Can Kevin Costner Save the World's Oceans? THE COSTNER SOLUTION!!!

[yoyossarian]

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Maybe it's NOT the end of the world... dare I hope???

Late last night on MSNBC (early early morn, actually), I watched a brief report about Kevin Costner; apparently for the last 10 or 15 years he financed a bunch of scientists' research into creating some sort of centrifuge pumps that can separate oil from water (at a 99% rate, yet!) Of COURSE, the news assholes failed to report such details as how many are available, or talk about how the gubmint should contract a BUNCH of companies to make a huge shitload of these things RIGHT FUCKING NOW and other stuff like that... instead, the news-hairdo made a stupid joke about what a bomb Waterworld was...
But it's the first hopeful thing I've heard lately. Hope they let him use the goddamn things!

I know even this news (which I'm calling The Costner Solution, in hopes that people might find such a designation interest-provoking, cuz no one seems to have seen that report but me) is 'WAY late in coming... but such a technology could minimize the damage to some extent, anyway, and be employed in future emergencies as well; this is what ya call yer true scientific advancement here...
So anyways, YAY!... I guess...

Maybe there IS still hope... maybe we'll still make it to Ragnarok yet, or Judgement Day, or The Apocalypse, whatever ya like (2012 by most standards)...

President Evil Online has risen from the grave!

[d_r]

1. water world!

[msanthrope]

10. This invention makes up for that atrocity. n/t

[roguevalley]

11. I hope it does good. Better than most are doing including Obama

There is an article by James Carville on huffingtonpost that should be read. Before you go off on carville, he lives in Louisiana and this is his home that is being screwed. As someone on the tidal path of the exxon valdez, he is entitled to be pissed and I agree. Obama will live or die with this mess and how long he lets those fuckers run it.

[yoyossarian]

12. I can't understand his total lack of a response...

I figure these head honcho billionaire assholes at the top all have secret nukes or somethin'...
What the hell, they can afford 'em...

[Altoid_Cyclist]

2. I saw one report that said he's put up over 20 Million $$$ of his own money.

Hopefully, BP will follow through and test it. At this point, it's probably too late to prevent a large scale environmental disaster from this criminal event...errr I mean unavoidable and accidental spill. But if it works, it will come in handy for future spills. Between Kevin's money and his brother's science background, maybe this will be something that actually works.

Story and video from ABC News:

Costner has been funding a team of scientists for 15 years in hopes of developing a technology to clean up massive oil spills, and his research has created a powerful centrifuge that he claims can separate oil from water and dump the oil into a holding tank.

Costner and representatives of Ocean Therapy Solutions, the firm that developed the machine, demonstrated the centrifugal device for BP officials in New Orleans last week. "I believe they'll want to do the right thing," Costner told reporters at the time.

"We've agreed to test it," BP spokesman Mark Proegler told ABCNews.com today.

Officials with Ocean Therapy Solutions have said one of their machines is capable of cleaning up to 210,000 gallons of water per day. The oil extractor leaves the water 99 percent clean of crude, the firm said in a statement.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/kevin-costner-machine-bp-oil-clean/story?id=10689928

[yoyossarian]

4. Thanx for that!

I was just buzzin' and watchin' tv much too late, and it came and went before I had a chance to take any detailed notes, mental or otherwise... and I couldn't find any postings on it here, and I thought it really needed to be heard by those of us who still give a shit... it's the most hopeful news I've heard all month.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

13. You're welcome.

However, after seeing the news last night I can't help but think that the Gulf region is doomed already. Once the wetlands are destroyed, the tropical storms and hurricanes will have a wide open path to the coast.

Between what the human race does to each other and what they do to the environment, I'm getting more pessimistic by the day.

A little late, but BP needs to be banned from the Gulf and Alaska and anywhere else that they have operations. I know........that will never happen, but it's the only thing that I have to hold onto now.

[yoyossarian]

5. Very encouraging excerpt from that article:

"The machines are basically sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate at unprecedented rates," said Ocean Therapy Solutions CEO John Houghtaling. "They were developed from older centrifuge technology. Normal centrifuge machines are very slow and sensitive to different ratios of oil to water mixtures at intake."

The devices, which can be taken to the spill site via barges, come in different sizes. The largest can clean water at a rate of 200 gallons per minute -- more than 50 gallons faster than the well is leaking, according to the firm. Depending on the water to oil ratio, the devices are capable of extracting 2,000 barrels of oil per day from the gulf. BP is employing six of the machines in its tests.


snip

I wonder how many are available right now, and how much time it would take to make a whole freakin' bunch of 'em...

[sabrina 1]

8. I read somewhere that BP had accepted about six of them.

I don't know if that's all they have, or if that's all BP accepted.

I also read though, that the dispersent BP used, may hamper the job of those centerfuges.

[sabrina 1]

3. I did see the reports on this and it makes me wonder

why, if Kevin Costner could see the need for a solution to oil spills and was willing to spend his money backing an idea that he was persuaded could be a solution, why the U.S. government didn't have the same foresight, and did not invest money in a similar project.

Costner has donated the use of the machines to the clean-up effort. BP has accepted them. I don't know if it will work, but at least it's good to know someone took the possibility of a disaster like this seriously and actually did something about it.

[yoyossarian]

7. Costner's COOL!

And I was never that big a fan of his to begin with!

Hell, if these machines work as they're saying, I'll even forgive him for Robin Hood!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

:toast:

[Edweird]

6. That's awesome.

[yoyossarian]

9. Ain't it?

Nifty, even...

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:party: :party: :party: :party:
:toast: