SINGAPORE - World oil prices rose by less than one US dollar in Asian trade on Monday after Hurricane Gustav forced the shutdown of almost all oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, rose 84 cents to 116.30 US dollars a barrel from its close of 115.46 dollars when trading closed Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent North Sea crude for October gained 72 cents to 114.77 US dollars from 114.05 US dollars in London on Friday.
About one quarter of US oil production comes from the Gulf, one of the largest energy production hubs in the Americas, but US officials said on Sunday that more than 96 per cent of Gulf oil production and 82 per cent of natural gas output had been stopped in the face of the storm.
Gustav was on target to plough into coastal Louisiana on Monday, potentially as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 miles (242 kilometres) per hour and storm surges up to 16 feet (4.8 metres) above normal.
"It's all about Gustav," said Tony Nunan, of Mitsubishi Corp's international petroleum business in Tokyo.
But he said price gains had been limited because of underlying worries about a global economic slowdown and falling demand for oil.
World oil prices have sunk from record highs above 147 US dollars a barrel in early July after surging from 100 US dollars at the start of the year.
Monday's rise of about one dollar was "not really that much", Nunan said, adding that trading would be thin because the US markets were shut for the Labour Day holiday.
If oil facilities survive the hurricane undamaged, the oil price could continue its trend down towards 100 US dollars. But damage on the scale of Hurricane Katrina three years ago could generate a price surge to 120 US dollars, he said.
The threat of Gustav raised grim memories of the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita that damaged or destroyed about 165 of about 4,000 oil platforms in the Gulf.
US energy giant ExxonMobil said Sunday it had completed storm preparations for its Gulf Coast oil and gas operations. Workers on offshore platforms had been evacuated, the company said.
"We are also releasing personnel from onshore facilities anticipated to be in or near the path of the storm," it said in a statement, adding the company expected to continue supplying its customers.
One of its refineries, in Chalmette, Louisiana, was being shut down but Exxon's other refineries and chemical plants on the Gulf Coast remained in operation as of Sunday, ExxonMobil said.
Shell, in addition to its offshore facilities, was also shutting a number of its coastal refineries and chemical plants while putting others on standby.
British oil group BP and US rival ConocoPhillips also began evacuating their offshore workers as Gustav loomed.
Oil industry analyst Andy Lipow based in Houston, Texas, said there would be a supply disruption, "but how quickly can the industry recover is going to be the key."
Lipow said the oil industry was now better prepared for storms, both with offshore and onshore facilities. - AFP/ir
Sunday, August 31, 2008
US Open: Federer, Roddick rip opponents to reach New York second week
New York (dpa) - Former champions Roger Federer and Andy Roddick turned in impressive straight-set wins, throwing down a challenge to rivals as they powered through into the second week of the US Open on Sunday.
Four-time winner Federer took a step closer to lifting his first major title of a subdued season as he turned in a near-flawless performance to crush Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Rodick, the 2003 champion at his home Grand Slam, rolled Italian Andreas Seppi 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
"I feel good," said the 26-year-old. "It's just a matter of getting into physical and mental shape. I'm excited, I cannot wait for the fourth round."
Roddick had his way in "the most intimidating court in the world" against the number 31 who has stalled in the third round at past slams.
Federer, seeded second behind French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic champion Rafael Nadal, is bidding for his fifth straight trophy at Flushing Meadows.
The Swiss earned revenge after losing to Stepanek in straight sets in Rome last May. "That loss hurt, but it's a good win for me. I'm moving on, and that's what I care about right now."
Federer's efficient New York victory quieted the annoying, strutting style of the Czech number 30, still never past the third round at the event.
"It's good for me to not waste any energy," said the 12-time winner of major singles titles. "I'm playing well and moving on in the draw. At the end of the day, what counts is winning the tournament."
Federer's comprehensive victory was his 30th straight at the Open, his last loss coming to David Nalbandian in 2003.
Federer squares off against Russian Igor Andreev who put out Spanish 13th seed Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Russian fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko, a semi-final loser to Federer at the last two editions, advanced into the fourth round over fellow Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
Former junior champion Gilles Muller took well over three hours to complete a marathon victory against Spain's Nicolas Almagro 6-7 (3- 7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.
On the women's side, Jelena Jankovic continued her bid to wrest the number one ranking from compatriot Ana Ivanovic, reaching the second week over Dane Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, the losing 2004 finalist, stretched her Beijing dream, starting with a 4-0 lead on the way to a win over China's Li Na 6-4, 6-1.
The Russian faces off for the 18th time against Swiss Patty Schnyder, who came back to beat Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Jankovic as well as Dementieva have chances reach the number one spot depending on tournament results. Jankovic held the spot last month before losing it to Ana Ivanovic.
"Little by little every day I feel that I'm getting better and better," said the Serb. "Physically I'm moving much better. My condition is getting better and better."
Jankovic had to rally past the teenaged challenger for the second time in as many meetings, both coming at majors.
At Wimbledon, Wozniacki got off to a fast start before being pegged back by the 23-year-old seed.
"In the first set she played quite solid, putting all these balls back. She didn't make any errors, I was the one who was all over the place," Jankovic said.
She plays in the quarter-finals against Sybille Bammer, who beat former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 6-4.
Four-time winner Federer took a step closer to lifting his first major title of a subdued season as he turned in a near-flawless performance to crush Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Rodick, the 2003 champion at his home Grand Slam, rolled Italian Andreas Seppi 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
"I feel good," said the 26-year-old. "It's just a matter of getting into physical and mental shape. I'm excited, I cannot wait for the fourth round."
Roddick had his way in "the most intimidating court in the world" against the number 31 who has stalled in the third round at past slams.
Federer, seeded second behind French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic champion Rafael Nadal, is bidding for his fifth straight trophy at Flushing Meadows.
The Swiss earned revenge after losing to Stepanek in straight sets in Rome last May. "That loss hurt, but it's a good win for me. I'm moving on, and that's what I care about right now."
Federer's efficient New York victory quieted the annoying, strutting style of the Czech number 30, still never past the third round at the event.
"It's good for me to not waste any energy," said the 12-time winner of major singles titles. "I'm playing well and moving on in the draw. At the end of the day, what counts is winning the tournament."
Federer's comprehensive victory was his 30th straight at the Open, his last loss coming to David Nalbandian in 2003.
Federer squares off against Russian Igor Andreev who put out Spanish 13th seed Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Russian fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko, a semi-final loser to Federer at the last two editions, advanced into the fourth round over fellow Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
Former junior champion Gilles Muller took well over three hours to complete a marathon victory against Spain's Nicolas Almagro 6-7 (3- 7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.
On the women's side, Jelena Jankovic continued her bid to wrest the number one ranking from compatriot Ana Ivanovic, reaching the second week over Dane Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, the losing 2004 finalist, stretched her Beijing dream, starting with a 4-0 lead on the way to a win over China's Li Na 6-4, 6-1.
The Russian faces off for the 18th time against Swiss Patty Schnyder, who came back to beat Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Jankovic as well as Dementieva have chances reach the number one spot depending on tournament results. Jankovic held the spot last month before losing it to Ana Ivanovic.
"Little by little every day I feel that I'm getting better and better," said the Serb. "Physically I'm moving much better. My condition is getting better and better."
Jankovic had to rally past the teenaged challenger for the second time in as many meetings, both coming at majors.
At Wimbledon, Wozniacki got off to a fast start before being pegged back by the 23-year-old seed.
"In the first set she played quite solid, putting all these balls back. She didn't make any errors, I was the one who was all over the place," Jankovic said.
She plays in the quarter-finals against Sybille Bammer, who beat former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 6-4.
Comcast sets 250GB ceiling
Now, it’s official. Comcast will impose a 250GB monthly cap on its Internet customers, as the SF Chronicle reports.
Violators will get a notice and a warning. If you do it twice in a six-month period, they may terminate your account.
What’s more, Comcast won’t be releasing any programs that will let you easily monitor your bandwidth usage, although anyone who is seriously in danger of hitting the cap probably can figure out how to download their own monitor.
This is how Comcast manages its network when it can’t cut off BitTorrent users. Comcast says most users use 2 to 3 GB.
The thing is, isn’t Comcast’s future – the commercial future of the Web – in higher-def video, stuff like the NBC Olympics site? Won’t Comcast be encouraging users to download video – and video ads – at greater and greater volumes even as it threatens to cut heavy users off?
“This wouldn’t be necessary if Comcast had chosen to expand its capacity,” said Michael Shames, executive director of the Utility Consumers’ Action Network in San Diego. “They’ve chosen instead to degrade service.”
And the monopoly nature of broadband providers means few people will have any choice but to accept the limits, even if their usage is completely legitimate. That’s the broadband policy we have chosen, said Free Press’s S. Derek Turner:
“Unfortunately, Americans will continue to face the consequences of this lack of competition until policymakers get serious about policies that deliver the world-class networks consumers deserve,” Turner said in a statement.
