At least 20 pilot whales were found dead on Thursday off Florida's southwest coast, officials said. The whales were among a group of 23 that swam inland over the weekend near Naples, Florida, said Blair Mase, an official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The deaths bring the total number to 28 whales that have died in waters near Florida's coast in January, puzzling scientists struggling to understand why they continue to come ashore. Eight died earlier this week, four naturally and four after being euthanized, when a group including one pregnant female swam into shallow waters near Fort Myers, Florida.
Scientists were able to identify the group of 23 using pictures of their dorsal fins, Mase said during a conference call with reporters. Each fin is unique in the same way no two human fingerprints are the same, she said.
© Michael Hamilton, Wikimedia Commons
Male (black) and female (white) Tadorna variegata, Paradise Shellduck
Dead birds were discovered in oxidation ponds in Kaiapoi earlier in January and contractors are now removing carcasses to contain the outbreak.
Waimakariri District Council spokesperson Gerard Cleary said on Wednesday that the ponds are monitored several times a year in the Brooklands Lagoon area and the previous check on 6 January showed no evidence of the disease.
Mr Cleary said by Tuesday, there were about 1000 dead birds on pond banks and in the water, with a further 20 showing classic symptoms of avian botulism - lethargy and partial paralysis of the feet and wings.
© AP Photo/Indiana State Police
Emergency crews work at the scene of a massive pileup involving more than 40 vehicles, many of them semitrailers, along Interstate 94 Thursday afternoon, Jan. 23, 2014 near Michigan City
A couple from Michigan and a man from Chicago were killed in a massive pileup on a snowy interstate in northwestern Indiana, authorities said Friday, as crews cleaned up after the 40-plus-vehicle wreck.
More than 20 people were injured, including one critically, in the crush of semitrailers and mangled passenger vehicles Thursday afternoon on the eastbound stretch of Interstate 94 connecting Chicago with Detroit. At least one person was trapped in a vehicle for hours before authorities could come to the rescue, Indiana State Police said.
Snow and whiteout conditions were contributing factors, police said. A band of heavy lake-effect snow was dropping up to 2 inches of snow per hour with visibility at a quarter-mile or less at the time of the wreck, National Weather Service meteorologist Evan Bentley said. The wreck happened near Michigan City, about 60 miles from Chicago.
Forecasters say Arkansas is still at risk for wildfires despite chilly temperatures with subzero wind chill values in some areas.
A red flag warning is in effect in Carroll, Benton, Washington and Madison counties. The National Weather Service says northwest Arkansas will see strong and gusty winds of up to 35 mph on Friday, along with low humidity values of 15 to 25 percent.
Forecasters warn that the dry vegetation and windy weather will combine to create dangerous wildfire conditions through Friday afternoon.
Thirty-two Arkansas counties now have burn bans in effect, and the Arkansas Forestry Commission says much of the state is at a high risk of wildfire danger.
Ibrahim Naffee
Arab NewsFri, 24 Jan 2014 07:23 UTC
© USGS
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale has hit the northeastern region of Jazan. Its impact was felt by inhabitants in the Asir and Najran regions, according to postings on social networking sites. ani Zahran, director-general of the National Center for Earthquakes and Volcanoes, told Arab News: "The earthquake occurred at around 6 p.m. local time. It measured 5.1 on the Richter scale and was 10 km deep."
Citizens in both the Jazan and Asir provinces confirmed that they felt the earthquake's impact at 6 p.m.
Many said that their doors and windows rattled as a result of the tremor, according to local media sources. A security source said that the Civil Defense operations room in Jazan received dozens of calls from citizens when the earthquake struck across the Jazan province.
USGS data
© EFE
The western part of Mexico's capital was plunged into traffic chaos after a water-main break created a sinkhole on the city's outer beltway.
Mexico City, Jan 23 (EFE).- The western part of Mexico's capital was plunged into traffic chaos on Thursday after a water-main break created a sinkhole on the city's outer beltway.
The hole, which is 2 meters (6.5 ft.) wide and 3 meters (9.8 ft.) deep, lies at the beltway interchange with two main surface thoroughfares.
Police have been deployed in an effort to ease traffic tangles, the Mexico City Public Safety Department said, adding that repairs to the water main are expected to take 12 hours.
Fox8Fri, 24 Jan 2014 06:09 UTC
Mansfield - On a clear and cold night, beams of light appeared to be coming from the ground and shooting skyward.
Fox 8 News viewers captured the phenomenon in Mansfield late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
The lights are mystifying and beautiful, and yet perfectly logical.
Fox 8 Meteorologist Scott Sabol explains the light pillars in the video below.
