The Oi
Ahhhh chachachacha
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Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.
5000 birds and 100,000 fish suddenly die in Arkansas
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chiefwahoo
Golden State blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 Finals
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Interesting read from Channel 5 today:
Source
Posted: 5:21 AM
Last Updated: 5 hours and 9 minutes ago
* By: WEWS News Staff By: WEWS News Staff
CLEVELAND - When thousands of blackbirds began falling from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, late on Dec. 31, 2010, most experts dismissed the event as a random occurrence.
Wildlife officials blamed the sudden death of thousands of red-winged blackbirds on fireworks set off by local New Year's Eve revelers. But NewsChannel5 Chief Meteorologist Mark Johnson wasn't quite convinced.
"Fireworks go off all the time," he said. "This doesn't normally cause hundreds of thousands of birds to leave their roosts in a frenzy... and then fall to their deaths."
Johnson began to look deeper into the event, which was one of several dozen mysterious animal and fish deaths worldwide during late 2010 and early 2011. These events gained international attention for several months this past winter. As the mass death events started piling up, Johnson started an Internet blog chronicling each event .
"I wanted to also explain the likely cause of each of these events in the blog," Johnson added. "Every one of them had a very logical explanation, except for Beebe, Arkansas."
So, he started to dig deeper. Johnson began to examine the Doppler radar images from Beebe, Ark., at the time of the event. The flying birds are easily seen in the two-dimensional imagery. But that's all. Johnson then began to examine the 3D images of the atmosphere over Beebe, Ark., and discovered something interesting.
"There it was. This huge plume of turbulence over the Beebe birds just as they began their frenzied flight," he said.
The turbulence appears above the birds between about 7,000 and 12,000 feet. Johnson realized there are only a few possible explanations for this phenomena. Birds don't fly that high, and he quickly ruled out military action, a sonic boom, meteor shower or alien invasion.
"Something in the atmosphere, something mysterious, occurred over Beebe Arkansas that night," asserted Johnson. "And I believe it was part of what caused those birds to fly and then die."
The 17-year WEWS-TV veteran then posted his discovery on newsnet5.com . That's where it caught the attention of National Geographic "Explorer" producer James Donald, who had already started investigating the strange bird and fish deaths on his own. He is currently producing a 1-hour TV show on the subject for National Geographic Television and interviewed him in the WEWS studios on Tuesday.
"Mark was the only scientist in the country who found this strange radar image." said Donald. "We needed to find out what this was."
That was easier said than done. National Weather Service Meteorologists from around the country were baffled by the image.
"No one could explain it." added Donald.
That was until the Donald presented the data to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. This MIT lab is on the cutting edge of the latest Doppler radar technology. At first, even they were unsure.
"We had all of these scientists standing around a radar screen just shaking their heads." Donald recalled. "Even these guys couldn't explain it."
But, after several months examining Johnson's radar images, plus other data from that evening, MIT Scientists finally think they have an explanation for what caused the mass bird deaths in Beebe, Ark.
"It looks like a combination of events that occurred over Beebe at just the right time to scare the birds." said Donald.
Johnson's research captured a unseen temperature reversal just above the birds' roosting area at about 2,000 feet above the ground. This temperature "inversion" acted like a megaphone, amplifying all the noises that occurred in Beebe at that time. As the fireworks exploded, the sound was amplified by the inversion and became much louder than normal. This appears to have startled the birds so much that they burst into flight, running into each other, and nearby buildings. Thousands of the now-disoriented birds then crashed to the ground, dying from blunt force trauma.
"Mark's discovery is the exclamation point on our investigation." added Donald. "If it weren't for him, we would probably never know what caused those birds to die."
Johnson's discovery will also assist researchers in developing better ways to identify potentially dangerous turbulence and inversions in the atmosphere. This also has implications in predicting where storms will develop and where aircraft may encounter disruptive turbulence in their flight path. MIT will release a 40-page research paper describing the discovery in much greater detail late this summer or early fall.
"This is a huge discovery," said Donald.
The program featuring Johnson will air on National Geographic "Explorer" sometime this fall. We will keep you posted.
Source
macbdog
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Here we go again... Its happening?
