BP's CEO - "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean..."

[David Randolph]

On Tornadoes
Tornadoes range in size from F0 to F5 and from a few feet wide to over a mile wide.
During the course of the year, the center of tornado activity moves. In early spring, the center is located in the southeastern US states. During the spring time, it moves west to about North Texas. Then, it moves north into Oklahoma - Kansas area.

Considering that between me and the center of "Tornado Alley" at Wichita Falls, Tx is about 138 miles and that there were only 108 tornadoes registered in the whole state last year, that means that I didn't see a tornado all year. The last time I saw a funnel cloud was about 15 years ago.  It is rare for one place to see multiple tornadoes of any strength in one year and destructive ones anywhere close to them. There were a lot more "false positives" given by the local TV weather people than there were tornadoes on the ground.

In short, we have tornadoes about as often as California has felt earthquakes and we get warnings. They don't.

[David Randolph]

There are two things that bother me about this leak (besides the whole clean up part).
1. BP's safety record. BP is the one that ran the refinery in Texas that blew up. BP, as a company, has had more issues with explosions and safety violations than a lot of other oil & gas companies.

2. The government regulatory agency that was supposed to be monitoring drilling rigs. That agency appears to be a toothless supporter of continued drilling. Since it is also supposed to be managing the Native American assets program (and I have heard long stories about how that is being run to the benefit of the companies and detriment of the Natives), I suspect that we are seeing one more time how difficult it is for government to do its job.

When things are very complex, police do not know how to see the crime.