Top 26 Bad-Ass Action Movie Babes
There is something quite unsettling about being turned on by a girl who could kick seven shades out of you.
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Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Rare Footage of Marilyn Monroe Found
Previously unseen footage of screen icon Marilyn Monroe, taken while she was filming the 1959 hit Some Like It Hot, has been discovered in Australia.
The behind-the-scenes amateur film, featuring Monroe and co-stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, was taken by a US naval officer after the actress invited him to visit the set at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, California.
The two-and-a-half minute, eight-millimetre film will be auctioned off in Melbourne later this month and is expected to sell for up to 30,000 Australian Dollars – almost £14,000.
Charles Leski of Leski Auctions said: "Marilyn Monroe memorabilia is always in demand, but rarely do we get one-off material like this.
"It is also extremely rare for such important archival footage to be auctioned outside of the US before its domestic release, and for that we are extremely proud."
The footage shows Monroe acting playfully on set with Lemmon and Curtis during a break from filming while being watched by fellow cast members and extras.
Still in its original box, it was found among the sailor's possessions and brought to Australia when he emigrated there.
Monroe died in August 1962 at the age of 36 after an overdose of pills diagnosed as suicide. Curtis is the only surviving main member of the cast of the cross-dressing Billy Wilder comedy.
Japan only Nismo GT-R
TOKYO — Nismo, Nissan's official motorsports division, has unveiled its first tuning treatment for the R35 GT-R called the Club Sport Package.
Focused mainly on cutting weight and tightening up handling, the package comes with race-ready Bilstein adjustable dampers, stiffer front and rear springs and 20-inch forged Rays aluminum wheels wrapped in Bridgestone RE070R run-flat tires.
Other mods include a new lightweight axle-back exhaust that sheds 11 pounds from the curb weight and a drag-reducing carbon-fiber undertray. The seats are upgraded to carbon fiber leather-trimmed Recaros, which keep the side airbags and get rid of electronic adjustments to save another 13 pounds.
Parts can be purchased individually, or the complete package is priced at the equivalent of $50,560. It is currently only available in Japan.
Nismo's Club Sport Package should keep Japanese fans satisfied until the GT-R V Spec hits the streets next year.
What this means to you: Should be the first of many such GT-R packages to come.
Gas Electric Hybrid to Race in American Lemans Series
FRADLEY, England — Zytek Engineering is working with Corsa Motorsports of Salt Lake City to develop what is hoped to be the first gasoline-electric hybrid to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Plans are for the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) vehicle to compete for the first time in the Petit Le Mans, part of the American Le Mans Series, next month, and in the series finale, leading to a two-car campaign in 2009.
Zytek is the developer of the hybrid powertrain technology used by the Smart, Lotus Elise, Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Silverado pickup and other passenger vehicles. The racecar uses a version of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) being developed by Formula 1 teams.
Zytek boss Bill Gibson wants to enter the car in the last two ALMS events this year, before a two-car campaign in 2009, including the Le Mans 24 Hours.
"We want to be the first to race a hybrid at Le Mans," Zytek's Bill Gibson told Autosport magazine. "We want to pull it off before one of the big manufacturers does."
"This is not a light hybrid system that you'd find in a Prius," Corsa owner Steve Pruett told the Detroit Free Press. "This was built specifically for the rigors of racing, and we think that eventually we'll see that [technology] transferred to road cars."
Zytek worked with ALMS founder and sports car manufacturer Don Panoz of Braselton, Georgia, to develop a hybrid GT machine that was entered at Le Mans in 1998. That car was withdrawn because of weight problems with the car's batteries.
Zytek competes as a factory team in the American and European Le Mans series. Johnny Mowlem, who raced for Zytek in 2006 and now competes in a Corsa entry, has test-driven the prototype.
The hybrid would give ALMS a fourth alt-fueled racing car, with vehicles using E10 and E85 gas-ethanol blends and the diesel-powered Audi entries.
What this means to you: Endurance racing makes a fascinating test bed for alternative-energy vehicles. — David Green, Correspondent
Batman 3: Johnny Depp Definitely The Riddler, But Probably Not
by Stuart Heritage
The Batman 3 casting rumours have so far been numerous and vague, but at least one thing’s for certain - Johnny Depp will definitely play The Riddler.
