Tag Archives: Green News
San Francisco EarthQuake 2012
San Francisco Bay Area early Monday morning, according to information from the United States Geological Survey.
According to the Associated Press, no damage has been reported, although Twitter users in the region reported being woken up by the tremor.
The earthquake’s epicenter was one mile from El Cerrito, just east of Richmond and about ten miles north of Oakland, the USGS reports. Initially, the quake — which struck at 5:33 a.m. PST — was reported to have occurred at a depth of 5.5 miles, though that number was later revised to 5.7 miles.
Indiana Tornado Outbreak 2012 Video
Indiana and cut off rural communities in Kentucky as an early season tornado outbreak killed more than 30 people, and the death toll rose as daylight broke on Saturday’s search for survivors.
Massive thunderstorms, predicted by forecasters for days, threw off dozens of tornadoes as they raced Friday from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Twisters crushed blocks of homes, knocked out cellphones and landlines, ripped power lines from broken poles and tossed cars, school buses and tractor-trailers onto roads made impassable by debris.
Weather that put millions of people at risk killed at least 31 in four states – Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio – but both the scale of the devastation and the breadth of the storms made an immediate assessment of the havoc’s full extent all but impossible.
In Kentucky, the National Guard and state police headed out to search wreckage for an unknown number of missing. In Indiana, authorities searched dark county roads connecting rural communities that officials said “are completely gone.”
In Henryville, the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders, volunteers pushed shopping carts full of water and food down littered streets, handing supplies to anyone in need. Hundreds of firefighters and police zipped around town, where few recognizable structures remained; all of Henryville’s schools were destroyed. Wind had blown out the windows of the Henryville Community Presbyterian Church and gutted the building.
Diamond Planet Discovered – Full Video
Scientists say the planet exists about 4,000 light years away from Earth, and is probably the remnants of a once-large dead star.
As to what the diamond planet looks like, Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester told The Macadonean International News Agency (MINA) it’s probably not what everyone pictures: “I don’t know I could even speculate. I don’t imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we’re looking at here.”
Astronomers detected a similar planet in December 2010, only 1,200 light years away.
Hurricane Irene 2011 – Video
Thursday, threatening 65 million people along a shore-hugging path from North Carolina to New England. One of the nation’s top experts called it his “nightmare” scenario.
The Category 3 storm with winds of 115 mph – the threshold for a major hurricane – would be the strongest to strike the East Coast in seven years, and people were already getting out of the way.
Tens of thousands fled North Carolina beach towns, farmers pulled up their crops, and the Navy ordered ships to sea so they could endure the punishing wind and waves in open water.
Watch 1,000 Dogs Rescued From Being Eaten – Video
1000 Dogs intended for consumption were rescued by Thai authorities on Thursday evening, reports AFP.
Four trucks were stopped in the Nakhon Phanom province of northeastern Thailand. According to the Daily Mail, police swooped in with two raids near the Laos border. The trucks were stacked high with dogs stuffed into tiny cages, and 119 dogs were already dead.
According to a Nakhon Phanom livestock development official, the dogs died either from suffocation, or from being thrown from the trucks when the alleged traffickers tried to flee the scene.
The dogs were being sent across a Laos river and into Vietnam. Police case officer Captain Prawat Pholsuwan told AFP that two Thai men and a Vietnamese man have been charged with trafficking and illegally transporting animals. The men face a maximum punishment of one year in jail and a fine of up to $670.
According to police, traffickers are known to round up stray dogs in rural Thai villages, and sell them for up to $33 per dog in Vietnam.
Gorilla Adopted By Childless Couple Video
The couple, both zookeepers, took in Digit 13 years ago, when her biological mother refused to breastfeed. They already had experience working with gorillas, but acknowledge that it’s not an easy job.
New Zealand’s News 3 reports that the couple compares raising Digit to raising a child, in terms of the impact on their social life. There are no more nights out to the movies or restaurants, but they don’t seem to mind.
BBC News reports that during the day, Digit spends her time at the Saint Martin la Plaine Zoo in France. In the evenings, she returns home to her adopted parents, where she enjoys sleeping in their bed.
We have a 13-year-old relationship with Digit, so obviously we’ve created a very strong bond with each other.”
Although Digit’s story is a unique situation, keeping wild animals in human households can be frowned upon. 17-year-old Felicia Frisco sleeps with a Bengal tiger in her bed, and questions were raised over whether or not the animal should be kept in captivity. Unfortunately though, a handler explained, “There’s nowhere for a tiger to live in the wild anymore.”
As for gorillas, many are endangered or threatened. For example, mountain gorillas in Central Africa are threatened by the Human Metapneumovirus which causes deadly respiratory diseases in humans and can be passed on to mountain gorillas.
Suicide After Two Police Dogs Die When Left In His Car
Two police dogs were found dead on Sunday after being locked inside an unventilated car on a hot day in London. An investigation has now been launched to determine how the dogs died.
