doubleplusundead

May 20, 2010

You'd think I would be laughing at this

But, actually, I'm not. BP is using Kevin Costner's invention to try to clean up the oil spill. I don't pretend to understand if this really is stupid or not but here's the thing. First, the headline is designed to make you laugh at Costner. If you read more, you find out that this is a long term project for Costner and his brother, who appears to have some kind of scientific background. Why the hell can't an actor invent something? Seriously, why not? Just because he's an actor doesn't mean he's right. It also doesn't mean he's wrong. Also, they've been at this since Valdez in 1989 and the first license for this thing was issued in 1993 so it's not like he's jumping on this right now.

Second, I did not know that Costner's blown $40 million of his own money on various enviro things. You know what? We're always bitching about the environuts lecturing The Little People on what we have to do while they go jetting around (I'm looking at you Gore). It appears that Costner's actually putting his money where his mouth is. Good for him.

I still think he's an enormous tool. But I'm not automatically going to mock this. If it works? Good!

Posted by: alexthechick at 12:23 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 218 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Costner should erect giant TV screens facing the spill displaying his movies. That should keep the spill from shore

Posted by: Dr Spank at May 20, 2010 01:06 PM (HfesM)

2 Heh.

And I was just about to reference what chad referenced.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 20, 2010 01:35 PM (k6VDc)

3 Seems kind of like dialysis for the ocean. I don't know how effective it is, but the general concept itself doesn't seem like something a person of reasonable intelligence couldn't dream up. If Costner has a scientist brother and a ton of money to pay researchers then it might even work. I mean, if aircraft carriers can desalinize water then why shouldn't ship-borne water dialysis be possible?

Posted by: Wolfwood at May 20, 2010 04:41 PM (WVTOL)

4 OK, good for Costner for putting his money where his mouth is. Any reason BP couldn't try the far cheaper hillbilly method for skimming the oil? Hell, the video made it look like it got at least 97% of the oil out of the water.

Posted by: Greg at May 20, 2010 05:27 PM (QkqDN)

5 @chad98036. That's Hedley.

Posted by: Harvey Korman at May 20, 2010 05:28 PM (QkqDN)

6 Yeah, Hedy Lamar is credited with helping to develop spread spectrum frequency hopping. But she was smart; I'm not so sure about Costner. It is nice, though, to see an enviroweenie walk the walk for once.

Posted by: Red Five at May 20, 2010 11:11 PM (89z8r)

Posted by: ian cormac at May 20, 2010 11:27 PM (gz/eW)

8 Costner didn't invent it, or rather not THAT Costner, and it seems perfectly reasonable (though the scale seems awfully small, considering that it has to be hauld in dredgers or some other ship that can maintain a liquid capacity, (the oil) My only curiosity would be about maintenance schedules, and operational timelines.

As for famous people inventing stuff. Penn Jillette invented the Jilljet. Which can actually be purchased.

If you got the money, the motivation and the time anyone can do anything. Unless you are in government, then you always find someone else to do something you think of, poorly.

Posted by: Douglas at May 20, 2010 11:42 PM (uU+Ss)

9 and enviro's walking the walk. I disagree with Ed Begley, but He REALLY walks the walk and in general is not a jerk about it, so he gets my respect for that too.

Posted by: Douglas at May 20, 2010 11:44 PM (uU+Ss)

10 drawback (as I see it) to the costner method, requires a ridiculous method of intake, and expelling.

The dredger rakes using buoyancy is easy, but the costner layout requires almost a highly specialized ship to apply appropriately.

but concept seems good.

Posted by: Douglas at May 21, 2010 02:02 AM (uU+Ss)

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