1$ billion venture to fight deepwater gulf spills

1$ billion venture to fight with deepwater gulf spills

A new joint venture formed by four of the world’s biggest oil companies will develop a rapid response system for deepwater oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Exxon, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips will each contribute 25 percent to a $1 billion company that would be able to mobilize a response within 24 hours to capture and contain deep-sea oil spills, the companies said on Wednesday.

BP, whose blown-out well has leaked as much as 180 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, is not included in the venture but may, along with other companies, be able to use the strike force.
"We don't want to distract them at all," Rex Tillerson, Exxon's chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal. The joint venture’s equipment will include a containment vessel capable of capturing up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day and other equipment to siphon any leaking oil up from the seafloor to a depth of 10,000 feet.

The four companies, which rely on offshore drilling, were not involved in the Gulf oil spill. But the growing catastrophe has dragged down share values as lawmakers promised to beef up regulations against the industry. BP tried and failed several times to contain the gusher off the Louisiana Coast, frustrating residents and lawmakers. The British oil giant was later criticized for grossly underestimating the impact of a deepwater well blowout and overstating its ability to contain it.

The companies will create a nonprofit organization called the Marine Well Containment Company to operate and maintain the response system. ExxonMobil will lead the effort and other companies will be invited to participate.

The response team should be able to start mobilizing within 24 hours of an oil spill, and be fully in place within weeks, Sara Ortwein, vice president of engineering for Exxon Mobil Development Company, told the Wall Street Journal.

Frank Verrastro, an energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times that such an initiative was badly needed.

“The spill exposed the fact that the industry’s capability on capture and clean-up was 1980s vintage, in part because there was so much reliance on blowout preventers,” he said. “Companies have used their technology to get into the deepwater but they didn’t have an adequate plan to intervene at these depths or to contain a large-scale spill.”

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Walter Hawkins funeral in California

Walter Hawkins funeral

Gospel stars will meet next week in California to celebrate the life of Walter Hawkins. ? Walter will be buried the next morning. The funeral, also held at the Paramount Theatre, scheduled to begin at 11 am Bishop Kenneth Moala will conduct the ceremony.

KTVU will air the funeral of beloved gospel music artist Walter Hawkins today, Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 11 am PST. Bishop Kenneth Moal Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. in Bridgeport, CT preside over the ceremony. All tickets for the concert of gospel Walter Hawkins and the funeral is at half past one. Whoa! According to Love Center Ministries tickets were made available Friday at noon at Paramount Theatre and everyone was gone.

Tempe Town Lake Collapse with big explosion

Tempe Town Lake Collapse with big explosion

Witnesses said the collapse of a portion of the dam was a big explosion. sirens filled the air as thousands of gallons of water flowing downstream from the lake. The people in the event that is suddenly a loud noise was due to water penetration, followed witnessed the dry bed of the Salt River was washed with water, and animals were in the path of the water began to fill with fear to flee. Like Tempe Town Lake and the police began rescue rushed to lay off staff, the bed of the river for people who can alert the stores in the bed of the river, people are often in the summer. Without these people were heard to be harmed, but it is likely that some could be drowned in water and their bodies were recovered after a while.

Shortly after 11:00 I look at Michael Monti Monti Casa Vieja and Paul Marquardt, said Chuck Box restaurant and the two were on the scene. We have been informed by reliable sources that the replacement of the section of Tempe Town Lake dam is already in the city. In fact, we were told that the four sections of the dam must be replaced in September this year. Hopefully the new section of the Tempe Town Lake Dam will be replaced soon. “Tempe is not easy, Tempe Lake,” Monti said some of the most important events and crowds flock to the lake twice a year publication.

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The Machine target Arizona law now in discussion

Militant rockers Rage Against the Machine said on Wednesday they would headline a concert to raise money for organizations challenging a new Arizona law that targets illegal immigrants.
The show, the group’s first in its Los Angeles hometown for 10 years, will take place on Friday, and will also raise the profile of a “SoundStrike” artist boycott of the state.

Boycotters include rock bands Nine Inch Nails and leftist musicians such as Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and Ry Cooder, as well as filmmaker Michael Moore. But the music industry is largely ignoring the strike, evidenced by upcoming shows from the likes of big names like Lady Gaga, KISS, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stone Temple Pilots and Brad Paisley.

