Earth ChangesS


Attention

Eight people injured by wild boar in India

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© vlod007Wild Boar
At least eight persons including a woman were injured, four of them seriously when a wild boar allegedly attacked them at Lunipada and Khetri-Berhampur villages under Central forest range in Ganjam district of Odisha, officials said today.

The injured persons were admitted to nearby Gobara hospital, while those in serious condition shifted to the sub divisional hospital at Bhanjanagar and MKCG Medical College and Hospital here, divisional forest officer (DFO), Ghumusara North division, Rama Swamy P, said.

The boar might have attacked the people when they apparently tried to drive it away on Friday evening in order to save the standing vegetable crops in the nearby village, forest officials said.

Attention

Wild boar crashes through glass panel into library in Malaysia

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The wild boar was trapped for almost two hours at a library in Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU) in Cyberjaya.
The peaceful, silent library of the Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU) today was "disturbed" by a wild boar which became trapped in the building after crashing through a glass panel of the rear door.

The male animal entered the building about 1.30pm and was trapped in the library for almost two hours.

Firemen from the Cyberjaya station arrived 10 minutes after the boar entered the library and told those in the building to leave.

In a statement, MMU chief librarian Kamal Sujak said staff and students in the library at the time were startled to see the animal.

Comment: See also these similar recent reports: Wild boar creates havoc at Yonsei University, South Korea

More odd animal behaviour: Wild boar smashes into German hardware store


Alarm Clock

Spate of strong earthquakes rattles NZ's South Island

Methven earthquakes hits New Zealand
© GNS ScienceThis GNS map shows the location of the 6.4 magnitude quake in red, with some of the first 'felt reports' it received from around the region.
A spate of strong earthquakes have struck the central South Island this morning.

Four quakes measuring between 6.4 and 4.1 in magnitude hit the Methven and Arthur's Pass area between 6.48am and 6.59am.

The first tremor, measuring 6.4, struck 35km north of Methven at 6.48am, GNS Science reported.

Did you feel it? Do you have photos or video to share? Email us here.

The tremor, which was 11km deep, was classified as severe.

A southern police communications spokesman said they had not received any reports of damage.

Four minutes later at 6.52am, a second quake measuring 4.1 in magnitude rocked the region.

It was centred 30km west of Arthur's Pass and was 5km deep.

GNS classified the quake as strong.

At 6.58 a third quake, measuring 4.1 hit the same spot, GNS said.
It was 5km deep.

Then, a minute later at 6.59am, another strong quake hit the same location, measuring 4.2 in magnitude. It was also shallow, centred 5km deep.

Comment: USGS has the first earthquake as being 5.6. One wonders why USGS often has the same earthquakes recorded as being of lower magnitude than other more local geological surveys.


Bizarro Earth

Man attacked by deer he shot with arrow

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© Dan Powers/Gannett Wisconsin MediaA white-tailed deer forages for food Monday, April 14, 2014, at the Heckrodt Wetland Reserve in Menasha.
It's not often a deer get its revenge.

A man was injured Friday evening, Jan. 2, in Fond du Lac County when he was attacked by the deer that he had wounded with an arrow.

The 72-year-old man was transported by ambulance to St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, according to Fond du Lac Sheriff's Officer Jeff Bonack. The ambulance call came in around 7:30 p.m. The man's condition is unknown.

The man was out bow hunting earlier with a crossbow on the Peebles Trail near Highway K in the town of Taycheedah. He wounded the doe with an arrow and went back out later to track the animal, Bonack said.

"Apparently the man was going through some thick brush and the deer leaped out and went after him," Bonack said. "The doe struck him in the leg with her head."

The injured hunter was transported by Mount Calvary Ambulance.

Bonack said the 72-year old had been out hunting with other family members.

"I'm guessing the deer got away," Bonack said.

Attention

Bear mauls forest official to death in India

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Footage shows the hunter being mauled by the bear
A middle-aged man employed with the Chhattisgarh Forest Department died after he was attacked by a full-grown bear in the dense forests of Surjapur on Monday.

According to reports, the forest official was badly mauled by the enraged bear. The man soon succumbed to injuries and died on spot. The victim was part of the forest department team that went to hunt down the bear following complaints of attack on several persons in the recent past.

Some locals, who witnessed the incident, tried to shoo away the animal by shouting but in vain as nobody cold gather enough courage to go near the wild animal and save the dying man.

It is claimed that the bear had attacked two more persons in the past. The bear was also shot dead by the authorities later. The victim's body has been sent for post-mortem.

This is the second such incident of a wild animal attacking and mercilessly killing a human being in the recent past.

Few months back, a teenage boy was attacked and killed by a tiger after he accidentally fell inside its cage in the national capital.

