China Under Water

Running concurrent to the unprecedented disaster in Pakistan was the extraordinarily devastating mudslides in mainland China. The nation has took part in a day of mourning yesterday, the whole country observing 3 minutes of silence. At 10 AM the Chinese Premier Wen Jibao paid silent tribute to the fallen ahead of a party meeting.

All across the country concerts were cancelled. Also, cinemas and karaoke bars across the nation were ordered closed. Even more interesting is that some Government websites changed their backdrops to black. China doesn't have many national displays of mourning, however, it is clear that when it does it is not a half hearted effort.

BP Crisis: End in Sight?

Undoubtedly the biggest international story of yesterday was that the oil leak had finally stopped for the first time since the 20th of April, almost 3 months ago. While they have plugged the leak celebrations are muted as the relief effort is still in its early stages and a permanent solution is still a long ways off.

The team first needs to measure the pressure in side the well of oil on which their cap was placed. If the inside pressure is high that is a good sign. However, low pressure means that there is a leak somewhere else on the ocean floor releasing oil and therefore lowering the pressure in the well. This operation will be completed, it is expected in the next 48 hours.If this is successful the team will then turn its attentions to the construction of two relief wells, the first of which will not be completed until mid-August.

BP: Crisis in the Gulf

With my break from the site starting tomorrow I thought I should make this entry before delaying it any further. Indeed the BP oil crisis has almost been going on for almost two months now and is threatening the reputation of BP and of course the President himself with many claiming he hasn't been hard enough on the organisation.

BP has stated it will harness all its resources to help solve the crisis and plug the leak and was spending somewhere in the region of $7 million daily on trying to do just that. However, if we take into account that the companies daily profits for the first quarter of this year were in fact $61 million we see that this figure may not be as large as it seems in perspective.