Feathers, a scantily-clad dance troupe, and a giant bird cage….we’re not sure what to make of Miley Cyrus’ first live television performance of “Can’t Be Tamed” on DWTS Tuesday night.
In other Dancing news, Cincinnati Bengals star Chad Ochocinco took his final on the program last night, narrowly missing next week’ coveted finals — which will feature Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, Olympian Evan Lysacek, and ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in a final tango for the Golden Disco Ball trophy.
Campus members who cross the street at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Adelbert Road on a regular basis are used to seeing a familiar face. Whether it’s raining, snowing or a bright sunny day, Patrol Officer Mark Chavis helps students, faculty, staff and visitors safely maneuver this highly trafficked intersection.
Chavis, who has been with Case Western Reserve since 2002, was already well known among members of the campus community due to his friendly chatter and T3 Motion scooter. Now he has even more “fans” thanks to a Facebook page dedicated in his honor.
The page, created toward the end of spring semester, currently has more than 1,000 fans.
“I was tongue tied. It was a feeling of joy,” Chavis said was his reaction when he learned someone had created the page. “A lot of people go to work every day and never get told that they’re doing a good job. Students acknowledge what I do. It means a lot coming from the younger generation.”
Meghan Gois, a first-year student, created the Facebook fan page. She met Chavis during a campus tour. “We asked for directions, and he talked to my parents and me about the importance of visiting the school,” Gois recalled. She never forgot the patrol officer who offered her friendly advice.
While on Facebook, Gois searched for university fan pages. She typed potential options into the search engine. When she saw that there wasn’t one for Chavis she created the “Mark the Crossing Guard” page.
“It was spur of the moment. He’s an absolutely great guy and he deserves the attention,” Gois said.
Chavis said he always tries to give “150 percent” as a member of the university’s police department. “I’m everyone’s personal police officer.”
I am an awesome driver. The dent in my front bumper? Some jerk hit me in a parking lot and didn’t leave a note. The speeding 
ticket? You try being on a highway when "Groove is in the Heart" by Deee-Lite comes on the radio and see if you don’t end up going a bit faster than you expected. The gash down my passenger side door? That concrete beam in the parking garage came out of nowhere!
Okay, so I have my hands full behind the wheel without factoring in an additional distractions. When I was learning to drive, I wasn’t allowed to have the radio on, and I didn’t even own a cell phone until four years later.
Now, it’s a whole new ballgame. Drivers are more distracted than ever- even sending text messages while navigating the road.
Such a bad idea. The number of accidents and even deaths caused by distracted driving is on the rise. The government is starting to take action on this- even making it against the law to text while operating a government vehicle. Do you know what your state’s laws are regarding using your cell phone while driving?
This will make some of my co-workers gag, but let it be said that I bow at the feet of Ms. Winfrey. Oprah has started the "No Phone Zone" pledge, asking drivers to commit to not using their phone while behind the wheel.
Are you guilty of texting while driving? Will you pledge to stop?
Content: METAL SLUG XX
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: (ONLINE INTERACTIONS NOT RATED BY THE ESRB) Breaking onto the scene, it’s the first code name title since “Metal Slug X”! Joining the fight are the familiar four warriors Marco, Tarma, Eri and Fio, backed by two allies from "The King of Fighters": Ralf and Clark. In addition to including a total of 7 multi-path stages, this ultimate 2D action shooting masterpiece includes elements like “Combat School” loaded with more than 70 missions. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Add METAL SLUG XX to your Xbox 360 download queue
Content: AQUA
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: Get the full game now and try your guns in the epic campaign of explosive steampunk naval warfare! Follow the story of captain Benjamin Grey and his trusted fellow engineer Polly Edison in their struggle to save the Aqua world from a treacherous conspiracy, pulling the strings behind a massive conflict of two rivaling naval empires… Try out new ship types, weapons and upgrades and perfect your tactical skills with four different squad types. The full game also contains single-console multiplayer cooperative and competitive modes on six different maps. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Add Aqua to your Xbox 360 download queue
From KEYE-Austin
Castlen Kennedy will travel 2,300 miles from Austin to Boston in a vehicle that only uses natural gas. (Photo: KEYE)
A University of Texas grad student is hitting the road Wednesday to show how we can go green with natural gas vehicles.