That’s a stone cold fact. You heard it here first. Why are we so sure that Johnny Depp will play The Riddler in Batman 3? Because Johnny Depp recently briefly mumbled something desperately ambiguous about it possibly being quite fun to maybe play The Riddler during a local radio interview with his band.
See? That’s means Johnny Depp is definitely going to be The Riddler in Batman 3, which is why we’ve already started to manufacture a set of Johnny Depp Batman 3 Riddler action figures. OK, admittedly we just got a load of unsold Pirates Of The Caribbean action figures and Tippexed question marks onto their backs but - face it - that’s probably what he’ll be like in the film anyway.
We know this is a bit premature, but we’re absolutely confident that Batman 3 is going to be the best film ever made. Seriously, ever.
Look at how The Dark Knight ended, with Batman living in fear as a supposed criminal vigilante. Batman 3 is going to have the same feeling of doomy paranoia and creeping dread, but it’ll also have Cher titting around in a rubber doily too. There’s something for everyone there, provided that you’re a manic depressive comicbook fan or a stereotypical homosexual.
But what if you want more from The Dark Knight’s sequel than a fed-up Batman and a terrifyingly expressionless pensionable Catwoman who keeps getting her old lady minge out? What if, for instance, you want to see The Riddler in Batman 3?
Well, frankly, if that’s the case you’re an idiot. The Riddler is rubbish. He’s basically The Joker but with a green hat and a thing for Sudoku. He’s Henry Kelly from Going For Gold with a bee in his bonnet. He’s rubbish. Don’t argue, we’re right. He’s rubbish.
But none of that fierce logic is washing with Christopher Nolan. It’s long been rumoured that he’d like to cast Johnny Depp as The Riddler in Batman 3. So far Johnny Depp has kept quiet over the reports, but during a local radio interview recently, he decided to share his thoughts on the matter:
Host: Hey Johnny, a listener called in earlier said you have to ask about the rumors on the internet of you doing the Riddler.
Depp: Oh yeah, I heard about that. Not that I know of.
Host: You’d be a good choice.
Depp: It seems like it’d be a fun gig for a while, yeah.
“It seems like it’d be a fun gig for a while, yeah.” If that’s not official confirmation of the casting, we don’t know what is. But you know what this means?
It’s obvious. Cher as Catwoman and Sweeney Todd’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler? Batman 3 is going to be a musical!
Color Photos From the World War I Era
Written by Alan Bellows on July 29th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Color film was non-existent in 1909 Russia, yet in that year a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii embarked on a photographic survey of his homeland and captured hundreds of photos in full, vivid color. His photographic plates were black and white, but he had developed an ingenious photographic technique which allowed him to use them to produce accurate color images.
He accomplished this with a clever camera of his own design, which took three black and white photos of a scene in rapid sequence, each though a differently colored filter. His photographic plates were long and slender, capturing all three images onto the same plate, resulting in three monochrome images which each had certain color information filtered out.
Sergei was then able to use a special image projector to project the three images onto a screen, each directly overlapping the others, and each through the appropriately colored filter. The recombined projection was a full-color representation of the original scene. 
Each three-image series captured by the camera stored all of the color information onto the black and white plates; all they lacked was actual tint, which the color filters on the projector restored.
Tsar Nicholas II fully supported Sergei's ambitious plan to document the Russian Empire, and provided a specially equipped railroad car which enclosed a darkroom for Sergei to develop his glass plates. He took hundreds of these color photos all over Russia from 1909 through 1915.
There was no means to develop color prints at that time, but modern technology has allowed these images to be recombined in their full original colors. The U.S. Library of Congress purchased all of Sergei's original glass negatives from his heirs in 1948, and in 2001 a beautiful exhibition was produced to showcase Sergei's photos, called The Empire that was Russia.
Around that same time, in 1907, the first practical color photographic plates were introduced to the world by the Lumière brothers in France. The plates were called "Autochrome Lumière," and they were made up of microscopic potato starch grains which were dyed orange, green, and blue; sandwiched between black-and-white film and a piece of glass; then coated in shellac. The tiny starch grains acted as color filters, making the film essentially a mosaic made up of many tiny pieces.
Once the black-and-white film base was developed, the dyed starch layer which had acted as many tiny color filters when the photo was taken now did the same task in reverse, giving the color back to the underlying image. The technology was a bit crude and grainy, but it was able to capture full color images which turned out looking rather impressionistic.