Computer Virus Infects NASA's Laptops Inside International Space Station
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The NASA confirmed its laptops carried aboard the International Space Stations in July were hit by the Gammima.AG computer virus.
The virus was first noticed in August 2007 when the laptops were still on Earth. The laptops were used by the astronauts to monitor their nutrition programs and send emails back to Earth. It got infected because the laptops apparently had no anti-virus software.
NASA assured SpaceRef, which broke the story, that the ISS' control system or command was not placed at risk because of the virus. NASA is investigating how the virus managed to enter the laptops because the ISS does not have direct Internet connection. All data traffic from the ground to the spacecraft are scanned before it is transmitted.
The space agency's theory is that the virus might have entered through a flash or USB drive brought by an astronaut. To prevent a repeat of the incident, NASA said it will put in place security systems.
The Gammima.AG virus steals passwords and log-in names and then sends the data back to a central server. It usually targets computer games such as Maple Story, HuangYu Online and Talesweaver.
Leaked memo indicates space programme extension
Nasa is to study whether the space shuttle programme could continue operating past its scheduled retirement in 2010.
An internal e-mail leaked in an Orlando newspaper revealed it is being considered whether the shuttle could fly until 2015, when Nasa's next-generation space platform is expected to be completed.
The study comes amid economic concerns about the end of a programme that has brought thousands of jobs to Cape Canaveral, Houston and other places where shuttle components are produced.
Democratic nominee Barack Obama has called for 2 billion US dollars for Nasa to extend the shuttle past 2010.
McCain talks Palin on Fox News Sunday
As Democrats slam his new runningmate as unprepared for the Oval Office, Sen. McCain defended Palin’s experience and readiness during his interview with Fox News Sunday. Referring to her as a “soulmate,” McCain argued that her executive experience makes her more qualified for the presidency than Barack Obama.
Apart of the exchange below:
CHRIS WALLACE: Let’s start with your choice of a running mate. Of all the people you could have chosen, of all the Republican leaders you’ve known for years, great thought, can you honestly say that Sarah Palin is the best person to put a heartbeat away from the presidency?
MCCAIN: Oh, yes. She’s a — she’s a partner and a soul-mate. She — she’s a reformer. I don’t particularly enjoy the label “maverick,” but when somebody takes on the old bulls in her own party, runs against an incumbent governor of her own party, stands up against the oil and gas interests — I mean, they really are so vital to the economy of her — of the state of Alaska. I mean, it’s remarkable. It’s a remarkable person.
And I’ve watched her record, and I’ve watched her for many, many years as she — as she implemented ethics and lobbying reforms. And I mean, she led. She didn’t just vote for it. She led it. I’ve seen her take on her own party.
Look, one thing I know is that when you take on your own party in Washington, you pay a price for it. You do. You pay a price for it. And she’s taken on the party in her own state. She takes on — she took on a sitting governor and defeat him — defeated him.
And so I’ve — I’m so pleased and proud, because this — this is a person who will help me reform Washington and change the way they do business. And that’s what Americans want.
WALLACE: But let me ask you…
MCCAIN: Sure.
WALLACE: … about the concerns that a lot of voters, who haven’t heard of Sarah Palin before yesterday, are asking. Compared to, say, Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman, why is Governor Palin superior in dealing with national security and foreign policy?
MCCAIN: Look, those people you talk about, Joe, Tom Ridge and Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, they’re wonderful people. And I’m grateful for the opportunity that I’ve had to know them and work with them.
But look, what this brings is — is a spirit of reform and change that is vital now in our nation’s capital. Eighty-four percent of the American people think the country’s on the wrong track. In our party, we have corruption. We have former members of Congress residing in federal prison. So it’s not surprising to me that — that we’ve seen an incredible invigoration around our party and around the nation. Not just Republicans, but Democrats.
And by the way, in the last day and a half, or whatever it’s been, we have raised $4 million on the Internet. I wish I’d have taken her a month ago.
WALLACE: But you have said that the existential threat we face…
MCCAIN: Sure.
WALLACE: … the threat to our existence is from Islamic terrorism. Foreign policy is Job 1 for the commander in chief.
MCCAIN: Sure.
WALLACE: You have criticized Obama as being, quote, “dangerously unprepared to be president.” In the sense of national security and foreign policy specifically, isn’t Sarah Palin even more dangerously unprepared?
MCCAIN: Oh, no. Look, she’s got — she’s got the right judgment. She’s got the right judgment. She doesn’t think, like Senator Obama does, that Iran is a minor irritant. She knows that the surge worked and succeeded, and she supported that. Senator Obama still — still to this day refuses to acknowledge that the surge has succeeded. She’s been commander in chief of the Alaska Guard, that has served back and back (ph). In fact, as you know, she’s got a son who’s — who’s getting ready to go.
But she’s had the judgment on these issues. And if Senator Obama has not had — he’s had all the wrong judgments. And Governor Palin understands these issues, and she understands the challenges that we face.
So she’s had 12 years of elective office experience, including traveling to Kuwait, including being involved in these issues. And look, I’m so proud that she has displayed the kind of judgment and she has the experience and judgment as an executive. She’s run a huge economy up there in the state of Alaska. Twenty percent of our energy comes from the state of Alaska, and energy is obviously one of the key issues for our nation — national security.
WALLACE: But Senator, you talked about her years of experience. Ten of those years were as a city councilwoman and mayor of a town of 9,800 people. And in terms of foreign policy, in March of 2007, after — two months after the surge had started, she was asked about it, and she said, “I’ve been focused on state government. I haven’t focused on the war in Iraq.” Understandable for a governor; not understandable for a vice president.
MCCAIN: Well, by the way, also she was a member of the PTA. I think it’s wonderful. But the point is she’s been to Kuwait. She’s been over there. She’s been with her troops. The National Guard that she commands, who had been over there and had the experience. I’m proud of her knowledge of these challenges and issues.
And of course, as governor she has had enormous responsibilities, none of which Senator Obama had. He — when she was in government, he was a community organizer. When she was taking tough positions against her own party, Senator Obama was voting “president” 130 times in the state legislature, on every tough issue that ever was, while she was taking them on. That’s the kind of judgment that I’m confident that we need in Washington.
WALLACE: For people who aren’t persuaded, at least initially in the first 24 hours, about her experiences, especially on foreign policy, doesn’t this raise even more concerns about your age?
MCCAIN: I don’t know. Look, it was an issue in the primary, as you know. I’ve got to show them the vigor. I’ve got to show them the energy. I’ve got to show them the judgment. I’ve got to show them that my experience and knowledge qualifies me to lead. And what we are finding out in recent days in a couple of weeks is an increasingly dangerous world. But most importantly, I know how to get the jobs back and get our economy going again. But I’ve got to show them that. I understand that.
But I also think that you’ve got the next generation of leadership of America who is committed to good government, to ethics. A wonderful family. A belief in the future of America. Look, I’m so excited about this — this person, Governor Palin, I can’t tell you. And her family is marvelous, also.
WALLACE: The choice of a running mate is the first presidential-level decision that you’ve made. Why shouldn’t we think that this is really about politics, about reaching out to women, especially to Hillary Clinton supporters?
MCCAIN: Well, I think that I had to do what I think is best for the future of the country. That’s the point here. And I think, by any parameter of judgment, given the economic difficulties that we’re facing today, especially on jobs and health care and insurance, these are issues: health insurance and education, these are the issues that, really, Americans are most concerned about.
Americans are concerned about our nation’s security. And I think she has exercised and shown the judgment to address those issues. But she also understands the fact that people in America are sitting down at the kitchen table this morning, as we speak, and saying, “How are we going to stay in our homes? How are we going to keep our health insurance? How are we going to educate our kids?” And some of them have just lost their jobs.
So I think Governor Palin is uniquely — as a governor, she’s had executive experience. She didn’t sit in the state legislature. She didn’t vote just with her party and go along to get along. Senator Obama has never taken on the leaders of his party on any issue. You tell me a time when he has. She’s — she’s been an independent spirit that’s taken them on at every opportunity.
WALLACE: Whether this was the reason or not, do you think she will help you with women and especially with disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters?
MCCAIN: I think she’s going to help me with all Americans. I think that the response that we’re getting from men, women, young, old, because they want us to change America. They want us to change it. They — they’re sick and tired of business as usual and inside the beltway kind of thing.
You know, one commentator said, “She’s never been on ‘Meet the Press’.”
WALLACE: I didn’t say that.
MCCAIN: Well, I hope she’s — I hope she’s on your — I hope that she’s on your program first.
No, she doesn’t live inside the beltway. She doesn’t — she and her husband don’t go to the Georgetown cocktail parties. But they do live a life of a wonderful family. He’s — they’ve had a small business that — they are just really good, down-to-earth people who understand the challenges that we face.
So in all due respect to my friends that say that she’s never been on some of the inside-the-beltway activities, I say thank God.
