Commentary on an extract from the Idea of Perfection Essay Example

Analysis on a concentrate from the Idea of Perfection Paper This concentrate from The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville speaks to Kates basic thought of flawlessness, which is that things dont must be impeccable as in faultless, and everything has it terrible side. Be that as it may, impeccable in giving a fantastic inclination, additionally virtue and creativity with the defects. In this manner the essayist utilizes the scaffold as an image to introduce her thought. This thought is depicted through difference, the introduction of the character and the setting, word usage and symbolism. The sentiments of fulfillment and complete acknowledgment are the principle feeling that perusers can detect from the concentrate. These emotions are extraordinarily perceived using word usage and symbolism utilized in introducing the character and the setting. The portrayal styles, for example, modest, conciliatory look, awkward thing, and basic joints, assists with sending the perusers an unassuming and humble picture of the setting, not a perfect picture. Causing the perusers to envision the setting as unadulterated and regular. Additionally the character is introduced as a characteristic individual, uncertain of her self, not an ideal individual; just by causing the character to acknowledge how crazy she is, encourages the perusers to identify with the characters circumstance of thinking back and making a decision about ones self. Likewise the circumstance where the character draw the extension more than once, gives an inclination that the character isn't great and cant draw everything impeccably as they look. The reason for making everything from the character to the setting not great, yet in a fantastic way, helps the author to assemble her principle thought of flawlessness. We will compose a custom exposition test on Commentary on a concentrate from the Idea of Perfection explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom exposition test on Commentary on a concentrate from the Idea of Perfection explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom exposition test on Commentary on a concentrate from the Idea of Perfection explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer The central point in building the journalists thought is additionally the complexity utilized through the concentrate. The complexity of dim and light, shadow and light, are planned to speak to terrible and great, implying that there is nothing of the sort as great, since then we need to dismiss the shadow. Additionally the utilization of difference and contradicting thoughts shows that there is never right and right. Hence the entire thought of utilizing contrast was proposed by the author to show that there is consistently another side to everything. The author centers around the extension to likewise endeavor to depict her thought through it. As the main look and depiction of the scaffold negates the analyzing look later, the author utilizes this inconsistency to communicate her sentiment of fulfillment and solace in this straightforward, yet confused structure, shading and surface of the extension. Along these lines specifying her depiction of the little minor things that make this confounded extension, communicating her interest towards these delightful interchanges of the scaffold. Such expressions that help this reality are fitted together in a delightful manner, that drew the eye. Additionally the symbolism that went with the scaffold and it depictions, similar to shading symbolism and analogy helped in uncovering how fascinated the author was towards the extension, particularly in lines (32-40). The essayists interest towards the scaffold is utilized as an intend to cause the perusers to identify with a snapshot of acknowledgment where despite the fact that things are defective, they can in any case produce a basic sentiment of fulfillment and acknowledgment. The concentrate is absolutely only a thought of the scholars, that presents another gander at flawlessness, imperfect flawlessness. Defective flawlessness is the thing that people are about; we are consummately people with our blemishes; and this imperfect flawlessness gives us acknowledgment to what our identity is, makes us common and human. The author could essentially relate this plan to regular daily existence things; nonetheless, it cannot be withdrawn from the possibility that imperfect flawlessness is the thing that keeps us charmed, fascinating and common. In this way the author utilizes the way that defective flawlessness in captivating, yet characteristic, as it were confounded, yet basic; to fabricate her novel.

Global Spare Parts Logistics Market Essay Example For Students

Worldwide Spare Parts Logistics Market Essay This report covers the current situation and the development possibilities of the Global Spare Parts Logistics advertise for the period 2015-2019. To compute the market size, this report covers income produced by PL suppliers in the Global Spare Parts Logistics advertise, The report likewise presents the merchant scene and a comparing point by point examination of the main five sellers in the market. Likewise, it talks about the significant drivers that impact the development of the market. View our full TCO here Key Regions MEME OPAC Americas Key Vendors CAVE Logistics DB Schooner Deutsche Post DEL Eugene 4-Angel Inc. Joined Parcel administration Inc. (LIPS) Other Prominent Vendors Choice Logistics Fed Supplicant Lockheed Martin Network Global Logistics APT Servicing Ryder SEEK Logistics Data Diesel Total Logistics Toyota Motor Corporation TVS Logistics List Worldwide Verse Group Logistics Key Market Driver Increase in Demand from China For a full, nitty gritty rundown, see our report. Key Market Challenge Competition from unrecognized and Local Dealers of Spare Parts For a full, nitty gritty rundown, see our report, Key Market Trend Increase in Production of Compact Vehicles Key Questions Answered in this Report What will the market size be in 2018 and what will the development rate be? What are the key market patterns? What is driving this market? What are the difficulties to advertise development? Who are the key merchants in this market space? What are the market openings and dangers looked by the key merchants? What are the qualities and shortcomings of the key sellers?

Introducing a line of bottled water Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Presenting a line of filtered water - Essay Example So as to separate inside the market, the enhancements would be grown with the goal that the water taste was not changed, and through showcasing to the fragment of the populace that is beginning to encounter minor diseases and issues that can be legitimately tended to through enhancements. The fragment would be the maturing populace that is 40 and over. Promoting will likewise must be coordinated to a more extensive segment through on location showcasing that is less explicit to age. As the filtered water showcase has expanded consistently since 1997, the potential for progress is high. Presentation Bottled water has gotten a staple in Western culture, a pattern that comes from an assortment of regions of concern. One reason that filtered water has become a conspicuous asset for hydration is that the wellness business has discovered that a lot of water, typically characterized by around 2 liters, every day is important for acceptable wellbeing (World Health Organization 2004: 486). An other explanation that filtered water has gotten progressively attractive over the most recent couple of decades is that open water, as in faucet water, has gone under assault for the immaculateness and security that it contains. Thus, a characteristic marriage between the wellbeing business and filtered water has developed in which enhancement into the filtered water showcase bodes well for companies that have wellbeing related items as of now in their product offering. One organization that presently can't seem to create filtered water is GlaxoSmithKline. Through the investigation of their flow line of items and brands, alongside an investigation of the general market, the expansion of a line of water to the GlaxoSmithKline product offering would upgrade the ebb and flow product offering just as open up another market. The brand name of the proposed new line of water will be called PURE with a supplemental line of content used to characterize which sort of water is being advertise d. The line of filtered water would not just be the one line of fundamental water, yet so as to interest the picked segment, a line of water with supplements inside them would build the potential accomplishment of the line. Taking the case of waters, for example, Dasani by the Coke product offering and Aquafina by the Pepsi product offering, making seasoned waters or water with minerals and enhancements has appeared to have achievement. The turn on this line of water is that the entirety of the water will possess a flavor like water, however will have supplements that focus on the contrasting needs of the individuals who are maturing. GlaxoSmithKline Company Overview Formed in 2001 through a merger among GlaxoWelcome and SmithKline Beecham, the organization holds its central station in Great Britain with the greater part of its business being led in the United States. As a pharmaceutical chief, the organization is a pioneer in respiratory, focal sensory system research, diabetes and immunizations, with 2003 seeing pre-charge deals of more than 21.4 billion. Benefits were roughly 6.3 billion with a speculation

Free Essays on An Examination Of The Justice System In America

The death penalty has been a type of â€Å"disciplining† since 1750 B.C., when it was a piece of the code of Hammarabi. The good book itself, additionally endorses demise as a punishment for any of thirty violations submitted. The violations extended from any among murder and sex. In the eighteenth century in excess of 200 capital wrongdoings were perceived, and subsequently more than one thousand individuals a year were confronted with the sentence of death. While Capital Punishment has been one of the most dreaded things within recent memory, it is as yet being addressed on the off chance that it is illegal. The Death Penalty is being authorized in excess of 100 nations on the planet and is typically utilized in politically related cases. In spite of the fact that it has been the situation in numerous nations all through the world it has been said that the Death Penalty is brutal and irregular discipline which is an immediate infringement to the Bill of Rights. The death penalty is a sure duplicate of the most punctual long stretches of subjugation, when you had no rights or any unique sentiment, and like at that point, executions have no spot in our humanized society. The Death Penalty, during its time of presence, has consistently been against the perspectives on the individuals, either in view of its fierceness or as a result of its absence of adequacy. The Death Penalty has been restricted by the individuals since the start of it's period, which was around 1976, when the United States Supreme Court proclaimed that capital punishment was not against the Constitution. Be that as it may, whenever read straightforwardly the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Constitution disallows brutal and abnormal disciplines and that as well as imagine that Capital Punishment guarantees Americans fairness for all. At the point when Capital Punishment is placed into a case and the individual has been executed it is extremely unlikely to return from that on the off chance that they are later found to have been honest. In the event that an individual is condemned to existence without the chance for further appeal and is later seen as honest, that individual can in any case be discharged, yet on the off chance that the individual... Free Essays on An Examination Of The Justice System In America Free Essays on An Examination Of The Justice System In America The death penalty has been a type of â€Å"disciplining† since 1750 B.C., when it was a piece of the code of Hammarabi. The good book itself, additionally endorses passing as a punishment for any of thirty violations submitted. The violations ran from any among murder and sex. In the eighteenth century in excess of 200 capital violations were perceived, and subsequently more than one thousand individuals a year were confronted with the sentence of death. While Capital Punishment has been one of the most dreaded things within recent memory, it is as yet being addressed in the event that it is unlawful. The Death Penalty is being implemented in excess of 100 nations on the planet and is normally utilized in politically related cases. In spite of the fact that it has been the situation in numerous nations all through the world it has been said that the Death Penalty is brutal and abnormal discipline which is an immediate infringement to the Bill of Rights. The death penalty is a sure duplicate of the most punctual long periods of servitude, when you had no rights or any unique sentiment, and like at that point, executions have no spot in our humanized society. The Death Penalty, during its time of presence, has consistently been against the perspectives on the individuals, either due to its mercilessness or due to its absence of viability. The Death Penalty has been contradicted by the individuals since the start of it's time, which was around 1976, when the United States Supreme Court proclaimed that capital punishment was not against the Constitution. Be that as it may, whenever read legitimately the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Constitution restricts merciless and abnormal disciplines and that as well as feel that Capital Punishment guarantees Americans fairness for all. At the point when Capital Punishment is placed into a case and the individual has been murdered it is extremely unlikely to return from that on the off chance that they are later found to have been honest. On the off chance that an individual is condemned to existence without the chance for further appeal and is later seen as blameless, that individual can at present be discharged, however in the event that the individual...