Castlen Kennedy is embarking on a 10 day journey traveling 2,300 miles from Austin to Boston, Mass. in a vehicle that only uses natural gas.
On the trip, Kennedy will provide a real-life look at the benefits and challenges of using the alternative fuel for her graduate thesis.
Castlen says that natural gas is actually a domestic resource that we have a lot of here in the United States. It burns a lot cleaner than diesel or traditional gasoline. It typically costs about 30 percent cheaper than gasoline, so the fact that it’s domestic, cleaner and cheaper makes it an attractive alternative fuel option.
You can follow Kennedy on her trip on her website greenamericanroadtrip.com.
Robert Pattinson — as famous for his luxurious locks as he is for his eye-popping pecs — drops by Wednesday’s edition The Ellen DeGeneres Show sporting a noticeably shorter mane of hair!
“It’s three days old. I got a terrible infestation of nits and I had to shave it all off,” Rob explained.
“No you did not! Don’t start that rumor,” Ellen scoffed.
“No, I’m doing a film,” the 24-year-old confessed.
Pattinson starts shooting Water for Elephants this Thursday. In the flim, Pattinson will play a circus worker who falls in love with an older married woman, played by Reese Witherspoon.
What do you think of Pattz’s new buzz cut?
It’s really the last sentence of the two-paragraph joint statement emerging from national security adviser Jim Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta’s visit to Pakistan that’s important. “President Zardari noted that Pakistan desires a long-term, multifaceted, and durable relationship with the United States which no incident should be able to adversely impact,” the statement reads. That’s a response to a still-reverberating comment from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said soon after the failed Times Square car bomb attempt that there would be “severe consequences” should a successful attack ever be traced back to Pakistan. (Her spokesman, P.J. Crowley, has tried to walk the comments back, saying, “I think she was responding to a hypothetical question.”)
But what did the Panetta-Jones trip reap from the Pakistanis? “Both parties acknowledged the extreme challenge of thwarting each and every plot and terrorist action, both sides pledged to intensify efforts, increase cooperation, and do everything possible to protect our citizens,” the statement reads. Here it is in full:
The productive discussions covered U.S.-Pakistan relations, the security situation in the region, the shared terrorist threat and fight against extremists, and the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue. General Jones reiterated the United States’ long-term commitment to the strategic partnership with Pakistan, including support for creating economic opportunity for the Pakistani people. The talks provided an opportunity to review progress on the many areas addressed in the recent strategic dialogue held in Washington. Both sides expressed their commitment to strengthening ties across the broad spectrum of issues between our countries, including trade, economic growth, and development. The parties agreed to continue frequent government-to-government contacts and further senior-level engagement in order to advance our common interests and provide a better, more secure future for our people.
President Asif Ali Zardari said that militancy and terrorism was the common enemy and that the existing robust cooperation between the two countries must continue to fight the menace. General Jones and Director Panetta provided an update on the ongoing investigation into the Times Square terrorist incident. General Jones expressed appreciation for the excellent cooperation the United States is receiving from Pakistan as well as the tremendous sacrifice of the Pakistani military, law enforcement and people in their efforts to combat extremists. The talks covered measures that both countries are, and will be, taking to confront the common threat we face from extremists and prevent such potential attacks from occurring again and both parties acknowledged the extreme challenge of thwarting each and every plot and terrorist action, both sides pledged to intensify efforts, increase cooperation, and do everything possible to protect our citizens. President Zardari noted that Pakistan desires a long-term, multifaceted, and durable relationship with the United States which no incident should be able to adversely impact.
Watch if U.S. intelligence officials still tell reporters that Pakistan is withholding crucial terrorism intelligence after Jones and Panetta fly home.
With the new coalition government taking over in the UK, some had wondered if the Digital Economy Act might be up for repeal. The Liberal Democrats, who had at one time supported the DEA, but then, after public pressure, switched their position, now have a chance to act. Apparently, over the weekend, they’ve decided to include some of the worst aspects of the DEA to include in the list of laws to repeal. I’m not familiar enough with UK political process to understand how this works with the new government. The previous party in power, Labour, were the major backers of the Digital Economy Bill, but they got the Conservatives to vote for it as well. It’s those Conservatives who won the most seats in the recent election, and then formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Could someone in the UK fill us in on the process for repealing legislation, especially if your party is only part of the government because you were dragged along by another party?
