Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 26 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Bizarro Earth

UFO is Just Stratus-Fear


The Sun
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:40 UTC
Orographic Cloud
© The Sun
Spaceship shape ... cloud encounter of the third kind.
This cloud encounter with beings from another world turned out just to be a bit of stratus-fear.

The remarkable cloud - looking exactly like an alien flying saucer - was snapped over Perthshire at the weekend.

Brian Wilton and wife Isobel captured the moment it passed over as the sun went down in the town of Crieff.

Brian believes the cloud owes its bizarre appearance to the almond-shape of altocumulus lenticularis formations.

He said: "The formation of the dramatic orographic clouds (produced as air is forced to rise over mountains) are usually in mountainous regions due to very specific atmospheric conditions.

"They're usually to be found on the down wind side of the mountain, are very slow moving but evaporate very quickly.

"We couldn't believe it. It was like the scene in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the big spaceship comes down."
      Read More...
Frog

Red-Eyed Tree Frogs Use Vibrations As a Means of Communication

Lin Edwards
PhysOrg
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:00 UTC
Image
© Graham P. Oxtoby/Wikipedia
Red-eyed tree frog of Central and South America.
A study of the Central American red-eyed tree frog has found that the males shake the branches they're perched on to produce strong vibrations to mark out their territory for mating.

Researchers from the Adelaide Zoo and Flinders University, Adelaide, led by Dr. Greg Johnston, were studying the role of bright colors in the behavior of frogs in their breeding rituals, when they discovered that the Panamanian rainforest frogs shake the branches they are posing on as part of the ritual, especially if another male is in the vicinity. Johnston said they struck a pose that displayed all their colors and then did what looked to him like "little tantrums," which produced strong vibrations that traveled through the plants.

The researchers chose red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) to study because they are brilliantly colored with gold and blue stripes on their sides, purple flashes on their thighs, bright orange feet, and green backs, and their eyes are bright red. They used infrared cameras to study the frogs mating at night, and also used a miniature seismograph to confirm the vibrations were really made by the frogs and not by the wind or other natural effects.
      Read More...
Frog

Female Frog "Sings" During Sex

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:22 UTC
Image
© Lai Wagtail/Wikimedia Commons
A Babina adenopleura frog. Emei music frogs come from the genus Babina.
Many famous and not-so-famous singers claim to woo their mates with a tune or two during romantic encounters. It's a tactic that often works.

While this behavior is well known among humans, it's somewhat less common for amphibians, especially female frogs. But Kermit's heart would probably go pitter pat if he encountered a female Emei music frog, since new research has just revealed these gals "sing" in very sexy ways while they mate.

The rhythmic click calls of the females are so attractive to males that they move rhythmically back and forth whenever they hear these calls during mating, according to the researchers. It's as though the males need the "singing" to help them get their groove on, and maintain it. The males also shut up, which is pretty unusual for this vocal species.
      Read More...
Info

Thousand people missing in north-east Brazil floods


BBC News
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:43 UTC
Floods have engulfed two states in north-east Brazil, leaving about 1,000 people missing and forcing at least 100,000 to flee their homes.

At least 38 people are known to have died so far in Alagoas and Pernambuco.

Correspondents say the floods, brought on by nearly a week of rain, have washed away entire villages.

The governor of Alagoas, Teotonio Vilela Filho, said bodies were being washed up on beaches and riverbanks.
      Read More...
Hourglass

BP Admits That - If It Tries to Cap the Leak - the Whole Well May Blow


Washington's Blog
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
As I previously noted, oil industry expert Rob Cavner said that BP must "keep the well flowing to minimize oil and gas going out into the formation on the side":
      Read More...
Igloo

Antarctic Glacier Melt Maybe "Not Due to Climate Change"

Lewis Page
The Register
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:39 UTC
D-autosub
© The Register
The latest in scientific bottom-probing battery powered devices
Brit D-cell robot torpedo probes massive icy bottom

British and international boffins, having probed an Antarctic glacier which is thought to be a major cause of rising sea levels worldwide, report that increased polar ice melting may not be driven by climate change.