How the Libraries of the Future Will Look Like

How the Libraries of the Future Will Look Like What Is the Future of Libraries Home›Technology Posts›What Is the Future of Libraries Technology PostsModern technologies have changed the way we access information, and many libraries have adapted to this new reality. Modern libraries are not places to read printed editions; now, they are more like media centers, meeting places and entry points into the world of digital information. Let’s find out how the libraries of the future will look like.Interactive Bookmarks Which Act as GuidesIn the old libraries, there are catalogues to help find certain book, and such catalogues are sometimes hard to use. Luckily, the libraries of the future, which are going to become not just a place to read books, will not have such a problem. Catalogues will be replaced with bookmarks which will also act as guides. For example, a Chinese design company Toout has already designed a bookmark which reads digital catalogues for visitors. Then, it provides readers with turn-by-turn directions to the n eeded book. Besides, it keeps track of the books each reader borrows and reminds them when to return the books.Drones Which Deliver BooksWhat if people did not have to visit libraries to get books but the books came to people instead? What if a drone delivered books to us? This is not a joke. In Australia, there already exists a book delivery service that uses drones.Printed Books Which Have Digital InterfacesThe question “What to read: traditional books or ebooks?” will not be an issue anymore. A technology company Fujitsu has pioneered a new technology dubbed Fingerlink, which combines best elements of printed and electronic books. Fingerlink is a stand with a camera and a projector. If you place the camera next to the book, it reads the content. The projector overlays the page a person is reading with an interactive digital interface. Due to this technology, the reader can copy passages from the printed books, find translations in the web or make highlights.Pens Which Read wh at You WriteThere are also pens with digital readers, like the Ivy Guide. This pen’s reader has an Optical Character Recognition capability, which can read text. If you need to translate a paragraph, you just have to underline it with the reader. Then, the translation appears on your laptop.We can expect future libraries not to resemble the old edifices we are accustomed to seeing, and we can expect more people to enroll in an online MLIS program to stay with the times. The libraries will use interactive bookmarks which will help the readers find required books. Printed editions will have digital interfaces, and pens will have an option to read what people write. Technologies will greatly change the libraries of the future for the better.

Culture Phenomena Influence On International Marketing - 1925 Words

Culture Phenomena Influence On International Marketing (Essay Sample) Content: IntroductionGlobalization shapes, liberalization of trade and extending business segment affiliations have homogenized society all through the world. Customers worldwide are ending up being more disposed to wearing the same articles of clothing, eat the same sustenance, listen to the same music and watch the same films. It is hard to deny that "reasonably" is lost as a result of social homogenization. Accordingly, this paper will split down attempts for keeping up social complexities and their "utilization" as an estimation of high ground in widespread business part coordinates. Yet mindful of the path that by and large liberalization of trade, especially in setting of individual rights to purchase and trade free social requests with aftereffects of their own choice, it is definitely not hard to keep running over a sensible conflict of socially adjusted buyer protectionism (frequently portrayed as ethnocentrism), and we hope to show that vitality about social differen tiations does not as is normally done ought to be seen as a block in overall trade, however as a convincing method in general advancing. Major proportion of research on culture phenomena and its influence on international marketing is connected to problems of consumer ethnocentrism.Religion, being a part of society, has extensive impact on individuals Qualities, propensities and states of mind, and it significantly impacts way of life, which thus influences purchaser choice conduct (Delener, 1990 and Sheth, 1985). As Peterson and Roy (1982) remark, one capacity of religion is to give a wellspring of importance and reason for individuals. Religion can give a system which makes life reasonable and interpretable. Despite the fact that religion has been a noteworthy power in the lives of numerous people, its part in purchaser decision can be described as hazy or "fluffy". To start with, religion serves to characterize the approaches to do things (i.e. built up practice) and to give a p rogression of instruments and methods for social conduct. Second, religion either cultivates or disapproves of specific decision conduct. In this way, in spite of the potential significance of the religion or religiosity builds, any experimental examination of these develops in purchaser conduct has been uncommon. All the more by and large, the religions honed in a general public impact spouse/wife choice making parts, and additionally societal foundations and traditions. It has been recommended that religious introduction is a solid impact on the advancement of family duty in giving the family a feeling of reason and values arranged to the need and welfare of others. Duty, in the causal arrangement, is expected to impact family time and exertion. Religious devoutness round-about affects obligation by straight forwardly impacting relationship qualities (i.e. veneration/minding), locus of control and sexual introduction parts which in this way particularly affect obligation.Need To C ulture AdaptationGlobalization defines the companies to function overseas; consequently the businesses trade their produces to marketplaces where the customer patterns might differ from their domestic market. The culture has a robust impact on products adaptation particularly, and on international marketing at large. (Barbu, 2011). "Need to culture adaptation" refers to business decision that will intensify customary environment to make sure that habits, tradition, values and consumer behavior on the one side, and approved rules of business or guidelines on the other side, do not inhibit or confine decision making and processes of international business. Most companies that do business on international markets are vigilant of this need, but practice shows, that cultural environment analysis and culture adaption is not facilely and frequently implemented (Previi and Ozreti Doen, 2002). "Cultural values consist of joint view on society that apply to desired conditions and esse of adeq uate economic, gregarious, religions and other demeanor members of society are involved in (Mowen, 1987). It is virtually infeasible to intensify and accumulate all cultural values of one society.Competitive advantagesCompetitive advantages is the ability of an organization to produce goods or services more effectively than competitors, thereby outperforming them (Kinicki and Williams, 2006). Acquainting new item with the business sector is the best way to make reasonable upper hand. In any case, the achievement of any item/benefit in business sector is at last relied on upon shopper acknowledgment. Imaginativeness is one of the individual qualities that may impact the acknowledgment of novel item/benefits. Imaginativeness itself likewise from other side may be influenced by a few elements such singular's religion alliance and the level of duty to his/her religion. Competitive advantages change speedily these days and they are noted more frequently on organization level than on the state level, since organizations battle to augment their intensity level on local and universal markets. From organizations' viewpoint extreme institutionalization and rearrangements of promoting techniques has brought about losing pieces of the pie because of disregarding neighborhood markets' variables and preferences. There are two potential outcomes in universal exchange of merchandise and housing: transmuting just obligatory, specific and for the most part physical qualities of items (i.e. because of transmute of mechanical regulations for hardware, security or cleanliness principles, and so forth). Alternately supplemental transmutations in items' attributes expected to satisfy downright; social market needs unavoidably ineluctable for aggressive arranging and flourishing.Impact of Socio-economic, Cultural and Ecological barriers on Trading Products in International marketItems that are exchanged with in worldwide markets can no more disregard financial, social and biological needs; it is in understanding to those frameworks so as to satisfy certain needs (Lazibat, 1999). While adjusting to administrative authoritative environment is the primary issue in the EU, on business sectors of Islamic nations the principle issue is adjusting to social environment. Obviously, access to those business sectors is additionally directed so the issue can be diminished to adjusting to religious parts of social environment that are characterized by state or religious foundation regulations. Religious sentiments have helped Mecca Cola (Halal-Cola) to rival Coca-Cola and Pepsi among Muslims in France and different parts of the world. What once could bring about snags and clashes when certain organizations entered outside business sectors because of unbending perspectives on unqualified institutionalization and usage of worldwide procedures amid presenting or offers of items and administrations has brought about the use of nearby methodologies and regarding inclinations and also specificities? McDonald's burgers are not produced using meat in India because of religious reasons; however they are made of sheep and chicken and called MaharajaMac.Consumer EthnocentrismConsumer Ethnocentrism alludes to the clients' conviction that purchasing remote items will conceivably bring about a household employments lessening and financial harm (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Shimp and Sharma (1987) state that customer ethnocentrism is a behavioral example that is associated amid right on time youth years and is genuinely inelastic to different items or properties, for example, cost and quality. Organizations working in the universal business sector were from long prior meeting with purchaser ethnocentrism as a huge impediment. States are utilizing these inconspicuous complications to empower the acceptance of local items and keep safe household creation from outside rivalry. In actuality, intending to make the general population delicate these requests are coordinated to national, social, and religious slants of customers that are extremely solid components of conduct impact as affirmed by examination in that field. Exact examination on religious effect on buyer conduct is rare, and research on the impact of religion to non-ethnocentric propensities of customers is almost nonexistent.Influence of Religious Factors on Consumer BehaviorBuyer Purchasing Conduct alludes to the purchasing conduct of a definitive shopper. Numerous components, specificities and attributes impact the person in what he is and the customer in his choice making procedure, shopping propensities, acquiring conduct, the brands he purchases or the retailers he goes. A buy choice is the consequence of every last one of these variables. An individual and a shopper is driven by his way of life, his subculture, his social class, his participation bunches, his family, his identity, his mental components, and so forth what's more, is affected by social patterns and also his social and societal environment. By distinguishing and comprehension the components that impact their clients, brands have the chance to add to a technique, a showcasing message (Extraordinary Worth Recommendation) and publicizing effort more proficient and more in accordance with the needs and methods for thinking about their objective purchasers, a genuine resource for better address the issues of its clients and expand deals.In that way the "imperceptible hand" of religion is turning out to be more unmistakable, and it is getting to be respectable element in global exchange. Those more inclined to the rationale of sane and quantifiable variables in universal advertising can contend this methodology with the contention that the religious component is practically unimportant. In any case, the variables that impacts general trade and which are, at first look do not seem to have a mess with normal talk, and with its substance are described within the psycho-subjective struc...

Midge Essay - 716 Words

â€Å"Midge† by Edwin Morgan is a dramatic monologue which tells an exciting story of a swarm of midges being rallied as they prepare to ambush a group of rambling humans in order to feed their eggs with human blood. This is a humorous poem about a seemingly unimportant event but which is rich in military ideas, told through an extensive use of word choice and humour. In the first stage of the poem, Morgan uses various poetic techniques to set the scene in the early evening by a Scottish loch. â€Å"The evening is perfect, my sisters. The loch lies silent, the air is still. The suns last rays linger over the water.† Morgan’s use of effective word choice creates a sense of peaceful tranquillity which is further developed with the alliteration†¦show more content†¦This is a rallying call of the leader to her troops. She uses energising imperatives to motivate them. One of the most effective uses of alliteration in the poem is the midge’s order to arrack human flesh, â€Å"the sweet flesh of face and forearm†. With Morgan’s use of ‘f’, one can hear and almost feel the midges suck on human blood. In the next few lines Morgan highlights how strong the maternal instinct is in the female midge, â€Å"Think of your eggs, what does the egg need? Blood, and Blood, Blood is hat the egg needs†. T his reveals to the midge, survival is paramount and continuation of the species is everything. This is developed further by the patronising reference to the male midge as only being good for reproductive purposes, â€Å"our men have done their bit it, they’ve gone, it was all they were good for, poor dears† Next the poem describes with vivid imagery the attack on the humans. The charismatic midge leader affectionately refers to her swarm of insects as, â€Å"†¦my little Draculas, my amazons†. These metaphors compare the midges to blood-sucking vampires and ferocious female warriors. Their attack leads up to the vivid image of the humans fleeing the swarm, â€Å"Their running, swatting, swearing oh they’re hopeless† This use of present participles reflects the manic movement of the group. Morgan makes a Shakespearean reference, â€Å"This is a midsummer nightsShow MoreRelatedEssay on Male Gaze in Vertigo1092 Words   |  5 Pagesfamous for her essay â€Å"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,† which presents an array of theories involving the treatment of women in films. Arguably the most notable idea presented in Mulvey’s work is the existence of the â€Å"male gaze† in films. This essay will examine Mulvey’s theory of the male gaz e in relation to Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo. Vertigo does not fit the criteria of a film that embodies Mulvey’s â€Å"male gaze† because of three key elements, the presentation of the Midge character, theRead More Gender Confusion in Hitchcocks Film, Vertigo Essay2145 Words   |  9 PagesHitchcocks Vertigo, the struggle for socially recognized gender roles is acted out, mostly through a battle for sexual domination between Scottie and Madeline/Judy. The film also supports the idea of the submissive domestic female, through the character of Midge. This film is definitely a marker of its time. The loss of male identity and sexuality was of major concern at the time. Articles in the popular Look magazine, gathered in a 1958 book called The Decline of the American Male, claimed that women controlRead More The Creation of Barbie as an American Icon Essay examples2452 Words   |  10 Pages1960s. There is evidence of fashion innovations in Barbies wardrobe. Also, one can see the perception of females by society, such as what they should look like, how they should act and dress, as well as what their future goals could be. The following essay follows Barbies history from 1959 to 1963, covering her development, her appeal to children, and her existence as a cultural artifact of the time period. History: Barbies Debut in 1959 In February of 1959, Barbie was first introduced at theRead MoreBeech Forest Ecosystems1403 Words   |  6 PagesBEECH FOREST ECOSYSTEMS INTRODUCTION This essay will look at beech forest ecosystems, describing the main characteristics, along with pre-human and current distribution of beech forests. Vegetation structure and native fauna associated with the ecosystem will be looked at with examples of species given. Environmental effects such as altitude, latitude, rainfall and soil drainage, and how they can affect beech forests will be investigated. Anthropogenic effects will also be looked at, explainingRead MoreEssay about Biology: DNA Forensics1790 Words   |  8 Pages even though individual species may occur in large numbers. For example, a polluted lake may be low in biodiversity, only containing a few species, but there may be thousands of algal cells covering the water surface, or large numbers of breeding midges. Areas that are high in biodiversity support many species and offer lots of variability too. For example, the Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse natural areas on the planet and can contain many thousands of species of plants, animals andRead More Women, Beauty and Self-Esteem Essay5143 Words   |  21 Pages1987). Obviously, women with visible disabilities will never be judged to have achieved â€Å"perfection.† Whoopi Goldberg’s routine about the bl ack teenager who wrapped a towel around her head to pretend it was long, blonde hair and Alice Walker’s (1990) essay about her psychological adjustment after the eye injury that resulted in the development of â€Å"hideous† scar tissue provide poignant examples of the pain women experience when they cannot meet beauty standards. The inordinate emphasis on women’s external

