Earth ChangesS


Question

Mystery smell in Tel Aviv: Source still unknown

Sharon Udasin
Jerusalem Post
Mon, 07 May 2012 15:36 UTC
A criminal investigation is still ongoing in order to identify the source of the mysterious, chlorine-like smell that overtook the Gush Dan area on Thursday, according to the Environmental Protection Ministry. The ministry said it would continue to conduct tests and update the public as to the results.

On Monday morning, Ramat HaSharon residents complained of a second smelly situation - entirely unrelated to the Thursday incident. This stench was due to a gas pipe replacement on Sokolov Street, and quickly dissipated, the ministry reported.
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Evil Rays

Mysterious Noises, Vibrations Reported in Austin

Jason M. Volack
ABC News
Mon, 07 May 2012 15:25 UTC
Mysterious vibrations - which sounded like a bass guitar and caused homes to shake - frightened Austin area residents over the weekend, prompting calls to 911.

"I heard a shaking noise - it sounded like wind hitting something," resident Denzell Hutchinson told ABC News affiliate KVUE. "I just thought it was wind blowing hard outside - until I went outside and there was no wind."

The vibrations started early Sunday morning. That's when fire crews arrived in the Harris Branch neighborhood of Austin and noticed homes vibrating. They eventually traced the mysterious vibrations back to the nearby Sunset Farms Landfill.
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Smiley

Climate Change Nonsense: Dinosaur flatulence may have led to global warming


CBC News
Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00 UTC
dinosaurs
© Carin L.Cain/AAAS/APAn artist's rendering shows a giant sauropod. These giants of the dinosaurs may have warmed prehistoric earth with their flatulence.
Dinosaurs may have warmed the prehistoric Earth's climate thanks to enormous amounts of methane-producing flatulence, researchers say.

Sauropods - the long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs that included some of the largest ever land animals - could have produced enough methane to have "an important effect" on climate change, according to a report to be published in Tuesday's edition of Current Biology.

"Indeed, our calculations suggest that these dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources - both natural and man-made - put together," Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University said in a statement.

Sauropods were plant-eaters. As happens in cows, microbes in the dinosaurs' digestive tract that aided digestion also produced methane, which is a greenhouse gas.

Comment: Completely speculative nonsense from the anthropogenic global warming camp desperate to cling on to the dis-proven corrupt scientific view that blames humans for global warming climate change.

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Igloo

Bering Sea Sees Surprising Record Ice Cover


OurAmazingPlanet
Mon, 07 May 2012 10:11 UTC
Bering Sea Ice Covered
© NASAOn April 11, sea ice still covered the Bering Sea.

Arctic sea ice has persistently dwindled over the last three decades, yet sea ice set record highs in waters around Alaska this past winter.

Ice in the Bering Sea not only covered more area than usual, it also stuck around longer, bucking the downward trend in sea ice cover observed since 1979, when satellite records for the region began.

The Arctic as a whole had below-average sea ice cover during the 2011 to 2012 winter season. At its maximum, reached in mid-March, sea ice covered 5.88 million square miles (15.24 million square kilometers), the ninth lowest in the satellite record.

Yet Alaskan waters were choked with ice.

Sea ice cover in the Bering Sea was well above normal for much of the season, and reached a record-high extent in March 2012. In addition, ice surrounded the Pribilof Islands, tiny volcanic islands in the middle of the Bering Sea, for a record number of days this winter.
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House

Source of Vibrating Houses Traced to Methane Gas From Landfill

John Bumgardner
KXAN
Sun, 06 May 2012 15:41 UTC
Image

Austin, TX- Several KXAN viewers called Sunday morning after vibrations in a North Austin neighborhood woke people.

In a statement to the media, fire officials now say they believe the source of the strange rumblings can be traced to the Sunset Farms landfill.

"The source of the "vibrations" in Southeast Austin was found to be from the Sunset Farms Landfill at 9912 Giles Rd."
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Butterfly

Red Admiral, 'Butterfly of Doom,' Population Explodes in NY

Victoria N. Alexander
Digital Journal
Sat, 05 May 2012 18:50 UTC
Red Admiral Butterfly
© Luc Viatour/Wikimedia Commons

Brooklyn - The Red Admiral Butterfly, known as the "Butterfly of Doom," was especially abundant the year the Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. Lepidopterist Kurt Johnson reports an unusually large number of the species are descending upon Brooklyn, NY According to Dr. Kurt Johnson, a retired lepidopterist from the American Museum of Natural History, in the last two days there has been
an outbreak of Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) in Brooklyn the likes of which I have never seen (not even close), and I've been here 45 years. ... [T]here were at least a half dozen Red Admirals for every 10 paces one walked.... [At] the Botanical Garden, Red Admirals were also flying all over the place, chasing each other etc.
Butterfly population explosions are not particularly common, says Dr. Johnson. In 1881, the Red Admiral, also known as the Red Admirable, was found in great abundance in Russia. According to Russian lore, the undersides of the wings bore markings that resembled the numbers "1881." Russians came to call the insect the "Butterfly of Doom," and some believe its great numbers "signaled" the beginning of the revolution and the death of the Tsar.
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Alarm Clock

