Corporate Competence

BP is still claiming there is no way to measure the flow of an undersea oil leak. After multiple scientists and engineers have stated unequivocally that this is very possible.

One of those interviewed studies deep-sea hot water springs which are much deeper and more hazardous than the current leak. He pointed out that they could have used that first cap as a measuring cup, a better tool than he and he colleagues have, regardless of the hydrate buildup.

Feats of Strength

Bowling balls are *tough*. I was thinking about a scene where a character in a bowling alley intimidates some hecklers by palming a bowling ball (which probably requires more than human strength by itself, not to mention very large hands) and then twists it apart.

Unfortunately, I'm an engineer, so I started doing the math. :-) More unfortunately, I was feeling lazy, so I used the Internet to get some basic numbers. I looked up standard bowling balls and the materials they're made of and made estimates of typical human strength, then ran some equations. My (admittedly very rough) estimate is that to do that to a bowling ball, the person would have to be strong enough to be able to press (lift over their heads) more than fifty tonnes.

Which makes Adam Savage breaking a bowling ball by accident even more impressive. ;-)