Posts from — July 2013

CBS announced the gas well in the Gulf has stopped leaking:

NEW ORLEANS Federal regulators say natural gas has stopped flowing from a well that has been ablaze in the Gulf of Mexico and remaining small flames are from gas still in the pipe.

In a Thursday news release, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says the well “bridged over.” That means sand and sediment collapsed into the area being drilled, blocking the line.

Both BSEE and the Coast Guard have flown over the well to check this.

So they know what is happening on the floor of the Gulf by flying over the well. I hope they don’t mind that I don’t believe anything that comes out of their mouths.

University of Georgia marine scientist Samantha “Mandy” Joye is coming down to take samples and check on things. If she says the flow has stopped, I’ll believe it. I’ll believe it because she does her own research and won’t accept grants that come with non-disclosure clauses. She will tell you what she found and what she thinks it means, and doesn’t actually care what the US government or oil companies think. When she finds oil on the bottom of the Gulf, she documents it and reports even if the government and industry have been claiming that it evaporated.

So, the well has stopped leaking, just ignore the fire that continues to burn… Nothing to see here, just move along … Yeah, right 😈

Position: 16.6N 39.6W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 20 mph [32 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 60 miles [ 95 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1001 mb ↑.

Currently about 1550 miles [2500 km] East of the northern Leeward Islands.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Lambert reports that the Amash-Conyers amendment lost tonight by 205 to 217, but this isn’t over. It took the combined forces of Zero and the Orange-slice to defeat it, with a supporting role by Ms Pelosi.

We at least got an open debate on the issue, and people now know who they can’t trust with their privacy, because Lambert has the link to the roll call.

Charley Pierce and Steve Bates cover the hypocrisy and ineptitude of Zero on this amendment, so I’ll go back to my own personal complaint about the concept – it doesn’t work.

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism brings a personal perspective to the program: I’m Three Hops from a Terrorist, and Therefore Probably in the NSA’s Dragnet. And You?

If they did it like a standard criminal investigation, which is handled through the regular court system, you might find something useful. You find out who is connected to the suspect, and then you determine if they are people of interest. Then you go through the same process with the people of interest. If this turns up more people of interest, you know you are dealing with worthwhile leads, and you may go well beyond 3 hops for certain specific people, because it starts to look like a network of some kind.

What NSA is doing is hoovering up hundreds to millions of people which makes it harder to find the people of interest.

Let’s get real. If this system was minimally effective, it should have spit out the name of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He did so many things that were obvious ‘flags’, even without the Russian warning, his name should have floated to the top. They didn’t find out about him until after people died, but they claim their boondoggle is essential. This isn’t being used to find terrorists, it is being used to identify them after the fact.

There is another well blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico. Since this is a report from the CBC, there are maps included so you can see where the well is located, pretty much the center of the Louisiana coast and 55 miles off-shore.

It was a natural gas well, and there is no sign of a sheen, but Methane [natural gas] is an order of magnitude worse than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas. Currently the gas is burning off, but we don’t need a fire in the Gulf in July.

It is a small driller, so the company that owns the well is not going to have the resources to deal with the problem quickly.

Then there is Susan Crawford of the Roosevelt Institute shredding a couple of telecom industry op-eds in the New York Times. The bottom line is that contrary to what the telecoms want people to believe, broadband access in the US is slow and expensive compared to pretty much anywhere in the First World in those areas of the US where it is available.

The markets are divided up to minimize competition, so there is no incentive to reduce prices or improve service.

Position: 15.1N 33.2W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 20 mph [32 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 45 miles [ 75 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1002 mb.

Currently about 615 miles [ 990 km] West of the Cape Verde Islands.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

… and the government swears to it.

During the Gulf Gusher BP continually understated the amount of oil flooding into the Gulf from the well and the Interior Department approved the lie. No one was allowed near the well to verify what was going on, so until a video feed was established no one had any first hand data to work with. It wasn’t long before experts were yelling ‘Foul’ on the BP claims and we finally got some realistic numbers as to how large the disaster really was.

