Jakarta -- An earthquake with magnitude of 5.4 rocked eastern parts of Indonesia on Tuesday, meteorology agency said here.
The quake struck in the morning and at epicenter at 103 kilometers northwest Ternate of North Mauku province and at 99 kilometers in depth.
There was no report of damage or casualty.
Earth Changes
© NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, MODIS Rapid Response Team.
Bushfires in southeastern Australia turned deadly over the first weekend of February 2009. Out-of-control fires raced into small communities and towns in Victoria, and more than 100 people had died as of February 9, according to news reports.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News) reported that many of those who died had remained to protect their homes.
Among the most devastated communities were those in the Kinglake area and Marysville. As of February 9, firefighters were expressing concern about the increased activity of the fire around the town of Dederang, southwest of Lake Hume.
A small earthquake has struck the sprawling border city of Mexicali, Mexico. There are no immediate reports of injury or damages.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the magnitude-3.7 quake struck nine miles southwest of Mexicali shortly before 2 p.m. today.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the magnitude-3.7 quake struck nine miles southwest of Mexicali shortly before 2 p.m. today.
© Theresa Peterson/Daily News Photo
Bill Scullon of the Department of Natural Resources replaces a sign at the Iron Mountain Bat Cave. DNR officials are watching the spread of a new disease affecting bats in the eastern U.S.
Bill Scullon of the Department of Natural Resources replaces a sign at the Iron Mountain Bat Cave. DNR officials are watching the spread of a new disease affecting bats in the eastern U.S.
Approximately 50,000 bats that make their home in the Millie Hill mine could be in danger if a deadly disease, called white-nose syndrome, makes its way to the Midwest.
The disease's name comes from the distinctive white smudges that appear on the noses and wings of infected bats. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey's Wildlife Health Center discovered that the smudges are actually a previously unknown fungus that thrives in the cold of winter caves.
However, no one seems to know whether the smudges are the cause of the disease or just a symptom.
White-nose syndrome causes bats to rouse more than usual and deplete their stores of body fat that they need during hibernation, said Bill Scullon, wildlife biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) office in Escanaba.
The soft tyranny of utopia continues... Imaginary heroes fighting imaginary demons, yet affecting other peoples' lives as they do.
The length of the solar cycle continues to grow. Let me clue the energy czar in on something he might want to look at besides whatever it is he believes now. Within 20 years, the climate of Scotland can be into London and Scotland more like Scandinavia. This can happen a lot quicker than man's imaginary effect on the planet that he fears. How so?
The solar max is in 5 years, yet there has been no rebound from the min yet. As this cycle grows longer, it is becoming more apparent the Russian scientists are right about their solar theories as they were predicting it to happen as we see it. They also said because of this we will be in a mini ice age, much like back in the 1700s by around 2030. The U.K. energy czar, refusing to look at history, probably has no clue about this, nor would he even listen to the idea that solar cycles have affects on climate, something the commoner must know since it's warmer when the sun is up than when it's down.
But here is the problem, decreased solar radiation leads to more cosmic dust, which in turn has an effect of increasing the speed of the Earth's rotation, creating a negative global atmospheric angular momentum. Take a look at what is going on with that. Notice how negative it has been during this time of reduced radiation.
Comment: Joe's blog post is in response to reading this article:
UK environment czar looking at limiting holiday trips to save CO2
The length of the solar cycle continues to grow. Let me clue the energy czar in on something he might want to look at besides whatever it is he believes now. Within 20 years, the climate of Scotland can be into London and Scotland more like Scandinavia. This can happen a lot quicker than man's imaginary effect on the planet that he fears. How so?
The solar max is in 5 years, yet there has been no rebound from the min yet. As this cycle grows longer, it is becoming more apparent the Russian scientists are right about their solar theories as they were predicting it to happen as we see it. They also said because of this we will be in a mini ice age, much like back in the 1700s by around 2030. The U.K. energy czar, refusing to look at history, probably has no clue about this, nor would he even listen to the idea that solar cycles have affects on climate, something the commoner must know since it's warmer when the sun is up than when it's down.
