HAM radio licensing exams in San Diego

From: Howard, KY6LA:

In case you know anyone who wants to get their Technician or General License, the San Diego Yacht Club is holding their annual Christmas Holiday Courses on December 28th and 29th.

Signup and details are to be found at:  http://www.sdyc.org/arg/

Classes and Exams are open to everyone but seats are limited to 25 so sign up early.

We are holding an Open ARRL Exam Session at 3PM Dec 29th so even if you do not need the classes you can upgrade General or Extra.

Last year most candidates got both the Tech and General at the same session so the course works very well.

If you want to sit the exams only contact me at ky6la@ky6la.com

(for info on disaster defense operations, his website is: http://www.ky6la.com/)

ROSARITO SPANISH STUDY GROUP (Tuesday & Thursday sessions)

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Beginner's classes will be conducted at the Club Marena old club house. The classes are designed for those who have little or no experience with the Spanish language.

Sessions begin on Tuesday, the 11th of January, from 2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.

Club Marena is at Km 38.5, on the Tijuana-Ensenada "free road."

Directions heading south from Rosarito (paralleling the toll road):

After you pass Las Rocas Hotel, you will see a 5-story tall statue of Jesus on the east side of the toll road (can’t miss it). Once you pass Jesus, look for a series of tall white buildings on the coastal side of the free road; that is Club Marena.

When you turn off the highway into the complex, the guard caseta will be directly in front of you. Ask the guard to direct you to the old club house.

Bring a Spanish dictionary or an English-Spanish dictionary, 3X5 index cards, and note-keeping materials.

Another Beginning group is currently in progress on Mondays in Rosarito, at the Las Mañanitas restaurant in Rosarito. The classes are held from 1:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M.

The Intermediate group meets every Monday at 12 Noon at Las Mañanitas.

Rosarito Spanish Study Group (Monday sessions)

There will be no formal class sessions until January 10th, 2011.

However, the Study Group will be available to those who desire to participate in self-directed study sessions on the regularly scheduled Mondays during December and January. Please go to the meeting room at Las Mañanitas if your schedule permits and interact with other members of the group:

Intermediate group - 12 Noon until 1 P.M.
Beginner group - 1:30 P.M. until 2:30 P.M.

Conrad and Eunice fell in love, married, and moved to San Antonio del Mar

They are great neighbors and have nice children. They enjoy taking their puppy for walks on the beach.

Their story is here:
Siobhan Braun "How a Trip to Tijuana Changed My Heart." San Diego Reader 23 November 2010.

26 November. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/nov/23/cover-trip-tijuana/

Two-bedroom home on the northwest Baja California Pacific coast

Beautiful ocean views of las Islas Coronados from two seaside terraces. It is one of the reasons we live here.

1 ½ baths, fully furnished, washer and dryer

Easy beach access
$750/month with minimum six month lease

Located in the coastal colonia of San Antonio del Mar, Carretera Escénica Tijuana/Ensenada HWY 1D, kilometer 19.5, just north of the Real del Mar bridge.*

This home is located 30/40 minutes from the Tijuana / San Ysidro International border crossing and a few minutes away from Playas de Rosarito, to the south.

Contact Gerry:
US: 619 415 3143
Mexico: 110.52.664.631.2206

*The Real Del Mar Championship Golf Course is just across the highway from San Antonio

From Arlene:

I went across the border today (SENTRI lane) and asked the fella at the gate - I heard you cannot take aluminum cans, plastic bottles across, etc.

He said that is right.

I said why? Because the stores take a DEPOSIT and I want my money back.

He said it is a BUSINESS.

I said, oh, come on - that is STEALING. You are taking money as a DEPOSIT and I am only getting the DEPOSIT BACK. I am NOT gaining money - I am WASTING gas getting this stuff to you so it doesn't end up in the DUMPS. So I am out money!  Now, I said, WHAT IS THE REAL REASON THIS IS HAPPENING!!!!!!!! What you are telling me doesn't make sense???

He said this has been on the CUSTOMS' books for a very long time that you cannot take cans/plastics across the border - they have been very lenient - until NOW!!

I wasn't going to let him get away with it - I said, WHY?

He said, well, they found drugs in the center of these large bags crossing the border so CUSTOMS is stopping it COMPLETELY - Oh, I said, since I worked with a criminal law attorney for over 10 years, I knew you were telling me something fishy.

So it is the DRUG BUSINESS that is stopping the crossing of the aluminun cans, etc.?????  Pretty well, he said, that was right.

He said you can go to CUSTOMS in Otay Mesa and get the cans/plastics through that way. I said, Oh, geez, that means paperwork - and a cost involved??? Not worth it to me to cross with a bag every 8 to 9 months.

I would suggest anyone wanting to take cans/plastics across to check further with CUSTOMS and the SENTRI office to make sure you don't lose your SENTRI pass! I am sure if there are large amounts an organization is collecting to make some money, you can probably still do so if you go through CUSTOMS. But check first as to exactly what you have to do!!

BTW the Rosarito Theater Guild is no longer collecting cans and bottles

Twitter:

A quote from the 20th President of the United States, James Garfield,

as he delivered his centennial speech to Congress in 1876.

"Now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."

Posted with thanks to Lyle Davis.

Daylight Saving time In Baja California - 2010

Today, the last Sunday in October, daylight saving time fell back to Standard Time at 2:00 A.M. local time in Baja California and the rest of Mexico.

The Congress of Mexico passed legislation in December 2009 which allowed ten border municipios to adopt a daylight saving time pattern consistent with the United States. The municipalities which are now permitted by law to observe daylight saving time consistent with the United States are:

Municipality, State, neighboring U.S. city

Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila (Del Rio, Texas)

Anáhuac, Nuevo León (Laredo, Texas)

Juarez, Chihuahua (El Paso, Texas)

Matamoros, Tamaulipas (Brownsville, Texas)

Mexicali, Baja California (Calexico, California)

Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas (Laredo, Texas)

Ojinaga, Chihuahua (Presido, Texas)

Piedras Negras, Coahuila (Eagle Pass, Texas)

Reynosa, Tamaulipas (McAllen, Texas)

Tijuana, Baja California (San Ysidro, California)

The observation of daylight saving time for these ten municipalities began at 2:00 a.m. local time on the second Sunday in March, 2010. On the first Sunday in November, 2010, these areas will return to Standard Time at 2:00 a.m. local time.

Neither the American State of Arizona nor the Mexican state of Sonora observe Daylight Saving Time.

Personal and family counseling

We at Mission Logistics International offer personal and family counseling at no charge as a part of our Missionary activities here in the State of Baja California.  We are located in Playas de Rosarito. We can be reached at: (619) 274-8490 (this is a San Diego, California, telephone number) or at E-Mail address: chi_rhoskid@hotmail.com.  

BUSINESS CONSULTING

My name is David Wignall. I have over forty years of successful business experience. I started working when I was just seven years old, and owned my first business when I was nine years old. And I have been working ever since. My areas of expertise are in: general business; the food services industry; the transportation industry (with specialization in trucking, warehouse development and operations, and truck stop/travel plaza development and operations); and publishing (to include the production of advertising for the print media, radio, television, and billboards).

