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23 Mar 2011 16:08

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Tech: Probe: Blame design flaws, not just BP, for Gulf Oil Spill

  • Hey, let’s not forget about this: A report compiled by risk management firm Det Norske Veritas on last year’s oil spill in the Gulf came out today. (They were hired by the federal government, not BP, by the way.) They claim that design flaws scuttled the blowout preventer; as the well lost control, the drill pipe bent and buckled, which blocked the shear rams. Shear rams are the means by which the blowout is supposed to be prevented, as they’d cut through the drill pipe to safeguard against the well’s pressure level. Sadly, these sort of industrial fail-safe systems don’t always work as well in reality as in theory. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Feb 2011 14:58

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Politics: Report from Moody’s Analytics brings troublesome news for both sides

  • 700,000 the amount of jobs to be lost under the Republican spending cut plan, as projected by Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi
  • $400B the amount that must be cut every year over the next decade to bring revenue in line with spending, a little bad news for both sides source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 14:30

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Politics: FCIC report to blame human action, inaction for financial crisis

  • We conclude this financial crisis was avoidable.
  • Report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission • The panel’s report, charged with investigation and review of America’s cataclysmic economic crisis, was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday. It cites human error, action, and inaction as being to blame for the collapse. The report will be widely released on Thursday. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 1 Comment • Permalink

08 Sep 2010 11:07

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U.S.: Gulf oil spill: BP tries to shift some of the blame with report

  • The company just released a 193-page report on the spill. Claiming “a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces,” BP’s new report tries to spread the blame in a number of places, noting some design flaws but also focusing more on the cement job on the well (done by Haliburton) and failings of the workers on the rig (who were Transocean employees) and trying not to shoulder all the blame themselves. Consider the report an attempt at shoring up PR and a preview of future court cases. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Dec 2009 20:17

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Culture: Who didn’t Tiger Woods have an affair with, anyway?

  • The latest to come forward: A Perkins waitress. Listen, there’s so many of these reported affairs now that we’re going to guess that some of them aren’t true. Although this one has a better chance than some of the others. Mindy Lawton, a waitress at an Orlando Perkins where Woods was known to get an egg-white omelet with broccoli, claims that she had a year-long relationship with the super-celeb. We’ll say it again, man. You could’ve saved yourself so much trouble had you come clean immediately. Now it’s just a sad, unbearably depressing joke. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2009 09:55

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U.S., World: Report: The Bush administration let Osama Bin Laden get away

  • He was within grasp in 2001, but reinforcements weren’t sent. First off, let’s state the obvious: We’d still have terrorism troubles if Bin Laden were captured – though they might be less focused. However, a Senate report says that the U.S. was close to catching him in Afghanistan, only to drop the ball by leaning on air strikes instead of putting people on the ground. Donald Rumsfeld is specifically blamed for his lack of action. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2009 09:34

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Culture: Was the Tiger Woods crash a domestic violence incident against Tiger?

  • earlier One of our regular commenters suggested that the Tiger Woods incident screamed “scorned woman beating incident.”
  • now The very report that TMZ came out with late last night suggests this exact scenario. Is Elin Nordegren angry? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Nov 2009 16:12

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Politics: Is the Tiger Woods story an example of Twitter’s real-time superiority?

  • That apparently took 45 minutes to get up. They could have called anyone on Twitter 30 minutes ago to get those details from what officials were saying based on what they had already read thanks to Twitter and Google.
  • TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler • Commenting on the breaking nature of the Tiger Woods crash. @BreakingNews had it 45 minutes before any mainstream news source. When CNN had it, they had zero information. This is because they needed to source it, whereas @BreakingNews didn’t. Another interesting note from the story – BNO News, which currently runs @BreakingNews, will let MSNBC run the feed starting next month. Expect it to start sucking at that point. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Oct 2009 20:52

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Biz: Despite many chances, Bernie Madoff surprised he wasn’t caught sooner

  • It was a nightmare for me. I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago.
  • Bernard Madoff • Speaking during a June prison interview with investigators about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s constant probing of his ponzi scheme. You start to feel sympathetic until you realize that this jerk could’ve easily said something six or eight years ago and prevented some of the $21 billion in investor losses. So Bernie gets no sympathy. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Oct 2009 13:29

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Biz: Verizon gets hit – hard – by lowered corporate spending

  • 30% decline in The Network’s 3Q profits; ouch source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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