Earth ChangesS


Eye 2

Writhing ball of sexy snakes infest man's Wamberal backyard in Australia

Geraldine Cardozo
The Telegraph, Australia
Thu, 17 Oct 2013 12:30 UTC

A Wamberal man received the shock of his life when he stumbled on a writhing ball of snakes in his backyard.

What he did not know was that they weren't interested in him, but in one another. He had stumbled on a bizarre snake mating ritual.

Christopher Finch said he had never seen anything like the "hellhole" of diamond pythons, some up to 2.5m long, on his property - just a short stroll from neighbouring houses and the Central Coast Highway.

Image
Christopher Finch and the largest Diamond Python from his Wamberal back garden. Source: News Limited
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Question

Rare saber-toothed whale washes ashore in Venice Beach

Jason Wells
LA Times
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 10:43 UTC
Image
© Nick Fash / Heal the BayHeather Doyle, director of Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, points at the carcass of a rare Stejneger's beaked whale that was picked up from Venice Beach early Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013
A rare whale known for its saber-like teeth and preference for frigid subarctic waters washed ashore in a highly unlikely place Tuesday night: Venice Beach.

The female Stejneger's beaked whale - also known as the Saber-toothed whale - was loaded onto the bed of a truck early Wednesday and taken for an necropsy that will give scientists a rare glimpse into the lives of the elusive mammals.

So rare, in fact, it sent Nick Fash, an education specialist for Heal the Bay, pedaling his bike down to the site "as fast as I could."

"We were very lucky," said Fash, who works at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. "These whales are incredibly rare and almost never seen in the wild."

The roughly 15-foot long whale, he said, was reportedly spotted overnight, sending crews from the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum scurrying to retrieve the carcass.
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Music

Mystery noise causes misery across Southampton, UK

Chris Yandell,
DailyEcho, UK
Thu, 17 Oct 2013 17:29 UTC
Mystery Noise
© DailyEcho, UKGordon Windebank, from Swaythling, who is being kept awake at night by the mystery noise.
The mystery surrounding a strange noise that is keeping people awake at night has taken a new twist.

Southampton residents say they are being plagued by the same sound that is making life a misery for people living on the eastern edge of the New Forest.

As revealed in yesterday's Daily Echo, the low-frequency drone is causing sleepless nights in Hythe, Holbury and Dibden Purlieu.

One woman has resorted to visiting a friend in a bid to escape the din.

Another is said to be considering early retirement after being badly affected by the stress of living with the noise.

Now people living in Southampton and West End have come forward to report similar problems.

Gordon Windebank, 82, of Broadlands Road, Swaythling, said: "It's driving me mad.

"It started with a low rumble about 18 months ago and has been getting steadily worse since last Sunday.

I notice it when I go to bed at 10.30pm and it still seems to be going on when I get up the next morning."

Mr Windebank has been prescribed sleeping pills by his doctor and says he may be forced to go back for more.
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Wolf

Colorado man fights off 3 coyotes using flashlight as weapon


gma.yahoo.com
Thu, 17 Oct 2013 04:26 UTC
Image
© CBSAndrew Dickehage
A Colorado man is nursing too many bites and scratches to count after he survived a brutal attack from three coyotes using only a flashlight as weapon to defend himself.

Andrew Dickehage was having car troubles when he decided to walk from his Longmont, Colo., home early Monday morning when the teeth-baring trio came charging out of the darkness.

"You feel the initial impact and soon as you felt it you could then react, and go to shove," Dickehage told TV station KCNC Wednesday.

Dickehage was initially using his flashlight to navigate the dark roads when he decided that it was probably his best bet to fight off the coyotes.

"I took my flashlight and I hit it over the side of the head to get it to let go," he told KCNC. "As soon as I got it to let go, then another went to lunge at me and all I could think to do was swing to get it not to lunge at me."
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Bizarro Earth

Rare whale found dead in Southern California


Big Story
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 23:23 UTC
Dead Rare Dolphin
© AP Photo/Nick FlashThis image provided by Heal the Bay shows Heather Doyle, director of the Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium pointing out shark bites found on a beached Stejneger's Beaked Whale that washed ashore Tuesday in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2013. Heal the Bay plans to study the whale.
Los Angeles - A rare whale that has a dolphin-shaped head and saber-like teeth has been found dead on Los Angeles' Venice Beach, even though it prefers frigid subarctic waters.

