

BP's Photo Blockade of the Gulf Oil Spill - mmphosis
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/26/the-missing-oil-spill-photos.html

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andreyf
Sounds like a great opportunity for real reporters to dress up as fishermen to
sneak out there and take some unique pictures. This kind of thing only stops
the half-ass-reporters out there who will go home after running into the coast
guard to complain and feel sorry about themselves.

 _boo hoo BP is trying to control the press coverage_

Uh, yes, that's what a public company has to do: maximize shareholder value.
Now do what _real journalists are supposed to do do_ : break a couple of
stupid rules, find a way to get out there, and take some damned pictures. What
are they going to do? Shoot down your plane? Seriously.

I mean, what kind of journalist decides because the coastguard stopped you,
you're going to sit back and write self-pitying articles like this? Grow some
balls, just hide in a fishing boat for all I care, and _take some damned
pictures_.

Then write another story of how badass you were nearly getting shot down by
the BP Air Force. Reporters nowadays, sheesh.

~~~
jsz0
The flight ban is also being enforced by the FAA. Probably difficult to find a
pilot willing to put their career at risk. I'm not clear why my tax dollars
via the FAA should be used to fund the PR response of a public company.

~~~
pyre
I can see them putting some restrictions on the area due the the massive
amount of press that will want access to the airspace (i.e. to prevent aerial
traffic jams over the hardest hit areas or the areas with the most damning
photos). But the idea that BP is pulling the strings and that only BP-charter
flights can get clearance is getting too close to the realm of Big Brother
(well, closer to the Neal Stephenson vision of the future in Snow Crash where
corporations rule everything) for me.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Funny, there's dozens of aircraft aloft over my city of Los Angeles at any
given moment, and it's far smaller than this spill.

Crowded airspace is _not_ the issue.

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yellowbkpk
Here's the actual TFR:

<http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_2957.html>

"Pilots requesting flights under this exception must contact the houma
deepwater horizon incident air operations center at 985-493-7804 between the
hours of 0600-1800 cst, a minimum of 24 hours prior to desired flight time.
Operators should be prepared to provide precise details of their requested
flight including: pilots name and contact information, company/organization,
purpose of flight, type aircraft, callsign, ingress/egress points and times,
Requested altitude and route of flight. Pilots will then be provided with
additional instructions for obtaining final approval and beacon code
assignment."

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jrockway
The comments here scare me. Why is everyone afraid of the government or
breaking some rules? The worst that could happen to you is a few days in
prison. Suck it up, serve the sentence, and know that you've changed the world
in a positive way. I'm glad that everyone is not so spineless, otherwise we
wouldn't even know there _was_ an oil spill...

~~~
ramchip
_The worst that could happen to you is a few days in prison_

I don't know about journalists, but having a criminal file would make many
jobs I am interested in inaccessible.

~~~
jrockway
Not as many as being afraid would.

------
MikeCapone
BP's also denying the existence of large underwater oil plumes that have been
spotted by many science vessels:

[http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/bp-denies-
existence-...](http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/bp-denies-existence-
underwater-oil-plumes-gulf-mexico.php)

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rrhyne
Finding a pilot willing to loose his $6k+ pilots license to the FAA, no matter
how farked the FAA is would be tough.

Easier to get a $300 RC plane setup, lightweight camera and a boat. The
Slowstick by GWS makes an easy to fly, inexpensive camera platform.

If I was anywhere near the gulf, I'd be doing this myself.

~~~
jrockway
Best idea I've heard yet. I, for one, welcome our new sticking-it-to-the-man
robot overlords.

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asmithmd1
Kickstarter - Grassroots mapping the Gulf oil spill with balloons and kites:
<http://kck.st/cj3Anh>

~~~
ynniv
If you're going to do it, DO IT! Stop raising money for everything: it's a
waste of time.

~~~
yellowbkpk
They are doing it: <http://grassrootsmapping.org/gulf-oil-spill/>

~~~
ynniv
So they are... clearly I didn't get past the fold on Kickstarter. Maybe this
is why?

    
    
      $750 PLEDGED OF $5,000 GOAL
      19 DAYS TO GO
      THIS PROJECT WILL ONLY BE FUNDED IF AT LEAST $5,000
        IS PLEDGED BY MONDAY JUN 21, 6:18PM EDT
    

Why use kickstarter instead of PayPal/traditional payment gateway? The theme
of the site suggests that a project will not begin until it has achieved a
funding goal. Will grassrootsmapping see any of the $750 they have raised so
far before the 21st? And do they get anything if they don't reach $5k?

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orangecat
Of course, the blockade is actually being run by government and military
entities. BP can't arrest journalists, but the Coast Guard can.

~~~
bobo418
In case there was any doubt about the feasibility of coordinating a large-
scale conspiracy involving large numbers of personel, here it is. In plain
view yet we may never see it.

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jrwoodruff
Here's the most graphic images I've seen, but they're over a week old and
pretty tame compared to Valdez.

[http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisia...](http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html)

~~~
guns
I hope you mean the images are pretty tame in comparison, and not the spill
itself. Not only has the BP leak massively surpassed Valdez in volume (2-10x),
it took place a mile underwater, which multiplies it's danger.

Exxon Valdez was a surface spill, so most of the oil that was spilled stayed
on the surface of the water and began to have dramatic effects on the coastal
environment. This disaster is leaking millions of gallons per day (Valdez was
10 million gallons) from the sea floor, much of which is rising slowly to the
top through a mile of water, dispersing on its way up, and some percentage of
the oil is clumping at the bottom, or simply not rising [1]. The polluted area
should thus be measured in cubic feet, and not simply in visibly affected
surface area.

