The Zephyr

THE ZEPHYR IS ON FACEBOOK

stiles — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:40:55 +0000

THE CANYON COUNTRY ZEPHYR is on FACEBOOK…
We’d like to invite you to become a Friend of the Zephyr—with links to the current online Zephyr, our archives, daily updates, the Abbey Page, historic photographs from the Herb Ringer, Charles Kreischer & Edna Fridley Collections..AND your comments.
Follow the link below, then click “LIKE” to receive our News Feed.
THANKS.

THE BP SPILL: AN OIL MAN’S TAKE ON THE DISASTER

stiles — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:33:55 +0000

FROM STILES: My friend Bob White has been working in the oil industry for decades. Right now he lives in Alaska and worked for ConocoPhillips in Anchorage for four years. He offers these insights into BP’s oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. I thought it would be interesting to hear from someone in the business…

The debacle of the gulf oil spill is finally getting serious attention. As the largest oil spill in US history, its’ actual size continues to be down played by British Petroleum (BP) . There are a number of issues / conditions associated with this situation that do not seem to be lucidly explained by the media.

Some facts: The surface of the gulf where the leak is supposedly over 5000′ deep. This translates into about 151 atmospheres of pressure, or about 5300 Lb/ sq inch. It has only been recently that we can do stuff at that depth / pressure. There have been consistent reports that the Blow Out Preventer (BOP) was somehow damaged, perhaps months ago. The BOP is exactly what it says it is, the ultimate control device on the well head.

This well (again from scattered reports) has apparently had a variety of problems all along, and was behind schedule and over budget. A BP executive (s) made the normal BP type decision to blow off the regulatory / best practices requirement of a functioning BOP and depend on their legal dept if all else failed.

Normal BP type decision? Up here in Alaska, BP is notorious for these kinds of decisions. After an accident, they send in the lawyers, and in general pay minimal fines.

The other thing that is not explained by the media in a lucid manner is the technique used to contain pressure in the well. Essentially it is the hydrostatic pressure of the column of fluid in the well casing , in conjunction with mechanical containment. Water, even salt water is about 8 lbs / gallon, specialized drilling fluid weighs about twice that or more depending on what it is. This translates into a much higher static pressure at the bottom of the column that constitutes your well.

The BP bean counter that went out to the rig apparently demanded the specialized fluid to be replaced with salt water as the specialized fluid was expensive and salt water is not.

It appears the drilling fluid was what was in control of the well pressure and when it was removed (against the contractors best judgement and desires) the rig shortly thereafter blew up and burnt to the water. Had the BOP been functional, perhaps this debacle would not have been as serious as it is. The investigation will be interesting to follow. rw

Disclosure: I survived a well blow out in western Wyoming in the ’70′s due to a faulty BOP, working for a contractor on a Chevron well. Recently I worked at Conocophillips Alaska headquarters in anchorage for 4 years.

our Faustian bargain

stiles — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:53:27 +0000

From NPR – Scientists who study lizards say many local populations around the world are going extinct. And the cause, they suspect, is climate change.

Ladies and gents, you are witnessing the slow, inexorable decline of species on a global scale. It is a very quiet decline. A silent ending to many millenniums of evolutionary struggle by some of Nature’s smallest, most inconspicuous creatures.

Perhaps it was inevitable. Nobody knows. And it appears that not many of us are concerned on a visceral level. But the vanishing act comes with unintended consequences beyond our present capability to fathom.

Are we to blame? To some extent, the answer is clear. Concrete comes with a price. As does the conversion of entire continents into the bewildering sea of flotsam we currently refer to as civilization. Any species that greatly exceeds an ecosystem’s carrying capacity must bear the results, perhaps it’s own disappearance.

But Nature will live on in our collective consciousness, at least as long as our techno-wizards see fit to produce erudite replicas via Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, and the world’s cagey zoos. Virtual wildlife – coming soon to a 3-D screen near you.

At some point, this virtual replica of the planet’s atavistic and incomprehensible matrix of biology will become insufficient. We will long for something tangible and wild, because our DNA requires it as part of our operating system. Even our nocturnal dreaming will search for the missing parts that help define who we are as living beings. We will not be satisfied with a mere facsimile, regardless of how many pixels it radiates.

Today, an oil spill of untold proportions; tomorrow some other bizarre insult to the biosphere. We react for the milliseconds it takes to Twitter our “friends.” And then we carry on, as if the news is something that only occurs in some fantasized digital realm, far removed from where dust and blood originates.

Dr. E.O. Wilson once put the bullet in the bull’s eye – “A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.”

A Faustian choice, indeed. Except that to choose “corrosive and risky behavior” leads to a predictable outcome. And that outcome will not seem worth the ticket when the loan sharks appear.

There are no easy answers. Any route from here out is fraught with unexpected twists, turns, and dead ends. There will be lucky ones and losers. Many of the losers will simply vanish with no discernible farewell. They will be the “least among us.”

It’s odd how our species has an innate tendency to be nostalgia for that which we no longer can know first hand. Perhaps it’s a trait designed to aid in our survival as human beings, although how is anybody’s guess.

It is logical that we will have much to be nostalgic over in the coming years and decades. But we have already lost too much.

As the world turns…..

posted by Mudd

I’ll take the Rat-atouille

stiles — Sun, 09 May 2010 14:41:42 +0000

Good news for carnivores. Along comes a fine rebuttal against the relentless noise from the “Save the planet – go vegan!” crowd, thanks to The BBC News -

“Brown rats are among the most invasive mammals in Europe, according to a wide-ranging assessment. Swiss researchers found that the creatures, along with sika deer and muskrats, were having the greatest ecological and economic impact.”

What better reason than to add a touch of animal protein to the diet? Rat casserole, anyone? How about a wee bit of Muskrat pâté?