Autochrome film was expensive, slow and rare, so it didn't see a lot of use by the general public. But when World War One broke out in 1914, the French army began photographing soldiers and scenery, and some of their photos were taken with this new color film. As a result, a large proportion of color photos from that time are images of French soldiers in the field.
Because of the efforts of the French army photographers, there are beautiful color images of soldiers in the trenches, military equipment, ruined buildings, and villages, among other things. Autochrome plates age remarkably well due to their construction, so many of the originals are still in pristine condition today.
Autochrome remained as the primary color photograph medium until Kodachrome was introduced in 1935, and Agfacolor in the following year. Aside from Kodachrome, most modern color films are still based on the Agfacolor technology.
Further reading:
Library of Congress site on Prokudin-Gorskii's photos of Russia
Large gallery of French WWI photographs
Detailed information about Autochrome film
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe wants talks on casino
Wampanoags seeking deal with governor
 | "We'd like to start the negotiations and get the ball rolling." - Shawn W. Hendricks Sr., Mashpee Wampanoag chairman. |
By Matt Viser Globe Staff / September 3, 2008
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is planning to formally ask Governor Deval Patrick today to negotiate a compact for a $1 billion resort casino in Middleborough, an overture that could reignite the gambling debate and eventually clear the way for the state's first casino.
The tribe has already been pursuing a casino through a federal Department of the Interior application. But striking a deal with the state would probably speed approval and allow the tribe to offer bigger jackpots and more games, including blackjack and craps, while giving the state a share of casino revenues.
"We'd like to start the negotiations and get the ball rolling," tribal chairman Shawn W. Hendricks Sr. said yesterday in an interview. "I see no reason why the state wouldn't sit and talk with us."
Tribal officials are hoping to negotiate a deal with the state over the next several months that, if the necessary approvals from the federal government come through, could allow the tribe to start construction on a massive casino as early as spring. It would be similar to the deals struck by Connecticut for the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos. The billions earned by those casinos have proved to be alluring for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, as well as Patrick and some other Massachusetts officials who see legalized gam bling as a way to help pay for state needs such as road repairs.
The tribe will deliver a seven-page letter, which has been expected for several months and was obtained yesterday by the Globe, to the governor today with the request that negotiations begin "at the earliest mutually convenient date."
The move could give Patrick fresh ammunition if he decides to revive his effort to persuade the Legislature to license three casinos in Massachusetts. Patrick has contended that since the federal government might approve the tribe's casino regardless of the state's position, Massachusetts might as well embrace gambling, control the business, and reap a share for state coffers.
Administration officials declined to comment yesterday before seeing the letter.
Under the terms of the federal Indian Gaming Act, the tribe cannot force the state to begin negotiations because it does not have its federal lands taken into trust. The governor was hesitant in June about beginning negotiations until the tribe won placement of its land in federal trust.
"It doesn't start until they say it starts," Patrick said. "And there's not a lot of point in starting until the land-in-trust process is finished. . . . They have expressed an interest in working with us when the time comes."
Any deal between the tribe and the governor would probably also need the approval of the Legislature, so the tribe is also sending the letter to Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.
The tribe won federal recognition last year, which set it on course to build a resort casino with 4,000 slot machines, game tables, a 1,500-room hotel, and a host of amenities including a golf course.
Achieving the next step, getting federal approval to place its land in trust, can take several years, but tribal officials think it is on course for approval in the first or second quarter of 2009, according to the letter.
Compact negotiations can become complex and include discussions over who has jurisdiction over police and fire services on the property and how traffic would be handled. If a compact is signed, the tribe said it would upgrade Route 44, a $170 million expense.
Most significantly, the negotiations would determine what percentage of slot revenues the state would receive. When Connecticut negotiated with its tribes in the early 1990s, the Indians agreed to pay the state 25 percent of slot machine revenue.
For Patrick and the Legislature, choosing not to negotiate with the tribe could carry risks.
The Mashpees say in the letter that, even if the state does not approve a deal, it plans to pursue its federal rights under the Indian Gaming Act to develop a casino with bingo-style slots. Those slots, called lass two machines, look similar to regular slot machines but are not as popular with gamblers and not as lucrative for casino operators. Upgrading to better machines would require state approval.
