shelburn at TOD responds (on June 25) to DougR
A gentle but persuasive takedown.
In this post, I would like to respond to a long comment made by DougR a few days ago, that has received a lot of publicity.
First, I will say that in one area we are in complete agreement. BP and the USCG have been less than forthcoming, and in doing so have hurt both themselves and the general public as all kinds of wild rumors and technical misinformation abound. Some of this misinformation results in harm to individuals and businesses as people suffer increased stress and tourists cancel vacations.
In this information vacuum it is easy to make wrong assumptions that lead to mistaken conclusions. It can be made worse if you have some degree of technical knowledge and verbiage and use that to make a case for a scenario that doesnÂt pass muster with actual engineering analysis but sounds highly authoritative to many people, some TV commentators and various politicians.
Cheers,
Scott.