Better In The Abstract

A gas well near Surabaya, Indonesia, has been spewing steaming mud since May 2006. The stuff has covered entire villages; 15,000 people are homeless after escaping the hot gray goop. The gas company is saying this vile glop would have come gushing up even had there been no drilling. Right. Meanwhile, engineers (doubtless emboldened by their colleagues' triumphant protection of New Orleans) are planning to stop the mud flow by dropping large cement balls down this big hole in the Earth. Geologists are predicting this just plain won't work. Anyway, it's hard to imagine a more concrete metaphor for hubris.