Short attention span

It was just a few years back when the oil industry was worried about a lack of trained engineers. Schools were facing declining enrollment in petroleum engineering, geology and related subjects. Some programs even shutdown all together.

I guess we shouldn't have worried. The gulf oil spill has brought out engineering talent that we never knew existed. Everyone from Rush Limbaugh, Kevin Costner, James Carville, Colin Powell, and well, just about everyone is on TV explaining what went wrong and why it's still going wrong and how it should be fixed. And why hasn't Obama done anything? And what happened to "drill baby drill" baby Sarah Palin? Maybe she has some ideas, she's usually got plenty.

The internet has risen to the occasion too. This clown offers iPhone apps and other important ways the you can help. That "clown" has a pretty big ax to grind in this situation, he is trying to launch a "cap and trade" greenhouse gas market and is using the publicity for all it's worth.

Our old friends from CrisisCommons (CC) are also trying to get in on the action. Remember them? Can you remember all the way back to January? After the Haiti earthquake the CC geeks swarmed into action, reveling in coding camps to create applications for things like hospital scheduling and infrastructure repair coordination. It's an amazing disconnect between the reality on the ground and the "reality" in the heads of these folks. Check out the "Oil Reporter" app as advertised on CC's front page. It will allow for "virtual volunteers to adopt a span of beach" and do, uh something. Well, not anything physical, like actually clean it up.

It's like watching a school of fish, each with a 5 second attention span. Like the goldfish. "Nice rock, nice castle, nice bubbles, nice rock, nice castle..."