Man, you are really EGO INVOLVED in this!

I ignore your snotty remarks because I have read the whole thing, I know what a BOP is and how at least two types of BOPs work, and what drilling mud is used for and how it is used. I read and listen to reports from people who were there at the time, and from people who have worked in and around the field (such as my Sri Lankan acquaintance, and an oceanographer friend whom I have known since college and who has been following this very closely, it being very much in his area of both expertise and academic interest—plus another oceanographer friend who currently lives in the Florida Keys and who has followed this whole thing very closely), and who have no direct, personal interest (or ego invovlement) in the matter, and whose knowledge and opinions I can trust.

You did say one thing with which I agree: there is indeed plenty of blame to go around. This incident begins to exhibit the characteristics of a Three Stooges routine for sheer ineptitude. But the ultimate responsibility lies with BP, especially since this whole operation has been affected by their insisting on taking short-cuts and putting profits over safety.

And as far as things like nationalism and your ego involvement are concerned, what Ebbie said up-thread is much to the point. When BP gas stations started appearing in the United States, their advertising made it quite plain that BP stood for "British Petroleum." They may have changed that later, in the same way that the heavily promoted "Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken" later became simply "KFC."

The advertising for both "British Petroleum" and "Kentucky Fried Chicken" was sufficiently effective that these two appellations are what most people think of when the see "BP" or "KFC."

I doubt very much that if, say, a whole bunch of people were to get food poisoning from eating an order to go of KFC ("Kentucky Fried Chicken"), that the the people of the State of Kentucky would be blamed or thought less of because of it.

Likewise, "Esso," an international trade name for Exxon Mobile. The company used to be "Standard Oil of New Jersey." You might note that following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, nobody blamed the people of the State of New Jersey.

Despite the fact that BP used to be called "British Petroleum," NO ONE is blaming the British people for the Gulf oil spill..

Jeez, man! Get a life!!

Don Firth