Extrapolating from data on cows and other modern-day ruminants, the scientists estimated the total methane output of pre-historic megafauna at nearly 10 trillion grams per year. 10 million tons. Hype much?
At the same time, ice-core samples reveal that an abrupt drop in atmospheric methane levels of 180 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) coincides with both the virtual extinction of these gas-gushing herbivores and the onset of the deep chill that followed. Clone those mammoths and release in Nebraska. Problem solved.
#1
It was not enough to trigger runaway global warming. But when all that gaseous output suddenly tapered off, it caused or at least contributed to a prolonged freeze known as the Younger Dryas cold event, they argue.
Interesting. There are other explanations for the sudden cooling of the Younger Dryas, but this is plausible.
After a couple of thousand years of Younger Dryas cooling, the climate suddenly warmed again, which may well have resulted from the rise of animal husbandry.
A Saudi scholar has waded into controversy after he said that women could give their milk to men to establish a degree of maternal relations and get around a strict religious ban on mixing between unrelated men and women.
According to Shaikh Abdul Mohsin Al Abaican, a consultant at Saudi Arabia's royal court, a man who often entered a house and came in contact with the womenfolk there should be made symbolically related to the women by drinking milk from one of the women.
Under the fatwa, the act would preclude any sexual relations between the man and the donor woman and her relatives.
However, Al Abaican said that the donor woman should not breastfeed the man directly.
"The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast of the woman," Al Abaican said. "He should drink it and then becomes a relative of the family, a fact that allows him to come in contact with the women without breaking Islam's rules about mixing," he said, quoted by Kuwaiti and Saudi media on Saturday.
However, the scholar said that his fatwa did not apply to family drivers, explaining that they were not permanent and could be replaced. "The fatwa is only for those who live in the house or need to get in often," he said.
Al Abaican's fatwa was immediately rejected by bloggers as "a decision that is totally unrelated to reality at a time when people are thinking about bold and new space discoveries."
Many wrote that there was no reason for the fatwa to be issued and that scholars should focus instead on "much more significant issues."
The edict is also likely to be resisted by religious scholars keen on promoting a more modern view of Islamic values.
Exactly three years ago, on May 22, 2007, an Egyptian scholar was disciplined by Al Azhar University, one of Islam's most prestigious institutions, after he issued a fatwa calling upon women to breastfeed their male colleagues.
Dr Izzat Attiyah said that his fatwa offered a way around mixing of the sexes in the work place since breast-feeding established a maternal relation even if the beneficiary was not the woman's biological son or daughter.
However, following Islamic scholars' fierce denunciation of the fatwa as defamatory to Islam, Izzat retracted it.
Under increasing criticism for not moving more aggressively to halt the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama sent three cabinet members to the area, examined possible new remedies and formed a special commission to investigate the disastrous leak and “make sure it never happens again.' Wow! Three Obama cabinet members. That'll give us another 150 IQ points working on the problem.
With some Louisiana islands now fouled by layers of heavy crude, and species like the brown pelican increasingly endangered, anger has been mounting against both the government and BP, which is legally responsible for the cleanup.
Lisa P. Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was meeting with frustrated Louisiana residents on Sunday, while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were heading to the region on Monday. At first I was filled with despair at the thought of Napolitano coming here again. Haven't we suffered enough? But then I called my cousin, rig worker T-Jean Robichaux, who cheered me up. "Cher, I seen her on the TV. She just about the size of dat hole in the riser. Problem solved. The other two, I give 'em to Marie and she put 'em in the jambalaya. Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Mr. Obama said he would hold both the government and BP accountable. With whom does the buck stop, O Enlightened One?
Posted by: Matt ||
05/23/2010 14:04 ||
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With whom does the buck stop, O Enlightened One?
#4
If Zero has any useful ideas I am sure BP will be glad to put them to use. Virtually all the major oil and service companies are contributing their engineering staff and ideas, and even equipment to the effort. Corners were (legally) cut before the blowout but none are being cut now.
Washington politicians can do NOTHING to fix the current spill, and the only thing they can do to prevent future spills is to prevent future drilling - and a number of them intend to try to do that. If they succeed, look for 25% unemployment and $8 gasoline - and very cold homes in Boston in the winter.
#5
This is a nightmare scenario for Barry in the sense that the problem can be only be fixed by hard physical work and skillful engineering, neither of which is exactly in Barry's skill set. The oil won't be community organized, it won't stop in exchange for a job in city government, and it doesn't care a whit about high-flying speeches. The best thing he can do is to not distract the grown-ups from the task at hand. But it would be kinda fun to see Barry spend one shift on a working rig.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/23/2010 15:20 Comments ||
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"it would be kinda fun to see Barry spend one shift on a working rig"
Good grief, Matt - can you imagine what kind of premium they'd have to pay the real oil rig workers to put up with that?
