N.Korea makes new threats as tensions rise

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
Immediate Release May 26, 2010

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT FIRST FUNDRAISING RECEPTION FOR BARBARA BOXER
AND THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

Fairmont Hotel
San Francisco, California
May 25, 2010

6:11 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, hello, everyone. (Applause.) How’s it going, California? (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Love you!

THE PRESIDENT: Love you back. (Laughter.) This is a good-looking crowd. (Applause.)

SENATOR BOXER: That’s Nancy’s granddaughter, Isabella — Nancy Pelosi.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, she’s just precious, and I know her pretty well. (Laughter.) Hey, mom, how are you?

Well, it is so nice to see everybody. Thank you for the wonderful welcome and the genuine San Francisco weather. (Laughter.) I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted to come here and it was all sunny and bright. (Laughter.) No, that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You rock, Barack!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)

We just flew in today from Washington, and I have to say that we’ve got a lot on our plate right now, so I don’t travel for just anybody. But when it comes to Barbara Boxer, I’m a lot like many of you, which is if she calls and she says, “I need some help,” then we’re going to give her some help, because she has helped millions of Californians and millions of Americans all across the country. (Applause.) And we’re going to make sure that Barbara Boxer is in office for an awful long time to come, whether Stu likes it or not. (Applause.)

I was talking to Stu in the back, and, you know, when you’re a senator, an elected official, right around this time of year you basically become a widow or a widower — (laughter) — until your spouse is finished with their race. But Stu has been so supportive because he knows the value of what Barbara does each and every day.

Now, let’s face it, this has been as tough a year and a half as any year and a half in our history since the 1930s. When I came into office, when I was sworn in, we were on the brink of what many economists thought might be another Great Depression. At minimum, we knew we were going to have the worst recession since the Great Depression. We were losing 750,000 jobs per month. The economy had contracted 6.5 percent. I had, wrapped like a gift, a welcoming gift for me a $1.3 trillion deficit.

And so we had to act quickly. And that meant that right away we had to make sure that we put in place mechanisms to put people back to work, to get the economy growing again. We had to cut taxes for small businesses and for individuals so that they would boost demand in the economy that was caving. It meant that we had to make sure that unemployment insurance and COBRA was in place so that people would have some safety net under them when they lost a job through no means of their own — through no fault of their own. (Applause.)

But it also meant that we had to make investments so that we would create a foundation for long-term growth in this country. See, we couldn’t keep on doing the same things we had been doing. It wasn’t good enough just to go back to the status quo ante. We couldn’t have a situation in which growth was premised on everybody maxing out on their credit cards, and taking out home equity loans, and getting deeper and deeper into debt, and wild speculation on the financial markets.

What we had to do was to go back to basics and think about what has made America great. Well, one of the things that has always made America great is innovation. And so through our Recovery Act, we made the largest investment in clean energy in our history.

And we made the largest investment in science. (Applause.) And while we were making all those investments in research and development, we also elevated science once again. (Applause.) And we said we would make decisions on stem cell research and other issues based on what science tell us. And so we had an innovation agenda.

Then we had an agenda with respect to making sure that we made the health care system more efficient. (Applause.) And so even before we got into the health care bill, we invested in information technology so that when you go to the doctor, you don’t have to take five tests. We’re just going to take one test, and then you’re going to e-mail the five tests to everybody else — and by the way, you won’t get charged for five tests, or Medicaid or Medicare won’t get charged for five tests.

And we thought about how could we restore an auto industry that was on the brink. But again, we couldn’t go back to the status quo. So what we did was we said, you know what, we’re going to make sure that GM and Chrysler aren’t liquidated, but we’re going to make sure that we invest in advanced battery technologies and hybrid technologies so that we can start seeing a future of plug-in hybrids that get 150 miles a gallon so that we can start breaking our dependence on foreign oil. (Applause.)