I have spent over two decades doing consulting in the above stated areas (to include the areas of finance recognition and development, demographics, and interfacing with government at every level; including internationally).

If you are looking to start up a business; or enhance/expand an existing one, please contact me at: (619)-274-8490, or E-Mail me at: chi_rhoskid@hotmail.com. Come on, let's talk! The coffee is on!!

Keiko the orca

Those of you who know me may have already guessed I am not always a patient man.  Moreover, I have an attitude about movies and plays.  They are like people.  Most of the ones you encounter are full of bullsh*t, and there is too much background music.  A few are very enjoyable.  Keiko the Untold Story was more than enjoyable, it was intense. Watching it was an experience.

I was not involved in any part of it during the four years it was being produced, and was only aware of the content in a general way.  My brief encounters with the movie staff were perplexing to me because my familiarity with the subject matter was superficial, and I did not understand why this group of intelligent and accomplished people were so adamant that the movie be produced.

After I viewed the screening last Friday, the entire production procedure made sense (some things take time for me to process). 

The movie is due for release in June and I highly recommend you see it with a couple of friends or family; do not go alone, and be ready to hang on for a hard ride.

Saludos,

Pat

Keiko the Untold Story, produced by Theresa Demarest, sceened on:

Friday, October 15 at 12 P.M., at the Sixth Annual LA Femme Film Festival -- Located at 1125 N McCadden Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90038-1212 – just off Santa Monica Blvd.

Phone: (323) 860-7302

The the Sixth Annual LA Femme Film Festival ran October 14- 17, 2010. Keiko the Untold Story screened at the Davidson Valentini Theater, The Village at Ed Gould Plaza in Hollywood, on Friday, October 15, at 12 P.M.

Four years in the making, this compelling documentary presents never before seen footage of Keiko, the Free Willy star, the first and only captive Orca to released back into the wild.  I believe you will find this movie very unique, worthwhile and superbly produced.

For more information see URL: http://www.keikotheuntoldstory.com/

Or Twitter: http://twitter.com/KeikoDoc
_________________________________________________

Review of Keiko: The Untold Story at Denver Film Festival, October, 2010
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Keiko the Untold Story USA, 2010, 74 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Animals, Art/Filmmaking, Documentary, Family Friendly
Program: Documentary Films
Language: English
DIRECTOR: Theresa Demarest
Producer: Theresa Demarest
Editor: Theresa Demarest
Screenwriter: Theresa Demarest
Cinematographer: Julie Murray

Principal Cast: Colin Baird, Mark Berman, Naomi Rose, Paul Spong, Thorbjorg Valdis

Though the orca whale known as Keiko starred in the 1993 movie Free Willy, he lived most of his life in captivity. It was only with the launch of a campaign based on drawings by schoolchildren that enough money was raised to rehabilitate him and return him to the wild. Those who trained and cared for Keiko, the second-longest-lived orca in captivity, believe it was his indomitable spirit that kept him alive so long.

The story of his life is told by director/producer/writer/editor Theresa Demarest through footage from an array of conservation and environmental organizations, including that of Jean-Michel Cousteau. Keiko the Untold Story was made in large part to counteract the widespread perception that the rehabilitation and release efforts were a failure and that Keiko died soon after his release into the waters off his native Iceland. In fact, the orca, carefully trained for two years, spent the transition traveling with pods of wild killer whales; undertaking a solo journey from Iceland to Norway; and living in a seawater fjord, attended by his trainers, for 18 months before his abrupt death from disease in late 2003 at the age of 27.

But new Keikos are born every day: the heartrending capture of another baby orca, caught on camera, is narrated by marine mammal scientists who go into depth about the structure of orca society and the suffering a young whale endures when confined to the concrete tanks of aquarium facilities. No less poignant are the scenes of young children expressing their shock, with indignant and quavering voices, that the lives of many Willies have no Hollywood ending.

—Val Moses

In cooperation with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Trafficking

One Sunday, sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer sees a car puttering along at 22 MPH.

He thinks to himself, "This driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!" So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.

Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies - two in the front seat and three in the back - wide eyed and white as ghosts. The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! I always go exactly the speed limit. What seems to be the problem?"

"Ma'am," the officer replies, "you weren't speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers."

"Slower than the speed limit? No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly! Twenty-two miles an hour!" the old woman says a bit proudly.

The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that "22" was the route number, not the speed limit.

A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.

"But before I let you go, Ma'am, I have to ask . . . Is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven't muttered a single peep this whole time," the officer asks with concern.

"Oh, they'll be all right in a minute officer. We just got off Route 119."

•••••

While creating Husbands, God promised Women that good and ideal Husbands would be found in all corners of the world.
And then he made the earth round.
Golf and Whisky...

An 80-year-old Scotsman went to the doctor for a check-up.

The doctor was amazed at what good shape the old fellow was in and asked: 'How do you stay in such great physical condition?'

'I am Scottish and I am a golfer,' said the old fellow: 'and that is why I am in such good shape. I am up well before daylight and out golfing up and down the fairways. I have a wee glass of whisky, and that's it.'

'Well,' said the doctor, 'I am sure that helps, but there has to be more to it. How old was your Dad when he died?'

'Who said my Dad died?'

The doctor was amazed. 'You mean you are 80 years old and your Dad is still alive. How old is he?'

'He is 100 years old,' said the old Scottish golfer. 'In fact he golfed wi' me this mornin', and then we went to the topless beach for a walk and had anither wee dram and that is why he is still alive. He is a Scot and he is a golfer, tae.'

'Well,' the doctor said, 'that is great, but I am sure there is more to it than that. How about your Dad's Dad? How old was he when he died?'

'Who said my Grandad is dead?'

Stunned, the doctor asked, 'You mean you are 80 years old and your grandfather is still living! Incredible, how old is he?'

'He is 118 years old,' said the old Scottish golfer.

The doctor was getting frustrated at this point: 'So, I guess he went golfing with you this morning too?'

'No. Grandad couldnae go this mornin' because he is getting married today.'

At this point the doctor was close to losing it. 'Getting married! Why would a 118 year-old Scotsman want to get married?'

'Who said he wanted to?'
South Dakota

A group of South Dakota friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night, one of the hunters, Curt, returned alone, staggering under the weight of an five by five buck.

"Where's Bob?" the others asked.

"Bob had a stroke of some kind. He's a couple of miles back up the trail," the successful hunter replied.
"You left Bob laying out there and carried the deer back?" they inquired.

"A tough call," nodded the hunter. "But I figured no one is going to steal Bob!"
Georgia

The owner of a golf course in Georgia was confused about paying an invoice, so he decided to ask his secretary for some mathematical help.

He called her into his office and said, "You graduated from the University of Georgia and I need some help. If I were to give you $20,000, minus 14%, how much would you take off?"

The secretary thought a moment, and then replied, "Everything but my earrings."
Louisiana

A senior at Louisiana was overheard saying ... "When the end of the world comes, I hope to be in Louisiana."

When asked why, he replied, "I'd rather be in Louisiana because everything happens in Louisiana 20 years later than in the rest of the civilized world."
North Carolina

A man in North Carolina had a flat tire, pulled off on the side of the road, and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers in front of the car and one behind it. Then he got back in the car to wait.