Thousands of snow geese fall dead from sky in Idaho
Reuters
By Laura Zuckerman 12 hours ago
By Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Avian cholera is suspected in the deaths of at least 2,000 snow geese that fell dead from the sky in Idaho while migrating to nesting grounds on the northern coast of Alaska, wildlife managers said Monday.
Dozens of Idaho Department of Fish and Game workers and volunteers at the weekend retrieved and incinerated carcasses of snow geese found near bodies of water and a wildlife management area in the eastern part of the state, said agency spokesman Gregg Losinski.
Avian cholera is believed to be the culprit in the deaths mostly because of the way the birds died, he said.
“Basically, they just fell out of the sky,” said Losinski.
He said biologists were awaiting results from a state wildlife lab to confirm the birds died of the highly contagious disease, which is caused by bacteria that can survive in soil and water for up to four months.
Humans face a small risk of contracting the disease but the more immediate threat is to wildlife in the vicinity of contaminated carcasses, Losinski said.
About 20 bald eagles were seen near areas where snow geese carcasses littered the ground but a lengthy incubation period makes it unclear if the eagles were infected and would carry the ailment elsewhere, said Losinski.
It was not known where the snow geese – named for their white plumage and for breeding in the far northern corners of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia – contracted avian cholera during a migration that saw them wing north from wintering grounds in the American Southwest and Mexico, he said.
Outbreaks like the one found affecting the migrating snow geese in Idaho occur periodically in the United States and elsewhere, Losinski said.
Avian cholera is the most important infectious disease affecting wild waterfowl in North America, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
(Editing by Sharon Bernstein and Paul Tait)
Thousands of snow geese fall dead from sky in Idaho
Reuters
By Laura Zuckerman 12 hours ago
By Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Avian cholera is suspected in the deaths of at least 2,000 snow geese that fell dead from the sky in Idaho while migrating to nesting grounds on the northern coast of Alaska, wildlife managers said Monday.
Dozens of Idaho Department of Fish and Game workers and volunteers at the weekend retrieved and incinerated carcasses of snow geese found near bodies of water and a wildlife management area in the eastern part of the state, said agency spokesman Gregg Losinski.
Avian cholera is believed to be the culprit in the deaths mostly because of the way the birds died, he said.
“Basically, they just fell out of the sky,” said Losinski.
He said biologists were awaiting results from a state wildlife lab to confirm the birds died of the highly contagious disease, which is caused by bacteria that can survive in soil and water for up to four months.
Humans face a small risk of contracting the disease but the more immediate threat is to wildlife in the vicinity of contaminated carcasses, Losinski said.
About 20 bald eagles were seen near areas where snow geese carcasses littered the ground but a lengthy incubation period makes it unclear if the eagles were infected and would carry the ailment elsewhere, said Losinski.
It was not known where the snow geese – named for their white plumage and for breeding in the far northern corners of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia – contracted avian cholera during a migration that saw them wing north from wintering grounds in the American Southwest and Mexico, he said.
Outbreaks like the one found affecting the migrating snow geese in Idaho occur periodically in the United States and elsewhere, Losinski said.
Avian cholera is the most important infectious disease affecting wild waterfowl in North America, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
(Editing by Sharon Bernstein and Paul Tait)
brownindian
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no Idaho potatoes for me thank you! #InotDaHoe
Bill Walton.
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I'm not saying it was fireworks but....
Fireworks
Fireworks
gourimoko
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There was a massive solar flare yesterday.
The Oi
Ahhhh chachachacha
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http://www.tldm.org/news/pistolstarmesssages.htm
OMG This site seems legit. Should I be worried? Could the Pistol Star crush us if the Sun doesn't?
gourimoko
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Lol....
In all seriousness though, there does exist the (very small) possibility that humanity could be wiped out, or close to it, by cosmic activity that is frankly nowhere near us.
Otsego Mar
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Chemtrails and sun jizz bro.
Man Called X
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On June 18, 1991, Jesus said;
Yup, super legit. Apparently Jesus has been hanging around for a while.
macbdog
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OK, this one has me spooked. A bunch of fish can die from anything. Birds? Fragile. But 60,000 antelope? These things get hit by cars and live. It sounds like a common bacteria that is part of this creatures natural intestinal flora has morphed into an plague-like, sexist killing machine with a mortality rate of 100%. Terrifying:
60,000 antelopes Died In 4 Days- And No One Knows Why
It all started back in May.