This Thursday the Obama Administration plans on taking all of this to court so that they can block the law which is also known as the SB 1070 which allows the state and the local police to investigate the status of the immigration.

There are a lot of mixed views about this and you’ll here many that agree and disagree about what they are doing. However, something needs to be done and hopefully this might be the first step of getting things fixed the right way.

Eminem Rocks on top of the Charts

Eminem Rocks on top of the Charts

The record album distributed 195,000 copies during the week ended July 18, taking its total to 1.5 million. He gets the first artist to log a four-week stretch at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since Susan Boyle began a six-week stint in November.No doubt “Recovery’s” continued winner is assisted by its hit single “Love The Way You Lie” (featuring Rihanna), which will acquire the No. 1 spot when the Hot 100 is released on Thursday.

It will mark the beginning back-to-back Hot 100 chart-toppers of his career. The album’s first single, “Not Afraid,” became to No. 1 in May. In all, Eminem has exceeded the Hot 100 four times. The greatest debut on the Billboard 20 and first of six entries in the top 10 came from Korn’s “Korn III Remember Who You Are,” which began at No. 2 with 63,000. The rock band’s last album, 2007′s “Untitled,” debuted and pointed at No. 2 with 123,000 sold in its first week. The last to arrive at the top ten came from M.I.A’s “Maya” that started at No.9 and she sold around 29,000 copies.

The Twilight fans made it possible for The soundtrack to “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” to reach number 6 and at least 28,000 copies have been sold. This could change for Twilight as Eclipse is still in the movies right now and going on strong.

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Antarctic orcas dine on penguins discovered by Scientists

Antarctic orcas dine on penguins discovered by Scientists The scientists latest discovery is said to have found that the orcas were seen regularly feeding upon the penguins in Antarctica. It has also been known that the orcas generally predate the penguins in the northern parts and also along the sub Antarctic island region. But this time it is seen that it is for the first time that these are found seen hunting upon the birds that are in the Antarctic continental waters. Another point to see out was that these orcas were quite choosy regarding which bits and parts of thepenguins they were supposed to eat. They were seen more inclined over to take the best parts of the cuts of the breast meat of the penguin.

The further details regarding this have been published within the Polar Biology. The whole discovery was made by the group of the marine biologists namely Dr. Robert Pitman and Dr. John Durban who belong to the United States. They were involved in the research of the orcas and their behaviour which was seen around the area of Antarctic peninsula. In all, they came up with the above said conclusion about the orcas.
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Shirley Sherrod resigns from USDA

Shirley Sherrod of USDA resigns

Shirley Sherrod, USDA’s black employee has resigned from her post on Monday in the wake of outburst of a video at conservative media outlets in which Shirley Sherrod is shown telling one of the audience that she had not given a white framer the full force of what I could do to help him save his family farm.

Tom Vilsack, the Agriculture Secretary said that he had accepted Shirley Sherrod’s resignation. Shirley Sherrod was working as USDA’s State Director of Rural Development for Georgia.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he had accepted the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the department’s state director of rural development for Georgia.

Tom Vilsack further added that in USDA, they are following a zero tolerance for discrimination. He said that being Secretary Agriculture he condemns any discriminatory act against any person. He further added that at USDA, they are working hard for past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history and they are taking fairness and equality as a serious matter at USDA.

It is reported that video was originally forwarded by Andrew Breitbart, the publisher of the Conservative website. The video was quickly picked up by Fox News from where it became viral resulting in the resignation of Shirley Sherrod. It is further reported that Shirley Sherrod used the alleged remarks at an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet. The number of audience of this banquet is unknown.

In the poorly shot low quality video, Shirley Sherrod is shown telling one of her audience that she did not extend full force to a white farmer to savehis family farm as he took a long time to show her that she he is superior to her. Shirley Sherrod is further shown proving that she did he job by introducing the farmer to a white lawyer figuring out that one of his own flock will take care of him well.

Apart from Shirley Sherrod’s discriminatory remarks, it is not clear that whether the farm was saved or no