Top Kill Is Dead. BP Fails to Stop Gushing Oil Well in the Gulf

A makeshift Oil-Man Scarecrow was placed along the road
on the way to Grand Isle, La., complete with respirator, X'ed-out eyes,
and an oily fish in hand. Image by Ryan Marshall for FastCompany.com.

BP's COO Doug Suttles has announced that operation Top Kill, a plan involving the pumping of heavy mud, concrete, and junk into its gushing oil well 5,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico, has failed. The next step, the New York Times reports, is a "lower marine riser package cap," in which...