affected.

He said he would triple the manpower to contain and clean up the spill. A total of 20,000 people have already been deployed.

Mr Obama said he would take responsibility for "solving this crisis", though he said BP would be held financially accountable for the "enormous damage".

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Gulf of Mexico oil leak 'worst US environment disaster'

Page last updated at 20:49 GMT, Sunday, 30 May 2010 21:49 UK

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There is increasing anger in local communities at the failures

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the worst environmental disaster the US has faced, a senior official has said.

White House energy adviser Carol Browner also said the US was "prepared for the worst scenario" that the leak might not be stopped before August.

BP is to try a new tactic after its latest failure to halt the leak, but says there is no guarantee of success.

BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said even if it worked it would only halt a majority of the spill.

At least 20 million gallons have now spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, affecting more than 70 miles (110km) of Louisiana's coastline.

Eleven rig workers died when the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank nearly six weeks ago.

Slice and cap

Ms Browner, talking on NBC's Meet The Press, said: "More oil is leaking in the Gulf of Mexico than at any other time in our history. It means there is more oil than the Exxon Valdez (in Alaska in 1989)."

Carol Browner on 'the biggest eco-disaster ever', on NBC's Meet the Press

She said she hoped the latest plan would work but admitted it would be a temporary measure and that a relief well currently being drilled might turn out to be the permanent solution.

However, that will not be ready for at least two months.

Ms Browner said BP had been told to drill another relief well in case the first did not work.

In the meantime, BP is setting up its Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) to stem the flow.

It will use undersea robots to slice through the damaged pipe to make a clean cut that can be connected to another pipe, capturing the leaking oil.

The plan will take four days to set up.

However, BP said the operation had never been carried out at a depth of 5,000ft and "the successful deployment of the containment system cannot be assured".

The White House said the president had been informed that the flow rate could increase by as much as 20% until the containment device was applied over the leak.

University of Alabama engineering professor Philip W Johnson told Associated Press news agency that although he was hopeful the plan would succeed, if the new cap could not be placed on the fresh cut, "things will get much worse".

The system is similar to a previous containment dome plan that failed.

'Unjustly victimised'

Speaking on US television on Sunday, BP managing director Robert Dudley vowed the company would learn from its failed attempts and continue trying.

PAST ATTEMPTS TO STEM OIL LEAK

Continue reading the main story

• Oil booms - partly successful
• Controlled burning - causes serious air pollution
• Dispersant used - scientists warn it may kill marine life
• Huge dome placed over leak - became blocked by ice crystals
• Mile-long tube - fails to suck up large amount of oil
• "Top-kill" method to pump heavy mud - abandoned

US fishing villages 'on the edge'

He said the company would know by the end of the week if the latest attempt had succeeded.

Mr Suttles earlier admitted its "top kill" operation to blast waste material and heavy mud into the ruptured well had failed.

"We have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe it's time to move on to the next of our options," he said.

Mr Suttles said he "did not know for certain" why it had failed.

Meanwhile at least 12,000 barrels (504,000 gallons) are leaking into the Gulf every day.

BP has spent more than $940m (£645m) so far in trying to contain the disaster.

President Obama earlier expressed anger at the latest failure.

"It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimised by this man-made disaster are made whole," he said.

Mr Obama toured the oil-hit areas on Friday and said he would triple the manpower to contain and clean up the spill.

Opinion: Why the web benefits liberals more than conservatives

(CNN) -- From the micro-donation platform first popularized by Howard Dean in 2003 to the million-strong Barack Obama Facebook page to the huge audience of the Huffington Post, liberals have been the dominant political force on the internet since the digital revolution began.

Now, research out of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society suggests that the reason behind this imbalance may be the liberal belief system itself.

Liberals, the research finds, are oriented toward community activism, employing technology to encourage debate and feature user-generated content. Conservatives, on the other hand, are more comfortable with a commanding leadership and use restrictive policies to combat disorderly speech in online forums.

All of this suggests that the internet may benefit liberals more often than conservatives -- at least for now.

The different approaches of the top two political blogs may illustrate the correlation between ideology and online strategy.

The Huffington Post's closest conservative competitor, Hotair.com, has only a fraction of its audience size and is tightly controlled by an inner circle of three authors.

A leading right-wing blog, Hot Air was founded by Michelle Malkin, an author who is known for her support of wartime loyalty oaths and racial profiling as a defense against terrorism. In criticizing Obama's 2009 address to the United Nations, she said, "he solidified his place in the international view as the great appeaser and the groveler in chief."

Indeed, Malkin's hard-line national security views are matched by Hotair's unusually restrictive comment policy. The site permits comments only by registered users; currently, registration is closed to any new users. The site states, "We may allow as much or as little opportunity for registration as we choose, in our absolute discretion, and we may close particular comment threads or discontinue our general policy of allowing comments at any time."

By contrast, the left-leaning Huffington Post, the most visited blog on the Internet, has thousands of bloggers and invites active users to become featured authors and comment facilitators.

Founder Arianna Huffington herself supported working diplomatically with the international community to deal with Saddam Hussein and recently endorsed Jeremy Rifkin's book "The Empathic Civilization," which she says "allows humanity to see itself as an extended family living in a shared and interconnected world."

Thus, from just a snapshot of the top political bloggers, one catches a glimpse of an emerging pattern: leadership and control from the right, and equality and community on the left.

Harvard professor Yochai Benkler finds that these differences are representative of the broader political web.

