Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Why doesn't the United States get more oil from Canada, Instead of The Middle East? They have plenty of it!
The current Keystone pipeline is nearly 3,500 kilometres long and pumps 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Oklahoma and Illinois.
The proposed pipeline extension, Keystone XL, would bring Canadian oil all the way to Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico.
If the expansion wins regulatory approval, TransCanada expects it to start up some time in 2013.
The expansion would more than double the volume of oil shipped from Canada into the U.S. And Liepert said a pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast would expand Canada's energy industry beyond the U.S. market.
The project has faced opposition in the U.S. Critics don't like the idea of what they call the "dirtiest oil in the world" making the trip through the American Midwest.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concerned about the risk of oil spills that could affect drinking water and sensitive ecosystems, as well as the effect of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the expansion.
The current Keystone pipeline has experienced leaks, including a small one in Kansas in June and a larger one in North Dakota in early May.
Should Alberta's cross-border oil pipeline be extended to Texas? Should the federal government lobby Washington on behalf of the Alberta oil industry to win approval?CBC Source
April 2011 Import Highlights: Released June 29, 2011
Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in April 2011 has been released and it shows that two countries exported more than 1,000 thousand barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 68 percent of United States crude oil imports in April while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 88 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top five sources of US crude oil imports for April were Canada (2,079 thousand barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1,089 thousand barrels per day), Mexico (973 thousand barrels per day), Venezuela (902 thousand barrels per day), and Nigeria (856 thousand barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Iraq (519 thousand barrels per day), Colombia (462 thousand barrels per day), Russia (288 thousand barrels per day), Angola (277 thousand barrels per day), and Brazil (210 thousand barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 8,715 thousand barrels per day in April, which is a decrease of 318 thousand barrels per day from March 2011. Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in April, exporting 2,625 thousand barrels per day to the United States, which is a decrease from last month (2,666 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Saudi Arabia with 1,107 thousand barrels per day.
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After the driest eight-month period in Texas' recorded history, this barren ranch land has become inhospitable to even the most drought-resistant vegetation. So where, amid the severe dry spell, did all this pristine water come from? The query probably would not have been raised in non-drought times in this oil-friendly community. But as West Texas' reservoirs run dry, cities are scouring the region for their next water supply, and farmers are becoming more desperate for rainfall, oil companies here and elsewhere are pumping out millions of gallons of freshwater from underground aquifers. The purpose: To break loose rocks to get at trapped underground oil. The water is mixed with toxic chemicals and sand, and pumped into wells at high pressure to fracture the rock to expose the oil. It can take millions of gallons of fluid to hydraulically fracture, or "frack," a single well. Only about 20 percent to 25 percent on average of the water is recovered, while the rest disappears underground, never to be seen again. The Texas Water Development Board estimates the total amount of water used for fracking statewide in 2010 was 13.5 billion gallons. That's likely to more than double by 2020, and decline gradually each decade after that until dropping back down to current levels between 2050 and 2060. "We're using scarce resources to get scarce resources," said John Christmann, Permian Region vice president for Apache Corp., a Houston-based oil and gas company that operates in almost every West Texas county.
Riverside County official wants California split into 2 states
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone is proposing that about a dozen counties break away from California to form the new "State of South California."
The split, Stone said Thursday, would allow officials in the new state to concentrate on securing borders, balancing budgets, improving schools and creating a vibrant economy.
"Our taxes are too high, our schools don't educate our children well enough, unions and other special interests have more clout in the Legislature than the general public," Stone said in a statement. "It has to change."
Stone suggested that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties band together to form the new state.
Among the things the new state should consider, he said, are having a part-time Legislature, shifting more power to local governments and adopting a reasonable sales tax.
Stone said he will propose that Riverside County officials hold a public meeting at the Riverside Convention Center to hear thoughts and testimony from officials and members of the public.
"Are there challenges?" he asked about his proposal. "Absolutely. But the destruction of California has to stop and we don't know what we can accomplish unless we sit down and consider the possibilities.
