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| john
mccarthy |
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| Joined:
02 Dec
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| Posts:
49 |
| Location:
Los
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Three
years ago I attended a
presentation on the Exxon Valdez
wreckage on the reef South of
Valdez, Alaska.
The speaker was none other than
the former US Attorney who was
part of the prosecution team
where Captain Hazelwood and
others were charged with negligence,
alcohol use, etc, in one of the
worst oil spills ever.
Jerry began his presentation by
asking for a show of hands on
how many of us (150) thought
that Hazelwood was either drunk
or impaired to some extent on
the morning in question.
95 of us raised our hands. We
are so gullible!!!!
Hazelwood had one drink at 6:00
PM in Valdez on his way back to
the ship. The government has the
receipt from the bar. He was
scheduled to embark at about
2:30 AM the next morning. When
he arrived back at the dock, the
message waiting from him
directed he depart at 9:00 PM
that evening to make room for
another tanker that was inbound.
The Exxon Valdez departed as
ordered.
Then Jerry pulled out a map of
the shipping channel which shows
the passage routes of all ships
to and from Valdez.
Here comes the surprise! All
outbound ships, by order of
their owners, are directed to
travel South on the East side of
the shipping channel to avoid
ice bergs!!! Being a loyal
Captain who had been plying
these waters for 13 years,
Hazelwood did as he was told. He
left orders for the First Mate
to make the turn to Starboard
(right) at a given time based on
speed and distance to avoid
hitting the reef which they all
knew was there.
The First Mate was late in
redirecting the ship back into
the shipping channel and the
rest, as they say, is history.
The Jury has awarded 10 billion
dollars to Valdez. The Charge?
Negligence! Hazelwood has his
license suspended. The lawyers
made a bundle.
The judgment is under appeal
because of the items above.
When the US Government got
involved, they knew all this
crap!
So, lets not be to quick to put
the blame on this latest
disaster until all the info is
public!
Bests,
John |
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It is dangerous to be right when
your government is wrong
--Voltaire |
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You
bring up some interesting points
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| john
mccarthy |
| SGT |
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| Joined:
02 Dec
2004 |
| Posts:
49 |
| Location:
Los
Angeles |
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Dear
Margaret,
Not important at all, just in
the right place at the right
time. This presentation was so
impressive. All of us were
mezmerrized with this new
information. I wish it was
available on the net. Perhaps
someday it will be. I will call
tomorrow to find out the status
of this information.
Bests,
John |
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It is dangerous to be right when
your government is wrong
--Voltaire |
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| Sandy |
| Corporal |
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| Joined:
10 Dec
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| Posts:
23 |
| Location:
N.W. Phoenix |
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John,
I followed you here and would
any where you roam. No, folks,
I'm not a stalker but a huge fan
of our John McCarthy.
I didn't know the whole story of
the Valdez but I have to admit
that when I did some clean up
work for the Monterey California
Rescue group I was brought a lot
of oil-soaked seagull to wash
off in my book store. I had a
complete kitchen in the building
and little fear of wild life so
we set up the cages, warmed up
the sinks, pulled out the
"Dawn" and the brushes
and went to work.
We saved about half of what the
museum brought to us and it was
a grueling job. With the
feathers are so covered in oil,
the birds got very cold so I
brought in electric heaters and
nearly baked my customers to a
nice crust.
My store was in a tiny village
just south of the Hearst Castle.
I had many helpers who would
take a turn at scrubbing down a
pissed off bird and many
tourists would grab a towel and
spend the afternoon with a
smelly bird in their arms.
I'm not always happy with the
oil spills on the Pacific Coast
but nobody asked me...... |
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Sandy
A is A |
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An
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| john
mccarthy |
| SGT |
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| Joined:
02 Dec
2004 |
| Posts:
49 |
| Location:
Los
Angeles |
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Dear
Sandy,
You are certainly a Nightingale in disguise! So many birds and
so little time. There are
generations of those critters
who owe their lives to you and
your loving care. Bless you!