"The left not only chooses more participatory technology, but also uses the available technological tools to maintain more fluid relations between secondary or user-contributed materials and those of primary contributors," he writes. "The left is more egalitarian in opportunities for speech, more discursive, and more collaborative in managing the sites."

By contrast, Hot Air's prohibitive policies, and Malkin's support of strong leadership, seem consistent with Benkler's conclusion that the right is more "hierarchical" in its approach.

While any definitive statements about a technology still in its infancy are premature, the inclusiveness of the liberal approach does seem to have its advantages. Obama's Internet strategy is credited with giving grass-roots supporters space to find unique ways to reach their more apathetic peers and motivate them through user-generated content.

This openness to outsiders gave rise to surprising internet sensations such as the iconic "Hope" poster and enormous gatherings coordinated by social-networking activists.

Indeed, conservative Scott Brown's stunning victory in a Massachusetts Senate race took its strategy from Obama's playbook. Instead of micromanaging the campaign message, Brown permitted an unknown universe of latent conservative activists to contribute as they saw fit.

"An engaged following is more likely to retweet, to comment on blogs, to respond to unfounded criticism," Boston political consultant John LaRosa told Wired. Of Brown's campaign, he said, "it became a movement, and it just fed on itself."

But even if more conservatives adopt Brown's online strategy, right-wing constituents overall may be less comfortable with grass-roots activism. Russell J. Dalton, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, says that among politically active youth, liberals are substantially more likely to donate money, attend a rally and participate in online discussions.

Republicans tend to see a "limited participatory role" for citizens, Dalton writes in his book "The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping American Politics."

The conservative philosophy of ironclad loyalty to a singular message does have decided advantages. In Congress, strong party loyalty has allowed Republicans to vote as a bloc, giving them formidable strength despite their minority status.

However, the internet is less predictable. And, from what we have observed from the short life of the web, opening one's site to the capricious innovations of grass-roots users can be enormously beneficial but hard to control.

Conservatives may one day embrace the participatory web en masse. However, the very structure of the internet as a decentralized grouping of communities may never appeal to the large portion of right-wingers who prefer military-style hierarchies and commanding leaders.

And, as years go by without a conservative social-media pioneer or a top-ranked website, it looks as though the internet has already chosen a side.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gregory Ferenstein.

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Smart clothes offer emotional aid

Page last updated at 9:50 GMT, Friday, 4 June 2010 10:50 UK

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Smart clothes could soon be helping their wearers cope with the stresses of modern life.

The prototype garments monitor physiological states including temperature and heart rate.

The clothes are connected to a database that analyses the data to work out a person's emotional state.

Media, including songs, words and images, are then piped to the display and speakers in the clothes to calm a wearer or offer support.

Created as part of an artistic project called Wearable Absence the clothes are made from textiles woven with different sorts of wireless sensors. These can track a wide variety of tell-tale biological markers including temperature, heart rate, breathing and galvanic skin response.

Data is gathered passively and used to trigger a response from a web-based database previously created by the wearer. The clothes connect to the web via a smartphone.

When the wearer is detected as being in a particular emotional state, the database will send media to the clothes to help try to change a person's mood

To accomplish this, the clothes are fitted with display made of LEDs and have speakers built in to the hood. The display can show scrolling text or simple images and the speakers can replay music, sounds or pre-recorded messages from friends or family.

Developed by Barbara Layne from Concordia University in Canada and Janis Jefferies from Goldsmiths College's Digital Studios, the prototype garments were shown at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences held in Montreal from 28 May - 3 June.

Earlier work by Professor Layne created jackets that knew when their owners were touching and changed the messages being displayed on the LED displays sewn into them.

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London only UK entry in world's 'top 50 cities'

London received the same score as it did in last year's survey

London is the only UK city to have been ranked in a global top 50 for quality of living, but comes in at a lowly 39th spot, a new survey has suggested.

The study was based on factors including crime, political stability, hospitals, transport, food and drink, leisure, climate and personal freedom.

The Mercer Quality Of Living ranking assesses 221 cities to help governments and firms place staff on assignments.

Vienna was ranked at the top of the list for the second year running.

London was followed by Aberdeen at 53rd position, Birmingham at 55, Glasgow at 57 and Belfast at number 63.

Mercer carries out the study to help governments and companies compensate employees fairly when sending them on international assignments.

Baghdad at bottom

The least desirable city of the 221 in the study was the Iraqi capital Baghdad, placed at the bottom of the list due to its lack of safety and stability.

European cities dominated the spots in the index, with Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland in second and third place and the German cities of Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in sixth and joint seventh place.

Dublin was ranked in 26th place.

TOP 10 CITIES 1. Vienna, Austria 2. Zurich, Switzerland 3. Geneva, Switzerland 4. Vancouver, Canada 4. Auckland, New Zealand 6. Dusseldorf, Germany 7. Frankfurt, Germany 7. Munich, Germany 9. Bern, Switzerland 10. Sydney, Australia Source: Mercer 2010 Quality of Living Survey Send us your comments

Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, said: "As the world economy becomes more globalised, cities beyond the traditional financial centres are emerging as attractive places in which to expand or establish a business.

"Cities in many emerging markets, such as in the Middle East or Asia, have seen a significant influx of foreign companies and their expatriate employees in recent years.

"To ensure their expatriates are compensated appropriately and an adequate hardship allowance is included in their benefits package, companies seek a clear picture of the quality of living in these cities.

"We have reviewed our index to reflect these developments and it now better represents the cities that most interest our clients."

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