So far only one company in the United States, Cheniere Energy, has the licenses necessary to ship natural gas to the global market. The terminal at Sabine Pass was built originally for imports, but with the shale natural gas boom, that situation turned around a few years ago. The U.S. Energy Department now said it gave its preliminary approval for the export of LNG from a terminal at Quintana Island, Texas.  Combined, the two facilities would be able to export about 3.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, marking the U.S. debut in a global natural gas market dominated by the likes of Russia and Qatar.

Related article: Study Finds no Trace of Fracking Fluid in Arkansas Drinking Water

Critics of LNG exports from the United States worry it will lead to more hydraulic fracturing, a controversial practice at the heart of the U.S. energy debate. Concerns over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, range from groundwater contamination by trace amounts of carcinogens to earthquakes. The U.S. Interior Department last week announced a “common sense” approach to fracking regulations on federal lands.  The new plans, all 171 pages of them, give drillers the ability to use the industry-backed FracFocus to disclose what types of chemicals they use in the fracking process. That frustrated green groups who worried the government wasn’t serious enough about the risks associated with the controversial procedure.

“You’re going to hear from folks that we’ve caved in to industry or we’re bowing to pressure from environmentalists,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said the latest proposal, a revision of a 2012 effort, is a complete failure. There’s nothing in the measure that requires any sort of baseline water testing, nothing in terms of full chemical disclosure and nothing to ensure the public health is protected. Brune said the Sierra Club is “alarmed and disappointed” by the proposed regulations.

Related article: As Natural Gas Prices Rise, Who Benefits the Most?

The industry wasn’t much pleased either. Eric Milito, upstream director for the American Petroleum Institute, the energy industry’s lobbying group, said fracking has put the United States at the top of the global oil and natural gas heap. Adding more layers to an already confusing regulatory regime would only get in the way of the economic gains tied to a booming energy sector. Milito said he wanted to know why the Interior Department was even bothering.

Jewell’s new initiative showcases her dual legacy by trying to win support of the energy industry and environmentalists alike. The proposal kicks of a 30-day public comment period that’s already brought out the best of what the usual suspects have to offer. Barely 10 percent of the U.S. natural gas production and about 5 percent of the oil comes from public lands, however. That means federal regulations on fracking barely apply because the states involved already have a say in the way drilling proceeds.  Perhaps, then, it’s the energy industry that has a right to question why the government would “is moving forward with these requirements in the first place.”

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Massive piles of debris cover the ground after a powerful tornado ripped through the area on May 20, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado, reported to be at least EF4 strength and two miles wide, touched down in the Oklahoma City area on Monday killing at least 51 people. (Photo: Brett Deering/Getty Images)

Although the death toll has hit 24 — including 7 children — as a result of Monday’s EF4 tornado that passed over Moore, Oklahoma, Monday, the emergency siren system in Oklahoma City’s metropolitan area helped warn thousands to take shelter.

The metropolitan area boasts a system of 181 emergency sirens, which were updated in 2002 in a $4.5 million project replacing Cold War-era sirens that at the time only stretched over the most densely populated areas, the city’s website stated. The coverage area of the new system is nearly four times more than the previous one, which had just 44 sirens.

Location of sirens. (Image: OKC.gov)

The city’s website advises residents when they hear the siren, outside of a test, to turn on TV and radio for specific information.

Another War-era idea the city has begun to replace are public shelters for storm protection. It says that driving to a shelter during extreme weather can pose a greater risk to residents and it notes emergency experts now advising they “shelter in place” when told to take cover.

Although taking shelter underground is preferable during a tornado event, most Oklahoma homes actually don’t have basements or cellars. An Associated Press article published after the deadly May 3, 1999, tornado, to which many are comparing the May 20, 2013, twister, reported that many people aren’t building these underground structures due to cost and soil conditions.

According to the report, much of the ground is red clay that expands and contracts with moisture. To accommodate this, building a home with a basement costs between $30,000 to $40,000 extra. One home builder at the time said he had only built one basement in the area in 23 years.

“I’m kind of guessing that if today we advertised basements that we’d be busy for the next year building them,” homebuilder Roger Despain said in 1999. “I think I’m going to build me one after last night.”

During live reports Monday after the storm, most residents told local news stations they had taken shelter in their bathroom or a closet.

Those in schools are moved to the lowest level of a permanent structure into a room or hallway with no windows where they assume the position on the ground with their head down and hands covering the back of their neck. Moore’s city manager told ABC News schools in the area don’t have tornado shelters.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

(H/T: Business Insider)

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Related:

• Piers Morgan and Bill Nye Speculate on Climate Change’s Roll in Deadly Okla. Twister 
• Unthinkable: At Least 20 Children, Some of Which Drowned, Among the 51 Confirmed Dead in Oklahoma Tornado — Death Toll Could Be Up to 91
• Beck and Mercury One Head to Oklahoma to Launch Relief Effort

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The hurts are impaled on our consciousness. The wrath of weather on full display reminds us that there are forces that do not answer to man. We are at their mercy and all we can do is ask for mercy. …

This is all more reason to stay prepared, to stay tuned to weather alerts but also to stay attuned to a Greater Power that rules our lives and calls forth nature. Through death and destruction, in chaos and calamity, but also in recovery and redemption, God is in control.

Have mercy — once again — on Oklahoma, O Lord! Let your peace prevail. May your grace shower the city and wrap it in light. Help us share the suffering and make our hands yours to rebuild shattered communities and lives.

Here’s the front page:

[Newseum]

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#1: First video of the tornado as it touched down on live TV
#2: Incredible time lapse of the storm
#3: High-definition video captures the stunning detail
#4: The moment the twister touched down and its massive evolution
#5-#8: Below
#9: Mom describes saving her daughter from being sucked away by holding on to girl’s hair

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There were 51 reported official deaths as of Tuesday morning as a result of a massive tornado ripping through Moore, Oklahoma, Monday afternoon. It’s a number that is expected to rise. And while live coverage of the destruction in the wake of the tornado provided just a glimpse of the tragedy to people not on the ground, some of those who had rode out the storm are giving us a look at what it was like from their perspective.

Inside the tornado (Image: YouTube screenshot)

This video records some of the sounds of the storm while a woman and her family took shelter. You can hear the woman telling a person who is presumably a child that they are in a safe place, everything will be OK and that they should pray (Note: There are no visual images):

This video purportedly shows the tornado blowing overhead from a storm shelter. The man who took the footage says he stuck his camera out of the hole:

Another video that is getting some viral play shows the moment a family emerges from their underground shelter.

A man steps out to ground level and finds everything leveled.

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” he says. “Wow.”

Take a look at what he saw:

We should note that it is unclear where exactly the video was first posted and by whom, but it has been reposted to YouTube several times and to LiveLeak.

Here’s another person’s visual account of the damage an hour after the storm:

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Related:

• Piers Morgan and Bill Nye Speculate on Climate Change’s Roll in Deadly Okla. Twister 
• Unthinkable: At Least 20 Children, Some of Which Drowned, Among the 51 Confirmed Dead in Oklahoma Tornado — Death Toll Could Be Up to 91
• Beck and Mercury One Head to Oklahoma to Launch Relief Effort

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Watch live updates regarding the situation surrounding the developing storm and the damage left from a massive tornado that went through towns near Oklahoma City Monday afternoon:

KTUL.com – Tulsa, Oklahoma – News, Weather

Update 7:34 p.m. ET: The massive tornado near Oklahoma City has killed six people, Fox News reports.

Update 6:50 p.m. ET: Gov. Mary Fallin called in to KWTV and said “this tornado could be as big as the one that hit Joplin, just looking at what the television is able to show us” in terms of damage.

She continued explaining that the primary effort right now is rescue and then it will be to secure the sites that have been impacted so proper assessments of damage can begin.

Fallin said she has contacted FEMA for emergency relief funds. She also said she has been in contact with President Barack Obama who has offered any support he can provide.

