Inventors Say BP Ignoring Their Oil Spill Ideas

[babylonsister]

Inventors Say BP Ignoring Their Oil Spill Ideas
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 19, 2010

Filed at 8:00 p.m. ET


NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A suggestion box or publicity stunt? BP has received thousands of ideas from the public on how to stop a blown oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, but some inventors are complaining that their efforts are getting ignored.

Oil-eating bacteria, bombs and a device that resembles a giant shower curtain are among the 10,000 fixes people have proposed to counter the growing environmental threat. BP is taking a closer look at 700 of the ideas, but the oil company has yet to use any of them nearly a month after the deadly explosion that caused the leak.

''They're clearly out of ideas, and there's a whole world of people willing to do this free of charge,'' said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive Inc., which has created an online network of experts to solve problems.

BP spokesman Mark Salt said the company wants the public's help, but that considering proposed fixes takes time.

''They're taking bits of ideas from lots of places,'' Salt said. ''This is not just a PR stunt.''

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/19/us/politics/AP-US-Gulf-Oil-Spill.html?_r=1

[izquierdista]

1. It takes time...

...to figure out how to put all the useful ideas into practice without any remuneration to the inventor. What do you want BP to do, hire someone who figured out what to do and actually pay them?

[panader0]

2. My idea

Low tech. Place siphon hoses by the thousands into the biggest masses of the spill. Pump the oil/water mix into tankers and separate it later. If enough boats/ships went out and sucked this shit up, it would help.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. If the Intellectual Property isn't internal to BP, they will pay royalties for decades.

Not to mention priority 1: making sure they can still tap the reserve.

[On the Road]

4. I'm Sure the Guy Who Came Up with the Shower Curtain

is upset that his idea wasn't taken, but I'm sure BP would be glad to take him up on it if he showed up tomorrow with a one-mile-long, many-miles-wide piece of material preweighted to sink to the bottom. And I'm sure the guy with the bomb idea would be tickled if they implemented it, up until the point that it actually blew the hole wider, at which point he would say "but they didn't do it right!"

Designing on a drawing board is a very different matter from having the responsibility of putting something effective underwater within a matter of days.

[glinda]

5. Haul their arses into jail. I am sure there are plenty of charges possible.