A passerby studied the scene as he drove by and was so curious he turned around and went back. He asked the fellow what the problem was.

The man replied, "I have a flat tire."

The passerby asked, "But what's with the flowers?"

The man responded, "When you break down they tell you to put flares in the front and flares in the back. I never did understand it neither."
Oklahoma

An Oklahoma State trooper pulled over a pickup on I-65. The trooper asked, "Got any ID?"

The driver replied, "Bout whut?"
Texas

The Sheriff pulled up next to the guy unloading garbage out of his pick-up into the ditch.

The Sheriff asked, "Why are you dumping garbage in the ditch? Don't you see that sign right over your head."

"Yep", he replied. "That's why I dumpin it here, cause it says: 'Fine For Dumping Garbage'."

You can say what you want about the South, but you never hear of anyone retiring and moving North.
A Norwegian’s Secret to a Long and Happy Marriage

At All Saints Lutheran Church they have a weekly husband's marriage seminar. Recently, the Pastor asked Ole - who was approaching his 50th Wedding Anniversary - to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he had managed to stay married to the same woman all these years.

'Vell,' Ole replied to the assembled husbands, 'I've tried to treat her nice, spend da money on her, but best of all I took her to Norvay for da 20th Anniversary!'

The Pastor responded, "Ole, you are an amazing inspiration to all the husbands here! Please tell us what you are planning for your for your 50th Anniversary."

Ole proudly replied, 'I'm a-gonna go back to Norvay and get her."
The Good Old Days

Remember the old-time Jewish comedians of Vaudeville days - Shecky Green, Red Buttons, Totie Fields, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, and others? You've may have only heard of them, but don't we all miss their their kind of humor?

Not a single swear word in their comic routines:

A car hit an elderly Jewish man. The paramedic says, "Are you comfortable?" The man says, "I make a good living."

I just got back from a pleasure trip. I took my mother-in-law to the airport.

I've been in love with the same woman for 49 years. If my wife finds out, she'll kill me!

What are three words a woman never wants to hear when she's making love? "Honey, I'm home."

Someone stole all my credit cards, but I won't be reporting it. The thief spends less than my wife did.

We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.

My wife and I went to a hotel where we got a waterbed. My wife calls it the Dead Sea.

My wife and I revisited the hotel where we spent our wedding night. This time I was the one who stayed in the bathroom and cried.

She was at the beauty shop for two hours. That was only for the estimate. She got a mudpack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.

The Doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill, so the doctor gave him another six months.

The Doctor called Mrs. Cohen saying, "Mrs. Cohen, your check came back." Mrs. Cohen replied, "So did my arthritis!"

Doctor: "You'll live to be 60!" Patient: "I AM 60!" Doctor: "See! What did I tell you?"

A doctor held a stethoscope up to a man's chest. The man asks, "Doc, how do I stand?" The doctor says, "That's what puzzles me!"

Patient: "I have a ringing in my ears." Doctor: "Don't answer!"

A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says, "You've been brought here for drinking." The drunk says "Okay, let's get started."

Why do Jewish divorces cost so much? They're worth it.

Why do Jewish men die before their wives? They want to.

The Harvard School of Medicine did a study of why Jewish women like Chinese food so much. The study revealed that the reason for this is because Won Ton spelled backward is Not Now.

There is a big controversy on the Jewish view of when life begins. In Jewish tradition, the fetus is not considered viable until it graduates from law school.

Q : Why don't Jewish mothers drink?
A : Alcohol interferes with their suffering.

Q : Have you seen the newest Jewish-American-Princess horror movie?
A : It's called, "Debbie Does Dishes."

Q : Why do Jewish mothers make great parole officers?
A : They never let anyone finish a sentence.

Q : What's a Jewish American Princess's favorite position?
A : Facing Bloomingdale's.

A man called his mother in Florida. "Mom, how are you?" Not too good," said the mother. "I've been very weak. "

The son said, "Why are you so weak?" She said, "Because I haven't eaten in 38 days."

The son said, "That's terrible. Why haven't you eaten in 38 days?"

The mother answered, "Because, I didn't want my mouth to be full in case you should call."

A Jewish man said that when he was growing up, they always had two choices for dinner - Take it or leave it.

A Jewish boy comes home from school and tells his mother he has a part in the play.

She asks, "What part is it?"

The boy says, "I play the part of the Jewish husband."

The mother scowls and says, "Go back and tell the teacher you want a speaking part."

Q : Where does a Jewish husband hide money from his wife?
A : Under the vacuum cleaner.

Q : How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?
A : (Sigh) "Don't bother. I'll sit in the dark. I don't want to be a nuisance to anybody."

A Poem
I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Bob, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

'And why is everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.'
'Hush, child,' He said,
'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.'
How To Ask for a Raise

Employee: Excuse me sir, may I talk to you?

Boss: Sure, come on in. What can I do for you?

Employee: Well sir, as you know, I have been an employee of this prestigious firm for over ten years. Sir, I would like a raise. I currently have four companies after me and so I decided to talk to you first.

Boss: A raise? I would love to give you a raise, but this is just not the right time.

Employee: I understand your position, and I know that the current economic down turn has had a negative impact on sales, but you must also take into consideration my hard work, pro-activeness and loyalty to this company for over a decade.

Boss: Taking into account these factors, and considering I don't want to start a brain drain, I'm willing to offer you a ten percent raise and an extra five days of vacation time. How does that sound?

Boss: Before you go, just out of curiosity, what companies were after you?

Employee: Oh, the electric company, gas company, water company and the mortgage company!

----- Forwarded Message ----


From: Dennis Vernacchia

Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 1:29:35 PM

Subject: Tom Martin's wife e-mail address book has been compromised - do not open mail from rbg3cm@aol.com

Mail from

rbg3cm@aol.com

Do not open - It directs you to a bogus site tha could possibly infect your computer with Trojan, Re-mailer or Virus

Tom Martin ( KG6RCW ) of Rancho Bernardo Glass is aware and taking care of issue

Dennis N6KI

The Mexican drug cartels now have a new source of revenue ($50 million for starters)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had not learned this information until someone had cut it out of the LA times and mailed it to a friend here in Mexico. He gave it to me today, voicing his great concern.

I can only comment that this is terrible news for everyone in North America, viz., the Mexican cartels are implementing systematic terrorist and kidnapping operations against PEMEX employees. PEMEX officials are completely dumbfounded and have no idea how to address the problem. The inherent ramifications of this situation are far-reaching. For this brief moment in time, the problem exists south of the border; but it will soon reach everyone’s doorstep who lives in North America.

The Mexican drug war has taken a very nasty turn; it is now the North American drug/oil war.

Holy sh*t, amigos; the cartel fracaso is becoming uglier. Cartel influence in the U.S. and Mexican economies is becoming more entrenched.

Pat

Don't leave home without your Lifesaver Card


By Ronald W. Jensen

Special to The Baja Times



Americans living in Mexico should know about the Binational Emergency Medical Care Committee: a reputable non-profit organization that will get them out of Mexico in case of a life-threatening medical emergency. Based in Chula Vista, California, the organization cost $45 to join. Membership includes the following services and benefits:

•A Lifesaver Card you can carry in your wallet that allows you to call collect anywhere in Mexico, 24 hours a day to activate emergency assistance in case of a sudden illness or accident.