Snowflake Cold

150,000 customers without electricity in the Montreal area

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© CBCA Hydro-Québec pole teeters as freezing rain casts the province in ice.
As of 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, more than 150,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without electricity on and around the island of Montreal after freezing rain encased southern Quebec in ice.

The power failures began on Sunday afternoon and affected small pockets around the greater Montreal region.

However, by late afternoon the blackouts were widespread across Montreal, the Montérégie (South Shore and areas west of the island of Montreal), the Richelieu Valley and elsewhere in southern Quebec.

Hydro-Québec spokeswoman Elaine Beaulieu said many of the power failures are due to fallen branches.

"Our crews are presently patrolling to find out where the power outages are and trying to restore the power as soon as possible. It's mainly due to the weather conditions," Beaulieu said.

Some Hydro poles and wires seemed to bow to the weight of the ice. Tree branches snapped and fell to the sidewalks and roads below in the Montreal region as the day wore on.


Binoculars

Rare Arctic Ivory gull spotted in Quincy, Illinois

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© Brandon StehlIvory Gull
Bird enthusiasts from all over the Midwest descended upon Quincy Saturday to get a glimpse of the extremely rare Ivory Gull.

"It's a fairly small gull but very elegant, pure white with very dark eyes and legs, with this cute little bill that's dark with a yellow tip on it," biology professor Jim Mountjoy said.

It was rainy, cold, and damp. But that didn't stop Knox College Biology Professor and bird expert Jim Mountjoy from getting a glimpse of the Ivory Gull. He says the bird is a native of the high Arctic Islands and is rarely seen in the lower 48.
"This is an exceedingly rare bird to spot this far south," Mountjoy said. "Anywhere in the continental United States it's pretty hard to see, even if you go to Alaska it's sometimes quite difficult."

Mountjoy says he's been bird watching for over 40 years, and has only spotted the Ivory Gull one other time. He calls Saturday a very rare sighting in the state of Illinois.


Attention

Dead whale washes up on Sandøy, Norway

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Locator map of Sandøy, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Norway's Coast Guard faced a grim and smelly task over the weekend: Discarding a dead whale whose cadaver was in danger of exploding.

The dead whale had washed up in a bay at Sandøy outside Bergen on Norway's West Coast. It was found by a local resident on Friday and immediately raised concerns because it was showing clear signs that gas had formed inside the whale's stomach.

That meant it could explode, so the coast guard ended up towing the dead whale out to sea and shooting it to puncture the inflated intestines, so the cadaver would sink.

Snowflake

Indo-Tibetan Border Police sound high alert after early heavy snowfall on Himalayan border

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© Sanju PantHeavy snowfall at an ITBP camp on the China border in Pithoragarh.
The ITBP, which guards the high-altitude Himalayan border posts with China, has sounded a high alert as moderate to heavy snowfall has been reported in the region in the last 24 hours.

The snowfall continued in the higher reaches of this part of the Himalayas today, ITBP sources said here. "The snowfall has broken records of recent years. After 2005, dense snowfall used to occur in this part of the Himalayas after January 15, but this year it has started early," said Kedar Singh Rawat, an ITBP officer.

According to ITBP sources, while 120 cm snowfall was recorded at Joligkong Ridge, near the China border in the Vyans valley of Dharchula subdivision, the last border post at China border at Nabhidhang received 90 cm snowfall in the last 24 hours. "The snowfall, which started ahead of the Garbiyang post of the ITBP, witnessed 40 cm to 80 cm snowfall in the last 24 hours," said Rawat.

In Munsiyari, the peaks of Panchachuli, Rajrambha, Chiplakedar and Hansling received heavy snowfall in the last 24 hours. Weather Department sources said snowfall in higher reaches and rainfall in lower valleys would continue for the next 24 hours.

Arrow Down

Pope embraces false prophets of doom - Why I'm disassociating myself from the Vatican and church

Vatican
© NoTricksZone
I'm Catholic and this Sunday I'm announcing that I'm disassociating myself from the Vatican and its pope. I urge other skeptic Catholics to consider doing the same. This is not a step I've taken lightly.

I'll be opting out of Germany's Kirchensteuer (Church Tax) and will not attend any services in the future. With their latest planned encyclical they are indicating that they have shifted back to the Dark Ages of bad-weather witches, superstitions and Medieval indulgences. Worse, they are openly subscribing to nutty end-of-times theories.

This comes on the heels of a recent announcement that Pope Francis intends to issue an encyclical on climate change. I am not renouncing Catholicism, rather I am solely renouncing my recognition that the Vatican and Pope are the faith's administrator and moral compass. It's the last straw in an unending string of corruption, child sexual abuse and scandals that have raged within the Catholic Church in recent times.