Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Virgina sinkhole swallows car

Justin Jouvenal
Washington Post
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:11 UTC
virginia sinkhole
© Fairfax County ConnectorA car drove into and was stuck in a large sinkhole on Hummer Road and Pleasant Way in Annandale on Monday
A driver drove her car into a sinkhole in Annandale Monday morning, while trying to avoid a tree downed during the winter storm, Fairfax County police said. The aftermath of the accident was captured in a video posted on Facebook by Fairfax Connector.

Police said the 23-year-old woman was traveling northbound on Hummer Road shortly after 7 a.m., when she veered around the tree just south of Pleasant Way. The front end of her car plunged into the water-filled hole and the vehicle was flooded.

The woman was not injured in the crash. Police believe the sinkhole was caused by a water main defect.

"It's not that uncommon with all the freezing and thawing," said Lucy Caldwell, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman.
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Igloo

Ice slides from roof, crushes cars in Texas


AOL Autos
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:39 UTC

This scary video was taken in Plano, Texas, where warming weather caused thick ice sheets deposited by a winter storm to slide from the roof of an apartment complex Sunday. According to WFAA 8, ice several inches thick crushed cars and tore through trees.

Residents recorded the falling ice with their smartphones as it smashed onto sidewalks and cars parked on the street. Luckily, no one was hurt. At least eight cars were damaged, some with collapsed roofs and shattered windshields.
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Comet

Oh Really?! "Test flights" cause sonic boom in North Texas


MyFoxDfw
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 17:05 UTC
A sonic boom shook homes across parts of Denton County on Wednesday morning.

People from Aubrey, Sanger, Krum and Gainesville called FOX4 about the loud and reverberating noise about 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Some people said it had even knocked items off of walls.

It turns out the boom was caused by test planes.

Lockheed Martin said it had two supersonic aircrafts running test flights over that area of North Texas.
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Ice Cube

Coldest arctic blast of the season will trigger 3 feet of lake effect snow in Upstate New York


Daily Mail UK
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:41 UTC
Upstate New York is braced to receive an onslaught of lake effect snow by week's end. New Yorkers from Syracuse to Watertown could see as much as three feet thanks to the coldest temperatures to hit the region yet this season blowing across Lake Ontario.

Other lakeside cities like Chicago and Buffalo also expected major snow from the second bitter arctic blast of the year, which is set to chill Americans from Cincinnati to Boston by Thursday. Weather maps of the Great Lakes region show nothing but snow in the forecast through Friday, with the most intense precipitation in Upstate New York.

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Frigid days ahead: The air currently blowing across the Great Lakes is the coldest arctic blast of the season and is due to stretch through the Midwest, the South and then chill most of the Northeast by Thursday
Locally intense snowfall east of Lake Michigan, south of Lake Superior and east of Lake Ontario could reach a whopping four feet, according to Accuweather.com.

Lake effect snow occurs when cold, dry air passes over the relatively warm water of the Great Lakes and picks up moisture. That moisture eventually freezes and falls in the form of snow.
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Attention

Food prices in Malaysia DOUBLED in one year


BBC
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:17 UTC
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Widespread flooding in Malaysia: the government blames 'global warming' (the ordinary people, in other words), but whatever its cause, it's directly impacting the food supply, which is shrinking...
The cost of food is rising fast in Malaysia, with some items as much as 50% more expensive than last year.

The surge has been triggered after the government cut subsidies on sugar - used in many local dishes.

At the same time, Malaysia also relies on food imports which has made keeping prices in check difficult.

The BBC's Jennifer Pak reports from Kuala Lumpur,
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Attention

Animal attacks on the rise in Kashmir valley India, 700 casualties in a decade

Ashraf Wani
India Today
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:16 UTC
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Latif Ahmad was working in his agriculture field when two black bears attacked him. Though, he lost an eye and got his face completely damaged, he was lucky to be alive. The attack was a grim reminder of the deteriorating relationship between humans and animals in Jammu and Kashmir that has resulted in fatal consequences.

The number of animal attacks on humans has increased in recent years. In last 10 years, 200 people have got killed and more than 500 got injured in human animal conflict in different parts of the Valley.

