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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Signs and Portents: Kitten born with two faces in South Africa

Kristin Hugo
Newsweek
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 19:35 UTC
Bettie Bee, the two-faced kitten, is eight days old in this picture.

Bettie Bee, the two-faced kitten, is eight days old in this picture.
Like other kittens, Bettie Bee has four paws, one tail and two ears. But in one way, she is an oddity: she has two noses, two mouths and three eyes. She is a rare two-faced cat, or "Janus Cat."

When a house cat in Eastern Cape, South Africa, birthed three kittens, it was clear that one of them was unique. While otherwise apparently normal, this special kitten's double face made it difficult for her to nurse, which meant she was at risk of starving to death. The cat-owner brought the strange kitten to a nearby cat rescuer who is known for taking in special-needs cats.

The rescuer, who wishes to remain anonymous, started tube-feeding the kitten. She wrote in an email to Newsweek that she "can feed either mouth, both are functional, both lead to the stomach." Because so many people wanted to see the kitten, the rescuer started a Facebook page for Bettie Bee with pictures and updates.
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Attention

Killer whale calf is found dead after being blown 25 yards onto land after Storm Caroline on Shetland, Scotland

Phoebe Southworth
Daily Mail
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:22 UTC
A killer whale calf is believed to have died in agony after being blown ashore by the ferocious 90mph gales of Storm Caroline

A killer whale calf is believed to have died in agony after being blown ashore by the ferocious 90mph gales of Storm Caroline
A killer whale calf is believed to have died in agony after being blown ashore by the ferocious 90mph gales of Storm Caroline.

Tragic images show the young orca's body on a grassy Shetland shoreline almost three weeks after the storm hit.

The three-metre long whale is thought to have died of dehydration or been crushed by its own body weight after becoming stranded.

It was discovered by a member of the public on the west coast of Shetland's main island at least 25 metres from the shoreline

The orca was probably separated from its mother by the weather, according to the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary

Hillswick, the island's only wild animal rehabilitation centre, reported the beaching to the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMAS) who have carried out a post-mortem.
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Attention

Tiny bits of plastic are found in mussels from the European Arctic to China

Reuters and Shivali Best
Daily Mail
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:06 UTC
Tiny bits of plastic are contaminating mussels from the European Arctic to China

Tiny bits of plastic are contaminating mussels from the European Arctic to China, a new study has revealed. Mussels in apparently pristine Arctic waters had most plastic of any tested along the Norwegian coast, according to the researchers (stock image)
Tiny bits of plastic are contaminating mussels from the European Arctic to China, a new study has revealed.

Mussels in apparently pristine Arctic waters had the most plastic of any tested along the Norwegian coast, according to the researchers.

The worrying discovery is a sign of the global spread of ocean pollution that can end up on people's dinner plates.

A study by researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) found that plastic had been found in mussels in Arctic waters.

Amy Lusher, one of the researchers who worked on the study, said that plastics may be getting swept north by ocean currents and winds from Europe and America, ending up swirling around the Arctic Ocean.

Comment: See also: Researchers find first evidence of deep-sea animals ingesting microplastics

Microplastic fibers found in tap water around the world, study reveals

Micro-plastics threaten ocean's ecosystem

Sustainability of fish populations threatened by microplastic particles

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Cloud Precipitation

Ice Age Cometh: Researchers find climate change is triggering record snows in Alaskan mountains

Richard Valdmanis
Yahoo
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 15:55 UTC
alaska mountains
© AP Photo/Becky Bohrer
Snowfalls atop an Alaskan mountain range have doubled since the start of the industrial age, evidence that climate change can trigger major increases in regional precipitation, according to research published in the journal Scientific Reports on Tuesday.

The study by researchers from Dartmouth College, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire, shows modern snowfall levels in the Alaska Range at the highest in at least 1,200 years, averaging some 18 feet per year from around 8 feet per year from 1600-1840.

"We were shocked when we first saw how much snowfall has increased," said Erich Osterberg, an assistant professor of earth sciences at Dartmouth College and principal investigator for the research. "We had to check and double-check our results to make sure of the findings."

The research was based on an analysis of two ice core samples collected at 13,000 feet from Mount Hunter in Alaska's Denali National Park. The study suggests that warming tropical oceans have driven the increased snowfall by strengthening the northward flow of warm, moist air.


Comment: It's worth noting that Ice Ages begin with warming oceans which trigger increased precipitation in northern regions. Interested readers should check out Pierre Lescaudron's excellent book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.