When geoecologist Steffen Zuther and his colleagues arrived in central Kazakhstan to monitor the calving of one herd of saigas, acritically endangered, steppe-dwelling antelope, veterinarians in the area had already reported dead animals on the ground.
"But since there happened to be die-offs of limited extent during the last years, at first we were not really alarmed," Zuther, the international coordinator of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told Live Science.
But within four days, the entire herd — 60,000saiga — had died. By early June, the mass dying was over. [See Images of the Saiga Mass Die-Off]
Now, the researchers have found clues as to how more than half of the country's herd, counted at 257,000 as of 2014, died so rapidly. Bacteria clearly played a role in the saigas' demise. But exactly how these normally harmless microbes could take such a toll is still a mystery, Zuther said.
"The extent of this die-off, and the speed it had, by spreading throughout the whole calving herd and killing all the animals, this has not been observed for any other species," Zuther said. "It's really unheard of."
Crucial steppe players
Saigas play a critical role in the ecosystem of the arid grassland steppe, where the cold winters prevent fallen plant material from decomposing; the grazing of the dog-size, Gonzo-nosed antelopes helps to break down that organic matter, recycling nutrients in the ecosystem and preventing wildfires fueled by too much leaf litter on the ground. The animals also provide tasty meals for the predators of the steppe, Zuther said. [Images: Ancient Beasts of the Arctic]
"Where you find saiga, we recognize also that the other species are much more abundant," Zuther told Live Science.
Saigas, which are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, live in a few herds in Kazakhstan, one small herd in Russia and a herd in Mongolia. The herds congregate with other herds during the cold winters, as well as when they migrate to other parts of Kazakhstan, during the fall and spring. The herds split up to calve their young during the late spring and early summer. The die-off started during the calving period.
Die-offs of saigas, including one that felled 12,000 of the stately creatures last year, have occurred frequently in recent years. But the large expanse of the country affected by last year's die-off meant veterinarians couldn't get to the animals until long after their deaths. The delay hindered any determination of a cause of death, and researchers eventually speculated that an abundance of greenery caused digestion problems, which led to bacterial overgrowth in the animals' guts.
Detailed analysis
This time, field workers were already on the ground, so they were able to take detailed samples of the saigas' environment — the rocks the animals walked on and the soil they crossed — as well as the water the animals drank and the vegetation they ate in the months and weeks leading up to the die-off. The scientists also took samples of the ticks and other insects that feed on saiga, hoping to find some triggering cause.
The researchers additionally conducted high-quality necropsies of the animals, and even observed the behavior of some of the animals as they died. The females, which cluster together to calve their young, were hit the hardest. They died first, followed by their calves, which were still too young to eat any vegetation. That sequence suggested that whatever was killing off the animals was being transmitted through the mothers' milk, Zuther said.
Tissue samples revealed that toxins, produced byPasteurella and possibly Clostridia bacteria,caused extensive bleeding in most of the animals' organs. But Pasteurella is found normally in the bodies of ruminants like the saigas, and it usually doesn't cause harm unless the animals have weakened immune systems.
Genetic analysis so far has only deepened the mystery, as the bacteria found were the garden-variety, disease-causing type.
"There is nothing so special about it. The question is why it developed so rapidly and spread to all the animals," Zuther said.
Mystery endures
A similar mass die-off of 400,000 saigas occurred in 1988, and veterinarians reported similar symptoms. But because that die-off occurred during Soviet times, researchers simply listed Pasteurellosis, the disease caused by Pasteurella, as the cause and performed no other investigation, Zuther added.
So far, the only possible environmental cause was that there was a cold, hard winter followed by a wet spring, with lots of lush vegetation and standing water on the ground that could enable bacteria to spread more easily, Zuther said. That by itself doesn't seem so unusual, though, he said.
Another possibility is that such flash crashes are inevitable responses to some natural variations in the environment, he said. Zuther said he and his colleagues plan to continue their search for a cause of the die-off.
