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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By Bruce Thompson
President Obama's call for an increase in "STEM" (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) majors is an acknowledgement of the
proliferation of what British education minister Margaret Hodge infamously
called Mickey Mouse degrees. Given the well-established Disney empire of
theme parks, it might be forgotten that the term "Mickey Mouse" first
entered the public mind as a dysphemism based on his famous star turn as the
Sorcerer's Apprentice in the Disney film Fantasia in 1940. The Wikipedia
entry presents as succinct summary:
Mickey made his most famous classical music appearance in 1940 in the
classic Disney film Fantasia. His screen "role" as The Sorcerer's Apprentice
, set to the symphonic poem of the same name by Paul Dukas, is perhaps the
most famous segment of the film. The segment features no dialogue at all,
only the music. The apprentice (Mickey), not willing to do his chores, puts
on the sorcerer's magic hat after the sorcerer goes to bed and casts a spell
on a broom, which causes the broom to come to life and perform the most
tiring chore-filling up a deep well using two buckets of water. When the
well eventually overflows, Mickey finds himself unable to control the broom,
leading to a near-flood. After the segment ends, Mickey is seen in
silhouette shaking hands with Leopold Stokowski, who conducts all the music
heard in Fantasia.
The vision of the Obama as the naïve "Mickey Mouse" formed in my mind
during the BP Deepwater Horizon fiasco. The whole world, even his daughter,
knew that the primary job was plugging the "damn hole." As Malia Obama
phrased it, "Have you plugged the hole yet Daddy?" Yet the government
response owed more to the Sorcerer's Apprentice than the Little Dutch Boy of
Haarlem.
He was near one of the large sluices, and he now carefully examines it,
and soon discovers a hole in the wood, through which the water was flowing.
With the instant perception which every child in Holland would have, the boy
saw that the water must soon enlarge the hole through which it was only now
dropping, and that utter and general ruin would be the consequence of the
inundation of the country that must follow. To see, to throw away the
flowers, to climb from stone to stone till he reached the hole, and to put
his finger in it, was the work of a moment, and, to his delight, he finds
that he has succeeded in stopping the flow of the water...
"In the name of wonder, boy," he exclaimed "what are you doing there?"
"I am hindering the flow of water from running out," was the answer, in
perfect simplicity, of the child who, during the whole night had been
evincing such heroic fortitude and undaunted courage.
The Muse of History, too often blind to (true) glory, has handed down to
posterity many a warrior, the destroyer of thousands of his fellow men --
she has left us in ignorance of the name of this real little hero of Harlem.
At 5:35 in the Fantasia video on YouTube, we see Mickey take an axe to the
water toting broom, with the unintended consequence that the splinters
reconstitute into new brooms and quickly overwhelm his efforts to quell
control the situation. Now observe the ever-increasing number of collection
paths that have been incorporated into the well containment systems by yes-
men of a heavily regulated industry. Contrast that to the static kill
system that successfully stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on
July 15, 2010. One philosophy elevates collection as its primary goal, the
other venerates "plugging the damn hole." (That also reminds me of the
debate as to whether raising taxes or cutting spending will best serve to
eliminate the deficit, collecting more taxes or cutting spending!)
The most awkward of the outstanding questions about the BP spill is the
issue of the "missing oil." Why is it that the government cannot admit what
the Little Dutch Boy knew, that oil and gas flowing through the closed
blind shear ram in the blowout preventer (BOP) "must soon enlarge the hole"?
Each of those additional alternate collection paths reduces the
backpressure on the blowout preventer thereby increasing the flow rate and
the associated erosion inside the BOP. The "missing oil" is not missing; it
is an overestimate of the flow rate by a government intent on maximizing
the punitive fines it seeks to impose on BOP by using a measured flow late
in the time line and backdating it to when the BOP was not so eroded. The
government estimates do not take into account this erosion. The concerns of
citizens (particularly children) worried about a million barrels of "
missing oil" returning to haunt them like the bogeyman hiding under their
bed is merely an "inconvenient truth" to this administration.
Their lack of concern for the kids of the Gulf Coast is despicable. I hope
those kids do resolve to take STEM studies, so they will be able to rely on
themselves to refute the political charlatans they will continue to meet in
the future.
Bruce Thompson blogs at Machiasprivateer. Contact him at machiasprivateer@
hotmail.com |
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