Update: 6:40 p.m. ET: Here’s a look (below) at flattened homes in Moore. Reporters said the tornado was such that it didn’t just take the roof off of homes but completely leveled them.

This photo provided by KFOR-TV shows homes flattened outside Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20, 2013. A monstrous tornado as much as a mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. (Photo: AP/KFOR-TV)

Update 6:30 p.m. ET: Local reporters continue to compare the damage from the tornado that went through Moore Monday to an F5 tornado that swept through the same area in May 3, 1999, among others. Some reporters have even said the damage might look worse.

According to NewsOK, May 3, 1999, resulted in dozens of tornadoes in the area, destroying thousands of homes through 19 counties. As a result of that historic storm, there were 44 deaths and hundreds injured.

Update 6:05 p.m. ET: “We were in our tornado meeting place …ready for it to hit,” one of the Briarwood Elementary school teachers told a KWTV reporter, who later noted this meeting place was the hallway. The teacher said there were some head injuries and cuts but for now the injuries overall are minor.

“If that’s as bad as it is there, that is definitely a miracle,” a KWMT anchor said.

Three have been confirmed dead — a man, a woman and a baby — at a local 7/11 store.

This screenshot is said to show Briarwood Elementary. (Image: KWTV screenshot)

Update 6:00 p.m. ET: The tornado that went through Moore spent 40 minutes on the ground beginning around 2:52 p.m. CDT. According to preliminary reports, it is thought to be an F4, which would be 207 to 318 mile per hour winds.

A local daycare has reported that all children are accounted for and OK.

Update 5:55 p.m. ET: All the children at Briarwood Elementary are reported to be accounted for, but injuries of the children are not known at this time.

A man describing riding out the storm in a closet in his house said it felt like the twister was over his home for 20 seconds. He recalled thinking that if this were the end, he wanted to see the tornado. When he looked out, he said he couldn’t even describe what he saw.

Update 5:51 p.m. ET: A KWTV reporter in Moore said a police officer was seen holding a 3-month-old baby in a blanket and neighbors said the baby did not make it. The reporter also said a 4-year-old has died as well, but there is no official count being reported yet.

KWTV is waiting for an update regarding Briarwood Elementary.

Update: 5:45 p.m. ET: In Moore, rescue teams have requested media helicopters clear out of the area so they can hear cries for help coming from the rubble.

Third grade children are being pulled from Plaza Towers school, according to KWTV.

Update 5:36 p.m. ET: A rotating funnel could was spotted in Pauls Valley, Okla., in Garvin County. It was likely to produce a tornado.

Update 5:31 p.m. ET: A tornado was spotted touching down north of Meeker, Okla., in Lincoln County. It is said to be smaller than what ripped through Moore earlier Monday but still represents a serious situation.

Update 5:25 p.m. ET: Triage units are being set up in Moore. KWTV reported police saying there have been multiple fatalities so far.

Update 5:15 p.m. ET: Rescue teams are still heading into Moore, Okla., trying to dig out those who are trapped and who need medical care. The screenshot below is thought to be Briarwood Elementary.

(Image: KWTV screenshot)

Update 5:20 p.m. ET: This video shows some of the immediate aftermath and first responders rushing in to help:

Update 5:06 p.m. ET: A mother distraught but appearing safe with her two children spoke to a KWTV reporter saying she held her daughter from being taken up by the tornado by holding her by her hair.

This video shows parents and other adults rushing in the direction of Briarwood Elementary directly after the tornado left the area:

Update 5:02 p.m. ET: There is not currently a tornado on the ground but meteorologists are tracking still strong storms that appear to be intensifying.

Update 5:00 p.m. ET: “I can’t count the number of homes that are absolutely destroyed,” a reporter on the scene said of the damage.

Update 4:54 p.m. ET: KWTV reporting from the Moore, Okla., area said emergency responders expected injuries to number 100 or more.

Update 4:47 p.m. ET: The tornado destroyed a school gymnasium (below) but the building remained intact. This school is speculated by KWTV to be a different school than Briarwood Elementary, which is said to have taken a direct hit.

You can see the path of the tornado through a school gym in this screenshot. (Image: KWTV screenshot)

Update 4:43 p.m ET: Parents and neighbors are seen with “tears in their eyes” rushing toward Briarwood Elementary (screenshot below). Areas where the tornado has passed through are being described as “obliterated.”

(Image: KWTV screenshot)

Update 4:40 p.m. ET: Reporters are calling the damage done by the tornado thus far “catastrophic.”

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The day after several tornadoes ripped through the midwestern states, a massive tornado was blowing through Oklahoma near Oklahoma City Monday afternoon with intense destruction that went through an elementary school.

Image: KWTV screenshot)

KWTV called it a “huge tornado” with a “violent rotation.” A storm tracker speculated the twister was either an F4 or F5. A storm tracker also said “there’s houses in the air here” and noted “a ton of debris.” They reporters described houses, trees and more in the tornado as a “debris ball.” An elementary school — thought to be Briarwood Elementary in Moore — is also said to have been hit with some children potentially being trapped.

(Image: KWTV screenshot)

Take a look at some of the footage of the tornado as it went through near Oklahoma City Monday afternoon:

Here’s more:

The National Weather Service has a tornado warning in effect until 3:15 p.m. CDT for northwestern McClain, south central Oklahoma and northern Cleveland counties. The tornado in Newcastle moving northeast at 20 miles per hour touched down at 2:55 p.m. CDT.

National Weather Service meteorologists and storm spotters reported hail up to the size of tennis balls as well.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives canceled its afternoon sessions so Capitol employees and state lawmakers could take shelter. Sirens blared and workers made their way to the Capitol basement.

Oklahoma City’s southeastern suburbs were hit by a storm Sunday and two people died. Monday’s storm is in an area that is more densely populated.

KWTV’s reporters described it as looking similar to the violent twister hit May 3, 1999.

This is a developing story. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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In this June 25, 2012 file photo, a crew works on a gas drilling rig at a well site for shale based natural gas in Zelienople, Pa. (Photo: AP/Keith Srakocic)

Tests and scientific experts have already claimed that many health and environmental concerns tied to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, often voiced by opponents of the process, lack scientific backing. Now, yet another study has found that wells near fracking sites did not experience water contamination.

Duke University and members of the U.S. Geological Survey examined 127 drinking water wells for evidence of pollution from methane gas or chemicals. With more than 4,000 new gas wells drilled in Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale since 2004, researchers were looking for the presence of contamination from drilling, or from naturally occurring gas or ultra-salty liquids that seep up through pre-existing faults.

What they found was that Arkansas homeowners “typically had good water quality, regardless of whether they were near shale gas development,” Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Duke, said in a statement.

Romanian protesters holds a banner during a demonstration against hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Bucharest April 4, 2013. Around 300 protesters gathered in Bucharest’s University Square in protest against the drilling technique, which uses high pressure injections of water, sand and chemicals to crack open rock and release oil and gas trapped inside. Hundreds of Romanians rallied in several cities to protest against shale gas drilling, voicing concerns over environmental pollution and health hazards. (Photo: DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)

“Only a fraction of the groundwater samples we collected contained dissolved methane, mostly in low concentrations, and the isotopic fingerprint of the carbon in the methane in our samples was different from the carbon in deep shale gas in all but two cases,” Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, said, according to the university’s press release.

This would indicate that the methane resulted from biological activity not from shale gas contamination, Vengosh said.

The most passionate critics and supporters of fracking often describe the process in extremes, suggesting it is either inherently dangerous for the environment or that it poses virtually no risk at all. But Vengosh noted that generalizations about fracking in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Colorado don’t make scientific sense.

Environmentalists stage a protest to coincide with a fundraising event by U.S. President Barack Obama on May 13, 2013 in New York City. Hundreds of demonstrators marched to protest the building of oil pipelines and calling for the end of hydraulic fracking for oil and gas. (Photo: Getty Images/John Moore)

“Each basin will have its own dynamics and its own rules,” he said of the possibility of contamination, adding that differences in well construction and regulations play a role, too.

