City hydro customers warned to brace for jolt from their bills - Brantford Expositor - Ontario, CA

City hydro customers warned to brace for jolt from their bills - Brantford Expositor - Ontario, CA

Oil spill comparison and facts

Study compares 2010 and 1979 oil spills
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (UPI) -- A Texas A&M University researcher says the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is similar to one that occurred in 1979 that took 10 months to cap.

Norman Guinasso, director of the university's Geochemical and Environmental Research Group, said the June 1979 event occurred when a Mexican well named Ixtoc I blew out and sank about 50 miles off the Bay of Campeche.

He said the BP Oil Co.'s Deepwater Horizon well that caught fire and sank April 20 and the Ixtoc are very similar events, especially in the failed efforts to contain the oil leaks.

The Ixtoc I well was owned by Pemex, Mexico's government-owned petroleum company.

"What is happening today, especially the failures to cap the well, happened in a similar way back in 1979," Guinasso said. "And just like the current spill, there was a blowout preventer that was supposed to have worked, but it did not.

"But the big difference … was the depth of the water -- it was only in 160 feet of water, not like the more-than-5,000-foot depth of the current oil leak."

About 170 miles of Texas shoreline eventually were affected by the 1979 spill that released an estimated 140 million gallons of oil before the Ixtoc was capped.

But, in the case of the BP oil rig spill, Guinasso says, "There seem to be no doubt this will be one of the worst environmental disasters in American history."

Copyright 2010 by United Press International

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Hollecrest & Associates Inc   -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .

T-cells breakthrough

Stem cells made into tumor killers
YOKOHAMA, Japan (UPI) -- Japanese scientists say they have created a way to produce natural killer T cells, known for suppressing tumor growth, by using pluripotent stem cells.

Developed by researchers at the Riken Research Center for Allergy and Immunology, the technique is said to open the door for effective new cell-targeted cancer treatments.

Although T cells play an essential role in innate immune responses by protecting against tumors and virus-infected cells, the researchers said most cancer patients have very few T cells, which has prevented the wider application of the therapy.

But the Riken scientists said induced pluripotent stem cells capable of differentiating into any type of cell present a potential solution to the problem.

The research is reported in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Hollecrest & Associates Inc   -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .


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