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An earthquake with the magnitude of 5.3 struck eastern parts of Indonesia on Monday morning, but with no report of damage or casualties, local meteorology agency said here. The quake jolted at 01:14 Jakarta time (1814 GMT Sunday) with the epicenter at 28 km southeast Melongue town of north Suawesi and at 34 km in depth, the agency said.
© Randall Hill - Sun NewsA house on Swift Street in Barefoot Resort lies in ruin after a brush fire several homes in the community early Thursday morning.
A study in contrasts, a pristine slate house on Woodlawn Drive stands in front of a landscape of charred trees and blackened soil.
The burned soil sits within 15 feet of the home's neat garden, and firefighters huddle near a truck watching the smoldering plumes, vigilant in case they should flare.
With a total of 76 homes destroyed in a wildfire that began Wednesday afternoon, emergency workers focused Saturday on continued containment and preventing refires.
At about 8 p.m. Saturday about 85 percent of the blaze was contained, said spokesman Scott Hawkins, with the state forestry commission. Most major roads except S.C. 31 have been reopened and all shelters have closed.
The reported number of acres damaged fell from about 20,500 acres to 19,600 acres Saturday due to better access to geographic informations system mapping data, Hawkins said.
While most visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park have probably heard about the black bears that roam the park, few have heard about the water bears.
Known formally as tardigrades, water bears are microscopic, eight-legged creatures that exist in sediments and soils. Though they occur nearly everywhere on earth, few scientists have bothered to study the species.
That has left the field wide open for Paul Bartels, a biology professor at Warren Wilson College. Bartels and his students have discovered 78 species of tardigrades in the Smokies, including 18 new to science.
Known formally as tardigrades, water bears are microscopic, eight-legged creatures that exist in sediments and soils. Though they occur nearly everywhere on earth, few scientists have bothered to study the species.
That has left the field wide open for Paul Bartels, a biology professor at Warren Wilson College. Bartels and his students have discovered 78 species of tardigrades in the Smokies, including 18 new to science.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck eastern and central Romania on Saturday and was also felt in neighboring Moldova, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Romania's Institute for Earth Physics said the quake struck at 8:25 p.m. in the Vrancea region, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of Bucharest at a depth of 75 miles (120 kilometers).
Institute director Gheorghe Marmureanu said it was felt in Bucharest, in the Black Sea port of Constanta, in the central city of Brasov, in the city of Iasi in northeast Romania, and at the port of Galati in easternmost Romania. It was also felt in Moldova which borders eastern Romania.
Romania's Institute for Earth Physics said the quake struck at 8:25 p.m. in the Vrancea region, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of Bucharest at a depth of 75 miles (120 kilometers).
Institute director Gheorghe Marmureanu said it was felt in Bucharest, in the Black Sea port of Constanta, in the central city of Brasov, in the city of Iasi in northeast Romania, and at the port of Galati in easternmost Romania. It was also felt in Moldova which borders eastern Romania.
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck the remote Kermadec Islands, north of New Zealand North Island on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake hit the New Zealand territory, 960 km north east of Auckland at 12:06 p.m. New Zealand local time (0654 GMT) at a depth of 142 km.
No casualties or damage were reported.
No casualties or damage were reported.
Seeley, at least voice-wise, stays polite and treats this as a serious question. Which it is.
Of course honeybees don't have a banking system, but they do exhibit collective behavior. The queen bee doesn't decide what the colony needs to do. Instead, each colony member does her or his bee thing, and out of hundreds or thousands of interactions, a collective decision emerges. Seeley's next book, due out in 2010, will be called Honeybee Democracy.
© Munem Wasif / Agence VU / Courtesy Prix PictetShajhan Siraj and his brothers from Gabura race against the rising tide as they seek to launch their boats into the sea. The boats are laden with water which takes them between two and three hours to collect each day.
Now photographer Munem Wasif has brought to light another growing problem that is already affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the Satkhira region of south-west Bangladesh: increasingly salty groundwater.
See Wasif's images.
This rise in salinity has been caused by a shift from traditional agriculture to commercial shrimp farming. The latter can generate a lot of money for a fortunate few, but for most its consequences are disastrous. Once-fertile land turns to brackish water and local people lose access to drinking water and their livelihoods.
The sun produced an unexpected burst of activity on April 23rd when an enormous prominence rose over the northeastern limb and erupted. SOHO recorded the blast from beginning to end with a series of high-cadence UV snapshots. Click here to set the scene in motion: 
© SOHO
"Official data shows the world passed its peak temperatures 10 years ago, but sadly the BBC and 'Global Warming apologists' are now attempting to cover up the facts" said Piers Corbyn, 'climate realist', astrophysicist & long range weather & climate forecaster, 24 April, in response to the BBC's 'Quiet Sun baffling astronomers' report.
"In timely backing of the UK Government's £1billion Carbon budget and similar moves in the USA, the BBC and Prof Lockwood of Southampton University distort the facts in an attempt to cover-up the proven centrality of the sun in controlling world temperatures", said Piers.
"They make the ignorant and loaded claim that '...Current slight dimming of the sun was not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels'. This is treble confusion because (1) the world is already cooling even though CO2 is rising; (2) there is no evidence that the burning of fossil fuels ever did or ever will drive world temperatures and (3) reputable and informed solar scientists know that there is a lot more to the sun's influence on the world than its dimness or brightness."
"In timely backing of the UK Government's £1billion Carbon budget and similar moves in the USA, the BBC and Prof Lockwood of Southampton University distort the facts in an attempt to cover-up the proven centrality of the sun in controlling world temperatures", said Piers.
"They make the ignorant and loaded claim that '...Current slight dimming of the sun was not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels'. This is treble confusion because (1) the world is already cooling even though CO2 is rising; (2) there is no evidence that the burning of fossil fuels ever did or ever will drive world temperatures and (3) reputable and informed solar scientists know that there is a lot more to the sun's influence on the world than its dimness or brightness."
For decades we have been urged to urgently prepare for unprecedented global warming or there will be gloom and doom for the world. Yet only few years after the issue of the IPCC reports, exactly the opposite is happening. Matter of fact the cooling already started after 2002. The climate data from 3 different major organizations [GISS, UAH and RSS] that monitor temperatures all confirm this cooling trend as shown below.
© Icecap.usGraph of monthly global temperature anomalies 2002-2009