“According to the EU ‘s database of alien species, sika deer are described ‘a serious forest pest, causing significant damage to broadleaved and conifer plantations’.”

Sika soup?

The permutations are endless, at least for those lucky enough to live in lovely Europe. Closer to home, might we see Nutria niblets? Kudzu flambé?

Table for two!

posted by Mudd

Mercury’s risin’….

stiles — Sun, 09 May 2010 13:11:22 +0000

This isn’t the sort of irony that makes for happy news (oxymoron?); but the combination of greed, willful ignorance, stubborn clinging to atavistic cultural mojo, and karmic rebound can’t be dismissed in the latest reports coming out of Taiji, Japan — “Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in the Oscar-winning documentary ‘The Cove’ have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, Japan’s government said Sunday.”

posted by Mudd

Kanellos the Greek

stiles — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:01:41 +0000

Out of every goofy event in human history, some unlikely hero emerges.
Greece’s long-standing political street theater is no exception. Although the
recent violence appears largely the product of the same adolescent bimbos behind the
Battle in Seattle (a fine example of hormones before logic), one individual stands
tall amongst the carnage, appearing nonchalant in the face (no pun) of tear gas
canisters, burning rubber, and hot pepper spray.

That individual, of course, is Kanellos the Riot Dog!

posted by Mudd

Thoreau would be ….. proud?

stiles — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:51:37 +0000

This in from WCVB in Boston – The town of Concord [Mass.] has banned the sale of bottled drinking water in town beginning in 2011.

“‘We only have one planet and I just don’t want to see it spoiled,’ said Jean Hill, who introduced the measure at Concord’s Town Meeting.” (Not all plastic bottles were banned, mind you – “Water is something we can get from the faucet. You can’t turn your faucet on and get soda,” said Selectwoman Virginia McIntyre…”)

Ahoy, Land of the Free! Let’s get serious about this spoilation business. Cars are downright Hell on the planet – they must be banned. Then we go for gasoline (10 kinds of pollution), Big Macs (strain on nation’s health care), television (makes kid’s stupid, see related blog), golf courses (toxic chemicals), rock music (mega-watt power usage), air travel (greenhouse gas hog), wind farms (bird shredders), plastic (non-degradable junk), eco-tourism (imperialistic elitism), computers (social isolation, landfill rubble), porn. (On second thought, forget porn).

By God (can we say the G word any more? Where’s Clarence Thomas when you need him?) – we must be vigilant to halt the senseless ruination of the only planet we’ve got (although Mars is in the running, depending on how fast the up-and-coming generation of Chinese technological wizards can get us there).

Time is of the essence. The only hope is to ban that which offends us. Plastic water bottles are unAmerican, disgraceful, and just plain freaking evil! Forget the Constitution – our fearless leaders must act to protect us from ourselves before it’s too late. That’s what democracy is all about.

Ban the blog!

posted by Mudd

57 channels and nothin’ on

stiles — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:25:28 +0000

As reported by the erudite BBC News – The more TV a toddler watches, the higher the likelihood they will do badly at school and have poor health at the age of 10, researchers warn.

How shocking! It took the White Lab Coat guys all these decades to figure out that the idiot box is, indeed, an idiot box?

Welcome to the Dimformation Age!

posted by Mudd

an advocate for silence

stiles — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:35:02 +0000

The news is in – noise hurts.

“In recent years rigorous studies on the health consequences of noise have indicated that noise elevates heart rate, blood pressure, vasoconstriction and stress hormone levels, and increases risk for heart attacks. These reports prove that even when we’ve become mentally habituated to noise, the damage it does to our physiologies continues unchecked.”

Or so says George Prochni inThe New York Times in an op-ed piece regarding the dark side of what surrounds us 24/7.

Prochni is an advocate for silence. At least spates of quiet, the constant companion of our species throughout the eons. Until now. “The days when Thoreau could write of silence as ‘a universal refuge’ and ‘inviolable asylum’ are gone. With all our gadgetry punching up the volume at home, in entertainment zones and even places of worship, young people today often lack any haven for quiet.” Poetic, eh?

Next time you wander the aisles of your favorite super market, or sit strapped into the bucket of a dentist’s chair, or find yourself in one of America’s innumerable smokey bars (are there any smokey bars left out there?), listen up. Monsieur Prochni is onto something. You may think you’ve tuned out the constant crashing sounds of our uber-hip culture; but, of course, you haven’t.

The noise and the damage done….

posted by Mudd

Deepwater Horizon is us

stiles — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:03:04 +0000

As horrendous as the Deepwater Horizon oil blow-out appears to be, the Gulf Coast has been under severe threat for many moons.

“The wetlands in the Mississippi River delta have been shrinking at a rate of about one football field an hour for decades, deprived of sediment replenishment by levees in the river, divided by channels cut by oil companies and poisoned by farm runoff from upriver. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita took large, vicious bites.”

If a football field an hour seems unimaginable, it is.

The moral of the story? We are all complicit in the demise of America’s wilds. It has become too easy to blame corporate behemoths or government ineptitude for what ails our nation. It is ourselves who fuel the flames of our own destruction – our automobiles, electronic toys, eco-tourism, 3-D infatuation, worship of celebrity, ad infinitum.

It is as if the American Dream turned on itself, devouring what nutrients were to be found. And we are left to sort through the detritus of what remains of our consumer culture.

The oil spill is not the last word. After the media has exhausted its coverage and sped to another breaking story, the noxious reminder of our shortsightedness will linger, like the gaseous stench from a bloated roadkill. But we will make our choices, always with an eye on the immediate moment, and travel on, until the next time.

WIll we learn from the experience? Look to the past for the answer….

posted by Mudd