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The Green Left Weekly has an article looking skeptically at the gas industry’s claims it is a transitional fuel towards a low carbon future – Natural gas: transition fuel or greenhouse menace?
Say what you will about coal, but at least it stays where it’s put. On its way to the user, coal doesn’t gush from the rail trucks, spreading itself through the atmosphere and warming it at about 70 times the rate of carbon dioxide.
Natural gas is different. A new draft study provides evidence that, in the US, enough natural gas leaks into the air to give gas-fired electricity, megawatt-hour for megawatt-hour, a bigger greenhouse impact than electricity from good-quality steaming coal.
This news will be unnerving for the many people who point to natural gas as a relatively clean alternative to other fossil fuels. Conventional wisdom has been that a state-of-the-art natural gas power plant can produce electricity with barely 30% of the carbon dioxide emissions of a typical brown coal plant, and less than half of those for black coal.
The modest climate impact of natural gas, however, applies only from the point where the gas is burnt. In the study mentioned above, Professor Robert Howarth of Cornell University in the US examines the fuel’s broader effects. “The most recent data I could find for the US (from 2006)”, Howarth reports, “suggest a leakage rate from the oil and gas industry of an amount of methane equal to 1.5% of the natural gas consumed.”
Methane, with the chemical formula CH4, makes up about 87% of natural gas after various contaminants have been removed.
Howarth’s figure of 1.5% is consistent with data from various sources including the US Environmental Protection Agency. He acknowledges that his estimate has a large margin for error, since leaks in the gas industry are not well monitored. But 1.5%, he contends, is a conservative figure, and US government scientists and gas industry officials quoted in the New York Times on October 14 last year agree that the real amount is almost certainly higher.
If Howarth is anywhere near correct, suggestions by some environmentalists that natural gas can act as a “bridge” for a low-carbon transition from coal-fired power to renewable power fall by the wayside.
Howarth’s premises are not uncontroversial. To calculate the warming impact of methane, he uses the figure of 72 times the global warming potential, per volume, of carbon dioxide. This is the impact over the first 20 years after the methane reaches the atmosphere. The figure usually cited for the warming potential of methane is 25 times that of carbon dioxide, measured over 100 years.
Howarth’s choice here is the correct one. The figure of 72 times is appropriate to the key danger which natural gas leaks pose to the environment: their ability, due to their short-term greenhouse potency, to help trigger quick-acting “positive climate feedbacks”.
In the atmosphere, methane reacts with oxygen to form water and carbon dioxide. After seven years, half of the methane is gone, and after 20 years little remains. But a big pulse of the gas, its effects amplified by quick-acting feedbacks, could within a few years raise temperatures to the point where they exceeded natural “tipping points”. The climate would then “flip” to a new, hotter state.
One such positive feedback is seen in the impact of greenhouse gases on Arctic permafrost. Warming in the Arctic causes permafrost to melt, and in the oxygen-poor conditions of the resulting swamps, bacteria turn organic matter into methane — which warms the environment still further.
Methane in the atmosphere is now at about two-and-a-half times the level in 1750. It now accounts for about 20% of the warming effect of all long-lived greenhouse gases. From 1998, concentrations of methane stopped rising for a period, perhaps due to the drying of tropical wetlands.
The last two years, however, have seen levels trend upward once again. As well as reflecting the amounts of methane now bubbling from Arctic swamps, this renewed rise may stem from a boom in the extraction — and leaking — of natural gas.
Over the next 20 years, a big expansion of natural gas production could help bring about the methane pulse that humanity should be dreading.
One of the best parts of having an Android phone is I’M POSTING THIS FROM A TRAIN! The train is not WiFi. I’m using EasyTether and it’s working beautifully! I have the GPS going on my phone so I can see right where we are and I’m answering questions from all of you to make the time fly!
I have got the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and when I receive a text message there is no option to forward it on. So what I’d like to know is where can I download an app where I can forward a text on to a group of contacts? Please help as this is driving me mad that a new phone cannot do a simple task.
