Ladywriter

naturally. Tony gets his life back complete with golden parachute

Gulf oil slick appears to vanish quickly

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20 oil rig explosion are largely gone, though there continue to be sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil here and there.

Reporters flying over the area Sunday spotted only a few patches of sheen and an occasional streak of thicker oil, and radar images taken since then suggest that these few remaining patches are quickly breaking down in the warm surface waters of the gulf.

John Amos, president of SkyTruth, an advocacy group that sharply criticized the early, low estimates of the size of the BP leak, noted that no oil had gushed from the well for nearly two weeks.

“Oil has a finite life span at the surface,” Mr. Amos said Tuesday, after examining fresh radar images of the slick. “At this point, that oil slick is really starting to dissipate pretty rapidly.”

cientists said the rapid dissipation of the surface oil was probably due to a combination of factors. The gulf has an immense natural capacity to break down oil, which leaks into it at a steady rate from thousands of natural seeps. Though none of the seeps is anywhere near the size of the Deepwater Horizon leak, they do mean that the gulf is swarming with bacteria that can eat oil. The winds from two storms that blew through the gulf in recent weeks, including a storm over the weekend that disintegrated before making landfall, also appear to have contributed to a rapid dispersion of the oil. Then there was the response mounted by BP and the government, the largest in history, involving more than 4,000 boats attacking the oil with skimming equipment, controlled surface burns and other tactics.

Some of the compounds in the oil evaporate, reducing their impact on the environment. Jeffrey W. Short, a former government scientist who studied oil spills and now works for the environmental advocacy group Oceana, said that as much as 40 percent of the oil in the gulf might have simply evaporated once it reached the surface.

An unknown percentage of the oil would have been eaten by bacteria, essentially rendering the compounds harmless and incorporating them into the food chain. But other components of the oil have most likely turned into floating tar balls that could continue to gum up beaches and marshes, and may represent a continuing threat to some sea life. A three-mile by four-mile band of tar balls was discovered off the Louisiana coast on Tuesday.

“Less oil on the surface does not mean that there isn’t oil beneath the surface, however, or that our beaches and marshes are not still at risk,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a briefing on Tuesday. “We are extremely concerned about the short-term and long-term impacts to the gulf ecosystem.”

pssst

The outrageous truth of CEO pay

A look at what CEOs make compared to you.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/38439269#38439269]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame]

BP CEO Tony Hawyard, who's quickly become the public face of the Gulf Oil spill, will be stepping down within days, according to reports in the British press.

The move is expected to come in anticipation of the company's announcement of its first-half results on Tuesday. BP will announce that it has made approximately $10 billion this year, even while contending with the largest oil spill in history, the U.K.'s Telegraph reports. Here's Telegraph

The chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, is finalising the details of his imminent exit from BP this weekend as the oil giant prepares to make an announcement on the chief executive's future possibly within the next 48 hours.

After a weekend of detailed negotiations over Mr Hayward's severance package, it now appears almost certain that he will announce his departure ahead of BP's half year results on Tuesday.

Bp Ceo Tony Hayward Resign

BP Tries To Block Release Of Oil Spill Research ..

Deepwater Horizon Alarm System Was Partly Disabled Prior To Explosion, Technician Tells Congress

Technician Mike Williams told the panel that the alarm system was turned on to monitor for fire, explosive gas and toxic gas but that its sound and light alarms had been disabled.

nice

yeah its about right there hon

I want ppl to realize what we already HAVE every day and use it

fuck the money and its scuzzy back trail of excess

fuck the pigs they're for eating. I know lotsa ppl that like bacon

give us our renewable endless clean local energy NOW beeeeeeeeeeeeitch

~sorry beers~

Who?

Why?

What would you do?

I would like to be Revi to hang out on a boat all day then catch a buzz in the evening and then go shoot assholes....

~come on, I can't be a human rights champion everyfuckinday~

Gutts big ass sword meet Sarah Palin and Dick Cheeny.....

