I heard somewhere that BP got thousands upon thousands of ideas from all over the world. There was a news report a few night's ago about a NJ plumber who claims they used his plan. I think they'll have a lot of such claimants!

Even Tom Hanks had an idea several weeks ago, and he guaranteed it would work.

BP has had all kinds of help and suggestions, and IMO they ignored them all due to conceit.
Hopefully they will do right by this fellow. Good for him!!

No doubt they got a ton of ideas. The report says they receive 130,000 ideas Some were to stuff golf balls down there. Some said to use kitty litter, hay or even hair clippings! But I doubt the bulk of them were a design for an actual cap to repair it nor that get patents on the ideas which actually have been used in other situations.

It's very possible that they used a combination of designs. It was clearly stated they modified Mastin's design, hence the analogy of turning gold into silver. It wouldn't surprise me at all since they could then evade rightful payments by claiming that it's BP's design, especially if it needs to be used in other areas.

But who knows. Maybe it will end up just being someone down there shoveling dirt into it! LOL

And wasn't Hank's idea to shove Orca Windbag's sofa down the well? He'd then jump on it to pack it in there if memory serves right. But I could be mistaken.

Ah, Cynic, you're thinking of the infamous Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's sofa.

I remember the hair clippings. They were used to make huge baffles, cause hair absorbs oil. We had salons here, donating hair.

As with all patents, changing one little widget makes the item unique, and yours, which is what BP did. I too love the analogy of gold into silver.

Call me naive or ignorant, but I don't understand why they didn't try anything and everything to clean up the mess before it got this bad. Most of all, I can't imagine that we turned down foreign help at the beginning of the crisis. Are we now so arrogant that we think we are too good to accept help when it is offered by other nations? We will pay the price for that arrogance for years (or generations).

Well, it's leaking now, so the question may be moot.

There should have been a contingency plan in place before this happened. But that would have been "governmental regulation of business", and we wouldn't want that! (snort)

I imagine the rights to use the cap were subject to a patent (or patent pending). Derivative works stay with the patent holder unless licensed otherwise. He shouldn't have been surprised if they made changes, the license agreement should have contained information on this.

here's another item few know about outside the gulf, the gross amount of royalty revenues that the states (TX, LA, MS, AL) receive from the sale of that oil. there are limitations to the use of that revenue (suppossed to be remediation) but i have yet to find public documentation of how the states actually spent their millions of $$. i can't imagine why they would need sooo much $$ for clean up when they are averaging $6 million a yr for ea state...attached is the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act's 2008 Revenue Allocation Report, the last full yrs reporting i can find.

obviously it's very bothersome to floridians who do not allow drilling and receive zero revenue but are suffering the largest financially in lost tourism. we have 300 miles of coast line to get covered in oil...there will probably not be any $$ left after the other states take theirs'. :-( ~ liz

Here is a link that might be useful: PDF of Gulf States royalty revenues

A while ago there were suggestions that Obama should do something.

Let's not forget, that in recent times they've been dropping their drilling bits down through a whole mile of water before they even start drilling for the oil.

And off Newfoundland, they're going even deeper.

Bush Senior ... was an oil man.

Bush Junior - another oil man.

Condoleesa Rice was well connected in the oil industry.

Cheney was, also.

And I've heard suggestions that he was involved with a substantial amount of deregulations, back then.

We know that the oil industry types chafe under regulations.

The banking people do, as well.

It seems to me that when employees, regardless of how high up they are in an organization, almost run their company into the ground, so much so that it takes multiple billions ot taxpayers' money to bail them out ...

... that they deserve to be fired, rather than to feel justified in demanding major bonuses at year end.

ole joyful

That's it in a nutshell, oj. Though you might be pointed in the direction of Hot topics. :)

then there's this...and knowing the chinese, banning fishing just for the summer?? wonder what will end up here?

Two oil pipelines exploded Friday in the Chinese province of Liaoning beginning China's worst oil spill; nearly a week later 400,000 gallons of oil have spread over 166 square miles, according to ChinaÂs state media. The pipeline has since been fixed and is operating again. While the spill is small compared to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of MexicoÂwhich currently covers nearly 3,000 square miles with approximately 100 to 200 million gallons of oilÂits impact regionally will likely be very large.

Fishing, important to the region, has been banned for the rest of the summer; local aquaculture farms have been polluted; nearby beaches have been emptied leaving tourism businesses dry; and China is still struggling to contain the oil before it enters international waters.