Rare quadruple rainbow photo goes viral

While waiting for her train this morning at the Glen Cove train station in Long Island, NY, Amanda Curtis grabbed her phone and snapped a photo of an incredibly rare atmospheric phenomenon: A quadruple rainbow.
When she posted the photo on Twitter – where it went viral, some folks were incredulous. They said the photo was photoshopped or that Curtis had shot it through glass, causing a reflection.
But, in the interview posted below, Curtis told The Weather Channel the image was authentic and taken in the open air:

The photo was convincing to Paul Neiman, who works as a research meteorologist at NOAA’s Earth System Research Observatory. He posted this very helpful explanation on his Facebook page, which he allowed me to republish:

 This is an outstanding example of a primary and secondary rainbow (relatively common) occurring together with their reflected-light counterparts (quite rare). Allow me to elaborate.
A typical primary rainbow is caused by refraction and one internal reflection of sunlight within raindrops, resulting in a rainbow that is positioned 41 arc degrees from the anti-solar point (i.e., the point directly opposite the sun – for example, if the sun is 10 degrees above the horizon at your back, the anti-solar point is 10 degrees below the horizon directly in front of you). The refraction causes the separation of white sunlight into its component colors, with red on the outside of the rainbow and violet on the inside.
The secondary rainbow, which is centered 51 arc degrees from the anti-solar point (i.e., the larger of the two bows during a typical display), involves two internal reflections of sunlight within the raindrops rather than one, resulting in a reversal of the color sequence (red on the inside and violet on the outside). We can usually only see the portion of these rainbows above the horizon, because there isn’t a sufficient density of raindrops between the observer and the ground to see the rainbow below the horizon (exceptions include full-circle rainbows viewed from locales such as airplanes and mountain tops).
So far, so good. For the much rarer reflected-light rainbows shown in this spectacular photo, a large glassy-smooth water surface is required behind the observer. This smooth water surface reflects the sun, such that a second solar light source is generated. This reflected sun, which is located the same the number of arc degrees below the horizon as the real sun is above the horizon, creates a second primary and secondary rainbow on the opposite side of the sky from the sun, but with the center of these reflected-light rainbows above the horizon. The geometry dictates that the regular and reflected-light rainbows will join at the horizon, as this photo shows.

Neiman’s explanation requires a body of water to be behind the observer. And, indeed, Oyster Bay – located about 2 miles east-northeast of the train station “likely provided the reflective surface to create the reflected-light rainbows”, he said.

Neiman said he was “awe-struck by this photo”, so too apparently were the thousands who shared it on social media.

Washington Post

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Bizarre SQUARE-SHAPED sofa fire leaves police mystified

These pictures show the bizarre square-shaped fire which ripped through a sofa inside a shop.

Passer-by Ragini Patel was on her way to Sainsbury's just before 9am on Sunday when the young son of a neighbour told her he could see a settee on fire inside the Lettings Company shop in Fulham Road, London which has two floors of flats above.
The long-time Fulham resident quickly called the fire brigade who had to smash down the estate agent's door to put the fire out which started in a square shape and slowly spread out to burn the entire sofa.
She told Get West London: "I was just going to Sainsbury’s in the morning when my neighbour’s son told me there was a fire in the shop.
"I looked in and a square-shaped fire was burning into the sofa.
"It was very odd.
"I called the fire brigade straight away then started filming because it was very bizarre, I couldn't figure out how it had started."

Very strange: Police can't work out how the square-shaped fire started

 Colleagues from the Lettings Company are very grateful to Mrs Patel and her neighbour's son but are still mystified as to how the fire started in their shop.
Clyde Johnson, from the shop, said: "We're very thankful to Mrs Patel for phoning the fire brigade but we still have no idea how it started.
"It's a fire resistant sofa luckily so it minimised the fire but we don't know if it was caused by a laser pointer or maybe a magnifying glass or just the sun shining in oddly.
"The police can't figure it out either."
A London Fire Brigade spokesman added: "The member of the public who called us did the right thing.
"We would advise anybody to do the same thing - call straight away."

