Synopsis:

The largest of these machines (imagined by and created with Kevin Costner’s $20 million investment) has the potential to process 210,000 gallons of oil per day (200 gallons per minute) out of ocean water.  According to rough estimates, over 1,200,000 gallons of oil per day are leaking in to the gulf.  BP has ordered thirty-two of these machines while the US government has not ordered any, despite the fact that Costner appeared before a House Committee on Science & Technology early in June.

Early tests seem to have flopped due to unexpectedly high consistancy of the oil being separated (allegedly the consistancy of peanut butter), but OTS has claimed to have put fixes in place to resolve the issue and are resuming field trials.  OTS goes so far as to make bold that their tests on the weekend of June 5-6 have been successful.  (An earlier press release indicates that testing began mid-May, but no claims of success were made for 3 weeks.  This is, presumably, the timeframe in which the early failures were evaluated and fixes were applied to the technology to adjust for unexpected conditions.)

During Costner’s testimony to the House Committee, Costner urged the house to legislate that machines like his should be mandated for all off shore drilling operations, much like life preservers are mandated.

Editorial:

My early concerns about claims that water is 99% clean harkons back to the fishbowl keeping days of my youth.  I learned very quickly that if you changed the water purity quickly (exchanging bowl water for tap water) the fish would die of shock.  I don’t understand the science behind this phenomena, but it’s real.

So the question I have is, is it 99% clean or 99% clean of petroleum?  The latter, leaving most other impurities/salt/etc. in the water strikes me as being the desirable outcome.  Cleaning the water of ecosystem killing oil, only to kill it with purified water does not seem like a great solution.

But, if this machine removes only the crude oil from the water, leaving most other elements in place (salt, etc.), this could be the wonder machine of the decade.

Enter Adobe DNG Converter.  Adobe DNG Converter is the Adobe Acrobat for camera raw files.  It converts the manufacturer specific raw formats to a “universal digital negative” format supported by Adobe.  And DNG is supported by CS3.

If you have Photoshop, download your own copy of DNG here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=106&platform=Windows

Found it while trying to figure out what my wedding date was in the Maya “Long Form” notation.

I was married on:  12 . 19 . 17 . 6 . 8 __1 LAMAT 1 SIP

I cannot say for sure, but the only thing I’ve ever done to warrant such behavior is (once) accidently forgetting I had a small screw driver in my backpack, and (once) forgetting some allan wrenches in my backback.  The funny thing about the allan wrenches is that they were in my backpack for years and I flew with them all the time (I had simply forgotten I had put them in one of the many pockets) and one day, TSA demanded that I discard them.

As my honeymoon plans involved traveling out of country, the last thing I want is to be subject to delays (or heaven forbid, problems re-entering the country)!

While booking my flight to Texas for the Texas reception, I noticed that Orbitz had this new question on their form.

TSA’s Secure Flight Program

Basically, the TSA is requiring all Airlines to request a “Redress Number” from all flyers booking travel arrangements.  While you are not required to submit the number, if you do, it can assist TSA in better identifying you during the booking & travel period (basically – pre-screen your identity against the various law enforcement watch lists), thus potentially reducing your chances for delays when flying.

While the program does not say that it will improve your flying experience, it does say that if you have frequently been mis-identified (confused with someone on a watch list) it may permit TSA to speed your passage through the security checkpoints.  Obviously the reverse is also true, if you are on a watch list, this will only guarantee that you will get searched more carefully during each flight since they will be able to know with absolute certainty that you are the person who is on their watch list.

Don’t be surprised if you hear this as the last song.

I do like the tune, even though the words are hardly appropriate for a wedding setting.