Lina Inverse; food! and Dragon Slave all over the place

Skip the pilot all together and I'll be Wing Zero Custom and change the world. Can you say crater? I knew ya could

w00t w00t! Happy birthday!!!!!!!!

have some cutenesssssssss

AelmBI0sJ3A

re methane

nearly a decade ago when I started studying the ice methane came into that research, at first in the form of methane hydrates ~earth turds~ and then the gas itself. Methane is captured in the oceans and in the perma frost. Both mediums have been violated by human activity and warming climate. It will not get better only worse as temperatures rise.

By now I think we all know its a far more powerful greenhouse gas that will accelerate the rise of global temperature faster then co2 alone can do. This disaster has also swung attention to the dead zones underwater, places where there is not enough oxygen in the water to support marine life. We've all seen the images of sharks rushing the coast; yeah well they were doing that to get someplace they could fucking breath. How massive these new dead zones are and how long it will take them to recover is still unknown and yeah thats a fuckin problem for all the peeps that support themselves and their families harvesting the bounty of the sea. Far more jobs have been lost because of the spill then would be lost with a permanent ban on all offshore drilling. Put the roughnecks to work building hydro and wind turbines instead of tearing up the oceans.

There were already dead zones in the gulf primarily caused by pesticide and other chemical run off seeping into the Mississippi River and making its way out to sea. The methane that escaped from the busted well will compound the problem, expand and create new dead zones.

We will not see the major die offs and fish kills that happen out in the open water. Its a huge area to survey and BP/coast guard have more or less told the press to back the fuck off and go take a good shit for themselves. I'm sure in the months years and decades to come scientists will descend on the gulf in droves. The way it stands now we'll all have to shove a thumb up our ass and wait for their findings to appear in their peer review journals. They're just establishing base lines now....

This is no surface spill like Valdez or broken pipe leaking crude or refined oil. This was an underwater volcano of toxic diarrhea and gas that erupted for 3 months. BP made the shit worse spraying toxic disputants all up into the mess in a PR attempt to keep the crud from rising to the surface en mass and looking as bad as it is.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, no seafood on the grocery list here. A tuna fish sandwich isn't worth the wholesale rape of the already struggling ocean. If for some bizarre reason I need to eat fish I'll go pull one out of clean Skaneateles Lake.

I will not buy produce grown in the gulf and surrounding states. I do not trust the rain/groundwater to be free of contamination. I'll get what I can local as always and in winter I'll buy produce I can't get from greenhouses here from California.

o.0

all because somebody posted some BL stuff on fb and I just had to look....

sigh

EOJBeBv3-jo

go 4 it yo

Relief tunnel to reach Gulf well by weekend

Oil gusher could be plugged for good within two weeks

NEW ORLEANS — Three months into the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. government's spill chief says a relief tunnel should finally reach BP's broken well by the weekend, meaning the gusher could be snuffed for good within two weeks.

After several days of concern about the well's stability and the leaky cap keeping the oil mostly bottled up, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Tuesday that engineers concluded the risk of a bigger blowout was minimal and were getting closer to pumping mud into the column to permanently seal it.

"We continue to be pleased with the progress," Allen said in Washington, giving the go-ahead to keep the well cap shut for at least 24 more hours and possibly longer.

BP vice president Kent Wells said crews hope to drill sideways into the blown-out well and intercept it at the end of July. The relief well is necessary to plug the well permanently.

After it's done, crews will begin the kill procedure, pumping mud and cement into the hole a mile underwater to seal it, which BP said could take anywhere from five days to a couple of weeks.

Seepage detected from the seafloor briefly raised fears that the well was in danger, but Allen said that another well is to blame .

The seepage is closer to the older well than to the one that blew out, Allen said.

There are two wells within two miles of BP's blowout, one that has been abandoned and another that is not in production. Around 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf aren't checked for leaks, an Associated Press investigation showed this month.

Black employee who was forced to resign for purported racial bias: 'No one would listen

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is reconsidering the resignation of USDA official Shirley Sherrod following uproar over remarks made at an NAACP dinner, which were edited and taken out of context. NBCs Savannah Guthrie reports.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38340217#38340217]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

Shirley Sherrod, the USDA official at the center of a race controversy, says, If you looked at the entire tape, I don't see how you would come away thinking I was a racist?

