It has been several months since I updated here. So much has happened and I haven't really known what or how to say anything. Are we still on our journey, YES! But life has happened and changed our lives.
November and December our lives moved in a different direction and things slowed down as far as our journey. We moved Abigail into her new place and of course the holidays were upon us. We did splurge a little bit and ate a few things that weren't on our okay-ed list, but we always went back to the eating correctly. We had found out that our bodies couldn't handle eating off track very often.
December also brought our household preparing to have Abigail leave the first of January to Israel for 3 months. This was hard and emotionally stressful but excited at the same time for her.
January 3rd we saw her off. So many things have happened over the past 3 months (almost) while she has been away but God has been good and we have seen her grow in so many ways. We are looking forward to welcoming her home, April 4th.
Three weeks ago my daddy had surgery and what was just supposed to have been a knee replacement, ended up be a lot more and he was in the hospital for over a week. We traveled the road from our p lace to Springfield nightly and McDonald's became and very hated place!! There wasn't much choice than this as we traveled down the road (2 hrs one way) each night after Michael got off work. Even though it didn't help with our plan, we are very thankful that we were able to be with Daddy during those uncertain days. But once again the stress kicked in.
The week before Daddy's surgery the eye specialist didn't have a very encouraging report until the very end when he ran one more test. This test actually made it where I could see for the VERY FIRST time since October. I can't say what I felt that evening. Emotions were unreal. This gave me hope again!! The specialist and our eye doctor talked and decided to give that eye another chance with the contacts. I had already told the specialist team that if they couldn't come up with something, I didn't want to continue to wear the contacts. They hurt all the time and they didn't help. But with this new turn we decided to give it one more chance. Of course, I asked if I would ever be able to go back to wearing my classes only, and they said no. Due to the damage to the cornea it will take the contact to flatten it to be able to see at all, so I'm in contacts totally and reading glasses on the sid e.
Being off track for a week played on me physically and now that we are getting back on track I'm diffidently seeing some changes again. Some may think it is easy to just get back on track, it isn't. We were able to attend a local conference put on by the founders of the program and it was awesome to hearing in details what their findings were and why they have us on some things and off of other things. During the conference we introduced the second cookbook that I had put together over the past year. This has been a challenge with me not being able to see throughout this time, but God helped me to get it all done in time.
Are things perfect now? NO! We are continuously working on our journey, but with God's help, we are determined and making progress. One boost and answer to prayer, was Friday we got home from taking Milton to St. Louis Children's Hospital and my new contact was in the mail. My eyes were so tired that I decided to wait until Saturday, yesterday, to put it in. The moment I put them in, it was like a light bulb came on for the first time!! No, I can see a bunch, but I can see light and I can see things right in front of my in an outline. This is BIG!!! When you are blind and can't see and then all of a sudden can, it is overwhelming! They don't figure I will get much more than this back, but I will take what I can and be thankful!!! God is so Good!!
So, we continue our journey, pressing toward our goals.


This update contains a number small changes to improve the user experience.
An error no longer occurs when Approving an invoice in the Document Workflow area.
The max. disbursement showed 4 decimal places on Work Orders. This has been changed to 2 decimal places.
When performing a Bank Import transaction match, the cursor now goes to the tenant search field.
Wording changed when a tenant has a credit balance when creating a Tenant Invoice.
Add Change Log - The DO NOT Charge Water tickbox in the property screen now records in the change log if altered.
New Cashbook report created for auditing purposes (in Audit and Month End Report area).
Property/Tenant Diary Group Report - Tick box added to allow to sort by Reminder Date only and not Created Date.
Allows for more than one custom Bank Import file.
Fields added for Mail Merge and Custom Views: Tenant Match Code and Property Management Fee.
Charge Admin fee now defaults to Property (as opposed to Owner).
Report Banking Audit now in Description (Transaction No.) order. Also split Transaction Number from Description.
Direct Debit Entries Report will now print in the same order as displayed unprocessed transaction list. This means you can now change the sort order of transaction in the unprocessed transaction list.
Can now print onto pre-printed cheques.
Rent Increase/Decrease updates the DD/AP area as well as the tenant details.
Charge Admin Fee Transactions take into account Uncleared Funds in both the transactions and the Home screen.
New change log entry shows when AP/DD expected date has been moved.
The Unprocessed Transaction Report can now be sorted in the same order as the Transaction Entry screen. Transaction now allows you to re-order the list by column headings.
Expected pay dates now roll back when reversing a Direct Debit transaction.
Add entries to the Change Log report for any payment detail changes.
What rent changes have taken place?


NASA document reveals "End of Mankind"
Re: NASA document reveals "End of Mankind"
Most of it is a hoax though.
clarify a little if you would, please. I know that everything presented there is very possible and already in force at present. The 1973 movie Soylent Green is very possible. Today I heard about soap being made of departed humans. I already know that dog, cat, cow, pig, etc food was recycled in this manner. One reason that mad cow disease appeared as well as Alzheimer disease increase in humans is the result of this. What is so different about doing the same with humans as is done with animals.
So please explain the statement rather than just make a blanket rebuttal. I would like to know why you made that statement. Thanks.
I only had the time to listen to half of it and although some conspiracy theories out there may have some basis of truth, the way she is presenting it is clearly being deceptive. If you pay attention she doesn't fully believe in what she is saying. Not to mention that if she would disclosure such secret projects of people in power she would no longer be alive, not making YouTube videos releasing all the horrible truth from some of the most powerful organizations and governments. It comes off as a sales pitch. That's not how it works. Killing someone is way too easy and you know this as well as I do.
Yes, that is easy. But I am finding how strange it is that so much actual information is coming forth and the bearer is left alone. One thing, she has a false right eye and that may make her appear odd when watching her. But the info she has I found nothing but one section that was questionable. I have dealt with this for years so that is where I am coming from. The cyborg part is real. More than once a Group of strange seals on a US warship when all others are told they are not to be engaged in conversation and above all, one can not touch them. This I know as fact. They had their own food. But again, I found nothing that was out of place. Guess we just see things differently based on our backgrounds. Thanks.
one thing forgot to list. This was not a secret find as it was listed on the NASA sight. They do not do anything of importance without broadcasting it to the victims first in just such a manner as this.
i feel this is all already happening and has been happening whether the video is a hoax or not. literally our lives are not in our own hands from the day we were born. so i dont doubt anything. i don't really trust NASA. i dont really trust anything anymore. but why hide it if its going to happen eventually. people have no power in this apparent war they're proclaiming and people arent interested because people are just cattle to the ones higher up on the line. we have nuclear bombs and countries constantly angry at each other someone could push the big red button at any time and no one would have any say in that either. idk.
also she says around 16:00 "they will dole out poisonous foods, and those who decide to eat these will see the consequences". we already have that going on with monsanto and GMO's.
really absolutely nothing good will ever happen unless people as a whole, start thinking as a whole- like ants in an ant colony, or a school of fish are able to. a unified people with the same mindset and direction of wanting to make the world a better place. all the diseased lazy fat asses who are already suckered into the 'american way of life' would have to get out of the hypnotism of convenience and unhealthy food and realize the importance of reverting back to regular farming and living like we once did when we were all a native of somewhere on our ancestral lands. but that is a very difficult thing to do. even if every celebrity or person of 'importance' said so.
And I bet many of you are wondering where is the Aset Ka and the Red Order of Set in all of this?
Maxx wrote: And I bet many of you are wondering where is the Aset Ka and the Red Order of Set in all of this?
no, no, no. I post too much. I found that when I stop, there are more people that come out and reflect their mind with different things rather than just sitting back and reading. There will be very little here from me from now on. That way there will be more of a reflection from other parts of the world and more thoughts on a subject rather than me smothering a topic. I retired. Lol.
Random thought, but what if these soldiers were genetically modified somehow? Wasn't Hitler into that kind of stuff? It would also explain why other soldiers would be told to stay away from them.
this was even 15 to 20 years ago. it is much farther advanced than that. That is what caught my attention when she said the 4th generation.
But I agree somewhat with Nightshade... that NASA is a complete fraud. Now, whether that was all a lie posted to create fear, I do not know but much of that listed has merit and much is actually taking place. The US air force is drawing $81 billion a year to fund the actual space program, if you can call it that. NASA is only there for misdirection. Nothing in the media is the truth at all. Anything that happens there will be a false story of sorts..... We are not told any truth.
are we doomed to sit here and watch or... ?
learn to heal yourself with energy work. Do not be quick to join groups that advocate chaos. Maintain a low profile in all things. Do not become part of the stupid group. they will eliminate themselves. become dependent on yourself. study the ancient ways. all religions were created as a means to control the ignorant masses. know your real and true friends as you will find they are far and few if any. Sit back and enjoy the show as everyone is here for a reason at this time. learn the universal laws and study them as those will help you survive whether in this physical world or the next one you move up to.
I'm ready to let whatever will happen, happen. The only thing I can do is sit back and let the world do whatever it's going to do... and perhaps develop my Self as much as possible.
@Maxx... when you advise against joining groups that advocate chaos, where are you factoring Asetians in the equation? I'm just a beginner but the impression from the AB was that they are beings of chaos and change... but that this chaos is a good thing.
the example you can see all around you. They have been silent as a whole with things that are happening that you can physically see their results. My own personal thought is that they tend to stay out of the midst of stupidity.
