Wikileaks' Julian Assange Speaks Ater Release On Bail

BP suffered Azerbaijan leak, says WikiLeaks

By Sylvia Pfeifer

Published: December 15 2010 23:58 | Last updated: December 15 2010 23:58

BP suffered a large-scale gas leak at a field in Azerbaijan and had to evacuate all of its platform workers, just 18 months before its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to leaked US embassy cables.

The UK oil group was lucky to be able to evacuate its 211 workers safely after the incident in September 2008 that led to two fields being shut and production being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day, according to the WikiLeaks cables published by The Guardian newspaper on Thursday.

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According to the cables, Bill Schrader, then president of BP Azerbaijan, said the incident was the largest such emergency evacuation in BP’s history. Given the explosive potential, “BP was quite fortunate to have been able to evacuate everyone safely and to prevent any gas ignition,” Mr Schrader is alleged to have told US government interlocutors.

BP’s annual report last year referred to a “comprehensive review of the subsurface gas release” having taken place and remedial work being carried out.

BP said last night: “We had a gas release in 2008. We shut the platform immediately, safely evacuated all staff, carried out necessary work and then resumed production. BP continues to have a successful and mutually beneficial partnership with the government of Azerbaijan.”

The incident was reported by news agencies at the time.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/edb16fee-08a4-11e0-b981-00144feabdc0.html#axzz18GeVaxn1

Neanderthal DNA Almost Identical to Modern Human

A few weeks ago South African scientists reported finding a supposedly 360 million year old fossil lamphrey. The most interesting thing about it is; the fossil lamprey is virtually identical to “present day” lampreys. The scientists noted that though the fossil had surprisingly not evolved much, it appeared that the lampreys had “gotten slightly longer”. Not much change at all considering 360 million years went by.

That brings us to the subject of this article, “Neanderthal Man”. The more we learn about Neanderthal, the less primitive he becomes, the less different from “us” he becomes. Recent scientific articles have admitted that early European man (Cro-magnon) and Neanderthal met, interacted and even interbred. Another recent article suggests that modern day Europeans, and even Asians, are up to 5% Neanderthal genetically. No neanderthal DNA has been found in Africans and no Neanderthal fossils have been ever found in Africa.

Despite the genetic evidence, some ruling paradigm scientists are still insisting that Neaderthals couldn’t speak and that there certainly was no interbreeding. So, what would happen when scientists were able to isolate Neanderthal DNA, as they have recently actually done with material found in a Croation cave?

Neanderthal DNA is 99.9% identical to “human” DNA! Blockbuster! All over the news, right? 99.9% identical is certainly startling, all right but it’s not 100% identical, seemingly preserving something for militant Darwinian scientists to hang their hats on. Like saying it looks like lamphreys got slightly longer over 360 million years.

What they don’t give you is the following fact as quoted from a lecture by Eric Lanser, Ph D; (easily verified elsewhere) “Any two humans on earth are 99.9 percent identical in their DNA sequences”.

This kind of puts the data on Neanderthal DNA in a whole new light; their DNA differs from ours exactly as our differs from each other! Neanderthal is/was exactly as different from you as your next door neighbor is, only he/she is not typically depicted hunched over wearing animal skins and carrying a spear.

Given the fact that DNA sequencing shows that “modern humans” and Neanderthal are “identical”, the article below really makes no sense, continuing the fiction that the populations remained separate and that we (modern humans) won (in evolutionary terms) and that they lost. Turns out that we’re a little shorter, maybe.

The Following Published by the Daily Mail, By FIONA MACRAE

We may like to think we’re far superior to the Neanderthals species that us humans beat in the evolutionary battle.

But analysis of DNA from a 38,000-year-old bone has revealed Neanderthal and human DNA is actually up to 99.9 per cent identical. In contrast, humans and chimps only share 95 per cent of their genetic material.

The discovery came as scientists work on decoding the entire Neanderthal genome from a perfectly-preserved artefact. Found in a cave in Croatia, the bone could hold the key to many of the secrets of evolution.

Dr Edward Rubin, one of the US and German researchers who have started to sequence the ancient DNA, said: ‘We are at the dawn of Neanderthal genomics. ‘This data will function as a DNA time machine and tell us aspects of biology we could never get from bones or associated artefacts.

Source: http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/12/neanderthal-dna-identical-to-modern-human/