Update On The Tesoro Pipeline Spill In North Dakota In 2013 -- December 18, 2016

The Associated Press updates the "massive oil spill" that occurred in North Dakota back in 2013. It was picked up by Google!Finance.

This made the top-story-list at the blog back in 2013. From the blog October 11, 2013:

Previously reported, but this is the top story in the second section: North Dakota pipeline spills 20,000 barrels. A Tesoro Logistics crude pipeline spilled about 20,000 barrels of oil in a rural field in northwest North Dakota, in what appears to be the largest spill in the Bakken shale formation to date.  It appears The Dickinson Press missed scoop on the top North Dakota story of 2013. I think it was reported first in The Bismarck Tribune but could be wrong. [Update, October 31, 2013: it appears the pipe spill was due to a lightning strike.]

Much could be said but perhaps for another day.

List of pipeline spills in the US, by year.

Crude oil pipeline spills, annual amount:

North Dakota produces around one million bbls of crude oil per day. Most of the crude oil North Dakota produces is transported out of state, either by rail or by pipeline. 

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The History Page

Ivory Vikings: 

The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them 

Nancy Marie Brown

c. 2015 

 

The other day I said I wasn't going to post any more notes on this book on the blog. I would continue the notes elsewhere.

But after writing about the bishops (originally elephants), I thought it would be interesting to continue the story with .... the rooks. But much more briefly.

Arabic rukh: chariot. 

Chess originated in India; through Persia, then continental Europe, and finally to England and Iceland.

When passing through Persia, chess men became chess pieces because Islam prohibited/prohibits the carving of idols. 

The Lewis chess men: nine are carved of Greenland walrus; the other three of whale's tooth (not as good as walrus tusk).

The Lewis chess rooks are warriors; more specifically "berserks." They are neither chariots (Indian) nor towers (modern).

Berserks are "late" Norse inventions.

Berserks: etymology -- "bear-shirts." Some wore wolf skins.

Harald's Lay is the earliest known mention of berserks.

Baghdad, during the Islamic expansion in the 5th to the 8th century knew of the raiders from the north. Traders from the north were call "Rus" by medieval writers; we would call them Vikings. The Vikings made it all the way to Baghdad to trade; they passed themselves off as Christians in order to pay lower taxes.