More boring stuff from the Net :|

• nrc.nl – International – Features – Female rats, like women, need each other to relieve stress
  Exposure to stress increases brain activity in both sexes, but females have more difficulty sustaining that activity. At a certain point they overload, after which their brain sort of shuts down and psychiatric disorders can develop.

  "There is a limit to brain activity", Ter Horst explains. "And because the natural level in the female brain activity is closer to that saturation point, they reach it sooner when suffering from stress."

  (tags: females)
• Figures of Speech – Teach a Kid to Argue
  Why on earth would any parent want that? Because persuasion is powerful. Rhetoric originated in the lawsuits of ancient Greece, when citizens who weren’t good at persuading could lose their houses — or their lives. It was a staple of education until the early 1800s, teaching society’s elite how to debate, make public decisions, and reach consensus. It probably explains how the founding fathers managed to carve a nation out of 13 squabbling colonies.
  (tags: arguments)

More boring stuff from the Net :|

• Figures of Speech – Teach a Kid to Argue
  Why on earth would any parent want that? Because persuasion is powerful. Rhetoric originated in the lawsuits of ancient Greece, when citizens who weren’t good at persuading could lose their houses — or their lives. It was a staple of education until the early 1800s, teaching society’s elite how to debate, make public decisions, and reach consensus. It probably explains how the founding fathers managed to carve a nation out of 13 squabbling colonies.
  (tags: arguments)

More boring stuff from the Net :|

• Study confirms mothers-in-law are the chief cause of divorces
  Data in the Malaysia Community and Family Study 2004 by the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) revealed that “meddlesome in-laws” is the number one reason why Indian couples get divorced.

  It is also among the top three factors for divorce among the Malays and Chinese. The other two factors are incompatibility (42.3%) and infidelity (12%).

  (tags: lol)

More boring stuff from the Net :|

• Why men should not sit down to urinate – The Naked Scientists 2009.05.17
  Make your woman happy.

  Be clean and green.

  Piss in the sink!

  (tags: lol)
• (tags: relocating)
• Lifehacker – Top 10 Skills to Master Your Grill – Grilling
  There's something about grilling food outdoors that's both exhilarating and terrifying. It's great to commune with your food in such a straight-up way, but what if it goes wrong? We're here to help overcome your fear of the flame, or step up your grilling game, with these 10 techniques.
  (tags: grill)
• Food & Dining: Affordable Steaks (washingtonpost.com)
  Tony Rosenfeld's recommendations for nine affordable cuts of beef that are made for summer grilling. Gotta check out the chuck-eye next time!!!
  (tags: steak)

Oil rigs…

Current situation in the market is that every single operator out there are looking to cut their costs by renegotiating their contracts, especially on the day rates of oil rigs which has reached crazy figures of 250k/day for a jack-up! And it looks like some rig owners are starting to bend to the operator wishes.

I do not have all the details but there were rumours that somewhere in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, one of Noble Corp's (NYSE:NE) drilling jack-up rigs was loaned out to serve as a accomodation unit for a platform while there were ohers saying Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) refused to lower their prices and rather let their rigs sit in the yard. But considering Transocean currently owns most of the deepwater & ultra-deepwater drilling rigs around the world and they are still in demand despite the current oil prices, they can comfortably absorb the losses.

Anyway, on the subject of oil rigs, it's obvious some companies have spreaded themselves too thin but considering oil prices might recover in a year or two & it typically takes 3-5 years to build a new one, a chance to buy up one of these weakened companies doesn't look like a remote possibility anymore to bigger more established companies like Transocean (NYSE:RIG), Noble (NYSE:NE), Ensco (NYSE:ESV), Nabors (NYSE:NBR), Diamond Offshore (NYSE:DO) or those who are traditionally strong in the land rig business like Helmerich & Payne, Inc (NYSE:HP). I've been looking at the following recently:

Hercules Offshore, Inc (NASDAQ: HERO) – 29 jack-ups, 27 barge rigs, 3 submersibles (but cold-stacked)! Quite a fleet, but what's up with the cold-stacked submersibles! But with most of the rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico/US Gulf Coast, it might not be faring too well with the current reduced demand of rigs, especially shallow ones.

Atwood Oceanics, Inc (NYSE: ATW) – 4 semisubs, another 2 on order to be delivered in 2011 & 2012 respectively and 5 jack-ups/tender rigs looks like a sizeable addition to any company's deepwater expansion!

Any thoughts anyone?