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TAMPA, Fla. -- Two months ago, Gary Sheffield -- the 43-year-old and still-musclebound former Brewers, Padres, Marlins, Dodgers, Braves, Yankees, Tigers and Mets outfielder who waggled his bat, hit .292/.393/.514 with 509 home runs, terrified opposing pitchers, and made writers' careers -- apologized to his old Little League coach, who once threw him off the team. They were naming a ballpark after Sheffield in Belmont Heights, his old Tampa neighborhood, and he was invited to the ceremony.
Sheffield still lives in Tampa, but his house is in Harbour Island, a gated community where chocolate-milk-colored stucco structures sit close together, with rock gardens, SUVs and palm trees in front, pools and water views in the back. Norman Schwarzkopf lives a few houses down.
When Sheffield was 11, he skipped a summer practice for the Belmont Heights League All-Stars, who were fresh off a Little League World Series loss to Taiwan. Instead he went to watch his uncle, Dwight Gooden, pitch across town. Gooden, who was 15 at the time, dominated his opponents and hit a home run, and Sheffield was glad he didn't miss it. By the time he got back home, his coach had already asked his parents why he had skipped practice. When he got to the ballpark for the next day's game -- especially excited because he was facing his rival, Derek Bell, and had a repeat of Gooden's performance in mind -- the coach told him he wasn't playing. Sheffield grabbed a bat and brandished it at his coach. Some accounts of the afternoon say that Sheffield chased him around the field. Regardless, he was kicked off the team.
According to Sheffield, this moment, and the ensuing summer of watching from the bleachers as his cousins and neighbors played ball, made him who he was. How did it change him?
"Rage started building up in me. Anger, rage and resentment. … I knew I was the best player on the team, and I should have gotten another opportunity, which he didn't give me." When Sheffield tried to join the West Tampa squad, where Tino Martinez, Luis Gonzalez and Fred McGriff played, the coach blocked him there, too.
He came back to Belmont Heights the next year, and the team again lost to Taiwan. But he had changed. He was now the resolute, angry Gary Sheffield that would play 22 years of major-league baseball.
When Sheffield said he apologized to his old coach, he didn't bring it up to convey that he had softened with age. His point was that he thrives through retaining idle rage for a long, long time.
* * *
I visit Sheffield in Tampa on a Thursday in late September. We're now driving in his flan-toned Bentley. The topic is how the press covered Sheffield when he played. He doesn't think highly of the media.
"The only thing the media's there to do is to let guys build images so they can make their off-field money," he says.
Gary Sheffield is an MLB player agent now, representing one major leaguer -- Jason Grilli, the Pirates relief pitcher -- and a handful of minor leaguers. He founded his company, Sheffield Management Group, in 2011 with his wife, DeLeon, and Xavier James, his attorney and a former bigwig for HBO Boxing.
The agency's stated mission is to prepare athletes for life after professional sports by setting them up with the proper investments and legal advice. Its real mission is to let Gary Sheffield negotiate with MLB's general managers. He calls up front offices and plays bad cop, while James plays good cop. ("I'm very bad-cop," Sheffield says.) Sheffield will say, I know the game, and I know for sure that my client is better than this guy, this guy and this guy you have on your roster. So sign him.
"I have not been wrong once," Sheffield says.
The agency doesn't consume too much of Sheffield's time. He takes calls from the players when they want to hear from him, and if a minor leaguer is struggling in the Tampa area, he'll pay a visit. Since the group is so small, he doesn't have to handle much day-to-day stuff. He says, "I've got people on the run, making things happen."
Sheffield is more or less the Cincinnatus of player representation: He didn't ask to do it, but they beckoned him. Players just wanted Gary Sheffield on their side. So he got his license, just in case he decided to get involved in the business. And then Jason Grilli called in 2010. Sheffield and Grilli had played together in Detroit and gotten along well. Grilli was out of the big leagues, coming off a knee injury, and he wanted back in.
"I didn't really want to put my name on the line, but me knowing Jason Grilli, I said I'd be on his side," Sheffield says. "You put Jason Grilli in a meaningful game, he's a horse."
Players who have been out of the game for a bit, players looking for spring training invites -- they call Sheffield. "I got a guy a job at Baltimore Orioles training camp by noon after I showed up there at 11 o'clock," Sheffield said. He wouldn't say who the player was, because they never formalized the agent-client relationship. But evidence suggests that it likely was hybrid knuckleballer Josh Banks, who did, in fact, land a minor-league deal with the O's after Sheffield made his case.
You could watch the sales pitch play out in real time on MASN's Orioles blog. Sheffield rolls up in the Bentley, talks to Dan Duquette, and shortly thereafter, his guy's got a job.
* * *
Gary Sheffield says he is chiefly a dad now. When he says this, he is talking about his three young sons at home: Jaden, 10; Noah, 6; and Christian, 4. He takes them to school some mornings, and is always home no later than an hour after school gets out. If they have practices, he'll take them; otherwise, he's there to make sure they do their homework. (Jaden plays baseball and football, and while Sheffield doesn't coach baseball, he does help out with the football team. During one recent game, a "pissed-off" 7-year-old asked why he wasn't in on defense. Sheffield told him that he had to learn how to be a good teammate, and kept him on the sidelines.)
"We just stopped our kids from playing video games and watching TV during the week," Sheffield says, with the affect of a man who has put a lot of work into this victory. "That's the only requirement I demand from my wife and my nannies and my assistants, to make sure my kids are the most educated kids out there." Jaden is taking gifted classes in school. Sheffield says he's "smarter than all the rest of us combined."
"It seems that way with all my boys," he says, which is a reminder that Sheffield has four kids (two sons) by four women he met before he married DeLeon. His other sons, Gary Jr. and Garrett, who were raised by their mothers away from Tampa, haven't caused him a lot of pain, but his two daughters -- Carissa and Ebony, who were born to two different local women when he was 18 -- have.
"These are my babies, but they're misguided. Part of it was their mothers. If I would tell them they need to go to college, their mothers would say, 'Well, college isn't for everyone.' Listen, if you're a young lady, you need to go to college. That's the only way you'll get paid without taking your clothes off. What job is there that pays you if you don't go to college? Men have sports."
So Sheffield sent both off to the Delphian School, a Scientology-affiliated K-12 boarding school in northwest Oregon. (Sheffield is not a Scientologist, but a born-again Christian. When he enrolled his girls, he told administrators not to teach them anything about Scientology.) Sheffield visited occasionally, and admired the education. Both Ebony and Carissa were set to enroll in college -- Ebony at North Carolina, and Carissa at UCLA -- which made Gary happy. But he says both gave up on college in the same week, before he and the Yankees were to face the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS. He says he was tempted to leave the team to talk the girls out of it.
Both girls spoke to the New York Post about a month later, saying that Gary had forgotten about them since marrying DeLeon, and that they had been cut off. "Forgotten? No. But I cracked the whip," Sheffield says. The way he tells it, he was happily supporting them through boarding school. He arranged for the girls to meet LeBron, Shaq and Kobe when they'd roll into town to play the Blazers. But when the girls dropped out of college, that was it.
"I told them they lost the $4 million I left each of them. I pulled up their accounts on the computer, and then I pulled up my account, and I hit transfer, and then I showed them their accounts with zero balance. And I said, 'Thanks, you just made me eight million dollars.'"
Sheffield says he took away the money because they had proved that they couldn't make good decisions. "If I put $4 million in your hands, and you don't have any judgment, I'm going to kill you. The money will kill you," he says.
Today, each girl's name turns up in multiple Tampa mugshots, along with a list of various charges they've faced. Gary says he's on good terms with them, and that he bought each a condo and a car, but that they're still deluded. "My daughters, they don't want jobs. They say they're overqualified for everything. I say, you're not overqualified if you don't have a job and you didn't go to college."
* * *
Aside from his family life, Sheffield is a dabbler. First among his business pursuits is his cigar line, the Rocky Patel HR500, which launched earlier this summer. "I sold 2,690 boxes in the first week," Sheffield says. "They didn't think I could do that." He has to appear at every store that purchases 75 boxes of cigars, at 240 dollars a box, so he plans on making more than 40 appearances, all over the country, for the cigars this year.
He's proud of his cigar, he said over lunch: "You know whatever I do, it's gonna be good, because I have a lot of critics. When you have a lot of critics, you can't just put anything out there. I can put my cigar with any cigar, and know that it's gonna stand to time. It's a Nicaragua blend, has a chocolate-nut flavor, and a Nicaragua wrapper. It's by Rocky Patel. ... When I get a cigar, it's a sense of relaxation, a sense of achievement. I make sure my kids are in bed, I go tuck 'em in, and have a cigar."
He's also thinking of opening a cigar bar. During our interview, he brought me into Lit, a cigar lounge in a Channelside strip mall, next to a Hooters.
"This is something I wanna do, but on a bigger scale," Sheffield says. Lit features one moderate-sized room and an adjoining humidor, with a few TVs turned to ESPN, monochrome posters of naked women, and 16 bottles of Grey Goose standing on a mantel. It is everything you'd ever dream a cigar bar in a Tampa strip mall would be. Sheffield lit up a Rocky Patel Freedom, a new cigar he got at a show. He had been carrying around a plastic bag full of sample cigars and cigar tools -- a hole-borer and a silver torch that shoots four prongs of blue flame. When he puffed through, the stogie produced the smoke of a small rubber fire.