Follow Tia Ghose on TwitterandGoogle+. Follow Live Science @livescience,Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
60,000 antelopes Died In 4 Days- And No One Knows Why
It all started back in May.
When geoecologist Steffen Zuther and his colleagues arrived in central Kazakhstan to monitor the calving of one herd of saigas, acritically endangered, steppe-dwelling antelope, veterinarians in the area had already reported dead animals on the ground.
"But since there happened to be die-offs of limited extent during the last years, at first we were not really alarmed," Zuther, the international coordinator of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told Live Science.
But within four days, the entire herd — 60,000saiga — had died. By early June, the mass dying was over. [See Images of the Saiga Mass Die-Off]
Now, the researchers have found clues as to how more than half of the country's herd, counted at 257,000 as of 2014, died so rapidly. Bacteria clearly played a role in the saigas' demise. But exactly how these normally harmless microbes could take such a toll is still a mystery, Zuther said.
"The extent of this die-off, and the speed it had, by spreading throughout the whole calving herd and killing all the animals, this has not been observed for any other species," Zuther said. "It's really unheard of."
Crucial steppe players
Saigas play a critical role in the ecosystem of the arid grassland steppe, where the cold winters prevent fallen plant material from decomposing; the grazing of the dog-size, Gonzo-nosed antelopes helps to break down that organic matter, recycling nutrients in the ecosystem and preventing wildfires fueled by too much leaf litter on the ground. The animals also provide tasty meals for the predators of the steppe, Zuther said. [Images: Ancient Beasts of the Arctic]
"Where you find saiga, we recognize also that the other species are much more abundant," Zuther told Live Science.
Saigas, which are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, live in a few herds in Kazakhstan, one small herd in Russia and a herd in Mongolia. The herds congregate with other herds during the cold winters, as well as when they migrate to other parts of Kazakhstan, during the fall and spring. The herds split up to calve their young during the late spring and early summer. The die-off started during the calving period.
Die-offs of saigas, including one that felled 12,000 of the stately creatures last year, have occurred frequently in recent years. But the large expanse of the country affected by last year's die-off meant veterinarians couldn't get to the animals until long after their deaths. The delay hindered any determination of a cause of death, and researchers eventually speculated that an abundance of greenery caused digestion problems, which led to bacterial overgrowth in the animals' guts.
Detailed analysis
This time, field workers were already on the ground, so they were able to take detailed samples of the saigas' environment — the rocks the animals walked on and the soil they crossed — as well as the water the animals drank and the vegetation they ate in the months and weeks leading up to the die-off. The scientists also took samples of the ticks and other insects that feed on saiga, hoping to find some triggering cause.
The researchers additionally conducted high-quality necropsies of the animals, and even observed the behavior of some of the animals as they died. The females, which cluster together to calve their young, were hit the hardest. They died first, followed by their calves, which were still too young to eat any vegetation. That sequence suggested that whatever was killing off the animals was being transmitted through the mothers' milk, Zuther said.
Tissue samples revealed that toxins, produced byPasteurella and possibly Clostridia bacteria,caused extensive bleeding in most of the animals' organs. But Pasteurella is found normally in the bodies of ruminants like the saigas, and it usually doesn't cause harm unless the animals have weakened immune systems.
Genetic analysis so far has only deepened the mystery, as the bacteria found were the garden-variety, disease-causing type.
"There is nothing so special about it. The question is why it developed so rapidly and spread to all the animals," Zuther said.
Mystery endures
A similar mass die-off of 400,000 saigas occurred in 1988, and veterinarians reported similar symptoms. But because that die-off occurred during Soviet times, researchers simply listed Pasteurellosis, the disease caused by Pasteurella, as the cause and performed no other investigation, Zuther added.
So far, the only possible environmental cause was that there was a cold, hard winter followed by a wet spring, with lots of lush vegetation and standing water on the ground that could enable bacteria to spread more easily, Zuther said. That by itself doesn't seem so unusual, though, he said.
Another possibility is that such flash crashes are inevitable responses to some natural variations in the environment, he said. Zuther said he and his colleagues plan to continue their search for a cause of the die-off.
Follow Tia Ghose on TwitterandGoogle+. Follow Live Science @livescience,Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.