Mirror

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Mysterious Fire Outbreak in Nigeria

The acting district head of Soro in Darazo Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Alhaji Muhammad Kilishi, on Wednesday, informed that a mysterious fire outbreak had hit the town, razing more than 100 houses with property worth millions of Naira destroyed.
Alhaji Kilishi, who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Bauchi, stated that as of now, no one knew the cause of the fire outbreak, saying that people only discovered that fire would come from nowhere and gut houses.
According to him, the mysterious fire outbreak started in October, saying, however, that, so far, no life had been lost in the incident.
"This fire is quite mysterious because it is not caused as a result of an electrical fault or bush burning. One just notices that fire from nowhere will start burning and before you know it, it has started destroying houses.
"This incident started mysteriously about a month ago, but no life has been lost since the outbreak.
I don't know the meaning of this strange fire which cannot be traced to a cause," the acting district head said.
He, however, insinuated that the fire outbreak, which, he said, was abnormal, could be a spiritual attack on the town, calling on residents to continue to offer prayers to God to put an end to the incident.
According to Kilishi, "Maybe it is a spiritual attack or something else, I cannot say for now.
It is just that it is quite abnormal for fire to appear from nowhere and start destroying properties within the communities."
He lamented that property of his people, worth millions of Naira, had been lost to the mysterious fire outbreak, though he expressed gratitude to God that no life was lost to it.
He then thanked the Bauchi State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for its quick intervention by coming to the aid of the victims, providing them with items like roofing sheets and other building materials, as well as food items.
Meanwhile, the state police command has confirmed the mysterious fire outbreak, saying that between October 1 and now no fewer than 164 houses were razed in the town.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, DSP Haruna Muhammed, last Monday alone, 21houses were razed by the mysterious fire outbreak.
"On the 10/11/2014 at about 07:00 hrs, a mysterious fire engulfed Soro town and razed down 21 houses. So far, between 1/10/2014 and now, one hundred and sixty four (164) houses where burnt down in the town mysteriously and cause of fire still unknown.
"However, no lost of life and no injury sustained, value of property destroyed yet unknown," DSP Mohammed said.

The Big Wobble Almanac

Bauchi—About 100 houses have been burnt in Soro town in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, following the outbreak of a mysterious fire.
Acting District Head of Soro, Alhaji Muhammad Kilishi, who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Bauchi, said residents in the local government were yet to know the cause of the fire.
Kilishi said: “This fire is quite mysterious because it was not caused by an electrical fault or bush burning. We just noticed that fire from nowhere started burning and before we knew it, it had started destroying houses.
“This incident started mysteriously about a month ago, but no life has been lost since the outbreak. I do not know the meaning of this strange fire which cannot be tied to a cause.
“Maybe it is a spiritual attack or something else; I  cannot say for now. It is just that it is quite abnormal for a fire to appear from nowhere and start destroying property in the communities.”
The district head said though no loss of life was recorded in the fire, property worth millions of Naira were destroyed.
He thanked the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, for rendering assistance to the victims of the mysterious fire and urged other government agencies and non-governmental organizations to come to the aid of the victims.
A victim, Murtala Shehu of Unguwar Fada Soro, called for prayers.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/mysterious-fire-razes100-houses-bauchi/#sthash.nCw2dY8G.dpuf

Bauchi—About 100 houses have been burnt in Soro town in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, following the outbreak of a mysterious fire.
Acting District Head of Soro, Alhaji Muhammad Kilishi, who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Bauchi, said residents in the local government were yet to know the cause of the fire.
Kilishi said: “This fire is quite mysterious because it was not caused by an electrical fault or bush burning. We just noticed that fire from nowhere started burning and before we knew it, it had started destroying houses.
“This incident started mysteriously about a month ago, but no life has been lost since the outbreak. I do not know the meaning of this strange fire which cannot be tied to a cause.
“Maybe it is a spiritual attack or something else; I  cannot say for now. It is just that it is quite abnormal for a fire to appear from nowhere and start destroying property in the communities.”
The district head said though no loss of life was recorded in the fire, property worth millions of Naira were destroyed.
He thanked the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, for rendering assistance to the victims of the mysterious fire and urged other government agencies and non-governmental organizations to come to the aid of the victims.
A victim, Murtala Shehu of Unguwar Fada Soro, called for prayers.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/mysterious-fire-razes100-houses-bauchi/#sthash.nCw2dY8G.dpuf

