Why hasn’t the United States government done more to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

How many more helpless animals have to die and how many beaches have to be ruined before they stop forming commissions and start forming solutions?  Total Fail Whale on their part.

From CNN.com:

Obama announces oil spill commission

Posted: May 22nd, 2010 11:48 AM ET

After this weekend's official formation, the commission will have six months to issue a report with recommendations on how to prevent spills from offshore drilling. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Washington (CNN) – President Obama has named former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly to head a new bipartisan commission tasked with investigating how to prevent future oil spills.

Obama announced the formation of the panel in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday.

“Friday, I signed an executive order establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. While there are a number of ongoing investigations, including an independent review by the National Academy of Engineering, the purpose of this Commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent a similar disaster from happening again,” he said in his Saturday address.

The formation of the commission comes as the administration faces a growing chorus of criticism about whether it is putting enough pressure on BP to clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Friday, for the second straight day, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs faced a barrage of questions at his daily briefing about why the federal government is not intervening to take over responsibility for the cleanup from BP.

“Again, we are overseeing the response, OK?” Gibbs said just hours before the news about the commission broke. “I don’t know what you think – we’re – we’re working each and every day. That’s why Secretary (Steven) Chu – the Department of Energy – it sounds technical. The Department of Energy doesn’t have purview over oil, oil drilling. That’s not in their governmental sphere. But Secretary Chu has been down there working through a whole host of ideas, including enhanced imaging to get a better look at a disaster that’s 5,000 feet underneath the water.”

Gibbs added: “We have taken every step. We have pushed relentlessly for BP to do what is necessary to contain what is leaking, to deal with both the environmental and the economic impacts of what, as the president said today, is unquestionably a disaster.”

In announcing the commission Saturday, Obama said of two co-chairs, Graham and Reilly, “I can’t think of two people who will bring greater experience of better judgment to the task at hand.”

Five other people will soon be selected to serve on the commission. Obama said they would include “scientists, engineers, and environmental advocates.” Administration officials have said the other panel members would likely be people outside government because of allegations that leaders at the federal, state and local levels have been too cozy with the oil industry.

After this weekend’s official formation, the commission will have six months to issue a report with recommendations on how to prevent spills from offshore drilling.

Before the recent spill, Obama had opened the door to potential expansion of offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy reform plan. He has since faced a storm of criticism from fellow Democrats in states like Florida, who now want him to scrap those plans.

Graham hails from Florida, which has been under threat from the current spill. He served two terms as governor followed by 18 years in the U.S. Senate. Since retiring from the Senate in January 2005, he has served on several federal panels, including as chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

Reilly served as EPA chief in the administration of President George H.W. Bush from 1989-93 and is chairman emeritus of the board of the World Wildlife Fund. His credentials in the environmental community could be important for the commission amid fears within those circles that the Gulf spill will cause unprecedented damage to wildlife and fisheries.

Administration officials have previously said that this commission will be modeled after the federal panels that were formed after the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1979 and the Challenger space shuttle tragedy in 1986.

–CNN’s Ed Henry contributed to this report.

Apple’s new device is simply amazing and I want one like barkley wants a treat.

This is an excerpt from Mac|Life’s recent online feature showing at home ways to cradle the new device.

9. Sexy Times iPad Settee

While the Sexy Times iPad Settee may appear to be constucted of two sturdy cushions, it is so much more. With input from the country’s leading sex therapists and the ghost of Barry White, Mac|Life is proud to present this breakthrough romantic aid. Note how the red, gold and green striped fabric and foam rubber stuffing screams quality. Cue up a video of a roaring fireplace video, add mood music and a large quantity of mid-ranged red wine and you have the trappings for a romantic evening that at least one of you may not regret.

Check out the full article here

This week’s Tuesday update actually comes early on Wednesday morning.  I’ve spent the last 6 hours working hard on the site and as soon as you accessed dotcom3.net today I’m sure you noticed the changes.

The biggest change is in the user interface.  I uploaded a new background image and adjusted the site’s style sheets to modify the look to something closer to what I am expecting. I already see some more changes that I will make over the next few days, but this is a good start.

I hope you caught Zack Tanner’s article last Friday where he wrote about Google’s entry into the social media world.  Although I am currenly pretty unimpressed with Buzz, I can see it’s potential and I hope that it will become a major player in the social media world.

If you missed Zack’s article, you can view it here.

Did you catch any of the Olympics?  I really hope that you did.  Over the two week time that they were on, I watched about 50 hours of curling and another 60-70 hours of everything else, including hockey.  There is no doubt that the U.S. vs Canada hockey gold metal game will go down as one of the greatest in the history of hockey.

If you missed the game or want to see it again, NBC Universal Sports will be re-broadcasting the game this week.  Check your local listings.

Well I’m only 266 words, but it’s 1am and I need to be at work by 9am so I should probably wrap it up.  Check back daily for new updates and be sure to check in this Friday for Zack Tanner’s new tech corner.