"No matter what ultimately happens with the negotiations, please know that it is the tribe's intent to operate America's most successful casino resort in Middleborough," Hendricks wrote in the letter. "We hope that we can do so in a manner which benefits all of us to the fullest extent possible."
Patrick filed legislation last year that would have licensed three casinos in Massachusetts, creating jobs and bringing in state revenue. His legislation was voted down by the House in March, but the governor is expected to file new legislation when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
Still, there are multiple variables that could spell trouble for the tribe.
The Globe reported last week that slot revenues at the two Connecticut casinos and two Rhode Island slot parlors are down over last year, despite adding 1,300 slot machines in the last year. Slot revenues are also down nationally, according to a recent report from the American Gaming Association.
Hendricks, the tribal chairman, said yesterday in an interview that he was not concerned about declining slot revenues and downplayed the argument that New England's gambling market was saturated.
"It's the economy," he said. "We're not going to stop building houses just because the real estate market is down."
Another potential hitch is a US Supreme Court case that could prohibit further land-into-trust approvals. The case, which will be heard in November, stems from a dispute in Rhode Island over the Narragansett tribe's claim of 31-acres in Charlestown, R.I.
In a case signed onto by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the state of Rhode Island contends that federal law prevents the US government from taking land into trust for tribes recognized after the 1934 Indian Re- organization Act. The Narragansett tribe was federally recognized in 1983.
The First US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected the state's claim in July, but the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
Weapons Grade Lasers by Next Year
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman is promising the Pentagon that it'll have weapons-grade electric lasers by the end of 2008. Which means honest-to-goodness energy weapons might actually become a military reality, after decades of fruitless searching.
For the longest time, the military concentrated on developing chemical-powered lasers. They produced massively powerful laser blasts. But the noxious stuff needed to produce all that power makes the weapons all-but-impractical in a war zone. So the Defense Department shifted gears, and poured money into solid-state, electric lasers instead. Under its Joint High-Powered Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) project, these beams -- once considered too weak to do soldiers much good -- have made steady progress. Now Northrop is promising to hit what's widely considered to be the threshold for military-strength beams: 100 kilowatts. With that much energy, lasers should be able to knock mortars and rockets out of the sky.
Northrop's system combines a bunch of smaller lasers into a bigger one -- Death Star-style, sorta. In March, the company announced that it had completed the first of these eight "laser chains." Yesterday, the company said it had joined two of the chains together. What's more, the beam combo ran at peak power -- 30 kW -- "for more than five minutes continuously and more than 40 minutes total; and achieved electrical-to-optical efficiency of greater than 19 percent."
"We are completely confident we will meet the 100 kW of power level and associated beam quality and runtime requirements of the JHPSSL Phase 3 program by the end of December, 2008," Bob Bishop, a Northrop Grumman spokesman, tells Defense Daily.
And it's not the only energy weapon project that's making progress. The Army just gave Boeing a $36 million contract to develop a laser-firing truck. The company recently test-fired the real-life ray gun on its Advanced Tactical Laser -- a gunship equipped with a chemical-powered blaster. Raytheon has worked up a prototype of its Phalanx mortar-shooter that uses fiber lasers, instead of traditional ammo, to knock down targets. Even the eternally delayed, chemically powered Airborne Laser -- a modified 747, designed to zap ballistic missiles -- may finally get a long-awaited flight test.
Gesture controlled Laptop by Toshiba
Toshiba's new Qosmio laptop is the only gesture-aware computer on the consumer market. Software loaded on the laptop lets users control Microsoft programs like PowerPoint and the Windows Media Player with just a wave of the hand. Using a webcam built into the screen, the computer can distinguish three gestures--a raised palm, a moving fist, or a thumb flick--from up to 10 feet away.
Credit: Toshiba
Micro RNA Diagnostics
The first diagnostic test to classify cancers by differences in microRNAs--small pieces of RNA that regulate genes--will soon be on the market. The test distinguishes two types of lung cancer and should help doctors tailor treatments to their patients' needs. Scientists say that tests based on microRNA profiles could prove more sensitive and reliable than existing methods, whose accuracy depends heavily on the judgment of the people analyzing them.
