Credit where credit is due. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the man who is most responsible for fixing the oil gusher in the Gulf is a plumber from Kansas named Joe Caldart. Link here.
Via Instapundit.
According to the Monitor, Joe sent his design to a Berkeley professor who forwarded it to BP. The basic concept for the mechanism that succeeded in plugging the leak was apparently identical to Joe's. For its part BP admits to having used suggestions from numerous sources.
Let 's get this straight. President Obama convened a panel of Nobel prize winning experts, the best and the brightest from the most prestigious universities. The oil kept gushing.
Then, a red neck from Kansas, who seems like the kind of guy who would be a tea party member, designed a different kind of plug. The oil stopped gushing.
It sounds like this Joe the plumber just struck a blow for free markets and free thought and for placing confidence in the free choices of everyday people. He also struck a blow against the notion that we should allow ourselves to be governed by experts and bureaucrats.
I believe it. A lot of advancement in science and technology was done by curious individuals using practical experience. Isn't PHD sometimes just an abbreviation for piled higher and deeper?
ReplyDeleteBruce Charlton has recently commented on the current state of science and scientists "doing" science and producing very little but the motions.