Bests,
John |
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It is dangerous to be right when
your government is wrong
--Voltaire |
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| Catherine |
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26 Jul
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1193 |
| Location:
NC |
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This
may be a bit off-topic, but
several years ago, I saw a
television show that was about
new discoveries and/or
inventions that ordinary, common
people had made that, if
implemented by the US government
during environmental disasters,
such as oil spills, or rescue
attempts during plane crashes,
the problems would be solved
much faster and cheaper.
One fellow had discovered that human
hair was an excellent
resource for removing oil from
water, and that afterwards, the
oil could actually be removed
from the hair, and released into
collection sites, unharmed.
Because human hair could be
easily collected from beauty and
barber shops, or from
individuals who might want to
sell or donate their hair to
such a cause, the fellow thought
it would be easily implemented
IF the government was really
serious about doing something
about the environmental impact
of oil spills, while at the same
time, retrieving the lost
oil...what could be better?
However, I've never heard
another word about this, and
I've certainly not heard of any
cleanup involving the use of
human hair....do any of you know
anything about this?
I swear I didn't dream the
program!
Catherine |
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"The first step in a
fascist movement is the
combination under an energetic
leader of a number of men who
possess more than the average
share of leisure, brutality, and
stupidity. The next step is to
fascinate fools and muzzle the
intelligent, by emotional
excitement on the one hand and
terrorism on the other."
-Bertrand Russell |
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How
about panty hose? |
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| Mother
Margaret |
| Supervisor |
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| Joined:
09 May
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| Posts:
451 |
| Location:
Valdez,
Alaska |
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Well,
believe it or not ...
I met one of those people in
procurement for Exxon who told
me ...
That they sure used a lot of
panty hose to wipe up the mess |
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| Sandy |
| Corporal |
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| Joined:
10 Dec
2004 |
| Posts:
23 |
| Location:
N.W. Phoenix |
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It
was probably 25 years ago that I
was listening to the local Los
Angeles radio personality,
"Sweet Dick
Whittington" who was
covering an oil spill off the
coast of Florida. He arranged
for a large shipment of Alka
Seltzer to be dropped out of
a helicopter to neutralize the
effects of the oil. He actually
opened up all the containers and
dropped them into the Atlantic
ocean.
We cheered him on and when he
returned to Los Angeles we gave
him a hellofa welcome home. Why
not? Anyone else offer anything
better?
This is what happened when one
tosses out the television.
Anything for a laugh!!! |
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Sandy
A is A |
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| DelaWho |
| SSG |
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| Joined:
15 Dec
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| Posts:
52 |
| Location:
The
First
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I
don't know about how drunk Capt
Hazelwood was or wasn't, but I
do know a little about the
icebergs and shipping lanes.
During most of the 1980's I
worked at the research lab of a
large oil company that just
happened to own half the Alaskan
pipeline. I left the joy of
their employment at the end of
1988. Sometime shortly before
that I learned this:
A statistician at the lab had a
project of tracking and
predicting the movement of the
icebergs being calved by the
Prince William glacier (I think
that's the name -- too lazy to
look. It's the one NW of
Valdez). This was his project
because the bergs were getting
in the shipping lanes.
He'd go up there in the summer
and run around the sound in a
rubber raft logging bergs, then
come back to the lab and do his modeling
thing.
The day he was telling me this,
he was all agitated because he
had just finished presenting his
findings to management. He was
telling them it was an accident
waiting to happen because the
glacier was calving more and
more bergs. And that some of
them were black and next to
invisible. Hence, the tankers
would have to veer farther East
to avoid the icebergs in the
shipping lane.
When he told management
something needed to be done, he
was given the
what-do-you-want-us-to-do-about-it
look. Mind you , this
was BEFORE the accident.
So you don't have to twist my
arm about what really happened.
Since the accident happened
after I left the company, I
never knew what this guy thought
of things post accident.
I wonder what the tankers do
now? |
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| Sandy |
| Corporal |
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| Joined:
10 Dec
2004 |
| Posts:
23 |
| Location:
N.W. Phoenix |
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| Okay,
are you Delewho, Della Reese or
Delewhere? |
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Sandy
A is A |
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