And we said, you know, part of the innovation economy is making sure every child in America has a decent education — (applause) — which meant we made the largest investment — we made the largest investment in education in our history, not only at the K-12 level but also at the community college level and at the university level.

And then we said, you know we — if we’re going to innovate and grow, we’ve got to have great infrastructure. And so we passed the largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.

And we said if we’re going to cut taxes, let’s make sure we cut taxes for the right folks. And so as a consequence, we passed the most progressive tax cut in our history to make sure that people who really needed it got the benefits. (Applause.)

Now, California, I want you to understand we did all that in the first month. (Laughter.) That was in the first month. (Applause.) And in the first couple of months, we had already provided 4 million more children health care under the Children’s Health Insurance bill. We had already passed legislation to make sure that a basic principle that women, if they’re working on the job, should get paid the same for doing the work that a man is doing. (Applause.)

In the first six months, we had already made sure that tobacco companies couldn’t market to our kids — (applause) — and the toughest credit card regulations in our history — and legislation to prevent housing fraud. We did that in the first six months.

But that wasn’t enough to start building this new foundation for our economy. So we just kept on going. And as Barbara mentioned, we ended up doing something that seven Congresses and seven Presidents have failed to do — had failed to do for a century, and that is start providing basic security for all Americans when it comes to their health care, because in a country this wealthy, no person should go bankrupt because they get sick, no child should go unattended if they’ve got a chronic illness. That is a basic principle of America. (Applause.)

And by the way, it turns out that by making these changes, we can actually make the health care system more efficient, and drive down costs, and drive down premiums, and help small businesses.

Now, we decided that’s still not enough in order to make the changes that are necessary. And so we said we’re never going to have the situation again where taxpayers are forced to choose between the entire economy collapsing or having to bail out a bunch of folks who’ve been irresponsible.

So we decided we had to create a financial regulatory structure that continues to affirm the power of the free market, that recognizes that financial institutions have to be there to be able to finance small businesses and individuals buying homes and cars. And that’s all good. That’s part of what makes America so creative and so dynamic; that drives our growth.

But there have got to be basic rules of the road so consumers aren’t getting cheated; so people aren’t missing the fine print and suddenly find themselves way overextended; so that you don’t have financial instruments that can blow the entire economy apart.

And so after the — over the last several months, after we finished with health care, we’ve tackled financial regulatory reform. We’ve now passed it through the House. We’ve now passed it through the Senate. And we are going to pass it through Congress. And then I’m going to sign that bill to make sure that we don’t have taxpayer bailouts for irresponsible behavior in our financial sector. (Applause.)

All right, so that’s not a bad 18 months’ work. (Laughter.) That’s pretty good. But here’s the thing. I couldn’t have done that by myself. I mean, one of the things you learn as President is because you’ve got this title, and, you know, there’s the plane and the helicopter, and all that stuff — (laughter) — that people expect you to solve problems. And when things go wrong, they’re definitely going to blame you. If things go right, occasionally you might get the credit.

But the truth is, is that in order for us to succeed in bringing about the kind of America where everybody has opportunity, where our economy is growing and innovative and more stable, where our children are getting a good education, where we’ve got a sound health care system, where we’ve got an actual energy agenda, I can’t do that by myself. I’ve got to have strong allies. I’ve got to have people with passion. I’ve got to have people who are willing to fight for what’s right. I’ve got to have people who always have the voices of their constituents in their ear, and understand and remember, no matter how long they’ve been in Washington, who it is that they’re fighting for.

And nobody is a better example of that than Barbara Boxer, which is why you are here today. (Applause.) On every fight that needed to be fought, Barbara was there, standing right there next to me, and sometimes we were in a foxhole together, and shots were being fired. (Laughter.) That’s just a figure of speech. I don’t want the Secret Service — (laughter) — getting excited.

But Barbara is always there. She’s been there for you. She’s been there for California. She’s been there for me. And now —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: — Boxer in your corner.

THE PRESIDENT: — we’ve got a Boxer in our corner. That’s a good one. (Laughter.)

