Question for those of you watching TV at home: Is there anybody commenting on what is happening

[sinkingfeeling]

along with the live shots of the 'top kill'? I have two live streams of the thing and have no idea what's going on.

[Webster Green]

1. They're pumping drill mud through the BOP and down into the well pipe.

The ROV camera is trained on the BOP looking for any leakage.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. So, the pumping is going on? Thanks.

[gateley]

3. CNN - Rick Sanchez, but essentially all we're learning is that it will take a couple

of days at least until we even see signs of a diminishing flow.

They have 5 cameras and at times someone will identify what the image shows, but the pictures aren't changing much.

So that's all that's going on -- the procedure is in progress and we're just taking it "slow and steady".

[BelgianMadCow]

4. I have no idea, but sure millions have the same question atm

tbh, I can't believe the media wouldn't have dredged up experts to comment live - let's hope they exist, we learn of them and they do a good job. Days seems very long to get some result - I'd say as soon as you start pumping the "mud" you get a pretty good idea of where you're headed. It would take much more than a couple ROV feeds to get a handle on that though.
Again tbh, I would expect government ppl that are truly in the know to be aboard the Q4000 vessel and monitoring AND reporting things. It's "only" the biggest ecological disaster (barring the slow disaster of climate change) ever.

As it is, the disclaimer below the BP feed is rather disheartening. "You don't know what you see and we will tell you what we want when we want to". I'm paraphrasing.

Luckily they are so trustworthy :sarcasm:

[Webster Green]

5. It's a very controlled process of forcing drill mud into the well pipe.

The pressure has to be just enough to get through the blowout preventer (BOP) without damaging it, but strong enough to eventually force the oil down and replace it with mud, then cement.

They calculate the weight of the mud in one mile of vertical pipe to determine the added pressure they need to force the mud into the pipe from the top and through the BOP on the seabed. There's a shitload of space to fill with mud, which is why it will take a couple of days.

[Uzybone]

6. of course not, do you think the talking heads understand what they are watching?

we are all in wait and see mode.