Peru pelican and dolphin deaths prompt warning to stay off beaches


Guardian
Sat, 05 May 2012 22:15 UTC
Peruvian officials examine a pelican carcass on the beach of Port Eten.
© ReutersPeruvian officials examine a pelican carcass on the beach of Port Eten.
Government issues health alert after more than 1,400 birds are washed up along with 800 dolphins, with the cause unknown

Peru's government has declared a health alert along its northern coastline and urged residents and tourists to stay away from long stretches of beach as it investigates the unexplained deaths of hundreds of dolphins and pelicans.

At least 1,200 birds, mostly pelicans, have washed up dead along a stretch of Peru's northern Pacific coastline in recent weeks, according to health officials, and an estimated 800 dolphins have died in the same area in recent months.

The health ministry recommended staying away from beaches, although it stopped short of a ban, and called on health officials to use gloves, masks and other protective gear when collecting dead birds.
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Snowman

Farmers worry that May snow and freezing temperatures could bring crop failures to Britain


The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 06 May 2012 09:11 UTC
Image
© Mark Hamblin/2020VISION / Rex FeaturesSnow is expected over higher ground in Scotland and northern England as Britain braces itself for a chilly May Bank Holiday
Parts of Britain will be colder than the Arctic this weekend as rain and even snow threaten to put a freeze on millions of families' May Bank Holiday plans.

Beach trips and barbecues are likely to be off the agenda as forecasters predicted the mercury could plunge as low as 26F (-3C) in places on Saturday.

Holidaymakers were advised to go skiing rather than sunbathing and seaside resorts warned of multi-million pound losses and deserted beaches.

Farmers and gardeners, battered by drought and floods, have also been warned that crops and plants could be killed by widespread frosts.

Flooding continued today as the Met Office said rain hit many parts and the Environment Agency issued 19 flood warnings and 61 alerts. East Anglia, the Midlands and the South were worst hit.

Showers will hit the south coast on Saturday, a wider area of the south on Sunday, and most areas on a washout Bank Holiday Monday, with further widespread rain next week.
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Cloud Lightning

Deadly tornado rips through eastern Japan

Mark Willacy
abc.net.au
Sun, 06 May 2012 08:46 UTC
Image
© AFP/Kei HashimotoA tornado sweeping through Tsukuba city in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan.
A tornado ripped through eastern Japan, killing one person and injuring at least 20 people, destroying houses and cutting power to around 20,000 households.

The tornado tore through several towns north-east of Tokyo, with television footage from the city of Tsukuba showing houses torn apart, overturned cars and toppled power poles.

Aerial images showed possibly hundreds of houses and apartments with shattered glass windows, many of them with their roofs blown away.

"You could see the roaring column of wind rushing with sparks from live power lines inside it," a local man told national broadcaster NHK.

"Winds blew into my house. It took only a moment," a woman told NHK while cleaning up her home.

Officials say a 14-year-old boy was killed while up to 50 homes were destroyed. Local media reported at least 30 injuries.
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Stop

Mysterious smell detected in Tel Aviv, Israel


Global Post
Thu, 03 May 2012 20:04 UTC
Image
© Jack Guez/AFP/Getty ImagesAn activist from the environment action group Greenpeace holds black and white balloons with the slogn, ''Be Next: Clean your cloud,'' during a protest in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on the sidelines of a '' Microsoft '' exhibition on April 22, 2012 . Greenpeace activists urged Microsoft to use clean energy to power datacenters running services based in the Internet 'cloud.'
Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry isn't sure what the smell is, but still insists that it poses no danger.

A mysterious, strong chemical odor has been detected in Tel Aviv today. Authorities aren't yet sure what is causing the smell, but insist that there is nothing to worry about. However, Israel has launched a criminal investigation in relation to the odor, the Times of Israel reported.

Residents haven't been given any orders other than not to panic. People who attempted to call the Tel Aviv Municipality received an automated message saying that officials were investigating the "unknown smell," and that there is "no need to report it, as media outlets will update throughout the day," according to Haaretz.

"There's no point in spreading hysteria," Minister Gilad Erdan told Israel Radio today, according to the Times of Israel. "There's no danger."

People in Tel Aviv first noticed the foul smell this morning, Ynet reported. The IDF received an outpouring of complaints, and originally traced the odor back to a gas drilling site near Nitzanim.
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