In the contentious debate over fracking, the Duke team has shown a willingness to report both positive and negative studies. In 2011, Duke researchers found higher concentrations of methane gas near drilling sites in Pennsylvania, and state regulators denounced the findings even as environmental groups cheered them.

During fracking, large volumes of water, along with sand and hazardous chemicals, are injected into the ground to break rock apart and free the oil and gas trapped inside. In some areas fracking has been blamed for air pollution and gas leaks that have ruined well water, but the Obama administration and many state regulators say the practice is safe when done properly.

A poster projecting job and economic growth related to “fracking” is used by lawmakers while answering questions from reporters concerning oil drilling in Illinois, at the Illinois State Capitol Tuesday, April 30, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. (Photo: AP/Seth Perlman)

Deb Nardone, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club, said that there “are going to be geological differences” in different areas, the Associated Press reported. But she said what that means is that research should be done in each area before drilling begins, to identify possible problems. Nardone also questioned whether over time the Arkansas water wells might start to show pollution from drilling. “It would be interesting to come back at this after five years,” she said of the study.

One representative from industry agreed with some aspects of the Arkansas study, but questioned others.

“It does clearly speak to the need to think about these things from a regional and local perspective,” said Andrew Place, the interim director of the Center for Sustainable Shale Development, a Pittsburgh-based partnership between industry, environmental groups, and philanthropies that is promoting higher standards for drilling in the Marcellus Shale, which covers Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and New York.

Place questioned the suggestion that the Marcellus Shale is uniquely different from the Fayetteville Shale, noting that Marcellus wells are typically two or three times the depth of those in Arkansas. Place said there are 6,000 feet or more of different rock layers between Marcellus gas wells and surface aquifers, and suggested that makes a “pretty compelling” case that pollution doesn’t migrate unless wells are improperly constructed.

“Well casing can be done right,” Place said.

Vengosh said the Arkansas findings don’t mean that contamination can’t happen, since faulty well construction or areas with different geology could cause different results.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

–

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Secretary of Energy nominee Ernest Moniz is sworn in before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee April 9, 2013 in Washington, DC. Moniz, a nuclear physicist, testified before a full committee hearing on his pending nomination. Moniz was officially confirmed in a unanimous vote by the Senate May 16. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Physicist Ernest Moniz was officially confirmed by the Senate as the Energy Secretary, replacing Steven Chu since his resignation. 
• Moniz is said to be sympathetic to the natural gas industry. A natural gas industry group considers him  ”informed, engaged and forthcoming.”
• He is described as “solution oriented” and “smart as a whip.”

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Physicist Ernest Moniz won unanimous Senate confirmation Thursday to be the nation’s new energy secretary.

Moniz, 68, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, replaces Steven Chu, who served as Energy secretary in President Barack Obama’s first term. Moniz served as an energy undersecretary in the Clinton administration.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, called Moniz “solution-oriented” and said he is “smart about energy policy and savvy about Energy Department operations.”

The 97-0 vote for Moniz came as Senate committees endorsed two other Cabinet nominees along party lines. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 12-10 to confirm Justice Department official Thomas Perez as labor secretary, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 10-8 to advance assistant administrator Gina McCarthy to take over the Environmental Protection Agency.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans said Thursday they would not support five Obama nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, raising the possibility that the troubled agency could be rendered mostly inoperable later this year.

The Senate vote on Moniz was delayed for more than three weeks after Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., objected to Obama’s plan to cut about $200 million from a home-state project to turn weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear fuel. Graham and other Republicans said the president’s budget proposal jeopardized a plant being built at South Carolina’s Savannah River nuclear site.

Graham made clear Thursday he had nothing against Moniz, calling him a “fine fellow.” Graham said he has other “leverage points” to continue putting pressure on the Obama administration to fully fund the Savannah River project.

Former Energy Secretary Steven Chu was also confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Chu, you may recall, is responsible for Obama administration’s numerous “green” energy boondoggles, including Solyndra and Abound Solar.

Sen. Thomas Carper., D-Del., called Moniz “smart as a whip,” with a knack for explaining things “so even I understand.”

As energy secretary, Moniz will face an array of challenges, as the administration continues to promote renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power in place of traditional fossil fuels.

In particular, Moniz will soon decide whether to approve a major expansion of U.S. natural gas exports that could create thousands of jobs, spur economic growth, and help offset the nation’s enormous trade deficit.

Moniz speaks in April prior to his officially being named Energy Secretary after Steven Chu. (Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Increased exports also could lead to further increases in hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique also known as fracking that has allowed companies to gain access to huge stores of natural gas but raised widespread concerns about alleged groundwater “contamination” and even earthquakes.

Federal law requires the Energy Department to determine that natural gas exports are in the public interest before granting permits to countries that do not have free-trade agreements with the United States.

Moniz, who heads an energy initiative at MIT, is widely seen as sympathetic to the natural gas industry. At a Senate hearing last month, he called the “stunning increase” in natural gas production a “revolution” that has led to reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global climate change (née “global warming,” née “global cooling”).

A recent study commissioned by the department concluded that exporting natural gas would benefit the U.S. economy even if it leads to higher domestic prices for the fuel.

Here’s a breakdown of Moniz’s confirmation vote:

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(Image: YouTube screenshot)

We’ve pulled together some of videos from storm chasers and residents to give you a sense of the terrifying twisters, but there are some photos from locals here too.

Tornado hunters Shane Adams and Bridget Geaughan took footage of the tornado near Aledo (Content Warning: Some strong language as the storm chaser is angry he missed the first half):

This footage from Millsap and other towns shows baseball-size hail, stunning views of the “insane” tornado and some of the damage it caused:

Here’s a distant look at a twister from a Granbury backyard:

This is another view from a Granbury backyard but it gives you quite a sense of how loud the tornado was (it’s loud enough that you might want to turn down your volume a few notches). Also make note of the white caps the wind is creating on the lake:

These videos give a sense of some of the damage to the area and loss of life.

Officials announce the evacuation of residents ahead of one of the tornadoes and fatalities that later resulted in this report:

Witnesses describe the moments before the tornado hit, the damage and looking up while huddled in the bathroom and seeing their roof missing:

Schools are closed in Cleburne today and crews have begun to assess damage. Here’s a look at some of the mess:

This report shows some of the damage to commercial structures in Ennis. Damage spans a 2.5 mile area in this town:

Crews will move forward with assessing and clearing debris through today. As of early Thursday morning, about 20,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Johnny Ortiz, left, and James South, right, carry Miguel Morales, center, who was injured in a tornado, to an ambulance in Granbury, Texas, on Wednesday May 15, 2013. Officials report the tornado caused “multiple fatalities” as it tore through two neighborhoods of a North Texas town. Hood County sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Jiveden reported the multiple fatalities, but she had no estimate of dead or injured. (Photo: AP/Mike Fuentes)

All who died as a result of the storm thus far were from Granbury. Between 50 and 100 additional people from this town were taken to the hospital with injuries.

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‘We Ain’t Scared of Nobody!’: New Documentary Claims to Show the KKK Thriving in Deep South

In Granbury, the worst-hit city, a tornado tore through two neighborhoods around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Resident Elizabeth Tovar described the fist-sized hail that heralded the tornado’s arrival and prompted her and her family to hide in their bathroom.

Johnny Ortiz, left, and James South, right, carry Miguel Morales, center, who was injured in a tornado, to an ambulance in Granbury, Texas, on Wednesday May 15, 2013. Officials report the tornado caused “multiple fatalities” as it tore through two neighborhoods of a North Texas town. Hood County sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Jiveden reported the multiple fatalities, but she had no estimate of dead or injured. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

“We were all, like, hugging in the bathtub and that’s when it started happening. I heard glass shattering and I knew my house was going,” Tovar said, shaking her head. “We looked up and … the whole ceiling was gone.”

Behind one house in the storm’s path, a detached garage was stripped of much of its aluminum siding, the door caved in and the roof torn off. A tree behind the house was stripped of most of its branches and a vacant doublewide mobile home on an adjoining lot was torn apart.

