Earth Changes
The small melon-headed whale that died Tuesday after stranding on Gulf Islands National Seashore's Perdido Key beach showed clear signs of suffering from some type of illness, initial findings from a necropsy revealed.
Exactly what made it sick won't be known for weeks or months, after pathologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service analyze tissue, blood samples and other data collected by Steve Shippee, stranding coordinator for Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in Fort Walton Beach.
"Our dolphin, which we continue to believe is a melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra), most likely had a chronic illness that should be detectable by pathology and lab analysis," he said. "On gross necropsy exam, we are able to describe lesions and injuries that an animal sustained, but the findings of the tissue analysis will take a while to be returned. Sadly, the animal was in the prime of life as a mature breeding age member of his species."
According to Russian scientists of Kazan Federal University (Republic of Tatarstan, Russia), air temperatures increase in the Northern Hemisphere registered during the past 37 years has slowed down.
"We analyzed the average long-term values and fluctuation of air temperatures, barometric pressure and wind speed in the Northern Hemisphere in 1948-2013 respectively, and found that after a long period of intense warming, a period of intense cold snap began" told Yuri Perevedentsev, staff member of the Meteorology Department at Kazan Federal University, to ITAR-TASS reporter. He explained that this data does not support the hypothesis of global warming, but rather reflects cyclical climatic processes.
The scientists also found that "the temperature curve resembles wind speed curve, only with some delay", and in some regions "the contribution of wind component to temperature fluctuation reaches 60 percent."
In recent years, said Yuri Perevedentsev, the wind speed started slowing down, and with a lag of about 8 years the average air temperature also went down. Analysis of a large array of meteorological data revealed uneven temperature changes in the midland, tropics and circumpolar regions. During the temperature increase amounting to more than 30 years in the mid-latitudes (30-70° N), the temperatures grew by 0.75 degrees, in the tropics the increase was less: by 0.54 degrees only, and the highest temperature increase (2.38 degrees) was registered in the circumpolar regions.
2014-07-17 11:49:37 UTC
2014-07-17 04:49:37 UTC-07:00 at epicenter
Location
60.217°N 140.550°W depth=14.8km (9.2mi)
Nearby Cities
95km (59mi) NNW of Yakutat, Alaska
300km (186mi) W of Whitehorse, Canada
411km (255mi) NW of Juneau, Alaska
512km (318mi) E of Knik-Fairview, Alaska
523km (325mi) E of Anchorage, Alaska
Scientific data

The typhoon ripped off tin roofs and felled trees as it swept through provinces south of the Philippines
Ten more people were injured by Typhoon Rammasun and another eight remain missing, according to authorities.
The typhoon swept through the country on Tuesday night before making a shift away from Manila on Wednesday.
More than 530,000 people took refuge in evacuation centres. Many of those who died were killed while outdoors by falling trees and flying debris.
Millions living in provinces southeast of the capital still have no power, according to news agencies.
Officials have managed to restore power to only half of Luzon, which has 17 million people.
Much of the eastern region of Bicol, which was hit first by the storm and is home to five million, is also without electricity.
Manila was hit by widespread blackouts as well, but most of the city's power has since been restored.
Officials said more than one million people were affected by the storm. Most of them were from Bicol.
The storm is now heading westwards towards China's Hainan island. The Tropical Storm Risk website is predicting it will gain in strength to Category 2 - one grade below its strength in the Philippines - within 24 hours.

The eagles made famous by live, streaming video tend to three hatchlings in April 2011 in their nest south of Decorah, Iowa.
Nearly 3,800 comments of sadness and outrage flooded the Raptor Resource Project's Facebook page in the next 24 hours. One woman posted that she was so heartbroken she took to the piano to play "Wind Beneath My Wings," which she also played at her mother's funeral.
"People loved this bird," said Bob Anderson, the raptor researcher from Decorah, Iowa who made the Decorah eagles world-famous by first mounting a nest camera in 2008. "I'm trying to keep people calm."
Some questioned what can be done about the bird-zapping problem of electrical lines that has occurred since the first telegraph pole was erected in the mid-19th century.
Power poles are attractive to raptors as high perching spots, and eagles are the most commonly electrocuted birds - 4,300 between 1960 and 1995, according to a federal study cited in a 2005 report by biologist Albert Manville. Electrocution was the fourth-leading cause of death among bald eagles, behind accidental trauma, poisoning and shooting.
These videos try to make people aware of the might of the world we are living in, and the times we are living in. It's but a fraction of recent impressive events - I'm far from covering all the amazing stuff going on out there!

An aerial view of the Red Deer Creek wildfire near the B.C./Alberta boundary is shown in a government of British Columbia handout photo.
A remote Alberta community was ordered to evacuate as a raging wildfire in B.C. approached the border.
A state of local emergency and evacuation order were declared Tuesday evening for the Municipal District of Greenview No. 16.
The evacuation order applies to a remote part of northwestern Alberta south of the Wapiti River, west of Nose Creek and the Two Lakes Road and north of Township 61.
Residents in the area were advised to immediately leave their homes with their personal belongings.
Swimmers on the popular river beach say there was no warning on a sunny day before the downpour of hailstones, some the size of golf balls and hen eggs.
Temperatures on Saturday 12 July were as hot as 37C - or 99F - in Siberia's largest city, Novosibirsk, the day the hail cloudburst struck.
Suddenly in late afternoon heavy winds hit the sandy beach between two bridges across the Ob River, the fifth longest in the world.
Swimmers waded out of the water covering their heads. They shielded themselves under parasols and blow-up sun beds to stay clear of the giant hailstones.
Some children were in tears, sheltering under trees, as the hail bombardment struck the beach vicinity.
'It was like being hit by raining bullets from the sky,' said one sunbather.
'My husband was protecting my young daughter but his back was exposed to the hailstones and he has bruising all over it,' said one woman.
Comment: Take a look at some of the big storm reports from the beginning of this month:
A marine expert has spoken of her horror after more than 70 sharks washed up dead on the Gower shoreline .
Marine biologist Judith Oakley believes the grim marine catastrophe is the work of indiscriminate bottom trawling.
The industrial scale fishing process uses a large net with heavy weights to drag the seafloor and scoop up everything in its path.
She raced to the peninsula's Pwll Du beach on Saturday after shocked friends raised the alarm via text message.
"It was horrific. There are always grim reminders of why I am so passionate about marine wildlife and protecting it," she said.
"I wandered around the beach in total disbelief. There were dead small sharks, smoothhounds and catsharks, strewn across the sand and amongst the rocks.
The exact date of discovery is unknown. It is claimed that the hole is so big that two helicopters could fly around inside it. Eyewitnesses say a powerful water flow is present at the bottom of the hole. Its depth is also unknown.
Russian media have speculated that the sinkhole could have been caused by a meteor impact. Note the apparently raised rim of earthen material around the hole, suggesting it was scattered around there after being ejected from below.
The material seems to have appeared recently, though not very recently. Vegetation has not yet grown on it, but it appears to have been weathered from exposure to air. Also, rainfall has made gulleys in the side of the 'crater', again suggesting that some time has passed since this feature appeared.















Comment: Read the following articles to learn more:
- Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!
Also, watch Habibullo Abdusomatov's speech:Part 1
Part 2