You do not find them at the front of things visual. they have not joined in the turmoil of riots and marches. These are generally spiritual beings that choose the right time and place. Minds can be changed without riots. I mentioned learning how to connect to the spiritual side and take control of your being rather than let others manipulate. Affecting everything is done with learning to control your surroundings with mental alchemy. But one has to become knowledgeable with the laws of the universe around them. Very few study and learn what they are and how to use them. Just look at the two books. They do not teach anything other than that which is of utmost importance which first begins in the spiritual realm. This is how one takes control of their own will to move mountains. This is true chaos that affects change. All the lessons you read of there are tied to the spirit forces.
I also mean stay away from joining the militia groups to think that change will come about through that type of conflict. Good intentions are very often paved with the cobblestones of red blood. knowledge and wisdom pay great dividends.
BTW. You have probably a year below real chaos does break loose. The conflict in the Ukraine was used as a dry run and practice to find out if there were any problems to be refined. so breathe easier. smile.
the actual reason for saving all the data in every form is to build a log of any and all info on everyone. They do not look into it at this time so much. The real reason is in the near future if someone gets into trouble by doing anything or saying something that is not in line with accepted standards, all of the back info that is stockpiled will be pulled up to make a case against the individual. Which means, no one will have a chance at all as everyone has enough info out there to hang. Not long into the future. Face recognition, voice print, eye print, etc. Once you are arrested, "you gone, baby."
its inevitable though unless you start by being born not in a hospital and live under a rock in a forest.
Maxx wrote: the actual reason for saving all the data in every form is to build a log of any and all info on everyone. They do not look into it at this time so much. The real reason is in the near future if someone gets into trouble by doing anything or saying something that is not in line with accepted standards, all of the back info that is stockpiled will be pulled up to make a case against the individual. Which means, no one will have a chance at all as everyone has enough info out there to hang. Not long into the future. Face recognition, voice print, eye print, etc. Once you are arrested, "you gone, baby."
Use your vision to see how this will be extended.
Maybe just continue doing the small things that help. And encourage others to. We as a society will have to eventually come to a point where we don't choose the way we live we will do it to survive. It will be the only way left to live. Unless they find other sources of resources. Isn't there a guy saying we will get someone to mars by 2026? Great. We can start mining that planet too.


Easily make exact linings for playing fields with our marking device.
tapes are taped with the marking head.
2) For temporary linings with our special marking tapes in different colors.
To cut circles in sports floorings. Can be changed against marking head.
Ø 30 – 160 mm to cut out circles in order to insert poles.
For cutting of divided straight lines, or radii of 9 m.


text:
Q: Can't activate Preview mode Android Studio I am trying to switch over to the new Android Studio (awesome btw) but I can' activate the "Preview" window to view my XML files like they demo'd in I/O.
When I navigate to View-->Tool Windows-->Preview   'Preview' is greyed out and I can't select it.
Does anyone know a fix for this?

A: I had the same problem.
Then I chose a different device.
I saw the error window with the ability to click "rebuild".
I clicked and it worked.

A: Had the same problem, this solution worked for me File - Invalidate Caches/Restart

A: Studio 2.2.1 / Build #AI-143.2821654, April 28, 2016.
Regarding: Missing the Preview Tab or grayed out Designer from View/Tool.
From the directory tree, click on the following directory to access activity_main.xml:
app/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml

or (depending on your directory structure, actual location may vary)
app/res/layout/activity_main.xml

Afterward, you should notice the Preview tab to the right.
To access Designer. You'll be able to find the Design|Text tab below your code.
P.S. My problem was the Designer was grayed out. After the fix, the Designer from Menu bar/View/Tool Window/Designer is still grayed out. But you should be able to access the designer anyway.

A: What worked for me was changing the theme of the app.
Sometimes, parameters like Theme, Device preview, etc, can affect the preview although it may look well in the app.
Changing these helps.
Can be accessed from design and text view.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Category Archives: World Oil Spills
March 18 – UNITED KINGDOM – The Torrey Canyon ran aground off Cornwall spilling 80,000 tonnes (919,000 barrels) of crude.
March 20 – SWEDEN – At least 438,000 barrels of oil spilled in a collision involving the Othello in Tralhavet Bay.
December 19 – OMAN – After a collision with Brazilian tanker Horta Barbosa the South Korean tanker Sea Star spilled about 840,000 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Oman.
December 15 – USA – The Argo Merchant ran aground off Nantucket spilling 183,000 barrels of oil and causing a slick 160 km (100 miles) long and 97 km wide.
February 25 – PACIFIC – The Liberian-registered Hawaiian Patriot caught fire in the Northern Pacific spilling 723,000 barrels.
March 16 – FRANCE – About 1.6 million barrels of crude spilled after the Amoco Cadiz ran aground near Portsall in France's worst ever tanker accident. The resulting slick eventually covered 125 miles of Breton coast.
June 3 – MEXICO – An estimated 140 million gallons of oil spilled from an exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 km NW of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.
July 19 – TRINIDAD & TOBAGO – About 2.2 million barrels of crude spilled after a collision off Tobago between the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain.
August 6 – SOUTH AFRICA – Fire broke out on the Spanish tanker Castillo de Bellver and 1.8 million barrels of light crude burnt off the coast at Cape Town.
March 24 – USA – The Exxon Valdez hit rocks in Prince William Sound spilling some 240,000 barrels of crude oil onto Alaskan shores.
December 19 – MOROCCO – After explosions and a fire Iranian tanker Kharg-5 was abandoned spilling 70,000 tonnes of crude oil, endangering the coast and oyster beds at Oualidia.
February 7 – USA – The tanker, American Trader, leaked 300,000 gallons of crude from a gash in the hull causing an oil slick 22 km long polluting Bosa Chica, one of southern California's
biggest nature reserves.
January 26 – KUWAIT – An estimated 240 million gallons of oil were spilled from terminals, tankers and oil wells during the final phase of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
May 28 – ANGOLA/LIBERIA – A Liberian-registered supertanker, ABT Summer, leaked oil after an explosion off Angola causing an oil slick 17 nautical miles by three.
March 2 – UZBEKISTAN – An estimated 88 million gallons of oil spilled from an oil well at Fergana Valley.
September 19 – INDONESIA – Liberian-registered tanker Nagasaki Spirit collided with container Ocean Blessing in the Malacca Straits spilling some 12,000 tonnes of crude.
December 3 – SPAIN – Greek tanker Aegean Sea ran aground and broke in two near La Coruna spilling most of its 80,000 tons cargo of oil.
January 5 — UNITED KINGDOM – Oil poured on to the coast of northern Scotland's Shetland Islands after the 89,000-ton Liberian-registered Braer hit rocks in heavy seas. The tanker carried 84,500 tons of crude oil. A huge oil slick stretched 25 miles (40 km) up the coast.
January 21 — SINGAPORE / INDONESIA / MALAYSIA – The 255,312-ton Singapore-registered tanker Maersk Navigator collided with the empty tanker Sanko Honour in the Andaman Sea en route from Oman to Japan. It was carrying a cargo of nearly 2 million barrels of oil. Its ruptured port side leaked burning oil and spread a slick up to 35 miles (56 km) long off Sumatra drifting towards India's Nicobar Islands.
February 11 — NETHERLANDS – Up to 30,000 seabirds were feared killed by a paraffin oil slick thought to have been discharged by a passing ship during the past two weeks. It was the worst oil spill off the Dutch coast in five years.
March 9 — GERMANY/POLAND – The wreck of the Jan Heweliusz, a Polish ferry which sank in the Baltic off Germany on January 14, began leaking oil. The ship was estimated to have up to 80 tons of fuel on board.
June 3 — BELGIUM / UNITED KINGDOM – Seven crewmen from a British tanker, the British Trent, burned to death in a blazing sea of petrol about 15 miles (24km) off Ostend after a collision with a Panamanian bulk carrier in thick fog. Two other crewmen were missing and presumed dead. Belgian environmental officials and the ship's owner, British Petroleum, played down pollution dangers. The tanker was loaded with 24,000 tons of petrol, which poured out of a hole in the port bow.
August 19 — FRANCE – An oil slick off the French Riviera after a collision between a nuclear submarine and a supertanker was brought under control with no danger to beaches. The collision on August 17 caused two spills, one off Fos-sur-Mer and one farther out.
October 15 — GREECE – Oil leaked from the Greek tanker Iliad killed wildlife and destroyed fish farms in the bay of Pylos. A three-mile-long (4.8 km) oil slick was caused when the tanker ran aground off the island of Spaktiria on October 9.
January 7 — PUERTO RICO – The Morris J. Furhman, a barge carrying about 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil, went aground off the northern side of the capital city harbor. 750,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil had been spilled and had spread to cover a six-mile (9.6 km) stretch of shore. Conado Beach, the Conado lagoon and San Juan Bay were all polluted.
March 6 — THAILAND – About 105,670 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the sea some four miles (6.4 km) off the eastern Sriracha coast after a chartered oil tanker and an unidentified cargo ship collided. The tanker, the Visahakit 5, was carrying about 1.06 million gallons of diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.
March 16 — TURKEY – A cleanup effort was begun to scoop patches of crude from the Bosphorus waterway and remove oil washed onto shore after a fiery collision on March 13 between the tanker Nassia and the freighter Shipbroker, both Cypriot-flagged. The accident, the worst in the Bosphorus in 15 years, killed 29 crewmen.