Daniel and Amanda Layne initially thought they were safe sheltering under their carport. But then “it started getting worse and worse,” and the couple took shelter in their bathroom, Daniel Layne said.

“The windows and the cars are gone. Both our cars are messed up. I had a big shop. Ain’t a piece of it left now,” Layne said with a shrug.

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds described the devastating aftermath and the hunt for bodies.

“Some were found in houses. Some were found around houses,” Deeds said. “There was a report that two of these people that they found were not even near their homes. So we’re going to have to search the area out there.”

He said officials were trying to account for 14 people.

About 50 people were taken to a Granbury hospital, where 14 were admitted for treatment of injuries and two were transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth, about 35 miles to the northeast, Deeds said. Yet more gathered at a local elementary school where paramedics provided on-site treatment. Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare, estimated that as many as 100 people were injured.

Another tornado that storm spotters told the National Weather Service was a mile wide tore through Cleburne, a courthouse city of about 30,000 about 25 miles southeast of Granbury.

An unidentified injured person is carried to an ambulance in Granbury, Texas, on Wednesday May 15, 2013. Officials report the tornado caused “multiple fatalities” as it tore through two neighborhoods of a North Texas town. Hood County sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Jiveden reported the multiple fatalities, but she had no estimate of dead or injured. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

There were no reports of deaths in that storm, Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said, “but we do have the potential for some injuries.” In one neighborhood, a trucking company trailer that had been parked on the street was picked up and dropped onto a nearby car and garage.

Cain estimated that dozens of homes were damaged.

Another tornado hit the small town of Millsap, about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. Parker County Judge Mark Kelley said roof damage was reported to several houses and a barn was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.

Hail as large as grapefruit also pelted the area around Mineral Wells on Wednesday evening. A police dispatcher reported only minor damage.

​This story has been updated.

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A video taken by Norman Dreger and posted on YouTube shows his point of view as he appears to be wading in a river and captures audio of his stunned reaction when the bird manages to snag his fish and fly with the line.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Check it out the scene in the video that has more than 1 million views since being posted three days ago:

In a second video that has seen less traffic, Dreger wrote that the bird tried to steal his prey again, but failed this time around. This version shows a clearer view of the bird and Dreger too seems a bit more mentally prepared for it.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Here’s the footage:

You might think there’s something about the footage — or perhaps the reaction — that just seems, well, fishy. But few commenters, like those talking about it on a Reddit thread, are labeling it as a fake.

It’s not the first time a bald eagle has tried to steal someone’s catch. A family in Alabama had a similar experience, but the eagle didn’t get away with it. The bird became trapped in the line instead.

Let us know if you think the footage is real or fake by taking our poll:

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1. Narrows the definition of “navigable waters” to waters that are “navigable-in-fact” or “permanent, standing, or continuously flowing bodies of water … that are connected to waters that are navigable-in-fact,” with explicit exclusions for such things as rainfall drainage channels and wetlands without a continuous connection to “waters of the United States”;
2. Directs that the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers shall not impinge on the primary power of states over land and water use;
3. Gives landowners judicial review in federal court within 30 days of any claim of federal authority over their land or water resources;
4. Makes clear that ground water is state, not federal water;
5. Eliminates the so-called “signficant nexus test” that the EPA often uses to assert jurisdiction over otherwise non-federal lands;
6. Strikes down various regulations and agency guidances;
7. Requires a landowner’s consent before federal agents can enter his property to collect information regarding navigable waters;
8. Defines as a regulatory taking any loss of value of land due to navigable-water-related regulation and compensates the landowner twice the value of that loss.

Unlike most legislation before Congress, this bill would help a lot of people very quickly in a very direct way. I hope Congress acts on it.

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(Image: YouTube screenshot)

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that 12 homes were completely destroyed and 15 damaged when upwards of 37-mile-per-hour winds pushed ice up from Lake Dauphin. No injuries as a result of the unusual event were reported.

The Davis family on Ochre Beach heard the ice coming and within five minutes it rose from the lake and pushed into their home, moving furniture and bathroom fixtures from their place.

“They heard it before they saw it coming up their decks,” deputy reeve Clayton Watts told the Free Press. “Then it came right in their front windows. It was just a matter of minutes. Fortunately, no one was hurt. We were very lucky.”

Here is a videos showing the aftermath in Canada:

Homes on the shores of Minnesota’s second largest lake experienced a similar situation to those in Canada as well.

WCCO-TV reports that the ice from Lake Mille Lacs reached the doors and windows at the Izatys Resort on Saturday morning.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

National Weather Service Meteorologist Shawn Devinny says 30 to 40 mile an hour winds pushed the water into the ice, driving it ashore. He says the winds were lighter Sunday and the shoreline got a reprieve.

The Department of Natural Resources says about 10 miles of shoreline are covered, with some reaching up to 30 feet high.

Check out the impact of the ice waves in these videos:

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Fried mealworms (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

ROME (TheBlaze/AP) — The U.N. has new weapons to fight hunger, boost nutrition and reduce pollution, and they might be crawling or flying near you right now: edible insects, a practice known as entomophagy.

The Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday hailed the likes of grasshoppers, ants and other members of the insect world as an underutilized food for people, livestock and pets.

A 200-page report, released at a news conference at the U.N. agency’s Rome headquarters, says 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diets with insects, which are high in protein and minerals, and have environmental benefits.

Screenshot of the report cover. (Image: FAO.org)

Insects are “extremely efficient” in converting feed into edible meat, the agency said. On average, they can convert 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of feed into 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of insect mass. In comparison, cattle require 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of feed to produce a kilo of meat.

Most insects are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases, and also feed on human and food waste, compost and animal slurry, with the products being used for agricultural feed, the agency said.

Currently, most edible insects are gathered in forests and what insect farming does take place is often family-run and serves niche markets. But the U.N. says mechanization can ratchet up insect farming production. The fish bait industry, for example, has long farmed insects.

Insect farming is “one of the many ways to address food and feed security,” the food agency said.

“Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly,” the agency said, adding they leave a “low environmental footprint.” Here’s more from the report regarding the more favorable environmental impact of edible insects, compared to traditional livestock:

• Insects promoted as food emit considerably fewer greenhouse gases (GHGs) than most livestock (methane, for instance, is produced by only a few insect groups, such as termites and cockroaches).
• Insect rearing is not necessarily a land-based activity and does not require land clearing to expand production. Feed is the major requirement for land.
• The ammonia emissions associated with insect rearing are also far lower than those linked to conventional livestock, such as pigs.
• Because they are cold-blooded, insects are very efficient at converting feed into protein (crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle, four times less feed than sheep, and half as much feed as pigs and broiler chickens to produce the same amount of protein).

They provide high-quality protein and nutrients when compared with meat and fish and are “particularly important as a food supplement for undernourished children,” it said.

Boiled silkworm larvae (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

But a condensed fact sheet about insect eating states that it is a “common misconception” that entomophagy should only be reserved for times of extreme hunger.

“…in most instances where they are a staple in local diets,” the fact sheet states, “insects are consumed because of their taste, and not because there are no other food sources available.”

Mopane caterpillars in southern Africa and weaver ant eggs in Southeast Asia, for example, are considered delicacies and sell for high prices.

Insects can also be rich in copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and zinc, and are a source of fiber.

The agency noted that its Edible Insect Program is also examining the potential of arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions, although they are not strictly speaking insects.

University biologists have analyzed the nutritional value of edible insects, and some of them, such as certain beetles, ants, crickets and grasshoppers, come close to lean red meat or broiled fish in terms of protein per gram (ounce).

And some people who might not entertain the thought of consuming insects might already be eating them. Many insects are ingested inadvertently. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a handbook of acceptable “defect levels” allowed in foods, which for some foods includes whole or parts of insects.

–

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This story has been updated to correct a typo in the headline.

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“We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public,” Google wrote on its blog post about the Timelapse project.

The project compiles millions of satellite images from the Landsat mission and trillions of pixels.