Bauchi—About 100 houses have been burnt in Soro town in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, following the outbreak of a mysterious fire.
Acting District Head of Soro, Alhaji Muhammad Kilishi, who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Bauchi, said residents in the local government were yet to know the cause of the fire.
Kilishi said: “This fire is quite mysterious because it was not caused by an electrical fault or bush burning. We just noticed that fire from nowhere started burning and before we knew it, it had started destroying houses.
“This incident started mysteriously about a month ago, but no life has been lost since the outbreak. I do not know the meaning of this strange fire which cannot be tied to a cause.
“Maybe it is a spiritual attack or something else; I  cannot say for now. It is just that it is quite abnormal for a fire to appear from nowhere and start destroying property in the communities.”
The district head said though no loss of life was recorded in the fire, property worth millions of Naira were destroyed.
He thanked the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, for rendering assistance to the victims of the mysterious fire and urged other government agencies and non-governmental organizations to come to the aid of the victims.
A victim, Murtala Shehu of Unguwar Fada Soro, called for prayers.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/mysterious-fire-razes100-houses-bauchi/#sthash.nCw2dY8G.dpuf

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Has Nessie finally been caught on video?

Richard Collis appears to have captured footage of Nessie's head and neck emerging from Loch Ness

On any other stretch of water it probably wouldn’t garner a second glance. But this is monster territory.

Footage of a shadowy figure briefly emerging from the depths of Loch Ness has once again fuelled speculation that its legendary resident is alive and well.

Grainy footage has emerged showing a long and thin shape swaying in the water that bears a striking resemblance to Nessie’s fabled slender neck.

The video shows the object waving in the choppy water, around 500ft from the loch’s shore.

It was captured by Richard Collis – who counts himself amongst the most ardent Nessie cynics after years of fishing on the waters without a sighting.

But the tree planter was so taken aback by the mysterious shape he noticed while driving along the edge of the loch that he filmed it on his iPhone, and believes he might have stumbled upon the real deal. 

 ‘As I was watching, I was thinking what the hell is that?’ said Mr Collis, 58, who noticed the shape while travelling around a mile from Fort Augustus at the south-west end of Loch Ness.

He added: ‘I don’t really believe in anything like that until I see it.

‘I’m not saying it was a fire breathing dragon and I never saw teeth or anything like that, but I must have thought there was something there if I stopped to take pictures.’ 

The footage, lasting two minutes in total, was taken last Thursday.

Mr Collis’s wife Vibeke, 60, added: ‘I’ve been here 37 years and my husband has been here his whole life, so we are completely aware of how unique this is. I couldn’t believe it and laughed when he showed me because I knew he could never set that up. He’s not very technical.’

The image will now join hundreds of other possible sightings that have amassed over the years, some of which have been confirmed to be fakes. Only last week, paranormal investigator Jonathan Bright published an image taken three years ago appearing to show the head of a monster in the loch.

But despite decades of speculation, the mysterious creature has so far proved little more than a myth.

SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS 'SIGHTINGS' OF THE LOCH NESS MONSTER

An online register lists 1067 total Nessie sightings. The list was created by Gary Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com

Mr Campbell said: 'Jonathon's photo bears an incredible similarity to Bob Rines series of pictures and will certainly further stimulate discussion about this enduring legend.'

Among the most famous claimed sightings is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson (below). It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.

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This famous photograph, produced in 1934, was exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling

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In 2001 semi-retired photographer James Gray and friend Peter Levings took this while they were out fishing

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This picture, said to show the monster, was taken by Hugh Gray in 1933 and published in the Daily Express

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A close-up of what could be the Loch Ness Monster. The photo was taken by William Jobes in 2011

Daily Mail

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Mega rare blue lobster caught off coast of Maine

An almost unique sea creature made landfall earlier this week - a blue lobster.
Jay LaPlante and his 14-year-old daughter Meghan, were out at sea hauling traps off the coast, near Portland, Maine, when they unloaded a pot containing the spectacular two-pound azure lobster.
Meghan quickly christened the crustacean Skyler, presumably as she is the same shade as the sky.

 Oceanographers estimate that around one in two million lobsters are this alluring shade of blue, the unusual colour caused by a genetic defect which causes the shell-fish to over-produce a certain protein.
Due to his almost unique appearance, Skyler has avoided the dinner plate and has been given to the Maine State aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor.
There he will join another three blue lobsters and an orange one.