March 31 — UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – 15,900 tons of crude oil leaked into the Arabian Sea after the Panamanian-flagged supertanker Seki spilled the crude 10 miles (16 km) off the UAE port of Fujairah, just outside the Gulf, when it collided with the UAE tanker Baynunah, which was in ballast. Oil reached the UAE coast north of Khor Fakkan close to the Strait of Hormuz. The oil slick severely polluted several beaches and threatened more than 25 miles (40 km) of coastline.
May 8 — VIETNAM – The 1,220-ton Vietnamese Chanoco I, carrying 1,012 tons of fuel oil, and a 10,000-ton Taiwanese ship Unihumanity collided in the Long Tau river near Ho Chi Minh City. About 200 tons spilled into the river from the Vietnamese ship causing a 200-ton oil slick, which killed fish and other wildlife.
June 14 — INDIA – Indian authorities began siphoning off 700 tons of oil from the Sea Transporter, a 6,000-ton Greek cargo ship which had been anchored off Aguada after it ran aground following a cyclone on June 5.
June 23 — SOUTH AFRICA – An oil slick washing ashore on Dassen Island threatened a colony of endangered Jackass penguins and polluted mainland beaches. It was confirmed on June 28 that the Apollo Sea, a Chinese bulk carrier that was believed to have sunk on June 20 shortly after leaving Saldanha Bay, was the source of Cape Town's worst oil pollution disaster.
August 11 — UNITED STATES – The Columbus Iselin, a ship conducting oil spill research, ran aground in the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary off the Florida Keys and was leaking fuel.
October 2 — PORTUGAL – A Panamanian registered tanker, Cercal, spilled about 2,000 tons of crude into the sea after striking a rock on its way into Leixoes harbor, in the northern city of Oporto. The oil badly polluted one beach near the entrance to Leixoes port and smaller quantities of oil came ashore on other parts of the coast near Oporto.
October 17 — CHINA – 1,000 meters of beaches and reefs at Dongshan, a resort area at Qinhuangdao in Hebei province were polluted by an oil spill blamed on the Huahai Number Two tanker, owned by the state-run Huahai Company of Beijing.
June 5 — SINGAPORE – About 100 tons of fuel oil leaked from a bunker fuel barge after it collided with the freighter Sun Pulse. The fuel oil had begun washing up on the island's east coast.
July 11 — AUSTRALIA – An ore carrier, the Iron Baron, ran aground on a reef in southern Australian waters, spilling more than 500 tons of fuel oil and causing a major pollution scare for the island state of Tasmania. Thousands of fairy penguins were fouled with oil.
July 25 — SOUTH KOREA – Oil leaking from the 275,782 deadweight ton Sea Prince, a burning tanker off South Korea, formed a slick 20 miles (32 km) in diameter. The ship was loaded with 83,000 tons of crude oil. It was drifting toward the country's best known sea resort. 700 tons of fuel oil estimated to have been leaked.
February 15 — UNITED KINGDOM – The coast guard called a full environmental alert when the 147,000 deadweight ton Liberian-registered Sea Empress with a crew of 28 Russians hit rocks near the port of Milford Haven, Wales. The tanker, operated by Acomarit, had been carrying 130,000 tons of light crude oil. On February 20 an estimated 40,000 tons of crude oil spilled — a third of its cargo — creating a four-mile (six km) oil slick.
March 19 — UNITED STATES – A barge operated by Buffalo Marine Services Inc. and loaded with about 210,000 gallons of fuel oil ruptured as it sailed through the Houston Ship Channel. About 4,200 gallons of oil spilled into Galveston Bay, causing a five-mile-long (eight km) oil slick.
January 7 — JAPAN – Coastal fishing villages in North western Japan braced for economic and environmental catastrophe as oil slicks from sunken Russian tanker Nakhodka coated beaches and threatened prized shellfish beds. The spill from the ruptured tanker leaked 5,200 tons (36,400 barrels) of heavy fuel oil.
July 2 — JAPAN – A super tanker struck a shallow reef in Tokyo Bay, a famed fishing ground, leaking an estimated 1500 tons of crude oil.
October 15 — SINGAPORE – A tanker carrying 120.000 tonnes of fuel oil collides with an empty VLCC. More than 25.000 tonnes of oil leak out from the vessel, and despite huge amounts of dispersant chemicals being applied both from the air and from vessels, the beaches of several smaller islands off Singapore are covered with greasy sludge.
January 12 — NIGERIA – 40,000 barrels of oil spilled from a ruptured pipeline to one of Mobil's terminals. Even though most of the oil had either evaporated or dispersed within the 10 days that followed, some communities in the politically-volatile region complained that fish had been poisoned by the spilled oil and fishing nets destroyed. The spill is considered the largest ever in Nigeria.
December 12 – FRANCE – The Maltese-registered tanker Erika breaks up in stormy seas, and an estimated 15,000 tonnes of oil are drifting towards France's Atlantic shore. The slick is expected to hit the tiny Nourmoutier and Ile d'Yeu islands on Christmas Day, with disastrous consequences for fishing and tourism. Strong winds and currents and the heavy texture of the oil, have hampered an international flotilla battling to mop up the fast-spreading slick. Gales have since smeared the black slime over hundreds of miles of coast, covering beaches and picturesque wild coastline in sticky oil and threatening fisheries and beds of oysters, mussels and other shellfish.
December 27 – TURKEY – A Maltese-registered tanker carrying 45,753 tons of oil ran aground at the mouth of the Bosporus strait across Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, the Turkish Daily News reported. Murat Zafer Cetintas, head of the Organization of Eco-Warriors and the Environment, was quoted as saying that if necessary precautions are not taken, the city will face serious problems.
December 27 – ANGOLA – An offshore oil spill is approaching the Angolan coast, posing a threat to the fishing industry. Radio Ecclesia said the spill, which occurred in the Atlantic Ocean oil fields off Cabinda province, was advancing towards the coast.
January 4 – TURKEY – Fuel oil blackened kilometres of Istanbul's coast along the Bosporus after a Russian-registered tanker split apart in the strait that cuts through Istanbul. About 900 tons of fuel oil had spilled before it stopped pouring out of the Volganeft 248, and oil could be seen along five kilometers of the coast. Turkey is trying to reduce oil tanker traffic in the strait, through which about 440 million barrels of oil are transported each year. Some 200 accidents over the last decade in the strait have caused oil spills and fires that sometimes shut down the strait.
January 18 – BRASIL – At least 130,000 gallons of crude oil spewed out of a broken pipeline, polluting beaches and endangering plant and animal life in what authorities called the worst ecological disaster to hit Rio de Janeiro state in a decade. The oil covered at least three miles of coastline, affecting at least two beaches and a mangrove swamp rich in animal and plant species.
January 24 – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – The Honduran-flagged cargo vessel Al Jazya 1 sank 4 miles east of Abu Dhabi's coast, laden with 980 tons of fuel oil. The tanker sank in bad weather, leaving an oil spill of around 2000 feet by 400 feet. The Federal Environmental Agency said it is still too early to assess the extent of damage caused by the slick on marine life and birds.
February 2 – BOLIVIA – A flash flood broke a crude oil pipeline, spilling hundreds of barrels of oil into the Desaguadero River that flows into Lake Poopo, the government reported. The pipeline is operated by Transredes, which sent several experts to help contain the oil and assess the damage it is causing to a river inhabited by pink flamingoes and other birds. The oil spill had reached Aymara Indian communities located dozens of miles downriver, and is expected to reach Lake Poopo shortly.
February 2 – PHILIPPINES – After running aground on January 24th on the coast of Sual town in Lingayen Gulf, the Singapore-owned vessel MV Nol Schedar was suspected to have left behind an oil slick after she was floated on February 2nd. The spill was later said to have destroyed 2,700 metres of coral reefs and other marine resources, and the case is pending in court.
February 7 – BRAZIL – Brazilian authorities scrambled to avert an environmental disaster in the Amazon jungle, after a barge holding nearly 500,000 gallons (1.8 million liters) of oil sunk to the bottom of the world's largest river network. "Environmental advisers are working alongside diving teams to prevent ecological damage," said Mauricio Andres Ribeiro at Brazil's environment ministry.
April 1 – INDONESIA – About 160.000 kilolitres of crude oil leaked out from the tanker "King Fisher", after it hit a reef while approaching the Pertamina port in Cilacapan, at the Southern coast of Central Java. One thousand people are involved in cleaning up more than 25 km of shoreline, including popular tourist areas.
April 7 – UNITED STATES – Some 111,000 gallons of oil spilled near Pepco's Chalk Point Generating Station, affecting shorelines of the Patuxent River in southern Maryland. Some 6 1/2 miles of oil containment booms were positioned in the river and at the entrance to several creeks, and an estimated 80,000 gallons of spilled oil were recovered in 24-hour-a-day operations since the leak occurred.
June 23 – SOUTH AFRICA – Environmentalists were scrambling to rescue thousands of jackass penguins from an oil spill off Cape Town, just six years after the population was devastated by a similar disaster. The oil spill began when the bulk carrier Treasure carrying some 1,400 tonnes of oil sank off the coast of Cape Town. The spill is washing straight into Robben Island, home to about 5,700 pairs of jackass penguins.