© WFAA
A strange scene prompted a lot of calls from concerned motorists Thursday morning: Dead starlings and grackles scattered on and around the Interstate-35W south service road at Alsbury Boulevard.
A strange scene prompted a lot of calls from concerned motorists Thursday morning: Dead starlings and grackles scattered on and around the Interstate-35W south service road at Alsbury Boulevard.
"The ones we found in the grass did not have any signs of trauma we could see," said Burleson animal control supervisor Kim Peckler.
Crews collected just over 200 dead birds, and one that died a short time later. Peckler said she's never seen anything like it in her 25 years of working with animal control.
Veterinarian Bob Denton did an initial search for clues.
Comment: Yes, this is common NOW (as in, the last 3 or so years). No, this is not 'normal'.
There were two similar incidents in the Arlington/Fort Worth area last year and in 2012:
Dead birds fall out of the sky near Fort Worth, Texas - Second time in 5 months, 26 February 2013
Dead birds falling from the sky in Arlington, Texas, 25 November 2012
Then consider that 'loud booms' and meteors have been exploding overhead with increasing regularity lately, and that investigations into some of these mass bird deaths around the world are the result of '
blunt force trauma of unknown origin'...
Meteor fireball seen by many above Oklahoma and Texas, 24 January 2014 (VIDEO)
Massive overhead boom in Northeast Oklahoma shakes doors and rattles windows - sonic boom from military fighter jet ruled out, 27 January 2014
More North Texas 'skyquakes'? Loud morning boom rattles Sanger residents, 28 November 2014
Mysterious loud boom rattles, rolls most of Texas City
We know that many more of these things must be exploding above the US on a regular basis because it's the rare one that is actually seen/heard.
Rebecca Morelle
BBC NewsSat, 18 Jan 2014 16:33 UTC
"I've been a solar physicist for 30 years, and I've never seen anything quite like this," says Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
He shows me recent footage captured by spacecraft that have their sights trained on our star. The Sun is revealed in exquisite detail, but its face is strangely featureless.
"If you want to go back to see when the Sun was this inactive... you've got to go back about 100 years," he says.
This solar lull is baffling scientists, because right now the Sun should be awash with activity.
Comment: Not complicated enough, if one is to spend time educating oneself on this topic.
Here's what is known to us so far: The
surface of the planet was, for a period of time (as reported in numerous stories back some 5/6 years ago) actually warming. There were reports of many hot-spots in various places, in some cases, hot enough to ignite. This is now being countered by surface cooling due to other factors, like global dimming/induction of colder air, etc. This heating of the lithosphere is probably due to the slowing of rotation which generates internal heat between the lithosphere and the mantle, and leads to increased
volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes,
sinkholes, etc, and is probably also responsible for many of the
strange sounds.
It is the
upper atmosphere - the stratosphere - that is cooling and that is the reason for sun pillars, rings around the sun, double/triple/quadruple images of the sun, contrails, etc.
Volcanic dust does not heat the upper atmosphere by "trapping heat" in the stratosphere. That the stratosphere is colder and has dropped lower has been reported by scientists, though that information gets sidelined. The AGW folks would LOVE people to believe that nonsense.
Then, there is the comet dust/smoke in the upper atmosphere that further contributes to the cooling as you can see from the
dramatic increase in noctilucent clouds.
At the same time that is going on, the quiescent sun and the earth's weakened magnetic field allow more cosmic radiation to reach the
troposphere where it forms cloud nuclei and increases precipitation from the increased evaporation from the oceans caused by the increasing heat within the earth caused by the slowing of rotation.
These are all the conditions for the initiation of an
ICE AGE: heat at the lower levels, troposphere where "weather" takes place, extreme cold at the upper levels of the atmosphere, which can then create interesting effects including
polar vortices.
Giant squid
According to the Tottori prefecture fishing cooperative, the squid was caught on Monday evening off the prefecture's coast, when fishermen were trawling for flatfish and crabs.
The squid measured 11 feet long, and was found missing both its longest tentacles.
Though it was caught alive, the squid died before reaching shore on Tuesday.
Local residents said they immediately wondered how many people the 220 pound squid could feed if cut into sashimi.
Unfortunately the ammonium content of the squid is said to make it rather unpleasant to eat.
Comment: Yes, this is common NOW (as in, the last 3 or so years). No, this is not 'normal'.
There were two similar incidents in the Arlington/Fort Worth area last year and in 2012: Then consider that 'loud booms' and meteors have been exploding overhead with increasing regularity lately, and that investigations into some of these mass bird deaths around the world are the result of 'blunt force trauma of unknown origin'... We know that many more of these things must be exploding above the US on a regular basis because it's the rare one that is actually seen/heard.