Sheffield thinks he might enter broadcasting soon. He did some radio for a sports-talk station in Tampa, and a few shows on the MLB Network, and he got good feedback. He says that ESPN wanted him to come to Bristol, but he said no -- too far. The local station wanted him to come work full-time for them, but they had moved the studios to St. Petersburg, across the bridge. Also too far, he said. He shot a television pilot in spring training with other ex-jocks for what he describes as a "Best Damn Sports Show-type deal," and he says some networks are interested. Sheffield says he'd move for work if he could land a gig like Charles Barkley's or Michael Strahan's. He has opinions, and he'd like to share them on television. He's not going to get on Twitter, though: "I don't like when people think I'm boisterous about everything. Most things I just don't care about."
What else does he do? He owns a beach resort. His business partner, Xavier James, tells me that Sheffield also has a deal with "a Vitamin Water-type company." Sheffield says, "I'm thinking about buying -- well, I can't tell you -- it has to be approved with a big organization. I'm about to buy that." He skis, too. He has a house in Aspen, which he bought after a vacation there with his mentor, Dave Winfield. "Dave introduced me and my family to skiing," he says. "It's the best thing that's ever happened to us."
And he does whatever there is to do in Tampa. He was curious, so he attended every night of the Republican National Convention in August. He liked the atmosphere of the convention, but didn't care for how few black faces were in the audience. He didn't like Clint Eastwood's speech, either. He sympathizes with Mitt Romney, though, because both men are oppressed by capital gains taxes on overseas profits. He says, "If you're smart enough to make money out of the country, you shouldn't have to pay taxes on it. Mitt Romney would have done more here, created jobs, if the government let him."
Sheffield says his primary concern is with the plight of the working poor, and thinks the government should do more to help them. He's particularly troubled by what faces black men. Poor black men will never go to work, he explains, when the government lets women take half their income in child support payments. Then they get involved in crime, so the government doesn't see any income at all. "Change the laws, make the women responsible," he says. "Then they'll stop having all those kids."
Sheffield, a veteran of several paternity suits and child-support battles, knows that his position isn't a popular one. But, as usual, he doesn't care. "The thing is, I'm not really pro-this, pro-that, no. I'm pro-right."
* * *
The one thing that Sheffield doesn't really dabble in is baseball. "I pay baseball no attention. None. Not at all. I couldn't tell you one team's roster," he says. "I don't watch baseball now, because it's boring. When I played, I brought personality to the game. If it's strictly baseball, and you get no personalities, it's boring."
He likes three youngsters -- Mike Trout, Mark Trumbo and Bryce Harper -- and not too many other players. He thought the Stephen Strasburg shutdown was "a bunch of crap." ("Of course Scott Boras was involved," he says.) He knew Bartolo Colon was cheating the moment he heard that he went overseas for blood-spinning. He thinks pitchers who use Toradol injections between starts are also cheating. He doesn't take the league's drug-testing program seriously, and won't, until they ban Toradol. He thinks Japanese players are overrepresented and overpaid. So, too, are Latino players. Black and white Americans don't get enough attention from major-league teams.
B.J. Upton frustrates him: "He has the best tools in the game. I keep telling him, 'You could be great.'" Sheffield says that Upton's the only Ray he thinks about, even though he loves his hometown. Sheffield tried to join the team not so long ago. Other Tampa natives, like Tino Martinez and Fred McGriff, had played their twilight years near home, and Sheffield wanted to do the same. So before the 2010 season he had dinner with manager Joe Maddon, the city's unofficial ambassador (by virtue of his recorded voice playing in the monorail cars that shuttle visitors to and from Tampa International Airport). He never heard back.
His dinner with Maddon was not pleasant. "I was getting disrespected by an organization that had feared me when I stepped up to the plate against their team. They started giving me names of reasons why they couldn't bring me to the team." (Sheffield declined to say which comparison to a veteran Ray angered him, but a peek at Tampa's 2010 roster suggests that it may have been Pat Burrell.) When Sheffield saw that the Rays didn't want him, he retired. But the veterans they brought in after turning him down amused him. "They turned around, right after they told me what they told me, and brought in Manny Ramirez, who quit on two teams, and Johnny Damon -- to DH -- and he doesn't have the power that I have."
Sheffield feels connected to only one team, the Florida Marlins, with whom he won a championship in 1997 and would have spent the rest of his career, if not for a 1998 fire sale. He thinks, when he enters the Hall of Fame -- he'll be eligible for election in 2015 -- he'll do it as a Marlin.
"Yeah, I think I will make the Hall of Fame," Sheffield says. "The work I put in justifies that I should make the Hall of Fame. If I don't, there's no true Hall of Fame. I'm talking about someone who dominated for three decades. Numbers don't lie. People do."
Sheffield feels that he shouldn't have any trouble making the Hall, because he has five MVP awards. The baseball record books don't have it this way, but the baseball record books don't really matter to him. "I don't let no person define me, no media," he says. "In my mind, I know I won five MVPs. I was a better player most times than most of the MVPs were. I was player of the year five times." (The statistical case here isn't great -- he led the league in OPS+ only once, and only twice in his career did he finish in the top 10 in WAR. But he doesn't really care about that.)
* * *
When Sheffield negotiates a new deal for Jason Grilli this offseason, he'll have a chance at a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract, a rarity for a reliever. But Grilli won't be making anything like the kind of money that Sheffield made. Sheffield says that's a selling point for his agency. "I don't need no player's money," he says. "I make more money sitting at home than some players make playing, because the Yankees are still paying me and the Tigers are still paying me." Both teams owe him millions in deferred money for the next 10 years. ("Bobby Bonilla, that's where I got the idea from. And they're paying me with interest," he says. "Although I could make that extra percent whether it's in my hands or in theirs.")
When Sheffield negotiates Grilli's contract, he won't aim terribly high. The way he explains it, he'll get his clients what they're worth, not a cent more or a cent less. "If you're not the best player," he says, "why should you chase the best player's money?" Sheffield says other agents are out there promising players top-dollar and then either falling short, in which case the agent lied to the player, or securing them aspirational, too-big contracts, which will wind up turning the fans against them. "That's how these agents justify that they're good, by making ridiculous demands," he says.
Sheffield says that everyone knows he has a nose for value. "I told the Marlins two years ago, I said Hanley Ramirez should get traded. Where's he at now?" When Sheffield played for the Dodgers, the front office asked him whether they should pay Shawn Green. Sheffield said yes, and Green came aboard. He lobbied for Kevin Brown, too, although he's not quite as proud of this. (Brown got a bloated seven-year, $105 million contract, the richest in baseball history, in 1999.) "Listen, I fell hard for Kevin Brown," Sheffield says.
But Sheffield always had more luck getting front offices to listen to him about other players than about himself.
When he began his career in Milwaukee, Sheffield says, the entire team turned against him because of minor-league lore. "They tried to pin it on me, that I threw a ball away on purpose in the big leagues. Never happened." Sheffield says something did happen in A-ball, when he was playing for the 1987 Stockton Ports, a Cal League juggernaut that went 94-48. Future major-leaguer Darryl Hamilton threw a ball that short-hopped Sheffield, and Sheffield took the error. He was upset. He yelled at the scorer. This made his manager, Dave Machemer, mad. The next inning, Sheffield threw a ball from short to first as hard as he could, and it sailed into the stands. Machemer walked out onto the field and pulled Sheffield from the game, accusing him of sabotage.
Sheffield says his manager apologized to him in front of the whole team later that night, but the damage had been done. The official scouting report had him as Gary Sheffield, the guy who deliberately threw balls away when he got mad, and that went up to the big club. When he arrived in Milwaukee, none of the veterans, save backup third baseman Ernie Riles, wanted to help him. Sheffield says he'd visit owner Bud Selig's office every day, asking for a trade. Selig wouldn't do anything.
He next went to San Diego, almost won a Triple Crown, and then got traded to Florida. He had problems with the Marlins, too. Jeff Conine, he says, was the corporate face of the team, even though he was the inferior player. The Marlins praised Conine for all his public charity work. But they put a provision in Sheffield's contract -- a six-year, $61 million extension that in 1997 was the richest deal in baseball history, he reminds me -- saying that he had to make charity appearances, otherwise he wouldn't get paid. Sheffield liked the Marlins, though, because they told him that they were building around him, that they'd put a good team together. They did, and they won the 1997 World Series. But then they dismantle the team almost immediately.
Sheffield had a blanket no-trade clause, but Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland asked him to accept a trade to the Dodgers. Charles Johnson, the Marlins' catcher, told him that he, Johnson, was in line for a $35 million contract if Sheffield took the trade to L.A. (Scott Boras had told him this). Sheffield didn't want to stand in the way, so he negotiated with the Dodgers for a five-million-dollar cost-of-living raise -- there's no state income tax in Florida, but California taxes are high -- on top of his contract. "They cursed me out. I'd never been cursed out like that," Sheffield says. But they capitulated, and Sheffield, Bonilla, Johnson and some scrubs went west in exchange for Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile.
Everything went wrong there, too. Sheffield says the Dodgers promised him a lifetime contract if he played well. He did: He would eventually hit .312/.424/.573 with 129 homers in three-and-a-half seasons. But the negotiations broke down before his third full Dodgers season, and Sheffield fired his agent. Sheffield hired Boras, who told him he'd get that lifetime deal from the Dodgers if he shut up and hit, and Bob Daly, the Dodgers' chairman, agreed to this premise in a meeting with both of them. So Sheffield shut up and hit. In his final season he had a 1.000 OPS. But the deal still didn't come.
He told Boras to get him traded, and when he couldn't, Sheffield fired him: "I fired Scott Boras because he made a promise to me, and the organization made a promise to me, and they lied," he says. "If you break a promise, you get fired." Sheffield negotiated his own trade to Atlanta.
