SCOTTKELLER.org

Consider this my World Cup “afterglow”.

BP Failed to Fix Device Before Blast, Worker Says

KENNER, La. — BP failed to fix a leak from a critical safety device in the days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, a company official testified on Tuesday.

Drilling was allowed to continue despite a leak on a control pod connected to the blowout preventer, an emergency mechanism that failed to activate after the disaster, said the official, Ronald Sepulvado, a BP well site leader. He testified that he had expected BP officials in Houston and the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that regulates offshore drilling, to respond to the leak, but they did not do so before the April 20 disaster.

There’s more from the NY Times.  According to the article, BP inspected the Deepwater Horizon site in 2009, but didn’t schedule a shipyard visit for the rig until 2011.   The realization that this disaster could have been completely avoidable with proper safety actions, actions left undone, is unfathomable to me.

Courtesy of The Daily What with a hat tip to @joelklampert on Twitter.

“We told the IMF/EU that further austerity was out of the question.”

-Hungary’s economic minister Gyorgy Matolcsy

This quote from the CFO of Hungary is hilarious. Here’s a guy in charge of a nation that is in the middle of a financial disaster, and he’s telling the bank how to do their business, and that they should just fork over billions.

He’s a typical socialist. Produces nothing, takes everything.

“It’s inevitable. No matter what line of work you’re in or how much you love it. No matter how good you are at what you do. Sooner or later, you’re going to get into a funk.

It happens to everyone. The best authors experience seasons where they hate writing and are lucky to have one good sentence in a hundred pages. The most passionate musicians have days where they don’t even want to pick up their instrument.

While funks are unavoidable, we don’t have to resign ourselves to them. “

Good stuff from Pastor Steven who has a very active blog with some great practical stuff about life, ministry, and being a follower of Jesus. You can read the rest of this post at stevenfurtick.com.

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Leo Dicaprio doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor.  NEWSWEEK has noticed that the highly successful thirty-something has forgotten how to smile.

I’m not sure I totally agree with NEWSWEEK, because he was pretty upbeat and quirky in Catch Me If You Can.  But lately he’s been in a lot of Debby-Downer movies.

Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Lebron James. That’s not a bad starting line up. Seriously, who cares who your #4 and #5 guys are when you’ve got these three guys.

If they can make this chemistry work in Miami, Laker fans should be worried. Very worried.

As James Decides His Future, Past Comments Provide Clues

By JONATHAN ABRAMS

A decision will soon be made. But first, LeBron James must balance his hometown loyalty against the intrigue of entering a larger market. He must weigh his desire to dominate the N.B.A. against his stated goal of becoming a billionaire.

The topic is the ultimate water-cooler conversation starter. Nearly everyone, it seems, has publicly dissected, debated and decided where James will land.

Everyone, that is, except James. For the last month or so, he has been mum on how he will make his decision and what factors will guide him.

-Read the rest at the NY Times

It would be interesting to see what kind of effect a personality like Lebron would have in Los Angeles if he were to somehow become a Clipper. I just can’t see that happening, and think he’s going to end up in Chicago or New York. And if Chicago becomes his new home, he’s going to have to live up to being the next Jordan. Talk about pressure.

It’s great to be an American! Someone get me another hot dog!

Melisa and I had some errands to run today in Monrovia, so we tried a new lunch spot to keep up our energy after Caed woke us up for a 5 am feeding. We enjoyed the cuisine of Qdoba Mexinan Grill.

As soon as we walked through the door I wasn’t sure if we had accidentally waked into Chipotle. From the “vintage looking” black and white photos on the wall, to the order counter, to the look and feel, it was as if someone bought a shut-down Chipotle, slapped a new name on it, and opened.

The food was surprisingly similar, although Qdoba offers a number of nice selections including soups and salads. Melisa chose a mango salad, and said the salsa was really nice. I went with the steak tacos with the jalapeno salsa, and the meat was tender and well seasoned.

The long and short of it is that Qdoba is sort of like a Chipotle with the additional soup and salad options. And while I can’t quite endorse this place with only one visit and a plate of tacos, I think it’s a pretty good knock-off of the better known chain.

Check it out in Monrovia, located on Mountain Avenue just north of the 210 freeway (in the plaza by Best Buy).

“The housing market has merely been a charade for the public while banks setup protective barriers and funnel taxpayer money into their balance sheet to fix the gaping financial holes that they created.” -Dr. Housing Bubble

The good Doctor always finds a way to put the feelings of millions of American taxpayers into brilliant analytical nuggets like this.

The FHA program has helped the banks artificially hold up prices, and enticed buyers to dive into home ownership when they weren’t ready. Even worse, many of these buyers are on their way to being underwater as California unemployment continues to ramp up, all while the state government is going bankrupt. This is a recipe for stagnant or falling home prices.

But the mantra of today’s market is that home ownership is the road to wealth, and always a good investment. Sure. Right. Tell that to thousands of home owners that are $200,000 underwater because they bought $565,000 3/2’s on postage stamp lots in 2006. Let’s see what they say about that “sure thing”.

From the LA Times:

L.A. City Council delays exempting red-light camera contract from Arizona boycott

Consideration of a proposed exemption from Los Angeles’ boycott of Arizona to allow continuation of the city’s red light camera program has been postponed until Wednesday.

The City Council had been scheduled to consider a onetime, 10-month extension of a multimillion-dollar agreement with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based American Traffic Solutions, which operates enforcement cameras at 32 intersections.

Last month, the council and mayor agreed to ban most contracts with Arizona firms as a protest of a state law requiring police to check the immigration status of those they legally stop and suspect of being illegal immigrants.

The council also was scheduled to consider a plan to seek new bids for an expanded photo enforcement contract beginning next year. The current camera vendor and another top competitor for the new contract, Redflex Traffic Systems, both are based in Arizona.

The matters were continued a day because some key council members were not present.

In L.A., a boycott is only a boycott when it doesn’t cost the city millions of dollars of red-light-revenue.  The “key council members” will likely duck for cover until this blows over and they can quietly vote for the extension.

I don’t usually recommend reading the LA Times, but here’s their story if you want to read it.

“People for the most part simply aren’t spending. In the past, spending was fueled by debt and that game is quickly coming to an end. Look at Greece and how their debt was just rated as junk. When you spend too much and take on too much debt, there is a point where it is no longer supportable. We’ve reached that point and the Senate trying to extend tax credits so people can buy homes they can’t afford simply reflects this reality.”  – Dr. Housing Bubble

The Federal Government is attempt to extend their program to trick people into buying houses they can’t afford by “giving them back $8,000. Offering back $8,000 on a $400,000 house is like offering 15 free tanks of gas for buying a $40,000 car. The reason they are doing this? To help the banks mostly, but also to get people to spend money again.

Read more from the good doctor.

Actually, I played organized soccer when I was a kid for a year when I attended a private Christian school. I promptly returned back to football (Americano) the next year.

Having said that, I will be watching today and chanting “USA! USA!” in my heart, hoping we put the wood to those tea drinking, crumpet eating ninnies from England!