Tag Archive: Shearwater facility


Politics and Legislation

GOP stockpiles $21M for eventual nominee

By Josh Lederman

The winner of the Republican presidential primary will have more than $20 million waiting for him once he clinches the nomination.

The Republican National Committee said Thursday that it has fully funded its Presidential Trust, a fund that the GOP can use to coordinate directly with its nominee. Federal Election Commission rules for 2012 set the cap for that fund at $21.6 million.

The full kitty may be a sigh of relief to the GOP candidates, who are likely to have drained most of their own resources by the time one of them locks up the nomination. Already the campaigns are showing signs of financial stress, with many big-dollar donors maxed out for the primary.

Read Full Article Here

The Warning….

Uploaded by crabbydogtrix on Mar 29, 2012

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Economy

A Cashless Society May Be Closer Than Most People Would Ever Dare To Imagine

Most people think of a cashless society as something that is way off in the distant future. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. The truth is that a cashless society is much closer than most people would ever dare to imagine. To a large degree, the transition to a cashless society is being done voluntarily. Today, only 7 percent of all transactions in the United States are done with cash, and most of those transactions involve very small amounts of money. Just think about it for a moment. Where do you still use cash these days? If you buy a burger or if you purchase something at a flea market you will still use cash, but for any mid-size or large transaction the vast majority of people out there will use another form of payment. Our financial system is dramatically changing, and cash is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. We live in a digital world, and national governments and big banks are both encouraging the move away from paper currency and coins. But what would a cashless society mean for our future? Are there any dangers to such a system?

Read Full Article Here

Everything Is Going To Be Alright?

Is the U.S. economy going to be okay? Well, if the only source you listened to was the mainstream media, you would be left with the distinct impression that the U.S. economy is heading toward a full recovery and that everything is going to be alright. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. The United States is rapidly becoming poorer as a nation and less competitive in the global marketplace. At the same time, consumer debt levels are rising, corporate debt levels are rising, state and local government debt levels are rising and the U.S. government is indulging in a debt binge unlike anything the world has ever seen. Considering the insane amount of money the U.S. government has been pumping into the economy, we should have seen a much more robust recovery by now. Instead, the employment statistics have barely moved and government dependence is at an all-time high. That is really sad, because this is as good as “the recovery” is going to get. The next major economic downturn is just around the bend, and in future years millions of us will desperately yearn for the “good old days” of 2012.

Read Full Article Here

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Wars and Rumors of War

US assassination drone kills four people in northwest Pakistan

A non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone strike has killed at least four people in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials say.

The US drone raid targeted a house in a market area of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, early Friday, according to the officials.

An intelligence official also said the attack left four people dead and two injured.

Washington has increasingly turned to unmanned aircraft to carry out strikes in several countries, including Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

On January 31, President Barack Obama confirmed that the United States used the unmanned drones in Pakistan and other countries.

Read Full Article Here

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Environmental

Total: “may be months” to stop North Sea gas cloud

Oleg Vukmanovic, Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – A cloud of explosive natural gas boiling up from the North Sea out of a leak at Total’s evacuated Elgin platform forced another shutdown off the Scottish coast on Tuesday as the French firm warned it could take six months to halt the flow.

Dubbed “the well from hell” by an environmentalist who said the unusually high pressure of the undersea reservoirs made it especially hard to shut off, the loss of oil and gas output from Elgin – as well as the prospect of a big repair bill – helped drive Total’s share price down six percent on the Paris bourse.

As Shell pulled its bigger Shearwater facility offline too and an air and sea exclusion zone was declared around the forlorn Elgin rig, 150 miles east of Aberdeen, green campaigners denounced dangers in the technically challenging deep drilling that energy companies have undertaken around the globe to exploit the high prices created by insatiable demand.

The Elgin well, pumping some three percent of Britain’s gas output from nearly four miles below the seabed, pushes the frontiers of technology and is one of the deepest, most highly pressurized, offshore natural gas fields in the world. It now sits empty following Sunday’s emergency evacuation of 238 crew.

Total, which said the rupture of an unused reservoir above the main production source seemed to have been caused by its own engineers, is now looking at two main options to cut off the shimmering plume of gas rising above the sea: either drilling a relief well nearby, which could take six months, or – faster but possibly riskier – sending in engineers to “kill” the leak.

