h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Controversy? Here on Hootoo? Say it ain't so!

Time, methinks, trainspotter, for you to start venturing out and finding this stuff for yourself, rather than being spoonfed. Please, go out, and report back your findings.

Oh yeah get over to Lil's atellier...its been straffed but some is left

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What are you trying to say, Oetzi?

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How to make friends and influence people.

Again, I ask... What is the point that you're trying to make?

Bhopal, Dave. 50,000 plus. Union Carbide.
Oh, and a company's bankruptcy hits the workers and the townspeople harder than anyone - how many people died because their health was ruined and they couldn't get medical care? How many people committed suicide out of despair? Don't be flippant, think about it...

Really? I have never heard that ... are you *sure* that's the case? (Your post below sounds like a story from a folksy small town American newspaper - "his girl left town" etc.) Dubious. What is your source?

Glad to hear it, Count Zero - I had reacted with scepticism to the account you posted - I was sceptical of *your source*, not you...

heh heh heh
Ice Man trying to boast about A304354
trashing salon at F38024?thread=367672

Oetzi very proud of himself
spamming many threads to crow about Oetzi!
saying bad things about other people
but not crowing on collective

Such blah bkah blah around here, all I could get out of the last 64 posts was that someone was pissed at hooters. I like em, good wings

Yeh Rat Chops...strategic propaganda!

Empty,

Sure I do not doubt the wide ranging and serious effects of financial misdeeds like enron. Neither am I contesting any physical harm caused by the defects of the Ford doohdah (sorry cant remember the name, I spend very little time drooling over cars like an emptyheaded petrol head).

However I cant really see the point comparing those to disasters such as Hatfeild and Chernobyl.

"However I cant really see the point comparing those to disasters such as Hatfeild and Chernobyl."

It's very simple.

They were caused by the worst excesses of the systems that created them. Irresponsible and unchecked behaviour by those with a responsibility for other people's lives and livliehoods.

THEY COST LIVES.

Little or no responsibility or remorse was ever shown by the people responsible.

See you can do this debating thing.

When I try.

:::Long post off topic warning...feel free to skip:::


Well, Della... I was never trying to be flippant. Sincerely. I was thinking of researching this more and possibly writing an entry on the subject, but it is still WAY too sensitive, volatile and personal. From what I did look into, here's some of what I learned. It is likely that this was caused by a saboteur, however UCC has never named this saboteur. There were several safety devices either disabled or malfunctioning prior to the incident. The crew were short staffed which lead to, if nothing else, a serious lack of oversight. There was little in the way of evacuation procedures and equipment. And worst of all the workers built a village abutting the fence of the plant. (Peoples living on subsistance level wages tend to do this).

The original study I read may have been backed by UCC, however, I do not think it is false. It may not have been completely objective though. Its focus was primarily on the importance of investigating accidents ASAP. Because of delays to the investigation, stories had changed, paperwork was forged, witnesses had relocated and evidence was lost. The story that originally appeared in the press was that the accident occured while a worker was 'cleaning' the equipment and that certain valves were open that should have been closed. This was completely erroneous but was rarely corrected by the press. My main reason for mentioning this at all was that I felt many people still believed this was the case. After looking further into this I see there is no 'short answer' to what happened. With major accidents there rarely is 'one' fault. Ask any aircraft accident investigator and zi will tell you that there's almost always a long chain of smaller faults leading to a failure. "If this had been done or that hadn't or the other was whatever and so on... none of this would have happened."

Anyway, a google search will quickly show several subjective sources.


Sorry for the interuption.

Pardon the interruption, but may I point this article out?

A784109

Enjoy!

- JD

Thanks for that JD. Excellent article. I agree with leaving out the details of the accident. The situation is far too unsettled even nearly two decades later. I was discussing the STS107 tragedy with a friend a while back. He had previously (before the accident) spoken with a fellow from the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board: the agency that investigates accidents such as plane crashes and train wrecks). He's the one who said that in most cases there is not just one error but a chain of them. Of course the press has a hard time with this and will generally focus on a single point failure even when there's not one.
After looking at the investigations of the Bhopal MIC release and both shuttle tragedies, I definitely believe that accident investigations should be headed by outside parties. I'm not saying that people involved should be excluded, just that they shouldn't lead the investigation. The investigations of the shuttle tragedies were very revealing while the Bhopal investigations are still contentious.

Anyway, Thanks again.