Mirror

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Scientists puzzled by odd creature found on South African beach

Leandra Visser posted the above photo on Facebook during her holiday at De Kelder near Cape Town, South Africa. Her caption read, “Can someone please tell me what the hell this is? We picked it up on the beach at De Kelder. It’s the real thing!!”
The weird looking creature is fish-like but with huge teeth and its head appears far too big for its tiny body.
According to the Afrikaans daily Die Burger, Visser denies that the image is a joke and the newspaper took it on themselves to send the photo to the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) in Grahamstown for verification.
The paper quotes Alan Whitfield, chief SAIAB scientist as saying that just because the creature was found on a beach, does not necessarily mean it is a fish. Whitfield drew attention to the fact that the creature in the image has no fins.
According to the experts, theories vary. Some speculate that the creature could be some kind of mutated species. Others say that as the head and jaws are so out of proportion with the creature's body, it could be made up of several different creatures. The example they gave was a puffer fish that had eaten a mussel (as it looks like a mussel shell in Visser's hand in the photo).
According to Professor Charles Griffiths of the University of Cape Town's Department of Biological Science, the creature could be a Klipsuier or Rocksucker (Chorisochismus dentex), a type of clingfish, that has dried out on the sand, which would apparently change its appearance drastically. This image does resemble the find to a certain extent.
This type of fish is the only one of its genus that is to be found along the South African and Namibian coastline, can reach about a foot in length and apparently has large teeth, to allow it to feed on mussels and limpets clinging to the rocks.
However, all of this is just theory at work. According to experts the best way to determine exactly what it is would have been to genetically analyse the specimen. However, unfortunately, Visser did not keep the weird find and "threw it back," so to speak, so we will never actually know.

 All Voices

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UGA researchers receive grant to study mysterious coastal phenomenon

The sudden population explosion of a single-celled organism named Thaumarchaeota in the coastal waters of the Southeastern United States baffled scientists.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have received a $727,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study this phenomenon and its implications.
James Hollibaugh, a distinguished research professor of marine sciences, is the principal investigator for the project. He said the Georgia coast is an ideal place to do this research.
“So there’s something interesting and hopefully informative going on on the Georgia coast that makes it a key place to study this," he said. "[The Thaumarchaeota] seem to behave differently than at the other places that have been studied in more detail. So we’re trying to figure out what it is about water quality or the oceanography of the Georgia coast that leads to these bloom dynamics.”
Bradley Tolar, a graduate student in microbiology from Ocean Springs, Miss., has been involved in the research. He said the purpose of the three-year project that will be funded by the grant is to learn more about the organism.
“We’re studying a group of organisms that are relatively poorly understood,” Tolar said. “There are a few labs around the world that are studying them. Basically, they were discovered in 2005, so we know more than we did then, but it’s still not a lot. If you look at all the single-celled organisms in the ocean, this one group makes up 20 percent.”
Sapelo Island is the location of UGA’s Marine Institute, where researchers do environmental studies. The sudden boom in numbers of Thaumarchaeota could affect the availability of nitrogen and the fertility of coastal waters.
“Nitrogen is a problem in the coastal waters because if there’s too much of it, it leads to algal blooms," Hollibaugh said. "It could poison the dolphins and fish. When the algae die and hits the bottom, they rot and use up all the oxygen, and that kills all the stuff on the bottom.”
Hollibaugh said that more land being used for farming and suburban development has led to a greater amount of knowledge into the coastal zone.
“These organisms play a key role in this, in that they are the first step in a multistep pathway to get rid of that excess nitrogen, so they help clean up the coastal water by eliminating the excess nitrogen and bringing the productivity back to something more normal in the coastal waters,” Hollibaugh said.
Understanding how Thaumarchaeota lower nitrogen levels could help scientists prevent a dead zone from forming on the coast of Georgia, similar to the one at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
“The place that is having the most noteworthy problems right now is the mouth of the Mississippi River, where every year there’s this thing called the dead zone that covers hundreds of square miles,” Hollibaugh said. “It kills the shrimps, clams and everything that lives on the bottom."
Although the organism helps eliminate excess nitrogen, the sudden boom in numbers could lead to an overproduction of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that could be more potent than carbon dioxide.
“So if for some reason worldwide they all decided to start producing this, it could have a really big impact,” Tolar said. “I don’t think that would ever happen, but it’s just another reason to find out more about them and what causes them to make this greenhouse gas, if there’s any way.”
The research project will consist of sampling cruises along the coast of the Southeastern United States to map populations of the organism and see how they change seasonally, as well as experiments to study the factors controlling their growth.
“One of the most important questions is why did they appear out of nowhere,” Tolar said. “We’re really wondering what environmental keys are causing them to become a thousand times more abundant. It’s almost spontaneous, so we’re really trying to find out what changes in the environment cause that.”