“We started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this historic archive of earth imagery available online. Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth,” Google wrote. “We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year.”

Here’s a sequence of the Columbia glacier in Alaska retreating over time (but visit the actual animation here):

(Image: Google Landsat Annual Timelapse)

(Image: Google Landsat Annual Timelapse)

(Image: Google Landsat Annual Timelapse)

(Image: Google Landsat Annual Timelapse)

The data compiled was then created into HTML5 animations by Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab.

TIME explains the interactive images show over nearly three decades how Dubai went from desert to a booming metropolis with the world’s tallest building; how Saudi Arabia morphed thanks to irrigation systems from a sandy terrane to having “a surreal green-on-brown polka-dot pattern;” how the Columbia Glacier in Alaska is receding; and how human activity like mining and logging has impacted Wyoming and the Amazon, respectively.

(Image: Google Blog screenshot)

Watch the urban explosion over various cities in this video version of Timelapse:

“These Timelapse pictures tell the pretty and not-so-pretty story of a finite planet and how its residents are treating it — razing even as we build, destroying even as we preserve,” TIME wrote on its website. “It takes a certain amount of courage to look at the videos, but once you start, it’s impossible to look away.”

Watch TIME’s video for more background on the project:

Google states that its goal for the project is to “inform the global community’s thinking about how we live on our planet and the policies that will guide us in the future.”

See the Landsat Annual Timelapse from 1984 to 2012 in full here.

(H/T: Popular Science)

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Young environmental activists performed the rap, “What the Frack,” for students at a Colorado middle school last week. (Image source: YouTube)

Students at a Colorado middle school were serenaded and sang along to an anti-fracking rap from a group of young environmental activists last week.

The “Earth Guardians” posted video of the performance, titled “What the Frack,” from Evergreen Middle School, about 20 miles west of Denver. In it, students rap along after the line, “When we say ‘what the,’ you say ‘frack’!” By Thursday afternoon, the video had been made private.

The rap demonized the process of hydraulic fracturing — “fracking” — to extract natural gas from rock, saying it “poisoned the water, poisoned the air, poisoned the people, do you think that’s fair?”

Some studies have claimed that the process of pumping water and chemicals into the earth leads to earthquakes and other effects, but other findings have questioned its significance.

Lynn Setzer, head of communications at Jeffco Public Schools, told TheBlaze that the presentation was part of the district-wide “Day Without Hate” event, started after the Virginia Tech shooting. Each school decides on their own how to mark the event, which is supposed to be about tolerance and respect, Setzer said. The event is not supposed to have anything to do with fracking.

Instead, the teacher responsible for bringing in the “Earth Guardians” did so because 12-year-old “youth leader” Xiuhtezcatl Martinez received a peace award from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center last year, Setzer said.

“Her intent was, here is a kid who is clearly trying to make a difference, could possibly inspire other kids to make a difference no matter what the cause,” she said.

Setzer said the fracking portion of the presentation “wasn’t specifically planned.”

The conservative blog Complete Colorado reported that multiple parents complained to the school after the May 3 presentation, prompting principal Kristopher Schuh to say he would meet with the teacher responsible to “discuss what transpired and ensure that the opposite side of this issue is being clearly and fairly represented.”

Setzer said the school is sending a letter of apology to parents, along with a list of resources for both sides of the issue for families to discuss. The school will also put in place a procedure to vet guest speakers.

According to the group’s website, “Earth Guardians” is comprised of “children, youth, parents, schools, and organizations working together on behalf of leaving a better world for future generations.” Members from the organization delayed the start of a Colorado oil and gas regulation hearing for nearly a half-hour in December, chanting their opposition to fracking.

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(Image: Shutterstock.com)

The European Commission is proposing legislation that would have the government regulate what can be planted to its “tested, approved and accepted” list of seeds. Some worry the legislation, in addition to being over-regulation by the government, would lead to less biodiversity and that it could set a precedent that could someday criminalize the average gardener planting so-called banned seeds. 

According to the European Commission, the Plant Reproductive Material Law seeks to update existing legislation by cutting down 70 pieces of law to five and reducing “the red-tape on processes and procedures for farmers, breeders and food business operators (producers, processors and distributors) to make it easier for them to carry out their profession,” the press release stated. 

Th commission believes its package modernizes and simplifies rules “guiding the operation of the food chain” in the best interest of protecting health.

“The package responds to the call for better simplification of legislation and smarter regulation thus reducing administrative burden for operators and simplifying the regulatory environment. Special consideration is given to the impact of this legislation on SMEs and micro enterprises which are exempted from the most costly and burdensome elements in the legislation,” the press release stated. 

As TechDirt pointed out, the intent to ensure plants grown in the EU are safe and that if any problems occur they can be traced back to the offending source is commendable, but growing organizations have expressed concerns that the legislation would ultimately add up to “forbidden seeds.”

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

The Soil Association in its press release regarding the proposed legislation stated it would have a “disastrous effect” on the availability of rare plant varieties and those used by farmers.

“This will not only affect farmers and growers in the short term by outlawing exchange of seed not currently commercially available, but in the long term will erode the diversity of species that even the large seed companies, who are driving the proposal, need to provide their future varieties,” the Soil Association stated. 

Ben Raskin, head of horticulture for the association, explained that access to diverse varieties is important for adaptation to local environments and changing climate conditions. 

“The proposed regulation will require every seed to be registered and an annual license to be paid for each variety,” Raskin said in a statement. “Under this law it won’t be possible to register old and new niche varieties and populations (e.g. conservation and amateur varieties, landraces and farmers’ selections) based only on an officially recognized description (ORD), without official registration and certification, as is currently practiced. If this regulation is passed, not only will we lose a huge number of plant varieties , we will lose the amazing diversity of appearance, taste, and potential benefits such as disease resistance and nutritional content.”

Raskin worried that while some have assured the proposed legislation would only apply to farmers that the text suggests every gardener could be subject to it as well. 

An online petition organized through AVAAZ.org stated that the list of approved seeds is “60% dominated by big corporations like Monsanto, AstraZeneca, Bayer and others” (emphasis added):

The pros list are basically only hybrids – which means that you can not take next year’s seed from his crop. Furthermore, it not only be forbidden to sell other seeds than those already mentioned, but also to grow. “File sharing” in the area of seeds will become a criminal act. This means that people be even less able to influence what you eat, when you can not even decide what to grow. It also means that the varieties that are historically interesting will disappear, even varieties that can withstand our climate, because the market is too small for the majors to be interesting. This means that poor people who live off what they grow is referred to in the seedtrades discretion in terms of pricing, which can be costly where there are few players. 

As of Wednesday morning nearly 43,000 people had signed the petition saying they don’t accept the proposed legislation and want the EU to let them “keep our seeds.”

Due to concerns being voiced, the proposed regulation was amended somewhat, but the Food Policy for Thought blog states that the EU is still ”trying to find a balance on where producer protection stops and regulatory oversight is necessary.”

As for whether the amendments adequately accounted for concerns, Food Policy for Thought wrote that when it comes to those “demanded by civil society” — that regulation not require registration of plants without intellectual property rights associated with them — it didn’t go quite that far. 

Still, the amended draft “already looks much better than what was discussed previously.”

The Real Seed Catalog in the UK too wrote that the law is “still bad,” it is “much less bad” at this point. Real Seed Catalog broke down some of the concessions made:

• Home gardeners are now permitted to save and swap unapproved seed without breaking the law.
• Individuals & small organizations can grow and supply/sell unapproved vegetable seed - as long as they have less than 10 employees.
• Seedbanks can grow unapproved seed without breaking the law.
• There could be easier (in an unspecified way) rules for large producers of seeds suitable for organic agriculture etc, in some (unspecified) future legislation – maybe.

Ultimately, Real Seed Catalog director Ben Gabel said there wasn’t a need for any new regulation on this front. 

“We already had very strong consumer-protection laws that cover all this – seeds must be fit for the purpose sold, match their description, and perform as advertised. The old seed laws already covered health, traceability and safety. Anyone who produces seed is already inspected and certified by the Secretary of State,” he said in a statement.