I doubt even the most solvent oil company has that kind of money.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/23/2010 15:47 Comments ||
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There'd be a real danger of the entire crew injuring themselves from falling down laughing at The One™ pretending to "work."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/23/2010 15:59 Comments ||
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#9
"Hey numbnuts! Close that valve now!"
"Some at one extreme believe this valve should be closed. Others believe that it should remain open. Let me be perfectly clear: I intend to leave this valve halfway open while we pursue a policy of constructive engagement..."
Swoosh. BOOM.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/23/2010 16:20 Comments ||
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#10
Oh yeah, TEST OF DESIRED OWG-NWO + "GLOBALISM" > like COMET APOPHIS + allowing LUNAR CONSTRUX via THIRD-PARTY, PROB-PRONE, RISQUE' NON-US FIRMS in the Name of INTERNAT, FUTURE SPACE DIPLOMACY.
This, Virgina, is anuther reason WHY GOD INVENTED JOHN WAYNE!
Republican Charles Djou emerged victorious tonight in the special election to fill Hawaii's vacancy in Congress, giving Hawaii it's first GOP member of Congress in 20 years.
Djou won the special mail-in election with 39.5 percent of the vote in the first printout, released at 6 p.m. district 1 - Obama's birthplace
The first printout represented nearly all of the 170,312 returned by voters in the district, which stretches from Waikiki and downtown to Mililani.
Democrat Colleen Hanabusa was second at 30.8 percent, with Democrat Ed Case third at 27.6 percent.
"This is a momentous day," Djou told a jubilant crowd at state party headquarters. "We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the ex-governors. We have sent a message to the national Democrats! We have sent a message to the machine.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/23/2010 01:26 ||
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Deeeeelicious. The 'Rats couldn't quit the power infighting and so lost the seat
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2010 9:50 Comments ||
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The 'Rats couldn't quit the power infighting and so lost the seat
Unfortunately this reminds me of the Republican party and the current struggle between the grass roots + teaparty and the McCain/McConnel/Graham/etc beltway people.
It seems the elites in DC have more in common with each other than they do with the people they are supposed to represent: they want power and will do almost anything to keep it.
They'd rather retain their grip on power in the party than win an election with someone they cannot control.
#3
Unfortunately, Djou has to win again in November for a full 2 year term. In this election, he got 67K votes while the two Dems, combined, got 100K. Assuming Ed Case doesn't pull a Christ and run as an independent, the Dems will line up behind a single candidate. Bottom line DJOU has 4-5 months to pull 17K+ Dems from party line votes. Hanabusa, who took second place, is the likely Dem candidate since she has the support of both the unions and the state party leadership and will be hard to beat in Nov. Still, it is a moment to savor, innit brudda O?
Thai officials say they have proof anti-government protesters holed-up in the heart of Bangkok earlier this week were armed and dangerous. The Thai government Saturday displayed a cache of weapons - including rifles, grenades, ammunition and components for bombs - it says it found earlier this week after troops moved in on a Red Shirt stronghold, part of the government's effort to bring the protests to an end.
A Thai government spokesman also accused two foreigners Saturday of taking part in a string of arson attacks that followed the government's final crackdown on protesters. He said one of the foreigners, a white Westerner, played a role in setting a fire that partially gutted Thailand's biggest shopping mall.
Firefighters Saturday worked to put out the last of the fires while investigators collected additional evidence left by protesters.
Government officials said they hoped to reopen Bangkok's major public transit systems Sunday and ease other restrictions. A nighttime curfew imposed in Bangkok, and 23 provinces, expires Sunday morning.
At least 83 people were killed and another 1,800 wounded since the Red Shirts began their demonstrations in March. Officials estimate the riots and violence that marked the end of the protests did an estimated $1 billion in damage.
Police say eight protest leaders are being held at a military camp south of Bangkok for interrogation.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called Friday for national reconciliation, promising the government will meet the "huge challenges" ahead as it seeks to heal deep political divisions.
Meanwhile, city workers in Bangkok cleared debris left behind following days of violent clashes and rioting.
Red Shirts and human rights groups have condemned the government's use of deadly force to disperse the protests, while protesters returning home to northern Thailand received a hero's welcome at the Chiang Mai train station. Many Red Shirt supporters in the crowd, still angry with the Abhisit government, vowed to continue to fight.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Note how clean the weapons are. The white tape on the handle grips is spotless. These weapons have been nowhere near the red shirts encampment.
(.pdf) News you won't find out about from the MSM
At the direction of Secretary Salazar, on Monday, April 26, 2010, all Minerals Management Service (MMS) inspectors in the Gulf of Mexico were ordered to direct their efforts toward inspecting the twenty-nine deepwater drilling rigs with subsea blowout preventer (BOP) stacks. Inspections on those rigs began on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 and were completed on May 4, 2010.