July 6th – UNITED STATES – 14.000 gallons of oil has spilled from a collision between a barge and a tug that was towing it, off Middletown, Rhode Island. A ban on fishing is in effect in one of the most fertile areas of Narragansett Bay, and it's only been four years since the worst oil spill in Rhode Island history, when 828-thousand gallons spilled, killing more than ten (m) million lobsters and prompting a ban on fishing for five months.
July 16th – BRAZIL – The country is suffering one of its worst oil spills ever, as more than 1 million gallons of crude has leaked from a refinery into a river near the southern city of Curitiba. State-run oil company Petrobras said a pipe broke, spewing oil for up to two hours into the Barigui River, a tributary of the Iguacu River, 390 miles upstream from Iguacu Falls, a major tourist attraction. Television images showed a completely blackened river winding through the countryside.
July 25th – BRAZIL – A large oil slick again spread over Rio's postcard-famous Guanabara Bay on Tuesday, the third oil spill there this year. The slick was broken up in patches across an area of more than 20 square miles, environmentalists said. It washed up on beaches within the bay, and stretched out into the open sea.
August 1 – CANADA – Residents of the town of Chetwynd were told to conserve water , as officials surveyed the damage from a massive oil spill into a pristine river in northern British Columbia. Chetwynd stopped pumping water from the Pine River as the first traces of the estimated 264,600 gallons (one million liters ) of crude oil spilled in a pipeline break on Tuesday reached the community of about 3,000 people. The heavy oil had also begun killing some of the river's fish, which are a key food supply for eagles and other wildlife in the region.
August 8 – UNITED STATES – U.S. Coast Guard investigators boarded ships in Miami and Port Everglades, trying to determine which crew dumped oil off the South Florida coast, creating the area's worst oil spill in at least a decade. The oil contaminated 15 miles of beach, and all beaches along the 15-mile stretch were closed when the oil was discovered. Some endangered and threatened sea turtles are about to hatch, and oily debris block their path to the ocean.
September 2 – MALAYSIA – A major cleanup is underway following an oil spill from a sunken Chinese cargo ship at Tanjung Po anchorage point at the Sarawak River mouth. The ill-fated 5,000 ton Kingston registered vessel Double Brave was loaded with about 116 tons of diesel oil when it sank after a collision with a barge being towed by a tugboat. About 60 workers from the Marine Department, Department of Environment, and the Kuching Port Authority had been helping in the clean-up operation.
September 4 – GREECE – Greek authorities raced against time to prevent an environmental disaster, following a fuel oil spill from a sunken cargo ship off a popular stretch of tourist beaches northeast of Athens. Miles of coastline was threatened by the spill, which came from the Cambodian-registered cement carrier Eurobulker X. The 35,264 dwt vessel broke in half a week earlier, while loading cement at Lefkandi port, central Greece. It was the second spill inside a week, following a smaller spill from a grounded freighter off the island of Kythira.
September 14 – UNITED STATES – Wind and high waves spread a 30,000-gallon oil spill across Sandy Hook Bay, thwarting efforts to contain and clean up the mess. An overnight storm upset booms that had been set out to contain the fuel, which spilled when a tugboat put a 4-foot gash in a Navy ship, the USS Detroit. Navy Cmdr. Chuck Caudill said the oil was so dispersed that Navy skimmers could not pick up measurable amounts. The spill is one of the largest ever in the bay, and the state has banned harvesting of shellfish in the area until further notice.
October 2 – SWEDEN – Swedish environmentalists are warning that an oil spill could harm seals in the Baltic Sea's Gotska Sandoen national park, as park rangers discovered an oil belt about 12 miles long. Big lumps of oil had covered about 90 percent of the beaches of Gotska Sandoen, an island about 60 miles off the southeastern coast of Sweden. The Swedish coast guard was investigating the source of the spill, and it was not known how many gallons of oil spilled.
October 4 – INDONESIA – An estimated 7.000 tons of oil has been spilled in Indonesian waters off the Batu Berhanti Beacon, after a Panama registered tanker, Natuna Sea, ran aground damaging 4 of its cargo tanks. An oil boom of 300 m length has been deployed around the tanker, but this could not prevent the oil from escaping in a South-westerly direction. Some patches of the oil have since reached Singapore, and clean-up actions have, amongst others, commenced on the beaches of Sentosa, Singapore's famous tourist resort.
November 4th – BRAZIL – Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras, criticized for a string of spills this year, suffered another leak when a tanker dumped 13,200 gallons of crude near a popular beach resort area, local media said. The accident caused a slick measuring some 492 feet, and posed a risk for the region's bustling beach resorts nearby.
November 14th – HONG KONG – Some 230 cubic metres of heavy oil leaked into the sea north of Hongkong's Lantau Island, after a small Chinese oil freighter collided with a Norwegian vessel
and sank. The oil slick covering an area of 10,000 square metres, and some had reached the 12-sq-km Sha Chau marine park, a dolphin sanctuary.
November 28th – UNITED STATES – A tanker spilled half a million gallons of crude oil into the Mississippi River, closing a busy shipping route for 26 miles and threatening wildlife. No injuries were reported, but some pelicans and other animals were found covered with oil. The area is home to pelicans, shorebirds, seabirds, crabs, shrimp and sport fish, as well as more than 100,000 wintering waterfowl. The 567,000-gallon spill is the largest in U.S. waters since the Exxon Valdez in March 1989.
December 15th – NORWAY – A Norwegian freighter runs aground off the city of Haugesund, spilling some 100 tonnes of fuel oil which immediately hit the nearby coastlines. Heavy weather tempers the initial response actions, but reports say some 70 tonnes have since been recovered by means of using oil skimmers. The authorities are contemplating to have the remaining 300 tonnes of oil removed from the ship, to prevent the risk of further pollution. Meanwhile, several thousand metres of oil booms have been deployed for containment and protection.
January 14 – TAIWAN – Taiwan is racing against time to avert an ecological disaster and a major setback to its tourism industry, following the island's worst oil spill. Some 1,150 tonnes of fuel oil gushed out of a Greece-registered ship carrying 60,000 tonnes of iron ore, after it ran aground off the Kenting National Park. Marine mammals in the area, such as dolphins, are highly endangered by the spill. The crisis also threatens the operation of a nearby nuclear power plant, and risks cross-strait disputes if the spillage spreads to the Chinese coast.
January 15 – NORWAY – One of the largest oil spills ever from a land based oil storage facility in Norway, was detected when at least 750 tons of sludge had leaked from Norcem's facilities at Brevik. By the afternoon, some 100 tons had been recovered within the containment area around the tank, whilst another 190 tons had been recovered from the sea. The recovery operations are continuing, under close scrutiny from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority.
January 16 – ECUADOR – A boat carrying fuel to Ecuador's Galapagos Islands is leaking oil into the ecologically sensitive waters near the famous islands. The boat, named "Jessica", was carrying 160,000 gallons of diesel and about 80,000 gallons of IFO 120.The spill has already affected animals including sea lions and pelicans, and volunteers are on standby to clean up and rescue them.
February 16 – INDONESIA – The Coast Guard authorities are working to re-float an oil tanker that ran aground in rough seas off Indonesia's Java island. The Honduras-registered Steadfast partially sank in shallow waters, when it was battered by massive waves and winds off Tegal, some 250 km east of Jakarta. Roughly 40 per cent of an estimated 800 tonnes of sump oil had leaked from the ship and reached the shore, and a joint clean-up operation involving local vessels, Coast Guard and police authorities is underway.
March 20 – BRAZIL – Up to 316,000 gallons of diesel has leaked after the world's largest offshore platform sank five days after a failed rescue effort. A huge diesel slick appeared on the surface when the platform sank to bottom of the ocean floor, almost a mile down. This was just another in a series of oil spills that have plagued the state owned Petrobras in recent months.
March 25 – DENMARK – More than 764,000 gallons of oil spilled after a double-hulled tanker carrying 9.7 million gallons of oil, and a freighter crashed in international waters between eastern Denmark and northwest Germany. A slick about 9.3 miles long and 161/2-feet wide slipped into the narrow Groensund strait between the Danish islands of Moen, Bogoe and Falster, while the bulk of the oil remained in the Baltic Sea off southern Denmark. As ships from three countries worked to contain the oil spill, an international conservation group said that a sanctuary home to thousands of ducks, swans and other water fowl was under threat by the oil slick, the largest ever in Denmark.
April 6 – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Workers have started to clean a 12-kilometer-radius oil spill reaching the reserved island of Sir Bou Neair, about 70 nautical miles off the coast of the Emirate of Sharjah. The spill was caused by the Iraqi fuel tanker Zainab, suspected of smuggling around 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil from Iraq, as it ran into trouble on its way to a holding area in international waters. The emirate of Sharjah said it had temporarily shut down a desalination plant as a precautionary measure, after the spill neared pumping stations. The spill is said to be the emirate's worst environmental disaster in years.
May 24 – BRAZIL – Petrobras, infamous for a series of spills over the past two years, shut 12 oil rigs, responsible for nearly 9 percent of Brazil's oil output, Thursday night after detecting an oil slick on the ocean surface. There were two oil slicks some 90 km off the coast, one of approximately 110,000 liters and another of some 10,000 liters of crude. The source of the spill has yet to be determined, but officials are ruling out any relation to the huge oil rig that sank in March.
May 25 – CHILE – An oil tanker that ran aground in a remote southern Chilean fjord has spilled some 350,528 litres of crude, leaving an oil slick 70 miles (112 km) long and damaging wildlife and a salmon farm, the Chilean Navy has admitted. Maritime authorities initially dismissed the incident, saying the leak had been negligible and had caused no damage to the environment. But the Navy later admitted the spill was worse than initially announced.
