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Italian PM declares state of emergency for earthquake area; 4.7 magnitude aftershock strikes near Amatrice


Sky News
Fri, 26 Aug 2016 06:47 UTC
Italy earthquake
© APTN
Small towns have been devastated by the quake which hit on Wednesday night.
Italy's Prime Minister has declared a state of emergency in the area affected by the earthquake which killed at least 250.

It came as a strong 4.7-magnitude aftershock struck near the worst-hit town of Amatrice on Friday morning.

PM Matteo Renzi has authorised an initial €50m in crisis funding to start the rebuilding process and offered to cancel taxes for those affected.

He also called for a national collective effort - dubbed Italian Homes - to build dwellings for the future that will be safe in the event of other quakes.

The 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit on Wednesday and devastated parts of Lazio, Umbria and Le Marche.


Comment: Italy earthquake: Death toll approaches 250 as rescue operation continues

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Fire

35 large wildfires blazing across western United States


The Weather Channel
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 12:30 UTC
plane drops a load of fire retardant
© Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review via AP
A plane drops a load of fire retardant on the north side of Beacon Hill, Sunday, Aug 21, 2016, in Spokane, Washington.
Nearly three dozen large wildfires are burning across the West, stretching fire crews thin as they work around-the-clock to contain the infernos.

Additionally, firefighters made initial attacks on 112 new blazes to prevent them from spreading. The situation forced the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, to raise the National Preparedness Level to 4 last week, one shy of the highest level.

Still, the wildfires have persisted this week. In Wyoming, a large wildfire has forced the closure of the main connecting road between Yellowstone National Park's southern end and Grand Teton National Park's northern border, according to Reuters.

This closure has been blamed on the Maple fire, which has burned more than 27,000 acres of land and is now less than four miles from the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, Reuters also said. The Maple fire and two other fires, burning in remote areas of Yellowstone National Park, were started by lightning, the report added.

Comment: 2016 is already a year of extreme weather disasters for the United States

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Bizarro Earth

3.6 magnitude earthquake recorded in Saint Lucia

SNO Staff
St. Lucia News Online
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 21:53 UTC
Saint Lucia earthquake
The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWISRC) has confirmed that a 3.6 magnitude earthquake was felt in the North of St. Lucia, at around 1:03 p.m.

It was located at 14.29°N and 61.08°W and had a depth of 29km.

Persons in Rodney Bay and Beausejour felt the tremor.
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Rainbow

'Rare' circumhorizontal arc spotted in Greensboro, North Carolina

Grant Gilmore
WFMY News 2
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 23:40 UTC
Circumhorizontal arc in NC
© Zoran Wilkes
It might look like rainbow and you might have even heard it called a fire rainbow, but what some people saw in the sky last Friday was a circumhorizontal arc.

A rare sighting that can only be seen in the Triad from March through September a circumhorizontal arc is a phenomenon caused by the sunlight hitting ice crystals just right in the atmosphere. This occurs when sun- or moonlight is refracted in a plate-shaped ice crystal that is suspended in the atmosphere, typically in high cirrus clouds.

The process that causes the circumhorizontal arc is just like the effect of when you shine light into a prism.

In ideal conditions, the arc appears as a large, brightly spectrum-colored band that appears parallel to the horizon located directly below the sun or moon.
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Arrow Down

20-foot sinkhole closes intersection in Phoenix, Arizona


AZ Family
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 18:57 UTC
59th and Indian School road sinkhole in Phoenix
© KNXV
A sinkhole has closed the intersection of 59th Avenue and Indian School Road in west Phoenix.

Emergency crews responded to the scene Monday morning.

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Beaker

BPA disrupts male turtle's brain development to show behaviour common in females


Science Daily
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 14:25 UTC
Turtle
© StrangerView / Fotolia
Cheryl Rosenfeld and her team found that BPA can induce behavioral changes in turtles, reprogramming male turtle brains to show behavior common in females. Researchers worry this could lead to population declines in painted turtles.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used in many consumer products including water bottles, metal food storage products and certain resins. Often, aquatic environments such as rivers and streams become reservoirs for BPA, affecting turtle habitats. Last year, a team of researchers led by the University of Missouri determined that BPA can disrupt sexual function in painted turtles, causing males to develop female sex organs. Now, the team has shown that BPA also can induce behavioral changes in turtles, reprogramming male turtle brains to show behavior common in females. Researchers worry this could lead to population declines in painted turtles.