The implications of this event are quite staggering, and BP will get away with
paying a slim fraction of the true cost to society.

[1] unless I am misinformed and 100% of crude oil rises to the surface

~~~
ars
Ah, but the more dilute the spill the better things are.

Bacteria do a wonderful job to biodegrading oil - but only if they have enough
oxygen, which is in limited supply. By spreading things out they have enough
oxygen to work with.

And yes, 100% of the oil should rise to the surface, but some will rise
slowly.

I think the reason we are not seeing a lot of oil is simply that the bacteria
ate it.

~~~
asmithmd1
what do bacteria turn oil into? CO2? In that case will there be big algae
blooms in the next phase of this spill?

~~~
ars
CO2, yes (and water), but algae blooms are not caused by CO2, they are caused
by nitrogen or phosphorous.

------
rjett
On a related note, I was just remarking to a friend today about how hard this
oil spill is to think about without seeing any sort of visual diagrams of the
well, what the seafloor looks like, where the relief wells would be drilled,
etc. These sort of visual aids have been conspicuously absent in mostly
everything I've seen about this catastrophe.

~~~
blantonl
Believe it or not, the BBC has some of the best graphical representations of
what has been happening over the past 40 days.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8651333.stm>

As a past resident of Louisiana (attended LSU and lived in New Orleans for 3
years) I can tell you that this catastrophe will economically be on-par with
Hurricane Katrina. Many of us have no idea how important (and awesome!) our
seafood industry is. Our best shrimp, crabs, and oysters all _directly_ come
from the area that this spill is impacting. All I can say is, this sucks.

With _that_ said, reading the article leads me to believe that a good majority
of reporters and people being turned away have been done so in good faith or
simple mistakes. Let's not be mistaken - reporters can crowd an area and cause
serious safety concerns for people who are working to contain the spill. And
they can also irritate the crap out of workers who are more concerned with
getting stuff done than answering lots of questions. Reporters will climb over
themselves to get the latest scoop on a hop topic. And this is one.

On on the subject of TFR's (Temporary Flight Restrictions) as mentioned in the
article - Only the FAA issues TFR's, and those are issued to protect operating
aircraft in a specially designated zone from outside interference (read:
mostly the media). There was a complete TFR issued for most of south east
Louisiana just after Katrina so that air traffic was carefully controlled for
rescue operations. This is no different, there is an enormous amount of
aircraft that are working in this area and TFR's are common to protect the
working aircraft from non-essential related aircraft.

I'm sure that BP has their corporate spin-doctors running at full steam, but
I'm quite positive that there is no conspiracy to shut down access to the
public regarding this tragedy.

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AdamGibbins
I found this very useful for portraying the actual size of the spill:
<http://www.beowulfe.com/oil/>

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danielnicollet
Good post - check this out for aerials of the disaster on the coast:
[http://healthygulf.org/201005281321/blog/bp-s-oil-
drilling-d...](http://healthygulf.org/201005281321/blog/bp-s-oil-drilling-
disaster-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/new-photos-of-oil-in-la-marsh)

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ck2
Cops are being complicit because they know long after the press is gone, BP
will still be there handing out the cash to those that helped them cover this
up.

Remember BP has other rigs running in the area which made them $3 Billion this
year alone. They probably won't even bother renaming themselves and just spend
the money on lawyers and their PR machine instead.

As a corporation they've also been handed unlimited votes via unlimited
advertising, hence politicians working with them.

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jcromartie
How can BP block anything? They are a private corporation with no particular
rights to the public beaches they are making a fuss over. This is so wrong...

~~~
jrockway
They donate to politicians, who have passed laws allowing them to do whatever
they feel like doing. Balance of power? Hahahaha.

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anigbrowl
It's pretty sad how strongly the desire to share information inversely
correlates with naked financial interest.

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schwit
First off BP has an overriding obligation to its stockholders. Second, BP has
a PR playbook for this scenario that is based upon decades of experience. For
the moment BP's money is making the rules.

~~~
pyre
How many of those stockholders are going to affected by the local impact to
Louisiana and the possible National/Global economic impact as it radiates
outward? It's short-sighted to talk about BP's obligations to their
stockholders just in terms of raw stock prices.

[ You also fail to mention that many BP employees as well as executives and
board members probably have stock options, meaning that they are also looking
after their own interests in this matter too. It's not like they _want_ to be
altruistic, but these pesky investors are holding them back. And it's not like
these 'stockholders' are some external entity to the company with a hard line
between investors and employees with no grey area in between. ]

{edit} AIG also had an obligation to their investors to keep the stock price
up and up and up... until it came crashing down. Saying, 'they have an
obligation to their investors,' is really just a cop out. It's a way of
pushing responsibility away (i.e. "Don't blame me! I have a responsibility to
the investors, my hands are tied! I'm compelled to this course of action.").

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mmphosis
Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster (cbsnews.com)
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1393992>

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waivej
Maybe someone should build a site to anonymously post photos on.

~~~
c23gooey
pretty sure wikileaks will help you there - <http://www.wikileaks.com>

~~~
pyre
Or 4chan (or any of the other anonymous image boards)...

Or a throw-away Flickr account...

The hardest part is the _getting_ of the photos, not the distribution.