WALLACE: Let me see if I’ve got the chronology straight…
MCCAIN: Sure.
WALLACE: … that people are submitting (ph). As I understand it, you met her for the first time at the governor’s conference in…
MCCAIN: We had breakfast.
WALLACE: … in February.
MCCAIN: Yes.
WALLACE: You talked to her on the phone last Sunday. And you met with her face to face — face to face for the first time to discuss the vice-presidential ticket Thursday morning, and then you offered her the job. Must have been a heck of a meeting.
MCCAIN: Well, the fact is, I’ve been watching her. I mean, look, what she’s been doing in Alaska — let’s have some straight talk — has affected the representation in Washington, D.C.
We’ve fought against, frankly, the same adversaries, the same challenges.
We couldn’t get the bridge to nowhere out, although we tried — people like Tom Colburn…
WALLACE: Which was the big pork barrel project.
MCCAIN: Yes, the pork barrel project — a $233 million bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it.
She, as governor, stood up and said, “We don’t need it. And if we need it, we’ll pay for it ourselves.”
Now, that’s — that’s guts.
I saw that, and I said, this — this is what we need in Washington.
Microsoft to slash Xbox 360 price in Japan
TOKYO: Microsoft Corp will slash the price of its Xbox 360 game console in Japan by about 30 per cent, below Nintendo Co's Wii and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 in a bid to boost market share, a business daily said on Monday.
Microsoft has been struggling to stir up demand for its Xbox 360 in Japan. Microsoft will lower the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade model by 8,000 yen ($73.92) to 19,800 yen, the Nikkei said. The Arcade does not come equipped with a hard drive and is the least expensive of the three Xbox 360 models, the newspaper said.
The new price will make that model cheaper than Nintendo's Wii, which sells for about 25,000 yen, and the PlayStation 3, which sells for 39,800 yen. The company will also reduce the price of two higher models with hard drives by 5,000-8,000 yen, the paper said.
Microsoft Xbox spokeswoman Kazumi Ishiyama in Japan declined to comment on the Nikkei report. The company is scheduled to hold a briefing on the Xbox 360 in the Japanese market at 3:00 pm on Monday. The Xbox 360 has lagged its Japanese rivals on their home turf, with 684,695 units sold so far in Japan against Wii's 6.67 million and PS3's 2.32 million, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain.
The Xbox 360, however, beat the PS3 in Japan weekly sales for the first time in the week ended Aug 10, on robust demand for Namco Bandai Holdings' recent "Tales of Vesperia" role-playing game.
Microsoft recently cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20 gigabyte hard drive to $299 from $349 in the United States. Strong global sales of Wii led Nintendo to revise up its earnings forecasts for the six months to September and full year to March 2009 on Friday.
Microsoft has been struggling to stir up demand for its Xbox 360 in Japan. Microsoft will lower the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade model by 8,000 yen ($73.92) to 19,800 yen, the Nikkei said. The Arcade does not come equipped with a hard drive and is the least expensive of the three Xbox 360 models, the newspaper said.
The new price will make that model cheaper than Nintendo's Wii, which sells for about 25,000 yen, and the PlayStation 3, which sells for 39,800 yen. The company will also reduce the price of two higher models with hard drives by 5,000-8,000 yen, the paper said.
Microsoft Xbox spokeswoman Kazumi Ishiyama in Japan declined to comment on the Nikkei report. The company is scheduled to hold a briefing on the Xbox 360 in the Japanese market at 3:00 pm on Monday. The Xbox 360 has lagged its Japanese rivals on their home turf, with 684,695 units sold so far in Japan against Wii's 6.67 million and PS3's 2.32 million, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain.
The Xbox 360, however, beat the PS3 in Japan weekly sales for the first time in the week ended Aug 10, on robust demand for Namco Bandai Holdings' recent "Tales of Vesperia" role-playing game.
Microsoft recently cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20 gigabyte hard drive to $299 from $349 in the United States. Strong global sales of Wii led Nintendo to revise up its earnings forecasts for the six months to September and full year to March 2009 on Friday.
Crude Oil, Gasoline Advance as Gustav Cuts Production, Refining
Crude Oil, Gasoline Advance as Gustav Cuts Production, Refining
By Margot Habiby
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil and gasoline futures rose as Hurricane Gustav approached the Gulf of Mexico, halting most oil and gas output and shutting local refineries.
Gustav will make landfall along the Gulf Coast sometime tomorrow as a ``major'' hurricane, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It forced the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and shut refineries operated by Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.
``It's a huge storm, and it's got the potential to cause all kinds of problems,'' said Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut. ``There's a lot of concern that this is something that could really, really damage infrastructure badly, and this could be another instance of Katria-Rita or worse.''
Crude oil for October delivery rose $1.67, or 1.5 percent, to $117.13 a barrel at 5 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 22 percent this year.
Gasoline for October delivery gained 6.58 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $2.92 a gallon on the exchange.
To see oil ``up two and a half dollars is a muted reaction to what they're calling the mother of all storms,'' Beutel said.
Electronic trading opened early today to allow traders to respond to Gustav. Trades will be dated Sept. 2 because of the U.S. Labor Day holiday tomorrow.
Gustav was about 215 miles (350 kilometers) south-southeast of the Mississippi River mouth at 4 p.m. New Orleans time and was packing winds of 115 miles an hour. The storm, which may reach Louisiana as early as midday tomorrow, is forecast to strengthen as it crosses the Gulf.
Refinery Capacity
Gulf Coast refineries have cut at least 1.56 million barrels a day of production, about 9.8 percent of the U.S. total. Seven refineries have announced shutdowns, and five have reduced capacity.
Personnel from more than 70 percent of the platforms and rigs in the Gulf have been evacuated as the storm approaches, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said today in a statement on its Web site. About 1.25 million barrels a day of oil, and 6.09 billion cubic feet of gas have been shut, or more than 96 percent of offshore oil output and 82 percent of gas production.
Natural gas for October delivery fell 6.1 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $7.882 per million British thermal units.
Chevron's Sabine Pipe Line LLC began to shut its pipelines and the Henry Hub natural gas connection point in Louisiana as mandatory evacuations were declared. Henry Hub, in Erath, Louisiana, is the pricing point for Nymex natural-gas futures.
Gulf Capacity
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 26 percent of U.S. oil production and 14 percent of natural-gas output. The Gulf normally produces about 1.3 million barrels of oil and an estimated 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day, according to the agency, part of the U.S. Interior Department.
``We're more prepared for this storm than we ever have been for any hurricane that I remember,'' said Phil Flynn, senior trader at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. ``We're better prepared, and demand isn't that strong anyway, so I'm about as optimistic as I can be in this type of disastrous situation.''
Hurricane Katrina, which reached Category 5 status, the strongest type of hurricane, closed 95 percent of offshore output in the Gulf of Mexico. Almost 19 percent of U.S. refining capacity was idled because of damage and blackouts caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
``You get a couple of rigs shut down, keeled over from this hurricane, and this is going go take days or weeks to fix,'' said Brad Samples, a commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. ``The bigger problem is on the refining side and the potential impact on all the refineries that string along the Gulf Coast.''
Almost half of U.S. refining capacity is centered along the Gulf Coast, and refineries have been operating at less than 90 percent of capacity all year, according to the Energy Department.
Regular gasoline, averaged nationwide, rose 0.5 cent to $3.687 a gallon, AAA, the nation's largest motorist organization, said today on its Web site. Prices reached a record $4.114 a gallon on July 17. Gasoline cost $3.676 a gallon in Louisiana, up from $3.655 yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net.
McCain camp keeps eye on Storm Gustav
US: JOHN McCAIN'S campaign said it is keeping watch on the path of Tropical Storm Gustav after a report that Republican officials are considering delaying the party's convention next week.
"We are monitoring the situation very closely," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said as the storm headed for the US Gulf Coast. "[ Mr] McCain has always been sensitive to national crises."
The Republican convention, at which Mr McCain will be formally nominated, is scheduled for September 1st-4th in St Paul, Minnesota. The prospect of a major natural disaster hitting while Republicans are celebrating presents the party with a PR challenge.
There are reports that even if the convention goes ahead, the storm may lead President George Bush to cancel his opening address. Mr Bush was criticised for his slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005Memories of Katrina
It began as a third-grade art project at a New Orleans elementary school.
The children were told to create two boxes: one of them filled with memories from the storm that changed their lives and the other filled with their hopes and wishes for the future.
The results, now on display at the Louisiana Children's Museum, are heartbreaking.
"I put pictures of things that I lost in the hurricane and I put writings of things that I lost in the hurricane," one boy said.
Some notes were written on paper plates, some on simple notebook paper.
"I lost my home and family," said one.
"I wish New Orleans was blessed by angels," said another.
And for the children, the memories and effects of Katrina are as fresh in their minds as they are tangible in the boxes.
