Gulf coast oil spill gets worst

GRAND ISLE, LA. -- In the Louisiana marsh, oil-coated pelicans flap their wings in a futile attempt to dry them. A shorebird repeatedly dunks its face in a puddle, unable to wash off. Lines of dead jellyfish float in the gulf, traces of oil visible in their clear "bells."

These scenes, scientists say, are confirmation of what they had feared for a month. Now that oil from the Gulf of Mexico's vast spill has come ashore -- in some places, as thick as soft fudge -- it is causing serious damage in one of the country's great natural nurseries.

In nature, oil is a versatile killer. It smothers the tiny animals that make up a coral reef. It suffocates blades of marsh grass, cutting them off from air and sunlight. It clumps up a bird's feathers, leaving it unable to fly. Then, trying to remove the oil, birds swallow it.

For now, scientists are seeing the worst effects only in one corner of the Louisiana coast.

But they're concerned about what they're not seeing -- and worried that the impact on animals and plants will only get worse.

"Now that the stuff is really sort of coming ashore, it really is living up to its potential. It's certainly breached the sort of outer defense system of Louisiana," said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University. "It's the very worst-case scenario, for things like birds and mammals."

On Wednesday, the oil company BP has plans to try a "top kill" of its leaking well, 5,000 feet below the surface and more than 40 miles off Louisiana. The company will shoot high-pressure mud into the well, hoping the pressure of mud coming in will eventually overcome the pressure of oil shooting out.

But, even if that works, it will do nothing to rein in the oil that has already escaped.

That oil began washing up in Louisiana last week, about a month after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank. It first appeared in the remote marshes near the Mississippi's mouth. Then, this week, it began washing into the vast complex of islands, lakes and bayous just west of the river.

These scenes, scientists say, are confirmation of what they had feared for a month. Now that oil from the Gulf of Mexico's vast spill has come ashore -- in some places, as thick as soft fudge -- it is causing serious damage in one of the country's great natural nurseries.

In nature, oil is a versatile killer. It smothers the tiny animals that make up a coral reef. It suffocates blades of marsh grass, cutting them off from air and sunlight. It clumps up a bird's feathers, leaving it unable to fly. Then, trying to remove the oil, birds swallow it.

For now, scientists are seeing the worst effects only in one corner of the Louisiana coast.

But they're concerned about what they're not seeing -- and worried that the impact on animals and plants will only get worse.

"Now that the stuff is really sort of coming ashore, it really is living up to its potential. It's certainly breached the sort of outer defense system of Louisiana," said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University. "It's the very worst-case scenario, for things like birds and mammals."

On Wednesday, the oil company BP has plans to try a "top kill" of its leaking well, 5,000 feet below the surface and more than 40 miles off Louisiana. The company will shoot high-pressure mud into the well, hoping the pressure of mud coming in will eventually overcome the pressure of oil shooting out.

But, even if that works, it will do nothing to rein in the oil that has already escaped.

That oil began washing up in Louisiana last week, about a month after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank. It first appeared in the remote marshes near the Mississippi's mouth. Then, this week, it began washing into the vast complex of islands, lakes and bayous just west of the river.

Jamaica's warfare

KINGSTON — Trucks laden with bodies rushed to hospitals in Jamaica's capital as the government vowed an all-out assault to nab a powerful alleged drug kingpin barricaded by his gang in the teeming slums.
Hospital sources said they saw more than 60 bodies, although police put the death toll at 27. But Prime Minister Bruce Golding warned the figures would likely rise, and police late Tuesday reported several murders.
Gun-toting troops and police circled the streets into the night as rain descended on Kingston, an impoverished Caribbean city ringed by mountains that is a world away from the sun-kissed beaches for which Jamaica is best known.
Supporters set up tree branches, old cars and even abandoned refrigerators to form makeshift barricades to seal off the stronghold of local don Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who is wanted by the United States on drug charges.
Coke has developed a loyal following among some slum-dwellers, who see him as a savior for offering jobs, education and security that are sorely lacking. He also had developed ties with the political establishment.
But after months of stalling, Golding on Sunday declared a state of emergency to arrest Coke, declaring a battle to rid this nation of its image as one of the world's murder capitals.
"The violence that has been unleashed on the society by armed, criminal elements must be repelled," Golding told a heated session of parliament, where opposition members accused him of creating the crisis by earlier inaction.
"The operations being carried out under emergency powers are an extraordinary response to an extraordinary challenge to the safety and security of our citizens," Golding said.
But he pledged to investigate any excesses in the assault, which is being carried out by police and troops backed by clattering helicopters.
"The government deeply regrets the loss of lives of members of the security forces, and those of innocent law-abiding citizens who were caught in the crossfire," Golding said.
With violence turning some of the city's slum areas into a war zone, three trucks loaded with bodies, including a baby, unloaded their grim cargo at a morgue in one of the main hospital complexes, witnesses said.
Gunfire rattled around the city, as plumes of smoke hung above Tivoli Gardens which Coke's supporters had barricaded last week to thwart his arrest.
Hospital officials told AFP that early Tuesday two trucks bearing "about 50" bodies had been unloaded at the morgue at the Kingston Public Hospital.
An AFP correspondent saw a third truck arrive full of bullet-riddled corpses, including a baby, later in the day. A nurse said there were 12 bodies inside, and they came from a different area to the east of the city called Mountain View.
Police also told AFP they have detained 211 people, including four women.