Pythogoras of Samos Essay examples - 1350 Words

Pythagoras of Samos is often described as the first pure mathematician. He is an extremely important figure in the development of mathematics yet we know little about his achievements. There is nothing that is truly accurate pertaining to Pythagorass writings. Today Pythagoras is certainly a mysterious figure. Little is known of Pythagorass childhood. Pythagorass father was Mnesarchus, and his mother was Pythais. Mnesarchus was a merchant who came from Tyre. Pythais was a native of Samos. As a child Pythagoras spent his early years in Samos, but traveled with his father. There are accounts, that during their travels, Mnesarchus returned to Tyre with Pythagoras, and had him taught there by the Chaldaeans. â€Å"Certainly growing up he was†¦show more content†¦Pythagoras made a journey to Crete shortly after his return to Samos to study the system of laws there. After a short stay in Crete, Pythagoras found himself back in Samos. There he discovered a school called the semicircle. This was the site of his own philosophical teaching, spending most of the night and daytime there and doing research into the uses of mathematics. He tried to use his unique method of teaching, which was similar to the lessons he had learned in Egypt, but Samians were not very keen on this. Pythagoras saw that the Samians were not giving him the respect and credit he deserved, so he moved on Pythagoras left and founded a philosophical/religious school in Croton on the southern tip of Italy. His school practiced secrecy and communalism making it hard to tell the difference between the work of Pythagoras and work of his followers. Although it did made outstanding contributions to mathematics. Pythagoras gained many followers there, and became the head of a society with an inner circle of followers known as mathematikoi. The mathematikoi lived permanently with the Society, had no personal possessions and were vegetarians. â€Å"They weren’t acting as a mathematics research group does in a modern university. There were no ‘open- problems’ for them to solve, and they were not in any sense interested in trying to create or solve mathematical problems. Rather Pythagoras was interested in teaching the principles of

The Importance of Music Education Essay - 951 Words

Why have creative skills been put on the back burner in today’s society? Some say that music education is a waste of valuable resources, takes time away from academic subjects, is noisy and distracting, when in reality this is false. Music is a valuable resource that every human being should enjoy. Although our economy has been failing lately, we should not let ourselves believe that the only way to be productive is in a field that makes us unhappy, like computers or science. In America’s recent economic downfall, music education is commonly one of the first programs to be cut in districts around the country; this should not be the case because it benefits students academically, socially, and physically throughout the rest of their lives.†¦show more content†¦Students involved in music are often more confident in their mathematical abilities and can also operate faster when problem solving. In the debate about importance of music programs, it is clear that musi c is just as important as core curriculum subjects. In society individuals who participated in music are more successful in their careers and are often more cultured. A career can be defined as the general progression of your working or professional lives. Individuals who are involved in music often obtain careers they love and also collect more money. Mastering the arts has been closely correlated with high earnings (MENC Staff 2), although to most people who embrace music money isn’t the most important thing in life. Music can unite people like no other activity and makes individuals want to help others and work together. Musically skilled people are often better problem solvers and perform more community service (Paige). They also enjoy it more than others. Chorus America found that choral singers are more likely to be involved in community service, 76% compared to 44% of those that aren’t, and twice as likely to be consumers of other arts, not just music (MENC Staf f 4). From personal experience, being involved in music has changed my life, I am happier and more well rounded the longer I stick with it, and many other people feel this way as well. Skills like creativity, flexibility, discipline and teamwork areShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of Music in Education1426 Words   |  6 Pages2015 Final Paper The Importance of Music in Education Whether we choose to believe it or not, music is a very present thing in one’s day to day lifestyle. From turning on the radio in the morning, to listening to it while grocery shopping, putting in our headphones while we study, music is always there. Music is also extremely underrated, which is why so many public schools are constantly threatening to take away music programs all the time. But why is music education so vital in the growth ofRead MoreThe Importance Of Music Education790 Words   |  4 PagesTime Music education is a subject in school that should be essential for all students. If students continued to expand their music education, they would have higher test scores in subjects such as math and English. Having a school system where everyone is able to benefit from a school wide requirement of music education. Music education will help improve student test scores and improve students language development. Students who take music classes have higher test scores. Music education helpsRead MoreThe Importance Of Music Education2171 Words   |  9 PagesThe Importance of Music Education Perhaps the largest distinction between humans and all other animals on earth is the ability to both create and appreciate fine art. The musical art form has existed for thousands of years, and has allowed different cultures to express themselves and connect with one another. The most primitive sounds were simply drum hits and clapping, but over time music has grown in sophistication. Now, complicated symphonies can be heard in halls all across the world, with aRead MoreEssay The Importance of Music Education1936 Words   |  8 Pagesinvigorating article, â€Å"Why Music Education? 2007† having so many atrocities pulling the world apart, music is a great way for bringing people together (9). Diagnosed with a severe case of autism and blindness at birth, Derek Paravacini is viewed as a music savant. He has the extraordinary ability to play a music piece after just hearing it. Derek has been engrossed by the piano since the age of two and has been performing around the world since the age of nine. From studying various music genres, at age 32Read MoreThe Importance of Music Education Essay885 Words   |  4 PagesImagine a world without music; it would be an extremely boring and quiet place to live. Music is found in every kind of culture and has been used for thousands of years as a means of expression. Music can deliver a message; it can be used as a vehicle for poetry; it can be appreciated for its aesthetic qualities, or it can serve as nothing more than entertainment. Recently, many studies have been conducted proving that music is vital to a childs education and development. However, many schoolRead MoreThe Importance and Effects of Music Education Essay examples1944 Words   |  8 Pages Music evaluated as a subjects that is many times overlooked. If a school seems to have financial trouble, then music and art programs are the first to get cut. Essentially, students do not need them to succeed and they are just hobbies. This is the mindset that many school boards have towards music education. I have had the pleasure of being involved in music from a young age. My schools did not offer music programs, but my parents saw an opportunity in music education so they decided to lookRead MoreEssay on The Importance of Music Education in the School Curriculum2336 Words   |  10 PagesMusic is all around us, yet many of us do not understand it. A simple man with an office job that you pick randomly off the street could most likely tell you the basic rules of American Football, and yet that same man could have never played football in his life before. If you asked that same guy the basics of the music he is listening to, I bet you would get a blank stare back. My argument relates directly to schools so many people can reason football is not technically taught in school, but whatRead MoreHigh School And The Neural And Scholastic Benefits Essay1626 Words   |  7 PagesGerald Ford said, â€Å"Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around t hem a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.† Music can do so much for the youth of the nation because it encourages group cooperation, independent study, and a way to relax. It has often been debated whether the benefits of music in school are significantRead MoreLiterature Review on Music Education Essay1000 Words   |  4 PagesLiterature Review This complex problem of music education has been studied for many years. Some disciplines go off of one another to conduct studies and analyze one’s results. Music educators tend to study how music education came to be. They are huge advocators for music education because of the benefits that come with the programs. Psychologists have studies done around the world to see what the affects of having knowledge in the subject of music are. With so many studies done, there are so manyRead MoreSchools Should Provide Better Funding For Such Programs1734 Words   |  7 Pagesschool years. Do you remember going to music classes? Learning how to pluck out simple songs on the piano, a xylophone, or a recorder; or learning how to sing out a catchy tune? Did you have as much fun as I remember having? This fun is about to come to an end for the coming generations. Public schools are beginning to cut music programs from their budgets altogether, so our children may never know the sweet sol ace of scratching out a simple song. Generally, music programs-- as well as fine arts as a

