Tag Archives: number

Another drilling blowout in the Gulf, another explosion

by vserko45 Posted on July 24, 2013

Another drilling blowout in the Gulf, another explosion

By John Upton

On Wings of Care

Natural gas billowing around a drilling rig Tuesday before it exploded.

An offshore natural-gas platform burned through the night off the coast of Louisiana following a blowout and explosion on Tuesday.

A drilling company was completing a sidetrack well 115 miles south of New Orleans on Tuesday morning, which likely means it was boring a new hole into an existing well, when gas began spewing uncontrollably from the seafloor. The rig’s crew of 44 workers was evacuated as natural gas formed a sheen in the waters around it and billowed dangerously into the air.

Hours later, while everybody was at a safe distance, the gas ignited, triggering a conflagration that still had not been extinguished as of this writing.

From the AP:

No injuries were reported as a result of the fire, Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, told The Associated Press.

She said it wasn’t known what caused the gas to ignite. It also wasn’t clear early Wednesday how and when crews would attempt to extinguish the blaze. BSEE said earlier Tuesday that a firefighting vessel with water and foam capabilities had been dispatched to the scene.

Wild Well Control Inc. was hired to try to bring the well under control. Angelico said Wild Well personnel approached the well earlier Tuesday night, before the fire, but they determined it was unsafe to get closer when they were about 200 feet (60 meters) away from it.

What was the crew up to when it lost control of the well? We don’t know yet:

The purpose of the sidetrack well in this instance was not immediately clear. Industry websites say sidetrack wells are sometimes drilled to remedy a problem with the existing well bore.

“It’s a way to overcome an engineering problem with the original well,” Ken Medlock, an energy expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute said. “They’re not drilled all the time, but it’s not new.”

If only blowouts and explosions at Gulf drilling rigs were isolated incidents. But a blowout is how the Deepwater Horizon disaster got started. And earlier this month, we showed you a photograph taken by nonprofit On Wings of Care of a slick caused by an out-of-control natural gas well.

With the number of deep-sea rigs tapping the Gulf of Mexico for oil expected to nearly double in the next few years, the chances of more such disasters could yet grow.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View article: 

Another drilling blowout in the Gulf, another explosion

Posted in Anchor, Dolphin, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, PUR, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Another drilling blowout in the Gulf, another explosion

The Petite Advantage Diet – Jim Karas

by Myrna Posted on July 7, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

The Petite Advantage Diet

Achieve That Long, Lean Look. The Specialized Plan for Women 5’4" and Under.

Jim Karas

Genre: Health & Fitness

Price: $3.99

Publish Date: December 27, 2011

Publisher: HarperOne

Seller: HarperCollins


They make clothes for “Petites” so why not a specialized diet plan? You’re smaller, you’re more delicate, you’re 5'4" or under, yet you’re expected to follow a diet plan for the taller girls. What’s wrong with that? “A lot,” says Jim Karas, author of the number one New York Times bestseller The Business Plan for the Body . For over twenty years, Karas has helped the Petites. He makes them longer (without the rack). He makes them leaner (without starving) and he makes them feel more confident and sexier than they have ever felt before. Why? Because he knows how to get results specifically for you . . . a “Petite”. . . and get them fast. “I understand you,” says Karas. “I know you are watching your taller friends and colleagues eat more than you do but stay slim.” Fact: you do have to eat less, because a Petite needs only about 1,600 calories a day (compared to 2,500 calories for a taller woman) and is therefore naturally more prone to gain weight. But you are looking at the glass only as half empty. Thee glass, according to Karas, is really half full. Being a Petite has huge advantages such as: You can work out more effectively than a taller woman because your muscle-to-height ratio is greater; translation—better opportunity to boost your metabolism Your center of gravity is lower, and therefore you are less likely to injure yourself when you’re working out, and You can create that sexy hour-glass figure that taller women can’t achieve. Think Penelope Cruz (5’4”) and Dolly Parton (5’0”). Both are gorgeous members of “The Petites,” whose bodies rock. Karas has worked with women of all heights and sizes for more than twenty years, and has perfected strategies that bring effective and lasting fat loss for Petites. Based on solid, recent research, coupled with his passion for creating concrete solutions, Karas has crafted a program specially designed to help you create a longer, leaner, sexier body. Petites, you’re gonna love it!