I used to work for Sony. I was so excited to hear they had an Android phone coming out and happy people are buying it! Now, to hear it can’t forward text messages confuses me. Android has this as an option. When you have a text message you want to forward, hold your finger on that message until a menu appears. In that menu is the option to forward. When you click on it, it looks just like a normal text message where you can enter as many contacts as you would like.
If for some reason that doesn’t work, download an app like Text Easy. It’s a free app that should allow you to mass text people. If this still doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll look into it some more.
Hi,
I got very curious when reading your information about rooting; however I am very interested to find out more about the next steps in conceptual terms. I do not need a step-by-step tutorial since it is not possible for you to give but more what it means to root?
Best regards,
PichdudeFromSweden
I’ll go through some basic steps for rooting which really aren’t dependant on which phone you have.
First, you need to replace the recovery image on your phone. This will give you the ability to recover your phone in the future in case you were to get it to a point where it wasn’t booting correctly. There are two ways to do it. The first way is the more simple way and involves just running a program to backup and install a new recovery image. The second way is more difficult and time consuming, but will probably be better in the long run. It’s designed to keep future updates from pushing through from your provider to block rooting.
After you’ve replace the recovery image you are ready to put the custom Android build on your phone. You would need to download the ROM you want to use and put it on your SD card. Then, you would boot your phone into the new recovery menu you made in the previous step. Wipe the original Android. Install your new Android. You’re done!
As I’ve said, rooting is not difficult, but you do run into the chance of making your phone into a brick and voiding your warranty. I personally have not rooted my phone because as of right now, I feel that my phone does everything I want it to. Maybe if I had a more powerful phone I would feel more of a need to root, but with the Eris, I’m okay as is.
First of all, I love your blog. Good stuff.
I have a Motorola Droid from Verizon and I have questions I need desperate help with.
I need help with email. It was recommended to me to use K9 mail. I was told it was much better than the stock email. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have improved. I operate a small web design company so as you can imagine, it’s important I receive my emails immediately. I need something that updates well and has a nice clean look. Any ideas?
Personally, I don’t mind the default email. But that’s the great thing about Android. You don’t have to use default anything! Both K-9 and the default in my experience update at whatever frequency I set it to. Mine is every minute, which is also the lowest you can go with Outlook so that’s what I’m used to and is more than adequate for me. Make sure that your settings are correct for email sync before you change apps. I bet that’s part of the problem.
The Chief Editor’s 2-cents: I personally like K-9 Mail over the default as it offers more options, organization with color-coding, plus “Push-like” email notification with IMAP settings. I would recommend your email protocol for your design firm use IMAP over POP3. We are actually writing a complete ”unofficial” guide with videos on how to setup and use K-9 Mail thoroughly as it actually is our most discussed review. Stay tuned for that!
This is like a quick tip and an application post rolled into one. It’s an application called QuickPull, and it helps you free up BlackBerry memory by simulating a BlackBerry battery pull. I’ve seen other applications that do this, but none that have the features of this one. It’s basically a hassle-free way to make sure that your device is running at peak capacity at the times you need it most. It’s during the times that you don’t need it that QuickPull works its magic.
Since retiring from Congress, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has devoted much of his time leading a pro-drilling front group with “resources” from the oil industry (see “Gingrich’s ‘drill here, drill now’ campaign continues as BP oil disaster grows“).
Now, he is promoting his new anti-regulation, pro-drilling book, To Save America, which argues repeatedly that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are a “secular-socialist machine” that “represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.” TP has the story of Gingrich’s defense of that hate speech — and how even people in his own party are attacking his extremist views.
Gingrich has repeatedly defended this claim, telling both NBC’s Meredith Vieira and Fox News’ Chris Wallace that he truly believes that the Obama administration is an equivalent “threat” to America as brutal dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin:
VIEIRA: Can you honestly compare what’s going on with the Democrats with Nazi Germany?
GINGRICH: No it’s not a question of how evil they were. Nazi Germany was terrible, Stalin’s Russia was terrible, Mao’s China was terrible. It’s a question of finality. Had we lost either of those contests, we would have become a radically different country.
* * * *WALLACE: So — but you compare that to the Nazis and the Communists?
GINGRICH: I compare that as a threat.