"People are still suffering from the storm," 9-year-old Rodney Green said. "People still don't have houses and food and water. And people don't have enough money to afford it because of the storm. People are still struggling."
"Katrina never left," he said. "The water may have gone but she never left."
Gaynail Mitchell, mother of one of the children involved in the project, says that the memory boxes have clearly helped her son recover.
"He was talking about that box after we left the Children's Museum today. He told me it's going to be better," she said. "I love that box. I wish I could take it home and show it to people because it's his feelings and it's really coming out."
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Improve your Credit score now
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For the past seven years, Attractive Credit, Inc. has repaired and restored credit for its customers through proven and powerful techniques and strategies. Hundreds of people have benefited from Attractive Credit and their willingness to share their inside knowledge, credit secrets and revelations about the newest, most successful and fastest means to improve credit scores through a series of video tutorials.
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Attractive Credit Services is headquartered in San Diego, CA with two offices.
For the past seven years, Attractive Credit, Inc. has repaired and restored credit for its customers through proven and powerful techniques and strategies. Hundreds of people have benefited from Attractive Credit and their willingness to share their inside knowledge, credit secrets and revelations about the newest, most successful and fastest means to improve credit scores through a series of video tutorials.
Attractive Credit Secrets’ video tutorials provide customers with an easy to follow, step-by-step process which is simple to understand and master getting their credit scores improved on their own.
“It is incredibly easy to improve your credit score with the right knowledge, strategies and techniques. At Attractive Credit Secrets we are pleased to offer our customers easy to understand video tutorials, allowing them to increase credit scores on their own,” states owner/founder, Juan Medina and Alex Luna.
Attractive Credit Services is headquartered in San Diego, CA with two offices.
Banking Basics: Choosing a Bank for Your Business
Banks come in many shapes and sizes - services and specialties. As in any professional relationship, the success of an association first requires thoughtful inquiry and research. Banks can provide business owners with a level of support and guidance but the connection must be a good fit from the start. For example, one makes careful choices about physicians, real estate agents or lawyers. That same attention should be paid when seeking out a bank to handle your business needs.
Prior to selecting a banker, it's important to evaluate the goals and objectives of the financial relationship. An entrepreneur who knows what he or she needs from a bank will have a much easier time of comparing and analyzing a bank's services. Also, be aware of the bank's focus. One bank may specialize in commercial loans for a business while another focuses on home or auto loans. While one bank may excel at services aimed for personal banking, it may or may not offer the kinds of services needed for business.
Specialties
When in the research process, visit a local bank and speak to the bank manager or representative who can answer questions in regards to their business expertise. Does the bank possess specialized services aimed at supporting business needs? Do they have a clear understanding of the challenges, as well as services to assist business owners in handling those demands?
Following are services with which a bank may assist a business:
* Cash management needs
* Advice and guidance in regards to qualifying for a loan which best meets your needs.
* Investment products at varying levels of maturity or risk.
* Special loan programs, such as an SBA loan or government-guaranteed loans, for small businesses.
* Pertinent financial information related to the business owner's specific industry
In addition to evaluating the services offered by a particular bank, it's also important to consider what qualifications are required of a business owner desiring a bank or government-guaranteed loan. An entrepreneur needs answers in relation to minimum account balances required, as well as interest rates and charges for account services. Some banks may offer tiered services for businesses. For example, one tier might feature higher interest rates for businesses that maintain higher balances, while another tier features more basic services with a lower minimum balance. Business owners should also be aware of a bank's access to ATMs, online banking and night deposit services.
Relationship
While a few entrepreneurs may not be as concerned with a friendly disposition as long as they are receiving the best interest rate around, other business owners base their choice of a banker on the personal level of comfort which exists between both parties. Most want to cultivate a positive relationship with their bank - to be treated as more than just another account number. After all, thriving businesses help support a successful bank. Banks as well, seek to cultivate an environment of service which will produce satisfied clients whose businesses benefit from the bank's support. The best-fit bank offers solutions tailored to a business' specific needs, providing effective financial management and unparalleled personal service.
Finally, the right bank is one that understands the needs of a fledging and growing business. Running a business always requires some level of risk. Business owners benefit best from those banks that help them manage that risk prudently and effectively. Most importantly, business owners should seek out banks that are interested in their dreams and goals for the venture; banks who possess a personal and corporate interest in helping to bring those dreams to reality.
Prior to selecting a banker, it's important to evaluate the goals and objectives of the financial relationship. An entrepreneur who knows what he or she needs from a bank will have a much easier time of comparing and analyzing a bank's services. Also, be aware of the bank's focus. One bank may specialize in commercial loans for a business while another focuses on home or auto loans. While one bank may excel at services aimed for personal banking, it may or may not offer the kinds of services needed for business.
Specialties
When in the research process, visit a local bank and speak to the bank manager or representative who can answer questions in regards to their business expertise. Does the bank possess specialized services aimed at supporting business needs? Do they have a clear understanding of the challenges, as well as services to assist business owners in handling those demands?
Following are services with which a bank may assist a business:
* Cash management needs
* Advice and guidance in regards to qualifying for a loan which best meets your needs.
* Investment products at varying levels of maturity or risk.
* Special loan programs, such as an SBA loan or government-guaranteed loans, for small businesses.
* Pertinent financial information related to the business owner's specific industry
In addition to evaluating the services offered by a particular bank, it's also important to consider what qualifications are required of a business owner desiring a bank or government-guaranteed loan. An entrepreneur needs answers in relation to minimum account balances required, as well as interest rates and charges for account services. Some banks may offer tiered services for businesses. For example, one tier might feature higher interest rates for businesses that maintain higher balances, while another tier features more basic services with a lower minimum balance. Business owners should also be aware of a bank's access to ATMs, online banking and night deposit services.
Relationship
While a few entrepreneurs may not be as concerned with a friendly disposition as long as they are receiving the best interest rate around, other business owners base their choice of a banker on the personal level of comfort which exists between both parties. Most want to cultivate a positive relationship with their bank - to be treated as more than just another account number. After all, thriving businesses help support a successful bank. Banks as well, seek to cultivate an environment of service which will produce satisfied clients whose businesses benefit from the bank's support. The best-fit bank offers solutions tailored to a business' specific needs, providing effective financial management and unparalleled personal service.
Finally, the right bank is one that understands the needs of a fledging and growing business. Running a business always requires some level of risk. Business owners benefit best from those banks that help them manage that risk prudently and effectively. Most importantly, business owners should seek out banks that are interested in their dreams and goals for the venture; banks who possess a personal and corporate interest in helping to bring those dreams to reality.
Hard Erection - if You Want One a Harder Erection Quickly With These Herbs
If you want a hard erection then the herbs enclosed if taken in combination are proven to improve erectile function and increase sex drive lets look at how and why they work.
What's the first thing you notice when you get aroused and when an erection occurs?
You hear your heart pumping and your blood starts to push toward and into the penis and an erection is the end result. So healthy and strong blood circulation is a must for general and sexual health.
There is another important element that comes into play and that is when the blood is pumped to the penis it must be allowed to enter in increased volume for the erection to take place and for this we need to look at the key role of nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide is the chemical which allows the blood vessels that lead to the penis to relax and then open wide enough, to let the increased blood flow in. Without enough nitric oxide, not only will you not get a hard erection, you won't get one at all! Not enough nitric oxide - then no erection is possible.
In addition to blood circulation and nitric oxide, you need to have plenty of energy in your body - stress and fatigue simply deplete sex drive, as your body diverts what energy it has to more important matters and sorry, sex drive is low on the list. Finally, you need plenty of testosterone.
Getting a harder Erection With a Proven Herbal Combination
Below are some herbs which you can find in the best herbal sex pills which if taken in combination, can lead you quickly to get a hard erection.
Cnidium
Works just like Viagra to enhance nitric oxide release and inhibit PDE-5. Cnidium also helps promote better blood circulation throughout the body and to the genitals.
Horny Goat
A herb that increases nitric oxide and testosterone production in the body and also decreased stress and enhances overall energy levels.
Cistanche Bark
Cistanche Bark increases blood circulation and pumps blood to the extremities. Cistanche has a reputation for increasing energy and maintaining youthfulness. It is used to reinforce the vital function of the sexual organs and is used FOR the treatment of impotence, premature ejaculation in men.
Tribulus
Increases testosterone levels and overall energy, strength and stamina.
The herb contains protodioscin, a saponin constituent, known to improve libido in men. In a test involving men, aged 22-67, suffering from a range of sexual dysfunctions, Tribulus was taken three times daily - the result? An increase in sexual desire, as well as better sexual self-confidence and performance, was reported in over 80% of the sample group.
Ginkgo Biloba
The ultimate circulatory herb -pumping blood and oxygen around the whole body, while at the same time keeping the blood vessels healthy and clear of obstructions.
Jujube Fruit
Jujube helps relieve the following - fatigue, debility, restlessness. The herb contains vitamins A, B-2, C, calcium, phosphorus, iron and a variety of complex sugars which, give energy levels a boost and nourish
the blood.
Get them all and More in The Best Herbal Sex Pills
The above combination covers all the bases, in terms of boosting libido and helping you get a hard erection by - increase testosterone, nitric oxide, energy and improving all over blood circulation.
It's a natural solution to erection problems, boosting your overall wellness and your sexual health safely and naturally.
What's the first thing you notice when you get aroused and when an erection occurs?
You hear your heart pumping and your blood starts to push toward and into the penis and an erection is the end result. So healthy and strong blood circulation is a must for general and sexual health.
There is another important element that comes into play and that is when the blood is pumped to the penis it must be allowed to enter in increased volume for the erection to take place and for this we need to look at the key role of nitric oxide.
Nitric oxide is the chemical which allows the blood vessels that lead to the penis to relax and then open wide enough, to let the increased blood flow in. Without enough nitric oxide, not only will you not get a hard erection, you won't get one at all! Not enough nitric oxide - then no erection is possible.
In addition to blood circulation and nitric oxide, you need to have plenty of energy in your body - stress and fatigue simply deplete sex drive, as your body diverts what energy it has to more important matters and sorry, sex drive is low on the list. Finally, you need plenty of testosterone.
Getting a harder Erection With a Proven Herbal Combination
Below are some herbs which you can find in the best herbal sex pills which if taken in combination, can lead you quickly to get a hard erection.
Cnidium
Works just like Viagra to enhance nitric oxide release and inhibit PDE-5. Cnidium also helps promote better blood circulation throughout the body and to the genitals.
Horny Goat
A herb that increases nitric oxide and testosterone production in the body and also decreased stress and enhances overall energy levels.
Cistanche Bark
Cistanche Bark increases blood circulation and pumps blood to the extremities. Cistanche has a reputation for increasing energy and maintaining youthfulness. It is used to reinforce the vital function of the sexual organs and is used FOR the treatment of impotence, premature ejaculation in men.
Tribulus
Increases testosterone levels and overall energy, strength and stamina.
The herb contains protodioscin, a saponin constituent, known to improve libido in men. In a test involving men, aged 22-67, suffering from a range of sexual dysfunctions, Tribulus was taken three times daily - the result? An increase in sexual desire, as well as better sexual self-confidence and performance, was reported in over 80% of the sample group.
Ginkgo Biloba
The ultimate circulatory herb -pumping blood and oxygen around the whole body, while at the same time keeping the blood vessels healthy and clear of obstructions.
Jujube Fruit
Jujube helps relieve the following - fatigue, debility, restlessness. The herb contains vitamins A, B-2, C, calcium, phosphorus, iron and a variety of complex sugars which, give energy levels a boost and nourish
the blood.
Get them all and More in The Best Herbal Sex Pills
The above combination covers all the bases, in terms of boosting libido and helping you get a hard erection by - increase testosterone, nitric oxide, energy and improving all over blood circulation.
It's a natural solution to erection problems, boosting your overall wellness and your sexual health safely and naturally.
Common Misconceptions About Bad Breath
Bad breath is most often related to some aspect of oral hygiene. Specifically, it's commonly caused by putrified foods residing somewhere in your mouth, either the teeth or tongue. The food acts as a bacteria growth medium. The bacteria produce smelly stuff that one exhales
Bad breath is mainly bothersome, as people rarely know they have it unless they are told of it. Yet it can spoil one's social and even economic life. And mouthwashes are not always helpful. When bacteria stagnate, or remain in one place, they get multiplied and give off toxins and odors. So the prevention is to avoid having bacteria build up in one spot.
Some things can make this worse, such as mouth breathing. Mouth breathing is problematic for both the obvious reason that one is exhaling air out of your mouth, and it causes a drier mouth that promotes more bacterial growth in some cases.
There are, in fact, many possible causes of bad breath including various illnesses, bacterial infections, foreign objects in the nose, etc. But for at least 90% of sufferers it's simpler than that, and the good news is that it's typically easy to fix if you're willing to put a bit of effort into it. Certain foods supposedly cause it. In any case, consistent bad breath is rarely diet-related.
Tell the person about the misconceptions
Common misconceptions include the idea that it comes from the stomach or that it's untreatable. Bad breath is one of those subjects people don't like to talk about. This is a real shame, because in most cases it's an easily treatable condition that can cause loads of embarrassment for both the sufferer and the people around him or her.
The best way to sympathize with a person who has bad breath is to understand the possible reasons why. One of the main reasons is poor hygiene, such as not brushing and flossing enough or correctly, which leaves food to decay in that person's teeth.
Tell the side effects of smoking and other injurious habits
Smoking also causes short-term bad breath problems. Another reason is possible infections in the mouth, such as gum disease. That is why it is important to understand why, because they may brush more than anyone else may in the world, but if they have some sort of mouth disease than their bad breath problem may be out of their control.
Thus it can be seemed that bad breath can be caused by respiratory tract infections, such as throat, lung, and sinus infections. Once again, these are possible causes that cannot always be prevented, so it is important to be respectful and understanding of the situation at hand.
Bad breath is mainly bothersome, as people rarely know they have it unless they are told of it. Yet it can spoil one's social and even economic life. And mouthwashes are not always helpful. When bacteria stagnate, or remain in one place, they get multiplied and give off toxins and odors. So the prevention is to avoid having bacteria build up in one spot.
Some things can make this worse, such as mouth breathing. Mouth breathing is problematic for both the obvious reason that one is exhaling air out of your mouth, and it causes a drier mouth that promotes more bacterial growth in some cases.
There are, in fact, many possible causes of bad breath including various illnesses, bacterial infections, foreign objects in the nose, etc. But for at least 90% of sufferers it's simpler than that, and the good news is that it's typically easy to fix if you're willing to put a bit of effort into it. Certain foods supposedly cause it. In any case, consistent bad breath is rarely diet-related.
Tell the person about the misconceptions
Common misconceptions include the idea that it comes from the stomach or that it's untreatable. Bad breath is one of those subjects people don't like to talk about. This is a real shame, because in most cases it's an easily treatable condition that can cause loads of embarrassment for both the sufferer and the people around him or her.
The best way to sympathize with a person who has bad breath is to understand the possible reasons why. One of the main reasons is poor hygiene, such as not brushing and flossing enough or correctly, which leaves food to decay in that person's teeth.
Tell the side effects of smoking and other injurious habits
Smoking also causes short-term bad breath problems. Another reason is possible infections in the mouth, such as gum disease. That is why it is important to understand why, because they may brush more than anyone else may in the world, but if they have some sort of mouth disease than their bad breath problem may be out of their control.
Thus it can be seemed that bad breath can be caused by respiratory tract infections, such as throat, lung, and sinus infections. Once again, these are possible causes that cannot always be prevented, so it is important to be respectful and understanding of the situation at hand.
Unified Description Of Dark Energy And Dark Matter
From various independent observations, cosmologists have established that ordinary matter, made of protons and neutrons, accounts for only 4% of the total energy content of the Universe. The remaining 96% is made of puzzling ingredients Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Researchers at the Laboratory Universe and Theories from the Observatory of Paris and the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique have recently suggested the Abnormally Weighting Energy (AWE) Hypothesis to describe the dark side of the Universe as a revolutionary aspect of gravitational physics.
In the past decade, cosmology has entered an era of high precision, and in the future it may become a unique laboratory to test theories of fundamental physics, from gravitation laws to microphysics. Amongst the many questions raised by this science in turmoil, one of the most important is indisputably the one of the energy content of the Universe. Knowing what the Universe is precisely made of, and in which proportions, allows not only to determine its age but also to reconstruct the history, to predict its past and future. In fact in the attempt to solve this question cosmologists have made two of the most promising discoveries in the history of modern physics: the existence of dark matter and dark energy.
While dark matter is unavoidable to explain at the same time the angular fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background and the formation and the properties of galaxies, dark energy has been originally invoked to account for the observed recent acceleration of the cosmic expansion. The so-called concordance model of cosmology assumes that this dark energy is in fact the cosmological constant once introduced by Einstein himself as an attempt to incorporate Mach’s principle within general relativity.
However, the usual interpretation of the cosmological constant in terms of quantum vacuum fluctuations is in disagreement with observed value by a few dozens orders of magnitude! Furthermore, as the vacuum energy is assumed constant everywhere at all times, it is hard to explain how it became dominant only a few billion years ago. This would mean that we live in a very particular, and even privileged, epoch of cosmic history… Is this an extraordinary coincidence? Yet this anthropic consideration is quite deceiving for scientists.