So now we’ve got to be there for her, because the truth is our work is not yet done. And I actually visited the Republican Caucus today, and it was a very warm and cuddly meeting. (Laughter.) But the truth is I want the country to come together in dealing with some big problems that we’ve still got. And Barbara wants the same thing. (Applause.)

And here’s what I told them. I’m not going to get into all the details of the meeting, because they wanted the meeting closed. We had a meeting that was open with the Republican Caucus on the House side, and I had a lot of fun there. (Laughter.) So — but basically I said we’ve done some good work. Unfortunately sometimes we haven’t gotten a lot of help from the other side of the aisle. But we still are hopeful that you are willing to put party below what needs to be done for the American people.

And here are some areas where we know we’ve got to make progress. We know we still have to make progress on energy. This situation in the Gulf is heartbreaking. And the day that it was reported to me that this riser and the drilling situation had blown, I said to my team, we’ve got to put every bit of energy, time, all the resources we’ve got to make sure that we deal with this.

And we’ve now got over a thousand people from the federal government deployed down there. We are doing everything we can to contain the damage. But the fact of the matter is, is that not only do we have to revisit how these oil companies are operating, to make sure that they’re operating in a safe and effective way. But we’ve also still got this overarching issue, even if you hadn’t seen the catastrophe down in the Gulf, the reason that folks are now having to go down a mile deep into the ocean, and then another mile drilling into the ground below that is because the easy oilfields and oil wells are gone, or they’re starting to diminish.

And what does that tell us? That tells us that we’ve got to have a long-term energy strategy in this country. (Applause.) And we’ve got to start — we’ve got to start cultivating — we’ve got to start cultivating solar and wind and biodiesel. And we’ve got to increase energy efficiency across our economy in our buildings and our automobiles.

And we’ve got to also make sure that — (interruption) –oops. (Laughter.) You don’t agree. (Laughter.) And we’ve got to make sure that as these technologies develop, the government is not creating these technologies, but it’s supporting them, because that’s how the railroads got built, and that’s how the Internet got developed, for there was some measure of government support.

And we’ve got to stop subsidizing those industries that are not going to lead us to the future. (Applause.) Now — so I said to the Republicans, join with me. There’s been some good work done by John Kerry and Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Let’s go. Let’s not wait. Let’s show the American people that in the midst of this crisis, all of us are opening our eyes to what’s necessary to fulfill the promise to our children and our grandchildren.

And then I talked about immigration reform, another area where there are a lot of passions right now. (Applause.) And I said — I said to them — I said to them, look, I disagree with this Arizona law. I think it’s a bad idea. (Applause.) But I also said I understand the frustration of folks in Arizona. I understand they’re feeling that somehow the federal government can’t control the border effectively, and I’m willing to work with my Republican colleagues to create a stronger border here in California, New Mexico and in Arizona. I think everybody understands that that’s an important investment to make.

And I told them if we actually want to solve the problem, as opposed to just score political points, then we can’t just have one leg of the stool. We’ve got to make sure that we’re dealing with employers who are dealing in unscrupulous ways with undocumented workers. (Applause.) We’ve got — and for the millions of folks who are already here, we’ve got to say to them, you’ve got to take responsibility. You broke the law, you’ve got to pay a fine. You’ve got to pay your back taxes. You’ve got to learn English. You’ve got to go to the back of the line, but here’s a pathway whereby you can get right with our community and contribute to the larger American project. (Applause.)

Those are issues that we’re going to have some legitimate differences on. Some of those differences were expressed in the Republican Caucus. And I expressed my opinions, as well. But you know what, if you talk to most Americans on these issues, they’re not thinking Republican, they’re not thinking Democrat, they’re not thinking liberal, they’re not thinking conservative. They’re thinking, what’s common sense, what’s decent, what’s right, what does the science say, what do the facts say, what will work, what won’t work? Solve the problem.