The Red & Black

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S-shape ‘Rott Nest monster’ detected by weather radar near Western Australia

NOBODY knows what caused the S-shaped formation which appeared in the sky off the West Australian coast, only that it was there.
The weather bureau radar detected the unusual shape around 30km west of Rottnest Island.
In an interview with the ABC, meteorologist Neil Bennett said the phenomenon was not caused by cloud. “They don’t take on S shapes and things like that,” he said.
Mr Bennett told the broadcaster that the radar beam, programmed for the detection of precipitation, strikes rain droplets or ice particles.
The Defence Department has not responded to questions about whether operations in the Indian Ocean may have caused the blip.
The formation was dubbed the ‘Rott Nest Monster’ on social networking websites.
A source with knowledge about weather phenomena told news.com.au blips on the weather radar are common and are sometimes caused by flocks of birds and insects.

News.com.au

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Bownessie mystery deepens after scientist reports lake 'encounter'

Scotland has its legendary Loch Ness Monster and Windermere has the equally enigmatic 'Bownessie' - but has the creature from the deep been spotted 'again'?  Image Above:

© The Westmorland Gazette, UK
Making waves: Is this disturbance on the lake a sign that Bownessie really exists?

Ulverston-based Matt Benefield might have had an encounter with the mysterious creature while out and about on a 'calm' Sunday.

As a petrophysicist, Matt has a special interest the physical and chemical properties of rock and their interactions with fluids.

On January 12, he was at the north of the Lake, taking various photographs. When flicking through the photos back at home, he noticed something odd in the water. The 43-year-old said: "It was a really calm day and the water was very still. There was nobody out in the water, it was very quiet. When I was looking back through the photos, one caught my eye.

"I wouldn't normally think anything of it but it was the two ripples in the water that got me thinking there was possibly something strange in the Lake."

The first reported sighting of Bownessie was in 2006 when journalism lecturer Steve Burnip described seeing a 30ft snake-like beast with humps from the shores of Wray Castle.

The belief that a monster is living in the lake was fuelled further when holidaymakers thought they spotted the creature in 2011. Over three years ago, keen enthusiasts even went hunting for the creature. In 2010 Lakeland hotelier Thomas Noblett and celebrity psychic Dean 'Midas' Maynard embarked on their second journey into the depths of Windermere in search of the fabled monster.

Mr Noblett was prompted to prove the existence of the creature when he was hit by a three-foot wave whilst swimming on Windermere in 2009.

"I hadn't really heard of Bownessie that much previously but I guess it was in the back of my mind when I saw the photo," said Mr Benefield.

"I'm not saying it is it but I have no idea what it is - I can't explain it."

Sarah Johnson from the Freshwater Biological Association offered her expert opinion. She said it could possibly be 'one or more catfish, also called a wels or a decaying bow wave from a powerboat passing anything from 30 seconds to five minutes before the image was captured'.


The Westmorland Gazette

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Bird experts and scientists left puzzled as birds fall dead from north Queensland skies

A juvenile black kite soaring on thermals in the wild. Scientists are investigating a mass run of deaths among the raptors. Source: News Limited

EXPERTS are looking for clues as to why common black kites are falling dead from north Queensland skies.
Black kites, also known as shite-hawks and firebirds, are medium-sized birds of prey and are among the few raptor species which gather in flocks.
Testing has so far excluded bird flu and Newcastle disease, both highly contagious viral infections linked to mass deaths of migratory wild birds, and transmissible to humans.
But the cause of the latest spate of deaths, possibly linked to a cross-border infection, is still a mystery.
Biosecurity Queensland has confirmed it is testing "several kites in relation to unexplained deaths in the tropical north Queensland region''.
"The exact number of bird deaths is unknown and estimates are not available at this stage of the investigation,'' a spokesman told The Courier-Mail.
He said a range of tests were being undertaken for potential causes.
"Laboratory testing is ongoing to determine the cause of this mortality incident.''
Environment Department wildlife director Beck Williams said her office would investigate if it was suspected the birds might have been illegally killed.
Bird of prey expert James Biggs said it was highly unusual for raptors to die in large numbers or, literally, drop dead from the sky.
"If it is not disease, it could possibly be poisoning, but without being familiar with the ongoing tests it is hard to know,'' the Cairns Tropical Zoo bird supervisor said.
Black kites prey on insects, small animals and birds, and can spend all day soaring on the wing, hawking insects out of the air and eating them on the fly.
"They are often seen hovering around fires, like cane burn-off, where they catch the insects pushed up on the updraft,'' Mr Biggs said.
"But if there is a road kill they will feed on that too.
"Whatever it is that is killing them I'd be very keen to know why. It's a puzzle.''
Members of the public can report bird deaths by calling 1300 264 625.

