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Received from a fellow submariner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Eo6INrPW4

Seaswarm, an autonomous, solar-powered skimmer, may be the answer to less expensive and more efficient methods for cleaning up future oil spills. The robot prototype promises to absorb 20 times its weight in oil. Created by researchers at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, Seaswarm employs a conveyor belt of absorbent, nanowire mesh. The specially deigned mesh can suck up oil on the water’s surface and then process and dispose of the oil it’s collected. The Seaswarm can continue to absorb more of the spill while the robot autonomously navigates and cleans the ocean for weeks on end. Researchers claim that 5,000...

Machines that separate oil from water—even allowing the oil to be refined later—can be on-site in the Gulf of Mexico within days, Jean-Michel Cousteau, president and founder of the Ocean Futures Society, told CBNC Thursday. Cousteau, who is backing the use of the machines, or units, is on the advisory board of Ecosphere Technologies, which makes them. Cousteau, the son of legendary sea explorer and ecologist, Jacques Cousteau, said there are 24 to 26 units that are ready to go and in the region. The units are mobile water treatment plants, which use a nonchemical oxidation process, Michael Vinick, chairman...

(CNSNews.com) - Actor Kevin Costner told a press conference on Capitol Hill that if a machine produced by a company in which he is a partner had been used earlier to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, “we would be keeping that [the oil] offshore.” The machine, which Costner invested more than $20 million to develop, can separate oil from water to clean up oil spills.   Costner said that BP, the oil company whose damaged well is the source of the spill, had recently placed an order for deploying 32 of the machines. “We’re coming to this...

The U.S. Coast Guard has complained that there is not enough plastic tubing in the United States to construct the booms needed to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. And neither BP, the Coast Guard, nor any other part of the U.S. government seems to understand how to effectively clean up the fouled Gulf. A technology that could effectively and actively remove oil from the surface of the ocean in all weather conditions would be a huge advance for the efforts going on in the Gulf right now. In fact, such a technology was designed and tested in the...

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- A ship described as the world's largest oil skimming vessel has arrived in the Gulf of Mexico, but was awaiting approval to begin work in cleaning up the oil disaster, according to a spokesman for the Taiwanese company that owns it. The A Whale arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. It was anchored in Boothville, Lousiana, about an hour south of New Orleans. "While the ship is ready to work, it still doesn't have approval to engage in the effort," said Frank Maisano, spokesman for TMT Shipping, the vessel's owner and...

NEW ORLEANS – With hurricane-whipped waves pushing more oil onto the Gulf of Mexico's once-white beaches, the government pinned its latest cleanup hopes Wednesday on a huge new piece of equipment: the world's largest oil-skimming vessel. The Taiwanese-flagged former tanker named the "A Whale" is the length of 3 1/2 football fields and stands 10 stories high. It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the Gulf, where officials hope it will be able to suck up as much as 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water per day. "It is absolutely gigantic. It's unbelievable," said Louisiana...

The largest skimming ship in the world — known as an “A Whale” — is expected to arrive in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, but will be prevented from contracting with BP to help clean up the oil spill until the federal government decides that the vessel is “effective.” The Coast Guard will not clear the Taiwan-owned ship – which is reportedly the length of 3 football fields and 10 stories high – to join the clean-up until it undergoes a test. “The Coast Guard research and development center has a team of personnel that are ready to observe...

The A-Whale bills itself as the largest open-water oil skimmer in the world, and it’s at least very impressive. Originally an oil and ore tanker, the ship’s owners recently refitted the ship to do exactly the kind of work that the US so desperately needs in the Gulf of Mexico, and to do it on a vastly larger scale than current operations can handle. According to the ship’s project manager, the entire American effort in 66 days has skimmed off 600,000 barrels of oil. The ship’s owners claim that A-Whale can skim 500,000 barrels a day. So where is the...

The Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged ship dubbed the "A Whale" stands 10 stories high, stretches 1,115 feet in length and has a nearly 200-foot beam. It displaces more water than an aircraft carrier. Built in South Korea as a supertanker for transporting oil and iron ore, the six-month-old vessel was refitted in the wake of the BP oil spill with 12, 16-foot-long intake vents on the sides of its bow designed to skim oil off surface waters. The vessel's billionaire owner, Nobu Su, the CEO of Taiwanese shipping company TMT Group, said the ship would float across the Gulf "like a lawn...

So the truth comes out! President Obama is once again putting the interests of the unions that support him above the interests of our nation! He has not signed granted a waiver of the Jones Act to allow more oil skimming boats into our waters to clean up this mess. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is a United States Federal statute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports. Section 27, also known as the Jones Act, deals with coastal shipping and requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag...

A lot of you have been asking to see what a skimmer looks like before it's yanked off an ATM. Are they easy to spot or virtually unnoticeable? Our reader Timeus works for a bank and deals with this sort of thing every day, and he sent in the following photos. Enjoy.

NEW YORK -- Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. said Thursday in his first on-the-record interview about the swift boat veterans dispute that "I was absolutely in the skimmer" in the early morning on Dec. 2, 1968, when Lt. (j.g.) John Kerry was involved in an incident that led to his first Purple Heart. "Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, "Kerry requested a Purple Heart." Schachte, also a lieutenant junior grade, said he was in command of the small boat called a Boston...

Statement of RADM William L. Schachte, Jr. USN (Ret.) August 27, 2004 As was true of all "Swiftees," I volunteered to serve in Vietnam and was assigned to Coastal Division 14 for a normal tour of duty. I was a Lieutenant serving as Operations Officer and second in command at Coastal Division 14 when Lieutenant (junior grade) John Kerry reported to us in mid-November, 1968. Lt. (jg) Kerry was an Officer-in-Charge (O-in-C) under training in preparing to be assigned as one of our Swift Boat O-in-C's. At some point following President Johnson's announcement of the suspension of bombing in North...

'Skimming' Device Used At Fort Worth Restaurant FORT WORTH, Texas -- Criminals typically are quick to adopt any high-tech advantage they can find. Now, a new digital device, available for sale on the Internet, is making it easier for identity thieves to capture credit card information and produce counterfeit cards. The small device is called a "skimmer," and it can fit in the palm of someone's hand. Identity thieves swipe magnetic strips on credit cards into the skimmer, which can store up to 1,500 numbers. The thieves then download the credit card account numbers into a computer and, using another...