May 28 – MALAYSIA – An oil tanker with some 67 tonnes of fuel, including diesel and 1,500 tonnes of bitumen, sunk after it was crashed from behind by a super tanker about 7.5 nautical miles off Pulau Undan, near Malacca. Officials said the crash caused MT Singapura Timur to take in water, and remained half-submerged in the sea floating southwards. Diesel and bitumen have started to spill into the sea, and is spreading to about one nautical mile from the collision spot.
May 30 – BRAZIL- Oil giant Petrobras said a break in its Paulinia pipeline dumped 220,000 liters of fuel oil in a residential neighborhood. The spill, which occurred 30 kilometers from the city of Sao Paulo, follows two unexplained and unclaimed oil spills in the Campos Basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.
May 30 – CHINA – Chinese environmental experts are struggling to contain damage from toxic styrene which leaked from a ship, and fishermen along the eastern coast fear their livelihoods could be threatened for years to come. About 700 tonnes of the chemical, which is poisonous to humans, seeped into the waters near Shanghai after a South Korean vessel collided with a Hong Kong. State media said the South Korean freighter Dayong was carrying nearly 2,300 tonnes of styrene when it collided with the Hong Kong vessel in dense fog at the mouth of the Yangtze River, near Jigujiao.
June 10 – PHILIPPINES – An oil spill in Cavite is threatening to contaminate Laguna de Bay, caused by a bursting oil pipeline of an industrial and electronics firm at the People's Technological Complex in Barangay Maduya, Carmona town. The oil spill has already affected a six-kilometer stretch of Carmona-Biñan River, just a few kilometers away from the Laguna Bay. Aside from the affected river, the spilling bunker oil and industrial fuel oil also affected land base areas surrounding the firm.
June 13 – MALAYSIA – An Indonesian tanker laden with a toxic chemical has capsized off Malaysia's southern Johor state, just across from Singapore. The 533 ton MV Endah Lestari was on its way to East Kalimantan in Indonesia with some 600 tonnes of the poisonous industrial chemical phenol, and 18 tonnes of diesel. Newspaper reports said the toxic spill had killed thousands of fish and cockles reared in 85 offshore cages, and Singapore authorities have also warned its citizens to stay away from nearby waters. Officials said it would be tough to mop up the phenol, as it is soluble in water.
August 4 – USA – A fishing vessel that has sunk and is leaking diesel fuel has caused the biggest spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, posing a threat to the area's wildlife. The Seattle-based Windy Bay was loaded with about 35,000 gallons (133,000 liters) of diesel fuel when it struck a rock and sank in the northern part of the sound about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of the port of Valdez. Just how much leaked was unknown, but diesel fuel leaking from the ship has created a sheen covering 4 square miles (10 sq km), and cleanup crews has recovered about 9,700 gallons (36,800 liters).
August 10 – MICRONESIA – A sunken World War II ship has been gushing 300 to 500 gallons of oil per hour into the Ulithi Atoll lagoon. The cause of the spill is the USS Mississinewa, a 553-foot Navy oiler sunk in 1944 by a one-man Japanese suicide submarine. Yap State officials said the state's governor has declared a state of emergency for Ulithi and advised the 700 people who live on the atoll not to swim or fish in the lagoon. Questions have been raised who should bear the responsibility for taking relevant action, with focus on getting international assistance to clean-up and minimize the environmental and ecological impacts.
September 7 – VIETNAM – Local residents in small boats used buckets to try to collect thousands of tons of oil from a damaged oil tanker and save the nearby beach resort of Vung Tau, after The Vietnamese Petrolimex 01 tanker, carrying 19,000 tons of diesel oil, was hit by a Liberian-registered oil tanker. But wind and waves drove much of the spilled oil to the beach, which normally attracts thousands of vacationers a day.
September 22 – USA – An oil spill caused by a collision between a ship and a barge closed the ship channel servicing the nation's second largest port. The fuel oil spill occurred at Barbour's Cut in La Porte, Texas, and some 860 barrels of fuel oil leaked into the channel. About 18,000 feet of boom were set up to contain the oil, and skimmers were removing it. Containment and cleanup operations involved more than 70 people.
October 4 – USA – Crews were slowed by explosive vapors as they tried to plug a leak in the trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline that spewed nearly 300,000 gallons of oil into the wilderness. A man who had been drinking caused the leak when he shot the pipeline with a big-game rifle. The pipeline carries about 1 million barrels of oil a day, prompting a halt to almost a fifth of U.S. domestic production.
October 18 – BRAZIL – Brazilian and foreign teams prepared to begin salvaging a tanker that hit underwater rocks, spewing a highly flammable oil product into the sea and forcing closure of the country's primary port for grain shipments. State oil giant Petrobras, which owns the tanker, said about 103,000 gallons (392,000 litres) of naphtha, an oil product lighter than gasoline, spilled into the Paranagua port area, some 380 miles (600 km) southwest of Rio.
November 21 – GERMANY – Almost 2,000 tonnes of nitric acid has spilled into the Rhine river, when motor tank barge Stolt Rotterdam sank during a disastrous discharging operation. The 1988-built chemical tanker was discharging the acid at Erdoelchemie Uerdingen when crew noticed fumes coming from the bottom of the barge. An emergency response was initiated, but a store room caught fire, forcing the crew and everyone in the surrounding area to evacuate as the vessel sank, emptying 1,895 tonnes of nitric acid into the river.
December 11 – FINLAND – Oil from a spill off the country's west coast has washed ashore on some 1.24 miles of Ruissalo island's coastline, and the spill is now three kilometers long and a kilometer wide. 10 vessels are involved in operations to contain and sweep up the oil, but the source of the spill is still unknown.
January 22 – THAILAND – A huge oil slick has hit beaches in Thailand's Rayong Bay, a popular holiday spot south-east of the capital Bangkok, and is also said to be threatening the nearby resort island of Samet. Some 100,000 litres of oil had spilled from the Panama-registered tanker Eastern Fortitude when it hit a rock in Rayong Bay a week earlier. Authorities have struggled to clean up the slick, now estimated to be at least 400 m wide and about 3 km long, but complained they were not alerted to the accident until too late.
February 8 – UNITED STATES – A ship that sank nearly 50 years ago is to blame for a mystery oil spill that has killed more than 1,300 birds since November. The Coast Guard matched oil samples taken from the SS Jacob Luckenbach, located about 17 miles southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge, to those taken from oiled birds and the oil sheen that has colored the water. Just a drop or two of oil on a bird's feathers can break the animal's insulating layer and lead to hypothermia.
February 9 – NEW ZEALAND – A major clean-up operation is under way after a cargo ship
carrying more than 700 tonnes of fuel ran aground a few hundred metres from the north island port of Gisborne. Already, several tonnes of thick black oil has drifted 400 metres to shore, polluting nearby rivers, beaches and coastline and sending noxious fumes over dozens of houses. Whilst conservation staff have already rescued a number of birds affected by oil in a local creek, wildlife casualties are expected to be inevitable.
April 4 – JAPAN – A flotilla of ships has raced to contain an oil slick off Japan's western coast before it washes ashore. The 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) long spill has been slowly moving towards the coast since it bubbled to the surface from a Belize-registered cargo ship that sank four days earlier, after colliding with a fishing boat. Officials earlier said the spill would likely hit the coast, but did not know when or where.
April 6 – USA – Strong wind hampered cleanup efforts as workers tried to contain a 90,000-gallon crude oil spill off the southeast Louisiana coast. Four-foot waves made it difficult for skimmers to collect the oil, but the Coast Guard said about 6,720 gallons had been recovered. No damage to wildlife had been reported, but officials expected there to be some shoreline impact.
June 12 – SINGAPORE – A collision between Thailand-registered freighter MV Hermion and Singapore-registered bunker tanker Neptank VII has caused about 450 tonnes of marine fuel oil to spill into the south-eastern waters of Singapore. Clean-up operations by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) have largely contained the oil spill, but broken patches of oil remained visible in the Singapore Straits, and oil booms were placed off the waters of Marina Bay and Sentosa.
July 31 – ROMANIA – Tons of oil gushed into a river in southern Romania after torrential rains damaged a pipeline. The spill occurred in the Prahova River near the village of Manesti, some 50 kilometers north of the capital, Bucharest. The water damaged the pipeline near a refinery owned by a state oil company, Conpet. Authorities placed dams along the Prahova to prevent oil from spilling into the Danube River, and police guarded the area overnight to prevent people from throwing flammable objects into the river.
September 12 – SOUTH AFRICA – Salvage teams and ecologists are battling to contain a spill of oil and chemicals from a blazing cargo vessel, and to prevent tides from pushing the spill into the pristine Saint Lucia wetlands, a wildlife sanctuary nearby. Wildlife officials have warned that a serious oil spill could pollute the Umfolozi River and a nearby estuary, and damage mangroves, crocodiles, hippos and a turtle nesting area in the park. Reefs off the area are also popular among scuba divers for their wide variety of fish.
November 13 – SPAIN – Four tugs have failed in their attempts to rescue a leaking oil tanker with 77.000 tonnes of fuel aboard, which later broke in two and sank off the northwestern coast of Spain. The Prestige, Greek-owned and registered in the Bahamas, has leaked most of its cargo, and the oil is washing up on the Galician shores and approaching the coastlines of Portugal and France. All fishing activities have been banned in the area, and the incident is fast becoming one of the worst ecological disasters ever to happen.