As a Brave, Sheffield mashed typically: He hit .319/.412/.562 in two seasons, and finished third in MVP voting in 2003. But he said there was mysteriously little interest in him as a free agent. "I was making 11 million and the Braves offered me four years, 40 million. Every team offered me 10 million or less. If that's not collusion, I don't know what is," he said. "For some reason that year, everybody thought Vladimir Guerrero was a better baseball player than me."
So Sheffield got tired of waiting and called up George Steinbrenner, "my guy who I grew up with in Tampa." Steinbrenner offered him one year and $13 million. "Ain't even close," Sheffield said. "I'm going to come to New York and be the best player on your team." He soon negotiated Steinbrenner upward and signed a three-year deal for $39 million.
Sheffield the Yankee went through a lot. He says he singlehandedly saved Joe Torre's job during a series against the Red Sox at the end of 2005, and that Torre appreciated him for it. (The Yankees wound up clinching the AL East title through a tiebreaker, having a better record in head-to-head games against the Sox. Boston got the wild card. The East's second-place finisher likely would have missed the playoffs had the Indians not lost six of their last seven.) Afterward, Torre let Sheffield into the meetings of the Yankees braintrust, which had previously been confined to Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams. But things fell apart once Sheffield got injured in 2006. Torre told him that there was nothing to the rumors of the Yankees acquiring a new rightfielder, but then they brought in Bobby Abreu. "His power was gone," Sheffield says of Abreu. "How you gonna pay a guy more than me when he only hits 12 or 15 home runs, not even driving in 100 runs?" And then when Sheffield came back, they sent him to a new position: first base, right after he had broken his wrist on his glove hand.
So Sheffield negotiated his way to Detroit, where his old Florida bosses, Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland, were waiting to give him an extension. "I loved those guys," Sheffield says.
* * *
Back at Lit, Sheffield lights up another Rocky Patel -- this one is a Private Cellar -- and he fixates again on a favorite subject, the media members who mistreated him in New York. One was WFAN's Mike Francesa. "Yeah, we used to have that guy on the clubhouse TVs," he says. "He'd just sit there and talk about Jeter and Bernie Williams, blowing smoke up their asses."
His least favorite media member remains Jon Heyman, then of Newsday and now of CBS Sports. When Sheffield arrived for his first Yankees spring training in 2004, Heyman asked him if he would take a steroid test. Sheffield said yes, and that Heyman could take his blood and urine and save them for 40 years, if he needed to. By Sheffield's account, Heyman chickened out when Sheffield took him up on his offer. He didn't wind up taking the test because Heyman dragged his feet, and the union later instructed Sheffield not to. Heyman's account, which ran in Newsday on Feb. 26, 2004, is typified by this line: "So far he's all talk, and no pee."
Heyman tells me that Sheffield was the only one at fault for the untaken test. "I was all excited, I was thrilled about the story," he says. "Why would I chicken out?" Still, Sheffield insists that Heyman didn't give him a fair shake afterward.
He says, "When you try to knock me as a person, I'm gonna get all intelligent on you, then I'm gonna hit you with facts, and then we'll see how far that gets you. I don't always fight, but the ones I fight I win."
Sheffield never went to college, he doesn't have much of a client roster, and he isn't hustling for prospects. But one imagines that he could become a very good agent. He's sharp, tenacious and connected. Former athletes have thrived in the representation business before: Dave Stewart, the former A's pitcher, negotiated Matt Kemp's new deal with the Dodgers, and Sheffield's partner Xavier James used to do legal work for Oscar De La Hoya's very successful promoting company. Even Sheffield's greatest skeptics would have to concede that his plan for the future sounds much better than "Lenny Dykstra, stock-picker." (Sheffield says he would never pursue a business like Dykstra's. "If you don't have a degree in finance, you shouldn't be managing anybody's money," he says. "And besides, I don't care if it's Lenny Dykstra or it's Jim Cramer on TV -- the stock market is a gamble. And I don't gamble.")
Sheffield also understands, in a way that teams and agents don't, that players are entitled to their own truths off the field. They can do what they want and say what they want, and it won't necessarily interfere with business. Chipper Jones, the loyal soldier, earned $168 million during his career. Gary Sheffield, the itinerant loudmouth malcontent, earned $168 million, too. Jim Thome, Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey, Jr., all colleagues of Sheffield's in the 500 home run club, colleagues who were routinely tongue-bathed by baseball writers and commentators, earned less.
What Sheffield stands for is a more honest version of baseball, where empowered players don't hide behind spokespeople, and general managers don't manipulate indebted reporters, and agents and owners don't lie. Perhaps his quest will go nowhere. But what if it didn't? Could he actually change the way we experience the game now, where we know players only through their on-field routines, postgame banalities, carefully crafted Twitter accounts and occasional embarrassing drunken escapades?
Sheffield says he can wait. He'll be content with a business that has 30-40 clients, and he'll be content with a business that has zero clients. He's happy to change the game further, but he's happy to depart it, too. "I don't care," he says. "I'll be off in the corner smoking a cigar."


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Cooking Oil Refinery Equipment
Refinery Step: Degumming--Deacid--Decolorizing--Deodorizing--Crystalizing
Remove solubility impurity in the crude oil is degumming. Because phospholipid in a great part of solubility impurity in the crude oil. In industry, degumming also calls get rid of phospholipid. Before alkali refining, remove solubility impurity is a very useful way, it can reduce loss in the oil, increase oil quanlity, save alkali, and phospholipid can be got.
Crude oil is pumped out from the Buffer Tank. Passing through dosing system, the oil enters into the Heat Exchanger to recover part of heat. Heat the oil to design temperature(70° C)by Heater. The oil is mixed with dosed phosphoric/citric acid in Mixer. Mixture of oil and acid enters into the Mixer to change the un-hydrated phospholipids in oil into hydrated phospholipids. Add in alkali to neutralize the oil. Quantity of alkali added is determined by the quality of crude oil. The neutralized oil is heated to separation temperature(90° C)and then enters into the Centrifuge to remove the phospholipids, FFA and other impurities etc. Roughly 5-10% hot water is added into the oil to remove the residual soap in oil coming from Centrifuge. Generally temperature of hot water is 3-5 ° C higher thanthat of oil. In order to get a more consistent washing effect, phosphoric/citric acid is added in. Mix oil and water in Mixer and heat it to 90-95 ° C, then the mixture enters into the Centrifuge to separate the residual soap and most of the water. Water enters into the Separator to separate oil in water and separate the oil further by outside pool.
The aim of decolor is improve the color of oil, and supply the eligible oil to deodorizer. So the standard of oil should be made according to the demand of oil. Through decolorer, we should get the most change in the color, at the same time, keeping the lowest loss.
The oil firstly enters into Heat Exchanger to make heat exchange with the deodorized oil (a Heater will be extraly used at the beginning of starting up the plant). When the oil has been heated to design temperature (110° C), the oil is continuously mixed with clay proportioned by an automatic feeding system before entering Vacuum Bleacher. Then in time, during continuous agitation (by steam), the main part of color bodies as well as oxidizing materials in the oil are absorbed by the clay. After the bleacher, the oil/clay mixture is pumped to alternatively working filters and safety filter to remove clay in oil. The bleached oil tank is under vacuum to avoid contacting with air and thus cause color return and affect peroxide value of oil.
Deodorizing Section
Deodorizer not only remove the fetid impurity, increase oil smoke point, make better taste, but also improve oil stability, quanlity and chroma. At the same time, we can get rid of free fatty acid, peroxide, heat-sensitive coloring matter, protein in the mucid oil cake, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and residual pesticide residue. In the oil process, we always emphasized deodorizer.
Fractionation of oils and fats Process
Dry fractionation of oils and fats is the separation of high-melting triglycerides from low-melting triglycerides by crystallization from the melt. Apart from blending, it is the cheapest process in oils and fats processing. It is a pure physical process compared to other chemical modification processes such as hydrogenation and interesterification which modify triglycerides. Dry fractionation is now applied to many kinds of fats: Palm oil, anhydrous milk fat, tallow, fish oil, lard, cottonseed oil, sunflower seed oil, palm kernel oil, tallow butter fats, and special fats.
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For the whole Soybean Oil Refinery Equipment,warranty is 12 months,within 12 months,if have equipment quality problems,we will provide accessories freely. After the expiration of the warranty period,if have spare parts problem,we only receive the cost of required replacement parts.We commit we will provide free technical support of equipment all whole life.
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Our company has engaged in producing and exporting Soybean Oil Refinery Equipment for many years, and until now, our machine has exported to overseas market, such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and so on, and get the foreign customers' unanimous praise.
Shandong Leader Machinery Co.,ltd. equipment installation, commissioning of the date of the beginning, 12 months for the quality of warranty, life-long technical services. As the equipment is non-standard equipment, the above is for reference only, welcome new and old customers call us or visit our company directly to discuss cooperation.
We believe that you purchase Shandong Leader Machinery Co.,ltd. Soybean Oil Refinery Equipment is your best and sensible choice.
Copyright © 2017 - 2020Shandong Leader Machinery Co.,ltd. All Rights Reserved

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Safety Requirements for VesselsFor a detailed summary of all Texas boating laws and safety regulations, see the Digest of the Water Safety Act.
For a detailed summary of mandatory Boater Education Certification requirements, see the Boater Education page.