Courier Mail

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Over 500 pigeons drop dead in Bihar village

Patna, Nov 5 (IANS) More than five hundred pigeons suddenly dropped dead at a village in Bihar's Bhagalpur district over the last four days, causing residents, some of them pigeon-keepers, to fear that something was amiss.

District officials are still to visit the site and conduct an inquiry.

Over 500 pigeons died mysteriously in Bath village near Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, about 250 km from the state capital.

"We were shocked, and we cannot understand why it happened," Subodh Kumar Singh, a keeper of pigeons who lost 250 birds in two days, said.

Another pigeon keeper, Mohan Singh, said: "We need some manner of inquiry into this. Why did such a large number of pigeons drop dead in a matter of days?"

Other pigeon keepers like Subhit Singh, Radhe Singh and Bhumeshwar Singh said the government ought to investigate the pigeon deaths.

Alok Mankar, a veterinarian, said that the cause for the birds' death may have been technical problems in the radiation machine of mobile phone towers. He added, however, that he was only speculating, and that only an investigation could get to the root of the problem.

Yahoo News

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Pilot Observes Strange Green Glow in the Atmosphere

For the past week, solar wind has been buffeting Earth's magnetic field, turning skies around the Arctic Circle beautiful shades of green. But not every green sky is caused by the aurora borealis. Last night, for example, pilot Brian Whittaker was flying 34,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean when he witnessed verdant hues caused by a completely different phenomenon--airglow. Here is the picture he took from the cockpit window:

"A dark and moonless night away from all lights allowed a great view of this textured patch of airglow," says Whittaker. "The illumination was faint, but it could be seen especially in contrast to the dark ocean abyss below!"

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Mystery River Causes Panic In Irrua, Nigeria

IRRUA - Sudden emergence of a river along Shaka Avenue in Irrua, Esan Central Local Government Area of Edo State is currently causing panic amongst inhabitants of the community.

The mystery river has already destroyed several houses and farmlands on its channels.

It was gathered that the river emerged when water suddenly started gushing out from the ground.

Some residents who described the river as mysterious said they woke up to discover a river had emerged from no where.

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Mysterious Louisiana Sinkhole Raises Concerns of Explosions and Radiation

Mysterious Louisiana Sinkhole Raises Concerns of Explosions and Radiation (ABC News)

A nearly 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana has swallowed all of the trees in its area and enacted a mandatory evacuation order for about 150 residences for fear of potential radiation and explosions.

The 400-square-foot gaping hole is in Assumption Parish, La., about 50 miles south of Baton Rouge.

The sinkhole sits in the middle of a heavily wooded space where it has consumed all of the soaring cypress trees that had been there. Flyover photos show some of the treetops still visible through the mud.

Authorities enacted a mandatory evacuation for between 100 and150 homes in the area, but most people have chosen to stay, according to the Mayor's Office of Emergency Preparedness. If any of the dangers seem to become more imminent, the order will be escalated to a forced evacuation.

While officials are not certain what caused the massive sinkhole, they believe it may be have ben caused by a nearby salt cavern owned by the Texas Brine Company.

After being used for nearly 30 years, the cavern was plugged in 2011 and officials believe the integrity of the cavern may have somehow been compromised, leading to the sinkhole.  [Slideshow: Massive sinkholes wreak havoc around the world] 

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'Red' Rain Descends on India

India: Though not for first time in the state, red rain in parts of Kannur on Thursday did create some panic and curiosity among the residents in the district. The strange phenomenon happened around 6:50am and lasted for 15 minutes. People in the 1km area in and around Edachery in Puzhati panchayat panicked as their courtyards turned blood red after rain.

Kannur block panchayat president Shaija M, who collected the sample of the rainwater, said the water was as dark as black coffee and had the smell of raw beetroot. "I thought someone killed some animal and its blood got mixed with water on the courtyard," she said. Akshay Sajeevan, another resident in the locality, said in his compound the colour of rainwater was a bit lighter. According to meteorological department, though red rain is a rare phenomenon, but it is no way harmful. "I assume this is due to atmospheric pollution. The pollutants in the air get dissolved in rainwater resulting in red rain," said M Santhosh, director of meteorological department, Thiruvananthapuram.