Visit site:  

The Petite Advantage Diet – Jim Karas

Posted in alo, FF, GE, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Petite Advantage Diet – Jim Karas

Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

by Sang N. Jones Posted on June 13, 2013

Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Yum, genetically engineered corn and cotton.

That isn’t what most people would think. (Especially the cotton bit. And especially the GMO bit.)

But a growing number of pests appear to share this sentiment. They’ve developed immunity to corn and cotton crops genetically engineered to contain the pesticide Bt, so they’re now munching away with impunity.

As of 2010, five of 13 major pest species had become largely immune to the Bt poisons in GMO corn and cotton, compared to just one species in 2005, scientists write in a paper published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

“Three of the five cases are in the US, where farmers have planted about half of the world’s Bt crop acreage,” reports Business Standard. “[The study] indicates that in the worst cases, resistance evolved in 2 to 3 years; but in the best cases, effectiveness of Bt crops has been sustained more than 15 years.”

The scientists, who analyzed 77 studies conducted on five continents, also found that other species appear to be developing resistance.

Perhaps as alarming as the growth in the number of Bt-resistant species is the growth in the amount of land upon which Bt crops are planted. From the paper:

Nature Biotechnology

Click to embiggen.

So not only are farmers wasting money on GMO seeds that don’t perform as advertised, but they are then spraying their crops with more insecticides to help overcome bugs’ growing resistance. Meanwhile, nobody really knows what those Bt genes are doing to other animals that eat them. Such as pigs. And us.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Continue reading: 

Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, organic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

James Hansen says natural gas is worse than nuclear

by 7MelansonHayden940 Posted on April 5, 2013

James Hansen says natural gas is worse than nuclear

By John Upton

Shutterstock

If forced to decide between living in a world powered by natural gas or a world powered by nuclear energy, which would you choose?

Seems a little like trying to decide whether to chop off an arm or a leg.

Evacuees of Fukushima or residents of San Luis Obispo (a coastal Californian county where a nuclear power plant sits near poorly understood earthquake faults) may opt for natural gas. Then again, residents of nearby Contra Costa County, Calif. (where the air is poisoned by natural-gas-burning power plants), or of Pavilion, Wyo. (where the water was poisoned by natural gas fracking), may prefer nuclear.

Leave it to NASA scientist-turned-climate activist James Hansen to bring a little clarity. He crunched the numbers to determine which of the two options is less deadly to humanity. The result isn’t even close: Despite the horrific threats posed by nuclear fission, Hansen and NASA colleague Pushker Kharecha found nuclear power to be far safer than natural gas.

From their paper in the journal Environmental Science and Technology:

On the basis of global projection data that take into account the effects of the Fukushima accident, we find that nuclear power could additionally prevent an average of 420 000–7.04 million deaths and 80–240 [gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent] emissions due to fossil fuels by midcentury, depending on which fuel it replaces. By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than expansion of nuclear power.

Historically, the scientists conclude that air pollution would’ve killed nearly 2 million more people between 1979 and 2001 had all of the world’s nuclear power been replaced by the burning of coal and natural gas. The findings illustrate the difference 64 gigatons less carbon dioxide (or equivalent greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere can make.

Scientific American breaks it down:

What is even more starkly clear is that the number of deaths caused by nuclear power is far lower than those saved by it; in fact there’s scant comparison. As the report notes, even the worst nuclear accident in history (Chernobyl) caused about 40 deaths; these include 28 immediate responders and about 15 deaths caused among 6000 victims of excess cancers (it’s always very difficult to detect statistically significant excess cancers in the presence of a high natural background rate). There have been no deaths attributable to the Three Mile Island accident. And while the verdict on Fukushima is still not definitive, the latest report on the accident predicts no direct deaths and a much lower exposure to radiation for the surrounding population than that purported to lead to fatal cancers. The bottom line is that, even assuming pessimistic scenarios, the number of deaths caused by nuclear power is a minuscule fraction of those lives which were saved by nuclear power replacing fossil fuels.