Contemporary Psychodynamic Authors - 1984 Words

Contemporary psychodynamic authors define defenses as unconscious mental processes that function to defend against extreme anxiety (e.g. Valliant, 1994). Moreover, defenses are observed as being both protectors against unconscious feelings and relational and cognitive behaviours that protect the self (Cooper, 1998). Currently there is no consensus as to the number of defenses that exist however, in ‘The Ego and the mechanisms of Defense’ Ana Freud (1936/1986) discusses ten. However, subsequently there has expansion of recognised defences (Kramer 2013). Although, authors vary on the number of defenses that are present, there is a largely an agreement on the role of defenses. The function of these defense mechanisms is to modify internal psychological conditions such as emotions and thoughts by changing the meaning or implication of perceived threats (Kramer 2013). Defenses are utilised differently in borderline personality and comparable disorders and therefore necessitat e accurate identification for therapeutic appropriate intervention (Cooper, 1998). Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe and dominant psychiatric condition featuring affective instability, marked impulsivity, and substantial deficits in the ability to work and sustain meaningful relationships (Hadjipavlou and Ogrodniczuk 2010). In addition, BPD individuals suffer with deep fear of abandonment, identity conflicts and paranoid ideations (Hadjipavlou and Ogrodniczuk 2010). Further, BPD individualsShow MoreRelatedFreudian Psychoanalysis As The Forerunner Of All Psychotherapeutic Methods979 Words   |  4 Pagesperiod and genital stage. Freud argues that personality development across these stages is a reflection of how the impulses and drives were accomplished in the different developmental stages (Jones Butman, 2012) Do you agree with or disagree with the author? Explain I do agree with the Jones and Butman that as Christians we are likely to disregard Freudian views on personality development because of the theory’s differences with our Christian worldview. Jones and Butman argue that Conservative ChristiansRead MoreThe Diverse Nature of Psychology Essay examples1075 Words   |  5 Pagesmajor perspectives: psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, sociocultural, biological, and evolutionary. This diversity within psychology, allows psychologists the ability to expand in all areas of explanation, assessment, and diagnoses, which furthers the science of psychology through many different subfield specialties. Influence on Psychology’s Major Concepts Diversity is off great influence on the major concepts in psychology. The cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and humanistic perspectivesRead MorePsychoanalytical Theory and Cognitive Behavior Theory1567 Words   |  7 PagesRunning Header: JOURNAL REVIEW Journal Review: An assessment of contemporary studies to Psychoanalytical theory and Cognitive Behavior theory. Abstract Psychoanalytical theory and cognitive behavior theory (CBT) are currently two of the most utilized psychotherapeutic modalities in Western psychology. In the current review of literature, the salience of both theories is analyzed through the evaluation of contemporary studies on the two theories. These studies focused on empirical rather than merelyRead MorePTSD and Anxiety, Themes in the Film 1995 Copycat and Therapies1703 Words   |  7 Pagescharacterized by an intensified feeling of distress, and at times incapacitate her to the brink of a nervous breakdown and unconsciousness. These abnormal conditions are a profound feature of the story, which revolves around Dr. Hudson (who is an expert author and lecturer on serial killers) working with other detectives to track down a serial killer after a series of peculiar homicides in the San Francisco area. During their investigation, they learn that this murderer is actually meticulously recreatingRead MoreThe Ever-Changing Deviant Soc iety Essay1499 Words   |  6 Pages To better understand these different forms of deviance we must look at the causes and origins of deviant behavior. Like some disorders in abnormal psychology, I believe deviance can originate from biological, behavioral, sociocultural, and psychodynamic backgrounds. Even a combination of these five areas may cause a person to become deviant. In the biological realm, I believe that someone can be genetically predisposed to deviant behavior. They may have personality characteristics handed downRead MoreDetailed Analysis on Personality Disorders479 Words   |  2 Pagesinclude the psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic and family system approach. There are various studies, that are both fascinating and illuminating, and that can help society understand how these theories function to understand how to best treat this disorder. While in the past most psychologists only adhered to one of these, now most psychologists use multiple definitions of these theories in order to better treat the disorder. (Integrative and Biopsychosocial Approaches in Contemporary ClinicalRead MoreActive Experimentation And Its Effects On Reality And The Starting Of The Cycle1116 Words   |  5 Pagesas a lifelong process. Again, I stress here on the vital need of a â€Å"secondary debriefing† (venting ) after the â€Å"primary de briefing† (self-reflecting). CRITIQUES TO KOLB’S CYCLE Despite the crucial impact of Kolb’s cycle to contemporary theories of learning, many authors have criticized it for different reasons (see appendix five). I have chosen the below theorists since I believe they provide food for thought on issues as important as autonomy, unconscious learning, isolation, rigidity, social/educationalRead MoreSocial Implications Of Psychoanalytic Theory Essay1219 Words   |  5 Pagesquestions and concerns which arise from the implications of the numerous avenues of the psychodynamic theory. They maintained constant themes throughout this process, such as, understanding the importance of human subjectivity, identity and selfhood; and the basic nature and the relationship between intimate attachments and the quality of social relationships; as well as the dynamics of oppression. The authors explored a range of psychoanalytic ideas, comprising of Early Drive Theory, Ego PsychologyRead MoreThe Role Of Relationship And Technique On Therapeutic Chang e989 Words   |  4 Pagestherapeutic alliance. The undertones that guide the discussion and is largely the conflict are the assumptions made about theories and how they include not just one theoretical approach, but four including behavioral, experiential humanistic and psychodynamic. Later on the answer given is that there are core principles that guide not only the methodology, but also the alliance or the relationship. What Goldfried and Davila try to do is move the conflict away from the question as to whether or not theRead MoreA Brief Comparison of Historical Paths for the Clinical and Counselling Streams of Psychology2301 Words   |  10 Pagesand implementation of both counselling and clinical psychological streams (Gladding, 2013; Kiselica Robinson, 2001). Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the acceptance of any contemporary psychological stream without the American mental health movement of the early 1900’s. When comparing the methods used by contemporary clinical and counselling psychologists, one must recognise the contributions of Carl Rogers, whose non-directive, humanistic counselling approach relied upon client-centered methods

