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7,500 songbirds killed at Canaport gas plant in Saint John, Canada

Migrating birds, some possible endangered species, flew into gas flare


About 7,500 songbirds, possibly including some endangered species, were killed while flying over a gas plant in Saint John late last week, officials have confirmed.

It appears the migrating birds flew into the gas flare at Canaport LNG between Friday night and Saturday morning, said Fraser Forsythe, the company's health, safety, security and environmental manager.

The birds were drawn to the flame like moths, an extremely unusual event, according to Don McAlpine, the head of zoology at the New Brunswick Museum.

Attention

More than 100 deer found dead west of Missoula, Montana

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Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Jay Kolbe drags a deer carcass from a backwater of the Clark Fork River on Wednesday evening to confirm signs of internal hemorrhaging caused by a virus spread among deer by biting gnats. Dozens of deer have died west of Missoula in recent days in what appears to be the first documented case of epizootic hemorrhage disease west of the Continental Divide in Montana.
Wildlife officials are trying to find out why more than 100 whitetail deer have died along the Clark Fork River west of Missoula.

"The deer may show no outward symptoms of disease," said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Vickie Edwards. "People are seeing healthy looking deer fall over dead."

Fishing guides and landowners along the Clark Fork and fields near and downstream of Harpers Bridge started reporting the dead deer on Sunday. Dead deer have also been found in the Mill Creek area northeast of Frenchtown.

Bug

'Alien bugs' discovered in atmosphere

Nitzschia
© Milton Wainwright et al.This image shows a diatom frustule, possibly a Nitzschia species, captured on a stud from a height of 25 km in the stratosphere. Image
British scientists believe they have found small bugs from outer space in the Earth's atmosphere.

Tiny organisms were discovered by University of Sheffield experts on a research balloon they had sent 27 kilometres into the atmosphere during last month's Perseids meteor shower. The microscopic bugs were detected when the balloon landed back on the ground in Wakefield, West Yorkshire in England.

But the scientists insist the samples could not have been carried from the Earth's surface into the stratosphere - the second layer of our atmosphere, which stretches up to 50 kilometres from the ground. Strict tests were taken to avoid any contamination, they said.

Professor Milton Wainwright, who led the team, said: 'Most people will assume that these biological particles must have just drifted up to the stratosphere from Earth, but it is generally accepted that a particle of the size found cannot be lifted from Earth to heights of, for example, 27 kilometres.

'The only known exception is by a violent volcanic eruption, none of which occurred within three years of the sampling trip.' He went on: 'We can only conclude that the biological entities originated from space.

'Our conclusion then is that life is continually arriving to Earth from space, life is not restricted to this planet and it almost certainly did not originate here.' The findings are to be published in the Journal of Cosmology.

'If life does continue to arrive from space then we have to completely change our view of biology and evolution,' Prof Wainwright added. 'New textbooks will have to be written.'

He said further 'crucial' tests on the samples are planned and researchers will carry out further experiments during a meteor shower in October.

Bizarro Earth

2013 is strange, part 18: September 2013

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The green fireball that turned night into day over Ferrara, Italy on September 3rd 2013, the second major fireball to explode over Italy in a week.
'2013 is strange, part 18' covers the 8 days from August 27, 2013 to September 4, 2013 - during which we saw major wildfires in Southern California and elsewhere, volcanic eruptions in Japan and elsewhere, fireballs in Italy and elsewhere... we live in interesting times!

This series include strange phenomena of all kinds and awesome natural events or beautiful phenomena in 2013. Enjoy my editing!

You can find all my other videos for the collective awakening on my channel 2013MESSAGE.


This is an educational/teaching and research purposes only video.

This application is not commercial and is free to use.

Music

1) Pip John - Dante's Riddle
2) How To Dress Well-Take It On (Holy Other Remix)
3) Sun Glitters - The Wind Caresses Her Hair

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Signs of change in September 2013

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A snapshot of the weather around the planet in the past week or so. Floods devastate parts of the U.S., Mexico and India; tornadoes wipe out Tokyo and Bangkok suburbs; mass fish deaths in the U.S. and China; a smokenado in the U.S. (?! yes, it's new to us too!); massive fireballs over Italy (for the second week running) and the U.S. (where they're now being reported daily); major hailstorms in the UK... what in the world is going on?