The roughly 15-foot-long female Stejneger's beaked whale washed ashore Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Times reported. A truck hauled away the mammal, which was being examined at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum to determine how it died.
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Igloo

Snow-like hail blankets NSW beach

Martin Zavan
9News, Australia
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 23:18 UTC

Residents of a sleepy town on the southern coast of NSW were treated to scenes resembling a winter wonderland after a freak hail storm blanketed a popular beach in snow only a day after the mercury soared above 30 degrees.

Local Allen Coulthard, 27, captured some of the spectacular scenes at Malua Bay Beach last night as his children used a body board to glide along the seemingly snow-blanketed shore.
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Bizarro Earth

Are dolphins reaching a breaking point?

Zak Smith
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 09:25 UTC
Something bad is happening in the ocean. No one's certain what's causing it, but in the past three months more than 550 bottlenose dolphins have stranded along the Atlantic Coast and there's no indication that the strandings are letting up. While researches rush to catalog data on the dolphins' deaths, larger questions loom - is the Atlantic coastal ecosystem broken, and are humans the cause?

Yes, dolphins strand all the time, but not like this. As shown below in the figure from the National Marine Fisheries Service, strandings have skyrocketed this year, especially in Virginia and fanning out north and south, with large numbers in Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina.
Dolphin
© NOAAFigure from NOAA Fisheries' landing page regarding "2013 Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event in the Mid-Atlantic."
It would be easy to finger the morbillivirus, which has ravaged bottlenose dolphin populations in the past and is showing up in the necropsies conducted on these dolphins.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude: 6.8 - 64km WSW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea


US Geological Survey
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 11:51 UTC
Panguna Quake_161013
© USGS
Event Time
2013-10-16 10:31:00 UTC
2013-10-16 20:31:00 UTC+10:00 at epicenter

Location
6.487°S 154.928°E depth=54.1km (33.6mi)

Nearby Cities
64km (40mi) WSW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea
73km (45mi) WSW of Arawa, Papua New Guinea
378km (235mi) SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea
539km (335mi) ESE of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea
642km (399mi) WNW of Honiara, Solomon Islands

Technical Details
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Cloud Lightning

Typhoon Wipha makes landfall: Mudslides kill 14 in Japan; 50 missing


Associated Press
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 01:54 UTC
Heavy rain in Tokyo
© Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty ImagesJapanese businessmen walk against strong wind and rain as Typhoon Wipha reached Tokyo on Wednesday.
A typhoon caused deadly mudslides that buried people and destroyed homes on a Japanese island Wednesday before sweeping up the Pacific coast, grounding hundreds of flights and disrupting Tokyo's transportation during the morning rush. At least 14 deaths were reported and more than 50 people were missing.

Hardest hit was Izu Oshima island about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Tokyo. Rescuers found 13 bodies, most of them buried by mudslides, police and town officials said. Dozens of homes were destroyed, and more than 50 people are missing. "We have no idea how bad the extent of damage could be," town official Hinani Uematsu said.

One woman from Tokyo died after falling into a river and being washed 10 kilometers (6 miles) downriver to Yokohama, police said. Two sixth-grade boys and another person were missing on Japan's main island, Honshu, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

More than 350 homes have been damaged or destroyed, including 283 on Izu Oshima, it said.

Comment: Had the rain fallen as snow it would have been 8 meters of snow in a 24 hour period, instead 80 cm of rain fell.

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Arrow Down

Cases of cholera are on the rise in Mexico


Press TV
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 15:53 UTC
Cholera
© PressTV
Mexico's health minister has warned of a cholera outbreak across four central states and the capital, claiming the life of one person and infecting many others.

The east-central state of Hidalgo has the highest count of confirmed cases with 145 people being infected, including the death of a 75-year-old woman, said Health Minister Mercedes Juan on Monday.

Other states affected with cholera include Mexico with nine, Veracruz with two, San Luis Potosi with one, and a couple others in Mexico City, the official added.

Juan said that another 3,075 "probable cases" have been detected throughout the country.

The ministry has launched a nationwide public health campaign aimed at preventing further infections.
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