“This is an instance of bureaucracy out of control. All this new law does is create a whole new raft of EU civil servants being paid to move mountains of papers round all day, while interfering with the right of people to grow what they want, and charging fees for the use of plants that were domesticated and bred by the public over thousands of years of small-scale agriculture,” Gamble said.

The commission’s proposal will now be considered by other EU institutions and could be implemented by 2016 if adopted. 

(H/T: Before It’s News)

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(YouTube)

The ghastly-looking carcass that recently washed ashore in New Zealand had people speculating that it was some sort of “sea monster” or prehistoric beast. However, as it turns out, it’s just a killer whale — sorry to disappoint you.

Because of its state of significant decay, the whale resembled something scarier than a common sea mammal. Its head was massive and its teeth were large and sharp, but the rest of the creature was unrecognizable.

Video of the “strange marine creature” discovery on Pukehina Beach in the Bay of Plenty was uploaded to YouTube.

But now a marine mammal expert has identified the creature as nothing more than a killer whale, or orca.

Anton van Helden told New Zealand’s Sun Live newspaper that he was able to identify the animal based on its fin structure.

The Yahoo! News blog “GrindTV” has more:

Discovery News reported on the find under the headline: “‘Monster’ Carcass Washes Ashore in New Zealand,” and explained that creatures washing ashore in severe states of decomposition have been misidentified as sea monsters or dinosaurs for generations.

Some of these massive, unidentifiable blobs have been dubbed “blobsters.”

Discovery cites an 1896 incident in which a massive 6-foot-high “fleshy corpse” came ashore at St. Augustine, Florida. After lots of speculation a naturalist decided it belonged to some type of giant octopus, previously unknown to science.

In 2003, a 40-foot, 13-ton creature washed ashore on a beach in Chile. It was labeled by BBC News as the “Chilean Blob” and the remains were presumed by one expert to be those of a giant octopus or squid, and by another as whale blubber.

(H/T: Yahoo! News)

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From North Carolina to Connecticut, the number of humans will be outnumbered roughly 600-to-1 by these insects — perhaps even more.

Here are a few tweeted pictures of the beginning invasion:

A mass of cicadas near Fredericksburg, Va. (Photo: @oikwtm_/Twitter via NBC News)

Cicada in Staten Island (Photo: @SIYankeefan/Twitter)

Cicada molting. (Photo: chrispcricket/Instagram)

Cicadas all over a telephone pole. (Photo: @carlgallo/Twitter)

(Photo: @karas_korner/Twitter)

Judging the mood on Twitter some can’t wait for their first cicada sighting while others view them with loathing. Here are a few who are not so happy about the infestation:

Contrary to what some might think, the insects of “Brood II,” as this emergence is classified, are actually harmless.

These insects won’t hurt you or other animals. At worst, they might damage a few saplings or young shrubs. Mostly they will blanket certain pockets of the region, though lots of people won’t ever see them.

“It’s not like these hordes of cicadas suck blood or zombify people,” said May Berenbaum, a University of Illinois entomologist.

Want to know where they’re popping up as the ground reaches a specific temperature? Check out this map:

So why are the bugs coming out now? They’re looking for just one thing: sex. And they’ve been waiting quite a long time.

Since 1996, this group of 1-inch bugs, in wingless nymph form, has been a few feet underground, sucking on tree roots and biding their time. They will emerge only when the ground temperature reaches precisely 64 degrees. After a few weeks up in the trees, they will die and their offspring will go underground, not to return until 2030.

“It’s just an amazing accomplishment,” Berenbaum said. “How can anyone not be impressed?”

In addition to being quite prehistoric looking to some, the cicadas have another distinguishing feature that those in affected areas are sure to notice — all the males sing. In 2004, Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, measured cicadas at 94 decibels, saying it was so loud “you don’t hear planes flying overhead.”

This video give you an example of cicada “singing”:

There are ordinary cicadas that come out every year around the world, but these are different. They’re called magicicadas – as in magic – and are red-eyed. And these magicicadas are seen only in the eastern half of the United States, nowhere else in the world.

There are 15 U.S. broods that emerge every 13 or 17 years, so that nearly every year, some place is overrun. Last year it was a small area, mostly around the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. Next year, two places get hit: Iowa into Illinois and Missouri; and Louisiana and Mississippi. And it’s possible to live in these locations and actually never see them.

This year’s invasion, Brood II, is one of the bigger ones. Several experts say that they really don’t have a handle on how many cicadas are lurking underground but that 30 billion seems like a good estimate. At the Smithsonian Institution, researcher Gary Hevel thinks it may be more like 1 trillion.

(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Even if it’s merely 30 billion, if they were lined up head to tail, they’d reach the moon and back.

“There will be some places where it’s wall-to-wall cicadas,” says University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp.

Here are a few videos from residents documenting infested areas:

Strength in numbers is the key to cicada survival: There are so many of them that the birds can’t possibly eat them all, and those that are left over are free to multiply, Raupp says.

But why only every 13 or 17 years? Some scientists think they come out in these odd cycles so that predators can’t match the timing and be waiting for them in huge numbers. Another theory is that the unusual cycles ensure that different broods don’t compete with each other much.

And there’s the mystery of just how these bugs know it’s been 17 years and time to come out, not 15 or 16 years.

“These guys have evolved several mathematically clever tricks,” Raupp says. “These guys are geniuses with little tiny brains.”

Past cicada invasions have seen as many as 1.5 million bugs per acre. Of course, most places along the East Coast won’t be so swamped, and some places, especially in cities, may see zero, says Chris Simon of the University of Connecticut. For example, Staten Island gets this brood of cicadas, but the rest of New York City and Long Island don’t, she says. The cicadas also live beneath the metro areas of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

This map shows based on different data where the infestations are expected to occur (see below) but you can stay up to date with the most current sightings here.

(Image: Magicicada.org)

Scientists and ordinary people with a bug fetish travel to see them. Thomas Jefferson once wrote about an invasion of this very brood at Monticello, his home in Virginia.

While they stay underground, the bugs aren’t asleep. They go through different growth stages and molt four times before ever getting to the surface. They are some of the world’s longest-lived insects. They drink up a low-protein tree fluid called xylum, which isn’t essential to the tree. Then they go aboveground, where they molt, leaving behind a crusty brown shell, and grow a half-inch bigger.

The timing of when they first come out depends purely on ground temperature. That means early May for southern areas and late May or even June for northern areas.

The males come out first – think of it as getting to the singles bar early, Raupp says. They come out first as nymphs, which are essentially wingless and silent juveniles, climb on to tree branches and molt one last time, becoming adult winged cicadas. They perch on tree branches and sing, individually or in a chorus. Then when a female comes close, the males change their song, they do a dance and mate, he explained.

Here’s a time-lapsed video of a molting cicada:

The males keep mating (“That’s what puts the ‘cad’ in ‘cicada,’” Raupp jokes) and eventually the female lays 600 or so eggs on the tip of a branch. The offspring then dive-bomb out of the trees, bounce off the ground and eventually burrow into the earth, he says.

“It’s a treacherous, precarious life,” Raupp says. “But somehow they make it work.”

Find more info on the upcoming cicada emergence here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

–

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• Only in New Zealand: Giant, Albino Meat-Eating Snail and Heavy-Weight Insect
• Unbelievable 22-Foot Wasp Nest Found Growing in Abandoned House

Featured image Shutterstock.com.

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“We’re going to be at Mother Nature’s mercy,” Ventura County fire spokesman Tom Kruschke said.

The wind-whipped fire erupted Thursday in the Camarillo area, damaging 15 homes and a cluster of recreational vehicles in a parking lot. About 2,000 Ventura County homes remained threatened and evacuations remained in force although the fire line edged southwards toward Malibu. It was about 20 miles from the coastal enclave at daybreak.

Here’s a look at some of the fire and the efforts to put it out:

The blaze was 10 percent contained but the work of more than 900 firefighters and deputies was just beginning, fire officials said.

The weather forecast called for parching single-digit humidity, highs in the 90s in some fire areas and morning winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph – slightly down from a day earlier.

There’s still a chance of “explosive fire spread” before winds begin tapering off in the afternoon and cooler weather begins to kick in, said Curt Kaplan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard.

While winds calmed overnight, the fire that had burned about 12 1/2 square miles by Thursday night had increased to around 15 1/2 square miles by dawn.

“It has grown throughout the night,” Kruschke said. “The fire has been coming down canyons all along Pacific Coast Highway and that’s where we’ve been concentrating a lot of our effort.”

Here’s a look at the raw footage:

Air tankers were expected to resume water and fire retardant drops after daybreak, which showed molten lines of flames along the oceanside ridges and a vast, black charred landscape behind. Few homes were in the immediate area.

Although the flames were generally heading seaward, the threat to homes behind its edge remained from hotspots and wind-driven embers, Kruschke said.

“The fire can jump up at any time and any place,” he said. “There’s that hot bed of coals out there covering thousands of acres.”

The fire was driven by gusty Santa Ana winds that usually run from fall into March then are replaced by foggy mornings as an onshore flow of cool air comes in, Kaplan said.

“This is a very, very strange weather pattern for this time of year,” he said. Instead of the onshore flow heading eastwards from the coast, cold storms in Colorado and further east have been pushing westward, and that air heats up and dries out as it roll downs through the California mountains, he said.

The pattern was expected to begin breaking up Friday afternoon, rapidly cooling over the weekend and there even could be a chance of rain in the fire area on Sunday, the meteorologist said.

The fire erupted during morning rush hour along U.S. 101 in the Camarillo area about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and winds pushed it down slopes toward subdivisions, soon forcing evacuations of residents in Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

Marie Turner, 45, was among the displaced at an evacuation center in Thousand Oaks as flames skirted the home her family moved into from Texas less than a year ago. She said in a phone interview she had given little thought to wildfires and worried about an entirely different kind of California threat.

“I’d always heard about earthquakes, it was a big fear of mine before we moved here,” said Turner.

She said she was frightened but didn’t regret the move.

“I’m very positive about being here, and we’re trying to make the most of it,” said Turner.

The smoke-choked campus of California State University, Channel Islands was evacuated, and classes were canceled through Friday. The school has about 5,000 students, though only a fraction live on campus.

About 100 miles to the east in Riverside County, two homes were destroyed, two more were damaged and 11 vehicles were destroyed in a 12-acre fire Thursday that fire officials suspect was started by a discarded cigarette.

Elsewhere in the county, a 4 1/2-square-mile blaze that destroyed a home burned for a third day in mountains north of Banning. It was 65 percent contained.

In Northern California’s Tehama County, a wildfire north of Butte Meadows grew overnight although an estimate of its size was revised down from more than 15 square miles to 10 square miles, state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The fire was 10 percent contained. It’s burning in a remote area and is not posing an imminent threat to any structures.

Elsewhere, crews expected to fully contain a 125-acre blaze in Sonoma County and a 200-acre fire in Glenn County on Friday.

Containment of a 55-acre fire in Butte County was expected this weekend.

—

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Raquel Maria Dillon in Banning, and Robert Jablon and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles.

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The renewable chemical and biofuel company Gevo in its first quarter investor relations report stated that it signed a contract with the Defense Logistics Agency to supply 3,650 gallons of renewable jet fuel.

Gevo’s bio-based isobutanol plant in Luverne, Minnesota. (Photo: Gevo)

The order, worth $215,350 total ($59/gallon), is set to be delivered by 2013′s second quarter and has the option to be increased to 12,500 gallons, which would cost up to $737,500.

Gevo calls this an “initial testing phase.”

Under other contracts, the company already supplies renewable jet fuel for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.

As the Washington Examiner pointed out, DLA set conventional JP-8 jet fuel as costing $3.78 per gallon at FY 2013 rates.

In other renewable jet fuel news, the Wisconsin-based company Virent Inc. delivered 100 gallons of bio-fuel this week to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

This C-17 Globemaster III was designed to run on hydrotreated renewable jet fuels. (Photo: USAF)

The Dayton Daily News reported that the jet fuel produced from 100-percent renewable plant sugars will be tested against applicable standards as the Air Force continues to strive toward its goal of flying on domestic, alternative fuels by 2030.

–

Related:

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• Have Sequester Pains Been as Bad as Advertised?
• Congress Ends FAA Furloughs, Bill Heads to White House for President’s Signature
• Sequestration Is Upon Us: Now What?

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OFA’s video posted on YouTube April 24 labels several Republican members of Congress as “climate deniers,” a popular term for those who deny that climate change is occurring at all or those who believe the jury is still out as to what the science says about the relation between climate change and man-made activities.

The video shows a clip of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio saying the “fundamental question is weather man-made activity is what’s contributing most to [climate change.]”

It later shows House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) saying “It’s almost comical.”

“Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide,” he said.

Watch the full ad:

The point of contention in the video is a number stating that 240 House members voted in 2011 that climate change was a “hoax.”

(Image: OFA/YouTube screenshot)

FactCheck.org, a non-partisan group devoted to checking factual accuracy of political statements, delved into that number and found it applied to a Democrat-proposed amendment, which was voted down 184-240, to the Republican-initiated Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011.

The amendment stated, “Congress accepts the scientific findings of the Environmental Protection Agency that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.”

FactCheck also noted that Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), who was featured in the OFA’s video calling it a “hoax,” did not speak on the amendment during its debate.

“[In] fact, none of the Republicans who spoke against it called climate change a ‘hoax,’” FactCheck wrote.

So where did OFA get its hoax language?

“The clip in the video of [Broun] calling climate change ‘a hoax’ came from a floor speech two years earlier on June 26, 2009,” FactCheck found out.

Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler gave the video four “Pinocchios,” indicating “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.”

(Image: Washington Post)

“Certainly there’s a strong strain of skepticism about climate change among Republican lawmakers, as demonstrated by a number of clips in the video,” Kessler wrote. “So initially we were tempted to conclude that this claim did not quite rise to Four Pinocchios. But the video seriously undercuts its credibility with the phony accounting on the amendment — and this sort of gamesmanship with congressional votes is simply not acceptable.”

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A report published by Ceres, a network of investors, companies and public interest groups focusing on sustainable business practices, said that nearly 47 percent of the 25,450 fracking wells evaluated were in areas experiencing high or extremely high water stress.

See the full map, zoomable map here. (Image: Ceres)

Water is key to the fracking process because it, along with some chemicals and sand, is pumped into the rocks to create cracks that allow the oil and natural gas flow up the well.

“Given projected sharp increases in shale oil and gas production in the coming years, competition over water should be a growing concern to energy companies, policymakers and investors,” the report states. “Shale energy development cannot grow without water, but in order to do so the industry’s water needs and impacts need to be better understood, measured and managed.”

This March 29, 2013 photo shows a typical hydraulic fracturing operation at a site outside Rifle, in western Colorado. In the background, a battery of yellow tanks hold water for the job at an Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. gas well. Pump trucks are parked in front of the tanks. Workers control the flow of water, sand and chemicals into the well heads, left, from an operations trailer, center far right. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, raises concern among some that the chemicals used and hydrocarbons released can contaminate groundwater. Industry officials say an absence of documented, widespread problems with fracking proves the process is safe. (Photo: AP/Brennan Linsley)

Using data from FracFocus.org – a voluntary national fracking chemical registry – and water stress indicator maps between January 2011 through September 2012, Ceres identified Colorado and Texas as the most water-strapped states as it pertained to location of fracking wells. In Colorado, 92 percent of wells were in areas of extremely high water stress, which Ceres states the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas defines as, meaning more than 80 percent of available water is already being used by municipalities, industry and agriculture.

The report stated that Texas, which had nearly half of the wells analyzed in the report, found slightly more than 50 percent of its wells were in high or extremely high regions of water stress. In some cases, fracking water accounted for 20 percent of the region’s total use.

