Odie

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Posts posted by Odie

  8. Posted

    ANALYSIS-US oil firms seek drilling access, but exports soar

     

    07.03.08, 2:40 PM ET

     

     

    United States - By Tom Doggett

    WASHINGTON3 (Reuters) - While the U.S. oil industry want access to more federal lands to help reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, American-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries.

     

    A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.

     

    The surge in exports appears to contradict the pleas from the U.S. oil industry and the Bush administration for Congress to open more offshore waters and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

     

    "We can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country," President Bush told reporters this week. "We have got the opportunity to find more crude oil here at home."

     

    "As a nation, we can have more control over our energy destiny by supplying more of the oil and natural gas we'll be consuming from resources here at home," Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum (otcbb: AMPE.OB - news - people ) Institute, said in a letter last week to U.S. lawmakers.

     

    But environmentalists and other opponents to expanding drilling areas could seize on the record exports to argue Congress should not open more acres if U.S. refineries are churning crude oil into petroleum products that are sent out of the American market.

     

    I wonder more drilling in Alaska will change anything. If we don't build more refiners the crude oil will just get exported to another country.

     

    Now who is actually gouging us. :whistling:

  10. Posted

    I agree it is very sad situation. If she did not push the mother we might known what happen to the 2 year old. She forgot that she was and still not prosecutor for Atlantia anymore. She greatly disrespected the police and District Attorney in that case. They knew what they where doing at that time. Since that time I refuse to watch any of her shows.

     

     

    CNN and Grace argued the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Melinda Duckett's family would "severely chill" journalists' coverage of missing-persons cases.

     

    No, it won't set chill in journalists' coverage of missing-persons cases. I hope that this will show journalists that they are not district attorney, prosecutors, judges, and jury of any person that are connect to any case that they do not have power and the authority to make person look guilty in the public eye. They are still innocent until proven guilty by the court of law, and not the personal beliefs of Nancy Grace or anyone else that feels they must do what our court system seems to fail to do. Talk about poisoning the well before the case even set in courtroom.

  18. Posted · Edited by Odie

    I found out today that it was 2 sailors not one, which confessed that they did it. Charges have been bought against the two sailors. The executive officer also got fired. I was also right there is more to the story than what the Navy released to the public. I don't have the full story, but it is not good news at all and it is not surprising. The moral on the GW is really low right now.

  19. Posted · Edited by Odie

    EU to allow Britain and Ireland to retain imperial measurements

    BRUSSELS: The British and the Irish can still down a pint of beer, walk a mile, covet an ounce of gold and eat a pound of bananas after the European Union ruled Tuesday that the countries could retain measurements dating to the Middle Ages.

     

    Under a previous EU plan, Britain and Ireland would have been forced to phase out imperial measurements by 2009. But after a vociferous anti-metric campaign by British EU-skeptics and the London tabloid press, EU officials decided that an ounce of common sense, which equals 28.34 grams of common sense, suggested that granting a reprieve was better than braving a public backlash.

     

    The EU also feared that forcing Britain to abolish the imperial system would have damaged EU trade with the United States, one of those countries, including Liberia and Myanmar, that have not adopted the metric system.

     

    Britain and Ireland officially use the metric system, but imperial measures are still often used alongside their metric equivalents. Under the EU decision, they can retain miles on road signs and pubs may continue to serve pints of beer. Other goods must be sold in metric quantities, but retailers can also display imperial equivalents.

     

    The metric system is in use in United States, but it is far from being 100%. If you look at goods that is bought you will both systems just like in England.

     

    European Union abolishes the British acreThe acre, one of Britain's historic imperial measurements, is to be banned from use under a new European directive.

    The measurement, which will officially be replaced by the hectare, will no longer be allowed when land is being registered.

     

    After being agreed last week, the new ruling will come into force in January 2010.

     

    The Tories are angry that unlike some other EU countries, who sent Cabinet-level ministers to the meeting on 15 July, the Government only sent Jonathan Shaw, a junior minister at the Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs, to represent Britain's interests.

     

    Mark Francois, the Shadow Europe Minister said: "It is this kind of pointless interference into the nooks and crannies of our national life that frustrates people about the EU. Whether we use hectares or acres should be a matter for Britain to decide, not the EU.

     

    "Once again this weak Labour Government has meekly given up yet another of Britain's rights to Brussels. They need to think again and insist that we must keep our right to use our ancient traditional measure of land if we wish."

     

    A hectare is the equivalent of 2.471 acres; the acre, one of Britain's most ancient units, measures 4,840 square yards.

     

    The first law setting out the exact statutory size for the acre was passed in the early 14th century under Edward I. It is derived from an even older English word, related to the Latin "ager", from which words such as agriculture are derived.

     

    Britain had, until now, an opt-out from the European Union's use of metric measurements which allowed the use of acres to continue.

     

    The Metric System

     

    History of the metric system and its adoption in the United States.

     

    In 1968, the United States Congress authorized a three-year study of measurement systems in the USA, and in 1975, Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 "to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric system in the United States". The U.S. Metric Board was established and a process of voluntary conversion was begun. However, the efforts of the Metric Board were largely ignored by the American public, and the Metric Board was dis-established in 1982. More recently, in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, Congress amended the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 and designated the metric system as the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.

