The Obama Administration’s failure to lock-down the southern border is now costing Americans more than just their lives, it’s costing them money-a lot of money. The Examiner has more on the shocking story:
On April 17, 2009, the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed to pay $3.75 million, plus an additional $900,000 in medical expenses to an illegal alien who was severely beaten by other inmates in the Orange County Central Jail. The Mexican national filed a lawsuit shortly after the incident.
Fernando Ramirez, 24, was in jail after being charged with molesting a 6-year-old girl at a local park. He eventually pled guilty to the lesser charge of battery against a child.
According to his attorney, Ramirez suffered brain damage and now needs help walking. Attorney Mark Eisenberg also claims that his client has been left with an intellect of a 4-year-old child.
Despite the dire financial crisis facing Orange County, Ramirez received the largest settlement ever awarded by the county for an in-custody incident. The Board of Supervisors made their decision in a closed-door session and have refused any comment on the matter.
This story has yet to be covered by the main stream media.
Here are three examples of what possibly point to life on the Moon. Why have these findings been brushed under the carpet? The discovery of life even in microbial form has profound implications in the understanding our origins and life in the universe as a whole.
1. According to the Journal of Cosmology, in 1970 lunar soil samples were returned to Earth by the Luna 16 spacecraft in a hermetically sealed container and photographed. These photographs were later examined by Drs. Stanislav Zhmur, and Lyudmila M. Gerasimenko, scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences who identified what they believed to be microfossils of Coccoidal bacteria which resembled Siderococcus or Sulfolobus.
Lunar mirofossils resembling Siderococcus.
Journal of Cosmology
2.
A third fossilized impression from the lunar surface resembles a spiral filamentous micro-Ediacaran, a species which became extinct over 500,000 years ago. In 2009, Dr. Rhawn Joseph showed this photograph to five world-renowned experts in Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian fauna, and four of the 5 identified it as a microfossil.
Lunar mirofossil resembling a micro-Ediacaran.
Journal of Cosmology
3. In 1971, the TV camera of the Surveyor space craft was recovered by Apollo 12 astronauts, after being on the Moon for three years. A single bacterium (Streptococcus mitis) was found. It was also revealed that the lunar camera was covered with a film of “organic material of unknown origin”.
The Counter Claims
•
It is not possible for Streptococcus mitis, which is a common bacterium from the human mouth, to have survived for two and a half years on the Moon inside the Surveyor 3 camera, to be detected when it was returned to Earth on board the Apollo 12. Streptococcus mitis lives in the mouth; there is no evidence that it can survive for long even in terrestrial environments outside the human body. Further, it cannot survive outside of a narrow temperature range and therefore it isn’t possible that it could survive on the moon.
• According to NASA’s Leonard D. Jaffe, a Surveyor program scientist and curator of the Surveyor 3 components brought back from the Moon, somebody on his staff who had witnessed the biological test (which gave positive results), reported that a “breach of sterile procedure” took place at just the right time to produce a false positive result. He further claims that one of the tools being used to study the samples was inadvertently placed on a non-sterile lab bench, which was then used to collect the samples. It was that sample set which showed the presence of Streptococcus mitis.
To quote Jaffe, “It is, therefore, quite possible that the microorganisms were transferred to the camera after its return to Earth, and that they had never been to the Moon.”
So let’s analyse Jaffe’s contentions:
The possibility of contamination prior to sending the camera to the moon, or after it was returned, was ruled out by the scientists who made this discovery. Was Mr Jaffe, present when the discovery was made? No! Further, he was not even associated with the analysis! He has attempted to discredit this discovery by making false statements that have no basis in reality. The hoax perpetrated by Jaffe is easily disproved.
The fact is that a dirty work bench would have contained millions of diverse bacteria. Nor could the microbe be the result of some other form of contamination, such as a sneeze or cough.
Since a droplet of saliva contains an average of 750 million organisms, if contamination of the lunar TV camera was due to a scientist’s inadvertent cough or sneeze, a multitude of related bacteria, and a “representation of the entire microbial population would be expected,” rather than a single species and a single organism (Mitchell & Ellis, 1971). Moreover, this Streptococcus mitis was dormant, but came back to life.
But according to Dirk Schulze-Makuch of the Department of Geology, Washington State University, Streptococcus mitis can exist only in moist environments.
So what about the Moon? It has now been established beyond doubt that there is water on the moon as confirmed by India’s Chandrayaan spacecraft. Not just buckets full, but there’s tons of it! And what about the requirement of atmosphere on the Moon for microbes to survive? Well there exist MASCONS (Massive Concentrations of gravity) on many areas on the Moon leading to the possibility of pockets of atmosphere however tenuous, held in place by these MASCONS.
But how could microbes have appeared on the Moon? In the 1970s, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe began to suspect that life on Earth could have come from space. Brig Klyce, who studies cosmic ancestry and panspermia notes that several studies point to the presence of complex organics in space. If they could survive the harsh conditions of deep space, then why can’t they survive on the Moon and Mars that have comparatively a more conducive environment? It is quite possible that micro-organisms exist in the deep craters of the Moon hidden in moist crevices that shield them from radiation and cosmic particles.
What About Mars?
As mentioned earlier, one of the prerequisites for life is water. So how could life exist on Mars in the absence of water? But wait! Here’s what Viking I and II discovered:
Hydrogen Densities (Probably Water) on Mars with Viking 1 and 2 Landing Sites Located (VL1 & VL2).
Where there’s water, there a possibility of life!
Courtesy: LANL
For those of you who are interested, heres’ an interesting thread I found on ATS… Scientific Evidence Of Life On Mars!! Why is NASA Obfuscating The Truth?
NASA seems to have screwed up this one!
Artist’s impression of a mirror-smooth lake on the surface of Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan. Photo: NASA
Researchers at the space agency believe they have discovered vital clues that appeared to indicate that primitive aliens could be living on the moon.
Data from Nasa’s Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan, which experts say is the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere.
They suggest that life forms may have been breathing in the planet’s atmosphere and also feeding on its surface’s fuel.
Astronomers claim the moon is generally too cold to support even liquid water on its surface.
The research has been detailed in two separate studies.
The first paper, in the journal Icarus, shows that hydrogen gas flowing throughout the planet’s atmosphere disappeared at the surface. This suggested that alien forms could in fact breathe.
The second paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, concluded that there was lack of the chemical on the surface.
Scientists were then led to believe it had been possibly consumed by life.
Researchers had expected sunlight interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene gas. But the Cassini probe did not detect any such gas.
Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at Nasa Ames Research Centre, at Moffett Field, California who led the research, said: “We suggested hydrogen consumption because it’s the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth.
“If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.”
Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University, added: “We believe the chemistry is there for life to form. It just needs heat and warmth to kick-start the process.
“In four billion years’ time, when the Sun swells into a red giant, it could be paradise on Titan.”
They warned, however, that there could be other explanations for the findings.
But taken together, they two indicate two important conditions necessary for methane-based life to exist.
ScienceDaily (June 5, 2010) — Researchers have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats, mimicking the effect of training. The finding suggests possibilities for new treatments for individuals suffering from anxiety disorders.
Rats normally freeze when they hear a tone they have been conditioned to associate with an electric shock. The reaction can be extinguished by repeatedly exposing the rats to the tone with no shock. In this work, administering a protein directly into the brain of rats achieved the same effect as extinction training. The protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF, is one of a class of proteins that support the growth and survival of neurons.
Prior work has shown that extinction training does not erase a previously conditioned fear memory, but creates a new memory associating the tone with safety. “The surprising finding here is that the drug substituted for extinction training, suggesting that it induced such a memory,” said Dr. Gregory Quirk at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, who led the investigation with support from the National Institute of Mental Health.
The work is reported in the June 4 issue of Science.
Memory formation involves changes in the connections, or synapses, between neurons, a process known as synaptic plasticity. One brain structure critical for extinction memory in rats is the infralimbic prefrontal cortex (ILC). Drugs that block synaptic plasticity impair the formation of extinction memory when injected into the ILC, causing rats to continue freezing at high levels after extinction training.
BDNF, on the other hand, permits a learning experience to increase the size and strength of synaptic contacts between neurons. Previous work from other groups has implicated BDNF in extinction learning. In this study, after rats were conditioned to fear a tone by pairing it with a footshock, BDNF was infused directly into the ILC. The next day, BDNF-infused rats showed little freezing to the tone, as if they had received extinction training.
Experiments showed that BDNF-induced extinction did not erase the original fear memory. Training to reinstate the tone-shock association was just as effective with the rats receiving BDNF as those without. Also, the effect of BDNF was specific to extinction. It did not reduce general anxiety or change the animals’ tendency to move around.
The researchers also found that rats that were naturally deficient in BDNF were more likely to do poorly in extinction trials. These rats were deficient in BDNF in the hippocampus, a brain structure that plays an important role in memory and extinction, and which has connections to the ILC. Failure to extinguish fear is thought to contribute to anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People with PTSD have a smaller than normal hippocampus and ILC.
“Our finding suggests that augmenting BDNF in these circuits may ameliorate PTSD and perhaps other disorders such as addictions,” said Dr. Jamie Peters, the post-doctoral researcher who collaborated with Quirk on this project.
“Many lines of evidence implicate BDNF in mental disorders,” said NIMH Director Dr. Thomas Insel. “This work supports the idea that medications could be developed to augment the effects of BDNF, providing opportunities for pharmaceutical treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.” The focus now is to look for ways to augment BDNF’s actions in the brain, which might include anti-depressant medications and even exercise.
Also collaborating on the study were Dr. Jamie Peters, Dr. Loyda Melendez, and Laura Dieppa-Perea, all at the University of Puerto Rico. In addition to NIMH, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Center for Research Resources provided funding for this work.
A psychologist at Grant MacWean University in Canada reckons that people who play videogames more often are more likely to be able to control their dreams. Jayne Gackenbach surveyed the dreams of both non-gamers and hardcore gamers, and found that those who frequently played games experienced lucid dreams more often.
“If you’re spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it’s practice,” said Gackenbach. “Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams.” While the findings are preliminary, and haven’t been backed up by other studies elsewhere, they have some precedence in that lucid dreamers and gamers have both been reported separately as being less prone to motion sickness and exhibiting better spatial skills.
However, correlation is not causation, so Gackenbach assembled groups of college students and asked them how often they had lucid dreams, where they could actively influence and change their dreams. Those who played videogames were more likely to report lucidity, but interestingly they reported being limited to just controlling to their dream selves — rather than having control over the entire dream world.
Gackenbach has since replicated her findings a few times over, and controlled for factors like the frequency of recalling dreams. “The first time we simply asked people how often they had lucid dreams, looking back over their life and making judgment calls,” Gackenbach told LiveScience. “That’s open to all kinds of bias, [such as] certain memory biases, self-reported biases.”
She also discovered that gamers are troubled less by nightmares than non-gamers, which matches up with Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo’s “threat simulation” theory. That theory suggests that nightmares evolved to help people practice for life-threatening situations in a safe environment. In gamers, the thinking goes, they get to practice those situations in games so have less need of nightmares.
Gackenbach took 35 males and 63 females, and found that gamers experienced less threat simulation in dreams than non-gamers, with fewer “aggresssion” dreams overall. Interestingly, gamers also reported sometimes becoming the threatening presence themselves. Future research, Gackenbach says, will be targeted at studying the violence levels in games, and how they affect this phenomenon. Do kids’ games have the same effect as more mature, violent titles?
The research could help in a number of areas, particularly with helping war veterans troubled by nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder. Virtual reality simulators have already been used to treat some people suffering from nightmares after enduring combat. The question is whether games could have the same effect.
The work will be discussed at the sixth annual Games for Health conference in Boston.
The growing use of mobile telephones is behind the disappearance of honey bees and the collapse of their hives, scientists have claimed.
Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years Photo: ALAMY
Honey bee, (Apis mellifera mellifera), flying and collecting pollen from pussy willow, Germany, Bavaria Photo: ALAMY
Their disappearance has caused alarm throughout Europe and North America where campaigners have blamed agricultural pesticides, climate change and the advent of genetically modified crops for what is now known as ‘colony collapse disorder.’ Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years and shrinking numbers has led to a rise in thefts of hives.
Now researchers from Chandigarh’s Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee’s navigation senses.
They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.
After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phon, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.
The queen bee in the “mobile” hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive.
They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen. Because of this the amount of nectar produced in the hive also shrank.
Ved Prakash Sharma and Neelima Kumar, the authors of the report in the journal Current Science, wrote: “Increase in the usage of electronic gadgets has led to electropollution of the environment. Honeybee behaviour and biology has been affected by electrosmog since these insects have magnetite in their bodies which helps them in navigation.
“There are reports of sudden disappearance of bee populations from honeybee colonies. The reason is still not clear. We have compared the performance of honeybees in cellphone radiation exposed and unexposed colonies.
“A significant decline in colony strength and in the egg laying rate of the queen was observed. The behaviour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in the colony at the end of the experiment.”
Tim Lovett, of the British Beekeepers Association, said that hives have been successful in London where there was high mobile phone use.
“Previous work in this area has indicated this [mobile phone use] is not a real factor,” he said. “If new data comes along we will look at it.”
He said: “At the moment we think is more likely to be a combination of factors including disease, pesticides and habitat loss.”
The UK Government has set aside £10 million for research into the decline of pollinators like bees, but the BBKA claim much more money is needed for research into the problem, including studies on pesticides, disease and new technology like mobile phones.
According to the University of Durham, England’s bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives
dying out over the last 20 years.
The most recent statistics from last winter show that the decline in honey bees in Britain is slowing, with just one in six hives lost.
This is still above the natural rate of ten per cent losses, but a vast improvement on previous years.
There has been an increase in the number of thefts of hives across the world and in Germany beekeepers have started fitting GPS tracking devices to their hives.
By Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News
A British scientist says he is the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus.
Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading contaminated a computer chip which was then inserted into his hand.
The device, which enables him to pass through security doors and activate his mobile phone, is a sophisticated version of ID chips used to tag pets.
In trials, Dr Gasson showed that the chip was able to pass on the computer virus to external control systems.
If other implanted chips had then connected to the system they too would have been corrupted, he said.
Medical alertDr Gasson admits that the test is a proof of principle but he thinks it has important implications for a future where medical devices such as pacemakers and cochlear implants become more sophisticated, and risk being contaminated by other human implants.
“With the benefits of this type of technology come risks. We may improve ourselves in some way but much like the improvements with other technologies, mobile phones for example, they become vulnerable to risks, such as security problems and computer viruses.”
However, Dr Gasson predicts that wider use will be made of implanted technology.
“This type of technology has been commercialised in the United States as a type of medical alert bracelet, so that if you’re found unconscious you can be scanned and your medical history brought up.”
Professor Rafael Capurro of the Steinbeis-Transfer-Institute of Information Ethics in Germany told BBC News that the research was “interesting”.
“If someone can get online access to your implant, it could be serious,” he said.
Cosmetic surgeryProfessor Capurro contributed to a 2005 ethical study for the European Commission that looked at the development of digital implants and possible abuse of them.
“From an ethical point of view, the surveillance of implants can be both positive and negative,” he said.
“Surveillance can be part of medical care, but if someone wants to do harm to you, it could be a problem.”
In addition, he said, that there should be caution if implants with surveillance capabilities started to be used outside of a medical setting.
However, Dr Gasson believes that there will be a demand for these non-essential applications, much as people pay for cosmetic surgery.
“If we can find a way of enhancing someone’s memory or their IQ then there’s a real possibility that people will choose to have this kind of invasive procedure.”
Dr Gasson works at the University of Reading’s School of Systems Engineering and will present the results of his research at the International Symposium for Technology and Society in Australia next month. Professor Capurro will also talk at the event.
Ella King placed the solar light cross on her nephew’s gravesite about a week before Easter.
King thought the cross, which absorbs the sunlight during the day so it can shine brightly at night, was a fitting tribute to her nephew, Army Cpl. Pruitt Rainey, who was killed July 13, 2008, during an attack by Afghan insurgents at an Army post near the Pakistani border. Rainey, who was from Haw River, was 22.
King never expected that anyone would remove the cross from Rainey’s grave at Bethlehem Christian Church cemetery on Altamahaw Church Road. But when she went back to the cemetery the Monday after Easter, the white cross that glowed at night was gone.
King’s first thought was that a family member removed it, but after checking with family, she realized something else happened. Rainey’s grandmother put flowers on his grave the day before Easter. King believes someone took the cross between April 3 and April 5.
“I just felt like my heart was broke,” she said through tears. “To think that someone could stoop so low as to steal off of a grave, especially his. He was fighting for our country. It just breaks my heart.”
Since Easter, King put a crystal angel on her nephew’s grave. It also disappeared. She recently filed a report with the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department. But unless authorities can actually catch someone in the act or can gather enough evidence to charge someone with larceny, there isn’t a whole lot they can do.
Randy Jones, Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said that for years people have reported that flowers have been taken from gravesites throughout Burlington and the county. It’s not an “uncommon complaint,” he said, adding that it is handled like a larceny and wouldn’t be considered grave tampering.
King just wants people to know that even a soldier’s gravesite isn’t immune to theft.
“I would just like the people to be made aware that there are some people who don’t care where they get what they are after,” King said. “They’d just as soon steal from a grave as they would a store.”
King is convinced the alleged thief didn’t read the words on her nephew’s tombstone: “Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends. Warrior.”
“I don’t think they even bothered to see where they were getting it from,” she said.
King’s hope was to leave the cross in place indefinitely.
“I put one on my daddy’s grave way out in Caswell County, and it’s still there,” she said.”I put it there almost 15 years ago. I just change the batteries in it when they burn out so it will continue to light up.”
Rainey’s family continues to grieve his loss but also find comfort in their memories.
“He still remains in our heart,” King said. “He always will be. He was that kind of young man. He thought of other people before he thought of himself.”
Despite the recent thefts, King said she can’t ignore her nephew’s grave, especially with Memorial Day coming up.
She plans to put a flower arrangement with American flags in it on the site this week.
“I’m retired and on Social Security, but I have great love for him,” she said. “He is not in that grave. He’s in heaven where he should be, but that’s not going to stop me from putting stuff on there.”
The sighting of 25 orange lights was made by a group of eight students who were holidaying in Foyers to celebrate completing their university courses. The women are adamant that these were not Chinese lanterns as the lights travelled across the skies in a straight line and were all equally spaced. At one point during their strange half-hour experience, two of the lights almost collided, but then quickly changed direction to avoid contact. The women got in touch with the Highland News after reading about similar reports we have revealed over the past few months. The sighting happened the night before an RAF servicemen reported seeing an orange fireball in the sky over Inverness.
Sharon Martin, one of the women in the group, told the HN: “I had gone to bed but then there was a huge commotion from the others and I came out to see what was going on. “It was between 11 and midnight on Saturday, May 1, and what we saw was about 25 bright lights going across the sky. They came out from behind some trees and went across the sky all equally spaced. “One of the girls initially said it must have been lanterns, but because of the way they were moving we are not so sure. It was so systematic.”
Sharon, who has just completed a complimentary health course at Napier University in Edinburgh, added: “These lights went on for about half an hour. They just appeared one after the other until there were 25 of them all in a straight line.”
One of the photographs taken by the students shows some of the mysterious lights in the nightsky over Inverness.