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Google Chrome Web Store to Create a Marketplace for Web Apps

Google has just announced the Chrome Web Store, an open marketplace for web applications, at Google I/O. It’s like the Android App Market but for apps on the web.

Like the App Market, developers will be able to sell their apps through the store via Google’s secure payment system. Google is effectively bringing the mobile app store model right onto the web, which could be huge news for app developers, publishers and others who have been looking to this model to generate revenue in addition to the traditional method of advertising support.

The Chrome Web Store will reportedly be supported on all major platforms, including Windows, Mac and Linux as well as, of course, Chrome OS. Both free and paid apps will be available, as well as support for 40 languages in 70 countries. Google also notes that thanks to the standards support baked in to the store, apps written for the Chrome Web Store should additionally work on other modern web browsers.

The Chrome Web Store will be available to end users later this year, with developer support ramping up now in order to ensure a well-stocked store at launch. Google has published preliminary documentation for developers to give them a sense of what will be required to prepare a web app for the store. The company promises further technical details as well as guided discussion sessions in the Chrome developer group are coming soon.

Facebook on Time mag.

Time Magazine’s May 31 issue will hit newsstands with a cover and feature story dedicated to the “scary” side of Facebook.

The cover art pays homage to the Facebook generation with a mosaic of 1,295 Facebook profile photos, accompanied by a blurb from the feature article: “Facebook …and how it’s redefining privacy. With nearly 500 million users, Facebook is connecting us in new (and scary) ways.”

The feature article by Dan Fletcher delves inside Facebook and its methodologies for hooking new users and explores the historical events leading up to present-day privacy concerns around Open Graph and instant personalization.

At first glance, the feature story appears less critical than the cover makes it out to be. But Fletcher lends a sharp eye to Facebook’s grand vision and enormous growth, and eventually concludes that Facebook is on the path to become “the Web’s sketchy Big Brother, sucking up our identities into a massive Borg brain to slice, dice and categorize for advertisers.”

Although Time Magazine no longer has the same distribution it once did, the print piece — with its online duplicate — is bound to get traction from a very mainstream audience. Unfortunately for Facebook, it looks like the controversy around its approach to user privacy isn’t going away anytime soon.

Mashable

iPhone 4G to Come in White?

Chinese website Apple.pro has posted pictures of a purported next-generation iPhone, this time in white! While we’ve seen the black variant of the iPhone 4G in the wild on numerous occasions, the images of the white model are a nice change of pace.

While the authenticity of the photographs haven’t been verified, the photos do show what appears to be a complete white faceplate sitting atop the standard iPhone 4G body. The phone itself looks likely to one of the same pre-production models (hence the seams) with the white faceplate not completely snapped on.

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Call of duty black ops!!

We've heard scant details on the upcoming Treyarch title Call of Duty: Black Ops, but a new magazine feature is letting loose with much more information than we had before. The latest Official Xbox Magazine (via WePlayCOD) breaks down the new additions. As expected, players will spend at least some of the time fighting the North Vietnamese, but the lead character has a secret agenda as well. In the trek through Vietnam, the player will enter water engagements with a trusty knife, provide intel from an SR-71 Blackbird, and even take control of a helicopter.

The spread also shares more details on the multiplayer aspect. The co-op mode will feature separate levels, built specifically for it. Treyarch strongly hinted at a beta, and said they'll be improving this game's multiplayer based on player feedback from World at War. The developer also promises improved matchmaking, along with an enhanced Create-a-Class for added character customization.

"We're all-in on this," said Treyarch head Mark Lamia, committing all of his over 200 staff to working on Black Ops. "We've taken some creative risks. We want to do something different than we've done before. It's time." He also reportedly remarked that they "want the game to speak for itself."

It's good to hear that Treyarch is taking risks, and basing a game on what is arguably the most unpopular war in American history is a bold choice, to say the least. These kinds of risks might be necessary to help the game rise above the noise of the Infinity Ward drama and, as Lamia hopes, help the game find its own identity.