•Expert coordination of your emergency evacuation from Mexico via land or air ambulance transport.

•Bilingual support staff on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

•Bilingual legal assistance.

•10% discount on auto insurance with Instant Mexico Auto Insurance Services.

•Annual membership renewal for a discounted price of $40.

As soon as your call is received, the Binational Emergency Care Committee – known by the acronym BEMCC – will immediately assist you in obtaining proper medical care while working on your safe return to the United States. By becoming a member, BEMCC will have all the information that is needed for your safe return.

Your personal information such as your Social Security number, health insurance information, and emergency contact is kept in BEMCC's secure database and is accessible only by the bilingual BEMCC staff. This information is crucial to arrange your evacuation to the United States when you are involved in a medical emergency in Mexico. This information is kept strictly confidential and is never sold or used for marketing purposes, according to Celia Diaz, the director and founder of BEMCC.

Your medical insurance will be billed for the cost of the actual transport plus any other medical service fees. BEMCC does not pay for the transport service. BEMCC coordinates the emergency evacuation. They eliminate the uncertainty and confusion during a medical emergency, she explained.

As a retired paramedic now living in Mexico, I have personally used and benefited from these services on numerous occasions. The organization has contacts ranging from Mexico City to Washington D.C., and it works closely with the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. consulates and numerous Mexican federal, state, and regional public safety agencies to facilitate the safe and timely return of sick and injured Americans traveling or living in Mexico.

Members can call collect from anywhere in Mexico 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to activate emergency medical or legal assistance. That number is: 619-425-5080.

You may also apply online or renew your current membership and pay with a credit card. All applications processed online will be active once BEMCC obtains credit card confirmation from their credit card merchant services organization. Your BEMCC Lifesaver Card will be sent to you via the US postal service.

The online address is: bemcc@bemcc.org

Jensen is a former Mexico correspondent for United Press International and other U.S. new agencies. Email address: bajaronjens@live.com

Mexican Radio call signs


The International Telecommunication Union has assigned Mexico the following call sign blocks for all radio communication, broadcasting or transmission:

Call sign block

XAA - XIZ

4AA - 4CZ

6DA - 6JZ

While not directly related to call signs, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) further has divided all countries assigned amateur radio prefixes into three regions; Mexico is located in ITU Region 2.   Mexico is in ITU zone 10 and CQ zone 6.

Call sign assignments for amateur radio

The Comision Federal de Telecomunicaciones issues call signs in the XE and XF series for amateur use, the latter mainly for offshore use.

The separating numeral is used to identify the region in which the amateur is licensed:

Call sign prefix Region

XE1: Central Mexico Colima, Distrito Federal (Federal District, most of Mexico City), Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico (the state surrounding the Distrito Federal on 3 sides, includes some parts of Mexico City), Michoacan, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla, Queretaro, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz

XE2: Northern Mexico Aguascalientes, Baja California (northern half of the peninsula), Baja California Sur (southern half of the peninsula), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas

XE3: Southern Mexico Campeche, Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Yucatan

XF1:  Islands around the Baja California peninsula in the Pacific Ocean or the northern part of the Gulf of California

XF2:  Close central islands off the Pacific coast of the Mexican mainland, in the Gulf of Mexico, or in the southern Gulf of California, generally west of 90°W.

XF3:  Caribbean islands Carribean islands, generally east of 90°W.

XF4, XFØ:  Revillagigedo Revillagigedo island group, in the Pacific Ocean
Call signs for foreign hams

Typically a permit to operate in Mexico will state the call sign you are to use, and can be one's home call sign with a further XE prefix. For instance if your home call sign is WA1ZZZ, you might be assigned XE1/WA1ZZZ.

Further, if you operate outside of the XE1 area, you would add a further identifying suffix - for instance XE1/WA1ZZZ/XE2 if you were operating in northern Mexico.  The call sign must be given always as enumerated on the permit, and the operator's location must also be stated in Spanish.

The permit does not automatically allow operation in XF island areas. Special permission must be sought for island operation.

Special Events

Call signs in the 6DA-6JZ block have been used for special event call sgins on a temporary basis. In 2007 6G1LM was assigned to Federacion Mexicana de Radioexperimentadoes for their 75th anniversary as was 6F75A.

6H1 also replaced the XE1 prefix, 6I2 replaced the XE2 prefix, and 6J3 replaced the XE3 prefix. 6E4 replaced XF4 for the Revillagigedo island group.

URL: http://links.assetize.com/links/c0b231 has further information.

Raw Food Diet in Rosarito

The Mongolian Grill News


August 2010

July has been an awesome month for us as well as for Rosarito businesses in general. Our sign on the freeway has brought many new customers our way as well as served as a reminder that we’re still here to those who haven’t visited us for a while. When you’re away for a spell, we really do miss you. We thrive on your repeat business.

We were pleased that USBC allowed us to cater their Hawaiian Luau luncheon. In addition to feeding the 104 people present, I had the opportunity to dance a few hula songs with some of the ladies from my dancercize class. It was fun for us even though we were a little nervous.

To shed a few pounds before dancing the hula, I went on a 5 day raw food diet and lost 7 pounds. The raw food diet is a diet based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed. I want to do it again for another 5 days and want to know if any of you want to join me. From all the ends and peelings of the vegetables that we cut up, I made a healthy broth. Everyday I heated the broth up and added raw veggies and cut up avocado to make a hearty soup. I also took melons, grapes and other fruits and blended them with spinach and other veggies to make a drink in the mornings. For snacks I had grapefruit, apples, and nuts (but not too many). I will be selling the soup for $60 pesos if you want to come in. Of course you can do it yourself at home, but I have all the veggies already cut up and vegetable broth, rich with vitamins. Your body gets a real good cleansing. The first 2 days are the hardest. Chris and I are starting tomorrow, Friday the 30th, but feel free to join us anytime.

For those of you who do not want to diet, come in and try our Thai Coconut Curry with Chicken, Shrimp and Bamboo Shoots. We will try to serve this every Friday and on some Saturdays.

Dancercize is free and is held on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 a.m. This coming Tuesday, August 3 will be the last class until August 24. NO DANCE CLASS FOR 2 WEEKS! We’ll be going to Rio de Janeiro for a week and then we need time to recuperate and catch up on things.

Our August Bunco luncheon will still be held on Wednesday, August 11 at 1:00 p.m. and we will be having our “make your own Asian Chicken Salad bar” available with our 3 different dressings (Chinese Rice Vinegarette, Mandarin Orange, and Thai Peanut) and toppings. The cost of $15 includes lunch, beverage, dessert, tip, and contribution toward Gift Certificate Prizes to other restaurants. For 24 players, we give out $40 for 1st place, $20 for 2nd place, $20 for lowest score, $20 for most buncos, and $10 gift certificates for highest scores in the 1st and 2nd rounds. Please email the_romeros@yahoo.com (underscore between “the” and “romeros”) to reserve a spot.