Until next time,

Jeremy

Pittsburgh’s KDKA.com posted the story below earlier today about a man who pulled a gun on someone after a dispute about a parking space that was cleared out of a very snowy Pittsburgh street.  First of all, only in Pittsburgh does shit like this happen, and secondly couldn’t this all have been solved by a parking chair?

Fight Over Parking Spot Leads To Gunfire

HILL DISTRICT (KDKA) ―

An argument over a parking space in the Hill District sparked a shootout between police and a Pittsburgh man Tuesday night.

Police are at a loss about how to explain the incident and the victim in the case doesn’t understand how it all ended up the way it did.

However, the reality is that that two police officers were nearly shot all over a place to park.

The event took place in the Hill District in the 3200-block of Ewart Drive.

The victim in all this had apparently cleared some snow for his girlfriend’s car on the street. That is when, according to the victim, Errol Parker Sr., 61, decided to claim it for himself.

According to the victim, who did not want to be identified, after he asked Parker to move his car, Parker sucker punched him in the face and then pulled a gun.

Police were then called to the scene. By that time, Parker was back in his duplex and not coming out.

“One of the officers turned the door handle to see if it was locked and the door partially opened, enabling the officer to observe the actor walking toward them from a back room with a raised weapon pointing in their direction,” Diane Richard said.

Police then fired at Parker, who fired back and eventually surrendered after a short struggle.

“One of the officers deployed his Taser and the actor was taken into custody,” Richard said.

It is not known what caused Parker to lose his cool over a parking space to begin with, but the victim said he is alive, so are the officers, and that is all that matters.

“I feel very, very blessed to look up and see the sun working. I know God is on my side,” the victim said.

Parker remains in the Allegheny County Jail, charged with two counts of attempted criminal homicide, as well as two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

The big news in Pittsburgh today was the report that Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle had met with Pirates majority owner Robert Nutting and made an offer to buy the Pirates.

Sadly, Nutting seemingly turned down the offer immediately, stating once more the Pirates are not for sale.

A purchase like this, if it were to be reconsidered, would have major implications on the city of Pittsburgh.

For starters, it could be assumed that Lemieux and Burkle would put at least a little more money towards the Pirates payroll to try and make them contenders again. Now Major League Baseball is set up a little different than the National Hockey League in terms of payrolls, so it wouldn’t be guaranteed Lemieux and Burkle would make a difference, but it couldn’t be any worse than Nutting, who seems content with fielding a mediocre team and yielding a profit every year.

What made me really take notice of this offer was technology related, unsurprisingly.

If Lemieux and Burkle owned both the Penguins and the Pirates, they would own the two teams that have local television contracts in the city. Remember, the Steelers are apart of the National Football League’s very lucrative broadcasting contracts. So, with the Penguins and the Pirates being owned by the same people, that would open the door for Lemieux and Burkle to make additional revenue by creating their own television station.

Currently, FSN Pittsburgh pays for the rights to broadcast Penguins and Pirates games to the Pittsburgh area. However, the advertising revenue is split between the Penguins, Pirates and FSN.

A Lemieux/Burkle owned network would see all the of ad revenue going straight to the owners, which would produce a lot more than what they are currently receiving now from FSN.

This model only works to its fullest potential if the same group owns both teams.

A joint venture could be set up, where Lemieux, Burkle and Nutting all had a share in the new network, but then its uncertain whether or not there would be a substantial enough gain in revenue to warrant kicking FSN to the curb in place of a new network.

In my opinion, something needs to be done.

Ever since Liberty Sports Group took over FSN Pittsburgh, I feel that the quality has gone down. While the event coverage has been on par of where it was before, it is still much better than Versus or NBC, the national broadcast parters of the NHL, the other programing has taken a fall.

Liberty Sports Group has taken the route of airing syndicated national programming that airs on all FSN networks across the country, as opposed to airing local programming that features the local teams, as was the case before.

In addition, I think we can all agree that the new FSN graphics package is bad enough to call for FSN to be thrown out of town without even considering anything else.

So let’s all sit back and hope Bob Nutting reconsiders the offer from Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, it would benefit the city greatly.

Apple’s Media Event was today, and the verdict is in, iPad.

Over here on the @zacktanner blog, we predicted a few things right, the name, for starters.

We also predicted that iPad would run a modified iPhone OS, but it looks like it will be called just that, not iPad OS. That could still change, however.

In addition, we predicted that AT&T would provide wireless service for the iPad. However, we also predicted that T-Mobile at the very least would also provide service, but at this time, it’s AT&T only, even though all iPads will come unlocked.

We were close with the processor speed, as we predicted that it would get the same 1.86 GHz processor found in the MacBook Air, when in reality, iPad has a 1 GHz Apple processor.

It does have a 802.11n Wi-Fi chip, which we also predicted here, although that wasn’t a very tough call.

We’ll have a full review of the iPad tomorrow and the column will run in the Slippery Rock Rocket as well.

I don’t want to talk about that again though, I want to talk about Conan O’Brien and the send off he received from NBC.

Even though the last two weeks of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien were shadowed by the fact that they might be the last the shows, they were some of the best Conan had ever done.