To overcome these difficulties, the authors, Jean-Michel Alimi and André Füzfa, have proposed the AWE Hypothesis (« Abnormally Weighting Energy ») in which the dark sector of cosmic matter violates the equivalence principle on cosmological scales. This principle, as well introduced by Einstein, assumes that all kinds of energies produce and undergo the same form of gravity. This principle is extremely well tested (to a part out of a thousand billion) in laboratories, i.e. at local scales, in contrast what would happen if violation of the equivalence principle would be scale-dependant. In other words, what would happen if the equivalence principle was rigorously verified at local scales, where dark matter and dark energy are present in tiny amount, but is violated on cosmological scales where dark matter and dark energy are dominant?
The authors have precisely shown that this could naturally happen if some particles, those of dark matter for instance, do not couple to gravitation in the same way as ordinary matter. These particles would therefore see gravitational fields with a gravitational strength different from ordinary matter. The authors have answered these questions by showing how at a given scale the gravitational strength becomes dependent on dark matter concentration…
If the amount of dark matter at sub-galactic scales is negligible, so is the amplitude of this effect. This is not the case on cosmological scales where dark matter dominates the energy content of the Universe. The team has shown that over such cosmic distances, ordinary matter has experienced a stronger cosmic expansion, as its own gravitational coupling strength has been adapting to the dark matter domination. This change in the matter gravitational coupling results in an accelerating cosmic expansion until equilibrium is reached such that the gravitational coupling on cosmological scales stabilizes at a value which differs from the one measured in our Solar system.
The resulting dark energy mechanism exhibits key features which appear very promising. (i) First, it does not require the existence of negative pressures such as in the case of the cosmological constant or other proposed models like quintessence. (ii) It allows explaining naturally the cosmic coincidence as result of the stabilization mechanism of the gravitational constant during the matter-dominated era. (iii) It fairly accounts for the Hubble diagram of type Ia supernovae by predicting independently the amount of ordinary matter and dark matter as obtained by the detailed analysis of cosmic microwave background anisotropies. This suggests an explanation to the remarkable adequacy of the concordance model while predicting an age of the Universe which is compatible with existing observations. Finally, (iv) in the future this mechanism leads to a decelerated cosmic expansion described by the well-known Einstein-de Sitter cosmological model. Most important is the AWE hypothesis allows reducing dark energy as a new property of gravitation: the anomalous gravity of dark matter.
Dark Energy
In physical cosmology, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to increase the rate of expansion of the universe.
Assuming the existence of dark energy is the most popular way to explain recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate.
In the standard model of cosmology, dark energy currently accounts for almost three-quarters of the total mass-energy of the universe. Two proposed forms for dark energy are the cosmological constant, a constant energy density filling space homogeneously, and scalar fields such as quintessence or moduli, dynamic fields whose energy density can vary in time and space.
In fact contributions from scalar fields which are constant in space are usually also included in the cosmological constant.
The cosmological constant is thought to arise from the vacuum energy.
Scalar fields which do change in space are hard to distinguish from a cosmological constant, because the change may be extremely slow. High-precision measurements of the expansion of the universe are required to understand how the speed of the expansion changes over time.
The rate of expansion is parameterized by the cosmological equation of state.
Measuring the equation of state of dark energy is one of the biggest efforts in observational cosmology today. Adding the cosmological constant to cosmology's standard FLRW metric leads to the Lambda-CDM model, which has been referred to as the "standard model" of cosmology because of its precise agreement with observations. The exact nature of this dark energy is a matter of speculation.
It is known to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity.
Since it is not very dense -- roughly 10−29 grams per cubic centimeter -- it is hard to imagine experiments to detect it in the laboratory.
Dark energy can only have such a profound impact on the universe, making up 70% of all energy, because it uniformly fills otherwise empty space.
The two leading models are quintessence and the cosmological constant. The simplest explanation for dark energy is that it is simply the "cost of having space": that is, a volume of space has some intrinsic, fundamental energy.
Another possibility is that dark energy may become dark matter when buffeted by baryonic particles, thus leading to particle-like excitations in some type of dynamical field, referred to as quintessence.
Quintessence differs from the cosmological constant in that it can vary in space and time.
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science that deals with the properties of organic and inorganic substances and their interactions with other organic and inorganic substances.
In the study of matter, chemistry also investigates the movement of electrons.
Because of the diversity of matter, which is mostly composed of different combinations of atoms, chemists often study how atoms of different chemical elements interact to form molecules and how molecules interact with each other.Astronomy
Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation).
It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences.
Astronomers of early civilizations performed methodical observations of the night sky, and astronomical artifacts have been found from much earlier periods.
However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science.
Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, the making of calendars, and even, at one time, astrology, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be identical with astrophysics.
Since the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches.
Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring and analyzing data, mainly using basic principles of physics.
Theoretical astronomy is oriented towards the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena.
The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the observational results, and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Amateur astronomers have contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, and astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and observation of transient phenomena. The most frequently studied star is the Sun, a typical main-sequence dwarf star of stellar class G2 V, and about 4.6 Gyr in age.
The Sun is not considered a variable star, but it does undergo periodic changes in activity known as the sunspot cycle.
The study of stars and stellar evolution is fundamental to our understanding of the universe.
The astrophysics of stars has been determined through observation and theoretical understanding; and from computer simulations of the interior. Star formation occurs in dense regions of dust and gas, known as giant molecular clouds.
When destabilized, cloud fragments can collapse under the influence of gravity, to form a protostar.
A sufficiently dense, and hot, core region will trigger nuclear fusion, thus creating a main-sequence star. Almost all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were created inside the cores of stars.Archaeology
Archaeology, archeology, or archæology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains and landscapes. The goals of archaeology are to document and explain the origins and development of human culture, understand culture history, chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies.
It is considered, in North America, to be one of the four sub-fields of anthropology. A modern archaeological project often begins with a survey.
Regional survey is the attempt to systematically locate previously unknown sites in a region.
Site survey is the attempt to systematically locate features of interest, such as houses and middens, within a site.
Each of these two goals may be accomplished with largely the same methods. Archaeological excavation existed even when the field was still the domain of amateurs, and it remains the source of the majority of data recovered in most field projects.
It can reveal several types of information usually not accessible to survey, such as stratigraphy, three-dimensional structure, and verifiably primary context. Modern excavation techniques require that the precise locations of objects and features, known as their provenance or provenience, be recorded.
This always involves determining their horizontal locations, and sometimes vertical position as well.
Similarly, their association, or relationship with nearby objects and features, needs to be recorded for later analysis.
This allows the archaeologist to deduce what artefacts and features were likely used together and which may be from different phases of activity.
For example, excavation of a site reveals its stratigraphy; if a site was occupied by a succession of distinct cultures, artefacts from more recent cultures will lie above those from more ancient cultures..
Big Bang
The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the universe whose primary assertion is that the universe has expanded into its current state from a primordial condition of enormous density and temperature.
The term is also used in a narrower sense to describe the fundamental "fireball" that erupted at or close to an initial timepoint in the history of our observed spacetime. Theoretical support for the Big Bang comes from mathematical models.
These models show that a Big Bang is consistent with general relativity and with the cosmological principle, which states that the properties of the universe should be independent of position or orientation. Observational evidence for the Big Bang includes the analysis of the spectrum of light from galaxies, which reveal a shift towards longer wavelengths proportional to each galaxy's distance in a relationship described by Hubble's law.
Combined with the assumption that observers located anywhere in the universe would make similar observations (the Copernican principle), this suggests that space itself is expanding.
The next most important observational evidence was the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964.
This had been predicted as a relic from when hot ionized plasma of the early universe first cooled sufficiently to form neutral hydrogen and allow space to become transparent to light, and its discovery led to general acceptance among physicists that the Big Bang is the best model for the origin and evolution of the universe.
A third important line of evidence is the relative proportion of light elements in the universe, which is a close match to predictions for the formation of light elements in the first minutes of the universe, according to Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Extrapolation of the expansion of the universe backwards in time using general relativity yields an infinite density and temperature at a finite time in the past.
This singularity signals the breakdown of general relativity.
How closely we can extrapolate towards the singularity is debated—certainly not earlier than the Planck epoch.
The early hot, dense phase is itself referred to as "the Big Bang", and is considered the "birth" of our universe.
Based on measurements of the expansion using Type Ia supernovae, measurements of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, and measurements of the correlation function of galaxies, the universe has a calculated age of 13.7 ± 0.2 billion years. The earliest phases of the Big Bang are subject to much speculation.
In the most common models, the universe was filled homogeneously and isotropically with an incredibly high energy density, huge temperatures and pressures, and was very rapidly expanding and cooling.
Approximately 10−35 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the universe grew exponentially.
After inflation stopped, the universe consisted of a quark-gluon plasma, as well as all other elementary particles.
Temperatures were so high that the random motions of particles were at relativistic speeds, and particle-antiparticle pairs of all kinds were being continuously created and destroyed in collisions.
At some point an unknown reaction called baryogenesis violated the conservation of baryon number, leading to a very small excess of quarks and leptons over antiquarks and anti-leptons — of the order of 1 part in 30 million.
