The Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill

In 2008, the energy company BP received a permit to drill a subsurface oil well in the Gulf of Mexico called the Macondo well. For this project, BP chartered the 10-year-old rig Deepwater Horizon from its owner, Transocean. Halliburton was responsible for cementing work ...

By |2023-02-22T09:15:02-06:00September 23rd, 2021|Friday Famous Failures|6 Comments

Why the U.S. Isn’t On the Metric System

Try ordering a 113.3981-grammer burger at your local McDonald’s or Burger King. And then don’t be surprised when they don’t understand your order! That’s because the United States has not yet fully adopted the metric system. As a result, most U.S. citizens are not familiar with it ...

By |2023-02-22T09:18:55-06:00September 3rd, 2021|Tuesday Tidbits|27 Comments

The Baldwin Hills Dam Disaster

Constructed during and immediately after World War II, the Baldwin Hills Reservoir was intended to provide a reserve supply of safe water for people living in the Los Angeles area in case of emergency. The dam, built between 1947 and 1951 by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ...

By |2023-02-22T09:15:07-06:00August 26th, 2021|Friday Famous Failures|2 Comments