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38340229#38340229]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

faux news strikes again

so sick of these frightened old rich white bastards making shit in their pants and freaking people out

link

OAKLAND, California — The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for "industrial" cultivation starting next year.

The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.

The resolution passed the city council easily after a nearly four-hour debate that pitted small-scale "garden" growers against advocates of a bigger, industrial system that would become a "Silicon Valley" of pot.

"This is going to grow as an industry. And someone is going to have a high-tech producer," Council Member Jean Quan said during the debate.

Oakland already taxes sales of medical marijuana, but cultivation has existed in a legal gray area. Council members plan later action to levy new taxes on growers.

The city's decision is separate from a statewide ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use which Californians will vote on in November.

Polls put support for the November state legalization measure at about 50 percent of voters, and if it passed, the state would be the first to broadly legalize its use. Many jurisdictions tolerate some personal use and small sales, but none allow major-scale growing, sales and recreational use.

U.S. Federal law bans marijuana use of any sort but law enforcement authorities have turned a virtual blind eye to medical marijuana.

Large-scale cultivation in California so far has been dominated by criminals who grow marijuana in national forests or complexes of grow houses, law enforcement officers say.

The toughest opposition at the Tuesday city council meeting in Oakland came from the small-scale marijuana growers who feel they will be squeezed out of the market by the new 'agribusiness'. Outright opponents to marijuana use were silent.

yes we cannibus

Crude pours out after pipeline blast; at least 1 firefighter dead

BEIJING — China's largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 square miles by Wednesday, forcing nearby beaches to close and prompting one official to warn of a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality.

The oil slick started spreading five days ago when a pipeline at a busy northeastern port exploded, sparking a massive fire that took more than 15 hours to contain. Hundreds of boats have been deployed to help with the cleanup.

At least one person has been killed in those efforts, a 25-year-old firefighter, Zhang Liang, who drowned Tuesday after a wave threw him from a vessel and pushed him out to sea, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Another man who also fell in was rescued.

Beaches near Dalian, once named China's most livable city, were closing as oil started reaching their shores, Xinhua reported.

"The oil spill will pose a severe threat to marine animals, and water quality, and the sea birds," Huang Yong, deputy bureau chief for Dalian, China Maritime Safety Administration, told Dragon TV.

Crude oil started pouring into the Yellow Sea off a busy northeastern port after a pipeline exploded late last week, sparking a massive 15-hour fire.

The cause of the blast was still not clear Wednesday. The pipeline is owned by China National Petroleum Corp., Asia's biggest oil and gas producer by volume.

can we all get off oil now?

*facepalm* jeez guys

Judge refuses to withdraw from drilling ban case

Updated 14 hours, 6 minutes ago

A federal judge who overturned the Obama administration's initial six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling has refused to disqualify himself from the case. Full story

Obama spill chief says cap on ruptured BP oil well leaking, but not yet a major concern

Updated 17 hours, 42 minutes ago

Obama spill chief says cap on ruptured BP oil well leaking, but not yet a major concern. Full story

BP shares drop as oil spill costs rise

BP's troubles are threatening to cast a shadow over David Cameron's upcoming visit to Washington as fears of a new leak in the BP oil well surfaced late Monday and anger continued to grow over claims that BP pushed for the release of the Lockerbie bomber to help it win oil contracts in Libya. ITN's John Irvine reports.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38312976#38312976]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

Just days after BP managed to successfully cap the deepwater oil well that's been gushing freely into the Gulf of Mexico for almost 3 months, officials are reporting that mysterious seepage is coming up from the seabed a small distance from the busted oil well.

Although Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen made no comment about what the seep may be, it's feared that there is a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix (Associated Press).

BP tested pressure in the well as soon as the current capping mechanism was installed, but levels were strangely lower than expected, leading many to fear that additional leaks were allowing the oil to escape.

Some fear that the seepage may be methane escaping through cracks in the seafloor, and despite a strongly worded letter from Adm. Thad Allen, BP is currently ignorning government requests to increasing monitoring in the area.