Hope to see you soon . . . Lee

Return to Tarawa/Ex-Marines chase phantoms at battle site

TOM HENNESSY Knight-Ridder Newspapers
SUN HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section A, Page 35, 2 STAR Edition

BETIO, Republic of Kiribati - The chartered plane, a British Aerospace 748, rumbled toward the island with determination, as if on a bombing run. Inside the cabin, gray-haired men peered through the windows at a lagoon. It was lime-colored on this Friday afternoon in November. But they remembered a time, 66 years ago, when it was pink with the blood of their Marine buddies. The men on the plane were survivors; returning to a place that meant terror and sorrow in the dark autumn of 1943.

Returning to Tarawa.

There were 27 of them aboard the plane. They came to this atoll 6,000 miles from California to dedicate a monument. And to chase phantoms.

"Buddies told me if I went back to Tarawa, I should watch for ghosts," said Pat Didlake of Glendora , Miss. "You might even see yourself there," they said. "In a way, a lot of us do think we're still there. There aren't too many days when you don't think about Tarawa ."
Most of them were 18 and 19 when they fought at Tarawa, then part of the Gilbert Islands and now belonging to the nine-year-old nation of Kiribati .

Today, the Marines of Tarawa are grandfathers, several of whom brought their wives to see the place that made headlines in 1943.

"The wives are looking for a lot of answers," said Dorothy Pavel of Captiva Island , Fla. "Over the years, every wife I've talked to - their husbands have gone through the same thing - nightmares, screaming at night."

The battle was a 76-hour hell, the first American amphibious assault on a heavily fortified island. During it, 1,113 Marines were killed, 2,290 wounded. Of the 4,832 Japanese defenders, only 17 survived.

The trip to Tarawa was arranged by Bob Reynolds, whose Sausalito , Calif. , travel agency, Valor Tours, has returned nearly 5,000 veterans to World War II battlegrounds, to places of sometimes terrifying memory. For almost all of them, said Reynolds, the trips are therapeutic.

"After them, we find wives and sons and daughters are hearing Dad speak (about combat) for the first time. For the (postwar) years, these guys were silent, inarticulate. `Dad doesn't talk about the war."'

At first, the Marines showed little emotion at seeing their old battleground, mostly because they did not recognize it.

When they left 65 years ago, Betio, the two-mile coral strand on which the battle took place, was an island with no native population, no structures save for Japanese bunkers, and no vegetation, all of the latter having been destroyed by shell fire.

But Betio (pronounced BESS-i-o) is now a lush island home for about 9,000 natives, which makes it something of a metropolis by Pacific Island standards.

"This is just not the same island we landed on 66 years ago," said Pete Pavel.

As the Sunday monument dedication ceremony concluded with a floral wreath thrown into the sea and the playing of taps, 66 years suddenly collapsed for the visiting Marines. Many wept openly for fallen friends, for their own youth lost to war, for years of nightmares and pain.

"As I looked out on the water, I did not see the wreath," said Paul Du Pre, a retired Marine colonel from Port Hueneme , Calif. "Instead, my mind's eye saw the floating bodies of my friends, the floating bodies I had seen in that very same area 60 years ago."

Before leaving, the survivors sought out the places on Betio that held the poignant individual memories.

Carroll Strider of Tryon, N.C., found the beach designated "Red Beach 3" during the invasion. "That's where I landed in the second wave. I started remembering that day and looked for where we went inland. And what I saw instead were houses and little children and families."

John Downing of Long Beach , Calif. , waded into the Tarawa 's lagoon, looking for his tank. The last time he saw it, on Nov. 20, 1943, it was tumbling from a bombed landing craft and plunging, upside down, into the sea. After an afternoon's search, Downing failed to locate it, but did find a wrecked tank that belonged to his battalion.

Angelo Pace of Riverside , Calif. , strolled the beach where he had been wounded and was stopped by a native offering a gift, a canteen. The man obviously had saved the war relic for years. "But when he put it in my hands," says Pace, "I immediately felt hostile. I couldn't accept it. It was a Japanese canteen."

On a plane taking the Marines back to the United States , a flight attendant in her early 20s sat down beside a passenger. She was curious about the group of gray-haired men on board.

"They are Marines," she was told. "They fought at the Battle of Tarawa in 1943 at other battles in World War II."

"Who were they fighting?"

"The Japanese."

She weighed that information momentarily, then asked: "Who won?"

Originally posted on a Yahoo discussion group; I am posting it here for the convenience of regular readers of this blog:

BP GULF OIL DISASTER

Another oil rig operated by BP apparently is at risk of creating a bigger spill

CBS interview with Mike Williams, Oil Rig Worker

The gusher unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spew crude oil. There are no reliable estimates of how much oil is pouring into the gulf. But it comes to many millions of gallons since the catastrophic blowout. Eleven men were killed in the explosions that sank one of the most sophisticated drilling rigs in the world, the "Deepwater Horizon."

This week Congress continues its investigation, but Capitol Hill has not heard from the man "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley met: Mike Williams, one of the last crewmembers to escape the inferno.

He says the destruction of the Deepwater Horizon had been building for weeks in a series of mishaps. The night of the disaster, he was in his workshop when he heard the rig's engines suddenly run wild. That was the moment that explosive gas was shooting across the decks, being sucked into the engines that powered the rig's generators.

"I hear the engines revving. The lights are glowing. I'm hearing the alarms. I mean, they're at a constant state now. It's just, 'Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.' It doesn't stop. But even that's starting to get drowned out by the sound of the engine increasing in speed. And my lights get so incredibly bright that they physically explode. I'm pushing my way back from the desk when my computer monitor exploded," Williams told Pelley.

The rig was destroyed on the night of April 20. Ironically, the end was coming only months after the rig's greatest achievement.

Mike Williams was the chief electronics technician in charge of the rig's computers and electrical systems. And seven months before, he had helped the crew drill the deepest oil well in history, 35,000 feet.

"It was special. There's no way around it. Everyone was talking about it. The congratulations that were flowing around, it made you feel proud to work there," he remembered.

Williams worked for the owner, Transocean, the largest offshore drilling company. Like its sister rigs, the Deepwater Horizon cost $350 million, rose 378 feet from bottom to top. Both advanced and safe, none of her 126 crew had been seriously injured in seven years.

The safety record was remarkable, because offshore drilling today pushes technology with challenges matched only by the space program.

Deepwater Horizon was in 5,000 feet of water and would drill another 13,000 feet, a total of three miles. The oil and gas down there are under enormous pressure. And the key to keeping that pressure under control is this fluid that drillers call "mud."

"Mud" is a manmade drilling fluid that's pumped down the well and back up the sides in continuous circulation. The sheer weight of this fluid keeps the oil and gas down and the well under control.

The tension in every drilling operation is between doing things safely and doing them fast; time is money and this job was costing BP a million dollars a day.

But Williams says there was trouble from the start - getting to the oil was taking too long.  Williams said they were told it would take 21 days; according to him, it actually took six weeks.

With the schedule slipping, Williams says a BP manager ordered a faster pace.

"And he requested to the driller, 'Hey, let's bump it up. Let's bump it up.' And what he was talking about there is he's bumping up the rate of penetration. How fast the drill bit is going down," Williams said.

Williams says going faster caused the bottom of the well to split open, swallowing tools and that drilling fluid called "mud."