Normally such rains occur during the beginning of monsoon. This time it happened in the middle of the monsoon as monsoon is weak. The residents are now planning to give the sample of the red rainwater to the health department for analysis.

Source: Times of India

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Middle America Is Experiencing a Massive Increase in 3.0+ Earthquakes

Area over which increased seismic activity has been observed

A new United States Geological Survey study has found that middle America between Alabama and Montana is experiencing an "unprecedented" and "almost certainly manmade" increase in earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater. In 2011, there were 134 events of that size. That's six times more than were normally seen during the 20th century.
While the changes in the area's seismicity began in 2001, the trend has really accelerated since 2009, the geologists note. That happens to coincide with increased oil and gas production using new extraction techniques in some parts of the area.

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Mysterious Noctilucent Clouds As Seen from Space

Polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite. Maps by Robert Simmon. Credit: NAS

Mysterious “night shining” or noctilucent clouds are beautiful to behold, and are usually seen during the summertime, appearing at sunset. They are thin, wavy ice clouds that form at very high altitudes and reflect sunlight long after the Sun has dropped below the horizon. Scientists don’t know exactly why they form, but continue to observe them – both from Earth and from space. The images shown above were taken by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite.
Also called polar mesospheric clouds, they are puzzling scientists with their recent dramatic changes. They used to be considered rare, but now the clouds are growing brighter, are seen more frequently, are visible at lower and lower latitudes than ever before, and — as these satellite image reveal — they are now even appearing during the day.

Night Shining Clouds are Getting Brighter

Noctilucent clouds form in an upper layer of the Earth‘s atmosphere called the mesosphere during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer – at an altitude of 80 km (50 miles). They can start forming as early as May, and extend through August. They can also be seen in high latitudes during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere.
What could the observed changes mean? Some scientists believe they are a good gauge of even the tiniest changes in the atmosphere, as they are extremely sensitive to changes in atmospheric water vapor and temperature. The clouds form only when temperatures drop below -130 degrees Celsius (-200 Fahrenheit), when the scant amount of water high in the atmosphere freezes into ice clouds.

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Strange Rock Mass Emerges Off Arakan Coast

An amazing rock mass has emerged from the seawater near the offshore islands of Pharonga, located 20 miles south of Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, report numerous witnesses.

A fishing boat owner said, "We have never seen a rock mass before in the area near Pharonga Island. Now there is a rock mass appearing from the sea and it is very strange and wonderful for all."

The location of the rock mass is seven miles south of Pharonga Island, 20 miles southeast of Sittwe. The rock mass is 10 feet high when the tide is low, and remains five feet above the sea when the tide is high.

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$15 Billion Bee Murder Mystery Deepens

It was the buzz heard round the world. On Thursday, the front-page New York Times article titled, "Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery" was supposed to close the book on a four-year long case involving the unexplained death of millions of honey bees nationwide. Instead, it has only brought more confusion, unanswered questions, and anger in the science and beekeeping communities.

In 2006, once thriving bee colonies across America suddenly vanished, leaving behind empty beehives. The bodies of the bees were never found. Scientists soon gave a name to the mysterious phenomenon: colony collapse disorder (CCD)

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Strange Cloud Observations

The heavens have been really showing off these past few weeks -- what with volcanic clouds, blue moons, rainbow clouds, and UW-shaped lightning. Tuesday night was no different. Astute observers from around the northern latitudes of the world noticed a dazzling display of "noctilucent" clouds. They are clouds at the very edge of space, hundreds of thousands of feet in the air. The air is very cold and very dry at that level of the atmosphere, but in the summer time, the rising air from the hotter surface can gradually push a little water moisture to those space-high altitudes (that's why they're seen only in the summer). Scientists are still not quite sure of all the details that cause the clouds to form, although the glow is from simple sunlight -- the clouds are so high they reflect sunlight even after the sun appears well below the horizon from the ground. There are theories that volcanoes can cause them -- and we just had a big eruption of a volcano in Russia last month. Sightings used to be limited to areas above 50 degrees north latitude, but spaceweather.com says the clouds are being seen at lower and lower latitudes these days -- they've seen it a few times in the U.S. Northwest between 45-48 degrees north, and there was a sighting in Nebraska Tuesday night, which is down at 41 degrees north

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