Another Must-Read from the New York Times

Jan. 17, 2011

Just about the time I have let myself be convinced by all the chatter among the talking heads that the print media (aka, "dead tree ware") really are dead, along comes a story that reminds me of why reading the papers is still a worthwhile exercise.

Just about the time I have let myself be convinced by all the chatter among the talking heads that the print media (aka, "dead tree ware") really are dead, along comes a story that reminds me of why reading the papers is still a worthwhile exercise.

This morning, thanks to a tweet from Aaron Crews, I discovered this story from that pillar of dead-tree journalism, the New York Times. Like the Stuxnet piece Walt posted about earlier, this one is a must-read. The subject  "Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours." It's long (no, Virginia, long-form journalism isn't entirely dead either), but worth the time. And it's a compelling read that ought to raise the hair on the back of the neck of anyone working in dangerous process industries. According to this account, everything on DH that could go wrong, did--all at once, and even the best-prepared folks on the rig were powerless to stop the cascade of events once it got going.

This is a big-time cautionary tale.