Watch it:
In reaching to make his case, Gingrich repeatedly tries desperately to connect the Obama administration with Nazi Germany. The index of Gingrich’s book cites Nazi references eight times, many of which are attempts to compare Obama and progressivism to totalitarianism (view a screen shot of the index below):
– pp. 48-49 Gingrich quotes David Horowitz arguing that the great atrocities of the modern era, whether from Nazis or Communists, were committed by people who believe in a “future that would save mankind.” Gingrich uses Horowitz’s quote to draw a comparison to “the current leaders of the Democratic Party.”
– pp. 295-296 argues that “the Left” is pursuing an “international strategy to take away” Second Amendment rights to own firearms. Gingrich writes that if Hitler had not disarmed “Jews and other anti-Nazi groups,” then the “Holocaust would have been virtually impossible to implement.”
– pp. 268-269 says that “Marxism, Nazism, and Fascism” each “required the use of a powerful, centralized state authority” where “those who resisted were eliminated,” “religion was enemy number one,” and “religious texts” were replaced with “nationalist propaganda in schools.” Gingrich then writes that “there are many parallels between the anti-religious governments of the twentieth century and the anti-religious elite of the United States in the twenty-first.”
While Gingrich’s book is laced with these Nazi comparisons, he also rehashes other absurdities, like a defense of Palin’s “death panel” charge and an argument that there are actually too many regulations on offshore oil exploration. Gingrich — who has repeatedly backed establishment Republican candidates like Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Dede Scozzafava over tea party challengers — seems to be trying to establish his credibility within the fringe base of the conservative movement by touting Nazi comparisons popularized by Glenn Beck and other hate radio personalities.
While Gingrich hopes that social and religious conservatives will forget that he left his dying wife to be with another woman, it is unlikely that Gingrich will be able to deceive tea parties with his Beck-like Nazi rhetoric.
This repost is by Lee Fang at Think Progress. What follows is an excerpt from another TP pieces.
On Fox News Sunday this past weekend, host Chris Wallace challenged Gingrich on that quote, asking if it was a “wildly over the top” comparison. Gingrich said it wasn’t:
WALLACE: You also write this, and let’s put it up on the screen. “The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.” Mr. Speaker, respectfully, isn’t that wildly over the top?
GINGRICH: No, not if by America you mean the historic contract we’ve had which says your rights come from your creator, they’re unalienable, you’re allowed to pursue happiness. I mean, just listen to President Obama’s language.
On her CNN Headline News show last night, Joy Behar asked former GOP congresswoman Susan Molinari — who served in Congress while Gingrich was speaker of the House — if Gingrich was “losing his marbles” by making such comparisons. Molinari replied that Gingrich’s comments were “outrageous” and “crazy”:
BEHAR: Susan, when Bush was called a Nazi, the right wing went berserk on him. And yet, Gingrich just throws the word around as if it’s nothing. What is up with him? What is he, losing his marbles?
MOLINARI: This has always been — let me distance myself from that remark first of all in all seriousness. To compare anything that is going on in this country to the atrocities of Nazi Germany in any way, shape or form is just crazy. And you know that Newt was so smart. He got the Republican majority back in a generation, contract with America. And then, you know, moved quickly into a government shutdown and complained about his seat on President Clinton’s plane.
This is Newt. He can be really smart sometimes and sometimes he can just say some absolutely outrageous things. I would be like to be in that corner of saying that is outrageous.
Watch it:
Later in the show, Molinari tried to change the subject, saying, “let’s just take Newt off the table because that’s just not even worth talking about.” “Let’s put him under the table,” replied Behar. “Right. Exactly. Thank you,” responded Molinari.
JR: The bottom line is that Gingrich’s extremist hate speech should take him out of the bounds of public and political discourse.
Related Post:
The NYT has an article on how water availability is becoming a constraining factor for the development of new power generation capacity (except for solar PV and wind power, which don’t require any) – Water Adds New Constraints to Power.
In the Mojave Desert, solar developers are scrambling to secure permits to build vast expanses of new generating capacity. But they are discovering that cost and carbon emissions are not the only limiting factors in new energy decisions in California. They are bumping up against water scarcity.
