I hear how has gas prices are going to go up. This is because the refineries are gearing up for summer gas. What is the difference between summer gas and regular gas?
Gas prices have been climbing all month, partly because demand always increases in the spring and summer and partly because gas supplies dwindle when the oil companies try to deplete their inventory before switching over to "summer gas."
Summer gas is a blend of gasoline that is slightly cleaner than "winter gas." Oil companies make it by removing hydrocarbons that are more likely to evaporate in warmer weather, react with airborne pollutants and cause smog. It is slightly more expensive than winter gas, by a couple of cents a gallon.
The changeover in blends is required by 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, begins on June 1 and ends Sept. 15. Summer gas was first sold in 1995, and a cleaner version came out in 2000.
If the gas is cleaner and not that much more expensive, you might wonder, why not use it year-round? According to experts, the summer blend can make engines harder to start in cold weather.
A hot spot: Death Valley details
Why is Death Valley one of the hottest places in the world?
Death Valley, Calif., about 130 miles west of Las Vegas, is the lowest, hottest, driest place in North America. It is about 140 miles long and from 5 to 15 miles wide. Nearly 550 square miles are below sea level.
Death Valley itself is a large desert trough nearly surrounded by mountains. Most rainfall is blocked by the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west, accounting for the valley's Death Valley's extreme aridity.
A record North American high shaded air temperature of 134 degrees was recorded in 1913. Summer temps often exceed 120. The hottest summer on record, in 1996, saw temperatures top 120 on 40 days. Ground temperatures as high as 201 degrees have been reported.
Pirates' bodies went to Somalia
I can't find anyone who can definitively tell me what happened to the bodies of the pirates who attacked the Maersk Alabama after they were killed by the U.S. snipers. Do you have any information?
Pirates seized the Maersk Alabama off the Somalia coast on April 8 and took Captain Richard Phillips as a hostage. Four days later the pirates were killed and Phillips was rescued.
On April 30, the U.S. Navy handed over the bodies of the three pirates in wooden coffins to authorities in northeastern Somalia. They were buried the same day by security agents. No parents or friends attended the burial because the pirates were buried in Bossaso, a port on the northeastern tip of Somalia, and the parents live hundreds of miles away in central Somalia.
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