Earth ChangesS


Bad Guys

Japanese Dolphin Slaughter Caught on Video

Dolphin Slaughter
© 3 News, New ZealandIn this screenshot from YouTube, a fisherman is seen wrestling a bleeding dolphin.

New footage shot in the small Japanese town of Taiji shows dolphins are still being slaughtered inhumanely and in mass quantities, despite assurances from authorities the annual hunt no longer used such techniques.

The video, shot by US group Save Japan Dolphins, was shot on Tuesday and uploaded to YouTube.

It appears to disprove claims dolphin hunting was made more humane in the wake of 2009's documentary on the hunt, The Cove, which exposed the brutal methods used to kill around 1500 dolphins every year.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Australian marine science student Nicole McLachlan, who is in Taiji: "One of the hardest things I have witnessed here is the distress and anguish of these animals during a slaughter... ''And today some were taken under the tarps and killed while the rest of their family remained in the waters nearby.


Camera

New Yorker Searches for Owner of Remarkable Blizzard Photos

A New Yorker who writes and directs comedy videos is on a quest to find the people who shot a roll of striking black-and-white photos of the city that he found in a park.

Todd Bieber stumbled upon the roll of film while cross-country skiing in Brooklyn's Prospect Park after the Christmas blizzard that dumped 12 to 18 inches of snow in the area. Bieber developed the film and was captivated by the photos, which show what he surmises to be some out-of-towners taking a snowy and beautiful journey from Central Park, across the Brooklyn Bridge to an empty Coney Island amusement park, and then to Prospect Park, where they must have accidentally dropped the film canister.


Bieber made a video that he hopes will help him track down the people who took the photos. He notes that the men look "European" in their photos (giveaway: fancy scarves) and imagines that they are visiting New York on a vacation. In one photo, they're shown having a snowball fight.

Bomb

Best of the Web: Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells

Yellowstone
© Mark Thiessen, National GeographicSteam rises from Castle Geyser in Yellowstone National Park
Some places saw the ground rise by ten inches, experts report.

Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano just took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report.

The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions - each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption - three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago.

(See "When Yellowstone Explodes" in National Geographic magazine.)

Since then, about 30 smaller eruptions - including one as recent as 70,000 years ago - have filled the caldera with lava and ash, producing the relatively flat landscape we see today.

Eye 1

12 Pelicans Dead, 100 Sick In Mayport

pelican
© news4jax.com

Mayport, Florida -- Bird experts in Jacksonville are trying to figure out what killed a dozen pelicans in Mayport and sickened more than 100 others.

The recent deaths come just weeks after the mysterious deaths of thousands of birds falling from the sky in Arkansas.

Cindy Moseling, who's been caring for and rehabilitating birds at Bird Emergency Aid and Kare Sanctuary on Big Talbot Island for decades, said she has seen her feathered friends die for various reasons, but is especially concerned this time.

Black Cat

Mysterious Bird Deaths Investigated Near Dacono

dead,bird,colorado
© credit: Stacia ShaneDead Bird Found Near Dacono

Dacono, Colorado - Colorado is now on the list of states where birds are mysteriously dying.

CBS4 You Reporter Stacia Shane sent in pictures of dozens of dead birds she found on I-25.

The birds were found near Dacono.

More than one hundred birds were found and most of them were under trees.

Health investigators picked up the birds and will try to determine how they died.

Question

Best of the Web: Rogen stunned by Lucas' 2012 theory

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George Lucas
Funnyman Seth Rogen was left stunned by a recent encounter with his moviemaking hero George Lucas - because the Star Wars director spent 20 minutes telling him the world would end in 2012.

Rogen was left speechless when Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined a movie meeting he was a part of - but the encounter has left him worried his life will be over next year.

He recalls, "George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

"He's going on about the tectonic plates and all the time Spielberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like, 'My nerdy friend won't shut up, I'm sorry...'

"I first thought he (Lucas) was joking... and then I totally realized he was serious and then I started thinking, 'If you're George Lucas and you actually think the world is gonna end in a year, there's no way you haven't built a spaceship for yourself... So I asked him... 'Can I have a seat on it?'

"He claimed he didn't have a spaceship, but there's no doubt there's a Millennium Falcon in a garage somewhere with a pilot just waiting to go... It's gonna be him and Steven Spielberg and I'll be blown up like the rest of us."

Wolf

Yakutia: Russians hunt down rumoured 400-strong wolf pack

wolf pack
© Unknown
A rumoured 400-strong pack of wolves that has slain 30 horses and is said to pose a threat to human life has sparked fear in the northeastern Russian region of Yakutia.

Hunters have been dispatched to deal with the beasts, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported, and a single pelt would be met with a reward of 10,000 roubles ($335).

"We have gathered 24 hunting parties to patrol the neighbourhood on snowmobiles. We also set traps. Using poison against wolves is forbidden though. When daytime becomes long enough, the hunters will shoot the predators from helicopters," said a spokesman for the administration of the Verhnoyarsky region, where the wolf pack lives, as cited by Interfax news agency.

Cow Skull

Preliminary Results Show Pneumonia As Cause Of Mass Cattle Death

Amherst, Wisconsn -- Preliminary results show acute interstitial pneumonia is to blame for a mass death of cattle outside of Wausau.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Veterinary Diagnostic Lab is studying tissue samples from two of the 200 dead Amherst steers.

The steers all came from one farm, and while the lead veterinarian said the preliminary results pointed to pneumonia as the cause of death, associate lab director Peter Vanderloo said nothing is being ruled out until the final tests are completed.

"We can approach the problem both from looking at what's going on microscopically in the animal, to identifying a pathogen, viral or bacterial, or looking for a toxin that might be causing deaths," Vanderloo said.

Cloud Lightning

Brazil: Rains Put Sao Paulo on Alert, Rio Deaths Rise to 727

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© The Associated Press / Felipe DanaPeople salvage items from their homes after a landslide in the Alto Floresta neighborhood of Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Wednesday Jan. 19, 2011. Mudslides have destroyed entire communities, killed at least 700 people since Jan. 11 and left nearly 14,000 homeless.
Brazilian officials have put Sao Paulo on alert as heavy rains hit the metropolis.

In Rio state, meanwhile, deaths from last week's mudslides have risen to 727.

As rain fell on Sao Paulo, water rose above car windows in some points in the South America's largest city, blocking major highways.

The mayor's office issued flood alerts for much of the city Wednesday. One woman died the day before when her house collapsed amid heavy rains.

Wolf

Wolves return to Moldova for first time in 40 years

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© WikipediaWolves return to Moldova for first time in 40 years
Wolves have returned to the territory of Moldova after 40 years of their absence, with more than 20 predators seen in several areas of the country, Moldovan Deputy Environmental Minister Lazar Chirica said on Wednesday.

He added that the appearance of wolves should not cause panic among local residents as no cases of attacks have been reported yet.