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French diplomat survives shark attack in Papua New Guinea after kite-surfing back to shore for help

Richard Shears
The Daily Mail
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:08 UTC
A French diplomat working for the European Union has been rushed to Australia for medical treatment after being attacked by a shark in Papua New Guinea.

Thomas Viot, 30, was bitten on the leg by what he believed was a tiger shark as he kite-surfed near a reef off the capital, Port Moresby, 1,000 miles from the northern Australian city of Darwin.

Despite a wound that went down to the bone, causing a huge loss of blood, Mr Viot managed to kite-surf back to a beach where local people and friends rushed to his aid.

Image
© AFP/ Getty Images
Survivor: Thomas Viot was bitten on the leg by what he believed was a tiger shark in Papua New Guinea
'I don't know how I managed it after the attack, but somehow I succeeded in riding back to the shore with my kite surf,' he said after being flown to the Queensland city of Brisbane.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0


USGS
Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:56 UTC
Vanuatu Quake_110911
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time:
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 23:37:36 UTC

Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:37:36 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
18.186°S, 167.874°E

Depth:
35.1 km (21.8 miles)

Region:
VANUATU

Distances:
63 km (39 miles) SW of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

212 km (131 miles) NW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

298 km (185 miles) SSE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

1844 km (1145 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

6.4 quake off Vancouver Island felt by few on Peninsula

Rob Ollikainen
peninsuladailynews.com
Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:02 UTC
Neah Bay - The magnitude-6.4 earthquake centered off the coast of Vancouver Island on Friday afternoon went largely unnoticed on the North Olympic Peninsula.

The 12:41 p.m. quake was centered about 130 miles northwest of Neah Bay at a depth of 14.3 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

"There is no tsunami watch, warning or advisory for the Washington coast," the Clallam County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

"There have been no reports of anyone from the county who may have felt the earthquake. There are no damage reports from the British Columbia area."

Janine Bowechop, executive director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay, was working at the museum when the quake occurred.

"I didn't feel a thing," Bowechop said. "But I'm in one of the biggest buildings in town."

Makah Marina Manager Bob Buckingham was at his Neah Bay home during the quake and did not feel the ground shake.

Clallam Bay Fire Chief Patricia Hutson-English did not feel the quake.

"And I haven't heard reports from anyone who felt it," she said.

Karin Ashton, a volunteer at the Clallam Bay-Sekiu Chamber of Commerce visitors center, said: "This is the first I've heard about it."

"We didn't hear a rumble or anything," Ashton said.

"It's been very calm and quiet."
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Eastern Caribbean Prepares for Heavy Rain, Winds as Tropical Storm Maria Approaches

Danica Coto
The Associated Press
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:20 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Weather Underground
This NOAA satellite image taken Friday, September 9, 2011 at 1:45 PM EDT shows Hurricane Katia located about 385 miles south-southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Tropical Storm Maria swirled toward the eastern Caribbean on Friday, threatening to unleash heavy rain and wind on islands still struggling to recover from a recent hurricane.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) Friday afternoon, with some slight strengthening possible, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was centered about 215 miles (345 kilometers) east-southeast of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and moving northwest at about 16 mph (26 kph).

Tropical force winds will start lashing the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday morning, where the storm is expected to dump up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain, said Walter Snell with the National Weather Service office in Puerto Rico.

"Residents should be prepared for whatever the worst this storm can do," he said.
      Read More...
Bulb

US: Southwest power back on, but blackout still a mystery


The Seattle Times
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:11 UTC
Image
© Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times
With computer screens dark, Southwest Airlines workers check passengers in manually Friday at San Diego's airport. Flight cancellations stranded many people after Thursday's massive power failure hit the region.
The failure of a single piece of equipment near Yuma, Ariz., ignited a massive blackout that left nearly 6 million people without power, baffling utility officials and highlighting the vulnerability of the U.S. electrical grid.

The failure of a single piece of equipment in Arizona ignited a massive blackout that left nearly 6 million people without power, baffling utility officials and highlighting the vulnerability of the U.S. electrical grid.

Authorities in Arizona said Friday that safeguards built into the system should have prevented the breakdown at a substation from cascading across Southern Arizona and into California and Northern Mexico.

They didn't, and the resulting instability led to the sudden shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear-power plant, about 50 miles north of San Diego, cutting off power to a large swath of Southern California.

