plug that pipe

You can't possibly be serious. How will you deal with the other 199,500 gallons per day that your lunacy doesn't address?

Now now lynlynch, sillier and stranger ideas have been found to work all the time on Cartoon Network. One must just use the correct items from Acme Products.

But seriously, the variety of more serious threads started on this tragedy will have just as much of a positive effect in stopping this tragedy as this idea.

I wonder, does Acme still sell that portable hole?

That's a clever idea, one that is truly out of the box.

The Roadrunner lives right down the street from me. He's retired now, and hard of hearing from all the explosions of the past, but I'll walk down and see if he has their number.

Now that you mention it, why don't we just move the "elevator to the moon" over the area and pump the slurry up there. The water will evaporate and leave pristine crude to pollute the moon's surface.

To the Moon in a Space Elevator?

Hey there, guys.

Well, my comic-book counterpart Doorman lives in a portable hole. To be honest, I didn't know this until about six minutes ago. Didn't really care.

However, it is not possible to purchase or posses more that one Portable_Hole, as it would present some real problems if you dropped one into the other!

I regret that the website for ACME (American Corporation Manufacturing Everything) no longer functions... This I take as an indication they are no longer accepting orders, and so we will not be able to attempt.

Agreed, the original idea here is a little out there, but you never know what might spark an idea that may contribute some positive and productive input.

American Corporation Manufacturing Everything was quietly purchased by Haliburton about 10 years ago.

Unfortunately, because of lax oversight and no government regulation (Dick Cheney said it'd be OK), two holes got together and made a whole hole.

In order to plug this whole hole they diverted all the BOP's from the Gulf to try to plug the whole hole which was sucking money and lawyers into it at an alarming rate.

Let's vacuum pack a bunch of sponges and drop them outta airplanes.

Seriously, I deeply feel for the thousands of people who will never recover from this unnecessary disaster, and the millions of animals who will undergo an agonizing death because of this.

Drill baby drill! (Sarah Palin)

http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=40&contentId=7061696

As posted elswhere slow explosive charge placed on good section of pipe up stream from rupture to flatten pipe to restrict or stop flow.

place suction pipes as near as possible to oil leaving pipe to to be sucked into tanker for processing later to remove water.

http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=40&contentId=7061696

I really think that The Cat makes it far better and simpler (and likely more powerful).

Now that is green or not is questionable, because he cuts trees for it (or gnaws - I have never heard cats cutting- or may be he takes the help of the squirrel/beaver or some other members of the rodent family, with whom he has quite healthy relationship).

Well so far all the post I see say blow it up. Which could cause multiple leaks very high risk, the experts are building a dome which they say will take a week which is probably in reality 2 weeks. They also seem to be having a problem with crimping the pipe or that solution would have been done already.Putting a larger pipe over the blown pipe, and connecting 5000 ft of pipe, to barges at sea level to pump the oil into the barges sounds impossible. With under water currents and above water winds and waves, so I focused my thoughts on the ruptured pipe it seems feasible to be able to force a 8" cylinder into a 22" cylinder and pump either water into the bladders, that are connected to the pipe or grout to cause blockage in the pipe. I believe the water would pump faster then the grout the fin would engage or fins if you prefer, would jam in the pipe the bladders filled with water would encompass the total interior of the pipe, I would think that would block a little more then 500 gallons of oil the 3200 pounds of pressure that is flowing out of the pipe would be used to cause its own log jam so to speak, and if it only held for a few hours it could serve to open up other options that would be workable to cap the pipe. Just a theory I called superman but he is busy breaking it off in lois lane right now, and under dog is on Pluto helping them with their elevator to the moon it was this or super putty.

Booooring!

How are you going to be able to keep the audience's attention by just inserting an inflatable plug. _{(Oh, did you notice anywhere that the drill string is still inside the pipe.)} To really capture the audience's imagination you need explosions and CGI today. You can't just go with the human interest aspect like Billy Wilder did in Ace in the Hole back in 1951.

Sheesh, we already have so many serious threads already started here at CR4 about this tragedy. Threads that have already attracted people that have experience in drilling to accurately answer serious questions. Why can't people recognize a need for some dark humor frivolity as we helplessly get bombarded with details that we can do nothing with but cry.

I am not aware of the diameter of the drill string but if you could get this pipe inside the other when the bladders are filled at let say4000 psi. I would imagine the drill string would be moved to the side of the pipe and if you can maintain that pressure on the bladders the leak would still be more manageable and would possibly give rise to more options for a quicker fix.