In the United States, thermoelectric power generation — mainly coal, nuclear and natural gas — accounted for 41 percent of U.S. freshwater withdrawals in 2005, U.S. Geological Society data show.
“Typically, project developers have wanted to use water for cooling because it’s more efficient and capital costs are less,” said Terry O’Brien, the California Energy Commission’s deputy director for power plant licensing. “That makes the project more economic.”
But there is a growing awareness in California and throughout the United States that the use of water for energy generation may be reaching its limits.
California has extensive experience with water shortages, resulting in its adoption of a policy, included in the energy commission’s 2003 Integrated Energy Policy Report, that discourages freshwater use for power plant cooling. The commission’s regularly updated reports provide current data and set the parameters for state energy and conservation policies.
“It’s just not possible anymore in California, and increasingly anywhere, to find unlimited water for the old water-intensive cooling systems,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, which researches water issues and advises on policy. “If you want to build a big central power plant, whether it’s oil, gas or nuclear, you can’t take the water for granted.”
In the past decade, water availability has increasingly had an effect on the reliability of power supplies in many countries, with droughts leading to temporary closings of nuclear plants in Australia, France, Germany, Romania and Spain. Similar shutdowns have been threatened in the United States.
For a thermoelectric plant, the cooling technology used is the biggest factor in its water needs.
Once-through cooling, an inexpensive, energy-efficient and therefore widely used process, sucks up huge quantities of river, lake, or sea water. A typical 500-megawatt power plant takes in almost 19 million gallons, or 72 million liters, an hour, according to a 2005 report from the U.S. Department of Energy.
After running through the plant, almost all of this is returned to the river, lake or ocean. The used water, however, may be polluted, and the heat that it has absorbed can be lethal to fish, while the intake can kill wildlife and microorganisms. Research of the environmental consequences has led to tighter regulations in recent years, making it nearly impossible to get permits for new plants using once-through cooling anywhere in the United States.
The California state water board, going further, adopted rules this month tightening environmental protection requirements for existing coastal once-through plants — a step toward phasing out the technology at 19 plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating whether to follow California’s lead.
As once-through cooling has fallen out of favor, wet cooling, which exploits the chilling effect of evaporation, has become more common. It uses only about 3 percent of the water needed for once-through cooling — but it loses 90 percent of that to vapor. Wet-cooling systems are more expensive to build than once-through and consume as much as 3 percent of the energy generated by the plant. But a point in their favor is that they can use non-freshwater sources, like wastewater or mine pools.
Recent government data show that 56 percent of U.S. thermoelectric generating capacity is now wet-cooled, against 43 percent using once-through systems.
A newer process, dry cooling, which uses fans to push waste heat into the atmosphere instead of into water, is still more expensive and less efficient. On hot days, as much as 15 percent of the energy generated by a plant may be expended on cooling, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a research body funded by the energy industry.
By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica
A whistleblower filed a lawsuit this week to force the federal government
to halt operations at another massive BP oil platform in the Gulf of
Mexico, alleging that BP never reviewed critical engineering designs for
the operation and is therefore risking another catastrophic accident
that could “dwarf” the company’s Deepwater Horizon spill.
The
allegations about BP’s Atlantis platform were first made last year, but
they were laid out in fresh detail in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District
Court in Houston against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the
Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for regulating
offshore drilling in the Gulf.
The whistleblower is Kenneth
Abbott, a former project control supervisor contracted by BP who also
gave an interview to “60
Minutes” on Sunday night. In a
conversation last week with ProPublica, Abbott alleged that BP failed to
review thousands of final design documents for systems and equipment on
the Atlantis platform — meaning BP management never confirmed the
systems were built as they were intended – and didn’t properly file the
documentation that functions as an instruction manual for rig workers to
shut down operations in the case of a blowout or other emergency.
Abbott
alleges that when he warned BP about the dangers presented by the
missing documentation the company ignored his concerns and instead
emphasized saving money.
“There were hundreds, if not thousands,
of drawings that hadn’t been approved and to send drawings (to the rig)
that hadn’t been approved could result in catastrophic operator errors,”
Abbott told ProPublica. “They turned their eye away from their
responsibility to make sure the overall design works. Instead they are
having bits and pieces fabricated and they are just hoping that these
contractors who make all these separate pieces can pull it together and
make it safe. The truth is these contractors see a piece of the puzzle;
they don’t see the whole thing.”