"We lost all connection to the outside world," said James Avery, San Diego Gas & Electric's senior vice president of power supply. "This happened in a matter of seconds."
      Read More...
Sherlock

Washington, D.C., US: Anacostia mystery gunk is algae

Martin Weil
The Washington Post
Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:35 UTC
The mysterious stuff that caused concern and curiosity after being found last month floating on the Anacostia River has been identified. It's rare and it's alive, federal officials said Friday. But they also said it is on the way out and expected to disappear.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the black substance that has plagued part of the Anacostia since mid-August is not a petroleum product or other hazardous material as was thought. It is, the EPA said, an unusual bloom of algae.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Germany: Earthquake Shakes the Rhineland


The Local.de
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:38 UTC
Earthquake In Rhineland
© The Local, Germany's News in English
An unusually strong earthquake rocked western Germany on Thursday evening, causing alarm but no damages. The quake was especially noticeable around the epicentre near the Lower Rhine region but was also felt through the Ruhr Valley.

Rated 4.4 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake upset many people, causing hundreds of simultaneously placed emergency calls to police in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia. Though strong for a region unused to quakes, the minor tremor caused no injuries or property damage.

Professor Klaus Hinzen from the University of Cologne pinpointed the epicentre as the town of Goch, bordering the Netherlands in the Lower Rhine region.

The earthquake occurred after 9 pm and was felt within a radius of 200 kilometres.

"From Bielefeld to Brussels, in the Bonn area, and even as far as Amsterdam," Hinzen said.

Thursday's quake was the strongest reported this autumn in Germany. In the past few days, many earthquakes had been recorded in the eastern German region of Vogtland, however, these were much weaker.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

US: Mysterious Gray Blobs in Chesapeake Bay

Cory Nealon
Daily Press
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:40 UTC
Potato Sponge
© Cathy Hopkins, Daily Press
A single dislodged potato sponge floats near the mouth of the York River following Hurricane Irene.

And you thought Hurricane Irene was done.

Beachgoers and boaters have reported finding mysterious gray blobs, some as large as a soccer ball, from Virginia to New York.

"They're pretty disgusting looking," said Cathy Hopkins of Hampton, who spotted dozens of the podlike orbs near the mouth of the Poquoson River

So, what are these UFOs - unfamiliar fishy organisms?

"They're potato sponges," said Emmett Duffy, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point.

The sponges - one variety of thousands worldwide - inhabit the sandy bottoms of shallow coastal waterways, Duffy said. Like oysters, they filter microscopic food from seawater.

They typically remain burrowed underwater unless something violent, such as a hurricane, forces them to the surface.
      Read More...
Question

Australia: Biologists Baffled By Unusual Whale Behaviour

Melissa Brown
ABC, Australia
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:12 UTC
Whale Migration
© ABC, Australia
Biologists say a number of whales did not migrate north over winter as usual.

Marine biologists are baffled by a change in the behaviour of whales visiting Victorian bays this year. The Dolphin Research Institute says a number of humpback whales remained in Western Port and Port Phillip bays throughout the migration season instead of travelling north.

Institute spokesman Jeff Weir says scientists are unsure what has caused the change in their migration pattern. He says they also saw the animals competing for the first time off Mount Martha and Mornington.

"These are big animals, the size of tourist buses, playing demolition derby under the water and then sometimes reaching the surface banging into each other jostling for position in the pod," he said.

Mr Weir says it is the kind of behaviour normally seen when the animals are mating in northern Australia.

"I mean, it possibly is simply numbers of whales are picking up again and the populations are increasing," he said.

"Maybe they're just spreading themselves more evenly around our coast. The critical thing will be to monitor it in the years to come."
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

6.4 quake hits off Canada; no damage reported


MSNBC / NBC News
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:07 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A magnitude-6.4 earthquake was reported off Canada's Pacific coast Friday afternoon. There were no immediate reports of damage, and no tsunami warning was issued.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was "no destructive widespread tsunami threat," but it warned authorities to expect local tidal swells.

The CBC reported that buildings swayed for an extended period from the Fraser Valley to Campbell River.

USGS data

Hon Sung, who runs the Gold River Chalet on Vancouver Island, told NBC News it was the largest quake he had felt in the seven years he has lived in Gold River, about 30 miles from the epicenter. The shaking lasted 10 to 15 seconds, but the furniture didn't move and items didn't fall off the shelves, he said.
      Read More...
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