     

    Today, some business and technology companies in the USA use the metric system, and many products specify both English and metric units. But the American public has decided, collectively, that the short term costs and disruptions of converting to the metric system would outweigh the potential long term benefits.

  20. Posted

    Actually England, which we get measurement standards from, still, uses the same system. There are differences between the two, but the same words are still used. Just recently EU made England the exception to the rule with the measurement system. I highly doubt that England is 3 world country.

     

    As far as my concern, it would make my job a lot easier. When I observe the weather I have to convert American system to the Metric system.

     

    I really don't seeing United States changing anytime soon even though it actually there is a law that was enact sometime in '70s that require the change to metric. Metric system in use medical and scientific communities in America.

  21. Posted

    As it is, if as you say there were violations of Navy code on HAZMAT storage then the right thing was done. The Captain is both responsible AND accountable. I'm in full agreement.

     

    That is what has boiled down to it. Since the HAZMAT was not stored within regulations he bears the responsibility. Any spark on a steal ship, turning on the light, could have started the fire let alone a cigarette. I know there are have been fires on ships where sailors have smoked where they shouldn't and CO did not get fired. This something that you will never read in the newspapers. The sailor smoking is not reason why the CO got fired. If the HAZMAT was stored according Navy and OHSA regulations and the fire happen because some sailor smoked where he shouldn't he was not have gotten fired. Also there a lot more going for the Navy to fire a CO on a carrier than they are saying.

  22. Posted · Edited by Odie

    The FCC would allow since it the correct term for a female dog. If it's directed towards a woman than they won't allow it.

     

    If it was my dog he lick it clean. My dog is a lover not a biter. :P

  24. Posted

    I agree, if there were procedural violations with the storage of HazMat then that's something that the Captain should have had inspections for (not him personally necessarily but inspection teams) and if those things didn't happen then I agree. But if this was just some E-1 smoking in a place that he or she shouldn't have been and that was the only violation then I don't think the Captain should be held accountable.

     

    In my analogy of the parent/child situation, if the child steals from a store the parent shouldn't be accountable but if the parent took the child to the store, explained how to do it without getting caught then the parent should be accountable.

     

    This was a HAZMAT fire. The fire burn for days causing sailor to get second and third degree burns, go portions of the aft section was damage that caused $70 million dollars in damages, and harmed the reputation of George Washington within the Navy and their new homeport, and caused the Navy to have safety stand down fleetwide. What happen on GW was very serious. Their HAZMAT program was a failure. The investigation through NCIS found if the HAZMAT was not stored properly through the Navy's HAZMAT program the fire would have never happen. PERIOD. The CO is responsible for the overall safety of the ship. He failed in keeping his ship safe through a failed HAZMAT program.

     

    Since GW had a fire where good portion of ship got damaged with a sailor getting second and third degree burns they had no choice in firing the CO. The CO failed in protecting his crew by laxing HAZMAT standards. The sailor who smoked might face criminal charges. This is far from over. The CO didn't get fired because a sailor smoked in the wrong place. If that was no fire the CO would have not gotten fired, and sailor if found out would have been disciplined by him. He got fired because the HAZMAT was not stored properly that caused other events to happen.

     

    You analogy does not apply to the situation. The CO agree upon taking orders that he is completely responsible for EVERYTHING that happens on the ship. It might not sound far, but that is life in the Navy and military in general. The responsibility is heavy, but the rewards are great for anyone want their own command in the Navy. If they did not want the responsibility that comes with a command then they should have never taken the orders. There are many COs in the last few years that have fired for less than what happen on GW. This time I agree with the firing of the CO on the GW.

  25. Posted · Edited by Odie

    What irritates me is the military's constant need to find a high ranking scapegoat. Some E-1 or E-2 (or E-6/E-7) smokes where he or she isn't supposed to and causes a bad accident so fire the Captain... Sure the Captain is responsible for everything on the ship but at the same time he shouldn't be held accountable for every single action that every single sailor does.

    In the Navy he is responsible for every action for every single sailor that is assign to his or her ship. Actually, I am not surprised that the CO got fired. The damages where over $70 million dollars. Actually the fires, there was two since coming to San Diego for repairs, has caused the ship to have more problems for them when they get to Yokosuka, Japan. The Navy needs to save face with the ship in Japan.

     

    They do not want the carrier homeported in Japan, and this fires are not helping matters. The Japanese, not the government, has made their feelings on the matter very clear longer before I was living in Japan. I still remember the monthly protests they had about the propects, which at that time both US Navy and Japanese government where denying it, about a Nimtiz class carrier homeported in Yokosuka, Japan.

     

    GW hazmat program was under Navy's standards, and that was prime reason for GW's CO getting fired. If the hazmat program was within standards, which is higher than OSHA, the fire would not have happen. The fires caused the Navy to have a safety stand down for all the ships worldwide to make sure all of them are inline with the Navy's standards with HAZMAT. I will bet in the near future if other ships are below that standard COs' will get fired.

     

    There is a smoking area, not the only one, is aft of the ship off the hanger bay. The sailors had no excuse not to smoke in that area! :P

     

    On more personal note: Those fires effected my holiday weekend. Everyone else in the Navy, except for deployed ships and for my command and maybe GW's, got the July 3rd off so everyone can enjoy the rare 4 day weekend. Since my command is repairing the ship everyone had work on the third in support of the GW. Hello, we did not cause the fires on that ship. My division is so far from production it is not funny. :devilish: