Storm still fouling BP oil spill response in Gulf
HOUSTON: Rough seas and winds continue to disrupt spill responders” efforts to contain the oil gushing from BP PLC”s (BP, BP.LN) well in the Gulf of Mexico two days after Hurricane Alex made landfall hundreds of miles away from the spill site, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday.
More bad weather is expected to slow the work over the weekend, the Coast Guard said.
Alex, which ranked as a Category One, or the weakest possible hurricane, has delayed by about six days the hookup of a third oil containment vessel. If all goes well the Helix Producer, which is already at the well site, should be on line July 7 and should be able to produce about 20,0000 to 25,0000 barrels of oil a day, Retired Adm. Thad Allen, the federal response commander, said during a news conference.
The delay means that between 120,000 to 150,000 barrels of oil could go uncollected, Allen said. Alex hit northern Mexico about 100 miles south of Brownsville, Texas.
The foul weather is also the likely the cause of the reduction in the capacity of the containment ship, the Q4000, Allen said. The ship can normally flare off 10,000 barrels of oil a day but has been achieving about 25% less than its average rates during the storm.
BP and the government response team are working on plans to strengthen their collection system in order to make it more hurricane-ready, however, most of those plans have hinged on a storm arriving in the height of the Gulf Coast”s hurricane season, which normally falls between mid-August and mid-September. Alex”s early arrival and the threat of more storms to follow underscores the fragility of the operations.
On Thursday, BP recovered a total of 25,150 barrels of oil. About 16,915 of those barrels were collected by the Discoverer Enterprise, the main containment vessel. The Q4000 flared off about 8,235 barrels of oil.
About 57 million cubic feet of natural gas was flared as well. Government and independent scientists estimate that about 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day are flowing from the well. The gusher started in late April when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, killing 11 people.
The remnants of Alex also continue to halt near-shore skimming operations, Allen said.
Coast Guard Admiral Paul Zukunft in New Orleans said that the bad weather has prevented about 20,000 barrels of oil a day from either being skimmed or in situ burned for the last two days. Protective booming has also been dislodged.
prince of persia
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The Stars of the Prince of Persia film attended the world premiere in London on Sunday night. The film is based on the video game.
Set in Persia it centres around Prince Dastan played by Gyllenhaal who has to fight to clear his name and on his travels he meets a mysterious Alamut princess called Tamina played by Gemma Arterton.
Last night, I was one of the privileged members of the audience of a very special show. I call it a show as the new Westfield shopping centre in London played host to an extravaganza of multiple forms of talent. Not only were the cast of the new Disney Movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time there, 
they also had a parkour (free-running) team called 3Run who put on a spectacular show.Bear in mind that this was the first premire that was held at Westfield since Iron Man 2 was cancelled a couple of weeks ago due to the Ash Cloud.
he film may be been The Prince Of Persia, but it was the fairytale princess who stole the show.
Gemma Arterton’s nude coloured Valentino ballgown, embroidered with thousands of silver beads, dazzled the crowd.
Teamed with a severe side parting in her dark hair, and lashings of red lipstick, Gemma looked quite the Hollywood movie star.
cheyenne cinnamon
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge is newly animated television series which is created by Dave Willis who was also created Adult Swim staples Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies, go on air on Cartoon Network ’s late night programing block.
The voices features nerdcore rapper mc chris, Dana Snyder, Frannie Hood (Kristen Schaal’s alternate billing credit), and Neko Case.
Basic theme is , Cheyenne Cinnamon is a blond, bosomy pop star located outside Detroit who on air the power of appealing} look, positive attitude, dancing moves, and simply midriffs to solve people’s issues.
With complete essence} abuse problems and little respect for anything beyond her demands, Cinnamon is to a greater extent villain than heroine. She |being the extremes of {celebrity|fame} narcissism and abjection.
Cinnamon’s role is an anonymous teenage girl (played by Schaal, credited as Hood). She has been knocked up by her married softball coach and her negligent parents (voiced by Snyder and Rachel Dratch) wont help her.
A fan of Cinnamon’s, the girl is initially excited to have the pop star direction. But she finds that all Cinnamon onlly offer her is a series of sang platitudes and a lot of cocaine. Sooner the girl delivers the baby. Cinnamon inquires if she helped the girl while exposing naked in presence of a producer to create the song she sounds sexier.
She convince herself that she doesn’t require drugs to be a self-propelling} person.
Cinnamon and her lover are white and blond, though the teen’s has black roots and |seems} to be working class. Yet, some of the people on Cinnamon’s list are African American or known as black, which including back-up dancers, producer Big Chocolate Bunny (voiced by MF Doom), and security guard Gingerbread Bouncer (played by T-Pain).
The show, the full name of which is “Cheyenne Cinnamon And The Fantabulous Unicorn Of Sugar Town Candy Fudge” had to race against pretty strong contenders like “Yappy Broads,” which is actually a parody of the popular “View.” There were also “Southies” and the “Soul Quest Overdrive,” also an animated show, which lost out the position of airing their pilot episodes to “Cheyenne Cinnamon And The Fantabulous Unicorn Of Sugar Town Candy Fudge.”
The story of Cheyenne Cinnamon And The Fantabulous Unicorn Of Sugar Town Candy Fudge revolves around a pop princess, being hailed as a Strawberry Shortcake pop princess, who comes to a Detroit, leaving her town, a wonderland full of candy houses and all the pink paraphernalia. Although she is sketched rather on the lines of some of the real life controversial pop princesses, she manages to solve many issues that plague Detroit, like teen pregnancy.
