This is a republication of a GW Block Party diary I did just before DK4 started. I thought that with tomorrow's One Year anniversary of "The Spill"; I would re-issue it ---so we could relive some of what GW's went through during the last year.
Much of this is on the light side---but as you all well know---it was (and still is) a trying experience. The following is just a little history....
Let us not forget the Eleven that died...
Jason Anderson
Aaron Dale Burkeen
Donald Clark
Stephen Curtis
Roy Wyatt Kemp
Karl Kleppinger
Gordon Jones (M-I SWACO)
Blair Manuel (M-I SWACO)
Dewey Revette
Shane Roshto
Adam Weise
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Gulf Watchers, as a cohesive group arose due to the horror of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which occurred on April 20, 2010.
While there were several diaries on dKos talking about the spill in those first days, Gulf Watchers didn't start this Award-Winning series until May 26,2010--a month later.
Here is a timeline of all the events
This little trip will be one of random hits & misses---no clear direction; just some re-caps of a time in history.....a time when a Family(Yup..) was born....
All information about us can be found in 2 separate amazing Digests:
Part One
Part Two
(I'll be forever grateful to our beloved Peraspera for those---especially since I nearly ruined it for her)
It all started on May 26th, with a separate diary by Tomtech, telling us what "Top Kill" was...that got 983 comments-----and everyone was now interested on what was happening....
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In the four weeks prior to that there were several diaries that started to tell the looming BIG story,
Here are a few...
The Right to Sue
Over 500 recs---and if we only knew then......(Feinberg, are you there??)
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RL Miller on 5/16
The explosion literally rips the door from the hinges 501 recs
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Someone named Fishgrease posted an Historic First...922 tips---and 688 comments
Booming School
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DWG on 5/23 Over 700 recs....
Rumors of Debarment for BP
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Fishgrease came back again on 5/21
Booming the Top Kill
551 commenbts, several hundred recs....
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Gulf is leaking…. 5/12 526 recs 321 comments
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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ON the 26th, we sort of started to put it together.....
To bring all the commenting action to one place. Kristy Howell got it going...with a little snark along the way..
This is the first BP top kill liveblog diary. Please don't rec this diary - rec the mothership,
OKAY, EVERYBODY, OUTTA THIS POOL AND INTO CONCHITA'S! DON'T FORGET WHICH FLOATS AND BEVERAGES ARE YOURS, AND PLEASE DROP OFF YOUR RECYCLING IN THE BINS AS YOU LEAVE THE POOL Thanks for joining me tonight, and I hope to pilot another liveblog as we watch conditions IMPROVE. Peace, love, and shrimp poboys! -- kristy
That was the first liveblog
To tie the "liveblogs" together, we needed a "Mothership"--and the first was started by Garrett
The Motherships later became legendary--more on that later...
Within a few days these "Moms" were getting 4-5-600 recs!!
That first Mothership had 633 recs, one by Meteor Blades,
who at one point made this comment:
I'm both sorry and glad to see... (37+ / 0-)
...the BP catastrophe diaries continuing. Sorry, of course, because the disaster has not abated, and glad to see that the interest in following it has not been abandoned. Kudos to all who who kept this project going.
Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what you do and I'll tell you what you believe.
by Meteor Blades on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 09:31:19 AM EST
Other early notables with high recs were #23 w/ 701
#14 w/687
#10 w/623
#3 w/519--"Junk Shot"
#7 w/491
And there were many many other high count Motherships..too much research for me....
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From here on, it was a serious time for detailed work analyzing the various aspects of the SPILL---
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We learned a whole new Vocabulary:
Annulus
Junk shot
Top Kill
LMRP
Blowout preventer
& many, many more...
Fishgrease's diaries taught us a lot & were legendary...
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There were graphics
There were Status updates, telling us what we were seeing...
ROV Status Update: They got the socket on! (34+ / 0-)
There is a consensus that the bolt is on the old riser and they are testing the feasibility of unbolting the flange on Gertrude.
Ocean Intervention III's ROV #1 is back in the water and going down along with her sister ROV #2.
Viking Poseidon's ROV #1 has got the socket on the bolt head from hell and her sister ROV #2 is there cheering her on!
Boa Deep C's ROV #1 has surfaced and is offline as is her sister ROV #2 who took the inclinometer back to the ship.
Skandi Neptune's ROV #1 Hercules #14 and her sister ROV #2 Hercules #6 are still on their dispersant operations task and there has been reports of dispersant application. An Oil Drum report says one of the dispersant applicators was dropped and dispersant was clearly coming out of the hose when it was retrieved. Hercules 14's ROV # link from BP is misdirected but the one here works.