An officer (reportedly named Sergeant Ian Craven) is said to have forgotten about the Belgian Malanois and German Shepherd, and left them in the car parked outside a London suburb training center. According to Reuters, the temperature was close to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Toronto Star reports that once officers were aware of the two dogs in the vehicle, they smashed the windows, pulled out the animals and doused them with water. Although they were rushed to an emergency vet, they both died.
Commander Bob Broadhurst stated, “Two dogs have died that shouldn’t have, the tragic circumstances of which will be fully and thoroughly investigated.”
Toronto Star alleges that when Sergeant Ian Craven learned the two dogs had died, he was devastated and attempted suicide by cutting his wrists, but the police have not confirmed this claim. A Scotland Yard spokesman told Sky News that a police officer left his duty posting, and was treated as a missing person. When he was found, he had a hand injury and was taken to a hospital. Toronto Star reports Craven is a 30-year veteran of the force, and in 2004, he allegedly left a spaniel in a car, which also died.
According to Sky News, a spokeswoman from the U.K.’s largest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust, said, “Whilst the cause of death is still to be determined, the charity would like to remind dog owners and police dog handlers that leaving your dog in a car can prove rapidly fatal, particularly during a heatwave.”
The suspected cause of death for these police dogs is sadly common. Reuters reports that just last year, a Nottinghamshire police officer was given a six-month conditional discharge and fined after two German shepherds died in his car.
Patch reports that, according to a Stanford study, a 72-degree Fahrenheit day can become a sweltering 116 degrees inside a car within an hour. United Animal Nations offers this chart demonstrating how in-car temperatures are affected by the weather over time. If a dog is exposed to heat for a prolonged period, they can reportedly suffer from nerve damage, heart problems, liver issues and death.
Watch Seagull Steals Camera: Take A Birds’ Eye View Of Cannes Video
Cannes, France, only to fly away with his rolling camera. The unlikely theft leads to a majestic journey through the air, highlighting the intricacies of flight and a beautiful perspective from above. The bird eventually lands on a castle wall, where the camera’s owner says he recovered the device.
Cool as it is, not everyone is sold. Seeing as the camera is a GoPro and the company that manufactures the GoPro is known for its viral video campaigns, some folks can’t help but be skeptical.
“Probable conclusion,” according to Mashable: “After scores of action videos featuring snowboarders and daredevils, apparently GoPro has branched out into skillfully produced simulated Seagull Cams. Brilliant.”
Watch Black Hole Devours Star Video
The awesome energy released by the feeding frenzy was first detected by NASA’s Swift satellite on March 28 and was later confirmed by a fleet of space and ground telescopes.
Some scientists initially thought the bright flash was a gamma-ray burst from a star collapsing, but flaring from such an event typically lasts only a few hours.
Instead of fading, the cosmic outburst continued to burn bright and emit high-energy radiation months later.
Two separate teams pored through data and concluded that an unsuspecting star the size of our sun likely got sucked in by the powerful tug of a giant black hole much like a fly that can’t escape a frog resting on a lily pad. The findings were published online Thursday in the journal Science.
As the black hole gobbled up the star, it streamed a beam of energy straight at Earth that was recorded by telescopes. The stellar feast occurred in the heart of a galaxy 3.8 billion light years from Earth. A light year is about 6 trillion miles.
“This was clearly different than anything we’ve ever seen before,” said one of the team leaders, Joshua Bloom, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley who classified the event as extremely rare.
Black holes are swirling, super-dense cores of galaxies that vacuum up nearly everything in sight. How they grow so huge remains a mystery. Scientists think the latest observation could help them better understand how galaxies form.
Lunar Eclipse Tonight: LIVE Watch The Total Eclipse On June 15, 2011
World tonight, being the longest in nearly 11 years. But just because it isn’t visible from North America, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to watch the lunar eclipse too.
According to the AP, the moment of totality — when the Earth’s shadow completely blocks the moon — will last 1 hour and 40 minutes during tonight’s lunar eclipse. The last time a lunar eclipse lasted as long was in July 2000, when totality occurred for just 7 minutes longer.
According to Space.com, the lunar eclipse will begin about 1:24 p.m. EDT (1724 GMT) and finish around 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT). The lunar eclipse will peak at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT).
The entire lunar eclipse will be visible from the eastern half of Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and western Australia, a NASA expert told the AFP. Europe will miss the beginning of the lunar eclipse because it will be below the horizon, but totality can be witnessed from across the continent except for northern Scotland and northern Scandinavia. Totality will also be visible from eastern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Eastern Asia, eastern Australia and New Zealand will miss the end of the lunar eclipse because the moon will have already set in those areas.
Despite not being visible from North America, anyone unable to see the lunar eclipse in their own sky can watch online. Sky Watchers Association Of North Bengal (SWAN) will be a doing a live webcast of the entire lunar eclipse.
According to the AP, the next total lunar eclipse will happen on December 10, though only certain parts of the U.S. including Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest will be able to see. For the rest of the U.S, the next total lunar eclipse won’t be visible until April 15, 2014.