All Vessels | Motorboats | Personal Watercraft | Sailboats | Canoes/Kayaks
Operating Vessels without Required Equipment is Prohibited - No person may operate or give permission for the operation of a vessel that is not provided with the required safety equipment. An operator may not permit a person under the age of 13 to be on board the vessel while the vessel is underway if the person is not wearing a USCG approved wearable PFD. Marine enforcement officers regularly perform vessel safety checks to ensure the safety of boat owners and passengers.
All Vessels
Lifesaving Devices
- All Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs) must be U.S. Coast Guard approved, in serviceable condition, readily accessible, and of the appropriate size for intended user. See Life Jackets for more details on PFD types.
- All children under 13 years of age in or on vessels under 26 feet in length must wear a U.S. Coast Guard approved wearable PFD while underway. Underway means not at anchor, made fast to the shore, or aground.
- All vessels, including canoes and kayaks, must be equipped with one Type I, II, III or V wearable PFD for each person on board. A Type V PFD is acceptable only if used in accordance with the specific instructions on the label of the device.
- Vessels 16 feet and longer, excluding canoes and kayaks, are required to be equipped with one Type IV throwable PFD in addition to the Type I, II, III, or V PFD required for each person on board.
- Inflatable PFDs are authorized only when used in accordance with requirements as presented on U.S. Coast Guard approval labels. Inflatable PFDs are not approved for use on personal watercraft, waterskiing, or other high speed activity.
Sound Producing Devices
- Any motorboat less than 12 meters in length (39.4 ft.) is required to carry a whistle or horn, or some other means to make an efficient sound to signal intentions and position in periods of reduced visibility.
- Motorboats 12 meters or more in length are required to carry a whistle or horn, and a bell.
Lights Required
All vessels including motorboats, sailboats, canoes, kayaks, punts, rowboats, rubber rafts, or other vessels when not at dock must have and exhibit at least one bright light, lantern or flashlight visible all around the horizon from sunset to sunrise in all weather and during restricted visibility.
Navigation Lights
Power Driven Vessels Underway: Power driven vessels of less than 20 meters (65.6 ft.) but more than 12 meters (39.4 ft.) shall exhibit navigation lights as shown in Figure 1. Vessels of less than 12 meters in length, shall show the lights in either Figure 1 or Figure 2.
Manually Driven Vessels when Paddled, Poled, Oared or Windblown
- A sailing vessel of less than 20 meters (65.6 ft.), while underway shall exhibit sidelights and a sternlight which may be combined in one lantern carried at or near the top of the mast where it can best be seen.
- A sailing vessel of less than 7 meters (23 ft.) shall, if practicable, exhibit the sidelights and a sternlight, or shall exhibit at least one bright light, lantern or flashlight from sunset to sunrise when not at dock.
- All other manually driven vessels may exhibit sidelights and a sternlight, or shall exhibit at least one bright light, lantern, or flashlight from sunset to sunrise when not at dock. In vessels of less than 12 meters (39.4 feet), white lights shall be visible at a distance of at least two (2) miles. Colored lights shall be visible at a distance of at least one (1) mile. "Visible" when applied to lights, means visible on dark nights with clear atmosphere.
Motorboat requirements include sailboats when operated under power, and PWCs.
Mirrors Required
Every motorboat towing a person must have an observer, other than the operator, 13 years of age or older OR be equipped with a rearview mirror of a size no less than four inches (4") in measurement from bottom to top and across from one side to the other.
Fire Extinguishers Required
Outboard motorboats less than 26 feet in length, of open construction, not carrying passengers for hire, are not required to carry fire extinguishers; however, a fire extinguisher is required if one or more of the following conditions exist: (1) Closed compartment under thwarts and seats wherein portable fuel tanks may be stored. (2) Double bottoms not sealed to the hull or which are not completely filled with flotation material. (3) Closed living spaces. (4) Closed storage compartments in which combustible or flammable materials are stored. (5) Permanently installed fuel tanks. (6) Inboard engines.
U.S. Coast Guard approved extinguishers are identified by the following marking on the label: "Marine Type USCG approved, Size .... Type ::::, 162.028/.../" Check extinguishers annually to assure that they are properly charged.
NOTE: All fire extinguishers must be readily accessible and in condition for immediate and effective use at all times.
Fire extinguishers approved for motorboats are hand-portable, of either B (for gasoline, oil & grease fires) or BC (also extinguishes electrical fires) classification.
|Dry CO2
(minimum pounds)
|Dry Chemical
(Minimum pounds)
(minimum pounds)
The number of approved extinguishers required depends upon the class of the motorboat. When the engine compartment of the motorboat is equipped with a fixed (built-in) extinguishing system of an approved type, one less B-I extinguisher is required.
|Vessel length
| Without fixed system
in machinery space
| With fixed system
in machinery space
|less than 26'
|26' to less than 40'
|2 B-I or 1 B-II
|40' to 65'
|3 B-I or 1 B-II and 1 B-I
|2 B-I or 1 B-II
Flame Arresters (Backfire Flame Control) Required
Gasoline engines installed in a vessel after April 25, 1940, except outboard motors, must be equipped with an acceptable means of backfire flame control. The device must be suitably attached to the air intake with a flame tight connection and is required to be Coast Guard approved or comply with SAE J-1928 or UL 1111 standards and marked accordingly.
Exhaust Water Manifold, Muffler
A motorboat must have an exhaust water manifold or a factory-type muffler installed on the engine.
Engine Cut-Off Switch (ECOS)
- An Engine Cutoff Switch (ECOS) means an emergency switch installed on a motorboat that is designed to shut off the engine if the motorboat operator using a lanyard attachment activates the switch by falling overboard or otherwise moving beyond the length of the lanyard; or the motorboat operator or a passenger using a wireless attachment activates the switch by falling overboard and submerging a man-overboard transmitter; and attaches physically to the motorboat operator through the use of a lanyard worn by the operator; or wirelessly through the use of a water-activated man-overboard transmitter worn by the motorboat operator or any similarly equipped passenger on the motorboat. Texas law requires the operator of a vessel that is less than 26' in length and is equipped with an ECOS to verify that the equipment is operational and fully functioning prior to operating on the public water.
- Texas law requires the operator to properly attach the lanyard or wireless attachment, as appropriate for the specific motorboat, to the operator's body or to the clothing or personal flotation device being worn by the operator.
- Texas law requires that the ECOS must be worn when the motorboat is moving at greater than headway speed. Headway speed is defined as slow, idle speed, or speed only fast enough to maintain steerage on course.
- Texas law does not require the retrofitting of any vessel that has not come equipped with an ECOS. This does not allow for someone to remove the ECOS if the vessel was originally equipped.
Personal Watercraft
A Personal Watercraft (PWC) is defined as a type of motorboat which is specifically designed to be operated by a person or persons sitting, standing, or kneeling ON the vessel rather than INSIDE the vessel. Includes jet skis, wet bikes, wave runners, etc. Any person being towed by a PWC is considered an occupant of the PWC and is also required to wear a life jacket.
All equipment requirements for regular motorboats also apply to PWC. See All Vessels section above for general safety requirements.
In addition to those requirements:
- Each occupant must wear a life jacket.
- If the PWC is equipped with a cut-off or kill switch, it must be attached to the operator or operator's clothing.
- Inflatable life jackets are NOT approved for use on PWC.
Operation of Your Personal Watercraft
NOTE: Children under 13 are specifically prohibited from operating a PWC unless accompanied on board by a person at least 18 years of age who can lawfully operate the PWC.
All operational rules for regular motorboats also apply to PWC.
In addition to those requirements, it is unlawful for any person to:
- operate PWC at night (sunset until sunrise);
- operate PWC within 50 feet of another PWC, motorboat, vessel, platform, person, object, or shore except at headway speed (Headway speed-Slow, idle speed, or speed only fast enough to maintain steerage) without creating a swell or wake; and
- operate a PWC and jump the wake of another vessel recklessly or unnecessarily close.
Sailboats are considered motorboats when operated under power, and must include the same safety equipment listed above. See All Vessels section above for general safety requirements.
Sailors must also follow motorboat navigational rules when operating under power.
Canoes and Kayaks
See All Vessels section above for general safety requirements.
Paddling at night: Remember that you must carry one bright white light that can be exhibited in time to prevent a collision. It is recommended that you carry a lantern, flashlight, or other attached white light that will be visible from 360 degrees. Regulations state that canoes, kayaks, and all other manually driven vessels shall exhibit sidelights and a sternlight, and shall exhibit at least one bright light, lantern, or flashlight from sunset to sunrise when not at dock.


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Questions? Call Mod Experts at 714-582-3330 Mon-Fri: 8am - 6pm / Sat: 8am - 5pm
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BC Racing Wheels HB-R 06's are now available for Audi vehicles at ModBargains with GREAT PRICES, FAST SHIPPING, and QUICK DELIVERY TIMES! Give us a call to order at 714-582-3330.
This wheel line has been discontinued. If want to find a comparable wheel model please see our BC Forged Landing Page. If you have any questions you can contact us by Phone: 714-582-3330, Email: [email protected], or through our Live Chat.
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If you are looking for a beautifully designed two piece wheel then look no
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When buying a BC Racing Wheel there really is no comparison. Most wheel
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Rienzo has a mid 90s fastball and developing off speed pitches. His fastball certainly helps him to over power hitters at this level. His secondary stuff will be counted on as he moves up the system, but he certainly has good potential and he matches up comparably with De Los Santos. …
August 12, 2010
FutureSox on Andre Rienzo
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Waste not, want not. It's the essence of student budgeting, and it's a proverb I've taken much to heart this year, as I fight to make loans stretch and adjust to life without a steady income. Even as a student, I spend more money on food than do most people. Why? Because
a) Food is more important to me than it is to most people. I value food the way some people value travel, others clothing, others square footage, and my budget reflects food as a priority.
b) I write a food blog.
c) I shop as organic and local as I can, and sometimes this means I pay more. To me, it's worth it.