Inspection Results
All deepwater rig inspections have been completed, except for one rig that was evacuated due to the oil spill and has not resumed operations. The MMS inspected a total of
twenty-nine rigs.
The following Incidents of Non-Compliance (INC) were issued:
The Transocean Development Driller II (DD II) working for BP, received one INC because it had not alternated between control stations for BOP testing. MMS regulations require that the regular 14-day BOP tests alternate between the BOP station on the rig floor and the remote station located at another site on the rig. On the DD II they conducted the BOP pressure testing only from the drillers control station for the last two tests. They did perform function testing on the remote station, but the pressure testing was only performed using the drillers station. MMS has ordered the rig to alternate control stations in the future.
The Transocean Nautilus working for Shell, received three Incidents of Non- Compliance:
o A warning INC for having some flammable material in the scrap metal bin of the safe welding area. (Reportedly a paper coffee cup)
Corrective Action Taken: the material was removed at the time of the inspection.
o A warning INC for having a 6-inch x 12-inch hole by the mud pump suction pipe.
Corrective Action Taken: additional grating was place over the hole.
o A warning INC for having expired eye wash bottles.
Corrective Action Taken: the eye wash bottles were replaced.
No other violations were found on the rigs operating in deep water. These had to be the most intense inspections possible. And they could only come up with 4 nicks on two of 29 rigs? And one for expired eyewash at that! This tells me things are done well on these rigs as its hard to clean up for this type of inspection if you've made a practice of slacking. Hats off to the folks on the rigs.
#2
So far the most credible information I have heard to date is that this blowout was due to being in a hurry. The drilling rig was due to leave the next morning. This was a process problem, not a problem inherent in drilling.
Halliburton reportedly performed testing and the results were "marginal" and not to standard. BP ignored the Halliburton engineers' report and supposedly got some other engineering report from an internal source.
Then in order to speed things up, they changed the process order around and began pumping out the plug mud earlier in the process but in a manner which is often done when the engineering reports are favorable. In other words, the independent engineering reports showed the condition of the well to be "weak" for lack of a better word on my part. They then engaged in a more stressful (on the well components) method of bringing the well to production in order to speed things up and the well failed.
It is also my understanding that Halliburton had documented something over 100 defects in the blowout prevention device but BP used it anyway.
This was a case of getting in a hurry and not doing things by the book while ignoring the engineers. This is the same sort of thing that led to the Challenger failure.
Now I am no oil expert but I believe that I have the "nutshell" gist of it correct. We have a series of faults (bad BOP and bad cement job or cement not fully cured yet) combined with being in a hurry leading to a failure of the well and the BOP not being able to shut it off for whatever reason (maybe the well blew out BELOW the BOP?).
The response of the government has been exactly wrong. They seem to be more interested in "making someone pay" than in getting to the bottom of what really happened and making sure it doesn't happen again. There probably is no one single mistake that resulted in this accident. It is probably a bunch of individual mistakes that each in their own context would not result in this kind of failure but the witch hunt attitude of the government is going to make it much more difficult to get accurate information about what happened.
Nobody is going to be forthcoming with a media lynch mob out there ready to pounce on them.
#3
Once again, the report outlines situations with the control stations for the BOP's when the BOP's apparently suffered some sort of mechanical failure.
#4
"The response of the government has been exactly wrong. They seem to be more interested in "making someone pay" than in getting to the bottom of what really happened and making sure it doesn't happen again."
That pretty much sums up Bambi's regime Administration on ANY subject, CP. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/23/2010 15:53 Comments ||
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This was a case of getting in a hurry and not doing things by the book while ignoring the engineers. This is the same sort of thing that led to the Challenger failure.
Being in a hurry is another factor in the National Forest Service [ie the government] burning of down Los Alamos NM. Just remember that when someone says "if only the government was in charge..." as an alternative.
#6
One thing I heard today in talking with someone was what was said on 60 Minutes (which I don't watch so I didn't see it). Something about the BOP had been inadvertently activated while the drill was operating. During this period, pieces of debris (rubber) from the BOP seals were coming to the surface with the drill mud.
If that is true and the BOP had been damaged in the days before the accident, that might explain why it failed.
#2
I don't put it beyond this administration to end the Vet preference but, having read the memo.......
Section 2 (a) (2) of this memo seems to continue normal Vet hiring preferences. Where is the problem?
#8
Nice video! Thirty seconds over Tokyo is a fairly mundane war movie but the takeoff scene is great - no music except the rising crescendo of engine noise. According to my dad, folks in the theaters stood up to cheer.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