November 23 – CHINA – A Chinese ship has collided with a Maltese-registered oil tanker, spreading an oil slick 2.5 miles by 1.4 miles across the Bohai sea. The Tianjin Maritime Bureau sent seven vessels to clean up the spill at the accident site. Preliminary inquiries indicate the Tasman Sea tanker, which was bound for Tianjin carrying 80.000 tons of oil, was anchored off the coast when the accident took place.
December 5 – SINGAPORE – A potentially disastrous crude oil spill in Singapore waters was contained to just 350 tonnes when a small general cargo vessel collided with a heavily-laden single-hulled tanker in the middle of the Singapore Straits. Two oil slicks measuring 2.5kmx300m and 2.5kmx500m were spotted in Indonesian waters off the island of Bintan.
February 14 – USA – Clean up operations are underway at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge after an underground corroded pipeline fitting released as many as 100,000 gallons of fuel in the fuel farm area last week. The atoll provides nesting and resting habitat for almost two million seabirds, as well as important habitat for migratory shorebirds, threatened green sea turtles, and endangered Hawaiian monk seals. Since almost all of the spill is underground, however, impact to wildlife has so far been minimal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
March 18 – AUSTRALIA – A large oil spill is threatening to pollute the Brisbane River, where up to 1.5 million litres of crude oil has leaked from a ruptured pipeline at the Santos terminal. Emergency crews have contained the oil to creeks and wetlands in an area of about eight hectares in the Lytton industrial estate. Booms further up the water course had not stopped the oil and the outgoing tide was threatening to drag the slick into the river and Moreton Bay.
March 20 – VIETNAM – Thousands of acres of clam and shrimp farms were in danger after a ship carrying 600 tonnes of fuel oil sank in the river in Ho Chi Minh City, environment officials said. The oil slick spread about seven kilometers towards Can Gio district, home of several aqua-cultural farms. It also spread three kilometers towards Vung Tau province, but has yet to hit the beaches there.
May 31 – SWEDEN – The Swedish government accused Denmark of reacting too slowly to the sinking of a Chinese vessel in Danish waters near Sweden's coast, saying the effects of the ensuing oil spill could have been reduced. The Fu Shan Hai bulk carrier went down in Danish waters between the Swedish coast and Denmark's Bornholm island, following a collision with a Polish freighter. At least 100 tonnes of oil have already leaked out into the water, and a large oil slick gushing from the vessel has hit Sweden's popular southeastern coast.
June 12 – SINGAPORE – The MV APL Emerald, a 40.077 ton container ship, spilled about 150 tonnes of fuel oil when it ran aground near Horsburgh Lighthouse, in the eastern approaches of the Singapore Straits. Six anti-pollution craft were involved in the clean-up, and oil booms have been laid around the vessel to contain the spill, which has since been contained. The authorities said there was no chance of any fuel reaching Singapore's shores, about 46km away.
July 12 – RUSSIA – Russian divers are exploring a sunken Japanese tanker that has begun releasing large quantities of oil and threatens to spark an ecological disaster off the west coast of the Pacific island of Sakhalin. More than two tonnes of fuel have leaked in the past few days from the Takeo Maru, which sank in 1979 off the sea port of Shakhtersk. The leaked oil is floating in the Tatar strait and heading for the coast. With up to 300 tonnes of fuel oil remaining inside the sunken tanker, the Takeo Maru could be an ecological bomb that jeopardizes Russia's Pacific coastline.
August 13 – PAKISTAN – An oil tanker has broken up off Pakistan's Arabian Sea port, Karachi, after spilling nearly 10,000 tonnes of oil, sparking fears of lasting damage to local marine life. The Greek-registered MV Tasman Spirit, still carrying 35,000 tonnes of crude oil, split in two around 100 metres from the Karachi port, after running aground on July 27. Officials said that most of the oil had pooled along Clifton beach, the favourite beach resort among Karachi's 14 million people. A thick oil slick could be seen snaking from the ship to the shores alongside the port, blackening waves and seeping onto sands. Environmentalists predicted the entire 40 kilometre (25 mile) Karachi coastline could be affected, endangering fish, crabs and rare turtles.
January 19 – PHILIPPINES – An oil spill coming from a diving boat that ran aground at the Apo Manor Reef in December, a protected marine park off Mindoro Island, is threatening to destroy one of the world's best dive sites. Residents of Barangay Siblayan in Occidental Mindoro, a nearby coastal town, said that the M/V Island Explorer has started to leak bunker fuel, endangering the reef which serves as a fish nursery and the major source of livelihood of the surrounding communities. The surrounding waters are abundant with marine fauna and luxuriant coral growth with more than 500 coral species. Marine life includes sharks, stingrays and manta rays.
January 20 – NORWAY – A large oil spill has started spreading from the capsized cargo vessel "Rocknes", that spilled several thousand litres of oil and bunker fuel along the coastline near the city of Bergen. Close to a thousand seabirds have already been found dead or dying, and clean-up crews are working day and night to clean up affected coastlines and prevent the slick from spreading further. However, due to the immediate search and rescue work that prevented the oil spill response activities from commencing, thick patches of oil have already drifted beyond the reach of the highly sophisticated and efficient Norwegian oil spill response vessels and their equipment.
March 4 – CHINA – Nearly one million people in south-western Sichuan province were without water for drinking and bathing, after chemicals spilled from a factory into an important Yangtze river tributary, state media said. The authorities shut down water supplies after a mixture of synthetic ammonia and nitrogen from the Sichuan General Chemical Factory leaked into the Tuo river in the densely populated province, the Shanghai Morning Post reported. Water supplies for four residential areas – Jianyang, Zizhong, Neijiang and Luzhou – were severely polluted, and could remain cut for several days, the report said.
October 2 – INDONESIA – An oil spill has swamped a chain of tourist islands off the coast of the Indonesian capital, polluting a marine park and hitting businesses in the area, officials and media reports said. Oil began leaking in the region known as the Thousand Islands, and government officials said the spill may have been caused by leaking oil pipes operated nearby by China National Offshore Oil Corp, or by a mishap loading oil onto tankers. The islands have been hit by at least five oil spills in the past year, driving occupancy rates at some resorts to just about 30 per cent, according to Jakarta Tourism Agency. The oil slick has also hurt fishermen and seaweed farmers in the area, officials said.
October 14 – USA – Emergency crews scrambled to control a massive south Sound oil spill that soiled portions of Tacoma's Commencement Bay and stretched for miles in a bluish-black sheen, threatening pristine beaches and wildlife on Maury and Vashon islands. "We have a major oil spill on our hands," said the spokesman for the state Department of Ecology. "This is a very large, very complex spill." Officials didn't know where it came from, who was responsible or exactly how much oil had been spilled.
November 18 – BRAZIL – Workers are rushing to avert an environmental disaster as an oil slick spread from a cargo ship that exploded and broke in half at a port in southern Brazil. Workers found dead fish and dolphins in the toxic slick of fuel oil, diesel fuel and methanol that leaked from the ship. The slick, which blackened rocks and beaches, stretched for more than 20 kilometres from the port of Paranagua, 625 kilometres south-west of Rio de Janeiro. Environmental officials indefinitely banned many maritime activities and grounded the area's 3000 fishermen.
November 21 – CANADA – Scientists warn the 44,000 gallon oil spill at an oil platform off Canada's Newfoundland province could kill up to 100,000 seabirds. The spill, coming at a bad time for the birds, occurred at the Terra Nova offshore oil platform as a result of a malfunction. A few days laster, the slick covered at least 14 square miles. The birds at risk include turrs, dovekeys and black-legged kittiwakes, as well as migrating birds such as shearwaters.
November 26 – USA – A tanker has spilled what was initially estimated as appr. 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, immediately creating a 20-mile slick that threatened fish and birds. But authorities later estimated that it could be as much as 475,000 gallons, leaving a gooey mess that has stained 70 miles of shoreline across three states. More than 1,000 cleanup and emergency responders were called in to skim oil from the surface of the water, and place thousands of feet of barriers to contain the floating slick.
December 7 – CHINA – A collision between two container ships near the mouth of South China's Pearl River has caused the region's biggest oil spill in five years. Nearly 450 tonnes are said to have been spilled. Oil was mainly leaking from the fuel tanks of the MSC Ilona, that caused a slick about 17 kilometers long and up to several hundred meters wide. Eight decontamination ships from Guangdong Province are on the spot to deal with the leaking oil, while divers have been dispatched to plug the leak.
December 10 – USA – Thousands of gallons of fuel oil spilling out of a Malaysian freighter that snapped in two off the US state of Alaska have put the Aleutian islands' fragile ecosystem in jeopardy, fueling fears of an environmental crisis 15 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster. The Selendang Ayu's 480,000-gallon (1.8 million-litre) stock of thick fuel was leaking into the water off Unalaska Island, killing cormorants and marine life and leaving a thick and dark coating on beaches. Wildlife in the area includes endangered or threatened species such as Steller sea lions and Steller's eiders as well as western Alaska sea otters, the population of which is dwindling.