Product: MicroRNA test for lung cancer
Cost: Comparable to that of other molecular tests for cancer, which are priced at around $3,000 to $3,500
Source: rosettagenomics.com
Company: Rosetta Genomics
Wireless HD Camera
A new wireless transmitter from IDX will let high-definition TV cameras go where they never could before. The transmitter can send a high-definition signal 150 feet, saving cameramen from stringing cable in harsh or cramped environments or setting up costly, bulky microwave transmitters. What's more, the video signal is uncompressed, so producers don't have to worry about time delays when they're cutting between cameras at, say, sporting events or political rallies.
Credit: IDX
An Ebay for Interest Rates
MoneyAisle aims to turn the tables on the normal workings of the financial industry. A customer who wants to open a bank account or buy a CD logs on to the MoneyAisle site, and banks compete for the deposit by offering different interest rates. The system helps customers find attractive deals and opens up the market to smaller banks, which pay only if they acquire new customers. MoneyAisle plans to expand into loans.
Credit: NeoSaej
Product: MoneyAisle.com
Cost: Free for customers; banks pay a variable transaction fee
Source: www.moneyaisle.com
Company: NeoSaej
Glasses Free 3D
Forget about silly-looking, uncomfortable 3-D glasses. Philips's new 3-D displays create the illusion of depth by overlaying an LCD screen with tiny lenses that direct slightly different images to the viewer's eyes. The illusion persists within a 120º viewing area. The displays work only with specially created content, so Philips is currently marketing them for use in promotional displays--at malls, casinos, and movie theaters, for instance. But it hopes to have 3-D TVs in homes within a few years.
Courtesy of Philips
Product: 42-inch 3-D Wowvx display
Cost: About $10,000
Source: philips.com/3dsolutions
Company: Philips
Artery Drill
Around 10 million Americans have peripheral-artery disease--plaque buildups in the arteries of their arms and legs that can cause chronic pain and even lead to amputation. Surgeons treat the condition by inflating balloons inside the artery or by inserting metal-mesh tubes known as stents, but a new drill-tipped catheter could be a better option. The drill has blades that expand and contract to fit the artery, plus a vacuum that sucks up the debris.
Courtesy of Pathway
Product: PV Atherectomy System
Cost: Competitive with similar devices, which cost about $3,000
Source: pathwaymedical.com
Company: Pathway
Liquid Lens Webcam
A new self-focusing webcam is the first consumer product with a liquid lens. The lens, from the French company Varioptic, consists of an oil-based and a water-based fluid sandwiched between glass discs in a drum the size of a watch battery. An electric charge causes the boundary between the oil and water to change shape, altering the lens's focus. Because the lens has no moving parts, it's more durable than other lenses of similar size.
Courtesy of Akkord
Product: SnakeCam
Cost: About $22 for the 1.3-megapixel version, $24 for the 2-megapixel version
Source: varioptic.com
Company: Akkord
First Tidal Power Generator
This summer, the first commercial electrical generator to draw power from the ocean tide began supplying Northern Ireland with energy. Installed in an inlet near Belfast, the generator works much like a wind turbine, with massive blades turned by the tide's current. The angle at which the blades meet the current can be changed: rotating the blade face 180º lets the turbine catch the tide in both directions, while smaller rotations lessen the force exerted on the turbine, preventing damage.
Credit: Marine Current Turbines
Product: SeaGen
Cost: 30 to 40 cents per kilowatt-hour; a planned installation with seven turbines will lower that cost to about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour
Source: www.seageneration.co.uk
Company: Marine Current Turbines
60 Megapixel Camera
A new digital-camera imaging system--a semiconductor sensor and associated electronics--is the first with 60 megapixels. Previously, semiconductor slabs large enough to fit that many pixels without degrading image quality were prohibitively expensive. The new sensor still isn't cheap, but it allows digital cameras to meet and even exceed the performance of the medium-format film cameras many professionals prefer.
Credit: Phase One
Nueroscience study says trusting your gut works
What's It Gonna Be?: Photo by istockphoto.com
Whether you call it a hunch or vibes, a reckoning or a feeling in your bones, humans know the power of a nagging suspicion. Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink stands as testament to the fact that split decisions often turn out much smarter than those following a thorough think. Now, neuroscientists say they’ve not only proven what they call “subliminal learning” scientifically, but have found the brain area involved.