Two weeks ago, the HN reported how RAF man Karl King had seen “an orange fireball” in the sky over the city on May 2, the day after the girls made their discovery. At the time Mr King told the HN: “As an RAF man I’m an aviation enthusiast. I know planes when I see them but I have never seen anything like this before. UFOs are not something I have really thought about but this was definitely unexplained and it was definitely not a Chinese lantern. “I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but it wasn’t an aircraft.”
These latest descriptions are similar to that reported by Culloden man Rob Jackson who in March told the HN he had seen a UFO four times over Nairn and Inverness. Mr Jackson said he saw an orange fireball as he travelled along the A96 approaching Nairn from the east. He described the UFO as being a spherical orange light the size of a tractor cab travelling at speed along the Moray Firth coast. He had similar sightings in Inverness on February 27 and again at Nairn links on March 6. Michael Mulford, an RAF spokesman, said: “At any time there could be a helicopter flight or training exercises going on. A spokeswoman for Inverness airport added: “On this night there were no aircraft in the area that we are aware of. Inverness Airport shut at 9.30pm.”
Main story source: www.highland-news.co.uk…
I put that it appears to be a current hotbed when I found these other stories about UFO in that area in 2008 & 2009 AND all of them describing a Orange Disk (as seen in the photo above).
I would think though the police would be on the lookout a little more and more alert for sightings. Any ATSers from that area that can add any info? I did other searches but didn’t find anything as these:
The Rob Jackson article: I saw UFO four times!: www.highland-news.co.uk…!.html
The British Air Officer (King) article: RAF man in new UFO mystery; www.highland-news.co.uk…
April 30, 09 article: More UFO shocks in Highlands; www.highland-news.co.uk…
April 20, 09: Widow’s UFO shock; www.highland-news.co.uk…
The five-man team – which includes a man who helped develop the first hydrogen bomb in the 1950s – is the brainchild of Steven Chu, President Obama’s Energy Secretary.
He has charged the men with finding solutions to stop the flow of oil.
President Obama yesterday promised a “relentless” effort to resolve the problem as he criticised the “cozy relationship” BP and other oil companies have with US regulators in Washington.
He also denounced the attempts by executives from BP, Transocean and Haliburtion to blame each other during this week’s congressional hearings into the rig disaster. “I will not tolerate more finger pointing or irresponsibility.” Mr Obama said.
The five scientists visited BP’s main crisis centre in Houston earlier this week, along with Mr Chu, and are to continue to work with the company’s scientists and external advisers to reach an answer.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hayward said the five-hour meeting involved a “very deep dive” into the situation at hand, with “lots of nuclear physicists and all sorts of people coming up with some quite good ideas actually.”
Pressed further about the meeting, he said they had “come up with one good idea” but declined to elaborate.
The five include 82-year-old Richard Garwin, who designed the first hydrogen bomb, and Tom Hunter, head of the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Labs.
In addition, Mr Chu has already despatched Marcia McNutt, the head of the US Geological Service, to the oil company.
Mr Hayward is understood to be feeling the weight of increased pressure from Washington, following Mr Chu and Interior Secterary Ken Salazar’s visit earlier this week and a series of testy Congressional hearings.
In an memo to BP staff, Mr Hayward wrote that reports of the hearings had made for “difficult viewing or reading”.
He has told a number of his senior team they must stay with him in Houston until the problem is resolved, and was seen in Louisiana meeting with Robert Dudley, executive vice-president of BP’s operations in the Americas.
President Obama accused BP and its contractors of “falling over each other to point the finger of blame at someone else,” while adding “the potential devastation to the Gulf Coast, its economy and its people require us to continue our relentless efforts to stop the leak.”
Thad Allen, a Coast Guard commandant, said that the slick “has the potential to be catastrophic.”
BP was last night trying to position a “top hat” containment device – intended to slow the flow of oil – while still working on its final “top-kill” solution which involves filling the well with old golf balls and pieces of car tyre, followed by mud and then cement, in an attempt to absorb and then stop the flow.