The tradeoff, however, is that I do my very best not to waste the high quality food I buy! And this means reusing and recycling everything, from my juice pulp—which comes from making fresh vegetable juices—to my almond pulp, which is what I strain out when I make homemade almond milk or cashew milk. Making homemade juices and nut milks is nutritious, delicious, and fun, but it also creates leftover food that many would discard. Trust me when I say that this food does not have to go to waste. Let me show you why and how.
Recently, I shared a recipe for almond and coconut macaroons made with my almond milk pulp:
Today, I have three more ideas for you. These are simple, easy, and fast. They may not be the most gourmet recipes I'll ever post, but they're useful, and you may find that they help motivate you to try making almond milk, among other things!
The first recipe is for a homemade flax and veggie bread. I made mine with juice pulp, but you can definitely use shredded zucchini and carrot instead. Like all of my raw breads, it's not going to taste like "real" bread, but it's crispy, simple, and a great way to make something very handy out of leftovers.
Raw Almond, Flax, and Veggie Bread (Vegan, Raw, Gluten Free, Soy Free)
Makes 9 Large Slices
1 cup almond pulp
1 1/2 cups veggie pulp
1/4 cup flax meal
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or 1 tbsp tamari or nama shoyu)
2 tbsp chia seeds
Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Spread on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet and score into 9 pieces of bread. Dehydrate at 115 for 6 or more hours, flipping once toward the end of the dehydration time.
You may notice that I served my raw "bread" with a dip that looks suspiciously like my raw zucchini and almond hummus.
This new recipe is pretty much a rip off of that old one, except that I used almond pulp instead of almonds. The result is a hummus that is far lighter and fluffier than regular hummus, but still adds a lot of flavor as a dip or spread!
Zucchini and Almond (Pulp) Hummus (raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)
Makes 2 heaping cups
1 large zucchini, chopped
1 1/2 – 2 cups almond pulp (use up what you have)
1-2 tbsp lemon juice (to taste)
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender till silky smooth. Serve as a dip, spread, or sauce.
And last, but not least, my favorite new use of almond pulp! Chocolate almond protein fluff.
I know, I know. This sounds like the kind of recipe you might find on a body building site (made with whey protein, of course). But in considering the kind of texture this most resembled, I had to admit that marshmellow fluff was really the closest approximation. This recipe is basically a stand in for nut butter, but it's infused with a protein boost in the form of vegan chocolate protein powder. It's tasty, it takes 5 minutes to make, and it's fantastic on oatmeal, as you can see (those are fresh blueberry oats!),
Chocolate Almond Protein Fluff (raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)
Makes 2 cups
2 cups almond pulp
1 heaping scoop chocolate protein powder (I used Sun Warrior; Vega would also be fantastic)
Dash sea salt
2 tbsp raw cacao powder (I use Navitas Naturals)
Stevia to taste (I use dates in my almond milk, so the pulp is already a little sweet, and I didn't need much stevia)
Blend with a fork or in a food processor. Serve on toast, with a banana, over oats, or in any way you like for a chocolate fix!
This stuff is unexpected magic. In truth, I've been eating it with a spoon.
In a way, all of the recipes here resemble "poor man's" recipes—they're quick, economical versions of the "real thing" (be it hummus or nut butter). So they're not the recipes you'll take to a dinner party, or cook when you're attempting to woo a date. They're the recipes you'll make to keep your kitchen economical and waste-free, and enjoy a tasty bite or two in the meantime. You'll feel proud and resourceful for it, I assure you!
Side note, before I sign off: alas, I haven't thought of a replacement for almond pulp. So I can't offer modifications for these 3 recipes, as I wouldn't want to lead you astray with something I haven't tested myself. Even so, anyone can make homemade almond milk, so I hope the post inspires you to at least give it a shot!
Night, all.


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To help Save The Artic click here.
I'm Basil Tsimoyianis from the United States. And when people ask me why I'm going to the Arctic, I ask, why is anyone going to the Arctic?
I hear all these numbers, that oil will be gone in 20, 50, 100 years, and get lost in it all.
But the fact is, it's gonna be gone. So I'm going to the Arctic because I think it's time that we rise to the challenge that we will be out of oil, and that we start exploring other options now.
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Jim Boggus shares insight on AVA
Jim Boggus, Manufacturing Manager at Aloe Vera of America (AVA), is in charge of the compounding and blending of Forever's products as well as their packaging. If Aloe Vera of America were a chocolate factory, we'd call him 'Willy Wonka'…
"I love the products so much, because I know what's in them. It makes me feel great that I can give our products to my family, and I am 100% confident in their quality. I also love being the best at something… What we produce here at AVA supports thousands of people locally and millions around the world. It's an amazing feeling and makes me very proud of what I do."
Jim's latest project, the installation of a VMI platform is one of AVA's greatest investments towards refining the manufacturing process of our household goods and flawless by Sonya cosmetics.
In fact, Jim says "This is state of the art equipment and technology for cosmetic and household products. It is also the largest, most technologically advanced of it's design, and combined capacity, in the world." In short, he boasts we have "the Rolls Royce" of mixing equipment at AVA!
He worked with top engineering companies to design this custom packaging and blending equipment, an over 5.5 million dollar 'improvement'.
"The blending technique has three types of agitation inside of it built into the tank, so we can induct all of our ingredients without ever having to stand on a ladder. Basically, we're introducing raw materials directly into the tank, so there's no need to recirculate the product and have it go through a secondary process. The process is now all in one vessel."
This is some really exciting technology, but what does it really mean? AVA will now be able to manufacture its products much faster! For example, it used to take about 24 hours to produce a bottle of our Aloe MPD – now, it will only take about 8 hours!
Forever Living Products is willing to make such a sizable investment because we want to be around for the next 30, 50, even 100 years making the highest quality, safest and most efficient products on the market today.
Other companies have told Jim that our blending and packaging equipment is the greatest they've seen in the world. Jim proudly states, "Safety, quality and efficiency are our priorities, and the VMI platform is the right tool for the job. Our Distributors can be confident that we have the highest state of the art equipment for their products. Forever is going to redefine the industry. It's not a question of whether we will or not, it's simply a matter of when!"
And this is just a snapshot of what's been going on at AVA. Stay tuned for more articles on the latest advances that have taken place, and more reasons why you can be sure you are distributing the highest quality products in the global market today.


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- Corporate Profile
- Brand and Values
- Investor Relations
- Activities
- News & Resources
- Careers (new)
- The FUJITSU brand
- Environment
- Business Policy
- Corporate Philosophy
- Resource Center
- Message from the President
- Information center
- Procurement
"We greatly appreciated the support offered by Fujitsu and Brocade in providing seminars and technical guidance, as well as their highly responsive approach to our questions in general"
Mr. Motohiko Sakata, Datacenter Division Manager, BSN Information Network Service
Founded in 1966, BSN Information Network Service (BSN INET) is a leading Japanese ICT service provider, headquartered in Japan's Nigata prefecture. In 2009, BSN INET began implementing a business plan to provide a new cloud service from their data center, the 'iNET IMAGE BANK'. Mr. Tomoo Hiroi, Director of BSN Information Network Service's Business Promotion Division explains: "Rather than providing a general public service, this aims to deliver current customers an extension to the existing ICT services that we support."
'iNET IMAGE BANK' allowed the provision of services such as virtual server hosting, virtual client desktops, SaaS via an in-house developed package, and Disaster recovery (DR). In particular, as a result of the new services, there were significant increases in enquiries relating to DR from companies located in the capital.
BSN INET needed to construct a low cost, scalable, next generation cloud service infrastructure and develop efficient remote backup to enhance DR measures. It required a supplier with proven experience in supporting the implementation of leading edge technologies such as Ethernet fabric.
BSN INET adopted Brocade VDX2730 and VDX6720 to support the construction of a next generation cloud service infrastructure. Brocade's highly advanced Ethernet fabric technology helped to optimize virtualization and create an uncomplicated network environment, new to the market, thus integrating an innovative storage solution with the high bandwidth network.
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An Interview with Rick Steiner on the Kulluk Grounding Impact on Shell Arctic Drilling in 2013 and Beyond
Retired University of Alaska Professor Rick Steiner is, along with Dr. Riki Ott, regarded internationally as a first-rank expert on Alaska's marine ecosystems. Additionally, Steiner is a highly sought after expert on the effects of oil spills on maritime environments. Like Dr. Ott, Steiner was recently awarded the Alaska Muckraker of the Year Award from the state's pre-eminent marine environment advocacy group, Cook InletKeeper.
Since his retirement, Prof. Steiner has been able to act more independently, and travel significantly more, than he was able to do while working in a university atmosphere and schedule. After leaving the University of Alaska in 2010, Rick began an organization, Oasis Earth. Here's the organization's description of what Rick is currently doing with Oasis Earth:
Today, he conducts the Oasis Earth project – a global consultancy working with NGOs, governments, industry, and civil society to speed the transition to an environmentally sustainable society. Oasis Earth conducts Rapid Assessments for NGOs in developing nations on critical conservation challenges, reviews environmental assessments, and conducts fully developed studies. Steiner presents Oasis Earth: Planet in Peril to audiences around the world, a presentation on the global environmental crisis and urgently needed solutions, using over 500 images from the UNEP International Photographic Competition for the Environment and NASA images of Earth from space. He continues to work on oil and environment issues, including oil spill prevention, response preparedness, damage assessment, and restoration. His primary focus is now on ecological habitat and biodiversity conservation; establishing Citizens Advisory Councils to advise industry and government; conservation finance; and extractive industry and environment issues, particularly oil, gas, and mining, in the Arctic and globally. Oasis Earth seeks to persuade government, industry, and civil society of the urgency of the global environment crisis, and the necessary regional solutions, particularly in government policy to incentivize sustainability.