And that’s what I’m prepared to do. And that’s what Barbara Boxer has always stood for. (Applause.) And that’s why it’s so important that you’re here tonight, because that’s the kind of politics that is going to create a better future for California, that’s the kind of politics that’s going to create a better future for the nation. And that’s why I know that you are going to make sure that Barbara Boxer gets another six years in the United States Senate. (Applause.)

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.)

END 6:29 P.M. PDT

In the future, we can only hope that turning on one’s faucet will require a pseudo-sexual air stroke. Groping is so pedestrian. [Jasper Dekker via Yanko Design] More »










Project Natal – Microsoft – Yanko Design – Xbox – Arts

You really don’t need to know anything about the lens to appreciate it. It’s eff’n gorgeous. Mir.com has you covered just case you want the technical details and whatnot about the lens.

Sean Rodriguez(notes) entered the season atop everyone’s breakout list. Nobody generated as much spring buzz. Rodriguez hit .460 for Tampa Bay during Grapefruit League play with 13 extra-base hits in 63 at-bats. He led all players in runs-scored (20), and he finished second in both hits (29) and homers (6) this spring.

When he was selected in the late rounds of your fantasy draft, everybody paused to acknowledge the greatness of the pick. MLB Network’s Peter Gammons predicted that Rodriguez would be the A.L. Rookie of the Year, and it seemed like an easy call at the time. 

Then, of course, when the regular season began, Rodriguez was a mess. He went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts on opening day — and that’s when his batting average peaked. He’s now hitting .211 with just one home run in 71 at-bats. His strikeout percentage (42.3) is the second-worst in baseball. Right or wrong, Rodriguez carries the Quad-A label; he’s been an outstanding player in the high minors, but he can’t seem to produce in the big leagues.

On Monday, his season reached its low point. While wading in the water near his home, Rodriguez was stung by an actual ray. (The aquatic version. He was not stung by, say, Willy Aybar(notes)). Details here via the St. Petersburg Times:

Rodriguez was on the beach Monday morning behind his Redington Beach rental condo when he took his 2-year-old daughter, Sofia, a couple of feet into the water for a closer look at some dolphins.

A few steps (and a stingray shuffle or two) later, he saw something flash through the water and felt something on his right heel.

"I actually thought it was a catfish at first, that it grazed me. I didn’t think much of it," Rodriguez said. "And then I got out of the water, and I was like whoooaaaa."

I’m not aware of any other instance in which a professional athlete has been attacked by the real-life version of his team’s animal mascot. Did Ron LeFlore ever fight a live tiger? Can’t recall. But I believe the ray-versus-Ray thing is unique.

Paramedics treated the injury and Rodriguez is now fine. He struck out in a pinch-hit appearance against the Red Sox on Tuesday, so this apparently is not one of those scenarios where an unwitting human receives the proportionate powers of an animal, and is thus immediately awesome at everything.

Instead, this seems to be a simple statement made by the global community of
stingrays: they no longer wish to be associated with Sean Rodriguez.

—

Photo via US Presswire

Depois de um acordo com o chefão da F1, Bernie Ecclestone, os EUA estarão inclusos na temporada de 2012 em uma corrida na cidade de Austin, Texas. Os preparativos terão início esse ano e as corridas acontecerão até o ano de 2021. Ecclestone diz o seguinte:

“Pela primeira vez na história da Fórmula 1 nos EUA, uma instalação de classe mundial vai ser construída para sediar o evento. Faz 30 anos que o GP de F1 dos EUA teve um circuito de rua modificado em Watkins Glen, Nova York (1961-1980) que teve um grande sucesso.

Desde então a F1 teve eventos em Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas e Fênix, todos em circuitos de rua temporários. Indianápolis entrou nas listas de cidades para sediar eventos em 2000 e eles construíram o famoso circuito oval”.

Via | Inside Line

The Phoenix Suns beats Los Angeles Lakers at game 4. When he was asked by a reporter how he was feeling, Kobe Bryant replied “Jovial”.

