Updates, Interactive Graphics, & Pictures

BBC News has a fantastic Interactive guide that gives photos as well as moving graphics that explain & show what happened with both the sinking, the BOP, the attempts to stop the oil and it is incredibly easy to follow along, not to mention makes the whole thing a lot easier to understand from a laymen's point of view.

Interactive guide on what happened, and the details in easy to follow picture guide.

These are some screenshots of the wreckage of the rig:

Now this is supposed to be the shots from the different ROV's and their positions so you have a better understanding on what you are looking at. From the diagram you can see that these ROV's are not in a tight circle but are spread out at various key points.  This suggests to me that there is no reason why there cannot be independent ROV's down there to verify the information that BP is giving.  We've seen how they are willing to do everything within their power to hide the truth from not only us but from the government as well, and that should just be counted on as they are the ones who are going to ultimately pay based on damages, so they will obviously do everything in their power to minimize the damage done in order to minimize how much they are going to pay.

As more and more information continues to come out, BP is going to be hard pressed to keep pointing fingers at everyone else as this was their operation and they are the ones who had the final say on what was done and not done. I, along with many others are going to be watching closely to see exactly how this plays out due to the politics.

A Deepwater Horizon rig worker has told the BBC that he identified a leak in the oil rig's safety equipment weeks before the explosion.

Tyrone Benton said the leak was not fixed at the time, but that instead the faulty device was shut down and a second one relied on.

BP said rig owners Transocean were responsible for the operation and maintenance of that piece of equipment.

Transocean said it tested the device successfully before the accident.

........

Several rig workers the BBC spoke to who were on the Deepwater Horizon said there was pressure in April to work fast.

Work to prepare and then seal the well was behind schedule and had to be completed before a production rig could move in and start turning profits.

"Too many jobs were being done at one time. It should have just really slowed down and just took one job at a time, to make sure everything was done the way it should have been," said Mr Benton, who is now suing BP and Transocean for negligence.

BP has responded to Mr Benton's account saying Transocean was responsible for both the maintenance and operation of the blowout preventer.

BP was told of oil safety fault 'weeks before blast'


One can only hope that when this is all said and done that someone is criminally charged for this disaster.  11 people died due to yet again ignoring safety to maximize profits.  The gulf has been damaged beyond calculation and people's lives have been destroyed.

BP Attempts Blackmail Against the United States; BP Is Pouting Over Anger Directed At Company

Yes, as if they hadn't done enough damage already now BP is threatening blackmail.

It emerged last night that BP is considering bowing to President Obama's demand to scrap its dividend payout to shareholders. It is understood the oil giant would proceed with such a move only if it could strike a deal whereby the U.S. would tone down its relentless attacks.

BP Tries To Blackmail US


It obviously isn't enough that they are dragging their feet to pay out claims that are being made to BP due to lost wages, lost business and collapsing coastal communities due to the negligence of BP, but now, now they are upset about their being "attacked".


BP is not the only one who is upset with how the United States and its citizens are reacting to this EPIC DISASTER which is of BP's own creation, no it seems that other Britons are getting into the act.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, this morning became the most senior UK politician to defend BP, saying "anti-British rhetoric" levelled at the company was a matter of "national concern" and that the oil giant was paying "a very, very heavy price" for what had been an accident.

"I would like to see a bit of cool heads rather than endlessly buck-passing and name-calling," he said. "When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on the airwaves."

London Mayor Angry At US Reaction to BP & Oil Spill

So this mayor is calling this spill an "Accident"?  Like it was an unavoidable event that occurred through no fault of BP ?
Are they also going to dismiss the long and detailed history that BP has with deliberate and egregious safety violations for which has brought the company not only probationary periods in Alaska and Texas but has caused them to be fined millions upon millions of dollars and even had their behavior towards whistle-blowers  be called "tactics like were used in Nazi Germany" but a member of the judiciary?

Perhaps the British need to be reminded of the lives that BP's negligence has cost, and I am not talking solely about the sea & wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, but the many human lives that have been lost as a result of this accident and others.