Ellroon keeps posting on Fukushima, and all of the lies of TEPCO that the Japanese government has accepted until it was obvious that TEPCO was lying. Radiation is still pouring out of that power plant, and it is reaching the Pacific.

Charley Pierce is continuing to cover the Keystone XL pipeline, and in today’s post, Nobody Knows How To Stop It, he highlights the continuing problems in Cold Lake, Alberta where they are attempting to stop the leaking caused by the steam injection process that was being used by the oil companies.

The provincial government of Alberta keeps accepting the claims that everything is under control and will be cleaned up, while all independent monitors are being kept out of the area.

The leaks have polluted the land and waters which has killed plants and animals. It is obvious that they don’t know how to stop the leaks, as the pressure from the steam injection has fractured the rock. They are destroying the land and ecology so a few corporations can make a lot of money.

So I was going to complain yesterday about having received a foot of rain this month, but other things intruded. So now I’m going to complain about having had a foot and a half of rain this month, when we used to average 6 inches of rain for all of July, usually because a tropical storm came through.

We got 5½ of those inches tonight between 6:15 and 7:15PM from a line of thunderstorms that passed through. There might have been thunder, but I didn’t hear any over the sound of all the water hitting the roof.

Tomorrow I hope it clears long enough for me to get a picture of the lichen growing on my mailbox. It is the same lichen you normally see on live oaks, but there it is on a white metal mailbox, nominally out in direct sunlight.

We have to do something to slow down climate change.

Note: Frog with ‘umbrella’ stolen from Naked Capitalism.

Because I’m one of few people left in the world who actually have a landline telephone, I get to participate in a lot of surveys.

Tonight it was a Rasmussen survey and it wasn’t well done. The questions were a bit vague and the answers were worse. Some of their categories in the answers were illogical.

This poll seem to think that the President is the entirety of the US government, as I was never offered an opportunity to express my opinion on the Congress.

One question was really off-the-wall – Is the Government a Special Interest group?

I’m sorry, but who exactly would the Government lobby? What is your definition of “the Government”? What do you mean when you say “Special Interest”?

While they did ask about the Trayvon Martin case, they at least didn’t ask about Flight Lieutenant Wales’s new baby.

Charley Pierce has another go at why the Keystone XL pipeline is a bad idea.

To recap: it only creates twenty new jobs in the US; it endangers the largest aquifer in the center of the country; they can’t build it in Canada because the government of British Columbia doesn’t trust their assurances of safety; it will raise gas prices in the US; everything that flows through the pipeline is scheduled for export.

Why is anyone seriously considering this thing? The US is assuming a huge risk, with no benefit. If it was such a great idea, and as safe as claimed, the pipeline would run from Alberta through British Columbia to the Pacific Coast.

On July 5th the wife of a Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer assigned to the F-35 program at Eglin AFB had twins, a boy and a girl, and two weeks later it gets reported in the Local Puppy Trainer

Today the wife of a Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant has a boy, and you can’t avoid the news unless you click through to special version of the Guardian news site.

The M$M acts like I was waiting to find out what sort of a gift to send.

The highway was re-opened on Thursday as was promised, but the article also provided a clarification on what happened to the QF-4 that was destroyed on July 11th.

It turns out that the problem was an illiterate loose nut on a ‘personal watercraft’ who was racing around in the restricted zone that includes the approach to the drone landing strip. Rather than improving the gene pool by possibly dropping the drone on the trespasser, they turned it back out to the Gulf and blew it up.

There are a number of restricted areas on the Gulf that are all clearly marked on local charts, and have buoys with signs posted around them. Those in the deep Gulf feature cannon rounds, missiles, and metallic debris falling from the sky, so it is not a good idea to ignore them.

Versailles to Paris Champs-Élysées

Distance: 133.5 kilometers.