BP did not respond to a request
for comment from ProPublica, but has previously addressed Abbott’s
concerns in a January letter to congressional investigators stating that
the allegations are unfounded and that the Atlantis platform had final
documentation in place before it began operating.
According to an
e-mail sent to Abbott by BP’s ombudsman’s office, an independent group
employed by the company to address internal complaints, BP had not
complied with its own rules governing how and where the documentation
should be kept but had not necessarily violated any regulations for
drilling. The e-mail does not address the specifics raised in the
lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said
the agency would not comment on pending litigation.
Congress and
the Minerals and Management Service have been investigating Abbott’s
concerns since last year, when he and Food and Water Watch, an
environmental organization based in Washington, D.C., first filed the
complaints. But according to both Abbott and FWW, little has been done.
After the Deepwater Horizon Gulf spill underscored their concerns, they
decided to jointly file the lawsuit. Abbott was laid off shortly after
he raised the concerns to BP management.
According to the
lawsuit, by Nov. 28, 2008, when Abbott last had access to BP’s files,
only half of the 7,176 drawings detailing Atlantis’ sub-sea equipment
had been approved for design by an engineer and only 274 had been
approved “as built,” meaning they were checked and confirmed to meet
quality and design standards and the documentation made available to the
rig crew. Ninety percent of the design documents, the suit alleges, had
never been approved at all.
The Atlantis rig is even larger than
the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank in April. It began producing oil in
2007 and can produce 8.4 million gallons a day.
The components
include some of the critical infrastructure to protect against a spill.
According the suit, none of the sub-sea risers – the pipelines and hoses
that serve as a conduit for moving materials from the bottom of the
ocean to the facility — had been “issued for design.” The suit also
alleges that none of the wellhead documents were approved, and that none
of the documents for the manifolds that combine multiple pipeline flows
into a single line at the seafloor had been reviewed for final use.
Directions for how to use the piping and instrument systems that
help shut down operations in the event of an emergency, as well as the
computer software used to enact an emergency shutdown, had also not been
approved, the lawsuit says. According to the lawsuit, 14 percent those
documents had been approved for construction, and none received final
approval to ensure they were built and functioning properly.
“BP’s
worst-case scenario indicates that an oil spill from the BP Atlantis
Facility could be many times larger than the current oil spill from the
BP Deepwater Horizon,” the lawsuit states. “The catastrophic Horizon oil
spill would be a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the potential
size of a spill from the BP Atlantis facility.”
It is not clear
from the lawsuit or the limited statements made by BP or federal
regulators if BP has corrected the documentation problem since Abbott
was laid off.
Abbott told ProPublica he raised the documentation
issues repeatedly in e-mails and conversations with management, “saying
this was critical to operator safety and rig safety.”
“They just
ignored my requests for help,” he said. “There seemed to be a big
emphasis to push the contractors to get things done. And that was always
at the forefront of the operation.”
(Photo of the Atlantis rig from GVA’s website.)
by Kevin Jon Heller
I continue to believe that this is a terrible idea:
Spain’s top judicial panel had suspended Mr Garzon on Friday pending his trial on charges he exceeded his authority by ordering an investigation into mass killings by the forces of former dictator Francisco Franco.
The suspension from his functions as a judge was widely thought in Spain to be an obstacle to a transfer to a foreign court but the judicial panel approved Garzon’s request to spend seven months at The Hague court.
“Legal reasons could not be found to prevent the hiring of the judge as a consultant”, Gabriela Bravo, spokeswoman for the judicial panel told reporters.
If Julian and I agree about something, could we possibly be wrong?
Eco Factor: Sustainable chair uses recycled playing cards
What keeps people glued to the Las Vegas casinos will now hold you back. Well, I am talking about the playing cards that give some very interesting games of Black Jack and Poker. The cards that were discarded by the casinos became the source of inspiration for BRC Designs, who used a few of them to create something exquisite.
The judges determined the three top singers in the ninth season of American Idol 2010. Now you can find out who got kicked off “American Idol” on may 18 2010. In this results show, Michael Lynche left the competition (for the second time) as Crystal, Casey and Lee were placed as finalists. The program also presented Bon Jovi, Fantasia Barrino and Chris Daughtry.