The split, Stone said Thursday, would allow officials in the new state to concentrate on securing borders, balancing budgets, improving schools and creating a vibrant economy.
"Our taxes are too high, our schools don't educate our children well enough, unions and other special interests have more clout in the Legislature than the general public," Stone said in a statement. "It has to change."
Stone suggested that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties band together to form the new state.
Among the things the new state should consider, he said, are having a part-time Legislature, shifting more power to local governments and adopting a reasonable sales tax.
Stone said he will propose that Riverside County officials hold a public meeting at the Riverside Convention Center to hear thoughts and testimony from officials and members of the public.
"Are there challenges?" he asked about his proposal. "Absolutely. But the destruction of California has to stop and we don't know what we can accomplish unless we sit down and consider the possibilities.
Mr. Stone is particularly incensed by an item in the recently passed state budget that relates to the use of vehicle license fee revenue. Under the measure, any city incorporated after 2004 must forgo funding from the vehicle license fee. Riverside, which consistently ranks as one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country, is hurt disproportionately because its cities are much newer. The fees, which account for between a quarter and a third of city budgets for four new Riverside County cities, were taken to help close the state's $26.6 billion deficit.
So does Mr. Stone, a pharmacist-turned-supervisor, have the right prescription for what ails California? "It's the political equivalent of smashing the china," says Professor John J. Pitney of Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles County. "But sometimes, that's the only way to get attention."
There have been at least two dozen secession attempts in the state since 1850. Both state lawmakers and Congress would have to approve any split.more from the WSJ
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
MICROWAVE COOKING IS KILLING PEOPLE !
Microwave cooking is one of the most important causes of ill health. It is certainly one of the most ignored.
There was a lawsuit in 1991 in Oklahoma. A woman named Norma Levitt had hip surgery, but was killed by a simple blood transfusion when a nurse "warmed the blood for the transfusion in a microwave oven!"
Logic suggests that if heating is all there is to microwave cooking, then it doesn't matter how something is heated. Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed, but not in microwave ovens. Does it not therefore follow that microwaving cooking does something quite different?
A little evidence of the harm caused by microwaving cooking was given by the University of Minnesota in a radio announcement:
"Microwaves ... are not recommended for heating a baby's bottle. The bottle may seem cool to the touch, but the liquid inside may become extremely hot and could burn the baby's mouth and throat... Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed.... Warming a bottle by holding it under tap water or by setting it in a bowl of warm water, then testing it on your wrist before feeding, may take a few minutes longer, but it is much safer".
There have been very few scientific studies done on the effect of eating food microwaved food. This is rather surprising when you think about the fact that microwaves have been with us for only a few decades - and that in that time the incidence of many diseases has continued to increase.
Two researchers, Blanc and Hertel, confirmed that microwave cooking significantly changes food nutrients. Hertel previously worked as a food scientist for several years with one of the major Swiss food companies. He was fired from his job for questioning procedures in processing food because they denatured it. He got together with Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Biochemistry and the University Institute for Biochemistry.
They studied the effect that microwaved food had on eight individuals, by taking blood samples immediately after eating. They found that after eating microwaved food, haemoglobin levels decreased. "These results show anaemic tendencies. The situation became even more pronounced during the second month of the study".
Who knows what results they would have found if they had studied people who ate microwaved food for a year or more?
The violent change that microwaving causes to the food molecules forms new life forms called radiolytic compounds. These are mutations that are unknown in the natural world. Ordinary cooking also causes the formation of some radiolytic compounds (which is no doubt one reason why it is better to eat plenty of raw food), but microwaving cooking causes a much greater number. This then causes deterioration in your blood and immune system.
Lymphocytes (white blood cells) also showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants.
Another change was a decrease in the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values.
