• It’s held up pretty well so far, but they just want to ensure its safety. There haven’t been any leaks in the spill as of yet, but you know, they don’t want to force the issue. So it’ll continue on beyond the 48-hour timeframe they originally gave themselves. They also want to check the seafloor to see if any gas or oil is leaking, just to be on the safe side. Feel confident about this process, guys – they’re trying to base everything they’re doing on science, not on the whims of a bunch of idiots. source

• 6,745 pounds per square inch of pressure in the oil well
• two number of pounds this level is increasing per hour source

• » Why this is good: Simply put, if there’s high pressure in the well, it means the cap can hold up without sporting a new leak. Point guy Thad Allen says that if the level were to get above 7,500 pounds per square inch, it’s would show the cap his high integrity, but if it were to go down, it would suggest that a leak sprung up somewhere.

• one You got financial reform through both Houses, ready to sign, but nobody knows what it is.
• two You’re polling at some of the lowest levels of your presidency right now, so don’t get too comfy.
• three The oil spill is at a very critical juncture, so you better be ready to get back down there. source

• YES which is a very positive sign; hopefully it keeps up source

• For the love of God, you idiots! We landed on the moon, Obama’s birth certificate is real, the World Trade Center actually got hit by a couple of planes, the Holocaust actually happened, JFK got shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and there is a ton of BP’s black stuff in the Gulf of Mexico right now. Can we discredit these idiots immediately, please? source

• Let’s face it, guys. We’re all really optimistic that BP’s latest ploy actually contained the oil spill for good. Heck, BP’s stock went up significantly in the immediate aftermath of the news. But as our boy Jake “Dr. Buzzkill” Tapper put it, we’re not out of the woods yet. There’s much more to deal with. But, instead of being party poopers like Tapper, who is probably upset about his pending exit from “This Week,” let’s bask in this moment for a second – no new oil is flooding the Gulf of Mexico. A quick breakdown from us:

What 85 days looks like

• 7,403,100 seconds of oil leakage

• 123kminutes of exciting oil spillage fun to deal with
• 2,056 hours of oil-spilling excitement for the the whole family
• 185M gallons of oil flooded the Gulf in the meantime; hooray!

The major players in the spill

• 40%of people polled in June disapproved of Obama’s oil spill performance
• 70% of people in the same poll thought BP sucked at their job source

• fourvisits by Obama to the Gulf Region
• 31 days since Obama last visited the Gulf
• 26 days since Tony Hayward went yachting

So, what’s next?

• oneBP will continue its testing of the method, which will last around 48 hours.
• two BP will then go back to its old system, recovering 80,000 barrels a day.
• three BP will remain busy, working on a permanent relief well solution. source

• good Our good friends at BP have put a tighter cap on the well, with the goal of stopping the oil leak altogether.
• bad Oh, there’s between 89 million and 176 million gallons of oil that have already leaked over 83 days. (Just sayin’.) source

• Meanwhile, AP staffers across the Gulf region and in Washington continue to provide comprehensive coverage of the oil spill.
• AP Director of Media Relations Paul Colford • Using the oil spill as a scapegoat for the whole faux-fight with Woot.com and TechCrunch. TechCrunch, thank God, has a little bit of fun with the whole thing, posting a whole AP story on their site just to be stupid and childish. To which, we say, why the heck not! It’s AP who needs to change, not TechCrunch. One of the best TechCrunch posts in months. source

• $3.12 billion spent on cleanup and claims so far source

• Know what’s been missing from CNN all these months? Stuff like this. The network’s real problem is not that it doesn’t have yakkers, but its model has become tired and unemotional. And you can hear it in Cooper’s voice here. He’s super-emotional, in a “mad as hell and can’t take it anymore” sorta way. Give us a reason to care, CNN, and we’ll come back.