So yay for nuclear, when compared in some important respects to fossil fuels. But maybe let’s not forget that option C is better than either one, hmm?

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View original article:  

James Hansen says natural gas is worse than nuclear

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Monterey, ONA, PUR, Safer, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on James Hansen says natural gas is worse than nuclear

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man – Steve Harvey

by muistenam Posted on March 19, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man

Steve Harvey

Genre: Self-Improvement

Price: $5.99

Publish Date: October 6, 2009

Publisher: HarperCollins e-books

Seller: HarperCollins


Steve Harvey, the host of the nationally syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show , can't count the number of impressive women he's met over the years, whether it's through the "Strawberry Letters" segment of his program or while on tour for his comedy shows. These are women who can run a small business, keep a household with three kids in tiptop shape, and chair a church group all at the same time. Yet when it comes to relationships, they can't figure out what makes men tick. Why? According to Steve it's because they're asking other women for advice when no one but another man can tell them how to find and keep a man. In Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man , Steve lets women inside the mindset of a man and sheds lights on concepts and questions such as: Sometimes funny, sometimes direct, but always truthful, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is a book you must read if you want to understand how men think when it comes to relationships.

Visit link:

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man – Steve Harvey

Posted in alo, FF, GE, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man – Steve Harvey

New Volvo tech aims to keep drivers from hitting cyclists

by df4sx12 Posted on March 6, 2013

New Volvo tech aims to keep drivers from hitting cyclists

By Susie Cagle

Those outside-the-car airbags are pretty sweet, but what if we could make cars automatically stop before they, you know, hit people?

That’s what Volvo’s up to, with a newly updated auto-brake system that recognizes slow-moving pedestrians and now also fast-swerving bicyclists. “When bicyclists swerve in front of an automobile heading in the same direction, the setup immediately alerts the driver and applies full brake power — a world’s first Volvo says,” reports Engadget.

Volvo

Volvo’s promotional video of the technology in action presents the cyclist as a kind of clueless headphone-wearing dolt, while the car driver appears empathetic. Still, you can at least see how it works:

Bike Radar explains the tech in more depth:

The technology uses information from a radar unit in the grille and a camera in front of the interior rear view mirror to constantly assess potential collisions. If an imminent impact is detected the driver is presented with a red warning flash and the car activates full braking power automatically. …

The system doesn’t guarantee that the vehicle will stop but it should be effective in reducing speeds in a collision, and in many cases should avoid an impact completely.

The benefits for cyclists will be limited, as the system functions in front of the [hood] — as a result, its ‘field of vision’ is restricted to this area only. The technology won’t stop a car pulling out of a parking space on you but it could well prevent an accident at a junction, or stop a dangerous overtaking maneuver.

Technology can’t stop bad driving that endangers cyclists, but it could help create safer and more equitable urban streetscapes where folks on bikes aren’t riding in fear. It would be bad news if drivers came to rely on it instead of paying careful attention to the road, though. Hey, maybe Volvo could add a feature that counts up all the times a driver triggers the auto-brakes and scares them with the number once a week?

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Business & Technology

,

Cities

,

Living

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View the original here:  

New Volvo tech aims to keep drivers from hitting cyclists

Posted in ALPHA, Amana, G & F, GE, LG, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Volvo tech aims to keep drivers from hitting cyclists

Midwestern cities are setting new records for days without snow

by biglermyrta910 Posted on December 14, 2012

Midwestern cities are setting new records for days without snow

By Philip Bump

Shutterstock

Even hoping for a snowman this large is optimistic.

Having lived in a snowy region, I certainly understand that snowfall can be a pain in the ass. It’s great while falling, to a point, and great when sitting in large drifts in the yard preventing egress to school and/or work, and then terrible when you have to shovel it or see it in dark, muddy piles by the side of the road or struggle out into it to go to school and/or work.