Read Full Article Here

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Articles of Interest

European bloodlines face end-time vortex of exposure

Europe’s royal élites are fragmenting over their Nazi-continuum connections with the Committee of 300

On Monday 20th February 2012, confirmatory intelligence emerged from Japan (here) that, below the surface, a widening rift in geopolitical loyalties is developing between the older and younger members of the British Royal Family bloodlines. This rift is understood to be developing and extending through most of the European Illuminati hereditary control-structures, not just in the UK, but also in countries such as The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

What is being referred to as the Gnostic Illuminati power  group has issued a 31st March 2012 deadline to the Western banking cartel’s Committee of 300, to cease and desist in its Nazi-continuum (Odessa Group) agenda of financial theft and international exploitation.

The Committee of 300 agenda is being implemented through artificially constructed financial instruments and money laundries, and through wars, invasions and state-sponsored terrorist atrocities such as the post-WW2 conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and the false-flag attacks of 911….

Read Full Article Here

The great Easter get nowhere: RAC warns that petrol panic buying risks millions of drivers not being able to fill their tanks for holiday break

……The Petrol Retailers Association said today it was waiting for ‘practical and well-considered’ leadership from the Government during the growing fuel crisis.

‘The Government has ordered the Army to train drivers to maintain fuel deliveries and, whilst this is potentially welcome, it has been proposed without any prior consultation with industry. Just 300 Army drivers cannot possibly replace 2,000 striking civilian drivers,’ said a statement.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls accused Prime Minister David Cameron of playing ‘schoolboy political games’ in stoking up panic over fuel to try to distract attention from his troubles with Budget tax rises and the scandal over donations to the Tories.

Mr Balls told BBC Radio Leeds: ‘I do think that political games were played. I think the Prime Minister woke up on Monday morning and thought ”I’ve got the worst weekend I’ve had in Government”, because of the Tory donation scandal after a Budget which had been judged by the country to be deeply unfair, and he thought ”Why don’t I try to divert attention?”

‘So suddenly, out of the blue, we had Government ministers talking up a strike which wasn’t even called – there’s no date for this strike. When he should have been responsible, he decided to wind this up, he sent out his Cabinet minister to say ‘Fill up your jerrycans’ and we’ve ended up with these queues, even though there’s normal petrol deliveries, there’s no strike, there has to be seven days’ notice even if there was a strike.

‘It was a political invention, the panic of the last couple of days, and the nation and some people are paying a very, very heavy price for that. I think it’s backfired because I think people have generally seen that these are schoolboy political games being played by people who should be doing responsible jobs.’

The Department for Transport announced a temporary relaxation of the enforcement of EU hours and working-time rules for drivers of fuel tankers, running from today until April 5.

The daily driving limit of nine hours will be increased to 11, while daily rest requirements will be cut from 11 to nine hours.

The weekly driving limit of 56 hours and fortnightly limit of 90 hours will both be lifted.
The enforcement of working-time rules has also been relaxed for this period to allow drivers to work up to 66 hours instead of the usual 60-hour weekly maximum.

The AA said the ‘unnecessary and self-inflicted’ shortages were due to poor advice. It urged motorists to ignore suggestions to fill up their tanks.

One senior Tory said: ‘Francis Maude has completely mucked up this week. He is to blame for the gargantuan queues outside petrol stations.’

The Petrol Retailers Association said ministers had been ‘irresponsible’ and were at fault for the panic buying.

Read Full Article Here

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Earthquakes

 

EMSC Crete, Greece
Mar 31 22:56 PM
3.0 15.0 MAP

USGS Hawaii Region, Hawaii
Mar 31 22:49 PM
3.0 37.1 MAP

EMSC Guam Region
Mar 31 22:36 PM
4.9 55.0 MAP

USGS Guam Region
Mar 31 22:36 PM
4.9 51.9 MAP

GEOFON Mindanao, Philippines
Mar 31 22:36 PM
4.6 10.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Honshu, Japan
Mar 31 22:30 PM
4.3 86.0 MAP