Kobe Bryant cited one single reason behind the disastrous Laker’s Game 4 loss to the Phoenix Suns. He made one thing clear, it was the defense that lost the game, not his team’s ability to score points.

At the post game press conference here, Tuesday night in Phoenix, Bryant calmly stated, “We have to do a much better job defensively.”

The NBA superstar added that the Lakers had focused so much on attacking the Suns newly implemented zone, that they lost focus on the defensive end.

When a reporter asked Bryant how he was feeling after the disastrous defeat, he responded with one word, “Jovial.” The reporter was so surprised that he asked Bryant to repeat. Again came the same response “Jovial.“

Kobe scored 38 points in the 115-106 loss. Game 5 will be Thursday night at 9 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Related posts:

1. 2nd Straight Game Miss for Black Mamba
2. The team is focusing at the moment. –Kobe Bryant
3. Lakers Swept the Victory Over Oklahoma this Game 5 Playoffs

In this News Sentinel story, Team Living Light, an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty at UT, describe plans for the Living Light solar-powered house to be built and transported to the Washington Mall for the Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon competition.

Mobile advertising server AdMob — whose purchase by Google, by the way, was approved by the feds last Friday — just released its April numbers today. (AdMob servers up many of the in-app ads you see on your Android phone.) Let’s look at the bullet points:

• Some 75 percent of unique Android devices are in North America. Asia has 12 percent of Android devices, followed by Western Europe with 11 percent.
• In the United States, the iPhone has about 10.7 million devices, and Android makes up 8.7 million. (If you count the iPod Touch along with the iPhone, Apple’s share jumps to 18.3 million.)
• Worldwide, there are about 11.6 million Android devices pinging AdMob’s servers, compared to 27.4 million iPhones and 40.8 million for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
• Top Android smartphone in the United States in April was the Motorola Droid, with 16.1 percent of AdMob advertising requests. The HTC Magic (myTouch) followed with 5.3 percent, the HTC Dream (G1) with 5.0 percent, Motorola Cliq at 4.5 percent, HTC Droid Eris and Hero each at 4.3 percent, and Samsung Moment at 3.3 percent.
• Android phones showing gains in April were the Magic (0.5 percent), Droid Eris (0.2 percent) and Moment (0.2 percent).

You can find more at AdMob’s site, and you can read the entire report here. (pdf link)

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

Pete Davis on the line-item veto and its siblings:

Unless you have worked in the right places in Washington, you rarely see how much White House pork moves into bills before Congress. We tend to focus on congressional pork without realizing that presidents will use additional power to rescind as a lever to gain votes or to punish those who don’t go along or to reward supporters. A president may generate some modest budgetary savings on balance compared to what Congress wanted to spend, but it wouldn’t be worth the price in my opinion.

Line-item veto – White House – United States Congress – Congress – President

Barring an incredibly unlikely space ship rescue of stranded astronauts during Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final mission–ever–in November, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will never launch again.

At 8:48am EDT, Atlants, commanded by Ken Ham and piloted by “Tony” Antonelli, dropped from orbit safely and glided back to earth, landing at the Kennedy Space Center. There had been a chance that Atlantis would have to wait for morning showers to get out of the way, to then try landing later this morning, or Thursday, but the weather worked out and violated none of NASA’s landing constraints.

The 12 day mission accomplished quite a bit up at the International Space Station, installing a new Russian-built module and docking station, a 6-pack of batteries for power and a new antenna for the I.S.S.

A few of the astronauts even made an out-of-this world appearance on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, joking that the mission had gone very well, and that the crew had even defeated the forces of evil while 220 miles above the earth.

Atlantis will now be cleaned up and prepared for one more possible mission, as the “rescue ship” for NASA’s last Space Shuttle mission ever, in case the NASA determines that Endeavor is unsafe to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. This was Atlantis’ 32nd mission, and during it, surpassed flying 120 million miles in space.