"We actually got stuck. And we got stuck so bad we had to send tools down into the drill pipe and sever the pipe," Williams explained. That well was abandoned and Deepwater Horizon had to drill a new route to the
oil. It cost BP more than two weeks and millions of dollars.

"We were informed of this during one of the safety meetings, that somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million was lost in bottom hole assembly and 'mud.'  And you always kind of knew that in the back of your mind when they start throwing these big numbers around that there was gonna be a push coming, you know? A push to pick up production and pick up the pace," Williams said.

Asked if there was pressure on the crew after this happened, Williams told Pelley, "There's always pressure, but yes, the pressure was increased."

But the trouble was just beginning: when drilling resumed, Williams says there was an accident on the rig that has not been reported before. He says, four weeks before the explosion, the rig's most vital piece of safety equipment was damaged.

Down near the seabed is the blowout preventer, or BOP. It's used to seal the well shut in order to test the pressure and integrity of the well, and, in case of a blowout, it's the crew's only hope.  A key component is a rubber gasket at the top called an "annular," which can close tightly around the drill pipe.

Williams says, during a test, they closed the gasket. But while it was shut tight, a crewman on deck accidentally nudged a joystick, applying hundreds of thousands of pounds of force, and moving 15 feet of drill pipe through the closed blowout preventer.  Later, a man monitoring drilling fluid rising to the top made a troubling find.

"He discovered chunks of rubber in the drilling fluid. He thought it was important enough to gather this double handful of chunks of rubber and bring them into the driller shack. I recall asking the supervisor if this was out of the ordinary. And he says, 'Oh, it's no big deal.' And I thought, 'How can it be not a big deal? There's chunks of our seal is now missing,'" Williams told Pelley.

And, Williams says, he knew about another problem with the blowout preventer.

The BOP is operated from the surface by wires connected to two control pods; one is a back-up.  Williams says one pod lost some of its function weeks before.

Transocean tells us the BOP was tested by remote control after these incidents and passed.  But nearly a mile below, there was no way to know how much damage there was or whether the pod was unreliable.

In the hours before the disaster, Deepwater Horizon's work was nearly done.  All that was left was to seal the well closed.  The oil would be pumped out by another rig later.  Williams says, that during a safety meeting, the manager for the rig owner, Transocean, was explaining how they were going to close the well when the manager from BP interrupted.

"I had the BP company man sitting directly beside me. And he literally perked up and said 'Well my process is different.  And I think we're gonna do it this way.'  And they kind of lined out how he thought it should go that day.  So there was short of a chest-bumping kind of deal.  The communication seemed to break down as to who was ultimately in charge," Williams said.

On the day of the accident, several BP managers were on the Deepwater Horizon for a ceremony to congratulate the crew for seven years without an injury.  While they where there a surge of explosive gas came flying up the well from three miles below.  The rig's diesel engines which power its electric generators sucked in the gas and began to run wild.

"I'm hearing hissing. Engines are over-revving. And then all of a sudden, all the lights in my shop just started getting brighter and brighter and brighter.  And I knew then something bad was getting ready to happen," Williams told Pelley.

It was almost ten at night. And directly under the Deepwater Horizon there were four men in a fishing boat, Albert Andry, Dustin King, Ryan Chaisson and Westley Bourg.

"When I heard the gas comin' out, I knew exactly what it was almost immediately," Bourg recalled.

"When the gas cloud was descending on you, what was that like?" Pelley asked.

"It was scary. And when I looked at it, it burned my eyes. And I knew we had to get out of there," Andry recalled.

Andry said he knew the gas was methane.

On the rig, Mike Williams was reaching for a door to investigate the engine noise.

"These are three inch thick, steel, fire-rated doors with six stainless steel hinges supporting 'em on the frame. As I reach for the handle, I heard this awful hissing noise, this whoosh.  And at the height of the hiss, a huge
explosion.  The explosion literally rips the door from the hinges, hits, impacts me and takes me to the other side of the shop.  And I'm up against a wall, when I finally come around, with a door on top of me.  And I remember thinking to myself, 'You know, this, this is it. I'm gonna die right here,'" Williams remembered.

Meanwhile, the men on the fishing boat had a camera, capturing the flames on the water.

"I began to crawl across the floor.  As I got to the next door, it exploded.  And took me, the door, and slid me about 35 feet backwards again.  And planted me up against another wall. At that point, I actually got angry. I was mad at the doors. I was mad that these fire doors that are supposed to protect me are hurting me. And at that point, I made a decision. 'I'm going to get outside. I may die out there, but I'm gonna get outside.' So I crawl across the grid work of the floor and make my way to that opening, where I see the light. I made it out the door and I thought to myself, 'I've accomplished what I set out to accomplish.  I made it outside.  At least now I can breathe.  I may die out here, but I can breathe,'" Williams said.

Williams couldn't see; something was pouring into his eyes and that's when he noticed a gash in his forehead.

"I didn't know if it was blood. I didn't know if it was brains. I didn't know if it was flesh.  I didn't know what it was.  I just knew there was, I was, I was in trouble.  At that point I grabbed a lifejacket, I was on the aft lifeboat deck there were two functioning lifeboats at my disposal right there.  But I knew I couldn't board them. I had responsibilities," he remembered.  His responsibility was to report to the bridge, the rig's command centre.

"I'm hearing alarms. I'm hearing radio chatter, 'May day! May day! We've lost propulsion! We've lost power! We have a fire! Man overboard on the starboard forward deck,'" Williams remembered.

Williams says that, on the bridge, he watched them try to activate emergency systems.  "The BOP that was supposed to protect us and keep us from the blowout obviously had failed.  And now, the emergency disconnect to get us away from this fuel source has failed.  We have no communications to the BOP," he explained.

"And I see one of the lifeboats in the water, and it's motoring away from the vessel. I looked at the captain and asked him.  I said, 'What's going on?'  He said, 'I've given the order to abandon ship,'" Williams said.

Every Sunday they had practiced lifeboat drills and the procedure for making sure everyone was accounted for. But in the panic all that went to hell. The lifeboats were leaving.

"They're leaving without you?" Pelley asked.

"They have left, without the captain and without knowing that they had everyone that had survived all this onboard.  I've been left now by two lifeboats.  And I look at the captain and I said, 'What do we do now? By now, the fire is not only on the derrick, it's starting to spread to the deck. At that point, there were several more explosions, large, intense explosions," Williams said.

Asked what they felt and sounded like, Williams said, "It's just take-your-breath-away type explosions, shake your body to the core explosions.

Take your vision away from the percussion of the explosions."

About eight survivors were left on the rig.  They dropped an inflatable raft from a crane, but with only a few survivors on the raft, it was launched, leaving Williams, another man, and a crewwoman named Andrea.

"I remember looking at Andrea and seeing that look in her eyes. She had quit.

She had given up. I remember her saying, 'I'm scared.' And I said, 'It's okay to be scared. I'm scared too.' She said, 'What are we gonna do?' I said, 'We're gonna burn up. Or we're gonna jump,'" Williams remembered.  Williams estimates it was a 90-100 foot jump down.

In the middle of the night, with blood in his eyes, fire at his back and the sea ten stories below, Williams made his choice.