GEOFON South Of Mariana Islands
Mar 31 22:03 PM
4.9 10.0 MAP

USGS Guam Region
Mar 31 22:03 PM
4.9 8.8 MAP

EMSC Guam Region
Mar 31 22:03 PM
5.0 5.0 MAP

USGS Southern Alaska
Mar 31 22:00 PM
2.7 53.3 MAP

EMSC France
Mar 31 22:00 PM
3.2 5.0 MAP

EMSC Maule, Chile
Mar 31 21:52 PM
4.4 41.0 MAP

USGS Maule, Chile
Mar 31 21:52 PM
4.4 40.7 MAP

USGS Pakistan
Mar 31 21:42 PM
4.2 38.2 MAP

EMSC Pakistan
Mar 31 21:42 PM
4.2 38.0 MAP

EMSC Turkey-iran Border Region
Mar 31 21:38 PM
2.4 5.0 MAP

USGS Central Alaska
Mar 31 21:33 PM
3.2 7.3 MAP

EMSC Romania
Mar 31 21:29 PM
3.1 142.0 MAP

EMSC Vanuatu
Mar 31 19:59 PM
4.9 67.0 MAP

USGS Vanuatu
Mar 31 19:59 PM
4.8 71.8 MAP

GEOFON Vanuatu Islands
Mar 31 19:59 PM
4.8 10.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 18:55 PM
2.6 4.0 MAP

GEOFON Near Coast Of Chiapas, Mexico
Mar 31 18:55 PM
4.5 65.0 MAP

USGS Offshore Guatemala
Mar 31 18:55 PM
4.4 70.2 MAP

EMSC Offshore Guatemala
Mar 31 18:55 PM
4.5 53.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 18:36 PM
2.4 2.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 17:31 PM
3.3 16.0 MAP

USGS Puerto Rico Region
Mar 31 17:28 PM
2.5 23.1 MAP

EMSC Offshore El Salvador
Mar 31 17:13 PM
4.5 62.0 MAP

USGS Off The Coast Of El Salvador
Mar 31 17:13 PM
4.5 61.9 MAP

GEOFON Tonga Islands
Mar 31 17:06 PM
5.3 109.0 MAP

USGS Tonga
Mar 31 17:06 PM
5.4 122.8 MAP

EMSC Tonga
Mar 31 17:06 PM
5.5 60.0 MAP

EMSC Sea Of Japan
Mar 31 16:51 PM
4.1 393.0 MAP

USGS Sea Of Japan
Mar 31 16:51 PM
4.1 393.4 MAP

EMSC Caucasus Region, Russia
Mar 31 16:49 PM
3.7 5.0 MAP

EMSC Azerbaijan
Mar 31 16:39 PM
3.5 60.0 MAP

USGS Southern Alaska
Mar 31 15:27 PM
2.5 20.4 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 14:09 PM
2.9 7.0 MAP

USGS Baja California, Mexico
Mar 31 13:21 PM
2.7 16.0 MAP

EMSC Sicily, Italy
Mar 31 13:09 PM
2.4 8.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 12:54 PM
2.4 14.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 12:41 PM
3.6 2.0 MAP

EMSC Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Mar 31 12:38 PM
4.9 52.0 MAP

USGS Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Mar 31 12:38 PM
4.9 35.2 MAP

GEOFON Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Mar 31 12:38 PM
4.9 10.0 MAP

USGS Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Mar 31 11:56 AM
3.9 20.1 MAP

USGS Oklahoma
Mar 31 11:54 AM
3.3 5.0 MAP

EMSC Aegean Sea
Mar 31 10:42 AM
2.4 15.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 10:41 AM
3.3 2.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 10:38 AM
4.1 2.0 MAP

USGS Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 10:38 AM
4.1 5.0 MAP

USGS Channel Islands Region, California
Mar 31 09:53 AM
3.0 3.5 MAP

GEOFON Near Coast Of Venezuela
Mar 31 09:47 AM
4.8 10.0 MAP

EMSC Sucre, Venezuela
Mar 31 09:47 AM
4.9 10.0 MAP

USGS Sucre, Venezuela
Mar 31 09:47 AM
4.9 9.8 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 09:32 AM
2.5 5.0 MAP

EMSC Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Is.
Mar 31 09:19 AM
5.0 10.0 MAP

USGS South Of The Aleutian Islands
Mar 31 09:19 AM
4.6 35.0 MAP

GEOFON Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands
Mar 31 09:19 AM
5.0 10.0 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 09:17 AM
3.2 7.0 MAP