In late night television, the hosts of the shows become instant icons. Johnny Carson’s name is one that is synonymous with late night. Jay Leno and David Letterman have become the faces of late night of this generation.

While Leno was given the title “King of Late Night” due to his continual ratings wins, it can be argued that no late night host was more of a pop culture influence than Conan, and he has proved that over the past two weeks.

Although his ratings as host of The Tonight Show were on par with that of his version of Late Night, they were lower than that of Leno’s Tonight Show. Regardless, when rumors started to swirl around the internet that Conan would be leaving The Tonight Show, ratings and public support skyrocketed for Conan.

As Conan was leaving The Tonight Show, he was determined to have the party fitting for departing late night hosts. He brought in the biggest guest for his final shows, from Steve Carell and Pee-Wee Herman to Tom Hanks and Will Farrell.

Before the final act of Conan joining Farrell, the Max Weinberg band and a variety of other music stars on stage, he gave a heart-filled speech thanking all his viewers and fans for supporting him throughout the years. He also thanked NBC for putting him on the air for the past 17 years.

In doing so, he gave what could be one of the most memorable lines in late night history:

“I hate cynicism. It’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Those are the words he has lived by all these years, as he has been known as one of the nicest people in the business. His final Tonight Show was as sad as it was hilarious. Watching a man walk away from his dream job in order to save the integrity of the show was hard, but knowing how great the show was with Conan at the helm was comforting.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I cannot wait to see where Conan lands, hopefully in September when his NBC buyout allows him to be back on the air.

Until then, let’s enjoy the current late night lineup, Jimmy Fallon especially, as he is now next in line to inherit The Tonight Show once Jay Leno retires.

Conan was determined to have his Tonight Show sendoff party, and have a party he did.

Here’s where it gets interesting though. Rumor has it that Jay Leno will host a shortened Tonight Show that airs 11:35. Conan would go back to hosting Late Night at 12:05 and Fallon will host a new show that will air at 1:05.

Whatever becomes of this, one thing is for sure, NBC really dropped the ball on its once dominant late night lineup.

In case anyone has been living under a television sized rock and hasn’t heard of the late night problems at NBC, let me fill you in. In 2009, NBC’s long time late night lineup got a shakeup. First, in February, Conan O’Brien left Late Night at 12:35 to prepare for his move to the Tonight Show, long hosted by Jay Leno at 11:35. Taking Conan’s place was Jimmy Fallon, who has done well with Late Night. Then in June, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien debuted, followed by the Jay Leno Show’s debut at the 10 PM slot in September.

NBC took a gamble with this move, hoping that Conan would bring his younger audience along with him to 11:35. Sadly, that hasn’t happened. I can say that while I used to watch Conan at least three or four times a week while he was on Late Night, I’m lucky to catch him once a week on the Tonight Show.

At least for me, this decline in watching isn’t because of a lack of quality, I think Conan is as funny as ever, it’s simply the earlier time slot is harder for me to catch. I find myself watching Fallon more than Conan, even though I believe Conan is the funnier of the two. It simply boils down to what time is more convenient.

As for Leno, his move to 10 has been a financial success for NBC, as producing his talk show five days a week is astronomically cheaper than producing at least five other shows that would have to fill that time slot over a week. While the Jay Leno Show’s ratings have been on par with Leno’s version of the Tonight Show, they have been far off of what other shows in that time slot are drawing.

While the parent company NBC doesn’t have a problem with this as they are making money, the networks affiliates are hurting because the lead in from Leno is so much less than it was for even the weakest shows that aired at 10 previously. This leads to a drop in their late local news ratings which leads to a decline in revenue.

So what is NBC to do about this botched experiment? Most people are speculating that NBC is going to move the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 and cut it from an hour long program to a half-hour, bump the Tonight Show to 12:05 and bump Late Night to 1:05.

So who is helped and hurt by this time shift?

Starting at the top, NBC is helped ratings wise, as they would get their ratings back to par for the 10 o’clock slot. Even a lousy show gets at least double the ratings Leno is pulling in. The affiliates get their local news lead in back, helping what is usually their highly profitable late local newscasts. NBC gets Leno back at 11:35, where he beat David Letterman’s Late Show on CBS for years, but recently Letterman has passed Conan at that slot.

So what happens to Conan and Fallon? With a move to 12:05, Conan could potentially get some of his old Late Night ratings back, as he wouldn’t have to content with the beginning of any other late night shows.

Who really stands to lose, however, is Jimmy Fallon. Moving his show to 1:05 would likely cause a drop in ratings, as that this a time of the night when television viewership declines. With a smaller potential audience, there is really no where to go but down for Late Night.

I feel this whole situation is a shame, as two very talented comedians, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon, stand to be at the mercy of NBC and Jay Leno.

While NBC has said they are committed to keeping Conan on the network, who is to say he won’t leave for another network after his reported two year contract comes to an end in 2011.

So what should NBC do? Leave things as they are, move Leno back to 11:35 and bump Conan and Fallon or come up with a different plan?