"I remember closing my eyes and sayin' a prayer, and asking God to tell my wife and my little girl that Daddy did everything he could and if, if I survive this, it's for a reason. I made those three steps, and I pushed off the end of the rig. And I fell for what seemed like forever. A lotta things go through your mind," he remembered.

With a lifejacket, Williams jumped feet first off the deck and away from the inferno. He had witnessed key events before the disaster.  But if he was going to tell anyone, he would have to survive a ten-story drop into the sea.

"I went down way, way below the surface, obviously. And when I popped back up, I felt like, 'Okay, I've made it.'  But I feel this God-awful burning all over me.  And I'm thinking, 'Am I on fire?' You know, I just don't know.  So I start doin' the only thing I know to do, swim. I gotta start swimmin', I gotta get away from this thing. I could tell I was floatin' in oil and grease and, and diesel fuel.

I mean, it's just the smell and the feel of it," Williams remembered.

"And I remember lookin' under the rig and seein' the water on fire.  And I thought, 'What have you done? You were dry, and you weren't covered in oil up there, now you've jumped and you've made this, and you've landed in oil.  The fire's gonna come across the water, and you're gonna burn up.'  And I thought,

'You just gotta swim harder.' So I swam, and I kicked and I swam and I kicked and I swam as hard as I could until I remember not feelin' any more pain, and I didn't hear anything.  And I thought, 'Well, I must have burned up, 'cause I don't feel anything, I don't hear anything, I don't smell anything. I must be dead.' And I remember a real faint voice of, 'Over here, over here.' I thought, 'What in the world is that?'  And the next thing I know, he grabbed my lifejacket and flipped me over into this small open bow boat.  I didn't know who he was, I didn't know where he'd come from, I didn't care.  I was now out of the water," he  added.

Williams' survival may be critical to the investigation. We took his story to Dr. Bob Bea, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Last week, the White House asked Bea to help analyze the Deepwater Horizon accident. Bea investigated the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster for NASA and the Hurricane Katrina disaster for the National Science Foundation. Bea's voice never completely recovered from the weeks he spent in the flood in New Orleans.

But as the White House found, he's among the nation's best, having investigated more than 20 offshore rig disasters.

"Mr. Williams comes forward with these very detailed elements from his viewpoint on a rig. That's a brave and intelligent man," Bea told Pelley.

"What he's saying is very important to this investigation, you believe?" Pelley asked.

"It is," the professor replied.

What strikes Bea is Williams' description of the blowout preventer. Williams says in a drilling accident four weeks before the explosion, the critical rubber gasket, called an "annular," was damaged and pieces of it started coming out of the well.

"According to Williams, when parts of the annular start coming up on the deck someone from Transocean says, `Look, don't worry about it.'  What does that tell you?" Pelley asked.

"Houston we have a problem," Bea replied.

Here's why that's so important: the annular is used to seal the well for pressure tests. And those tests determine whether dangerous gas is seeping in.

"So if the annular is damaged, if I understand you correctly, you can't do the pressure tests in a reliable way?" Pelley asked.

"That's correct. You may get pressure test recordings, but because you're leaking pressure, they are not reliable," Bea explained.

Williams also told us that a backup control system to the blowout preventer called a pod had lost some of its functions.

"What is the standard operating procedure if you lose one of the control pods?" Pelley asked.

"Re-establish it, fix it. It's like losing one of your legs," Bea said.

"The morning of the disaster, according to Williams, there was an argument in front of all the men on the ship between the Transocean manager and the BP manager. Do you know what that argument is about?" Pelley asked.

Bea replied, "Yes," telling Pelley the argument was about who was the boss.

In finishing the well, the plan was to have a subcontractor, Halliburton, place three concrete plugs, like corks, in the column. The Transocean manager wanted to do this with the column full of heavy drilling fluid - what drillers call "mud" - to keep the pressure down below contained. But the BP manager wanted to begin to remove the "mud" before the last plug was set. That would reduce the pressure controlling the well before the plugs were finished.

Asked why BP would do that, Bea told Pelley, "It expedites the subsequent steps."

"It's a matter of going faster," Pelley remarked.

"Faster, sure," Bea replied.

Bea said BP had won that argument.

"If the 'mud' had been left in the column, would there have been a blowout?" Pelley asked.

"It doesn't look like it," Bea replied.

To do it BP's way, they had to be absolutely certain that the first two plugs were keeping the pressure down.  That life or death test was done using the blowout preventer which Mike Williams says had a damaged gasket.

Investigators have also found the BOP had a hydraulic leak and a weak battery.

"Weeks before the disaster they know they are drilling in a dangerous formation, the formation has told them that," Pelley remarked.

"Correct," Bea replied.

"And has cost them millions of dollars. And the blowout preventer is broken in a number of ways," Pelley remarked.  "Correct," Bea replied.

Asked what would be the right thing to do at that point, Bea said, "I express it to my students this way, 'Stop, think, don't do something stupid.'"

They didn't stop. As the drilling fluid was removed, downward pressure was relieved; the bottom plug failed. The blowout preventer didn't work. And 11 men were incinerated; 115 crewmembers survived.

And two days later, the Deepwater Horizon sank to the bottom.

This was just the latest disaster for a company that is the largest oil producer in the United States. BP, once known as British Petroleum, was found wilfully negligent in a 2005 Texas refinery explosion that killed of its 15 workers. BP was hit with $108 million in fines - the highest workplace safety fines in U.S. history.

Now, there is new concern about another BP facility in the Gulf: a former BP insider tells us the platform "Atlantis" is a greater threat than the Deepwater Horizon.

Ken Abbott has worked for Shell and GE. And in 2008 he was hired by BP to manage thousands of engineering drawings for the Atlantis platform.

"They serve as blueprints and also as a operator manual, if you will, on how to make this work, and more importantly how to shut it down in an emergency," Abbott explained.

But he says he found that 89 percent of those critical drawings had not been inspected and approved by BP engineers. Even worse, he says 95 percent of the underwater welding plans had never been approved either.

"Are these welding procedures supposed to be approved in the paperwork before the welds are done?" Pelley asked.

"Absolutely. Yeah," Abbott replied. "They're critical."

Abbott's charges are backed up by BP internal e-mails. In 2008, BP manager Barry Duff wrote that the lack of approved drawings could result in "catastrophic operator errors," and "currently there are hundreds if not thousands of Subsea documents that have never been finalized."

Duff called the practice "fundamentally wrong."

"I've never seen this kind of attitude, where safety doesn't seem to matter and when you complain of a problem like Barry did and like I did and try to fix it, you're just criticized and pushed aside," Abbott said.

Abbott was laid off. He took his concerns to a consumer advocacy group called Food & Water Watch. They're asking Congress to investigate. And he is filing suit in an attempt to force the federal government to shut down Atlantis.

"The Atlantis is still pumping away out there, 200,000 barrels a day, and it will be four times that in a year or two when they put in all 16 wells. If something happens there, it will make the Deepwater Horizon look like a bubble in the water by comparison," Abbott said.  In an e-mail, BP told us the Atlantis crew has all the documents it needs to run the platform safely.  We also wanted BP's perspective on the Deepwater Horizon
disaster.

The company scheduled an interview with its CEO, Tony Hayward. Then, they cancelled, saying no one at BP could sit down with "60 Minutes" for this report.

