changing the subject for a minute, the oil spill in the gulf question.

[jarv]

In your house, and mine, we all have a main tap which turns off the water at source (to the whole house)  if say, the bathroom starts to gush everywhere.
Question for any engineers out there....why could this concept not be built in at the bottom of the sea to stop the oil spilling at alarming rate???  $500 million and they forgot the master safety shut off tap!
Most amazing piece of engineering disaster since the big dig in Boston massachusetts. (Those of you living in USA will understand that one, billions of dollars just to dig a tunnel).

[Lighthouse]

Yes but you try and reach the mains shut off stop cock tap thing. Somebody has put all the washing powders and laundry pincers that haven't been used since the fifties right in front of it. Then it is stiff through lack of use (insert joke here, too late that one will do). You have to find the WD40 then you have to finally reach the thing to turn it off. Only to find you remember this from years ago and a new, more easily accessible tap was put in for this very reason.

Why aren't more people talking about the last of the big political debates on telly tonight as well. Now that is newzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[finnster01]

Mr Jarv,

We built a tunnel too that wasn't too smart. I can't remember the major paper, but one of the editors said at the time(referring to Maggie Thatcher and I believe Mitterrand) "when two arseholes unite, you get a tunnel".

Why would you ever build a tunnel to get to France anyway?

The simple answer to your original question is that it costs money and nobody has told you that you have to build the shut-off valve as opposed to houses. So nobody gives a shite

[Logicalman]

In your house, and mine, we all have a main tap which turns off the water at source (to the whole house)  if say, the bathroom starts to gush everywhere.
Question for any engineers out there....why could this concept not be built in at the bottom of the sea to stop the oil spilling at alarming rate???  $500 million and they forgot the master safety shut off tap!
Most amazing piece of engineering disaster since the big dig in Boston massachusetts. (Those of you living in USA will understand that one, billions of dollars just to dig a tunnel).

Jarv,
It is claimed they did have a master shutoff switch (of some kind - depends which news outlet is reporting) unfortunately it was apparently damaged during the incident and they then spent 2 days trying to activate it, without success, before coming up with the current plans of using the balloon to capture deep sea escapes (currently estimated at 5K barrels a day), and setting fire to the surface oil (global warming? WHAT global warming) whilst waiting for the subs to get there and assess the situation and finally cap it.

Interesting update and info from BP as to how they deal with the surface oil ...
" ..Crews had planned to use a 150m fire-resistant boom to collect several thousand gallons of the thickest oil on the surface, tow it to a remote area, set it on fire, and allow it to burn for about an hour. When the flames go out hardened tar is left in the water, which can be removed using nets or skimmers.
BP said more than 30,000m of boom had so far been assigned to contain the spill, with an additional 87,000m available and 97,000m on order.
The oil spill response team had recovered 16,311 barrels (2.5m litres) of an oil-water mix, and 69 response vessels were being used, the company added. .."