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Nato convoy bombing

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near a U.S. convoy Tuesday, killing 18 people, including six troops — five Americans and a Canadian — in the deadliest attack on NATO in the Afghan capital in eight months.
The Canadian, Col. Geoff Parker, 42, was the highest-ranking member of the Canadian Forces to die in Afghanistan since the Canadian mission began in 2002, the country's military said.
Twelve Afghan civilians also died — many of them on a public bus in rush-hour traffic along a major thoroughfare that runs by the ruins of a one-time royal palace and government ministries. At least 47 people were wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
The blast was the first major attack in the Afghan capital since February and followed a Taliban announcement of a spring offensive even as the U.S. gears up for a major push to restore order in the turbulent south.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the blast, telling The Associated Press in a telephone call that the bomber was a man from Kabul and that the vehicle was packed with 1,650 pounds (750 kilograms) of explosives.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai joined the U.S. and NATO in condemning the attack, which he said killed women and children.
The explosion, which thundered across the capital, happened about 8 a.m. as streets were packed with cars, buses and trucks. The bomb ripped apart vehicles and hurled body parts along the street. U.S. and Afghan forces blocked off the area as emergency workers loaded the wounded into ambulances.
"I saw one person lying on the ground with no head," said Mirza Mohammad, who was on his way to work when the blast took place. Police officer Wahidullah, who goes by one name, said he saw the body of a woman in a pale blue burqa smashed up against the window of the bus.
"Dead bodies were everywhere," Wahidullah said.
U.S. forces spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said five American service members were killed in the Kabul blast. NATO said two other international service members were killed Tuesday in separate attacks in the south, one of whom the U.S. command said was an American. That brought the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan since the war began in 2001 to at least 993, according to an Associated Press count.

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Time Square Bombing

(CNN) -- The suspect in the failed Times Square car bombing is a Pakistani who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 2009 and was on a national security no-fly list.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was arrested Monday night at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as his flight to Dubai was about to take off, law enforcement officials said.
He was able to board the plane because he made his reservation on the way to the airport and it takes time to check flight manifests against no-fly lists, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.
Customs and Border Protection agents reacted quickly to the name match and made the arrest, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said.
Shahzad had traveled to Dubai before. He took a flight there in June 2009 and stayed out of the United States until his return on Feb. 3, officials said.
A woman who said she had lived next door to Shahzad in Shelton, Connecticut, told CNN on Tuesday that the man she knew didn't say much and claimed to work on Wall Street in New York.
"He was quiet. He would wear all black and jog at night. He said he didn't like the sunlight," Brenda Thurman said.
She said Shahzad, his wife and two children and his wife's two sisters lived next to her for about three years, moving out in July 2009. People whom she believes were plainclothes law enforcement officers appeared to be staking out the house Monday, Thurman told CNN affiliate WTNH-TV.
The neighbor said she often saw Shahzad leaving the home in the morning and returning in the evening. She also saw him in his yard with his children, a boy and a girl, and the family usually wore traditional Muslim attire, she told WTNH-TV.
She said she never suspected he might be involved in a possible terror attack.
"I didn't think he was capable of doing something like that. ... I'm very shocked," she said.
Thurman said her daughter often played with Shahzad's daughter, but she herself didn't have much contact with the family.
Shahzad's wife spoke English, but was apparently so insecure about her language ability that she told people she did not, Thurman said.
"I never knew she spoke English until it was time for her to move," Thurman said.
Shahzad's wife told Thurman in July 2009 that the family was moving to Missouri. A few weeks after they left their home, the lender foreclosed on the property and changed the locks, the neighbor said.
Shahzad had made international calls in recent weeks, but said he acted alone in the attempted bombing, investigators said.
Cell phone calls conducted for the purchase of the vehicle used in Saturday's bombing attempt helped lead police to the suspect, law enforcement sources said.
Sources said investigators got cell phone information from the daughter of the Nissan Pathfinder owner. She sold the vehicle to Shahzad on behalf of her father.
She had been talking on the phone to Shahzad in arranging the purchase of the SUV, which was advertised for sale on Craigslist.
The Nissan Pathfinder was parked in Times Square containing propane tanks, fertilizer and gasoline on Saturday night. After police retrieved the vehicle identification number of the Pathfinder, they located the registered owner of the vehicle.
The sources said the owner's daughter had met with Shahzad at a Stratford, Connecticut, grocery store, for the sale. Shahzad took the car for a test drive in the parking lot and bought the vehicle for $1,800 in cash.
Bridgeport, where Shahzad resides, is a working class city of 130,000 on Long Island Sound, 66 miles northeast of New York City. Per capita income there is 26 percent below the national average, and 27 percent of its residents are foreign-born, more than twice the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Gulf Coast oil spill

Officials from the Obama administration and oil giant BP say it may take up to three months to to seal off a leaking oil well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico that has created a massive environmental crisis that could affect much of the gulf coast.

BP chief executive Tony Heyward said Monday that "the worst-case scenario is that we would need to contain this for two to three months whilst a relief well is drilled."

Speaking on the "Today" show, Heyward said the company is also trying two other ways to deal with the spill: using robotic submarines to seal off the leaks, a process that so far has not succeeded and that he described as "like conducting heart surgery 5,000 feet beneath the sea"; or building containment domes -- akin to the hood over a stovetop -- that can be lowered onto three separate leaks and allow the oil to be captured and pumped to the surface. The 74-ton steel domes are currently being built and will be in the field within seven to eight days, officials said.

"We are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do," Heyward said.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are meeting with top BP officials in Washington Monday to discuss the crisis, and Napolitano told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she will press for assurance that the company has set up a clear process for individuals and communities impacted by the spill to file claims.

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