There were ship locations from Another Kevin
There were Wildlife updates from Hester
There were technical comments by Tomtech:
I see why they are doing it. I wish it would work (12+ / 0-)
This is practice for taking the flange around Gertrude that is holding the Top Hat on.
Using that flange to place a secure unit in place of the Top Hat would eliminate the maelstrom and lead to complete containment.
I'm no Nate Silver, TomTech, or VoteforAmerica ("WineRev" Eeman, Recounting Minnesota)
by Tomtech on Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 02:26:13 AM EST
And Fishgrease...
The freezing means (21+ / 0-)
a large differential pressure across the choke... a large pressure upstream, as compared to seafloor ambient pressure.
A substance passing through the choke which cools readily with a pressure drop... in this case, the only thing it can be is hydrocarbons.
It rubs the loofah on its skin or else it gets the falafel again.
by Fishgrease on Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 05:51:49 PM EST
And by noted author--Bob Cavnar---who often posted info from
his Daily Hurriicane
Did I mention we had graphics?
And video too
And, sooo much more......
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Along the way we had fun...
Oh did we have fun...From poetry:
We Are Here
We are here.
We are watching.
Years from now,
if anyone asks,
we will tell them:
We were there.
Maybe it will not matter.
Maybe nothing matters.
But if we throw up our hands now,
maybe someday,
years from now,
we will ask ourselves,
why did we not at least keep watch,
why did we not?
Maybe someday, some of us
will talk with someone younger,
and tell of the time we watched.
Maybe that someone younger
will try harder next time,
will do more next time,
remembering
the time we watched.
-- bigjacbigjacbigjac
To "numbers games"...
42 is the answer to EVERYTHING (3+ / 0-)
Here's but a few:
The cube root of 42 is 74088 which corresponds to 1974 August 8 when Nixon resigned.
Rule 42 of the Naval Code in The Hunting of the Snark, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm, and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one."
The square of 42 is 1764 which is the year The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was conceived.
HEX 42 is decimal 66 -
Star Wars: Execute order 66
Heh, just try and prove me wrong.
by Claudius Bombarnac on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 01:27:26 PM EST
To AAL's drawings...
posted early - here it is (9+ / 0-)
come play BP Pinball!
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bp troll bp troll bp troll
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scuttles dudley
Tony
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o t
I a
L r
b
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To "ROV Top Comments Contests" or "Catchy" phrase....
ooohh, ssssllluuurrrrrrpppppppp! n/t (6+ / 0-)
(-7.62/-7.90) .....It was their destruction. They delved too greedily and too deep... Gimli in Moria, JRR Tolkien
by Lorinda Pike on Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 07:05:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
• CATCHY^^^^^^^^ (5+ / 0-)
Lorinda Pike--" ooohh, ssssllluuurrrrrrpppppppp!"
"Southern nights have you ever felt a southern night?" Allen Toussaint ~~Remember the Gulf of Mexico~~
by rubyr on Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 07:10:23 PM EST
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We had "bombing runs" (courtesy of mrsgoo) to rec the Mothership late at nite...
RED ALERT Rec Bombers!!! (7+ / 0-)
Mom is off the rec list. SCRAMBLE, SCRAMBLE, SCRAMBLE. All Able bodied aircraft need to scramble immediately for MOM Ship and drop Tips and Recs! NOW!!
Forget the :30 after the hour normal drop - jump in yer flyin' machine and do the deed! Then we can come back to the hanger and discuss the issues of the day (ahhh you mean THAT Issue?) over a few Coors Lights and Coronas that have been stashed outside the hangar in the ice chests.
GO GO GO !!!
"I have ferrets with fins" - African Cichlids. And (3 - nope....) 2 pooties too! Ren (crossed the Rainbow Bridge 10/19/10), Stimpy (16 yrs) and Rocky (4 yrs)
by mrsgoo on Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 12:23:02 AM EST
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At one point---Some of us had a Meet-up in CThosted by this guy...
GW's came from some distances----all for a few drinks----and some wonderful time together...
