[the invisib1e hand]

I can't moderate it, so hopefully some will (if they haven't already started one, or if it hasn't landed yet...)

[Paladin2]

Where’s the concrete?

[OldDeckHand]

Can’t Aquaman help here? What good is this guy?

[dead]

What?!

[the invisib1e hand]

Deepwater Horizon Response Site

[deport]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6995080.html

Robots position giant box over oil-spewing well

By HARRY R. WEBER Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
May 7, 2010, 2:08PM

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Underwater robots positioned a giant 100-ton concrete-and-steel box over a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as workers prepared to drop the device to the seafloor in a first-of-its-kind attempt to stop oil gushing into the sea.

A spokesman for oil giant BP PLC, which is in charge of the cleanup, said the box was suspended over the main leak just after noon EDT Friday and was being moved into position.

Several undersea cameras attached to the robots were making sure it was properly aligned before it plunged all the way to the bottom.

“We are essentially taking a four-story building and lowering it 5,000 feet and setting it on the head of a pin,” Bill Salvin, the BP spokesman, told The Associated Press.

If the device works, it could be collecting as much as 85 percent of the oil spewing into the Gulf and funneling it up to a tanker by Sunday. It’s never been tried so far below the surface, where the water pressure is enough to crush a submarine.

Once the device in place later Friday, the robots will secure it over the main leak at the bottom, a process that will take hours.

end snip

[ThomasThomas]

Would you like me to start one?

I need to take a shower first.

[Touch Not the Cat]

.
Ain’t gonna work.

Is it?

[houeto]

[houeto]

[houeto]

[Raebie]

I thought they started lowering it last night. Been looking for updates all day. No news is bad news?

[the invisib1e hand]

Sort of recalls an old-fashioned barn-raising, isn't it?

Bar-b-que afterwards?

[evets]

LOWER THE DOME !!!

[the invisib1e hand]

Cool video you've probably already seen...

[a fool in paradise]

I think we’ve found a new use for the Astrodome, dump it in the Gulf!

[Grunthor]

There’s no place like dome?

[ßuddaßudd]

Are we really plunging into on a Live thread?

[agere_contra]

The underwater footage of the BP team in action is amazing.

And here's the man in charge, busy controlling the dome's descent.

[piytar]

For the (amazingly) knowledgable Freepers here, I have two questions:

(1) Why wasn’t the coffer dam cyclindrical? Seems a better shape than a box for dealing with the forces involved.

(2) Why didn’t they drop this over the well head and cut off all the oil flow? After all, this thing would certain have cut through any pipe there. Too much oil pressure involved there?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yahoo says they are closer...