Forensic engineers say it is too soon to know what happened with Deepwater Horizon, whose demise flooded the gulf with crude oil. They note that numerous federal agencies are involved in a series of detailed investigations, and that President Obama has appointed a blue-ribbon commission to make recommendations on how to strengthen federal oversight of oil rigs.

But the engineers hold, seemingly with one voice, that the investigatory findings will eventually improve the art of drilling for oil in deep waters — at least until the next unexpected tragedy, and the next lesson in making the technology safer.

Taking Lessons From What Went Wrong

Led Zeppelin gather around a fireplace on the private jet they chartered while touring the States in 1975.

This is Kevin, a baby kestrel who broke his leg after falling from his nest in St Albans. Nurses at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital, in Buckinghamshire, have used metal pins to fix the 4 week old bird’s leg and expect him to make a full recovery. He will live in the hospital’s aviary before his released back into the wild.

this is my broken ankle. i did it playing soccer. it hurt pretty badly.

this rolling stone story about general stanley mcchrystal is extremely interesting.

The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,” says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his fucking war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed.”

and this nytimes story about the story is pretty great too..

Over all, the magazine article depicted General McChrystal at the head of a small circle of aides engaged in almost locker-room trash talk as they discussed foreign policy, the French, their allegiance to each other and their own concerns about course of the war.