There are only three left in the contest: 24 years old Crystal Bowersox, of Toledo, Ohio, the paint vendor Dewyze Lee 24, of Mount Prospect, Illinois, and the musician James Casey 27, of Fort Worth, Texas .
American Idol may 18 2010 results:
Related posts:
I have some good news, and a mea culpa of sorts.
First, the good stuff: the COMPETES act may go to the Floor of the House of Representatives for voting as early as today! This act will fund a lot of scientific innovation and education, and is sorely needed if we are to invest in our future as a country. I’m very happy this is happening — assuming it passes, which I think it will. The original act passed in 2007, and much of this new bill authorizes funding to be extended.
Now, regular readers may be wondering, “Wait! Didn’t you say this bill was dead?”
Yes, I did. You can read that earlier post to get the background, but basically this bill passed through committee, but at the last second a Representative from Texas, Ralph Hall, added some language to it using a parliamentary procedure called a Motion to Recommit. As I understood it at the time, this meant that Congressmen had two choices: overturn the Motion and let the bill be voted upon, or send the bill back to committee where it would almost certainly be tabled indefinitely, the usual outcome of such an event.
The problem was that overturning the Motion was a political landmine; the language Hall added punished people who were downloading porn on their government computers, saying that no money from the act could be used to pay those people’s salaries. So overturning the Motion meant Democrats would basically be handing the far-right media spin machine gasoline for the fire: they would claim the Democrats weren’t punishing the people looking at porn.
So they voted to send the bill back to committee. This is where I made my mistake: everything I had read said that this meant the bill would stagnate and die. However, this is incorrect: the bill can be reintroduced to the House Floor “under suspension”, which means as-is with the new language included (technically, this is because the Motion was submitted “with instructions”). This was not clear to me before — the rules can be quite Byzantine — and I readily admit that.
However — and this is a big however — it does NOT change the fact that Hall held this bill hostage by throwing in the non sequitur of the porn addendum. He wanted some changes made to it dealing with funding levels and for how long it would be funded. The committee has apparently acquiesced to this demand… but I’ll note that the shameful language about pornography is still in the bill!
It seems obvious that the Democrats on the committee had to back off on this, or else Hall or someone like him would use some other procedure to hamstring the bill again.
I know that a lot of riders are added to bills when they’re created. Usually, though, it’s done as a pet project that gets attached to some bill that everyone will vote yea on, thus getting that pet project approved. That stinks, in many cases, but at least the major bill gets passed. In this case, though, the language was added in an attempt to stop the bill. This may also be done on a regular basis in Congress, but I still say that it was done in an underhanded way, and done cynically to a bill that we desperately need if we are to compete in the global marketplace of science and technology.
Don’t ignore the manipulative actions of Representative Hall because of my error on the status of the bill. The bulk and the meat of what I wrote in that earlier post still stands.
But… I’ll take a deep breath. The good news to focus on is that the COMPETES reauthorization will get its day in court. I just hope that Democrats — and the American people — learn a lesson from this.
Thanks to Dan Vergano for tweeting about this. Image credit: kevindooley’s Flickr photostream, used under the Creative Commons license.
Hello!
I have a complete and total mish-mosh of dining and cooking tidbits. No organizing principle whatsoever.
First up — great news for east-side fans of fluffy frozen treats:
Suno Dessert Café will open a new location near Emory University, at the corner of N. Decatur Road and Clairmont Road, later this month. The Asian-style dessert features freshly shaved milky ice topped with fruit, powders, beans, syrups, condensed milk and various other options. Here is a strawberry/kiwi cup I ate last weekend at the Suno in Duluth.
Next — Ramen noodle restaurant offers rich broth option:
I have always liked the broth at Umaido in Suwanee just the way it is. But I do sometimes hear from ramenaniacs who find the tonkotsu pork bone broth not rich enough. They should go back and try the “rich” option, now available on all the soups. Here is my daughter’s rich tonkotsu ramen:
And here is the non-rich, extra-spicy ramen I ordered:
The restaurants offers spice levels of 1 to 3. This is 3. …