Deep Water Free Essays

string(112) " battered and degraded from years of mismanagement, faced yet another blow as the oil spread and washed ashore\." i i Dedication This report is dedicated to the 11 men who lost their lives on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010 and to their families, in hope that this report will help minimize the chance of another such disaster ever happening again. Jason Anderson Aaron Dale Burkeen Donald Clark Stephen Curtis Gordon Jones Roy Wyatt Kemp Karl Dale Kleppinger, Jr. Blair Manuel Dewey Revette Shane Roshto Adam Weise ii Acknowledgements We wish to acknowledge the many individuals and organizations, government officials and agencies alike that offered their views and insights to the Commission. We will write a custom essay sample on Deep Water or any similar topic only for you Order Now We would especially like to express our gratitude to the Coast Guard’s Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) for allowing Commission staff to participate in its interviews and discussions, which was invaluable to the preparation of this report. (A copy of the Coast Guard’s ISPR report can be found at the Commission’s website at www. oilspillcommission. gov). We would also like to thank Chevron for performing the cement tests that proved so critical to our investigation into the Macondo well blowout. Related article: Why Nations Fail Chapter 5 We also thank the Department of Energy, which served as our supporting agency, and all of the Department employees whose assistance was so essential to the success and functioning of the Commission. In particular, we would like to thank Christopher Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas, who acted as the Commission’s Designated Federal Officer, as well as Elena Melchert, Petroleum Engineer in the Office of Oil and Gas Resource Conservation, who served as the Committee Manager. But most importantly, we are deeply grateful to the citizens of the Gulf who shared their personal xperiences as Commissioners traveled in the region, providing a critical human dimension to the disaster and to our undertaking, as well as the many people who testified at the Commission’s hearings, provided public comments, and submitted statements to our website. Together, these contributions greatly informed our work and led to a better report. Thank you one and all. Copyright, Restrictions, and Permissions Notice Except as noted herein, materials contained in this report are in the public domain. Public domain information may be freely distributed and copied. However, this report contains illustrations, photographs, and other information contributed by or licensed from private individuals, companies, or organizations that may be protected by U. S. and/or foreign copyright laws. Transmission or reproduction of items protected by copyright may require the written permission of the copyright owner. When using material or images from this report we ask that you credit this report, as well as the source of the material as indicated in this report. Permission to use materials copyrighted by other individuals, companies or organizations must be obtained directly from those sources. This report contains links to many Web sites. Once you access another site through a link that we provide, you are subject to the use, copyright and licensing restrictions of that site. Neither the Government nor the National Commission on the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (Commissi on) endorses any of the organizations or views represented by the linked sites unless expressly stated in the report. The Government and the Commission take no responsibility for, and exercise no control over, the content, accuracy or accessibility of the material contained on the linked sites. Cover Photo:  © Steadfast TV ISBN: 978-0-16-087371-3 iii iii Deep Water The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling Report to the President National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling January 2011 iv Commission Members Bob Graham, Co-Chair William K. Reilly, Co-Chair Frances Beinecke Donald F. Boesch Terry D. Garcia Cherry A. Murray Fran Ulmer v Table of Contents Foreword PART I: The Path to Tragedy Chapter 1 â€Å"Everyone involved with the job†¦was completely satisfied†¦. † The Deepwater Horizon, the Macondo Well, and Sudden Death on the Gulf of Mexico vi xiii 1 21 Chapter 2 â€Å"Each oil well has its own personality† The History of Offshore Oil and Gas in the United States Chapter 3 â€Å"It was like pulling teeth. † Oversi ght—and Oversights—in Regulating Deepwater Energy Exploration and Production in the Gulf of Mexico 55 PART II: Explosion and Aftermath: The Causes and Consequences of the Disaster Chapter 4 But, who cares, it’s done, end of story, [we] will probably be fine and we’ll get a good cement job. † The Macondo Well and the Blowout 87 89 Chapter 5 â€Å"You’re in it now, up to your neck! † Response and Containment 129 173 197 Chapter 6 â€Å"The worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. † Oiling a Rich Environment: Impacts and Assessment Chapter 7 â€Å"People have plan fatigue . . . they’ve been planned to death† Recovery and Restoration PART III: Lessons Learned: Industry, Government, Energy Policy Chapter 8 â€Å"Safety is not proprietary. † Changing Business as Usual 215 217 Chapter 9 â€Å"Develop options for guarding against, and mitigating the impact of, oil spills associated with offshore drilling. † Investing in Safety, Investing in Response, Investing in the Gulf 249 Chapter 10 American Energy Policy and the Future of Offshore Drilling 293 307 356 358 359 362 365 366 368 Endnotes Appendices Appendix A: Commission Members Appendix B: List of Acronyms Appendix C: Executive Order Appendix D: Commission Staff and Consultants Appendix E: List of Commission Meetings Appendix F: List of Staff Working Papers Index vi Photo: Susan Walsh, Associated Press The explosion that tore through the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last April 20, as the rig’s crew completed drilling the exploratory Macondo well deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, began a human, economic, and environmental disaster. Eleven crew members died, and others were seriously injured, as fire engulfed and ultimately destroyed the rig. And, although the nation would not know the full scope of the disaster for weeks, the first of more than four million barrels of oil began gushing uncontrolled into the Gulf—threatening livelihoods, precious habitats, and even a unique way of life. A treasured American landscape, already battered and degraded from years of mismanagement, faced yet another blow as the oil spread and washed ashore. You read "Deep Water" in category "Essay examples" Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the nation was again transfixed, seemingly helpless, as this new tragedy unfolded in the Gulf. The costs from this one industrial accident are not yet fully counted, but it is already clear that the impacts on the region’s natural systems and people were enormous, and that economic losses total tens of billions of dollars. On May 22, 2010, President Barack Obama announced the creation of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling: an independent, nonpartisan entity, directed to provide a thorough analysis and impartial judgment. The President charged the Commission to determine the causes of the disaster, and to improve the country’s ability to respond to spills, and to recommend reforms to make offshore energy production safer. And the President said we were to follow the facts wherever they led. This report is the result of an intense six-month effort to fulfill the President’s charge. Foreword vii vii From the outset, the Commissioners have been determined to learn the essential lessons so expensively revealed in the tragic loss of life at the Deepwater Horizon and the severe damages that ensued. The Commission’s aim has been to provide the President, policymakers, industry, and the American people a clear, accessible, accurate, and fair account of the largest oil spill in U. S history: the context for the well itself, how the explosion and spill happened, and how industry and government scrambled to respond to an unprecedented emergency. This was our first obligation: determine what happened, why it happened, and explain it to Americans everywhere. As a result of our investigation, we conclude: †¢ †¢ The explosive loss of the Macondo well could have been prevented. The immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout can be traced to a series of identifiable mistakes made by BP Halliburton, and Transocean that reveal such , systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry. Deepwater energy exploration and production, particularly at the frontiers of experience, involve risks for which neither industry nor overnment has been adequately prepared, but for which they can and must be prepared in the future. To assure human safety and environmental protection, regulatory oversight of leasing, energy exploration, and production require reforms even beyond those significant reforms already initiated since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Fundamental reform will be needed in both the structure of those in charge of regulatory oversight and their internal decisionmaking process to ensure their political autonomy, technical expertise, and their full consideration of environmental protection concerns. Because regulatory oversight alone will not be sufficient to ensure adequate safety, the oil and gas industry will need to take its own, unilateral steps to increase dramatically safety throughout the industry, including self-policing mechanisms that supplement governmental enforcement. The technology, laws and regulations, and practices for containing, responding to, and cleaning up spills lag behind the real risks associated with deepwater drilling into large, high-pressure reservoirs of oil and gas located far offshore and thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface. Government must close the existing gap and industry must support rather than resist that effort. Scientific understanding of environmental conditions in sensitive environments in deep Gulf waters, along the region’s coastal habitats, and in areas proposed for more drilling, such as the Arctic, is inadequate. The same is true of the human and natural impacts of oil spills. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ viii We reach these conclusions, and make necessary recommendations, in a constructive spirit: we aim to promote changes that will make American offshore energy exploration and production far safer, today and in the future. More broadly, the disaster in the Gulf undermined public faith in the energy industry, government regulators, and even our own capability as a nation to respond to crises. It is our hope that a thorough and rigorous accounting, along with focused suggestions for reform, can begin the process of restoring confidence. There is much at stake, not only for the people directly affected in the Gulf region, but for the American people at large. The tremendous resources that exist within our outer continental shelf belong to the nation as a whole. The federal government’s authority over the shelf is accordingly plenary, based on its power as both the owner of the resources and in its regulatory capacity as sovereign to protect public health, safety, and welfare. To be allowed to drill on the outer continental shelf is a privilege to be earned, not a private right to be exercised. â€Å"Complex Systems Almost Always Fail in Complex Ways† As the Board that investigated the loss of the Columbia space shuttle noted, â€Å"complex systems almost always fail in complex ways. Though it is tempting to single out one crucial misstep or point the finger at one bad actor as the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, any such explanation provides a dangerously incomplete picture of what happened—encouraging the very kind of complacency that led to the accident in the first place. Consistent with the President’s request, this report takes an expansive view. Why was a corporation drilling for oil in mile-deep water 49 miles off the Louisiana coast? To begin, Americans today consume vast amounts of petroleum products—some 18. 7 million barrels per day—to fuel our economy. Unlike many other oil-producing countries, the United States relies on private industry—not a state-owned or -controlled enterprise—to supply oil, natural gas, and indeed all of our energy resources. This basic trait of our private-enterprise system has major implications for how the U. S. government oversees and regulates offshore drilling. It also has advantages in fostering a vigorous and competitive industry, which has led worldwide in advancing the technology of finding and extracting oil and gas. Even as land-based oil production extended as far as the northern Alaska frontier, the oil and gas industry began to move offshore. The industry first moved into shallow water and eventually into deepwater, where technological advances have opened up vast new reserves of oil and gas in remote areas—in recent decades, much deeper under the water’s surface and farther offshore than ever before. The Deepwater Horizon was drilling the Macondo well under 5,000 feet of Gulf water, and then over 13,000 feet under the sea floor to the hydrocarbon reservoir below. It is a complex, even dazzling, enterprise. The remarkable advances that have propelled the move to deepwater drilling merit comparison with exploring outer space. The Commission is respectful and admiring of the industry’s technological capability. ix ix But drilling in deepwater brings new risks, not yet completely addressed by the reviews of where it is safe to drill, what could go wrong, and how to respond if something does go awry. The drilling rigs themselves bristle with potentially dangerous machinery. The deepwater environment is cold, dark, distant, and under high pressures—and the oil and gas reservoirs, when found, exist at even higher pressures (thousands of pounds per square inch), compounding the risks if a well gets out of control. The Deepwater Horizon and Macondo well vividly illustrated all of those very real risks. When a failure happens at such depths, regaining control is a formidable engineering challenge—and the costs of failure, we now know, can be catastrophically high. In the years before the Macondo blowout, neither industry nor government adequately addressed these risks. Investments in safety, containment, and response equipment and practices failed to keep pace with the rapid move into deepwater drilling. Absent major crises, and given the remarkable financial returns available from deepwater reserves, the business culture succumbed to a false sense of security. The Deepwater Horizon disaster exhibits the costs of a culture of complacency. The Commission examined in great detail what went wrong on the rig itself. Our investigative staff uncovered a wealth of specific information that greatly enhances our understanding of the factors that led to the explosion. The separately published report of the chief counsel (a summary of the findings is presented in Chapter 4) offers the fullest account yet of what happened on the rig and why. There are recurring themes of missed warning signals, failure to share information, and a general lack of appreciation for the risks involved. In the view of the Commission, these findings highlight the importance of organizational culture and a consistent commitment to safety by industry, from