But here is the problem, decreased solar radiation leads to more cosmic dust, which in turn has an effect of increasing the speed of the Earth's rotation, creating a negative global atmospheric angular momentum. Take a look at what is going on with that. Notice how negative it has been during this time of reduced radiation.
Comment: Joe's blog post is in response to reading this article:
UK environment czar looking at limiting holiday trips to save CO2
© AP Photo/The Oklahoman, David McDaniel
Utility poles block part of an intersection after they were blown over in Oklahoma City, Tuesday , Feb. 10, 2009. A series of storms, with at least one tornado reported, swept through central Oklahoma Tuesday afternoon.
Utility poles block part of an intersection after they were blown over in Oklahoma City, Tuesday , Feb. 10, 2009. A series of storms, with at least one tornado reported, swept through central Oklahoma Tuesday afternoon.
Oklahoma City - A tornado damaged homes and knocked down power lines Tuesday afternoon as severe storms moved through central Oklahoma.
Six homes were damaged or destroyed near Edmond, a suburb north of Oklahoma City.
"We are trying to dodge our storms and keep responders safe, so it is taking some time to get confirmation of damages," city spokeswoman Claudia Deakins said. No casualties were immediately reported.
Schoolchildren were being kept in locked down schools until the storm passed. Structural damage was also reported in northwest Oklahoma City.
© unknown
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey and Maine State Climate Office announced today that a minus-50 reading in northwestern Maine held up to scientific scrutiny. That beats Maine's old record of 48 below zero set in 1925 in Van Buren, and ties the record for coldest temperature recorded in New England. That reading was made in 1933 in Bloomfield, Vt.
The record on New Hampshire's Mount Washington is minus -47. Maine's minus-50 reading was made on Jan. 16 at a remote site along the Big Black River near the Quebec border as the region was in the grip of a blast of arctic air.
By the way after a thaw this week, cold air will return starting Friday to the nation. Watch for lots of cold and snow probably the rest of the month.
© NASA/NOAA
Dust plumes blowing off the coast of Western Sahara over the Atlantic Ocean.
Dust plumes blowing off the coast of Western Sahara over the Atlantic Ocean.
University of Hertfordshire astronomers were making observations of the stars in search of new planets after mounting the 'PlanetPol' (polarimeter they designed and constructed to take extremely sensitive readings) on the William Herschel Telescope (part of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes) in La Palma in the Canary Islands, when their measurements became affected by a layer of dust.
The presence of the dust itself, which satellite images and modelling of the dust's movement show had originated from the Sahara and the Sahel, was not a surprise, but its behaviour was. Scientists normally assume that aerosols, including mineral dust, have random orientation in the atmosphere, but the team members say the polarizing affect the dust was having on the light could only be the result of dust particles being vertically aligned.
© unknown
There are signs our weather is taking a time machine ride back to the regimes of the 1960s or even the late 1700s early 1800s. Our climate operates in cycles, which favors different regimes of weather. We have come out of a few decades that thanks to a warm Pacific resulted in a dominance of El Ninos and its typical southern storm tracks and warm, dry western North America.
The Pacific has cooled and now favors La Ninas, which have dominated the last two winters. This has resulted in a more northern storm track (and as we reported in earlier stories (here and here and here), record monthly or seasonal snows).
© unknown
Yet another example of the 'research' masquerading as science that is used to reinforce the man-made global warming fraud. One of the difficulties the green zealots have had is that Antarctica has been not warming but cooling, with the extent of its ice reaching record levels. A few weeks ago, a study led by Professor Eric Steig caused some excitement by claiming that actually West Antarctica was warming so much that it more than made up for the cooling in East Antarctica. Warning bells should have sounded when Steig said:
What we did is interpolate carefully instead of just using the back of an envelope.To those of us who have been following this scam for the past two decades, 'interpolate carefully' makes us suck our teeth. And so it has proved. Various scientists immediately spotted the flaw in Steig's methodology of combining satellite evidence since 1979 with temperature readings from surface weather stations. The flaw they identified was that, since Antarctica has so few weather stations, the computer Steig used was programmed to guess what data they would have produced had such stations existed. In other words, the findings that caused such excitement were based on data that had been made up.