So this news is a mixed blessing: Cities across the Midwest are setting new records for the number of consecutive days without measurable snowfall.

Chicago is the most notable entrant on the new records list. The city is now in its 285th straight day without accumulation — passing the record of 280 set in 1994. (City government isn’t complaining, given how much it is saving on snow removal.) Champaign-Urbana, Ill., is at about 283. Lincoln and Omaha, Neb., are both in the low 300s. Des Moines broke a record set in 1889, entering its 285th day today.

NOAA

Snowfall over the last 72 hours.

Part of the problem is the drought, which affects snow as well as rain. And with much of the area still under severe drought conditions, even negligible precipitation is unlikely.

Drought Monitor

From USA Today:

National Weather Service program manager Jim Keeney said the country’s drought conditions this year are to blame for snow not sticking to the ground.

“At this point it doesn’t matter what falls from the sky, snow or rain,” he said. “To get precipitation would be beneficial for a chunk of the country.”

He also noted some cities that have seen snow are well below their averages this time of year.

Minneapolis usually has about 11 inches of snow on the ground by early December – but the measurement stands at less than an inch right now. Green Bay, Wis., is more than four inches off its normal snowfall.

The other problem is stubbornly high temperatures. This map shows the past week’s new high temperature records (red) and new high minimum temperatures (yellow). It’s a smattering, but still suggests warmer-than-average-temperatures across the region.

HAMweather

Even if precipitation fell, if it’s not cold enough, that water won’t fall as snow.

Why are temperatures so high and the drought so persistent? Well, that’s subject to rigorous, thoughtful debate. Scientists would likely suggest that they are symptomatic of a changing climate, though, of course, particular local weather variations are not uncommon. Republicans, on the other hand, would blame sun spots. So who knows.

In short: those kids in Illinois and Nebraska dreaming of a brownish-gray Christmas: your wish is likely to come true. But if you were also wishing for a few snow days? Better luck next year.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Cities

,

Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Read the article:  

Midwestern cities are setting new records for days without snow

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Midwestern cities are setting new records for days without snow

Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California

by Myrna Posted on December 4, 2012

Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California

By Susie Cagle

About a third of the electric cars in the U.S. are spinning on California roads, but the state still has much work to do to build the charging infrastructure to support them.

drwhimsy

There are about 1,000 public chargers in the state right now, and New Jersey-based NRG is poised to install 200 fast chargers and the wiring for 10,000 more regular chargers throughout the state by 2016. A fast charger can juice up a vehicle in as little as 15 minutes, while the regular kind can take hours. But building up the infrastructure isn’t simple, as KQED reports:

Still, a multitude of challenges face NRG and other charging companies, like Bay Area-based ChargePoint andEcotality. Fast chargers produce very high voltage. They require complicated permitting. And they cost upward of $40,000 each.

Right now, the financials don’t add up says NRG’s Terry O’Day.

“The public charging infrastructure is extraordinarily expensive and there aren’t enough cars right now so there isn’t an effective business model to make the investment work,” he says.

But that charging investment is vital if more Californians are going to start buying and driving electric cars.

John O’Dell, Senior Editor at Edmunds.com says for electric cars to catch on its vital to have a reliable charging network.

“Public charging infrastructure is critical to the widespread acceptance of plug-in and particularly battery electric vehicles. Because without public chargers you basically have a fairly short leash on your vehicle and you are not going to be willing to drive it long distances.”

To complicate matters, companies have developed competing charging standards. E.g., you can’t just charge your Tesla at any old charger — it has to be a proprietary Tesla charger. The CEO of one Silicon Valley charging company describes the whole situation as “somewhat of a mess.”

Still, what the state might lack in competence in makes up for in enthusiasm. Despite all the problems, the number of fast chargers is California is expected to quadruple over the next year.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Business & Technology

,

Cities

,

Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Original link:

Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bumps on the road to EV infrastructure in California