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(IRANIAN HISTORY) alternative spelling of Muhammad Mossadegh, democratically elected prime minister of Iran (1951-1953).
Because Iranian names are spelled with a modified version of the Arabic alphabet, there is some controversy over how to spell names like "Muhammad Mussadegh." Sometimes, for example, his name is spelled "Mohammed Mossadegh."

Muhammed Mussadegh struggled all his life to free Iran from colonial rule.
by Primus Intra Pares July 18, 2010
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(ECONOMICS) an alternative metric of poverty; used instead of the poverty level by some researchers.

Developed as a superior alternative to the federal poverty level to estimate the income required for families to pay for their basic needs. Computed at the county level, the SSS takes into account the costs of food, housing, health insurance, childcare, transportation, taxes, and other basic expenses, with component values varying across more than 70 different family types. SSS wages have been calculated to date for all counties in 35 states and the District of Columbia.
Usually people are not concerned by reports of the large numbers of people living below the poverty level, because they assume it just means poor people have to tighten their belts.

The self-sufficiency standard (SSS), if explained, should change this. If a person's wages are below the SSS, then she is not only not making enough to meet her current needs, she's not making enough to preserve her ability to earn what little she has.
by Primus Intra Pares July 17, 2010
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Former name of BP, p.l.c. The name "British Petroleum" remains in use because "BP" is useless for internet searches. Third largest oil company in the world, by sales (behind Exxon Mobile and Royal Dutch Shell; in 2009, these were $246.1 billion.

BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the US.

Lessor of Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. On 20 April 2010, a fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon killed eleven crew members and was followed by a blowout, during which perhaps four million barrels of crude oil were poured into the ecologically sensitive area.

Company was founded in 1909 by William Knox D'Arcy as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), and used its ties with the hapless Qejar Dynasty ruling Iran.

In 1925, Reza Khan (formerly an employee of APOC) had himself proclaimed Shah; his ascendancy from commoner to emperor was stimulated by Iran popular anger at the way APOC was pumping billions of pounds from Iran's land to the Exchequer of the UK, while a ridiculously small amount went to Iran itself. Shah Reza promised to revise the agreement with APOC, but after 7 years of negotiating with the company, got nothing more than a name change (to Anglo-Iranian).

In 1951, Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadegh nationalize the company's assets in Iran. On behalf of AIOC, MI-5 and the CIA staged a coup d'etat that ousted the democratically elected Prime Minister in favor of absolute dictatorship by the Shah (1953).
Until 1997, British Petroleum was part of an industry-wide consortium that funded climate change "skepticism."

Although it is financially and legally unrelated to the British government, BP has historically been treated by the British FCO as if it were an arm of the state.
by Primus Intra Pares July 17, 2010
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BP, p.l.c.

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Third largest oil company in the world, by sales (behind Exxon Mobile and Royal Dutch Shell; in 2009, these were $246.1 billion.

BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the US.

Lessor of Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. On 20 April 2010, a fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon killed eleven crew members and was followed by a blowout, during which perhaps four million barrels of crude oil were poured into the ecologically sensitive area.

Company was founded in 1909 by William Knox D'Arcy as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), and used its ties with the hapless Qejar Dynasty ruling Iran.

In 1925, Reza Khan (formerly an employee of APOC) had himself proclaimed Shah; his ascendancy from commoner to emperor was stimulated by Iran popular anger at the way APOC was pumping billions of pounds from Iran's land to the Exchequer of the UK, while a ridiculously small amount went to Iran itself. Shah Reza promised to revise the agreement with APOC, but after 7 years of negotiating with the company, got nothing more than a name change (to Anglo-Iranian).

In 1951, Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadegh nationalize the company's assets in Iran. On behalf of AIOC, MI-5 and the CIA staged a coup d'etat that ousted the democratically elected Prime Minister in favor of absolute dictatorship by the Shah (1953).
BP, p.l.c. chief executive Tony Hayward took a day off Saturday to see his 52-foot yacht "Bob" compete in a glitzy race off England's shore, a leisure trip that further infuriated residents of the oil-stained Gulf Coast.

{AP Newswire, 19 June 2010}
by Primus Intra Pares July 17, 2010
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Action taken for public relations (PR); usually contrived to create a false impression of good will or concern.

Most people in positions of great power are basically sociopaths who don't care about the suffering their greed- and ego-driven rampages cause. But if it were generally known that they think general suffering is hilarious, they'd be less effective at causing more.

For this reason, the truly powerful have frontmen, like political functionaries, who pretend to have power, and pretend to care about doing good stuff. They can do stuff like fly to the Gulf of Mexico and make speeches about how they're going to help people affected by the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and while it fools very few people, it's at least moderately inoffensive.

PR moves are used by the powerful to make themselves look benign, indispensable, hardworking, smart, badass, serious, compassionate, respectful of the law, concerned about the rise of evil shit, blue-collar, in touch with the people, talented, far-sighted, thoughtful, devout, patriotic, global, or cool.
One of the more successful PR moves of the oil industry was Chevron's "People Do" campaign. In this campaign, a series of television commercials and magazine ads showed a beautiful landscape with sea otters or giant turtles, and voice over talking about some thing Chevron did to help them out. Except the things Chevron said it was doing to help the environment, were (a) cheap, relative to the cost of blabbing about it, (b) usually mandated by law or consent decree, and (c) required to mitigate some larger environmental catastrophe caused by Chevron.
by Primus Intra Pares July 15, 2010
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Deepwater Horizon

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(CURRENT EVENTS) offshore oil drilling platform located off the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. The platform was owned and operated by Transocean, LTD., under lease to British Petroleum (BP).

The well, which was in 1 mile of water, blew out (or ruptured) on 20 April 2010, and gushed millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. On 14 July, the main rupture appeared to have been capped. By then, probably 4 million barrels of crude had been released into a sensitive habitat, destroying the livelihood of tens of thousands of people.

According to some estimates, the Deepwater Horizon blowout was the worst peacetime oil well blowout in history.
The Deepwater Horizon platform killed eleven crew members when it exploded. The operator and its lessor, BP, had been cited hundreds of times for major safety procedure violations.
by Primus Intra Pares July 15, 2010
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blowout

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(OIL INDUSTRY) a disaster consisting of a rupture of the pipe carrying oil away from a wellhead. Basically, when oil coming out of the ground through an oil well is released into the open air, or pours into the ocean.

In 1991, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was repulsed by the US-led coalition, the retreating Iraqi forces used incendiary explosives to blast open and ignite the streams of crude oil coming from Kuwaiti wells. This was the largest mass blowout in industry history.
The Deepwater Horizon blowout is incorrectly called a "spill" by many news outlets. It is not a spill, it is a blowout.

Oil wells, particularly those drilled underwater, are required to have a functioning blowout preventer. The one of the Deepwater Horizon was made by Halliburton and was defective.
by Primus Intra Pares July 15, 2010
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