USGS Southern Alaska
Mar 31 07:02 AM
2.9 137.5 MAP

EMSC Eastern Turkey
Mar 31 05:09 AM
2.9 7.0 MAP

USGS Puerto Rico Region
Mar 31 04:55 AM
2.8 58.2 MAP

EMSC Switzerland
Mar 31 04:24 AM
2.8 2.0 MAP

EMSC Hindu Kush Region, Afghanistan
Mar 31 04:16 AM
4.9 231.0 MAP

GEOFON Afghanistan-tajikistan Border Region
Mar 31 04:16 AM
5.1 213.0 MAP

USGS Hindu Kush Region, Afghanistan
Mar 31 04:16 AM
4.9 221.2 MAP

USGS Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Mar 31 03:58 AM
4.6 35.0 MAP

EMSC Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Mar 31 03:58 AM
4.8 10.0 MAP

GEOFON Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Mar 31 03:58 AM
4.7 10.0 MAP

USGS Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Mar 31 03:46 AM
3.3 15.0 MAP

USGS Southern Alaska
Mar 31 02:56 AM
2.7 117.0 MAP

USGS Channel Islands Region, California
Mar 31 02:15 AM
3.1 0.1 MAP

EMSC Turkey-iran Border Region
Mar 31 00:54 AM
2.5 3.0 MAP

GEONET Fiordland
Mar 31 00:32 AM
4.1 12.0 MAP

GEOFON Jujuy Province, Argentina
Mar 31 00:05 AM
4.3 188.0 MAP

EMSC Jujuy, Argentina
Mar 31 00:05 AM
4.5 190.0 MAP

USGS Jujuy, Argentina
Mar 31 00:05 AM
4.6 200.1 MAP

USGS Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Mar 31 00:03 AM
2.9 44.0 MAP

 

 

5.2 magnitude quake rocks Kashmir

 

UNI Srinagar ,

 

An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hit Kashmir valley on Saturday, including its summer capital Srinagar, forcing people to rush out of their homes in panic. Kashmir disaster management head Aamir Ali said tremors were felt at 9.46am and the tremblor’s epicentre was in
Hindukush mountains in Afghanistan.
Ali said people rushed out of their homes in panic and took shelter in open spaces.

There was no immediate report of any loss of life or damage to property, he added.

 

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Extreme Winds/Windstorms

 

Strong winds in Urumqi city of China

 

Strong winds in Urumqi city of China killed three people and injured twenty one so far. Wall collapsed in West Karamay Road and killed two people.
The regional meteorological center issued an orange wind alert, with winds of at least 80 km/hr forecast for the suburbs of Urumqi. Forty-two flights in the Urumqi International Airport were delayed, re-routed or canceled by the winds.

 

http://disaster-report.blogspot.com/2012/03/natural-disasters-list-march-31-2012.html

 

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Fires

 

Forest fire near to Geraldine, Montana, USA burned 2,500 acres. There are no reports of any injuries or damaged structures.

 

http://disaster-report.blogspot.com/2012/03/natural-disasters-list-march-31-2012.html

 

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Storms, Flooding, Landslides

 

Landslide highlights Haiti woes

 

At least six people die in a landslide that destroyed one of the many homes built on a precarious sandy mountain in Port-au-Prince.

-Six killed by Landslide in Port Au Prince city of Haiti. Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean country of Haiti
-Torrential rainfall from two weeks caused the landslide
-Following UN, hundreds of thousand victims of Haiti quake are having miserable condition living in tents. Donor had provided half the aid requested by Haiti last year
-About 30 Haitians were killed during the last rain season
-Port-au-Prince has a tropical wet and dry climate and relatively constant temperatures throughout the year

 

http://video.news.com.au/embed/2217757843/Landslide-highlights-Haiti-woes?player=narrow

 

Severe Flooding in Fiji Islands

 

A 57 old woman died at evacuation center in Sabeto. She was patient of Daibetes.
-Navo Bridge washed away by flood water. It was only the way from Nadi town or the Nadi International Airport from Queens Highway going towards Nadi from Suva.
-Recent heavy rainfall is caused by a shallow tropical depression located west-southwest of Nadi

 

Get Updates Here

 

 

Tropical storm Pakhar

 

Earlier it was forecast that tropical storm Pakhar will continue as Cat 1 (Hurricane) till April 1st BUT by late today (March 31st), it is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm (one step below).
It will make landfall (TS) first in Phan Thiet city of Vietnam by late today.