The massive ice river in question is the Pine Island Glacier, aka PIG to those in the field.

"Estimates of Antarctica's recent contributions to sea level rise have changed from near-zero to significant and increasing," says Stan Jacobs of Columbia uni in the States. "Increased melting of continental ice also appears to be the primary cause of persistent ocean freshening and other impacts."
      Read More...
Ladybug

Small Creatures Will Be Oil Spill's Biggest Victims

Stuart Fox
LiveScience
Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:16 UTC
Spartina grasses with snails
© Unknown
Spartina grasses with snails
Over the last two months, the BP oil leak has unleashed all manner of havoc on the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. But while sad pictures of large-eyed, oil coated birds make these animals the most visible victims of the oil leak, smaller ocean creatures will bear the brunt of the damage, scientists say.

"The greatest threat is to the whole food chain, and the base of the food chain, said John Caruso, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at Tulane University. "People see the big impressive animals like pelicans and the other sea birds. It's a devastating sight, it tears you up when you see those poor birds covered in oil, but the real damage to our coastal ecosystem here will come from destruction of the cord grasses."

In particular, the cord and Spartina grasses that grow on the coast of Louisiana are crucial to the ecosystem and especially sensitive to the oil leak, Caruso said. These grasses form the foundation of the local food chain, and their root systems lessen the erosion of the small islands that protect inland Louisiana from hurricanes, Caruso said.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

BP Funds Front Group Claiming Oil Spill Jobs Are Better Than 'Normal' Ones, Storm Will Clean Up Oil!

Lee Fang
Think Progress
Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:33 UTC
Shortly after BP's catastrophic oil spill in the gulf, the New York Times spoke to Quenton Dokken, the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, about the environmental impact. "The sky is not falling," Dokken told the paper, adding "it isn't the end of the Gulf of Mexico." ProPublica dug into the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, and reported that the Times had failed to disclose that Dokken and his group are funded by a consortium of oil companies with business in the gulf, including companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon rig, Transocean and Anadarko. Today, the Times reported that the Foundation has been downplaying effects of the spill, possibly because of its funding from oil companies.
      Read More...
Light Saber

Frustrated Locals Not Waiting for Official "OK" to Try to Stop Oil & Save Oiled Animals and Birds

Jamie Gumbrecht
CNN
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:24 UTC
woman holding oiled bird

Stephanie Neumann holds a Northern Gannet
Okaloosa Island, Florida - Vacationers were the first to notice the bird fumbling in the water near this popular tourist beach last week. He bobbed and swayed differently than other birds, and didn't react when humans came dangerously close. Once he was ashore, they could see why: a light sheen of oil covered his feathers.

Animal health technician Stephanie Neumann tried to rescue the Northern Gannet, but beach safety officers stopped her. Her coworkers at the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge already had stabilized birds and a sea turtle affected by the Gulf oil disaster, but officials wanted to know: Did she have a contract with BP? Could she - and the bird - wait while they verified her organization's status?

"They're trying to do their job," Neumann said as she crouched over the motionless bird, wrapped in a white sheet and barely hidden from the stares of kids and parents. "They have to make sure protocol is followed."
      Read More...
Fish

BP Oil Spill Kills its Largest Victim Yet

Leslie Kaufman
New York Times
Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:14 UTC
sperm whale
© Greenpeace
On Tuesday, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship spotted the 25-foot animal due south of the Deepwater Horizon site. The water the whale was floating in was not oiled. The fate of the whales, which have frequently been spotted swimming in the oil by planes overhead, has been of intense concern to wildlife biologists.

Blair Mase, the Southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator for the oceanic agency, said that scientists were "very concerned" that oil was the cause of the whale's death, but that the whale's body was so decomposed and scavenged by sharks that it would be impossible to say for certain.

There are an estimated 1,700 sperm whales that live in gulf waters and they are known to congregate particularly at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a rich feeding ground. Unlike other whales, which travel long distances, these live full-time in the Gulf and do not usually mingle with sperm whale pods in the neighboring Caribbean and Sargasso Sea. Ms. Mase said that the dead whale was almost certainly a gulf whale.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts