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Extreme weather: 2012 kicks off with record heat, tornadoes & drought; 'strange spring' is 'climate change we're seeing'
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Extreme Weather USA: 2012 Kicks Off With Record Heat, Tornadoes & Drought
Yesterday, a dozen tornadoes ripped through Dallas, spurring panic in a highly populated, 6 million-strong metropolitan area. The footage captured by news helicopters was dramatic—semi trucks and trees were hurled into the air like newspapers tossed from a malevolent paperboy.
But the fleet of Texan tornadoes only marks the latest in a year that has already been packed with extreme weather—we've had record-hot winter months, unusually early tornadoes in the midwest, and states wracked with drought. Here's a closer look.
Tornadoes
There was nothing tremendously out of the ordinary about the tornadoes that hit Dallas, but climatologists were concerned about the spate of twisters that swept through Kentucky, Indiana, and three other states in early March. Those tornadoes killed 39 people and exacted untold property damage to homes and buildings across the region.
And tornado season doesn't usually begin until April, leading climate scientists to link the warmer weather to earlier (and potentially longer) seasons. Here's Joe Romm: read more »
"Deforest to prevent wildfire", "kill barred owl to save another species"...sounds like whalers blaming whales, not overfishing
Nature has nature’s law. We humans are just part of Nature. Forests, rather than dead land without trees, supply priceless necessities (shelter, food, oxygen, balanced weather, etc...) for humans... A good example - life in all forms is easily sustained in forests. Wildfires, if not caused by human error, are Nature’s call, and trees will come out the following spring. Sensitive birds (remember they have wings) know full well to fly away from harmful situations, particularly at the onset of smoke when the fire starts... yet unfortunately they can hardly survive without the environment for them to survive – forests... and sadly their speed is no faster than a hunter’s bullet. When mankind appreciates and takes care of Nature, Nature takes care of mankind. Philosophy and science are mostly stemmed from observing nature, and discovering nature’s laws, which make us wiser. As Einstein once said, “look into nature, and you will understand everything better”.
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Ruin of Nature. US new law "to slaughter or kill 50,000 native wild horses"; Canada closes slaughterhouse doors to US horses
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Washington Times - The week before US Thanksgiving 2011, President Obama quietly signed into law a spending bill that restores the American horse-slaughter industry
President Obama last month quietly signed into law a spending bill that restores the American horse-slaughter industry.
The ban on horse slaughtering had been imposed in 2006 when Congress defunded the government’s ability to inspect plants that butchered horses for consumption. Without inspections, the meat couldn’t be sold, and the industry withered. read more »
"Poem in Art and Story" Collection 1 and 2 (ebook)
Poem in Art and Story
Collection 2
From the publisher -
It is a collection of classic poems. It is a collection of art. Top-talent design blending nature and society, sentiment and beauty... All in all, Poem in Art and Story Collection is about inspiration and mystery. The world and Future will remember poem and art, love and wisdom we all share and pass on...
(Includes poems from and stories of Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Clare, John Keats, Edward Lear, and William Shakespeare.)
Poem in Art and Story
Collection 1
(Includes poems from and stories of John Keats, William Wordsworth, William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Lord Byron, and William Blake.)
Quotable Wit and Wisdom Collection - e-editions
Quotable Wit and Wisdom
Collection 1
From the publisher -
This is the first of a series of picturesque editions of "Quotable Wit and Wisdom" from great minds such as Emerson, Shakespeare, Hugo... portraits and glimpses featuring Plato, Bernard Shaw and Einstein. The selection of quotes in Collection 1 spans different topics - nature, philosophy, life, mind, truth... Art is blended uniquely with famous quotes to inspire life, as well as little-known quotes by Socrates, Leo Rosten, Bertrand Russell, John Bacon, Leo Buscaglia, Picasso and Louis Pasteur. Considering some readers need or enjoy larger fonts, quotations in text format are also included. Thank you, dear readers, for short or long we are going to share the same journey to brighten our own lives by "other men's writings.. by what others have labored hard for" (Socrates, Plato’s mentor).
Strongest solar storm in years, bombarding Earth w/ radiation... aurora borealis that swept across the night sky
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Jan. 22, 2012 - Solar storm sparks dazzling northern lights
NASA observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere, the strongest solar storm in more than six years, bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. Scientists have been expecting solar eruptions to become more intense as the sun enters a more active phase of its 11-year cycle, with an expected peak in 2013. read more »