The researchers, who are based at University College London, set up a computer game in which study subjects could win money. Players saw strange, complex symbols on a computer screen, and were told to predict which symbols consistently led to payout, and which led to penalty. Yet it was impossible to tell the symbols apart. The researchers designed them to look, to the conscious mind, identical. “Just follow your gut feelings,” the game instructions coached, “and you will win, and avoid losing, a lot of pounds!” Despite the challenge, subjects did manage to learn how to win—guided, apparently, by their instinct.
The team then measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, as subjects went through the experiment. What lit up was a structure called the ventral striatum. Located near the center-front of the brain, this region has surfaced in many other studies as a major player in learning motivated by reward.
The notion that our subconscious can drive smart decisions is nothing new to non-scientists and scientists alike. In 1911, seminal animal intelligence researcher Edward Lee Thorndike had a hunch that if dogs and cats could learn without reasoning, so could humans. But remarkably, it took nearly a century to act on those suspicions—or rather, to design an experiment that could adequately test it.
The study appears in the current issue of the journal Neuron.
Student formulates better plan for evacuations
Preparing For Gustav: Photo by soldiersmediacenter (CC Licensed)
There's some good news as hurricane season is getting under way: an MIT graduate student has developed a computer model that helps evacuation managers make better decisions, and possibly save lives in the process.
During a hurricane, a poorly executed plan can make evacuation nearly impossible. But the software, created by graduate student Michael Metzger as part of his research for his Ph.D., allows the possible effects of specific decisions to be individually analyzed. The software can assist managers in making a full array of difficult decisions, from when to order evacuations to being more efficient when clearing people out of affected areas. Furthermore, the program could help decide the best locations for relief supplies before a hurricane hits.
The initial innovation that has come from the software is the concept of evacuating people by category, rather than geographic location. Based on demographic information, managers could decide to evacuate first elderly people, then tourists and families with children, instead of simply attempting to get all people out of one specific geographic area.
Using data collected from 50 years of hurricanes, Metzger compared information that was available at a specific point in time with the data from the actual storm's passage. From there, Metzger says he was able to develop software that creates a "scientifically consistent framework to plan for an oncoming hurricane."
[Via ScienceDaily
Oil Prices Extend Decline
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices extended their decline Wednesday as the dollar strengthened against major currencies and traders waited for Gustav damage reports.
Crude futures for October delivery were down $1.55 to $108.16 a barrel.
On Tuesday, oil prices fell $5.75 a barrel to settle $109.71, which was the lowest closing price for oil in nearly 5 months, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Oil prices have fallen sharply from the record high price of $147.27 a barrel, set July 11, as a sagging U.S. economy has cut into energy demand.
Crude oil is traded in dollars around the globe, so a stronger dollar puts downward pressure on the price of oil, said Tom Orr, director of research at Weeden & Co., a financial services firm.
"When we had an incredibly structurally weak dollar, people went to the commodity trade," said Orr, as "a hedge against inflation, as a place to park money."
But now that the dollar has started to recover, investors are looking to other, more profitable places to keep their funds, Orr said.
Because Gustav did not hit with as much force as anticipated, and the damage to oil production facilities appeared to be less than was feared, the oil market returned its focus Tuesday to slumping global demand for energy.
In advance of Monday's storm, oil companies shut down 100% of production facilities in the Gulf, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition, capacity at 23 refineries was either shut down or reduced, 95.4% of natural gas production was stopped, and three oil delivery pipelines were closed.
On Tuesday evening, the Department of Energy decided to loan 250,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Citgo's Lake Charles, La., refinery, according to a statement from the government. The reserve is an emergency repository of 700 million barrels of oil that the government controls.
Hurricane Gustav closed Louisiana's Calcasieu channel which disrupted Citgo crude oil supplies, according to the statement.
Production facilities in the Gulf will remain shut until there has been a full inspection of rigs and refineries to determine the level of damage, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Interior's Mineral Management Service agency.
Three other tropical storms - Hanna, Ike and Josephine - have formed in the Atlantic but currently are not expected to track toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical Storm Hanna was near Haiti on Wednesday morning and could become a hurricane by Thursday, according to the most recent public advisory by the National Hurricane Center. The east coast of Florida could start seeing rain from Hanna as early as Friday, according to the advisory.
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