I've known Prof. Steiner for over 20 years. I dedicated Shadows, my 1993 electroacoustic musical composition about the Exxon Valdez oil spill to Rick, honoring his leadership role in critical decisions early in the spill, that helped save the fledgeling Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation Sawmill Bay hatchery from extinction.
I've asked Rick a few questions about what the impact the grounding of the Kulluk might have on how the public perceives Shell as a viable operator in Alaska's Arctic, and about the impact of damage to the vessel on Shell's immediate future plans. For the sake of clarity, I'll use my real name in the interview, rather than my longstanding Firedoglake nom de blog.
Near the end of the interview, Prof. Steiner predicts the Kulluk fiasco will keep Shell from drilling at all in the Alaskan Arctic during 2013. This is significant, as Steiner is one of the most knowledgable people around on this.
Phil Munger: You've been questioning Shell Oil's methods, plans and equipment for their offshore drilling hopes in Alaska for quite a while. Whether it has been Bristol Bay, the Chukchi Sea or the Beaufort Sea, you have drawn attention to specific shortcomings in each of the company's projections. Are there common flaws in their efforts and planning that you've been able to discern?
Rick Steiner: Yes. Shell continues to assert that the company knows what it is doing offshore in the Arctic, and clearly, it doesn't. Essentially Shell says: "don't worry, be happy…trust us." Well, we don't.
The Kulluk grounding is the most recent in a long line of calamities from Shell's 2012 Arctic drilling program: the last-minute scramble to retrofit the two rigs, the countless problems with the Arctic Challenger response barge, the failed containment dome test, the near-grounding of the Noble Discoverer in Dutch Harbor, the cursory testing (for about 1 hour only) of the crucial capping stack that would be used to stem a blowout, the stack fire in the Discoverer, the propulsion issues in the Discoverer requiring it to be towed into Seward, the serious safety violations on the Discoverer causing the Coast Guard to detain it in port, and so on. Shell and the Obama administration are in such a rush to drill the Arctic OCS it seems they think they oil may leave…well, it won't. They are behaving as though this is a Bristol Bay red salmon run, and unless they go and harvest it immediately, they'll lose it. But this oil and gas has been there for millennia, and there should be no rush to pump it up into our disgracefully inefficient energy economy. These guys need to chill for a bit, and reconsider this folly.
The Kulluk grounding is only the most recent in an embarrassing string of failures not just for Shell, but for the Department of Interior (DOI) as well. (Shell's Arctic drill plan has too many holes).
And that Shell and its contractors did not have a contingency plan for losing a tow on the Kulluk in heavy weather is simply beyond comprehension. It shows the poor safety culture, and contingency planning capability in Shell and the DOI. This is why we need an Arctic Regional Citizens Advisory Council (Arctic RCAC) to involve citizen stakeholders in oversight of all activities offshore.
Phil Munger: Shell's use of the Arctic Challenger, Noble Discoverer and Kulluk seem to be adaptation of proven, hardy hulls, built to withstand the ice, at first glance. Yet the vessels' age and long terms of non-use warrant notice. Shell acquired the vessels rather inexpensively, but spent a lot attempting to update them. Do you have any thoughts on why they pursued this strategy for important assets of such an expensive campaign?
Rick Steiner: Shell's assertions to the contrary, they seem to still want to cut costs at the expense of safety. Shell employs a Risk Reduction standard to reduce risk to: "As Low As Reasonably Practicable" or, ALARP. I have pushed them for years to use a Risk Reduction standard of "As Low As Possible" or, ALAP. That would entail putting every penny into the system that would enhance safety in any way – like NASA did with the Space Shuttle program after Challenger and Columbia disasters, and the nuclear industry after Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl. But, Shell still cuts corners. And this is entirely unacceptable.
Phil Munger: The failure of the Arctic Challenger's containment dome package in a benign testing regime was spectacular. You are seeking more information from the Federal government on what they know about the August and September 2012 tests. Do you know why your Freedom of Information requests are being delayed while those of others are being met?
Rick Steiner: We (PEER, where I serve as a Board member) filed several FOIA requests with BSEE and Coast Guard months ago, the agency did not respond, and thus PEER filed suit in US District Court to obtain the information on Dec 21, 2012. The FOIAs seek information on all aspects of Shell's Arctic drilling program and government oversight of it; well design and integrity control, BOPs, the capping stack, the containment dome tests, the response barge, their sea ice contingency plans, the oil spill response plan. Just today, BSEE requested a delay in responding. This is unacceptable.
Put simply, the federal government is in turmoil regarding its oversight of the Arctic offshore drilling program – The White House, the State of Alaska, the Alaska delegation, and some others in Congress want the Arctic offshore drilling program to go forward without delay, throwing caution to the wind (or on the rocks on Sitkalidik Island). They are ordering the agencies to facilitate and expedite whatever Shell (and Conoco and others) want.
This is where we, as a society, get into serious trouble, and the Kulluk on the rocks is one recent example of this. That the agencies cannot even respond to a simple FOIA request within its legally allowed time limit indicates a serious problem. We need government to do its job here, and that is to act in the highest and best interest of we-the-people, not Shell. It has yet to be able to do so.
Phil Munger: Is the infrastructure of the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska too thin, too under-funded to support offshore drilling in Alaska?
Rick Steiner: Absolutely, and the Coast Guard readily admits this. We know people make mistakes, and equipment fails, and thus there will be more failures in the Arctic offshore environment. The Coast Guard traditionally does a great job responding to maritime casualties, but not such a great job preventing them. We need to shift this calculus. We know that whatever we do in response means little compared to what we do to prevent casualties.
Phil Munger: Are there ways to fix that?
Rick Steiner: Over the last month or so, I have been recommending that the Congress include as part of the fiscal cliff deal, a fix of the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF). The federal fund, which derives from an 8-cent/barrel tax on oil shipments, now has $2.6 billion in it, but it is almost always used only for oil spill response costs, not prevention. Here is the fix I have been recommending over the past month, forwarded to the delegation, the Coast Guard, and the State:
Summary of proposed amendments to the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF), and oil spill liability provisions of OPA 90
Rick Steiner (12/14/12)
Proposed amendments to federal oil spill law:
1. Raise the per barrel fee on petroleum in OSLTF from 8 cents to a rate of 0.2 percent of oil price, which at $100 oil is 20 cents per barrel. Alternatively, adopt a flat fee of 20 cents/barrel. The fee is currently set to expire on Dec 31, 2017. The proposed enhancement would more than double the current income flow into the OSLTF, from about $500 million/year to over $1 billion/year, and would continue beyond 2017.
2. Impose a new fee in OSLTF on all cargo shipped into and out of U.S. ports, possibly 10 cents/ton, or higher at 0.1 percent of value. Cargo ships involved in spills are covered by the Fund, but pay nothing into it. With over 2 billion tons of cargo shipped into and out of U.S. ports each year, a fee of 10 cents/ton would contribute $200 million annually to the OSLTF.
3. Clarify and facilitate access to the OSLTF for use for spill prevention measures. Currently, the fund may be used for prevention, but subject to appropriation, and federal appropriators are required to "score" all appropriations against other federal spending. This makes it problematic to access the fund for prevention measures. This language should be changed to eliminate the need for congressional appropriation, and allow the Coast Guard to use the Fund at its discretion, within the Fund's statutory scope, and continuing its annual report to Congress. As well language should include an annual Request for Proposal (RfP) process, for states, Area Committees, local governments, and others to submit proposals to the Fund.
4. Eliminate oil spill liability limitations in OPA 90 altogether. This will motivate more responsible conduct by companies, with greater involvement by their insurers in safe operations.
Currently, there is about $2.6 billion in the OSLTF, and the cap was eliminated in 2008. The enhancements to the fund proposed here will provide a substantial stream of funding available to federal and state agencies to pay costs of reasonable and necessary spill prevention measures in all U.S. waters. This should include rescue and escort tugs where appropriate, continuous ship tracking systems, VTS (e.g. at Unimak Pass and Bering Strait), and additional RCACs (e.g. Gulf of Mexico) as appropriate.
Phil Munger: Alaska politicians don't get elected or re-elected unless they support oil development here in ways environmentalists regard as extreme. Is there a solution to this problem in Alaska's future?
Rick Steiner: We certainly hope so. And this is the essence of the problem.
George W. Bush surprised the world in his 2006 State of the Union address, stating that: "We have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil." Very true, but while GW admitted this national addiction, he and his administration did nothing to help the nation break this addiction.
Alaska is even more of a heavy hydrocarbon addict, but has yet to admit it. The current fossil fuel economy of Alaska is a relatively new phenomenon, becoming dominant only since the discovery of the huge Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1968, and the subsequent construction of TAPS.
Alaska is now one of the most hydrocarbon-addicted societies in the history of civilization, an oil-sheikdom of sorts. And policies here show that perfectly clearly. Before joining "government," our current governor was an oil lobbyist, and even worked with the law firm representing Exxon against Alaska citizens on Exxon Valdez damages. Go figure!