"Previously, our research team found that BPA and ethinyl estradiol (EE2), a hormone found in birth control pills, could 'sex-reverse' turtles from males to females," said Cheryl Rosenfeld, an associate professor of biomedical sciences in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and an investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center. "Painted turtles and other reptiles lack sex chromosomes. The gender of painted turtles and other reptiles is determined by the incubation temperature of the egg during development. Studies have shown that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), such as BPA, can override incubation temperature and switch the sex of males to females. In our latest study, we found that BPA also affects how the male brain is 'wired,' potentially inducing males to show female type behavioral patterns."

Comment: Turtles are not the only species that are being affected by BPA because similar effects have also been found to occur in humans.

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Attention

Aggressive deer killed after attacking four people in Geneva, Switzerland


The Local ch
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 14:01 UTC
Red deer
Authorities in Geneva have put down a rutting deer that attacked four people over the course of 48 hours, according to reports.

The buck went on the rampage at the end of July in a residential area in the Collonge-Bellerive area of Geneva, newspaper 24 Heures said on Thursday.

Describing his experience to the paper, one of the animal's victims, José Taboada, said he was driving his van through the area on July 25th when he saw it leap out of a sunflower field a few metres from his vehicle.

Taboada got out of the van to take a photo of the buck with his phone when it attacked.
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Fish

Giant 2-metre catfish attacks woman in Bavaria, Germany


The Local de
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 12:46 UTC
catfish

Catfish
When a young woman went for a swim in an idyllic south Bavarian region, she got more than she bargained for.

The woman was swimming in a lake in Straubing-Bogen in southeastern Bavaria when the huge flesh-eating fish bit into her leg, the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported on Wednesday.

She immediately turned round and was able to swim back to the shore in safety. But the large bite left in her leg allowed experts to estimate that the beast - a wels catfish - that had a nip at her was around two metres in length, about 6.5 feet.

An expert from the Bavarian Fishing Association told the SZ that such incidents are not wholly uncommon, especially when the male is protecting a pair's eggs.
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Cloud Lightning

Second lightning strike victim dies in Poughkeepsie, New York; total lightning fatalities for U.S. in 2016 now 30

Abbott Brant
Poughkeepsie Journal
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 11:33 UTC
lIGHTNING
A second victim of the freak Aug. 12 lightning strike in a City of Poughkeepsie park has died.

The 46-year-old man died at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday, according to John Nelson, director of public and community affairs at Vassar Brothers Medical Center.

The man, whose name was not released, was the second man fatally struck in City of Poughkeepsie's Mansion Square Park that Friday afternoon. A 50-year-old man died early the following day.

Three other lightning strike victims, Alexander Carr, Karen Brooks and an unnamed 46-year-old man, were treated at local hospitals following the strike and released.

Lightning struck a tree, traveling down it and into the ground, shocking five victims on or near a bench, one of whom died. Police have not released the names of the victims.

Comment: See also: Fatalities from U.S. lightning strikes this year at highest since 2010

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning kills 38 animals in India


Deccan Chronicle
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 10:50 UTC
dead animals
© DC
In a gross natural disaster, a total of 38 sheep were killed on Tuesday night as lightning struck the Kammalam Poondy village in Kanchipuram district.

The catastrophe had left the village in a pall of gloom and is a first of its kind in the recent past, said the distressed villagers.

Cattle owner E. Lakshmanan (45), who lost 38 sheep among the 104 ones, has incurred a loss of Rs 1.52 lakh. As brief spells and thunderstorms were observed on Tuesday evening, Lakshmanan had chosen to not take the cattle to a fenced field and left them in an open ground, a few yards behind his house. At around 11pm, he woke up to the disturbance and was shocked to see the carcasses of the cattle.
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