In other interviews, Hayward says this about Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon: "The responsibility for safety on the drilling rig is with Transocean. It is their rig, their equipment, their people, their systems, their safety processes."

"When BP's chief executive Tony Hayward says, 'This is Transocean's accident,' what do you say?" Pelley asked Professor Bea.

"I get sick. This kind of division in the industry is a killer.  The industry is comprised of many organizations. And they all share the responsibility for successful operations.  And to start placing, we'll call it these barriers, and pointing fingers at each other, is totally destructive," he replied.

Asked who is responsible for the Deepwater Horizon accident, Bea said, "BP."

We went out on the Gulf and found mats of thick floating oil. No one has a fix on how much oil is shooting out of the well. But some of the best estimates suggest it's the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every four to seven days.

Scientists are now reporting vast plumes of oil up to ten miles long under the surface.

The spill has cost BP about $500 million so far. But consider, in just the first three months this year, BP made profits of $6 billion.  There are plenty of accusations to go around that BP pressed for speed, Halliburton's cement plugs failed, and Transocean damaged the blowout preventer.

Through all the red flags, they pressed ahead.  It was, after all, the Deepwater Horizon, the world record holder, celebrated as among the safest in the fleet.

"Men lost their lives," survivor Mike Williams told Pelley. "I don't know how else to say it. All the things that they told us could never happen, happened."the first three months this year, BP made profits of $6 billion.

There are plenty of accusations to go around that BP pressed for speed, Halliburton's cement plugs failed, and Transocean damaged the blowout preventer.

Through all the red flags, they pressed ahead. It was, after all, the Deepwater Horizon, the world record holder, celebrated as among the safest in the fleet.

"Men lost their lives," survivor Mike Williams told Pelley.  "I don't know how else to say it.  All the things that they told us could never happen, happened."

From the "America's Most Wanted" website:

Charles Mark Maxey -- High-Rolling Swindler Makes Millions, Lives High Life -- May be in TJ

Charles Mark Maxey is believed to be the figurehead of the now-defunct internet-based ponzi scheme called EZBucks.

For a brief time, cops say Charles Mark Maxey lived the American dream. He reveled in the excesses of capitalism, driving exotic cars and making absurd amounts of money faster than he could spend it.

But according to the FBI, he was one of the most prolific fraudsters of the early millennium's infamous dot-com boom. Authorities allege that in a rather small time frame, Maxey swindled millions of dollars from thousands of people throughout the world.

It all started in 2002, when Maxey devised EZBucks, which the FBI has deemed to be a net-based ponzi scheme.
From his home in San Diego, Maxey registered the EZBucks domain in the U.K. and offered investors the opportunity to receive substantial returns on their investments.

But according to the site's Frequently Asked Questions section, "EZBucks is a private program and to protect our competitive advantage in the industry, we cannot offer the source of our investments to the public."

And for the longest time, no one questioned EZBucks' investment methodology -- that is, until the losses started piling up. Eventually, the victims of EZBucks' scam wised up, and many contacted the feds.
The FBI got involved in the EZBucks saga when allegations came forth that some investors -- both domestic and international -- were receiving nothing in return from EZBucks. As a matter of fact, quite a few investors lost nearly every dollar they'd spent with them. In some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars disappeared in the click of a mouse button.

The FBI says the scheme worked like this: Investors would buy, for example, $200 worth of gold from a legitimate West Indies-based corporation called E-Gold. Then, they'd deposit their E-Gold credits into a different E-Gold account, operated by EZBucks.

Within 30 days, EZBucks' Terms of Service stated that the investors would receive varying rates of return on their deposits: 1) a 2 percent return, every day for 365 consecutive days, with a minimum deposit of $1; 2) a 200 percent return on deposits after 30 days, with a minimum deposit of $25; and 3) a 300 percent return on deposits of $5,000 after 30 days.

As promised, within a month, the investors' EZBucks account would indeed show that their account balance had grown significantly -- only EZBucks wouldn't allow some investors to access their funds, keeping any and all returns to itself.

Though some folks did get to cash out their earnings, many did not.

In February 2003, about eight months after EZBucks went into “business”, the FBI tried to access the EZBucks website. When an error message appeared on their browsers stating, "This site has been temporarily suspended. Please contact technical support," the Bureau knew something was awry.

By the time the FBI would uncover the lengths EZBucks went to in order to stay ahead of law enforcement, it was too late. The company was defunct.

According to the FBI, EZBucks' figurehead, Charles Mark Maxey, hit the road with a ton of cash lining his wallets. Some estimates put his take at more than $4 million dollars.

Now authorities need your help to bring this alleged fraudster down.

FBI Hopes To Detain Alleged Fraudster With Public's Help

The FBI alleges that Mark Maxey lives a life of luxury, while those who invested in EZBucks must regain their trust in humanity.

With Maxey's “earnings” from the EZBucks scam, the FBI tells AMW that he purchased a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee in November 2002.

But that was just the beginning of his spending spree.

Less than six weeks later, a stretched limo pulled into a San Diego Jaguar dealer's sales lot. Inside the luxury car, Maxey and a female acquaintance were seen downing expensive champagne, toasting one another like they owned the world.

That afternoon, authorities allege Maxey used his newfound funds to buy a late-model Jaguar sports car, retailing for almost $100,000.

Though the Jeep and the Jaguar have since been repossessed by the feds, they say Maxey still has plenty of cash at his disposal.

He has connections throughout the southwest, including San Diego and Houston -- though authorities believe he may be hiding out in Tijuana.

Wherever he is, Maxey may be using a number of aliases, including Allan Bennett or Danny Jacobs. Maxey is an only child, and authorities tell us he's paranoid about law enforcement. His alleged paranoia stems from the belief that the FBI is not a real entity and that a shadowy government agency is trying to track him down.

For instance, when an FBI agent in Southern California tried contacting Maxey by phone, authorities say Maxey would not cooperate because he felt something was not right.

Then, to quell his fears, that same FBI agent told Maxey to meet him in person at the FBI building in San Diego -- but again, Maxey was skeptical and never showed.

A short time later, it's believed Maxey high-tailed it to Mexico, leaving his Jeep at the border -- with his dog still inside it. He then called a friend and told them to pick the vehicle up. Maxey hasn't been seen since.

Spiritual Scammer On The Lam

Charles Mark Maxey is an extremely spiritual individual, and is affiliated with the "Order of Thelema" and "Mission Vi."

Maxey is known to seek the guidance of spiritual advisers -- and with the hefty funds the FBI claims is at his disposal, he is able to afford the best ones money can buy.

As a matter of fact, Maxey is so devoted to his spirituality, authorities allege that he gave the Jaguar to the Order of Thelema as a gift. Unfortunately, the FBI seized it from them, as it was one of the largest assets Maxey was known to have purchased with his EZBucks funds.

Though life as he knew it came to an abrupt end in the months following his March 2004 indictment, Maxey has managed to remain on the lam for more than five years. He probably has the funds to stay free for even longer, but the FBI wants to make sure that doesn't happen.

If you know where Charles Mark Maxey is hiding out, you've got to call our Hotline right away at 1-800-CRIME-TV 1-800-CRIME-TV .