The reason for the rapid rise of tension between humans and animals is the paucity of living space. According to the World Conservation Union (World Park Congress 2003), conflict occurs when wildlife's requirements overlap with those of human population. The destruction of their habitat due to human activities compels the wild animals to enter human settlements in search of food and water leading to conflict.

Wild life warden of Dachigam National Park, Mohamed Sadiq says killing the animal is not the ultimate solution.

"Human population is increasing rapidly. Forest cover has either decreased or declined in quality due to habitat degradation and people in Kashmir have changed their agriculture fields in to apple orchards, which attract black bear.
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Life Preserver

Malaysia drowning in 'worst floods in living memory'

Hamzah Nazar
Malay Mail Online
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 14:39 UTC
Malaysia floods
© Hadzme Mohd JaafarRani and his family lost everything in the flood.
Families in Kampung Pasir Gajah are struggling to cope with what they describe as the worst floods in living memory.

They say the measures of the past proved futile this time after the water level rose more than 1m higher than the massive floods in 1971.

"When it started to rain on Dec 3, we went to sleep at my sister's house nearby because it had never flooded there," said 59-year-old Kamariah Othman.

"But at 4am the next day, we were woken by her neighbour when water started flowing into their house.

"Before we knew it, we were up to our waists in water."

The family moved to a cousin's house on a hill and have been staying there for the past few days.
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Gingerbread

Flashback Malaysia PM blames worst floods in living memory on "Global Warming"

Ong Han Sean
The Star
Sat, 05 Jan 2013 12:44 UTC
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© Unknown.
The recent floods are not only due to the monsoon season but also due to global warming, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the Government and other parties should not be blamed for the disasters as they were facing a phenomenon which was out of their abilities to tackle effectively.

"Floods are not something unusual in Malaysia as well as other advanced countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.

"One factor is generally the monsoon season which brings heavy rain and strong winds and another factor is global warming and climate change.

"The effects of this phenomenon is difficult to determine but weather experts are certain that there will be heavier rains than usual," Najib said at a flood relief special payment ceremony here Saturday.

He said high moisture content in the air would cause the heavy rains.
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Black Cat

Rabid bobcat attacks woman in Putnam, Connecticut

Don Lehman
Glens Falls Post-Star
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 10:41 UTC
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© Calibas, Wikimedia CommonsBobcat (Lynx rufus), taken at Sunol Park near Livermore CA, USA
Cindy Bowman didn't know what hit her.

She was letting her dog into her county Route 2 home around noon Thursday when a large animal pounced on her, latching onto her face and biting and scratching her.

She was able to fight it off by choking it, but not before it bit and/or scratched her head, shoulder, arms and thigh.

"I turned around and it was leaping right for my neck," Bowman recalled. "It went for my throat."

Bowman was mauled by a large bobcat, a cat that minutes later went after her daughter's boyfriend, Nate Nadeau, and tried to attack him as well.

Nadeau shot and killed it, but state tests later found the cat had rabies, so both Bowman and Nadeau - who was not hurt but did have contact with the cat - had to get two weeks of rabies shots.

The incident has left Bowman shaken and afraid to go out of her house, and concerned that rabies is going to affect other bobcats in the area and make them aggressive as well.

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© Cindy BowmanCindy Bowman's arm after a bobcat attacked her
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Ice Cube

Watch the moment enormous sheets of ice in Texas CRUSH a Jaguar after falling off a building


The Daily Mail,UK
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 10:16 UTC
A Jaguar has been destroyed and several others seriously damaged following a spate of ice sheets thawing and falling from sloped buildings in Plano, Texas

Authorities closed streets as maintenance crews worked to push the ice from buildings to prevent any accidents

The ice storm that hit the area this week left over 250,000 residents and businesses without power and caused over 1000 flight delays


Shocked bystanders watched aghast as huge sheets of ice slipped off the top of a building in Texas and onto cars below, completely crushing them.

Plano, in north Texas, has been hit hard with snow and ice since the weekend, but thawing temperatures have started to melt the large quantities of snow and ice that have built up.

The affect has caused major damage to vehicles parked in the streets.

In one case, which was caught on video, a Jaguar was crushed in Plano, after its roof collapsed and windows smashed under the weight of the falling freeze.

The sheets also damaged a Corvette and several other vehicles.
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