The research builds on a previous study using the same ice cores that showed an intensification of winter storm activity in Alaska and Northwestern Canada, driven by the same strengthening "Aleutian Low" system.
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Blue Planet

The 'missing link' between clouds, cosmic rays & climate change

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 14:06 UTC
Earth constructed from NASA’s Terra satellite
© NASA/Goddard
An image of the Earth constructed from NASA’s Terra satellite.
Last week I hinted at this upcoming paper, which was embargoed until this morning. I noted then something Dr. Roy Spencer said in his book about clouds: The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists and how this new paper could be the "holy grail" of climate science, if it is true.
"The most obvious way for warming to be caused naturally is for small, natural fluctuations in the circulation patterns of the atmosphere and ocean to result in a 1% or 2% decrease in global cloud cover. Clouds are the Earth's sunshade, and if cloud cover changes for any reason, you have global warming - or global cooling."
Today, we have news of something that modulates cloud cover in a new paper by Henrik Svensmark in Nature Communications.
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Wolf

Woman dead after being attacked by dog in Phoenix, Arizona

Morgan Tanabe
abc15.com
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 14:09 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
A woman is dead after being attacked by a dog at a boarding facility in central Phoenix Wednesday afternoon.

Officials with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control say the incident happened at Canine Country Club and Feline Inn near 24th and Washington streets around 3:30 p.m.

The 69-year-old victim was taken to the hospital in "very critical condition," an MCACC spokesperson said. However, Phoenix police later confirmed that she has since passed away from her injuries.

The woman suffered injuries that appear to be consistent with dog bites, a police spokesperson said.

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Snowflake

Rare 'ghost snow tsunami' wave caught on camera in Wyoming

Richard Hartley-Parkinson
Metro UK
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 13:41 UTC
snow tsunami
© Caters
The 'ghost snow tsunami' which was pictured in Wyoming in the US
A photographer has captured a rare weather phenomenon that she's described as a 'ghost snow tsunami'.

The mirage happens when snow crystals, light and wind are perfectly aligned on the horizon.

Ariel McGlothin was hoping to capture some local wildlife in action when she went out to take some pictures in Kelly, Wyoming, but inadvertently witnessed an incredibly rare spectacle.

Standing before a huge wall of icy powder, a strange mirage began to form as the sun - aligned perfectly with the direction of the wind - began to highlight snow crystals moving in the cold wind, resembling a series of ghostly waves crashing against a shoreline.

The display lasted for a few moments as the virtually translucent 'waves' continue to appear to flow forward, leaving 30-year-old Ariel with a conflicted feeling that she 'needed to flee' the seeming tsunami.
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Snowflake

Over 4 metres of snowfall at Niseko ski resort in Japan

Patrick Thorne
In the snow
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 13:25 UTC
snow
Japan's ski areas are seeing a very snowy start to the 2017-18 ski season with the resort of Niseko passing the 4 metre mark for season snowfall to date in the past 48 hours.

The famous ski area on Japan's northerly island of Hokkaido has had 60cm (two feet) of snow in the last 48 hours and nearly 1.2m (four feet) in the last seven days. December snowfall totals are already at 238cm (nearly eight feet) and season to date at 4.3m (over 14 feet).

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Attention

Huge eruption of Bezymianny volcano in Russia


Civil Disturbia
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 13:10 UTC
Bezymianny eruption

Bezymianny eruption
Bezymianny eruption 2017-12-20 03:55 UTC (local time December 20 15:55). Height of ash plume ~ 15 km ASL extending to the N-E.

The webcam is located in seismic station, approximately 7 km (4.3 mi) East of Bezymianny volcano.

Credit to Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Survey RAS for video.

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Black Cat

Asiatic cheetahs on the edge of extinction with only 50 left alive

Robin McKie
The Guardian
Sat, 16 Dec 2017 12:56 UTC
A 7-year-old male Asiatic cheetah. The carnivore has disappeared across south and central Asia and is on the brink of extinction
© Vahid Salemi/AP
A 7-year-old male Asiatic cheetah. The carnivore has disappeared across south and central Asia and is on the brink of extinction
Conservationists have warned that the Asiatic cheetah is on the threshold of extinction following a UN decision to pull funding from conservation efforts to protect it.

Fewer than 50 of the critically endangered carnivores are thought to be left in the wild - all of them in Iran - and scientists fear that without urgent intervention there is little chance of saving one of the planet's most distinctive and graceful hunters.

"Lack of funding means extinction for the Asiatic cheetah, I'm afraid," the Iranian conservationist Jamshid Parchizadeh said. "Iran has already suffered from the loss of the Asiatic lion and the Caspian tiger. Now we are about to see the Asiatic cheetah go extinct as well."

The Asiatic cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, is slightly smaller and paler than its African cousin. It has a fawn-coloured coat with black spots on its head and neck, and distinctive black "tear marks" running from the corner of each eye down the side of its nose.
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