First, some background. I'm a scientist, with a small S. Unlike many Scientists with a big S, my education isn't so formal. I spent several years at two universities widely regarded for their programs despite being in California, the land of the failed educational system. I took mostly courses that interested me, mainly graduate-level courses in music, physics, mathematics, philosophy, languages, computer science, and plenty of others I can't be bothered to remember. I'm one of the most inquisitive people I know by a very large margin.

Having said that, I'm completely enthralled by this massive event in the Gulf. I'm now subscribed to many web site syndication feeds, and every minute end up with 10 or 20 new articles. They range the gamut from technical through human interest to business and a host of other topics. And one thing that seems to be coming out is that the Gulf spill is not a failure of engineering, of our knowledge, of science. Like so many other failures, it's a failure of humanity itself. By refusing knowledge, turning away from reality, certainty, experience, and embracing rash, blind hope and demagogery, we opened a hole in the sea floor that we aren't capable of stopping before destroying the lives of animals, people, and quite possibly even altering the climate even more than we already have.

However, being a scientist, I know that I'm pretty much without power to change the course of events here. Yet the one thing I can do is use this small island on the Internet I've managed to carve out over the past decade with my own blood, sweat, and tears, and report on what I see.

The next several postings here will basically be summaries with links to source material. I'm gathering information much faster than I can analyse it, so I'll save that for another time when things have slowed down.