PCB drools Asif Case
The committee set up by PCB to look into Mohammad Asif's detention at Dubai airport from June 1-19 for alleged possession of an illegal substance has completed its investigation.
The committee comprising PCB officials Shaqfat Naghmi [chief operating officer], Zakir Khan [director - cricket operations], and Nadeem Akram [director - human resources] had been asked to acquire all the documents related to the case, establish facts, and after a complete investigation, submit a report to Nasim Ashraf, the outgoing PCB chairman, which would be sent to the ICC as well.
"We have completed our work and now it's up to the new chairman to decide on our recommendations," Naghmi told AP on Friday.
Naghmi did not divulge the details regarding the findings of the investigating committee."We have given some recommendations in our findings and only the chairman has the authority to take a decision,'' he said. With PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf having stepped down from his position on August 18, the new chairman is expected to be named only after Pakistan's presidential elections on September 6.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has, in the meantime, agreed to Mohammad Asif's request to postpone the preliminary hearing for testing positive for nandrolone. The hearing was originally scheduled for Saturday.
"We had sent them an e-mail requesting for the hearing to be later in mid-September as we are still waiting for some more documentation on the case regarding the procedures adopted to conduct the dope tests on Asif in the IPL," Asif's lawyer, Shahid Karim, told PTI. "We have today got a reply from them saying the hearing will not be held on August 30 and they will inform us of a date later on."
Asif was suspended by the PCB from all forms of the game pending the result of the IPL inquiry. He previously tested positive for nandrolone just before the 2006 Champions Trophy in India. Though he was banned for one year by a PCB tribunal, the punishment was overturned a month later on appeal.
Cricket and Olympics
Apparently there has been some cricket taking place over the past Olympic fortnight, but if you're a sports fan in either Britain or India, it's possible you haven't really noticed. Gold fever has gripped both nations, you see - 19 nuggets-worth for Team GB, the country's biggest haul in a century, and a single precious medal for the Indian marksman, Abhinav Bindra, whose victory in the 10m Air Rifle has been described by Kapil Dev (with no apparent false modesty) as the greatest achievement in India's sporting history.
Kapil is not unknown for hyperbole, but his new-found enthusiasm for the Olympics is clearly shared by many in the cricketing fraternity. The greatest sporting spectacle in the world has just taken place in Beijing, and it's clear that many of the game's great and good feel they have missed out on something special. One thing's for sure - had Kevin Pietersen and Co. been obliged to head for Karachi to compete for gold medals rather than the worthless Champions Trophy, that competition would not have been ditched with quite the same unseemly haste.
But while the Champions Trophy has been sunk by player power, those same players are casting their beady eyes over some far more enticing baubles. Speaking at Sir Don Bradman's centenary dinner in Sydney on Wednesday, Ricky Ponting proved once again that the wish is father to the thought when he declared it was "inevitable" that cricket would soon become an Olympic sport. His reasoning did, however, have some validity - almost a quarter of the world's population lives in Asia; therefore it makes sense for the IOC to invite Asia's favourite sport to the festival.
Whether cricket actually belongs at the Olympics, however, is another matter entirely. The relationship between the two is brief and inglorious - only one contest has ever taken place, and that was in 1900 between the victors "Britain", a wandering side from Devon, and "France", a 12-man outfit of English expats (and it was a further 12 years before the match was recognised by the IOC). Compared to the agony, ecstasy and compelling drama of the majority of the 28 sports on show in Beijing this month, it's still doubtful whether cricket would take its inclusion any more seriously this time around.
The Olympic ideal has been somewhat tarnished over the years with drugs scandals, political boycotts and sundry charges of corruption, but the basic magnificence of the human spirit somehow manages to weave its way through the chaos and find a way to soar. In those silent few seconds when the athletes are under starter's orders - when the realisation dawns that four years of solid and unstinting sacrifice are about to be condensed into a few moments of supreme exertion - you'd be hard-pressed to find a more compelling sporting scenario in any walk of life.
Is that really how England's cricketers would react if they lined up as the representatives of "Great Britain" on the opening day of the Delhi Games in 2020? Almost certainly not. The Olympics should be the pinnacle of an athlete's career, and if it is not, then the sport has no place on the schedule. "Why cricket?" said Linford Christie, whose fall from grace doesn't preclude him from making valid points. "In a team of 11 players, nine might be working hard but the other two might not. This is not in line with the spirit of the Olympics."
Cricket, in fact, would fail on two counts. Firstly, the chosen format for Olympic inclusion would have to be the short and disposable Twenty20, because the truly Olympian version of the game, Test cricket, would be impenetrable to the game's new-found global audience. Secondly, the calendar is simply too crowded for the players to treat the trip with anything like the gravitas it would deserve.
Take Paul Collingwood's comments from earlier this week. He is unquestionably one of the most professional men in the England squad, but he is also one of the straightest talkers, as he showed while reflecting on a season in which his form had fallen apart. "We're always asked to be 100% all of the time, but I'd rather be crap against New Zealand and then build form up towards Australia," said Collingwood. "We've got a big Ashes series coming up, so maybe subconsciously you try and peak at the right time."
In the Olympics, however, there is nothing subconscious or shameful about peaking at the right time. On the contrary, the knowledge that this is it, your one shot at everlasting glory, forms the essence of the drama. Not that cricket would be alone in its awkwardness, mind you. The football tournament, differentiated by artificial age restraints, has no place in the modern games, and then there's the biggest anomaly of the lot, the tennis, which served up two particularly telling scenarios.
Firstly there was Andy Murray, a hot tip for the title but with most of his thoughts pinned on the impending US Open. He bombed out in the first round of the singles, and instantly admitted he had not been "professional" enough. Then there was the sight of Rafael Nadal, the unstoppable champion, inching himself away from the cameras after a barrage of questions about how much his gold medal meant to him. He knew in the circumstances what his answer should have been, but he also knew that everyone else knew the truth - this title wasn't a patch on Wimbledon or Roland Garros.
And that, really, is what it all comes down to. If there is a bigger prize to be had in your particular sport - be it the Ashes, a World Cup, or even the Champions Trophy - then you simply don't belong at the Olympics. Even the women's beach volleyball, which somehow managed to transform itself from soft porn to an Orwellian style war minus the shooting when Russia and Georgia went head to head in the preliminary rounds, has more of a claim to the Games than cricket, for the simple fact that it is the sport's athletic apex.
Likewise the hockey competition. It may have been won by either India or Pakistan in every tournament from 1928 to 1968, but it wasn't until 1971 that a World Cup was inaugurated to fill the void between four-year cycles. Moreover, there have been 18 medallist nations since 1908 - it'll take another 100 years and more for cricket to provide that many countries who stand a chance of making it to the podium.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Rockies open set at San Diego
Both the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres have had disappointing 2008 seasons, but each has been playing quite well as of late. The two National League West members hope to keep up their recent rolls when they begin a three-game series tonight at Petco Park.
Colorado has closed within six games of slumping Arizona in the division race by winning nine of their last 12 contests. San Diego helped the Rockies out by taking three straight matchups from the Diamondbacks at Petco Park earlier this week.
The Padres completed the sweep with a furious late rally that resulted in a 5-4 victory on Wednesday. San Diego scored all five of its runs over its last two at-bats.
Chase Headley tied the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth and scored the go-ahead run on Jody Gerut's base hit later in the frame. Nick Hundley aided the comeback with a two-run homer in the seventh.
Gerut finished with three hits on the evening, while Hundley went 2-for-3 in the win.
Mike Adams (2-3) picked up the win with a scoreless top of the eighth, while Trevor Hoffman notched his 27th save by holding the Diamondbacks scoreless in the ninth.
Colorado had won four in a row before Wednesday's 4-1 loss at San Francisco, in which Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval smacked back-to-back solo homers in the seventh inning to put the Giants ahead.
Both blasts came against Rockies starter Livan Hernandez (1-3), the only runs the veteran allowed in 6 1/3 innings of work.
Chris Iannetta collected three hits for Colorado and Troy Tulowitzki knocked in the team's only run with an RBI single.
The loss was only the Rockies' second in their last 10 road games, although Colorado is still a lackluster 27-42 away from home on the season.
The Rockies will send out their ace in tonight's opener, with Aaron Cook aiming for his 16th victory of 2008. The sinker specialist has been struggling some this month, however, having amassed a 6.75 earned run average in four August starts along with a 1-2 record.
Cook was roughed up for six runs and 10 hits by the Padres in Denver during an 8-3 loss on August 9. He was a little better his most recent time out, permitting four runs (3 earned) and eight hits in a five-inning no-decision against Cincinnati on Saturday.
The 29-year-old did throw a five-hit shutout against San Diego on July 1 and owns an impressive 10-4 record with a 2.73 ERA in 19 lifetime games (17 starts) versus the Padres. Cook is also 4-1 with an excellent 1.50 ERA in six career starts at Petco Park.