In this WBIR-TV story, a team of UT students and faculty describe the Living Light project, an “off the grid” solar-powered house, and their acceptance as one of only 20 teams to compete in the Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon.

Facing a wrongful death lawsuit and life without her beloved chimpanzee companion, Travis, Sandra Herold — the owner of the chimp that mauled her friend beyond recognization in a brutal attack last year — died of aneurysm in Connecticut this week.

Charla Nash was visiting Herold and Travis at their home in Stamford in February 2009 when the 200 lbs. chimp suddenly went wild. Nash was badly mauled before cops shot and killed Travis. Nash was transferred to an Ohio hospital, where she continues to receive extensive reconstructive surgery and other medical care.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Luke Timmerman wrote:

Anadys Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANDS), the San Diego-based developer of a treatment for hepatitis C, said today it has raised $12.5 million through a registered stock offering with certain institutional investors. The company has agreed to sell about 5.8 million shares at $2.15 apiece, about a 3.5 percent discount from yesterday’s closing stock price of $2.23. Lazard Capital Markets served as the lead placement agent in the offering. Separately, Anadys said today it has hired Lazard as a strategic adviser as it “pursues various avenues aimed at value recognition for its stockholders,” according to a statement. Anadys burned through about $5 million of its cash reserves in the first quarter, and was left with about $15 million left in the bank at the end of March.

Please join us Thursday, May 27 at NOON for this live online chat to discuss the Illinois budget with Republican State Representative Ed Sullivan.

Credit-default swaps are widely seen as a major contributor to the recent financial meltdown. But the origin of CDS’s with the Exxon Valdez oil disaster isn’t as widely known.

The New Yorker has a long review of a couple of financial books, including Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe.  It details the history of the CDS, an idea that came out of a June 1994 JP Morgan off-site in Boca Raton (where “binge drinking occurred” and  “a senior colleague’s nose was broken”):

The Boca Raton meeting first bore fruit when Exxon needed to open a line of credit to cover potential damages of five billion dollars resulting from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. J. P. Morgan was reluctant to turn down Exxon, which was an old client, but the deal would tie up a lot of reserve cash to provide for the risk of the loans going bad. The so-called Basel rules, named for the town in Switzerland where they were formulated, required that the banks hold eight per cent of their capital in reserve against the risk of outstanding loans. That limited the amount of lending bankers could do, the amount of risk they could take on, and therefore the amount of profit they could make. But, if the risk of the loans could be sold, it logically followed that the loans were now risk-free; and, if that were the case, what would have been the reserve cash could now be freely loaned out. No need to suck up useful capital.

In late 1994, Blythe Masters, a member of the J. P. Morgan swaps team, pitched the idea of selling the credit risk to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. So, if Exxon defaulted, the E.B.R.D. would be on the hook for it—and, in return for taking on the risk, would receive a fee from J. P. Morgan. Exxon would get its credit line, and J. P. Morgan would get to honor its client relationship but also to keep its credit lines intact for sexier activities. The deal was so new that it didn’t even have a name: eventually, the one settled on was “credit-default swap.”

The story doesn’t have a happy ending for the American economy, of course, but things turned out all right for ExxonMobil.

The oil giant appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and in 2008 the corporate-friendly justices slashed a lower court’s award of punitive damages down to half a billion dollars and ultimately “Exxon recovered a significant portion of clean-up and legal expenses through insurance claims.”

ExxonMobil made $295 billion in profits from 2001-09 and more than $6 billion in the first quarter of 2010.  Who ever said justice delayed is justice denied?

Related Post:

• BP had central role in the Exxon Valdez disaster
• BP and Goldman Sachs sued for oil fraud!

British energy giant BP attempt a method called ‘Top Kill’ to to try to plug spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It will overcome the pressure of oil flowing out of the well by pumping heavier drilling mud down into it.

“Later this morning I will review that with the team, and I will take a final decision as to whether or not we should proceed,” BP CEO Tony Hayward told the NBC “Today” show.