December 20 – EGYPT – An oil slick in the Suez Canal is threatening to reach the Mediterranean, port sources said. The spill was caused by a leak in a Kuwaiti tanker carrying 160,000 tonnes of crude, after it collided with a dredger further south on December 14. The slick has tripled in size over a week and now measures around 34 miles (55 kilometres) in length, the source said, adding that about 10,000 cubic metres (2.2 million gallons) had been lost from the tanker. Several aquatic species are threatened by the contamination, and foreign officials charge that the Egyptian authorities have no adequate strategy to face such environmental threats and lack means to combat them.
2010 The Gulf oil Spill came about by an explosion from an oil drill leased by BP Oil, operated by Transocean and the seal was constructed by Halliburton. The oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010 and is still continuing to spill millions of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill has spread to the coasts of Louisiana damaging the wetlands, beaches, estuaries and killing wildlife in its path.
The damages are still unknown and BP is incapable of stopping the oil leaking from the blower pipe for 41 days. This will be recorded in history as one of the largest and most damaging oil spills of the history of earth. It is estimated that BP is spilling 19,000 barrels of oil each day into the Gulf of Mexico-50 miles off the shores of Louisiana and four other states. The effects are unknown.
In summary the total amount recorded of oil spilled into the ocean is into the billions of barrels of oil and dangerous chemicals which is all preventable. The oil industry needs to come under stricter controls of transporting oil, drilling for oil, deep sea drills and they themselves must embrace cleaner forms of energy if they are to compete in the global economy.
TAGS: the world's oil spill list, Oil Spills Worldwide, BP Oil Spill, BP, Oil Spills Worldwide, world's oil spill list, oil industry, oil spills, Gulf Oil spill list, oil.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog BP Criminal Charges Largest Fine In History
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Waking Up From The Keystone XL Pipe Dream
Waking Up From The Keystone XL Pipe Dream With Keystone XL all but dead, Harper's no-brainer is now his migraine By Fred Wilson Stephen Harper said the Keystone XL pipeline was a no-brainer, and he arrogantly dismissed any and all … Continue reading →
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog BP Spin After One Year
BP Spin After One Year BP's Gulf of Mexico PR, One Year Later by Anne Landman Finger-pointing over the Deepwater Horizon disaster resumed recently after the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Coast Guard issued a joint report (pdf) … Continue reading →
Posted in Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill	| Tagged BP Spin, company spokesman, corporate participants, critical decisions, improper maintenance, transocean company	| Leave a comment
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Ecological Tsunami
Ecological Tsunami Gulf Shrimpers Still Reeling, Is BP Spill to Blame? The demise of the gulf's minnowlike killifish could be the start of an ecological tsunami, experts are warning. "They're a fairly sensitive indicator relative to other species, which is … Continue reading →
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Yellowstone Oil Spill Cleanup Update
Posted on August 26, 2011	by Panajachel Chamber of Commerse Online
Yellowstone Oil Spill Cleanup Update Yellowstone oil spill cleanup will last into fall Exxon Mobil says efforts to clean up Yellowstone River after oil spill will last into fall by Matthew Brown BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The cleanup of a … Continue reading →
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Storm Season Tar Mats
Posted on July 30, 2011	by Panajachel Chamber of Commerse Online
Storm Season Tar Mats As crews remove one giant oil glob, more tar mats could be exposed during storm season By David Ferrara GULF SHORES, Alabama — During hurricane season, with storms thrashing about, the Gulf of Mexico is like a … Continue reading →
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Alaska BP Lisburne Oil Field
Alaska BP Lisburne Oil Field Spill BP's new oil spill in Alaska: 'Reckless'? The beleaguered company that was pummeled over its massive Gulf oil disaster is grappling with another (arguably preventable) spill. BP, the petroleum giant responsible for last year's … Continue reading →
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Yellowstone River Oil Spill Cleanup
Yellowstone River Oil Spill Cleanup Oil-spill cleanup effort continues to grow ExxonMobil says that almost 600 people are now involved in efforts to clean up crude oil spilled after a pipeline running under the Yellowstone River ruptured July 1, releasing an … Continue reading →
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog Montana Yellowstone River Exxon Oil Spill
Posted on July 4, 2011	by Panajachel Chamber of Commerse Online
Montana Yellowstone River Exxon Oil Spill Oil spill outrages Montana residents Up to 42,000 gallons surge overnight Friday into the Yellowstone River, and some say Exxon Mobil's cleanup needs more oversight. By Molly Hennessy An oil spill in Montana's Yellowstone … Continue reading →
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
MIT develops sun-free photovoltaics
Impact Lab > Breakthrough Thinking > MIT develops sun-free photovoltaics
Breakthrough Thinking, New Discoveries, New Inventions, Science & Technology News
Materials engineered to give off precisely tuned wavelengths of light when heated are key to new high-efficiency generating system.
MIT has developed a new photovoltaic energy-conversion system that can be powered solely by heat, generating electricity with no sunlight at all.
These whiz kids have engineered the surface of a material to convert heat into precise wavelengths of light. These wavelengths are chosen to match those of photovoltaic cells that can best become electricity. The new discovery combines burning butane and nanometer-sized pits to fine-tune those wavelengths. Then they're paired with PV cells that are tuned into those wavelengths to suck out the energy.
Why should we care? The end-product of all this is a generator the size of a dime that can run three times longer than a lithium-ion battery—something those MIT students must really hate. That generator can be recharged immediately by inserting a tiny cartridge of fresh juice. Oh, and they also made a radioisotope that produces heat from radioactive decay. It could quite possibly power its own electricity for 30 years. NBD.
So the former could be used to power, say, a mobile device, and the latter could be used to power say, an entire spacecraft on a long mission. Either way, those blessed MIT geeks have taken one small step for battery power, and one giant leap for all those people out there who can't remember to charge their gadgets.
Photo credit: Justin Knight
Via Gizmodo
Tag: Batteries, electricity, energy, heat, Lithium-ion, mit, photovoltaics, sun-free, Sunlight, Technology
Chewing more helps..
GDT Nature Photograph..


text:
Letter from a Priest in the Diocese of Scranton Ref: episode 40
Dear Angry Catholic
So, let me get this straight (BTW, this is from official court documents).
In 1996 a seminarian of about 27 years of age, who has just left his job as a nurse, discovers in the middle of the night an angry 22-year-old man who is not a seminarian and, therefore, is forbidden to be in the seminary at that time of the night. Not only that, he finds him arguing with a priest in the priest's room. The priest in question is Rev. Albert Liberatore, who is the Director of Vocations and lives at the seminary. Furthermore, the young man, according to the seminarian's own testimony, shouts out that he is a homosexual. Now, what is a homosexual young man doing in the middle of the night in a priest's room in a building where he is not supposed to be? So, what does the 27-year-old nurse turned seminarian do? Does he drive him home? No, he quiets him down and lets him sleep in the priest's bedroom(!!!) where, according to this young man's testimony, he wakes up the next morning to find Fr. Al in bed with him and the priest's hand on the young man's penis!!!
I guess the next day or at some latter time the seminarian tells the rector (the one in charge) of the seminary about the incident. The seminarian does nothing else to expose Fr. Al, even though there is another incident involving the priest a year later witnessed by a group of high school students visiting the seminary. These are the only two incidents that we know of, but one can reasonably conclude there were more incidents of which the seminarian in question and the rector were aware of during the years Fr. Al was at the seminary.
Finally, in 1999 Fr. Al is removed from his position at the seminary and made a pastor. Again, the seminarian and the rector do nothing to expose the priest or warn the faithful about the sexually immoral and predatory nature of Fr. Al. They remain silent even after the whole sex scandal explodes in 2002, which one would think was a perfect opportunity for everyone who knew anything to come forward. Unfortunately, instead of promoting a kind of #metoo movement where everyone who knew about any abuse would came forward and expose it, it instead produced just the opposite: more cover up, namely, make sure that no one finds out who knew about the abuses in the Church. Coming back to our case, you can guess what happened.
In 2004 an allegation is made that Fr. Al molested a teenage boy at the parish he was currently serving at. There's also another player in the story: The Vicar for Clergy who, although, did not make any accusations, expressed to Bishop Timlin "grave concern" regarding a DIFFERENT incident involving Fr. Al while he was at the seminary. Although, it was Bishop Timlin and not the Vicar for clergy who kept Fr. Al at the seminary and then later appointed him a pastor, the Vicar for Clergy did not expose Fr. Al or warn the parishioners. Also, when the University of Scranton decided to hire Fr. Al as a professor, that same Vicar for Clergy was on the board of the University. He again did not prevent the appointment of Fr. Al giving him access to potentially groom and abuse young male students.
Now keep in mind that the decades of sex abuse and the cover up was only possible because people in position of power, e.g. a Vicar General, a Vicar for Clergy or a rector of a seminary and adults (like a 27-year-old nurse turned seminarian) kept silent. Yes, they did not assign or reassign abusive priests themselves, but because of their silence bishops were able to keep moving abusive priests from parish to parish perpetuating abuse (I'm sorry but notifying the bishop who disregards what you say and keeps reassigning a priest does not count as doing something). Also remember that priests are called not be hirelings that run away when the wolf comes but shepherds who are willing to give their life to protect the sheep from the wolf (John 10:12), even if that wolf happens to be a bishop.
So, what happened to Fr. Al? He was found guilty of abusing the teenage boy at that parish and went to jail. The 22-year-old man sued civilly and the diocese settled for 3 million dollars in the middle of the trial, an amount that itself suggests there was much more dirt that could have been exposed and which the diocese wanted to keep covered up by going into settlement.