See this videos..
steve nash eye
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The Evolution of Steve Nash’s Eye Injury
Stephen John Nash, OC, OBC (born 7 February 1974), is a Canadian professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nash, who was born in South Africa but grew up in Canada, enjoyed a successful high-school basketball career, and he was eventually given a scholarship by Santa Clara University. In his four seasons with the Broncos, the team made three NCAA Tournament appearances, and Nash was twice named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year.
After graduating from Santa Clara as the team’s all-time leader in assists, he entered the 1996 NBA Draft and was selected as the 15th pick by the Phoenix Suns. He made a minimal impact, and was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 1998. By his third season with the Mavericks, he was voted into his first NBA All-Star Game and had earned his first All-NBA selection.
Together with Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, Nash led the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals the following season. However, he became a free agent after the 2003–04 season and returned to the Phoenix Suns.
In the 2004–05 season, Nash led the Suns to the Western Conference Finals, and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). He was named MVP again in the 2005–06 season, and missed out on a third consecutive MVP title to Nowitzki the next season. Named by ESPN in 2006 as the ninth greatest point guard of all time, Nash has led the league in assists and free-throw percentage at various points in his career. He is also ranked as one of the top players in league history for three-point shooting, free-throw shooting, total assists and assists per game.
Nash, who is married, is involved in charity and humanitarian work, and he is also interested in soccer and film-making. In 2006, Time named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. On 28 December 2007 it was announced that Nash would receive Canada’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada, and on 3 June 2008, it was announced that Nash would receive a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame. On 18 September 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Victoria, in recognition of his athletic achievements and his philanthropic work on behalf of young people through the Steve Nash Foundation.
The Canadian Cyclops was on some serious triple optics tonight 9th May 2010. Put out one of his eyes and he’s still got two — put out the second one and he can still see you.
The Canadian Cyclops was on some serious triple optics tonight. Put out one of his eyes and he’s still got two — put out the second one and he can still see you.
Here’s the carnage as it unfolded from (1) the initial injury, (2) the return after six stitches, and (3) the final, post-game swollen-shut look. Truly unbelievable performance from Steve, who finished with 20 points on 8/15 shooting (3/3 from three), 9 assists and 4 boards.
BP oil leak
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Attempt to contain BP oil leak hit by major setback’
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – A day after icy slush clogged the massive box they hoped would contain an out-of-control oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, BP officials on Sunday said they may try again — this time with a smaller box.
They also were considering several other options to stop the daily rush of at least 200,000 gallons of crude, which began washing up on beaches in thick blobs over the weekend.
With crippled equipment littering the ocean floor, oil company engineers scrambled to devise a fresh method to cap the ruptured well. Their previous best hope for containing the leak quickly, a four-story containment box, became encrusted with deep-sea crystals Saturday and had to be cast aside.
Among the plans under consideration:
• Deploying a new, smaller containment box in the hope that it would be less likely to get clogged. Officials said the new box could be in place by midweek.
“We’re going to pursue the first option that’s available to us and we think it’ll be the top hat,” the smaller box, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said.
• Cutting the riser pipe, which extends from the mile-deep well, undersea and using larger piping to bring the gushing oil to a drill ship on the surface, a tactic considered difficult and less desirable because it will increase the flow of oil.
• Shooting mud and concrete directly into the well’s blowout preventer, a device that was supposed to shut off the flow of oil after a deadly April 20 oil rig explosion but failed. The technique, known as a “top kill,” is supposed to plug up the well and would take two to three weeks.
• Try again using the containment box that failed to work Saturday after finding a way to keep the crystals from building up.
The engineers appear to be “trying anything people can think of” to stop the leak, said Ed Overton, a LSU professor of environmental studies.
The process, which has never been attempted at such depths before, had been BP’s best hope of sealing the spewing well, which has created a 130 mile-wide slick that now threatens four US states.
The company was last night considering whether to mount another attempt, mindful that if the operation fails altogether it could be at least another two months before it can bring the leak under control by alternative means. The news deal a new blow to communities struggling to defend their coastlines and wildlife against the advancing tide of oil.
Revealing the setback last night, BP’s chief operating officer Doug Suttles said: “I wouldn’t say it’s failed yet. What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn’t work.”
The leak began after a methane bubble forced its way up a drilling pipe that led from the seabed to the Deepwater Horizon rig, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, on April 20. Eleven workers were killed and 115 escaped in lifeboats as the rig erupted in a ball of flame.
Experts had warned that a build-up of frozen hydrates, known as ice-plugs, could cause problems for the recovery effort that got under way on Friday and that they may not be able to succeed.
“This is new technology, never done before at this depth,” BP’s executive vice president Bob Fryar explained at a briefing last Wednesday.
“The environment we’re operating in is a mile below the surface – too deep for divers. At these depths pressure is immense, 2,300 pounds per square inch; it is very cold, about 43 degrees Fahrenheit; and it’s a dark environment. Fluids can behave in ways that are complex and challenging.”
Three Mile Island
November 22, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Three Mile Island, three mile island nuclear plant updates:- A small amount of radiation has been detected in a reactor building at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in central Pennsylvania.
Officials say about 150 employees were sent home after the radiation was detected Saturday afternoon, but that there is no public health risk.
Investigators say radiological surveys showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the containment building.
The unit has been shut down for refueling and maintenance since Oct. 26.
Bill Noll, Exelon’s senior executive at Three Mile Island, says workers were sent home until the area could be cleaned. The company hopes to resume activities Sunday.
Officials are checking employees who had been working in the building for possible unusual radiation exposure.
A partial meltdown occurred in Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 reactor in March 1979. Source philly.com