Dirk Hayhurst will make his second major league start for the Padres tonight. The 27-year-old pitched four innings in a no-decision at San Francisco last Saturday, allowing three runs on five hits and walking two.
An eighth-round selection by the Padres in the 2003 draft, Hayhurst was called up from Triple-A Portland last week after San Diego traded Greg Maddux to the Dodgers. He pitched primarily in relief for the Beavers and posted a 2-3 record with a 3.75 ERA in 46 games, two of which were starts.
These divisional foes have split 12 meetings so far in 2008, as well as six matchups having taken place in San Diego this season.
Report: Flu shot benefits exaggerated
NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Flu vaccines may not provide a significant decrease in the risk of death for elderly patients, Canadian researchers said.
Research by the University of Alberta, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, suggests the overall benefit of flu vaccines "appears to have been exaggerated," the American Thoracic Society said Friday in a release.
The study involved 700 matched elderly subjects, half of whom had taken the vaccine and half of whom had not.
"Previous studies were likely measuring a benefit not directly attributable to the vaccine itself, but something specific to the individuals who were vaccinated -- healthy-user benefit or frailty bias," Dean T. Eurich of the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta said. "Over the last two decades in the United Sates, even while vaccination rates among the elderly have increased from 15 to 65 percent, there has been no commensurate decrease in hospital admissions or all-cause mortality."
Dr. Sumit Majumdar, principal investigator in the study, said people with chronic respiratory diseases, immuno-compromised patients, health care workers, and family members or friends who take care of elderly patients should still be vaccinated each year.
Yahoo to shut down social network
NEW DELHI: It's curtains down for Yahoo's social network experiment, Mash. The company announced that it is shutting down its one-year-old Yahoo Mash. In an email to Mash members, Yahoo community manager Matt Warburton wrote, "Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it. Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available." Touted to be a Facebook competitor, the site had similar type of drag and drop page styling, news feeds of what you're doing to your profile. However, this is not the first time that Yahoo has killed its experimental social network only to yank it. Last year, the company closed down a mobile social site called "Mixd" which was only a few months old. Earlier this year, Yahoo also shut down Yahoo 360, launched in 2005 as one of the early attempt to get the company into social networking. |
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Obama Calls Palin
MONACA, Pa., Aug. 29 -- Sen. Barack Obama told reporters Friday that he has never met Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the new GOP vice presidential candidate, but "she seems like a compelling person . . . with a terrific personal story."
The Democratic nominee spoke to Palin for several minutes this afternoon from his campaign bus. According to senior campaign aide Robert Gibbs, Obama told Palin she would be a terrific candidate and that he looked forward to seeing her on the campaign trail. "He also wished her good luck, but not too much luck," Gibbs said.
Obama spoke about Palin while touring a biodiesel plant on the inaugural stop of a Rust Belt bus tour with his own No. 2, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.).
"I'm sure that she will help make the case for Republicans, unfortunately the case is more of the same, and so ultimately John McCain is at the top of the ticket," Obama said. "He wants to take the country in the wrong direction, I'm assuming Gov. Palin agrees with him and his policies."
But he recognized her historic ascent as the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket.
"The fact that she . . . will soon be nominated . . . is one more indicator of this country moving forward . . . one more hit against that glass ceiling," Obama said. "I congratulate her and look forward to a vigorous debate."
Of course, he prefers his own running mate.
"I'm pleased with my choice for vice president, Joe Biden. I think he's the man who can help me guide this country in a better direction and help working families," Obama said.
He also dismissed his campaign's initial statement about Palin that criticized her inexperience.
"I think that, uh, you know campaigns start getting these uh, hair triggers and, uh, the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments," Obama said, referring to the congratulatory statement that the two candidates issued later this morning.
Biden added that he didn't know Palin either. "I'm looking forward to meeting her," he said.Hurricane Gustav is on the way.
Tropical Storm Gustav is slowly leaving Jamaica and entering the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters continue to stress the uncertainty regarding Gustav's landfall in a discussion published late Thursday.
"Since track forecasts are always subject to large errors at three to five days, it is simply impossible at this time to determine exactly where and when Gustav will make final landfall," the hurricane center's forecasters said.
Still, "it would be no surprise if rapid intensification occurred and Gustav became a Category 4 or 5 hurricane by 72 hours," they said.
Obviously the speculation on any powerful storm entering the Gulf immediately turns to New Orleans, here on the third aniversary of Katrina. But the reality of the thing is that Gustav could hit anywhere from Texas to the Florida panhandle, and wherever it hits is going to have a really bad day, assuming that it strengthens. The thing about the warm Gulf waters is that the strengthening is almost inevitable in the absence of wind sheer.
It should be noted that the issue of the building development patterns of the US gulf coast is not going away. We talk about the idea of moving devopment back away from the coast, but then money talks and we permit the rampant building to continue. How many times do we have to go through this? Insurance companies in Florida are now backing away from insuring homes in high risk areas. In time, our eternal over-optimism (no, it is never going to happen HERE- it will always be somewhere else!) could be deflated by these repeated hurricane hits. But clearly it takes a lot for that to happen.
Thai court orders protesters out of gov't compound
Thai courts on Wednesday ordered anti-government protesters to immediately end their occupation of the prime minister's office compound and for their leaders to be arrested for insurrection and other charges.
Deputy Police Chief Lt. Gen. Jongrak Chutanont said Bangkok Civil Court, acting on a police request, late Wednesday night issued a ruling ordering the People's Alliance for Democracy to immediately leave the government compound and also stop blocking public streets.
The alliance is seeking to force the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to step down. It accuses it of serving as a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and faces several pending corruption cases. Thaksin is in self-chosen exile in Britain.
A protest organizer, Samran Rodpetch, announced the court order from the protest rally stage and indicated that they would not comply. Demonstrators were seen building barricades to thwart any police raid.
It was unclear if police would try to enforce the order. Samak said Tuesday that the authorities would avoid using force against the demonstrators.
Arrest warrants were issued earlier Wednesday for nine leaders of the right-wing protest group.
Inside the Government House compound, nearly 2,000 police were facing off against thousands of protesters who occupied the grounds on Tuesday afternoon and stayed overnight. The number of protesters inside at least doubled from Wednesday morning's total of 2,000, and four or five times as many appeared to be on streets outside, with the total approaching the 30,000 the government said protested on Tuesday.
Deputy police spokesman Maj. Gen. Suraphol Tuanthong said the Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of the nine alliance leaders on charges of insurrection, conspiracy, illegal assembly and refusing orders to disperse.
Insurrection, which is the legal equivalent of treason, carries a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment. No one is known to have been executed for at least 30 years on the charge, which is rarely prosecuted.
Samak said he won't use force to remove the protesters because they were trying to incite violence and the conditions for another coup. He also said he would not resign.
"They want bloodshed in the country. They want the military to come out and do the coup again," Samak said.
The alliance's best known leaders are Chamlong Srimuang, an influential former politician and army officer, and Sondhi Limthongkul, a media mogul.
Police said they were not planning to use force to arrest them and the other seven leaders, and urged them instead to turn themselves in.
Chamlong previously said they would be willing to be arrested. But their supporters at Government House reacted angrily to news of the warrants.
"We will not allow police to arrest our leaders," protest organizer Samran told the cheering crowd. "If the police want to arrest them, come here and do so, or if they want our leaders to give themselves up that is fine, but the government has to resign first."
The alliance, which is loosely aligned with conservative factions of the monarchy and the military, said their protests were a "final showdown" in efforts to oust the government.
"If we leave before this government resigns, that means we are defeated," Chamlong said.
Gen. Anupong Paochinda, the army chief, reassured the public Tuesday that the military was not planning another coup, and would not get involved in politics.
The takeover of the Government House compound was the latest twist in a political crisis that began in early 2006, when critics of Thaksin established the alliance to force him from office over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
After Thaksin was deposed in the bloodless coup, his party was dissolved and he was banned from public office until 2012.
But Samak led Thaksin's political allies to a December 2007 election victory, and their assumption of power triggered fears that Thaksin would make a political comeback. He remains popular with the country's rural majority.
The alliance responded by resuming their protests in May, accusing Samak of trying to amend the constitution to free Thaksin from a string of corruption charges.
Thaksin skipped bail ahead of his latest corruption hearing and went to London, claiming he would not get a fair trial in Thailand.
On Tuesday, alliance members stormed and seized the main offices of the government-run NBT television station, temporarily forcing it off the air. Other alliance followers besieged four government ministries.
McCain campaign confirms his choice of Palin as running mate
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 -- In a surprising move, U.S. presidential hopeful John McCain has chosen 44-year-old, not-well-known Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, his campaign announced Friday.
In an announcement, the campaign said that Palin "has the record of reform and bipartisanship that others can only speak of."
"Her experience in shaking up the status quo is exactly what is needed in Washington today," the campaign said.
McCain is expected to formally introduce his choice of a running mate at a big rally around 1600 GMT Friday in Dayton, Ohio.
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