Science

From USA Today:

Oil spill could sink Obama's offshore drilling plan

If there was ever a silver lining to something so horrible, this is it. But at what costs?

A third leak has been discovered, and a fire-fighting expert said the disaster may become the biggest oil spill ever.

[SNIP]

Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were now thought to be gushing into the sea 50 miles off Louisiana's coast, said the US Coastguard's Rear Admiral Mary Landry.

Already people are saying this is going to trump Exxon-Valdez and could be the worst disaster in U.S. history. We really don’t need to increase the chances for this to happen by increasing offshore drilling and hopefully it is providing a serious wake up call to the White House.

The oil rig that sunk last week is now causing a serious environmental hazard:

Officials worked Sunday to try to stop oil leaks coming from the deepwater well drilled by a rig that sank last week near Louisiana, but they acknowledged that it could be months before they are able to stem the flow of what is now about 42,000 gallons of oil a day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.

The response team is trying three tacks: one that could stop the leaks within two days, one that would take months and one that would not stop the leaks but would capture the oil and deliver it to the surface while permanent measures are pursued.

Officials determined through weather patterns that the sheen of oil and water, now covering 600 square miles, would remain at least 30 miles from shore for the next three days. But states along the Gulf Coast have been warned to be on alert.

“We have been in contact with all the coastal states,” Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, the commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, said at a news conference on Sunday. Emphasizing that the sheen was not estimated to hit shore anytime soon, Admiral Landry said contingency plans were being put in place.

The rig is leaking about 42,000 gallons of oil a day and the fix for it lies 5,000 feet below sea level.

This needs to be a warning about advocating more off-shore drilling (*COUGH* President Obama). Imagine a majority of coastal regions having to face this kind of threat. Not only does it put some of our most cherished real estate in jeopardy, but also the underwater life. Accidents like this don’t have a short-term impact either. Their consequences are usually felt for a generation, if not more.

One of the biggest fears I had with the health care reform bill was insurers coming up with creative accounting methods to circumvent the requirements that they spend 85% of premiums on health care related costs. Now that fear is becoming a reality:

Some of the largest U.S. health insurers are changing their accounting practices to book administration costs as medical costs in an attempt to circumvent new industry reforms, according to a U.S. Senate panel's report released on Thursday.

Under the healthcare law passed in March, insurers must adjust their spending habits to meet new requirements. For example, large group plans must spend at least 85 cents of every premium dollar paid to them on actual medical care as opposed to administrative costs, while individual and small group plans must spend 80 cents.

And this is how bad it is:

For example, WellPoint Inc "has already 'reclassified' more than half a billion dollars of administrative expenses as medical expenses," it said.

There could be a hopeful silver lining to all this. If the Democrats remain in control of Congress and insurers cook the books to the point that health care costs are rising as much as they have over the past decade, well we will have another health care reform fight. This time it will have to be to put in real competition to the private sector and that can only come in the form of a public option. Actually this would be a perfect argument to get the public option in and might be what some Democratic leaders were thinking all along.

It’s going to be the Republicans big campaign talking point this year – REPEAL! That might work for the crazies in the Tea Party, but a new poll shows that a big majority of those who support repeal actually want the bill repealed so we can get something better – a public option:

When asked how important they thought it was for Congress to work on “establishment of a public option that would give individuals a choice between government provided health insurance or private health insurance,” 67 percent of Americans rated this as an important topic to address. This finding is even more striking given the fact that 59 percent of those in favor of repealing the health care reform legislation rated the public option as important to pursue. Another surprise is that 67 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Independents also agreed that the public option was an important topic to be addressed by Congress.

That really puts a crimp in the GOP arguments to just do away with reform.

A lot of people are saying that the IPad will change the way we access the internet. After 15 years of web development and over a quarter century of software development, all I can say is “here we go again”.

Apple has put some amazing technology into the IPad, but overall it is still a tablet – a device that has been out for over a decade. The IPad is also lacking on some key features, like the ability to display Flash objects. That is going to be one of the biggest killers, especially with similar devices, like Microsoft’s Courier and HP’s Slate, supporting the technology that has turned the web into a media streaming device.

Flash has always been in the middle of a war when it comes to the internet. The code behind web sites, HTML, has a new standard making its way into browsers – HTML5. HTML5 supports embedding videos without the need for the third party Flash. A lot of people are seeing that it will kill Flash, but again that is something I’ve heard before. Flash offers features the HTML5 doesn’t, or aren’t so easy to put in. One of those is delivering video ads, known as pre-rolls. There are ways the pre-rolls can be added into HTML5, but it is rather clunky and still not as feature rich as the Flash alternative, and pre-roll ads are a big money getter for network video sites such as Hulu and MSNBC.

Then there is the fact that Apple loves to stay tethered to AT&T. This first wave of IPads won’t notice it because they can only connect via WiFi, but the next ones coming out will have 3G support, but that’s only if you live in an area served by AT&T. I know the area I live in doesn’t have AT&T coverage, and that’s with a rather large university down the road. Even if you do have good AT&T coverage, who wants to fork out the $30 a month for the device that doesn’t even make phone calls?

And back to the House it goes. Rumors are there could be a vote tonight on it. If it passes then it’s on to the White House.

The reconciliation bill will be heading back to the House for another vote:

Senate Republicans succeeded early Thursday morning in finding two flaws in the House-passed health care reconciliation package. Neither is of any substance, but the Senate parliamentarian informed Democratic leaders that both are in violation of the Byrd Rule.

One is related to Pell Grants and the other makes small technical corrections. Why they're in violation of the Byrd Rule doesn't matter; the upshot is that Republicans will succeed in at least slightly altering the legislation, which means that the House is once again required to vote on it. With no substantial changes, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should have little problem assembling the same coalition of 220 Democrats who passed the measure Sunday night. That's already four more than the minimum 216 required for passage.

No biggie. The only problem I see is that it gives Republicans in the House another chance to take to the floor and try to incite the dangerous backlash from their followers we have been seeing.

But I do wonder how many left wing blogs will accuse the parliamentarian of being some right wing plant over this. My guess is none, unlike the Republicans who attacked him for making decisions they didn’t like.