James Cameron Offers to Help BP with Oil Leak

When I first heard this story I really did not know what to think: here is a Hollywood director who directed some awesome movies like Aliens (1986), Titanic(1997), and more recently Avatar(2009), sitting down with the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) and telling them that British Petrolium turned down his offer of help. From Reuters:

"Over the last few weeks I've watched, as we all have, with growing horror and heartache, watching what's happening in the Gulf and thinking those morons don't know what they're doing," Cameron said at the All Things Digital technology conference.

Cameron, the director of "Avatar" and "Titanic," has worked extensively with robot submarines and is considered an expert in undersea filming. He did not say explicitly who he meant when he referred to "those morons."

"I know really, really, really smart people that work typically at depths much greater than what that well is at," Cameron said.

The BP oil spill off the U.S. Gulf Coast is located a mile below the surface.

His comments came a day after he participated in a meeting at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington to "brainstorm" solutions to the oil spill.

This is not a science fiction movie but a tragedy taking place in the Gulf of Mexico in terms of the quality of the water, the destruction of oxygen and plant and animal life not to mention the effects on the food chain for years to come, and the EPA is consulting with James Cameron!?

All I can say is that this oil spill will ruin the Gulf waters and coasts for decades, what a shame. Here is a link to the full article.

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The International Federation of Trekkers Relaunch

I am glad the International Federation of Trekkers will relaunch their website because I never saw the first one! The countdown clock they have is very cool and as I write this there are 14 days left until it is up and running. From the article:

The International Federation of Trekkers (IFT), a Star Trek fan club, was first organized in 1984. A nonprofit corporation, IFT’s purpose, is “To promote the humanistic philosophies and ideals portrayed in the Star Trek myths in a realistic fashion conducive to the continued existence and responsible advancement of human kind. To provide, promote, and support education and positive legal activism in the area of human rights, racial and sexual equality, environmental causes, and space exploration. To promote a more positive impression of Star Trek fans as intelligent, socially conscious, active individuals who are aware and concerned about the real world today.”

Well, it looks like they have a lot of work to do in promoting their very positive ideals with an oil spill destroying the Gulf of Mexico, many wars currently being fought, and massive unemployment due to a global economic crisis. While a lot of the ideas are nice in the Federation, I doubt it would work and it sounds too much like one world government. I do not know if humans could evolve to the point of leaving greed for money and power behind, like the Vulcan species suppressed their violent emotions in exchange for approaching life with pure logic, and be able to handle a Federation that involves working with and getting along with other species when we cannot even get along on Earth with other races.
Here is a link to the article about the website.

Oil Spill in the U.S. Gulf Coast Affects NASA

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the explosion of an oil rig is harming fragile animal, plant, and sea life in what was a beautiful area of water. I have personally visited the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico and I have swum and snorkeled around coral and beautiful fish and it breaks my heart to think of all the destruction this continued leak of oil is causing.
I did not realize it also affects NASA:

The expanding oil slick has cut into the deep water route typically used by NASA barges and their tugs to haul the 15-storey space shuttle fuel tanks from their manufacturing site – the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans – to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be attached to an orbiter for launch.

Space shuttle fuel tanks are built by Lockheed Martin and are too large to be delivered by train or truck. When fully fueled at the launch pad, they weigh about 1.7 million pounds (771,000 kg), counting the 535,000 gallons of cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant.

I am sure other commerce has been disrupted and I cannot understand how this tragedy occured but I hope they end the gush of oil that is filling the water every moment.

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• Oil Spill Hinders Space Shuttle Fuel Tank Delivery (space.com)