If the decides to proceed, the procedure is expected to happen on Wednesday, he said. BP engineers armed with 50,000 barrels of dense mud and a fleet of robotic submarines will do the ‘top kill’ to plug the gushing well a mile below the surface.

So far, the company’s effort to stop the massive oil spill crisis resulted to failures and delays. The government are already frustrated and the public are alarmed with the situation. Residents of the U.S. Gulf coast region are particularly concerned about the impact of spreading oil on wildlife and area shorelines.

BP is hoping that the ‘top kill’ plan would work though it would not be an easy process.

Related posts:

1. BP prepares operation “top kill” to stop leakage of oil in the Gulf of Mexico
2. Robots used to fight massive oil spill
3. Mexico Oil Spill : Lives and Money

Under increasing pressure to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the major British oil company BP, outlined their next steps to stop the oil spill with the operation named “top kill” which involves injecting heavy drilling fluids instead of mud and cement, in the well to stop the flow of oil and gas, and ultimately, seal the hole, BP said in a statement.

The company said in a statement that most of the equipment are in place and they are continuing preparations for the operation, which has never been done at these depths (1.6 km) and has a chance of success of about 70 percent. Will be injected 8,000 liters of slurry per minute in attempt to counteract the strength of oil and stop its flow.

If the operation “top kill” does not work, BP said it is considering placing another container dome on the flight, which could be installed after several days. Other options include lowering the level of a second valve to prevent explosions or placing a valve on the drain.

At least six million gallons of oil have been spilled into the Gulf of Mexico since the explosion and sinking of the rig Deepwater Horizon, in late April, according to an estimate of the Coast Guard and BP.

On Tuesday it was reported that President Barack Obama on Friday made a second visit to the affected area of the spill in the state of Louisiana to check on the ground of the discharges and the impact of BP’s efforts to contain it.

Obama faces a growing public unease about the management of the spill, some analysts warn that voters might punish the Democrats in November’s congressional elections.

Related posts:

1. BP tries to seal damaged oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico
2. Mexico Oil Spill : Lives and Money
3. BP Will Use ‘Top Kill’ Method To Stop Oil Spill

Content: DOOM II
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Germany, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Singapore & Taiwan
Dash Text: (ONLINE INTERACTIONS NOT RATED BY THE ESRB) To save Earth, you must descend into the stygian depths of hell. Battle nastier, deadlier demons and monsters with your trusty Super Shotgun. Survive more mind-blowing explosions and take part in the bloodiest, fiercest, most awesome blastfest ever. Recruit your friends and plow through 9 all-new levels in the new episode, No Rest for the Living! Play solo or multiplayer over Xbox LIVE with up to 4 players. DOOM II for XBLA includes split screen co-op over Xbox LIVE, Game clips, 5.1 Surround Sound, enhanced graphics, and HD display support. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

 

Add the free DOOM II demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

Content: Voodoo Dice
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Japan
Dash Text: Mixing action based and puzzle mechanics in a 3D world, Voodoo Dice is an innovative, challenging puzzler that plays with your mind to lead you to solve puzzles in unique and interesting ways. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Add the free Voodoo Dice demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

Content: Ben 10 The Rise of Hex
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except those in Asia
Dash Text: Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex follows Ben Tennyson as he finds himself in the middle of Hex’s villainous plan to control the Earth. Utilizing the powers of the Omnitrix, players can transform Ben into ten different alien forms including, Big Chill, Spider Monkey, and for the first time ever, Lodestar, as he battles Hex and his minions. Choose from 10 different aliens to platform your way through 15 levels completing puzzle challenges along the way. Fight through menacing villains and bosses in Ben’s newest adventure. Experience the world of Ben 10 Alien Force with 3D characters set in a vibrant, 2D-styled environment. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

 

Add the free Ben 10 The Rise of Hex demo to your Xbox 360 download queue