"When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours. I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen said in a letter to BP Managing Director Bob Dudley.

Reopening the recently placed capping mechanism to release pressure will allow oil to flow freely into the already decimated coastal waters for at least three more days.

Once again, disagreements between BP and the government have many in the Gulf (and around the nation) wondering who's really in charge.

SIGN THE PETITIONS!

• Hold Oil Companies Accountable for their Spills
  
• Stop Another Disaster: Shut Down BP Atlantis
  

dMsdON76Z_Y

looks like the band is gettin back 2gether yo

my hair does the ginny curl and will frizz out if I give it the chance

2 to 3 times a week I use Back to Basic salon quality shampoo/conditioner. (My sis got me hooked on it) Its more expensive then reg shampoo but you use a whole lot less. A small amount of the shampoo lathers like ya wouldn't believe. It doesn't have the same chem in mass produced cheap shampoo that damage hair and follicle.

In between if I gotta wash grass dirt weeds dinner smell outta my hair I use Garnier Fructis Fortifying Shampoo Sleek & Shine for a quick wash.It does leave it feeling uber conditioned, not greasy but slick.

If I'm washing out hair color out I go with a cheap shampoo, herbal essence vo5, suave to further strip my hair but then I hit it w the good conditioner.

I use dove 2 in 1 when I give pwee pwee a bath, takes care of the poop foot I've used the White Rain stuff to get stains outta clothes. wet hair breaks easier so try this out: brush yer hair out b4 ya go shower and wash it. After shower wrap in the towel turban style to let it take sommore water out. Brush it first then comb it (I do it so its flatter, gotta pull the stupid curl out). If I comb it straight and let it dry like that it will stay pretty flat and smooth. To make my hair legitimately flat I have to get a wrap or iron the shit.

For ponytails and fun buns use scrunchies & ties that have no metal part cuz they'll grab break and cut yer hair. Twist it and stick it with a clip to keep it back is also minimal damage

I'm tuff on my hair esp the ends. the longer it gets the more the ends get rubbed between my back and the chair fraying them out. I bend over to weed and they're in the dirt, I get down to clean and they're on the floor table whatever. I do the librarian bun when I gotta clean the bathroom I'm willing to bet it I had a dime for every time I singed bangs lighting up I could pay off the car I dun have bangs rite now but I need to put some there.

Servant was Rice's best work imo. Lestat and Queen were also good but Servant is stand alone goodness.

It is just superstar fantastic. It and The Wastelands (DT book3) are my fav King

I read about this. Military something blah blah blah

link

Here’s the full Mark Williams post, followed by a screenshot (just in case he thinks better of it tonight and decides to erase it. … not that that’s likely…) with emphases added:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly.

Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds!

Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.”

What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds.

That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous!

How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house.

Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

puketastic

we was singin I'm on a boat the other day lol

today its....

tvS0Yk1KQkQ

in case ya wanted some kind of order to the chaos....

The Path of the Beam

Stephen King reads for Tower Junkies in order w notes when needed

Gulf Oil Spill Stopped: BP Says Oil Leak Is HALTED (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

NEW ORLEANS - BP finally choked off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday -- 85 days and up to 184 million gallons after the crisis unfolded -- then began a tense 48 hours of watching to see whether the capped-off well would hold or blow a new leak.

To the relief of millions of people along the Gulf Coast, the big, billowing brown cloud of crude at the bottom of the sea disappeared from the underwater video feed for the first time since the disaster began in April, as BP closed the last of three openings in the 75-ton cap lowered onto the well earlier this week.

But the company stopped far short of declaring victory over the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and one of the nation's worst environmental disasters, a catastrophe that has killed wildlife and threatened the livelihoods of fishermen, restaurateurs, and oil industry workers from Texas to Florida.

Now begins a waiting period during which engineers will monitor pressure gauges and watch for signs of leaks elsewhere in the well. The biggest risk: Pressure from the oil gushing out of the ground could fracture the well and make the leak even worse.

I got my fingers crossed this will work....

Such zero confidence in BP I'm not getting my hopes up