What happened to the people involved? The seminarian is now Msgr. Thomas M. Muldowney, the Vicar General (the second person in charge of the diocese after the bishop) and a potential candidate for the Office of Bishop. The rector, Msgr. Bohr, is the Secretary for Clergy Formation. The Vicar for Clergy is now the Bishop of Scranton. Isn't it interesting that all the three main players have these high positions? Is it a pure coincidence? Furthermore, this is one case that we are aware of, but how many other cases are there which never reached the light of day, perhaps, simply because they involved young adult men and, therefore, are not criminal, even though they are clearly cases of abuse? Remember what brought Fr. Al down was a case involving a minor, while for years he groomed and abused many young adults.
Finally ask yourself: if the seminarian became a whistle blower, would he be ordained a priest? NO. If the rector and the Vicar for Clergy stood up to bishop Timlin, would they have kept their job? NO. Would Msgr. Bambera ever have become Bishop Bambera? A definitive NO.
Is this a clear case of corruption to the core? I let you be the judge.
Fr. Anonymous from the Diocese of Scranton
Paul Ciaccia
Response from our Bishop
MAY 03, 2019 OFFICE OF THE BISHOP DIOCESE OF SCRANTON 300 WYOMING AVENUE SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA 18503 -1279 April 3, 2019 Dear Mr. and Mrs. Ciaccia: Thank you for your recent letter. Please accept this letter in response. Your letter seems...
Original Letter to Bishop Bambera
Original Letter to Bishop Bambera MAY 03, 2019 March 20, 2019 Dear Bishop Bambera, Since the recent scandal broke, your statements to date have not answered specific questions regarding your involvement in the sex abuse scandal in the Diocese of Scranton. One month...
Our response to the Bishops letter
MAY 03, 2019 April 30, 2019 Dear Bishop Bambera, I want to assure you that I have the highest regard for your office, and I am trying to be very careful to respect your ordained position. I want to thank you for taking the time to reply to my letter. However, your...
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So much of our productivity and effectiveness is rooted in our ability to establish effective teamwork habits. Teamwork is the very foundation of organizational growth and the ability to influence the marketplace.
A sum that is greater than its parts. It's important to distinguish the difference between teamwork and a team. You can have a team without teamwork, but you can't have teamwork without a team. The attitudes and behaviors of the team that formulate the effectiveness to accomplish the goal.
The most successful organizations rely on teamwork to be successful. Dysfunctional or non-collaborative teams can often bring a project down, expose vulnerabilities for budget and schedule overrun, or completely miss an opportunity in the marketplace.
Look at your teams. How effective are they at teamwork?
The values and behaviors of our teams.
Making collaboration and communication more frictionless for teams.
Encourage teams to define their values and mutual expectations on behavior and attitude. This may translate into meeting etiquette or respectful disagreement that leads to negotiation, fact-finding, or compromise. It may simply be the belief that everyone on the team will complete their tasks. Whatever the attitude and behaviors are, the team owns these values and are the ones who establish them.
A good starting place: gather a team who considers themselves to be effective, and another team admitting there could be improvement. Facilitate an equal exchange of ideas on what effective teamwork looks like. Then let teams define what teamwork looks like for themselves. Everyone on the team should have a shared commitment and understanding to the behaviors that will make the teamwork work.
To enable our teams, and support them with better resources or tools, we have to understand what our teams do most often and where barriers can be broken to re-script for easier use. One of the most common activities our teams do is meet. Meetings tend to make up a lot of the logistical structure of where teamwork takes place. The amount of meetings is up to the team, but perhaps we can improve the technology supporting those meetings and the work products associated with it.
Microsoft conducted an informal survey to question knowledge workers from various organizations on the purpose of their meetings. The responses were collected and even though there were a variety of responses, a theme emerged with 50% of meetings being for statuses and collaboration. We can look at these meeting types and the patterns and activities teams take to better understand how tools like artificial intelligence, search, and automation may benefit repeatable actions.
Pre-meeting Actions – review agenda, learn more about attendees, co-author a deliverable, work with a colleague on ideas for the deliverable.
During the meeting – collaborate with persistent chat, take notes, share desktop/apps, whiteboard.
Post Meeting – post and review meeting notes, share and send the deliverable, review action items, execute on next steps.
How can we improve the user experience for any of the activities listed above? Can co-authoring allow for easier collaboration? Can persistent chat allow you to ask your teammates questions? Can you keep track of tasks to review in the meeting more easily? Can artificial intelligence pre-populate the email notification to share the meeting notes based on who attended the meeting?
The list of potential opportunities for a better user experience could be made to be very specific to the needs of the team, or it can be very genericized and meant to stretch across many different teams. The analysis is an activity between teams and IT, or your Office 365 pro.
Microsoft Teams advancements in communication are swiftly merging communication and collaboration of content and files together to provide contextual experiences. Many of the opportunities for a more frictionless teamwork experience are likely out of the box with Teams and available today.
Teamwork can be very subjective, but there are known traits for effective teams. Working with teams to validate these traits and/or reaffirming commitment to a behavior set is a critical activity to ensuring effective teamwork. Another step can be looking at whether Microsoft Teams may be a valuable tool to assist in making more of the actions teams need to take frictionless. Taking these steps will be the differentiator in how your teams move and transform your organization.
Ready to see how Teams can impact your organization? Schedule a complimentary consultation online by filling out the form below or give us a call at (240) 406 9960.


or is it too dangerous?
Concerned parents justifiably ask themselves so, and some countries in South America really are recommended only to experienced travelers. Chile is a positive exception and can be compared to a journey through Middle Europe.
In order for you to plan your family vacation in a better way we offer you some tips and information for travelling with infants and toddlers in Chile.
Even Hiking or Trekking tours are no obstacle. The following pages are to help you make out of your family trips successful adventures. Joint outdoor experiences not only strengthen the sense of family, but also encourage our kids to act in an autonomous and prudential way, promote general knowledge, friendship, and love for nature and above all health in our offspring.


"I think Abhishek Bachchan, Hard Kaur, Bohemia; all these guys are a joke. They're not real emcees. I feel it's time for real hip-hop to rise in India instead of these cheap imitations. They don't have any knowledge on the actual culture or subject matter. Quite frankly as an Indian, it's embarrassing to have some of these people represent us," 22-year-old Karan Batta aka Asoka grudges the "fakers" in the industry with this commanding air about him. Well, for this emerging rapper, this comes easy – for one, Batta must sit smug in his Detroit home right now so he needn't bother with euphemisms, and as much as he aspires to revolutionise the Indian music industry with his 'real' dope, he underestimates the overriding presence of Bollywood. We wish we could better prepare the lad who has spent a greater share of his years in the States. Currently Batta resides on 10 Mile, Detroit, where his folks run – as he puts it – a 'mom and pop store,' rather close to the thug hood at 8 Mile, infamous for its cutthroat freestyle battles. From what Batta suggests he never really roughed it out at such battles. So his impassioned speech about artistic integrity and hip-hop culture doesn't translate to what sits before us: A dusky-skinned lad in a plain white shirt and fitting jeans with a softness in his eyes suggestive of a well-mannered homely disposition. But before we judge on exteriors and welcome demeanour, the ramble of curt swearwords on a track of his, blare out of the speakers and our first impression is turned on its head.
It was when Batta was around 14, that he heard the godfather of gansta rap and his tryst with rap came to be. "I was a casual listener before, but 2Pac pulled me into rap," Batta speaks of the late Tupac Shakur with a feverish veneration. Starting off, Batta referenced music magazines, channels and hip-hop albums to hone his craft. "It was this one article on DMX which truly enlightened me," in the insightful article, the rapper divulged a lot about his formula and tricks of the trade. Batta started to record barebones samples on a make-do software and a $ 3 worth microphone. With time, Batta started to record albums played mostly to friends and family, and gradually his basement found use in a state-of-the-art home studio. With his 7th album Batta found his feet in the business; he started doing a few stage shows and the word spread. In 2004, he was approached for his first mixed tape, Hype 101, hosted by 50 Cent. And the ascent began with many such projects coming his way, but Batta halts to make mention of what he considers to be his greatest achievement yet, "In June 2006, DJ Fatal (2Pac's DJ) approached me to do a full verse on an unfinished 2Pac track!" The track featured on an official Tupac Shakur CD, sponsored by Shakur's company Makaveli. Batta's April 2008 release, The Underground Rapper features Stanley Benton aka Stat Quo (Eminem and Dr Dre's artist); Hussein Fatal aka Bruce Washington and Young Noble aka Rufus Cooper III (from 2Pac's group The Outlawz); and Sonjay Dutt from SPIKE TV's TNA Wrestling. Impressive, but Batta still suggests huge road blocks in the American hip-hop scene for an artiste such as himself: "There is a lot of racism, it's very tough to break in, it's like a stereotype – if you're not black, you're no good… and it's tough to get airplay as well." On this brief visit to India he approached some labels and also auditioned for some projects but nothing is definitive yet. Though he had come with the intention of staying back for good, some urgent business compels his return to Detroit. His fiery ambition comes through when he refers to himself in second person as we ask him for a 'best of' list – "That would have to be, Asoka, 2Pac, Nas…" his fingers authoritatively slice the air with every name he takes. Batta promises to be back soon, and of what we suspect, back with a vengeance.