the highest management levels on down. * But that complacency affected government as well as industry. The Commission has documented the weaknesses and the inadequacies of the federal regulation and oversight, and made important recommendations for changes in legal authority, regulations, investments in expertise, and management. The Commission also looked at the effectiveness of the response to the spill. There were remarkable instances of dedication and heroism by individuals involved in the rescue and cleanup. Much was done well—and thanks to a combination of good luck and hard work, the worst-case scenarios did not all come to pass. But it is impossible to argue that the industry or the country was prepared for a disaster of the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, the same blunt response technologies—booms, dispersants, and skimmers—were used, to limited effect. On-the-ground shortcomings in the joint public-private response to an overwhelming spill like that resulting from the blowout of the Macondo well are now evident, and demand public and private investment. So do the weaknesses in local, state, and federal coordination revealed by the emergency. Both government and industry failed to anticipate and prevent this catastrophe, and failed again to be prepared to respond to it. *The chief counsel’s investigation was no doubt complicated by the lack of subpoena power. Nonetheless, Chief Counsel Bartlit did an extraordinary job building the record and interpreting what he learned. He used his considerable powers of persuasion along with other tools at his disposal to engage the involved companies in constructive and informative exchanges. x If we are to make future deepwater drilling safer and more environmentally responsible, we will need to address all these deficiencies together; a piecemeal approach will surely leave us vulnerable to future crises in the communities and natural environments most exposed to offshore energy exploration and production. The Deepwater Drilling Prospect The damage from the spill and the impact on the people of the Gulf has guided our work from the very beginning. Our first action as a Commission was to visit the Gulf region, to learn directly from those most affected. We heard deeply moving accounts from oystermen witnessing multi-generation family businesses slipping away, fishermen and tourism proprietors bearing the brunt of an ill-founded stigma affecting everything related to the Gulf, and oil-rig workers dealing with mounting bills and threatened home foreclosures, their means of support temporarily derailed by a blanket drilling moratorium, shutting down all deepwater drilling rigs, including those not implicated in the BP spill. Indeed, the centrality of oil and gas exploration to the Gulf economy is not widely appreciated by many Americans, who enjoy the benefits of the energy essential to their transportation, but bear none of the direct risks of its production. Within the Gulf region, however, the role of the energy industry is well understood and accepted. The notion of clashing interests—of energy extraction versus a natural-resource economy with bountiful fisheries and tourist amenities—misses the extent to which the energy industry is woven into the fabric of the Gulf culture and economy, providing thousands of jobs and essential public revenues. Any discussion of the future of offshore drilling cannot ignore these economic realities. But those benefits have imposed their costs. The bayous and wetlands of Louisiana have for decades suffered from destructive alteration to accommodate oil exploration. The Gulf ecosystem, a unique American asset, is likely to continue silently washing away unless decisive action is taken to start the work of creating a sustainably healthy and productive landscape. No one should be deluded that restoration on the scale required will occur quickly or cheaply. Indeed, the experience in restoring other large, sensitive regions—the Chesapeake Bay, the Everglades, the Great Lakes—indicates that progress will require coordinated federal and state actions, a dedicated funding source, long-term monitoring, and a vocal and engaged citizenry, supported by robust non-governmental groups, scientific research, and more. We advocate beginning such an effort, seriously and soon, as a suitable response to the damage and disruption caused by the Deepwater Horizon emergency. It is a fair recognition not only of the costs that energy exploitation in the Gulf has, for decades, imposed on the landscape and habitats—and the other economic activities they support—but also of the certainty that Americans will continue to develop the region’s offshore energy resources. For the simple fact is that the bulk of our newly discovered petroleum reserves, and the best prospects for future discoveries, lie not on land, but under water. To date, we have xi xi made the decision as a nation to exploit the Gulf ’s offshore energy resources—ruling much of the Florida, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts out of bounds for drilling. The choice of how aggressively to exploit these resources, wherever they may be found, has profound implications for the future of U. S. energy policy, for our need to understand and assure the integrity of fragile environmental resources, and for the way Americans think about our economy and our security. Although much work is being done to improve the fuelefficiency of vehicles and to develop alternative fuels, we cannot realistically walk away from these offshore oil resources in the near future. So we must be much better prepared to exploit such resources with far greater care. The Commission and Its Work While we took a broad view of the spill, it could not be exhaustive. There is still much we do not know—for instance, the blowout preventer, the last line of defense against loss of well control, is still being analyzed; and the Deepwater Horizon itself, after its explosive destruction, remained out of reach during our investigation. The understandable, immediate need to provide answers and concrete suggestions trumped the benefits of a longer, more comprehensive investigation. And as we know from other spills, their environmental consequences play out over decades—and often in unexpected ways. Instead, the Commission focused on areas we thought most likely to inform practical recommendations. Those recommendations are presented in the spirit of transforming America into the global leader for safe and effective offshore drilling operations. Just as this Commission learned from the experiences of other nations in developing our recommendations, the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster are not confined to our own government and industry, but relevant to rest of the world. We wish we could say that our recommendations make a recurrence of a disaster like the Macondo blowout impossible. We do not have that power. No one can eliminate all risks associated with deepwater exploration. But when exploration occurs, particularly in sensitive environments like the Gulf of Mexico or the Arctic, the country has an obligation to make responsible decisions regarding the benefits and risks. The report is divided into three sections. Chapters 1 through 3 describe the events of April 20th on the Deepwater Horizon, and, more important, the events leading up to it in the preceding decades—especially how the dramatic expansion of deepwater drilling in the Gulf was not met by regulatory oversight capable of ensuring the safety of those drilling operations. Chapters 4 through 7 lay out the results of our investigation in detail, highlighting the crucial issues we believe must inform policy going forward: the specific engineering and operating choices made in drilling the Macondo well, the attempts to contain and respond to the oil spill, and the impacts of the spill on the region’s natural resources, economy, and people—in the context of the progressive degradation of the Mississippi Delta environment. xii Chapters 8 through 10 present our recommendations for reforms in business practices, regulatory oversight, and broader policy concerns. We recognize that the improvements we advocate all come with costs and all will take time to implement. But inaction, as we are deeply aware, runs the risk of real costs, too: in more lost lives, in broad damage to the regional economy and its long-term viability, and in further tens of billions of dollars of avoidable clean-up costs. Indeed, if the clear challenges are not addressed and another disaster happens, the entire offshore energy enterprise is threatened—and with it, the nation’s economy and security. We suggest a better option: build from this tragedy in a way that makes the Gulf more resilient, the country’s energy supplies more secure, our workers safer, and our cherished natural resources better protected. Our Thanks and Dedication We thank President Obama for this opportunity to learn thoroughly about the crisis, and to share our findings with the American public. We deeply appreciate the effort people in the affected Gulf regions made to tell us about their experiences, and the time and preparation witnesses before the Commission dedicated to their presentations. We have come to respect the seriousness with which our fellow Commissioners assumed our joint responsibilities, and their diverse expertise and perspectives that helped make its work thorough and productive. On their behalf, we wish to recognize the extraordinary work the Commission’s staff—scientists, lawyers, engineers, policy analysts, and more— performed, under demanding deadlines, to make our inquiries broad, deep, and effective; and we especially highlight the leadership contributions of Richard Lazarus, executive director, and Fred Bartlit, chief counsel. Together, they have fulfilled an extraordinary public service. Finally, to the American people, we reiterate that extracting the energy resources to fuel our cars, heat and light our homes, and power our businesses can be a dangerous enterprise. Our national reliance on fossil fuels is likely to continue for some time—and all of us reap benefits from the risks taken by the men and women working in energy exploration. We owe it to them to ensure that their working environment is as safe as possible. We dedicate this effort to the 11 of our fellow citizens who lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Bob Graham, Co-Chair William K. Reilly, Co-Chair xiii xiii xiii Part I The Path to Tragedy On April 20, 2010, the 126 workers on the BP Deepwater Horizon were going about the routines of completing an exploratory oil well—unaware of impending disaster. What unfolded would have unknown impacts shaped by the Gulf region’s distinctive cultures, institutions, and geography—and by economic forces resulting from the unique coexistence of energy resources, bountiful fisheries and wildlife, and coastal tourism. The oil and gas industry, long lured by Gulf reserves and public incentives, progressively developed and deployed new technologies, at ever-larger scales, in pursuit of valuable energy supplies in increasingly deeper waters farther from the coastline. Regulators, however, failed to keep pace with the industrial expansion and new technology—often because of industry’s resistance to more effective oversight. The result was a serious, and ultimately inexcusable, shortfall in supervision of offshore drilling that played out in the Macondo well blowout and the catastrophic oil spill that followed. Chapters 1 through 3 describe the interplay of private industry and public oversight in the distinctive Gulf deepwater context: the conditions that governed the deployment of the Deepwater Horizon and the drilling of the Macondo well. Chapter One 1 1 Chapter One â€Å"Everyone involved with the job . . . was completely satisfied. . . † The Deepwater Horizon, the Macondo Well, and Sudden Death on the Gulf of Mexico At 5:45 a. m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, a Halliburton Company cementing engineer sent an e-mail from the rig Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, to his colleague in Houston. He had good news: â€Å"We have completed the job and it went well. †1 Outside in the Gulf, it was still dark—beyond the glare of the floodlights on the gargantuan rig, the four decks of which towered above the blue-green water on four huge white columns, all floating on massive pontoons. The oil derrick rose over 20 stories above the top deck. Up on the bridge on the main deck, two officers monitored the satelliteguided dynamic positioning system, controlling thrusters so powerful that they could keep the 33,000-ton Deepwater Horizon centered over a well even in high seas. The rig’s industrial hum and loud mechanical noises punctuated the sea air as a slight breeze blew in off the water. The crew worked on Pride of the Transocean fleet of offshore drilling rigs, Deepwater Horizon rides calmly on station 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. The $560-million-dollar rig, under lease to BP was putting the finishing touches on the oil company’s , 18,000-foot-deep Macondo well when it blew out and escaping methane gas exploded. Eleven workers died in the inferno. According to the government’s estimates, by the time the well was sealed months later, over 4 million barrels of oil had spilled into the Gulf. lt; Photo courtesy of Transocean 2 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling the well bore, aiming always to keep the pressure inside the well balancing the force exerted by the surrounding seabed. 2 By the time the Halliburton engineer had arrived at the rig four days earlier to help cement in the two- and-a-half-mile-deep Macondo well, some crew members had dubbed it â€Å"the well from hell. †3 Macondo was not the first well to earn that nickname;4 like many deepwater wells, it had proved complicated and challenging. As they drilled, the engineers had to modify plans in response to their increasing knowledge of the precise features of the geologic formations thousands of feet below. Deepwater drilling is an unavoidably tough, demanding job, requiring tremendous engineering expertise. BP drilling engineer Brian Morel, who had designed the Macondo well with other BP engineers including Mark Hafle, was also on board to observe the final stages of work at the well. 5 In an April 14 e-mail, Morel had lamented to his colleagues, â€Å"this has been [a] nightmare well which has everyone all over the place. 6 BP and its corporate partners on the well, Anadarko Petroleum and MOEX USA, had, according to government reports, budgeted $96. 2 million and 51 days of work to drill the Macondo well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252. 7 They discovered a large reservoir of oil and gas, but drilling had been challenging. As of April 20, BP and the Macondo well were almost six weeks behind schedule and more than $58 m illion over budget. 8 The Deepwater Horizon was not originally meant to drill Macondo. Another giant rig, the Marianas, had initiated work on the well the previous October. Drilling had reached more than 9,000 feet below the ocean surface (4,000 feet below the seabed), with another 9,000 feet to go to â€Å"pay zone† (the oil and gas reservoir), when Hurricane Ida so battered the rig on November 9 that it had to be towed in for repair. Both Marianas and Deepwater Horizon were semisubmersible rigs owned by Transocean, founded in Louisiana in 1919 as Danciger Oil Refining Co. and now the world’s largest contractor of offshore drilling rigs. 10 In 2009, Transocean’s global fleet produced revenues of $11. 