Each of these indicators pointed to degeneration
The results were published in "Search for Health" in the Spring of 1992. How was this research greeted? A powerful trade organisation, the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry somehow made the President of the Court of Seftigen issue a `gag order'. Hertel and Blanc were told that if they published their findings they would face hefty fines or up to one year in prison. In response to this, Blanc recanted his findings. Hertel, on the other hand, went on a lecture tour and demanded a jury trial.
FINALLY, in 1998 the Court `Gag Order' was removed. In a judgment delivered at Strasbourg on 25 August 1998 in the case of Hertel v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a violation of Hertel's rights in the 1993 decision. The Court decided that the `gag order' prohibiting him form declaring that microwaved food is dangerous to health was contrary to the right to freedom of expression. In addition, Switzerland was sentenced to pay compensation of F40,000.
After the World War II, the Russians also experimented with microwave ovens. From 1957 up to recently, their research has been carried out mainly at the Institute of Radio Technology at Klinsk, Byelorussia. According to US researcher William Kopp, who gathered much of the results of Russian and German research - and was apparently prosecuted for doing so (J. Nat. Sci, 1998; 1:42-3) - the following effects were observed by Russian forensic teams:
1. Heating prepared meats in a microwave sufficiently for human consumption created:
* d-Nitrosodiethanolamine (a well-known cancer-causing agent)
* Destabilization of active protein biomolecular compounds
* Creation of a binding effect to radioactivity in the atmosphere
* Creation of cancer-causing agents within protein-hydrosylate compounds in milk and cereal grains;
2. Microwave emissions also caused alteration in the catabolic (breakdown) behavior of glucoside - and galactoside - elements within frozen fruits when thawed in this way;
3. Microwaves altered catabolic behavior of plant-alkaloids when raw, cooked or frozen vegetables were exposed for even very short periods;
4. Cancer-causing free radicals were formed within certain trace-mineral molecular formations in plant substances, especially in raw root vegetables;
more at source
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
What is it: ‘Kill Your Child and Get Away With It Month’?
What is it: ‘Kill Your Child and Get Away With It Month’?
- A grieving mother had one request for outraged Quebecers after a jury let her ex-husband, who repeatedly stabbed their children to death, off without jail time: vengeance is not the answer.
Pending a psychiatric evaluation, Guy Turcotte might now walk free within weeks despite having admitted to killing the two youngsters.
The level of outrage over the decision was made clear as social-networking sites exploded with the news as regular Quebecers took to the Internet to express their disgust.
It was the children’s mother, Isabelle Gaston, who appealed for calm. Despite expressing her own shock at the verdict, she urged the public against resorting to vigiliantism.
“Wish us peace,” Gaston, a physician, told reporters at the courthouse in St-Jerome, just outside Montreal.
“No violence against whomever — even the father, or myself — … would restore justice.”
The shocking details of the case have been front and centre in the news for the past few months as the sensational trial made Turcotte a household name in Quebec.
Turcotte had been charged with first-degree murder after police found his son Olivier, 5, and daughter Anne-Sophie, 3, dead in their beds.
They had been stabbed 46 times.
While the 39-year-old ex-cardiologist admitted to having caused their deaths, in a rented home north of Montreal in 2009, he denied criminal intent.
The defence focused on Turcotte’s state of mind at the time of the killings and dragged out its closing argument over an exhaustive four days, compared to the prosecution’s several hours.
His lawyers argued that the former cardiologist loved his children but was unable to cope with the breakup of his marriage and he was feeling increasingly marginalized by Gaston’s new beau.
Turcotte said he planned to end his own life on the night of Feb. 20, 2009, after reading e-mails between Gaston and her new lover, her personal trainer Martin Huot.
He started drinking windshield washer fluid to that end, but decided at some point that he didn’t want his children to wake up the following morning and find their father dead.
So, according to his testimony, Turcotte decided that he’d take the children with him.
Only he didn’t die.More at Source
Thank you battleskin88
Guy Turcotte holds his daughter Anne-Sophie in an undated handout photo. Turcotte, …
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