Bizarro Earth

Two-headed calf born in Oregon

Two Headed Calf
© Heidi Kirschbaum
Jamieson -- Heidi Kirschbaum didn't believe the details of the phone call were real.

Or, maybe it was a joke.

But Heidi's sister-in-law, Charlan, who was down at the family farm, wasn't joking.

"It wasn't alive when we saw it," Kirschbaum said. "But it had one neck, two ears and four eyes."

Kirscbhaum told KBOI 2News that a two-headed calf was born on the family farm in Jamieson, Ore., in Malheur County on Monday. When Heidi and the rest of the family arrived in the field, the calf was already dead. The calf's mother is doing fine.

"You do a double-take and say, wait a minute, whoa," she said.

Word has spread throughout the farming community about the two-headed calf -- especially after kindergarten class. Heidi's daughter, Holly, asked if she could share the calf for show and tell.

"We brought pictures to her class -- the kids and the teacher really enjoyed it," she said.

The family isn't sure what it plans to do with the head. It's now ice cold in a freezer at the family farm.

"We know it doesn't happen very often, but it happened to us," she said.

Info

Baby elephant in China can't stop crying after being stomped by mom

Newborn elephant cried for five hours after mom tried to kill him. Chinese zookeepers forced to keep him away from momma.

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Despondent baby elephant weeps for hours after mom gives birth, then attacks him at game preserve in China.
Poor baby.

Little Zhuangzhuang, a newborn elephant at a wildlife refuge in China, was inconsolable after his mother rejected him and then tried to stomp him to death.

Tears streamed down his gray trunk for five hours as zookeepers struggled to comfort the baby elephant.

They initially thought it was an accident when the mom stepped on him after giving birth, according to the Central European News agency.


Question

Another blackbuck dies, toll touches 18 in Lucknow zoo, India

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© Chinmayisk, Wikimedia CommonsA blackbuck adult stag.
Lucknow zoo authorities are yet to control the reasons taking a toll on the lives of blackbucks. On Tuesday, another of the specie died in the zoo taking the total toll to 18.

The female blackbuck was under supervision as it was not keeping well for the past two days. According to zoo authorities, its condition deteriorated on Monday night and it had to be put on oxygen. The animal died at 7.45 am on Tuesday.

Till Saturday, 17 blackbucks had died due to a mysterious ailment.

Zoo minister SP Yadav visited the zoo and warned authorities of action if laxity was found on their part. On the complaints that the animals caught infection through the feed and fodder, Yadav said, the government is now thinking of making another arrangements for the fodder at Kukrail forest.

Bizarro Earth

'Poison-proof' rats discovered in Sweden

Rat
© Reg McKenna/Flickr
Sewer rats and mice that are resistant to common rat poisons have been found in four locations across Sweden, confirming long-held suspicions about why common anti-rodent agents seemed ineffective.

Pest control experts have theorized that rats and mice in various parts of Sweden had developed some sort of immunity to commonly deployed rat poisons. Now their suspicions have been confirmed.

The results of 80 random tests performed across the country by Swedish extermination company Anticemex revealed poison-proof rats and mice in four locations: Kristianstad in the south; Linköping and Växjö in south central Sweden; and Uppsala in eastern Sweden.

Pest control expert Håkan Kjellberg with Anticemex said chemicals are likely to blame for the rodents having developed immunity to rat poison.

"It may have been rat poison, but also chemicals in their immediate environment that have caused the genetic makeup in their body to change," he told Sveriges Radio (SR).

According to SR, rats that are resistant to poisons have been found in many other countries, including Denmark, but this Anticemex study is the first to confirm the phenomena in Sweden.

The company said it may now be forced to resort to more potent poisons in more cases in order to keep Sweden's rodent population in check.

Question

Mysterious sickness killing Kansas dogs

Emporia - A disease is killing dogs across Lyon County and veterinarians do not know what it is. Vets at Kansas State University are working with the Emporia Animal Shelter to find out.

Dozens of dogs that seemed to be healthy quickly became deathly ill at the shelter. "We're in the process now of hoping it's not some virus that we're not aware of ... some new form of distemper or this new circle virus that's been reported around the country," said Emporia veterinarian Floyd Dorsey.

Dorsey thinks it started with dogs found wandering out in the country that were picked up and brought to the shelter. "We've been trying to contain it since then and each time we think it's contained, it seems to break out again," said Dorsey.