Earth ChangesS

Cloud Lightning

US: 10 Tornadoes Confirmed in Georgia

Liz Fabian
The Macon Telegraph
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:00 UTC
Workers
© Beau Cabell/The TelegraphA group of power company linemen work to restore high voltage lines Friday near the intersection of U.S. 129 and U.S. 441 south of Eatonton.
Ten tornadoes, one packing winds of more than 160 mph, touched down in parts of Georgia on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said Friday.

The storms caused an estimated $25 million in insured losses, said John W. Oxendine, the state's insurance commissioner.

"I spent some time surveying damage and talking to residents in Jasper, Putnam and Hancock Counties" on Friday, Oxendine said in statement. "I believe claims will easily reach $25 million. Actual losses are much higher when you consider things like infrastructure damage and uninsured losses."
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Bizarro Earth

Colombia's Galeras Volcano Erupts


Agence France-Presse
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:38 UTC
Galeras
© Agence France-PresseGaleras volcano in southern Colombia erupted on Friday for the second time in less than a week.

Galeras volcano in southern Colombia erupted on Friday for the second time in less than a week, sending ash raining down but no causing no victims or damage, the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mines said.

A forceful eruption began at 7:05 am (1205 GMT), residents reported from the city of Pasto, at the foot of the volcano.

The regional alert system was raised to its highest level, the institute said in a statement.

The eruption was "accompanied by shock waves," generating vibrating effects and audible rumbles, the institute said.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Jolts Manokwari, Indonesia


Xinhua
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:00 UTC
An earthquake measuring 5.5 degree on the Richter scale shook Manokwari, West Papua in eastern Indonesia on Sunday evening, but there was no immediate report of casualties or material damage, the national Antara News Agency reported.

According to the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), the quake struck at around 9:15 p.m. local time, or 7:15 p.m. West Indonesia Time (1215 GMT), with the epicenter located 50 km deep, 0.56 South Latitude and 133.08 East Longitude, 114 km north west of Manokwari.

The agency said the quake had not potential to cause a tsunami.
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Bizarro Earth

More than 200 Aftershocks Jolt Northwest China


Xinhua
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:51 UTC
By 11 a.m., A total of 207 aftershocks have jolted Kalpin County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after Friday's 5.2 magnitude earthquake, local authorities said Sunday.

More than 10,000 houses were damaged, of which 182 were destroyed, as of 5 p.m.. No casualties were reported, a county government official said.

Forty tents have been set up in the quake-hit zone and 12,400 people relocated. The county government has received 1 million yuan (146,199 U.S. dollars) of rescue fund and donation from Aksu Prefecture and Kuqa County, he said.
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Bug

Mosquito Survives in Outer Space

Alexander Peslyak
India eNews
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:00 UTC
A Russian scientist has said that a mosquito had managed to survive in the outer space for 18 months.

Anatoly Grigoryev, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: 'We brought him (mosquito) back to Earth. He is alive, and his feet are moving.'

The mosquito did not get any food and was subjected to extreme temperatures ranging from minus 150 degrees Celsius in the shade to plus 60 degrees in the sunlight.

Grigoryev said the insect had been taken outside the International Space Station (ISS) on orders from the Institute's scientists working on the Biorisk experiment. 'First, they studied bacteria and fungi till a Japanese scientist suggested studying mosquitoes,' Grigoryev said.
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Sun

Climate change rhetoric spirals out of control

Christopher Booker
The Telegraph UK
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:58 UTC
Christopher Booker says that the Government must be absolutely sure that their data on climate change is accurate.

It was another bad week for the "warmists", now more desperate than ever to whip up alarm over an overheating planet. It began last weekend with the BBC leading its bulletins on the news that a "leading climate scientist" in America, Professor Chris Field, had warned that "the severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed". Future temperatures "will be beyond anything predicted", he told a Chicago conference. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had "seriously underestimated the size of the problem".
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Bizarro Earth

Most Wars Occur in Earth's Richest Biological Regions


Red Orbit
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:31 UTC
In a startling result, a new study published by the scientific journal Conservation Biology found that more than 80 percent of the world's major armed conflicts from 1950-2000 occurred in regions identified as the most biologically diverse and threatened places on Earth.

Titled "Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots," the study by leading international conservation scientists compared major conflict zones with the Earth's 34 biodiversity hotspots identified by Conservation International (CI). The hotspots (www.biodiversityhotspots.org) are considered top conservation priorities because they contain the entire populations of more than half of all plant species and at least 42 percent of all vertebrates, and are highly threatened.
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Wolf

Australia: Dingo behaviour gives locals paws for thought

Deborah Smith
The Sydney Morning Herald
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:30 UTC
Dingo
© Unknown
Brad Purcell has developed his own special concoction - a few sardines, a dash of kangaroo blood, and some chicken and tuna oils mixed with dog faeces. "Sometimes I put in cheese or yoghurt if it has gone off," he said.

It has done the trick. Using this awful home-made scent, Mr Purcell has been able to attract the dingoes that live on Sydney's doorstep and for the first time monitor their mysterious ways with hidden cameras.

As many as 460 dingoes may live in the Southern Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, a wilderness that reaches to within 65 kilometres of the city centre, the University of Western Sydney researcher estimates.
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Binoculars

Sea Ice extent report overlooked 193,000 square miles of ice


IceAgeNow
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:20 UTC
Ice Extent error
© U.S. National Snow and Ice Data CenterDaily total Arctic sea ice extent between 1 December 2008 and 12 February 2009 for Special Sensor Microwave/Imager SSM/I compared to the similar NASA Earth Observing System Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (EOS AMSR-E) sensor.

The ice is melting! The ice is melting! . . . Or is it?

In May, 2008, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) predicted that the North Pole would be ice-free during the 2008 melt season because of 'global warming.'

Today, they admitted that they've underreported Arctic ice extent by 193,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers). They blamed the error on satellite problems and sensor drift.

And we're supposed to trust these people?
193,000 square miles!

That's the size of Maine, Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and West Virginia combined! And toss in Washington, D.C. for good measure.

Let's watch the newspapers. If a pimple of ice smaller than a city should break off an ice sheet, they'd holler to the high heavens. But do you think they'll report this discovery of 'lost' ice the size of 10 states?
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Better Earth

British photographer captures spectacular Northern Lights


Uk Telegraph
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:13 UTC
A British photographer has captured a spectacular Northern Lights display which was sparked by a huge eruption on the sun.

Northern lights
© APEXA spectacular view of the Aurora Borealis in skies above Norway
The enormous ribbons of eerie green light were caught in the skies above Finmark in Norway by Mark Humpage who trekked 200 miles in to the Arctic circle.

Aurora Borealis are a spectacular natural phenomenon caused by the interaction of solar winds with the earth's magnetic field - and the 44-year-old endured temperatures of minus 35 degrees in order to catch the images of the beautiful atmospheric effect.
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