6 billion. 1 Transocean had consolidated its dominant position in the industry in November 2007 by merging with rival GlobalSantaFe. 12 Deepwater Horizon, built for $350 million,13 was seen as the outstanding rig in Transocean’s fleet; leasing its services reportedly cost as much as $1 million per day. Since Deepwater Horizon’s 2001 maiden voyage to the Gulf, it had been under contract to London-based BP (formerly known as British Petroleum). By 2010, after numerous acquisitions, BP had become the world’s fourth-largest corporation (based on revenue)14 producing more than 4 million barrels of oil daily from 30 countries. Ten percent of BP’s output came from the Gulf of Mexico, where BP America (headquartered in Houston) was the largest producer. But BP had a tarnished reputation for safety. Among other BP accidents, 15 workers died in a 2005 explosion at its Texas City, Texas, refinery; in 2006, there was a major oil spill from a badly corroded BP pipeline in Alaska. * *A barrel equals 42 gallons. * * * Chapter One 3 3 Deepwater Horizon had arrived at the Macondo lease site on January 31, at 2:15 p. m. It was 55 degrees, chilly and clear—the night of a full moon. About 126 people were aboard: approximately 80 Transocean employees, a few BP men, cafeteria and laundry workers, and a changing group of workers contracted for specialized jobs. Depending on the status of the well, these might include Halliburton cementers, mud loggers from Sperry Sun (a Halliburton subsidiary), mud engineers from M-I SWACO (a subsidiary of Schlumberger, an international oilfield services provider), remotely operated vehicle technicians from Oceaneering, or tank cleaners and technicians from the OCS Group. The offices and living quarters were on the two bottom decks of the rig. Helicopters flew in and out regularly with workers and supplies, landing on the top-deck helipad, and service ships made regular visits. At its new Macondo assignment, Deepwater Horizon floated in 4,992 feet of water just beyond the gentle slope of the continental shelf in the Mississippi Canyon. 15 The seabed far below was near-freezing, visible to the crew only via cameras mounted on the rig’s subsea remotely operated vehicle. Another two and a half miles below the seabed was the prize BP sought: a large reservoir of oil and gas from the Middle Miocene era trapped in a porous rock formation at temperatures exceeding 200 degrees. 6 These deepwater hydrocarbon fields, buried far below the seabed—not just in the Gulf, but in other oil-rich zones around the world, too—were the brave new oil frontier. The size of some deepwater fields was so huge that the oil industry had nicknamed those with a billion barrels or more â€Å"elephants. †17 Drilling for oil had always been hard, dirty, dangerous work, combining heavy machinery and volatile hydrocarbons extracted at high pressures. Since 2001, the Gulf of Mexico workforce—35,000 people, working on 90 big drilling rigs and 3,500 production platforms—had suffered 1,550 injuries, 60 deaths, and 948 fires and explosions. 8 The rig never slept. Most workers on Deepwater Horizon, from BP’s top â€Å"company man† down to the roustabouts, put in a 12-hour night or day shift, working three straight weeks on and then having three weeks off. Rig workers made good money for the dangerous work and long stints away from home and family. Top rig and management jobs paid well into six figures. On the morning of April 20, Robert Kaluza was BP’s day-shift company man on the Deepwater Horizon. On board for the first time, he was serving for four days as a relief man for Ronald Sepulvado, a veteran well-site leader on the rig. Sepulvado had flown back to shore April 16 for a required well-control class. 19 During the rig’s daily 7:30 a. m. operations conference call to BP in Houston, engineer Morel discussed the good news that the final cement job at the bottom of the Macondo well had gone fine. 20 To ensure the job did not have problems, a three-man Schlumberger team was scheduled to fly out to the rig later that day, able to perform a suite of tests to examine the well’s new bottom cement seal. 21 4 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling According to the BP team’s plan, if the cementing went smoothly, as it had, they could skip Schlumberger’s cement evaluation. Generally, the completion rig would perform this test when it reopened the well to produce the oil the exploratory drilling had discovered. The decision was made to send the Schlumberger team home on the 11:00 a. m. helicopter, thus saving time and the $128,000 fee. As BP Wells Team Leader John Guide noted, â€Å"Everyone involved with the job on the rig site was completely satisfied with the [cementing] job. 22 At 8:52 a. m. , Morel e-mailed the Houston office to reiterate: â€Å"Just wanted to let everyone know the cement job went well. Pressures stayed low, but we had full returns on the entire job†¦We should be coming out of the hole [well] shortly. † At 10:14 a. m. , David Sims, BP’s new drilling operations manager in charge of Macondo, e-mailed to say, â€Å"Great job guys! † * * * * The rest of the day would be d evoted to a series of further tests on the well—positiveand negative-pressure tests—in preparation for â€Å"temporary abandonment. * During the positive-pressure test, the drill crew would increase the pressure inside the steel casing and seal assembly to be sure they were intact. The negative-pressure test, by contrast, would reduce the pressure inside the well in order to simulate its state after the Deepwater Horizon had packed up and moved on. If pressure increased inside the well during the negative-pressure test, or if fluids flowed up from the well, that would indicate a well integrity problem—a leak of fluids into the well. Such a leak would be a worrisome sign that somewhere the casing and cement had been breached—in which case remedial work would be needed to reestablish the well’s integrity. At 10:43 a. m. , Morel, about to leave the rig on the helicopter with the Schlumberger team, sent a short e-mail laying out his plan for conducting the day’s tests of the well’s integrity and subsequent temporary abandonment procedures. Few had seen the plan’s details when the rig supervisors and members of the drill team gathered for the rig’s daily 11:00 a. m. pre-tour meeting in the cinema room. Basically [we] go over what’s going to be taking place for today on the rig and the drill floor,† said Douglas Brown, chief mechanic. 23 During the rig meeting, the crew on the drill floor was conducting the Macondo well’s positive-pressure test. 24 The positive-pressure test on the casing was reassuring, a success. 25 There was reason for the mood on the ri g to be upbeat. Ross Skidmore, a subsea engineer explained, â€Å"When you run the last string of casing, and you’ve got it cemented, it’s landed out, and a test was done on it, you say, ‘This job, we’re at the end of it, we’re going to be okay. †26 At noon, the drill crew began to run drill pipe into the well in preparation for the negativepressure test later that evening. 27 By now, it was a sunny afternoon. Transocean’s top men on the rig, Jimmy Harrell and Captain Curt Kuchta, were standing together near the helipad, watching a helicopter gently land. Kuchta had come in from New Orleans just * Temporary abandonment describes the process, after successful exploration, for securing the well until the production platform can be brought in for the purpose of extracting the oil and gas from the reservoir. Chapter One 5 5 that morning to begin his three-week hitch. Harrell was the top Transocean man on the rig when—as now—the well was â€Å"latched up. † Captain Kuchta, who had served on the Deepwater Horizon since June 2008, was in command when the vessel was â€Å"unlatched† and thus once again a maritime vessel. 28 The helicopter landed, the doors opened, and four Houston executives stepped out to begin their 24-hour â€Å"management visibility tour. †29 Harrell and Kuchta greeted the VIPs. 30 Two were from Transocean: Buddy Trahan, vice president and operations manager for assets, and Daun Winslow, a one-time assistant driller who had worked his way up to operations manager. BP’s representatives were David Sims, the new drilling operations manager (he had sent the congratulatory e-mail about the cement just that morning), and Pat O’Bryan, vice-president for drilling and completions, Gulf of Mexico Deepwater. 31 At about 4:00 p. m. , Harrell began his escorted tour of the Deepwater Horizon for the VIPs. 32 He was joined by Chief Engineer Steve Bertone, on board since 2003, and senior toolpusher Randy Ezell, another top man on the rig. 33 Like Harrell, Ezell was an offshore veteran. He had worked for 23 years with Transocean34 and was now the senior man in charge of the drilling floor. He had been on the rig for years. If any people knew this rig, they were Harrell, Bertone, and Ezell; they showed the VIPs around. At 5:00 p. m. , the rig crew, including toolpusher Wyman Wheeler, began the negativepressure test. 35 After bleeding pressure from the well, the crew would close it off to check whether the pressure within the drill pipe would remain steady. But the pressure repeatedly built back up. As the crew conducted the test, the drill shack grew crowded. 36 The night crew began arriving to relieve the day shift, and Harrell brought the VIPs through as part of their tour. 7 â€Å"There was quite a few people in there,† said Transocean’s Winslow. â€Å"I tapped Dewey Revette on the shoulder. He was the driller master. I said, ‘Hey, how’s it going, Dewey? You got everything under control here? ’ â€Å"And he said, ‘Yes, sir. ’ â€Å"And there seemed to be a discussion going on about some pressure or a negative test. An d I said to Jimmy [Harrell] and Randy Ezell, ‘Looks like they’re having a discussion here. Maybe you could give them some assistance. ’ And they happily agreed to that. †38 Bertone took over the tour, wandering on to look at the moon pool, down toward the pontoons and the thrusters. 9 The two shifts continued to discuss how to proceed. It was about 6:00 p. m. Jason Anderson, a tool pusher, turned to Ezell and said, â€Å"Why don’t you go eat? †40 Ezell had originally planned to attend a meeting with the VIPs at 7:00 p. m. He replied, â€Å"I can go eat and come back. †41 6 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Anderson was from Bay City, Texas, and had been on the rig since it was built; he was highly respected as a man who understood the finer points of deepwater well control. This was his final shift on the Deepwater Horizon: he had been promoted to teaching in Transocean’s well-control school, and he was scheduled to fly out the next day. He told Ezell, â€Å"Man, you ain’t got to do that. I’ve got this. Don’t worry about it. If I have any problems at all with this test I’ll give you a call. †42 â€Å"I knew Jason well,† said Ezell, â€Å"I’ve worked with him for all those years, eight or nine years†¦. He was just like a brother. So I had no doubt that if he had any indication of any problem or difficulty at all he would have called me. So I went ahead and ate. I did attend the meeting with the dignitaries. 43 Wheeler was â€Å"convinced that something wasn’t right,† recalled Christopher Pleasant, a subsea supervisor. Wheeler couldn’t believe the explanations he was hearing. But his shift was up. 44 Don Vidrine, the company man coming on the evening shift, eventually said that another negative test had to be done. 45 This time the crew members were able to get the pressure down to zero on a different pipe, the â€Å"kill line,† but still not for the drill pipe, which continued to show elevated pressure. 46 According to BP witnesses, Anderson said he had seen this before and explained away the anomalous reading as the â€Å"bladder effect. 47 Whether for this reason or another, the men in the shack determined that no flow from the open kill line equaled a successful negative-pressure test. 48* It was time to get on with the rest of the temporary abandonment process. Kaluza, his shift over, headed off duty. 49 At 7:00 p. m. , after dinner, the VIPs had gathered in the third floor conference room with the rig’s leadership. According to BP’s Patrick O’Bryan, the Deepwater Horizon was â€Å"the best performing rig that we had in our fleet and in the Gulf of Mexico. And I believe it was one of the top performing rigs in all the BP floater fleets from the standpoint of safety and drilling performance. † O’Bryan, at his new job just four months, was on board in part to learn what made the rig such a stand-out. 50 Despite all the crew’s troubles with this latest well,51 they had not had a single â€Å"lost-time incident† in seven years of drilling. 52 The Transocean managers discussed with their BP counterparts the backlog of rig maintenance. A September 2009 BP safety audit had produced a 30-page list of 390 items requiring 3,545 man-hours of work. 3 The managers reviewed upcoming maintenance schedules and discussed efforts to reduce dropped objects and personal injuries: on a rig with cranes, multiple decks, and complicated heavy machinery, errant objects could be deadly. 54 Around 9:00 p. m. , Transocean’s Winslow proposed they all go visit the bridge, which had not been part of their earlier tour. According to David Sims, the bridge was â€Å"kind of an impressive place if you hadn’t been there†¦[l]ots of screens†¦lots of technology. †55 The four * The precise content of this particular conversation is disputed and is considered more fully in Chapter 4. Chapter One 7 7 men walked outside. The Gulf air was warm and the water calm as glass. Beyond the glare of the rig’s lights, the night sky glimmered with stars. * * * * After concluding that the negative-pressure test was successful, the drilling crew prepared to set a cement plug56 deep in the well—3,000 feet below the top of the well. 57 They reopened the blowout preventer and began pumping seawater down the drill pipe to displace the mud and spacer* from the riser (the pipe that connected the rig to the well assembly on the seafloor below). 8 When the spacer appeared up at the surface, they stopped pumping because the fluid had to be tested to make sure it was clean enough to dump it in the Gulf, now that it had journeyed down into the well and back. By 9:15 p. m. , the crew began discharging the spacer overboard. 59 * * * * Inside the bridge, Captain Kuchta welcomed visitors Sims, O’Bryan, Trahan, and Winslow. 60 The two dynamic-positioning officers, Yancy Ke plinger and Andrea Fleytas, were also on the bridge. 61 Keplinger was giving the visitors a tour of the bridge while Fleytas was at the desk station. 2 The officers explained how the rig’s thrusters kept the Deepwater Horizon in place above the well, showed off the radars and current meters, and offered to let the visiting BP men try their hands at the rig’s dynamic-positioning video simulator. 63 Winslow watched as the crew programmed in 70-knot winds and 30-foot seas, and hypothetically put two of the rig’s six thrusters out of commission. Then they put the simulator into manual mode and let Sims work the hand controls to maintain the rig’s location. Keplinger was advising about how much thrust to use. Winslow decided it was a good moment to go grab a quick cup of coffee and a smoke. He walked down to the rig’s smoking area, poured some coffee, and lit his cigarette. 