 

http://disaster-report.blogspot.com/2012/03/natural-disasters-list-march-31-2012.html

 

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Solar Activity

 

Total Gas Leak/Solar Update

 

Uploaded by MrCometwatch

The Leak is 150 miles off the Scottish coast with high winds blowing the gas into Germany. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/slideshow/ALeqM5gL5N8hbBirfZTEwz8rQbsudP…

 

 

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Solar System

 

April Fools’ Day Asteroid to Buzz Earth Sunday: No Joke!

 

Tariq Malik
Space.com

An asteroid the size of a passenger jet will zoom close by Earth on Sunday (April 1) just in time for April Fools’ Day, but it has no chance of hitting the Earth, NASA says.

The asteroid 2012 EG5 will be closer than the moon when it passes Earth at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT). The space rock is about 150 feet wide (46 meters), according to a NASA update.

“Asteroid 2012 EG5 will safely pass Earth on April 1,” scientists with NASA’s Asteroid Watch program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., wrote in a Twitter statement.

The space rock may be visiting Earth on April Fools’ Day, but its flyby is no prank. The asteroid will creep within 143,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) of Earth during its closest approach, which is just over half the distance between Earth and the moon’s orbit. The moon typically circles the Earth at a distance of 238,000 miles (382,900 km).

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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Mysterious Booms / Rumblings

 

That noise was not thunder, Pocono residents say

 

Strong thunderstorms hit the Poconos Friday night, moving through shortly after 10 p.m. and continuing for at least a half hour, but the weather event that had folks talking was a loud sonic-like boom that shook houses at about 10:15 p.m.

Gilda Spiotta of Long Pond said, “The shaking last night lasted unusually long. Didn’t sound like thunder, didn’t feel like thunder, was wondering if something happened on 380/80; tanker accident.”

Another Long Pond resident, Lorene R. Allman-Mars: “My son was at the back door letting the dogs out and he reported that he saw a large flash of light fill the sky toward/above the FedEx distribution site on 940, then he heard a loud boom. It didn’t look like lightning, it looked like a bomb blew up in the air. I was on the second floor of the house; I didn’t see anything but I heard the boom and felt it shake the house. I actually felt it under my feet. The floors shook; I have never felt lightning shake the house like that before and we’ve been up here 20 years!”

Some readers suggested an earthquake or an explosion, but said that definitely was no routine thunder.

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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Articles of Interest

 

FEMA chief says agency bracing for ‘maximum’ disaster

 

By Eric Berger

Recent hurricanes Ike and Katrina may rank among the three costliest storms in U.S. history, but in preparing for disasters the federal government must think bigger still, says America’s top emergency planner.

“As devastating as those two hurricanes were, they’re not as bad as it gets,” said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Fugate told reporters Tuesday at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Fla., that his agency has been preparing for realistic worst-case scenarios – not just natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, but terrorist attacks, as well.

 

Read Full Article Here

 

 

Total: “may be months” to stop North Sea gas cloud

 

Oleg Vukmanovic Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – A cloud of explosive natural gas boiling up from the North Sea out of a leak at Total’s evacuated Elgin platform forced another shutdown off the Scottish coast on Tuesday as the French firm warned it could take six months to halt the flow.

Dubbed “the well from hell” by an environmentalist who said the unusually high pressure of the undersea reservoirs made it especially hard to shut off, the loss of oil and gas output from Elgin – as well as the prospect of a big repair bill – helped drive Total’s share price down six percent on the Paris bourse.

As Shell pulled its bigger Shearwater facility offline too and an air and sea exclusion zone was declared around the forlorn Elgin rig, 150 miles east of Aberdeen, green campaigners denounced dangers in the technically challenging deep drilling that energy companies have undertaken around the globe to exploit the high prices created by insatiable demand.

The Elgin well, pumping some three percent of Britain’s gas output from nearly four miles below the seabed, pushes the frontiers of technology and is one of the deepest, most highly pressurized, offshore natural gas fields in the world. It now sits empty following Sunday’s emergency evacuation of 238 crew.

Total, which said the rupture of an unused reservoir above the main production source seemed to have been caused by its own engineers, is now looking at two main options to cut off the shimmering plume of gas rising above the sea: either drilling a relief well nearby, which could take six months, or – faster but possibly riskier – sending in engineers to “kill” the leak.

 

Read Full Article Here

 

 

2MIN News March30: World News, Solar Update

 

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