I have always felt that the greatest toxicity of oil is not its ecological toxicity (although that is a serious problem), but rather, its socio-political toxicity. Societies rearrange themselves around oil, and in very deleterious ways. I work a lot around the world on oil and environment social issues (places such as Nigeria) and the "oil curse" is evident virtually everywhere it is produced. The curse is clearly dominant today in Alaska, and for such a wonderful place, with such a proud tradition and history as Alaska, this is a true tragedy.
The political environment needs to change, to focus on a sustainable future for Alaska, and we are clearly not there yet. Currently, there is a political panic in Alaska from reduced throughput in TAPS. Well, what the heck did they expect, pumping and selling Alaska oil, a finite resource, as fast as possible at $20 / barrel in the 80s and 90s? Now the junkies want more.
We certainly need oil money out of politics, and that is a difficult challenge here. And of course, even the state university system is beholden to oil – I resigned my tenured professorship with the university in 2010 due to the university's blind allegiance to oil, and its pretentious policies in support of academic freedom only when faculty praise industry. I criticized risk from oil, and the university, addicted to oil, told me not to, and thus I resigned.
Phil Munger: We've both seen amazing improvements in boat and ship safety in Alaska over the decades. Yet accidents such as the Kulluk grounding seem to show need for further improvements. Do you have recommendations?
Rick Steiner: Just last month, I had a commentary on this issue in many Alaska papers.
We have known for years that the emergency towing/ship rescue capability along the Aleutians and Arctic shipping routes is insufficient. There are now some 20 large ships each day transiting the Aleutians, each posing a significant threat to the region. I have been pushing for rescue tugs along the routes since 1995, when the TAPS export ban was lifted. Then, after Selendang Ayu in 2004, many of us made a strong push for an effective emergency-towing regime across these routes. But government and industry fell back into their somnambulant state, and did nothing.
As well, the PWS RCAC has done some remarkable work on this issue, particularly the Aug. 2012 Kallan report.
Phil Munger: Although the power of the storm that battered the Kulluk and its support fleet hasn't been attributed to global warming, that may well be the case. I foresee strong late summer and fall storms off Alaska's North Slope soon, as the open waters breed weather patterns not seen there in a quarter of a million years. Is Shell, or anyone, prepared for this?
Rick Steiner: Put simply, no one is prepared for the dramatic effects of global warming – period. This is one of the profound examples of humans simply not being able to anticipate and respond to future scenarios of our current hubris.
We are funny monkeys, to be sure.
There is solid information about the relationship between the increase in carbon emissions and the increase in frequency and intensity of storm systems globally, including Katrina and Sandy. We have had several intense hurricane-force storms in Alaska this past year. With reduced sea ice in the Bering Sea and Arctic, these storms are much more dangerous to coastal areas, and shipping. The only real solution to this threat is to reduce global carbon emissions. Yet Alaska politicians seem hell-bent on continuing our current carbon addiction, thereby compromising the very future of our state.
And we should point out that the storms encountered in the Kulluk travesty are not unusual. This is indeed winter in the Gulf of Alaska. Crab fishing boats (which I crewed on out of Kodiak when I first moved to Alaska in the 1970s) work this sort of weather all the time.
Phil Munger: During the Kulluk emergency and grounding, we've seen an interagency, government-corporate structure called the Unified Command created and take over many aspects of the operation. What have you observed about its workings so far?
Rick Steiner: The Unified Command (UC) is certainly unified in its defense of Arctic drilling, and in its attempt to minimize public and political the concern over the colossal failure of Shell and government in this affair.
It is simply outrageous that the Kulluk is on the rocks on Sitkalidik Island. The UC press conferences and positions remind me of the old Zen monk saying that it is: "painting eyeballs on chaos." The UC is trying to trivialize the astonishing incompetence of Shell, its contractors, and government. The command center in the Marriott is a tragic Kabuki dance, where some folks are even running around looking busy in life jackets — in a downtown Anchorage hotel!
The UC is mostly theater, to assuage the guilt or incompetence in industry and government, and to attempt to allay concerns of the public about this entire program.
The Kulluk grounding is, or should be, another teachable moment…we have had many…after the fact, hundreds of people will seem to care, but before the fact, there are precious few who seem to want to prevent such debacles from occurring. Again, this equation needs to change.
Phil Munger: In light of the revelation in the Alaska Dispatch today that Shell was indeed in a hurry to get out of Dodge – eh, Dutch – before New Years to avoid $6 million in taxes, do you have anything to add?
Rick Steiner: I say, great job by the Dispatch reporters on this!
Here again, is perfect evidence that Shell is putting profits over responsible conduct. We have seen this so much in Alaska oil industry and government we are almost desensitized to it.
This entire affair means that we take a "time-out" for 2013…even if the Kulluk (which apparently translates to "Thunder") can be pulled off, it is almost certainly out of commission for 2013. That means not only that their 2013 Beaufort drilling is done, but also their Chukchi as they need the Beaufort rig as a potential relief rig for the Chukchi.
Phil Munger: Could you describe your ongoing projects for the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with your work and public service?
Rick Steiner: Well, I continue to work around the world for a sustainable future for planet Earth, and human civilization. I am not sure we are being successful.
In light of this, I am currently trying to help to establish local citizens advisory councils for extractive industry projects (oil, gas, coal, and mining) around the world. We need local people to be empowered to stand up for sustainability. In this regard, I'm working with Papua New Guinea and other South Pacific nations, on the deep-sea hydrothermal vent mining projects; mining projects in Mongolia, and oil projects in the Caspian, Africa, and elsewhere. I am currently advancing this concept with the UN Environment Program and IUCN – the World Conservation Union. And of course, I've been trying to establish an Arctic RCAC, and an enhanced safety system for Arctic and Aleutian shipping.
I am also working as an expert witness (with their London law firm) with local Ogoni tribes in the Niger Delta in their pursuit of justice against Shell for environmental damage caused in their region. And I continue to advise international NGOs, civil society, and governments on energy and sustainability issues.
I give presentations called "Oasis Earth"– using the UNEP/Canon International Photographic Competition for the Environment photos– everywhere I can, to remind us all to think in different ways about our collective challenge, our collective future on this lovely little 'wet blue ball."
I have to say: I don't really know anymore what works and what doesn't. But I do know this extraordinary planet is worth every effort. We need the writers, artists, bloggers, reporters, musicians, scientists, advocates and activists, the agencies and companies, and politicians to make this work….So, let's let the good times roll.


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Man accused of threatening cop
A 39-year-old man was arrested Sunday after he threatened a police officer with sharpened sticks at a homeless camp, police reported.
About 12:20 p.m., an officer tried to stop probationer Brian David Zier in the parking lot of 650 River St. near Highway 1, said Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark. Zier ran to an illegal campsite near the San Lorenzo River levee and brandished sharpened sticks at the officer, saying said that he was not going to be arrested again.
The officer started to pull out his pistol and Zier dropped the sticks, said Clark.
Zier threatened the officer again, prompting the officer to pull out a Taser gun. Zier was arrested on suspicion of brandishing a weapon, threatening a police officer and a probation violation, according to police. He was also arrested on suspicion of vandalism after he kicked and dented a patrol car during his arrest, police said.
Zier is being held in County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail, according to jail records.
Hospital seeks money for Bryan Stow"s care
San Francisco General Hospital is seeking $1.2 million in unpaid medical bills from the bankrupt owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Stow, a 43-year-old paramedic from Live Oak, was beaten after a Giants-Dodgers game in Los Angeles in March 2011. He had a severe brain injury and was treated at San Francisco General. Rachael Kagan, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said Monday the hospital wants to recoup $1.2 million in Stow"s medical expenses.
It is routine for the hospital to transfer unpaid debts to the San Francisco Bureau of Delinquent Revenue, Kagan said. Because Dodgers" owner Frank McCourt has filed for bankruptcy, the bureau named itself as a creditor.
Stow"s family sued McCourt and the Dodgers in 2011 for security and maintenance problems at Dodger Stadium that contributed to the extent of the attack.


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Contact Form Module
Posted by , Last modified by on 21 December 2010 02:37 PM
General Info:The Contact Form module allows visitors to contact you from the website without your needing to put your email address on the site. It is often necessary to obtain information from your website visitors and the contact form module can do this quickly and conveniently. Visitors can fill in the fields that you have provided for them and the data is immediately sent to an email address that you specify.
To configure a contact form, login to your admin section, click the dropdown "Add-on Modules" menu in the top menu of your admin section and choose "Contact Form".
Selecting "Contact Form" will bring up a dialog box which enables you to set all of the necessary parameters for your form.
Check the boxes of the fields you would like to include. (The "Verification Code" field asks the visitor to copy a random set of letters or numbers. This helps insure that the form is filled out legitimately and not by a spammer or automated software.) By default the form information will be sent to the default email address that has been set in the website "Config" section. To send the information to a different address, enter that address in the "E-mail Address" field. Click the "Save changes" button when all information has been entered. A preview of the form can be seen at the bottom of the page.
*Note: Only one email address can be used at one time. Contact form information cannot be sent to multiple addresses.
*Note 2: The Contact Form module is available with all hosting packages, including the free websites.
*Tip: Spam is a big problem these days and one way spammers like to send spam is using software to search the internet looking for forms. The software then fills out the form with the spam message and submits it. Using the "Verification Code" option in the contact form, prevents spam software from being able to submit their spam through your contact form. We highly recommend using the verification code option.