64 * * * * Senior Toolpusher Randy Ezell left the evening meeting with BP feeling pleased at their praise â€Å"on how good a job we had done†¦How proud they were of the rig. † He stopped in at the galley to get a beverage before continuing to his office. At 9:20, he called Anderson up on the rig floor and asked, â€Å"‘How did your negative test go? ’†65 Anderson: â€Å"It went good. . . . We bled it off. We watched it for 30 minutes and we had no flow. Ezell: â€Å"What about your displacement? How’s it going? † Anderson: â€Å"It’s going fine. . . . It won’t be much longer and we ought to have our spacer back. † * As described more fully in Chapter 4, a â€Å"spacer† is a liquid that separates drilling mud used during the drilling oper ations from the seawater that is pumped in to displace the mud once drilling is complete. 8 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Ezell: â€Å"Do you need any help from me? † Anderson: â€Å"No, man. . . . I’ve got this. . . . Go to bed. I’ve got it. † Ezell concluded: â€Å"Okay. 66 Ezell walked to his cabin. He had worked with Anderson since the rig came from the shipyard. He had complete confidence in him. â€Å"Jason was very acute on what he did. . . he probably had more experience as far as shutting in for kicks than any individual on the Deepwater Horizon. † So Ezell prepared for bed, called his wife, and then turned off the lights to watch a bit of TV before going to sleep. 67 * * * * Up on the bridge, O’Bryan was taking his turn on the simulator. 68 Sims had stepped to the opposite side of the bridge when he felt a distinct high-frequency vibration. 9 Captain Kuchta looked up and remarked à ¢â‚¬Å"What’s that? † He strode to the port-side door and opened it. 70 Outside, O’Bryan could see the supply vessel Bankston glistening with what looked like drilling mud. 71 The captain shut the door â€Å"and told everybody to stay inside. †72 Then there began a hissing noise. 73 * * * * BP’s Vidrine had headed back to his office to do paperwork. He had been there about 10 to 15 minutes when the phone rang. It was Anderson, who reported â€Å"they were getting mud back and were diverting to the gas buster. † Vidrine grabbed his hard hat and started for the drill floor. By the time he got outside, â€Å"[t]here was mud and seawater blowing everywhere, there was a mud film on the deck. I decided not to continue and came back across. †74 * * * * Down in Ezell’s cabin, he was still watching TV when his phone rang. It was assistant driller Steve Curtis calling, also from the rig floor. â€Å"We have a situation. †¦The well is blown out. . . . We have mud going to the crown. † Ezell was horrified. â€Å"Do y’all have it shut in? †75 Curtis: â€Å"Jason is shutting it in now. . . Randy, we need your help. † Ezell: â€Å"Steve, I’ll be—I’ll be right there. 76 He put on his coveralls, pulled his socks on, and opened the door to go across the hall to his office for his boots and hard hat. Once in the hall, â€Å"a tremendous explosion†¦ blew me probably 20 feet against a bulkhead, against the wall in that office. And I remember then that the lights went out, power went out. I could he ar everything deathly calm. †77 * * * * Chapter One 9 9 Up on the main deck, gantry crane operator Micah Sandell was working with the roustabouts. â€Å"I seen mud shooting all the way up to the derrick. . . . Then it just quit. . . I took a deep breath thinking that ‘Oh, they got it under control. Then all the sudden the. . . mud started coming out of the degasser. . . so strong and so loud that it just filled up the whole back deck with a gassy smoke. . . loud enough. . . it’s like taking an air hose and sticking it in your ear. Then something exploded. . . that started the first fire†¦ on the starboard side of the derrick. †78 Sandell jumped up and turned off the crane cab’s air conditioner, worried that the gas would come in. â€Å"And about that time everything in the back just exploded at one time. It. . . knocked me to the back of the cab. I fell to the floor. . put my hands over my head and I just said, ‘No, God, no. ’ Beca use I thought that was it. †79 Then the flames pulled back from his crane and began to shoot straight up, roaring up and over the 20-story derrick. 80 * * * * Down in the engine control room, Chief Mechanic Douglas Brown, an Army veteran employed by Transocean, was filling out the nightly log and equipment hours. He had spent the day fixing a saltwater pipe in one of the pontoons. First, he noticed an â€Å"extremely loud air leak sound. † Then a gas alarm sounded, followed by more and more alarms wailing. In the midst of that noise, Brown noticed someone over the radio. â€Å"I heard the captain or chief mate, I’m not sure who, make an announcement to the standby boat, the Bankston, saying we were in a well-control situation. †81 The vessel was ordered to back off to 500 meters. 82 Now Brown could hear the rig’s engines revving. â€Å"I heard them revving up higher and higher and higher. Next I was expecting the engine trips to take over. . . . That did not happen. After that the power went out. † Seconds later, an explosion ripped through the pitch-black control room, hurtling him against the control panel, blasting away the floor. Brown fell through into a subfloor full of cable trays and wires. A second huge explosion roared through, collapsing the ceiling on him. All around in the dark he could hear people screaming and crying for help. 83 Dazed and buried in debris, he pulled himself out of the subfloor hole. In front of him appeared Mike Williams, chief electronic technician, blood pouring from a wound on his forehead, crawling over the rubble, screaming that he had to get out. 84 * * * * Steve Bertone, the rig’s chief engineer, had been in bed, reading the first sentence of his book, when he noticed an odd noise. As it progressively got louder, it sounded like a freight train coming through my bedroom and then there was a thumping sound that consecutively got much faster and with each thump, I felt the rig actually shake. †85 After a loud boom, the lights went out. 86 He leapt out of bed, opening his door to let in the emergency hall light so he could get dressed. 87 The overhead public-addre ss system crackled to life: â€Å"Fire. Fire. Fire. † 88 10 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling The air smelled and tasted of some kind of fuel. A second explosion roared through, flinging Bertone across his room. He stood up, pulled on his coveralls, work boots, and hard hat, and grabbed a life vest. Out in the hall, clogged with debris from blown-out walls and ceilings, four or five men stood in shock. Bertone yelled to them to go out by the port forward or starboard forward spiral staircases and report to their emergency stations. He ran toward the bridge. 89 He went to the portside back computer, the dynamic positioning system responsible for maintaining the rig’s position. â€Å"I observed that we had no engines, no thrusters, no power whatsoever. I picked up the phone which was right there and I tried calling extension 2268, which is the engine control room. There was no dial tone whatsoever. † It was then that Bertone looked out to the bridge’s starboard window. â€Å"I was fully expecting to see steel and pipe and everything on the rig floor. † â€Å"When I looked out the window, I saw fire from derrick leg to derrick leg and as high as I could see. At that point, I realized that we had just had a blowout. †90 Fleytas hit the general alarm. 91 The alarm went off: â€Å"Report to emergency stations and lifeboats. † The rig crew heard: â€Å"This is not a drill. This is not a drill. 92 Fleytas, realizing that the rig had not yet issued a Mayday call, sent it out. 93 Out in the dark of the Gulf, three friends on the 31-foot Ramblin’ Wreck were out on the water for a day of tuna fishing. 94 Around 9:45 p. m. , Bradley Shivers trained his binoculars at a brilliant light in the distance a nd realized it must be an oil rig on fire. 95 On their radio, they heard, â€Å"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is the Deepwater Horizon. We are on fire. †96 At that moment they â€Å"heard and felt a concussive sonic boom. †97 The Ramblin’ Wreck headed to the scene, their first tuna outing of the year cut short. 8 Bertone was now back to his station on the bridge, thinking, â€Å"The engines should be starting up because in approximately 25 to 30 seconds two engines start up, come online. . . . There was still no power of any kind. No engines starting; no indication of engines starting. †99 At that moment, the water-tight door to his left banged open and he heard someone say, â€Å"The engine room ECR [engine control room] and pump room are gone. They are all gone. † Bertone turned around, â€Å"What do you mean gone? † The man speaking was so coated in blood Bertone had no idea who he was. Then he recognized the voice. It was Mike Williams. Bertone saw how badly lacerated Williams’s forehead was, grabbed a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom, pressed it on the wound to staunch the bleeding, and ordered, â€Å"Hold this here. †100 Then he went back to his station and looked at his screen. â€Å"There was still nothing, no engines starting, no thrusters running, nothing. We were still [a] dead ship. †101 He heard the water-tight door slam again and saw another man soaked in blood, holding a rag to his head, repeating, â€Å"I’m hurt. I’m hurt bad, Chief. I’m hurt real bad. † It was the voice of Brent Mansfield, a Transocean marine engineer. Bertone pulled back Mansfield’s Chapter One 11 11 hand holding a rag, saw the head wound, and ran over to the bridge door and yelled down to the life-vessel area, â€Å"We need a medic up here now. †102 * * * * After the explosion, Randy Ezell lay buried under the blown-out walls and ceilings of the toolpusher’s office. The room was dark and smoky, the debris atop him so heavy he could barely move. On the third try, adrenalin kicked in. â€Å"I told myself, ‘Either you get up or you’re going to lay here and die. ’† Pulling hard on his right leg, he extricated it and tried to stand up. â€Å"That was the wrong thing to do because I immediately stuck my head into smoke. . . I dropped back down. I got on my hands and knees and for a few moments I was totally disoriented. † He wondered which way the door was. He felt air. He crawled through the debris toward the door and realized the â€Å"air† was methane. He could feel the droplets. He was crawling slowly atop th e rubble in the pitch-black hall when he felt a body. 103 Ezell then saw a bobbing beam of light. Stan Carden, the electrical supervisor, came round the corner. Carden had a light that bounced off shattered walls and collapsed ceilings in the pitch-black corridor, giving glimpses into rooms on each side wrecked by the power of the blast. 04 Stumbling into what was left of the hall was Offshore Installation Manager Jimmy Harrell, who had been in the shower when the rig exploded;105 he had donned coveralls, and now was groping his way out of what was left of his room. â€Å"I think I’ve got something in my eyes,† Harrell said. He had no shoes. â€Å"I got to see if I can find me some shoes. †106 Carden and Ezell tugged debris off the man they now recognized as Wyman Wheeler. Chad Murray, Transocean’s Chief Electrician, also appeared in the hall with a flashlight, and was immediately dispatched to find a stretcher for the injured man. 07 Believing it would s ave time to walk Wheeler out, Ezell slung Wheeler’s arm around his shoulder. Wheeler groaned, â€Å"Set me down . . . . Y’all go on. Save yourself. †108 Ezell said, â€Å"No, we’re not going to leave you. We’re not going to leave you in here. †109 Just then, they heard another voice from under the rubble: â€Å"God help me. Somebody please help me. † Near the ruins of the maintenance office the flashlight picked out a pair of feet jutting from the rubble. It was the visiting Transocean manager, Buddy Trahan, badly injured. By now Murray was there with a stretcher. Ezell, Carden, and Murray dragged away the remains of ceilings and walls trapping Trahan and loaded him on the stretcher. Carden and Murray carried him through the smoke and dark to the bow of the rig and the lifeboats. 110 Outside, the derrick fire roared upward into the night sky, an inferno throwing off searing heat and clouds of black smoke. The blinding yellow of the flames was the only illumination except for the occasional flashlight. The rig’s alarms were going off, while over the public announcement system Keplinger yelled, â€Å"THIS IS NOT A DRILL! †111 As the 12 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling crew struggled out of the blasted quarters, galley, and offices, in various states of undress, they converged in a chaotic and panicked mass at the lifesaving vessels, putting on life vests. 112 Sandell, the gantry crane operator, had escaped and come around the port side of the deck to the life vessels. â€Å"It was a lot of screaming, just a lot of screaming, a lot of hollering, a lot of scared people, including me, was scared. And trying to get people on boats. It was very unorganized—we had some wounded we was putting in the boat. Had people on the boat yelling, ‘Drop the boat, drop the boat,’ and we still didn’t have everybody on the boat yet. We was still trying to get people on the boat and trying to calm them down enough to—trying to calm them down enough to get everybody on the boat. And there was people jumping off the side. We was trying to get an accurate count and just couldn’t get an accurate count because people were just jumping off the boat. † 113 * * * * On the Bankston, Captain Alwin J. Landry was on the bridge updating his log when his mate noticed the mud. Landry stepped out and saw â€Å"mud falling on the back half of my boat, kind of like a black rain. He called the Deepwater Horizon bridge to say, â€Å"I’m getting mud on me. † Landry instructed his crew to get inside. The Deepwater Horizon called back and told him to move back 500 meters. 114 A crew member noticed a mud-covered seagull and egret fall to the deck. 115 Shortly after, La ndry saw the rig explode. Before the ship could move away, his crew had to detach the long mud transfer hose connecting them to the rig. 116 As they scrambled to disconnect, the Bankston slowly moved 100 meters back, then 500 meters. As the rig went dark, and secondary explosions rocked the decks, the Bankston turned on its searchlight. Landry could see the Deepwater Horizon crew mustering by the portside life vessels. â€Å"That’s when I seen the first of three or four people jump to the water from the rig. †117 One of those was Gregory Meche, a compliance specialist. After five minutes of the chaos around the lifeboats, and a series of large explosions, he headed down to the lower deck. He jumped into the water. 118 Antonio Gervasio, the Bankston’s relief chief, and two others began launching the ship’s fast rescue craft. 119 Within a minute or two of the explosions, they got the boat lowered into the water, and noticed how calm the Gulf was. 20 â€Å"I saw the first person jump in the water. So I told one of the guys to keep an eye on him. †121 The rig life jackets were reflective, and as the fast craft made its first sweep round from one side of the burning rig to the other, they hauled Meche and two or three others out of the water. 122 * * * * Back on the rig, Transocean†™s Winslow had made his way from the coffee shop to the lifeboats, surviving the second blast’s wave of concussive force, which blew in the Chapter One 13 13 corridor’s walls and ceilings. On the deck, a firestorm of flames roared in the night sky above the derrick. 23 Winslow directed the dazed crew toward the covered life-saving vessels, instructing the first arrivals, â€Å"We need to make sure we get a good head count. † Seeing Captain Kuchta standing at the starboard bridge door, he ran up, and said people should evacuate. Kuc How to cite Deep Water, Essay examples