The final stage is a parade that ends with a 10 lap sprint on the Champs-Élysées. This year they have decided to make an evening of it, looking for a finish at about 9:30PM in Paris.

After 23 days and 3403.5 kilometers the Tour is over.

It ended early for Lieuwe Westra ( Ned – VCD – 209 ), who had to withdraw because of injuries received in an accident early in the stage. That means that 169 riders finished the Tour this year, the second highest number.

Mark Cavendish was looking for his fifth win of the Paris stage which would have established a new record and left him in sole possession of third place in overall stage wins, but ‘tyre punctures’ interfered, and he had to settle for third in the stage behind Marcel Kittel and André Greipel, who weren’t very keen on letting other people win anything.

On The Podium:

1 Christopher Froome
2 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
3 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver

The Final Awards:

Christopher Froome ( GB – SKY – 001 ) [Yellow] 83h 56′ 40″
Peter Sagan ( Svk – CAN – 011 ) [Green] 409 points
Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 ) [Polka Dot] 147 points
Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 ) 2 [White]

Team: Saxo-Tinkoff ( TST – 091-099 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Marcel Kittel ( Ger – ARG – 197 )
Super Combative: Christophe Riblon ( Fra – ALM – 089 ) [Red numbers]
Φ Svein Tuft ( Can – OGE – 189 ) + 04h 27′ 55″ [La Lanterne Rouge]

The Entire List of Finishers:
[Read more →]

Annecy to Annecy-Semnoz

Distance: 125 kilometers.

This is the final competitive stage, so there will be a lot of attacking. Although short, there are six climbs: a category 2, three category 3s, a category 1 and the summit finish on the Hors Catégorie Annecy-Semnoz. A summit finish doubles the points awarded for the climb.

The five principal contenders for the Polka Dots are Chris Froome [104], Pierre Rolland [103], Mikel Nieve [98], Nairo Quintana [97], and Christophe Riblon [93]. Riblon took the summit finish on the Alpe-d’Huez.

Pierre Rolland gave it his best shot and was leading up to the final climb, but today, Colombia’s Independence Day, belonged to the young rider from Tunja, Colombia, Nairo Quintana.

In taking his first stage win on the Tour, Quintana confirmed his hold on the White Jersey, moved up from third to second place in the General Classification, and became the ‘King of the Mountains’, winning the Polka Dots.

Chris Froome is still in Yellow, as he has been since his win on stage 8.

The only good news for Alberto Contador is that Saxo-Tinkoff didn’t lose their lead among the teams. He was pushed off the podium by Quintana and Joaquin Rodriguez, and is now in fourth.

Jens Voigt proved there is still life after 40, making a determined charge to the front, but he was reeled in.

Christopher Froome ( GB – SKY – 001 ) [Yellow] 80h 49′ 33″
Peter Sagan ( Svk – CAN – 011 ) [Green] 383 points
Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 ) [Polka Dot] 147 points
Andrew Talansky ( USA – GRS – 178 ) 10 [White]

Team: Saxo-Tinkoff ( TST – 091-099 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 )
Combative: Jens Voigt ( Ger – RLT – 048 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1 Christopher Froome ( GB – SKY – 001 )
2 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas ( Col – MOV – 128 ) + 05′ 03″
3 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver ( Esp – KAT – 101 ) + 05′ 47″
4 Alberto Contador ( Esp – TST – 091 ) + 07′ 10″
5 Roman Kreuziger ( Cze – TST – 094 ) + 08′ 10″
6 Bauke Mollema ( Ned – BEL – 164 ) + 12′ 25″
7 Jakob Fuglsang ( Den – EUC – 063 ) + 13′ 00″
8 Alejandro Valverde ( Esp – MOV – 121 ) + 16′ 09″
9 Daniel Navarro ( Esp – COF – 139 ) + 16′ 35″
10 Andrew Talansky ( USA – GRS – 178 ) + 18′ 22″

The Rest of the Top 30:
[Read more →]

Día de la Independencia
República de Colombia

¡Viva Colombia!