Many of us bought a GW shirt; with a design done by our own Groucho Marxist
And, we had humor---some of it purely classic. While this is somewhat later, Fishgrease's Cow Story is pure gold
We had some rants along the way, Gchaucer2s was excellent
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Today, 10 months later, in 2011, only a few of the hard core are still arriving on a regular basis----Early on there were many who came every day. Here is a random list from a tip...
skybluewater, JekyllnHyde, Garrett, northsylvania, CJB, hester, CalifSherry, greenbird, Fishgrease, cotterperson, eeff, Gustogirl, bronte17, missLotus, Agathena, nargel, wader, psnyder, churchylafemme, texasmom, GN1927, jmknapp, alizard, Pam LaPier, vacantlook, rambler american, Limelite, 3goldens, PBen, ccasas, panicbean, Pam from Calif, Churchill, Lindy, JanF, SSMir, BachFan, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, myboo, Orange Crush, euterpe, imabluemerkin, bleeding heart, sceptical observer, Phthalo, Dreaming of Better Days, blueoregon, dov12348, Jimdotz, terabytes, joyful, bnasley, millwood, LWelsch, Terra Mystica, gizmo59, VA Breeze, jwinIL14, MKinTN, mayrose, Involuntary Exile, elwior, Remembering Jello, lineatus, petulans, doppler effect, allie123, Quilldriver, CupofTea, papicek, SolarMom, CoEcoCe, SciMathGuy, prettygirlxoxoxo, litoralis, bsmechanic, be the change you seek, velvet blasphemy, BlueInRedCincy, beijingbetty, zaka1, FORUS50, ArthurPoet, jfromga, Sarbec, thealater, patrickz, ericlewis0, Oh Mary Oh, Pakalolo, PurpleThistles, BlueJessamine, BlueHead, gmats, princesspat, Ebby, Lusty, merrily1000, MarketFarces, rexymeteorite, RLMiller, ParkRanger, Dom9000, judyms9, AnnetteK, lightshine, weatherdude, yawnimawke, James Robinson, 2thanks, Ginger1
You may or may not be on that day's tip list---but you'll also see names that are long gone too. People came, contributed, and left; and some are still here. Many left for a variety of reasons. One who needed to leave was Garrett---who helped get it started---
A founder says goodbye
An extra special big thanks (19+ / 0-)
to the BP Mothership crew and all ROVers.
It has been one the best internet experiences of my life. I'll always remember it.
I can't continue involvement any more.
Remember the birds and the bees of the ROVs. For BP Liveblog specifically, I think it has been a good system.
Fare well, Mothership!
by Garrett on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 11:16:46 PM EST
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"Motherships".....That which helped make this journey work---it was a single catch-all diary to get us on the rec list---and link to the days various liveblog ROV diaries. As noted before these "Moms" got huge recs, as high as 701 (#23). These were hosted by only a few diarists, under a group name of "Liveblog"; and later "Gulf Watchers".
With ABSOLUTELY NO DISRESPECT TO ANYONE---there is one GW whose tireless efforts hosting the Mothership deserves a special shout-out; and if you been here for awhile---you know who that is: Peraspera
By 6:00AM Eastern--EVERY morning there was a new Mothership diary up & ready to go....I have picked just 5 at random just to give a sense of what was done...
#35 June 29th
#68 Aug 1st
On Sept 28,after 125 "Moms"--it became a "Morning Edition"--this is the first
, called an AUV.
(Note the timing---exactly 6:00AM. Also note the expanded content---huge amount of research)
#399 AUV
#401, the last of the "everyday" AUV's. #401 was actually hosted by Lorinda Pike---as we went to a 4 a week format...
The present recaps now of the latest Gulf/Environmental news; and here's another
represent some of the best reporting on all of DKos....
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With a Friday Night Block Party thrown in, we are a wild & crazy group here is a sample Lots of crazy stuff goes on there....
Who are we? Here's one group bio, updated later by Bigjac; and finally ursoklevar put it in alphabetical order
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Awards are given to a Series for no single reason---it
is due to exhaustive research, incredible writing; and dedicated people.
I highlighted only a few names; and consciously tried to avoid doing a complete list---as I would have missed too, too many----you all know the stalwarts...
Any linkage or other errors are due to being drunk---and thus are excusable.
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So, as we leave DK3, for a Twilight Zone known as DK4---offer up YOUR memories of Gulf Watchers highlights and/or lowlights.
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So, as you see it was a long journey, one that continues today---with 4 serious diaries each week; continuing to focus on the misdeeds of those that are ruining our planet in the quest for profit.
Let there be no doubt---put aside some of the light-heartedness; the Gulf Watchers have been; and still are, a very dedicated group looking to bring sunlight to the dirty deeds that are happening every day by the fossil fuel industries.