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Tag Archives: talk
A brief introduction to 3D
With WebGL and Molehill around there is a new playground for us flash developers. First I felt a bit stressed over the fact that I have to compete with people doing this for years on the desktop, consoles, mobiles and with plugins like Unity. But it's just a good thing. There is loads of information and knowledge around waiting for us to consume. We can cut to the chase and use the techniques developed by people before us. We are also several years left behind cutting edge 3D regarding performance and features, so the 3D community have produced loads of forum-threads, tutorials and papers. It will be interesting to see how the flash community will embrace this "new" technique. Games is a obvious field, but what about campaigns and microsites?
Some days ago I had the opportunity to hold a presentation about 3D basics. My goal was to give a overview of topics that could be good to look into as a starter. I have tried to pick them from the perspective of a "online developer", with Molehill, WebGL and Unity as a foundation. The word-cloud above show some of the words I put into context. It's basic stuff, in keywords and bullet-lists, so think of this as a dictionary of topics to find more information about on your own. There is some cool demos and resources in there as well. If you are into 3D programming already, this is probably not so interesting for you though, instead you can help me review the slides and point out possible improvements ;).
Here is the presentation as PowerPoint (16 MB, with fancy transitions and animations) and pdf (6 MB, not so fancy but comments are more visible). If you don't have PowerPoint installed you can just download PowerPoint viewer here instead.
Important topics missing? Thing I got wrong? I would love to hear some feedback on things to improve.


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Well Preserved: Easy chocolates, truffles and bark
I recently cooked a charity dinner for my son's school. The fellow who was organizing the wines, the sommelier and wine writer Josh Eisen, wanted to serve an after-dinner drink, a sweet wine or brandy, and some kind of something to go with, but our menu finished with dessert (lemon ginger cake). I was only stumped for a nanosecond because I knew I had a block of semisweet dark chocolate in the pantry, leftover from a truffle-making enterprise around Valentine's Day.
I'd made a batch of truffles with dried cherries that I preserved over the summer, and another batch that was plain chocolate, but rolled in organic powdered peanut butter, which I have to say was rather awesome. It is very easy to whip up homemade chocolates and they always blow diners away. Often I will just make a bark—the easiest chocolate treat of all.
So for the dinner I promised Josh I'd come up with some kind of homemade chocolate. I knew I had an array of dried fruits from the summer. And then I remembered the crystallized ginger I'd made from leftover ginger used to make ginger syrup. Wow. Talk about easy and totally delicious.


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The Licensed Professions in New York State
In 1891, medicine became the first profession licensed by the New York State Board of Regents. New York's unique system of professional regulation, recognized as a model for public protection, has grown to encompass 800,000 practitioners and over 30,000 professional practice business entities in more than 50 professions.
Guided by the Regents, a citizen body, the professions are within New York State's unified system of education - The University of the State of New York. This recognizes the key role education plays in both preparing licensed professionals and in ensuring their continuous development.
The State Education Department, under Regents' direction, administers professional regulation through its Office of the Professions, assisted by the State Boards for the Professions.
Advisory Notices:
Limited Exemption from Professional Misconduct
On June 22, 2016, Part A of Chapter 70 of the Laws of 2016 was enacted to amend the Education Law by adding a new section 6509-d, which provides a limited exemption from professional misconduct to any person who is licensed under Title VIII of the Education Law and who would otherwise be prohibited from prescribing or administering drugs, to administer an opioid antagonist, such as Naloxone (Narcan), in the event of an emergency.
Attention Pharmacists and Prescribers
- Mandatory Electronic Prescribing. Effective March 27, 2016, a new law will require nurse practitioners, midwives, dentists, podiatrists, physicians, physician assistants and optometrists in New York State ("prescribers") to issue prescriptions electronically directly to a pharmacy, with limited exceptions...more
- Changes have been made to the controlled substance schedules in Section 3306 of the New York State Public Health Law...more
Limited Licenses in Clinical Laboratory Technology and Certified Histological Technician
U.S. Court of Appeals Decision on Litigation Involving 13 Professions that Require U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Lawful Residence for Licensure
Licensees and applicants should be wary if asked for personal and/or financial information that does not appear to be associated with a legitimate licensing or registration transaction, even if the person making the request suggests that he or she is working for the Office of the Professions. To verify the identity of a person who purports to represent the Office of the Professions, please call 518-474-3817, ext. 570.


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The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) and the Kansas State Fair will be hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010 at the public-use cabin on the grounds of the Kansas State Fair.
The cabin is a permanent structure on the fair grounds and is available for public use. The cabin is located on the north side of Lake Talbot and is a joint endeavor between KDWP and the Fair to provide the public with a new way to enjoy the fair grounds and the outdoors.
The cabin was made possible through a donation by Excel Industries and the cooperation of several organizations including the Kansas Wildscape Foundation, Gardner National Bank and the Kansas Department of Corrections. The cabin was constructed by the inmates at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility.
To reserve the Kansas State Fair cabin, call 620-669-3600 or visit reserve.ksoutdoors.


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The Hubble Space Telescope broke free from its terrestrial confines on April 24, 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. In the 20 years since, it has seen near total failure and has brought back some of the most important and astounding images of the Universe humankind has ever seen. In celebration of Hubble's 20 years of service, Nobel Intent has taken a moment to look back at some of the most significant images that the flying observatory has brought us.
While the HST has given us a glimpse of some of the farthest reaches of the Universe, some of its most incredible images come from an object in its own backyard: the planet Saturn. Seen in the image along with the planet itself is an aurora around one of Saturn's magnetic poles. Combined with measurements from the Cassini spacecraft, it taught astronomers that Saturn's aurora differ from their counterparts on Earth and Jupiter.
Light "echo"
Reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" is an image of a light "echo" illuminating trillions of miles of interstellar dust around the Red Giant star V838 Monocerotis. The image, taken in 2004, was snapped two years after a brief period of the sudden brightening of V838 Monocerotis—it shows the dust that exists two light years from the main star. The dust and gas are believed to be the remnants from a previous brightening event that occurred tens of thousands of years ago. Hubble has monitored this light pulse since near the beginning of the event and has continued to follow its progress through the interstellar dust in the years since.
Pillars of creation
Perhaps one of the most recognizable and iconic images ever sent back by the HST is that of the Pillars of Creation within the Eagle Nebula. Released in 1995, the image gave the first glimpse of what a stellar nursery looks like. Each "pillar" is a massive cloud of dust, light-years in length, inside of which massive, dense pockets of molecular gas begin to collapse under their own weight and form new stars.
Not only has Hubble revealed the beauty of planets, stars, dust, and gas, it has revealed the utter beauty inherent in other galaxies. This image, of spiral galaxy M74, doesn't represent any piece of breakthrough science, or pose any new questions in astrophysics; it simply shows the beauty that can be contained in the images returned by Hubble.
Gravitational lensing
Einstein's theory of general relativity states that gravity is really a manifestation of mass-energy density in the Universe and that everything, light included, is affected by this since it alters the nature of the fabric of spacetime itself. A corollary to this central hypothesis is that areas of high density, such as stars, or, on a larger scale, galactic clusters, will cause light to appear bent as though it passed through a lens—actually, light will follow a straight line in bent space, a geodesic. This image, looking through galactic cluster Abell 2218, allowed astronomers to use the cluster's immense mass to gravitationally lense the light coming from a baby galaxy 13.4 billion light years away. It clearly highlights the (correct) prediction that mass can affect the very path of light and lends clear experimental support to general relativity being correct at large scales.
Ultra Deep Field
I have been to a number of major art museums around the world, and have looked at what are considered to be some of the greatest works of art that mankind has produced. To me, this image belongs in the pantheon of great works of art alongside the other triumphs of humanity. The Ultra-deep field image taken by Hubble shows the sheer enormity of space itself. Each speck of light in this image, of the deepest reaches of the Universe, is an entire separate galaxy made up of billions of stars each. In my opinion, this image puts us in perspective and shows us the beauty of the cosmos in a way that cannot be otherwise shown. While there was once a time where a single human could know all there was to know in the collective of human knowledge, this picture shows exactly how little we truly know, yet how aware of that fact we are.
After 20 years of service, the Hubble Space Telescope has expanded our horizons beyond our wildest imagination. It has answered a number of outstanding astronomical and astrophysical questions, yet, as any good work of science does, has opened the door to countless more. As its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is built and prepped to be launched in 2014, Hubble will live out its last days carrying out the mission it always has. It is calculated that without an orbital boost, it will deorbit sometime in the 2020s. At the end, it is only one of many telescopes that will reside in space all bringing us data that could never be obtained from the confines of Earth, all advancing our knowledge at a rate previously unimagined by humankind.
Click on any of the images for a link to the full-sized image. Beware, some of the images are very large (5+ MB).
Listing image by Wikimedia Commons


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STLR Link Roundup – January 29, 2010
The latest on the STLR radar: Ephemerallaw assess the chances of Microsoft being sued for the Internet Explorer 6 vulnerability involved in the hacks recently suffered by Google, Adobe and other major companies. Billboard.biz reports that search engine Baidu, Google's arch-rival in China, has won a piracy case brought by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for linking to illegal music downloads. As Apple launches its latest handheld device, Erblawg reports on Apple's battle Continue Reading →


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The weather is set to be unseasonably mild this weekend as a plume of 'tropical air' sweeps over the UK.
It could see some parts of the country enjoying higher temperatures than Majorca, forecasters say.
And the mild weather is set to continue, reaching its peak on Monday with highs of 17C in some parts.
Forecasters say the high temperatures are the result of mild and moist air and a meteorological phenomenon known as the Foehn effect.