Seventy percent of Pennsylvanian wells, which have long been the focus of media attention thanks to documentaries and environmental activists including Hollywood stars, were in areas of medium to high water stress.

In this Jan. 17, 2013 file photo, Sean Lennon and actress Susan Sarandon visit to a fracking site in New Milford, Pa. Dozens of celebrities may be running afoul of the law as they unite under the banner of one group that is seeking to prevent a method of gas drilling in New York state. Artists Against Fracking opposes hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and boasts members including Yoko Ono and actors Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon. (Photo: AP/Richard Drew)

“These findings highlight emerging tensions in many U.S. regions between growing hydraulic fracturing activity and localized water supply needs,” Ceres President Mindy Lubber said, announcing the report at the organization’s annual conference in San Francisco.

Although many wells are operating in areas with water shortages, the report does note that the industry has begun using more recycled and non-freshwater alternatives.

Ceres’ report states that it believes companies should be required to reveal how much freshwater, non-freshwater and recycled water is used in fracking activities, and it recommends regulators set water use targets for companies.

Download the full study here.

In other fracking news, earlier this week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production.

Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is “kind of an earthquake” in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. “This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks.”

In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That’s about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice.

Experts on both sides of the debate say the leaks can be controlled by fixes such as better gaskets, maintenance and monitoring. Such fixes are also thought to be cost-effective, since the industry ends up with more product to sell.

“That is money going up into the air,” said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, adding he isn’t surprised the EPA’s new data show more widespread use of pollution control equipment. Pielke noted that the success of the pollution controls also means that the industry “probably can go further” in reducing leaks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

(H/T: Quartz.com)

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In this Aug. 2, 2012, photo, a brown bear and her two cubs forage on the Russian River’s bank close to an Alaska Department of Fish and Game fish weir near Cooper Landing, Alaska. (Photo: AP/Peninsula Clarion, Jerzy Shedlock)

It is well-known that one should never mess with a momma bear and her cubs, but the reverse was the case in Alaska when a father protected his family from an attack by one such animal.

According to ABC News, the incident occurred Sunday at the Alaskan Kasilof River Beach when 48-year-old Toby Burke placed himself between his wife and three children and a charging bear. Armed with only the scope attached to a 6-foot-long tripod he was using while photographing wildlife moments earlier, Burke, a wildlife biologist for Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, attempted to fight off the bear.

Even after the tripod broke leaving a sharp edge for Burke to hit the bear in the face, the animal was not yet deterred.

The situation escalated.

“It was just me between my family and the bear,” he told ABC News. “At that point, I made physical contact. All I could do was put my left arm up. Then its mouth clamped down on my forearm. So I remember hitting it in the face with my right arm.”

“When the bear came at my husband, my 8-year-old, Damien, wanted to run,” Laura Burke, who had their 7-month-old strapped to her back, said. “I remember his dad said, ‘Don’t run. Stick together!’”

Burke’s efforts worked. The bear eventually gave up and ran away.

What about the father’s condition? Burke said he is pretty bruised but was protected from further harm because he was wearing several layers of clothing.

According to the blog Redoubt Reporter, Burke said his children didn’t even cry and the baby remained asleep during the whole ordeal.

“Fortunately, our guardian angels were looking out for us that day,” he said.

After reporting the attack to state and wildlife troopers, it was revealed that there were other reports of a female brown bear in the area that had attacked a vehicle, telephone pole and a man walking on a beach. Troopers shot the bear when it came running out of the woods at them, ABC reported.

A dead brown bear in the back of a truck. (Photo via ABC News)

The Redoubt Reporter noted Burke too saying that the bear’s behavior was “deranged.”

“It would run out on the beach and back into the dunes. It looked like a very unhealthy bear, not just its appearance, but its behavior. I’ve had experience with bears with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And I even said to my wife, ‘That looks like a candidate to be destroyed or shot,’” Burke said.

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The local media has reportedly been shut out by Exxon and the local authorities from covering the clean up. British Petroleum also had difficulties addressing the media following their spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Why haven’t oil companies learned from catastrophe? The spill has cost the company $42 billion and that bill is still rising. Why do Americans still need to support the oil industry despite stories like this one? Could the political obstacles lined up against building new pipelines be both an economic and public safety concern?

Former Shell Oil co. CEO and founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy, John Hofmeister, joined “Wilkow!” Tuesday to answer these questions and discuss how oil companies can better respond to such crises and prepare for the future.

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While climate change may not be considered racist (yet), Democrats in the House of Representatives are making the case that it is sexist.  Because, obviously:

Several House Democrats are calling on Congress to recognize that climate change is hurting women more than men, and could even drive poor women to “transactional sex” for survival.

The resolution, from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and a dozen other Democrats, says the results of climate change include drought and reduced agricultural output. It says these changes can be particularly harmful for women.
“[F]ood insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health,” it says.

Climate change could also add “workload and stresses” on female farmers, which the resolution says produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing countries.

First of all, can we just take a moment to reflect on the absurd new PC term for prostitution — “transactional sex”?  That lingo has got some real Frank Luntz mojo.  Are pimps now considered “street traders”?  Johns are now, what, “students of physical therapy”?

Second of all, it says a lot about our modern society that making the case for policy on gender lines is taken this seriously.  The report specifically cites Hurricane Katrina as “evidence” of how climate change can affect women because the storm displaced “over 83 percent of low-income, single mothers” in the Gulf region.  If you’re a married guy, fuggedaboutit.

“My resolution will affirm the commitment to include and empower women in economic development planning and international climate change policies and practices,” Rep. Lee says. “This will help communities adapt to climate impacts, and embark on a path towards clean and sustainable development.”

Well, fantastic.  Just don’t forget to include my free birth control.

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(Image: FWD.us/Facebook)

As Business Insider pointed out, it might be unexpected that FWD.us is funding ads that praise GOP leaders and support the Keystone pipeline and oil drilling, given the general support of the Silicon Valley and tech community for President Barack Obama and environmental tendencies. FWD.us, which was founded by NationBuilder’s co-founder Joe Green, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates and others in addition to Zuckerberg, though expresses that it is non-partisan.

Founders of FWD.us. (Image: FWD.us)

ThinkProgress showed that ads are being produced through subsidiaries of FWD.us – Americans for a Conservative Direction, which is more conservative leaning, and Council For American Job Growth, which is more liberal leaning. Both of these subsidiaries are created with Green’s NationBuilder.

Kate Hansen, communications director for FWD.us told ThinkProgress that “maintaining two separate entities, Americans for a Conservative Direction & the Council for American Job Growth, to support elected officials across the political spectrum – separately – means that we can more effectively communicate with targeted audiences of their constituents.”

This ad from ACD shows Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) criticizing Obamacare and the president’s stance on spending and the Keystone pipeline. The ad asks viewers to call Graham to tell him to continue fighting for South Carolina:

Then there is CAJG’s ad, created in a similar format, supporting Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), who is working to open Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling and is in favor of a balanced budget:

To ThinkProgress, such ads showing the “group’s forceful advocacy for expanded drilling and pipeline construction [are] surprising” because of the stance Zuckerberg has hit on with the issues before. Referencing his Washington Post op-ed announcing FWD.us earlier this month, ThinkProgress reminded of him saying the following:

The economy of the last century was primarily based on natural resources, industrial machines and manual labor. Many of these resources were zero-sum and controlled by companies. If someone else had an oil field, then you did not. There were only so many oil fields, and only so much wealth could be created from them.

Today’s economy is very different. It is based primarily on knowledge and ideas — resources that are renewable and available to everyone. Unlike oil fields, someone else knowing something doesn’t prevent you from knowing it, too. In fact, the more people who know something, the better educated and trained we all are, the more productive we become, and the better off everyone in our nation can be.

But Hansen with FWD.us clarified that the group “is committed to showing support for elected officials who promote the policy changes needed to build the knowledge economy.”

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It stationed fans to blow directly onto their busy interns’ office — and made a fascinating live feed out of it. 

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Even more exciting is that the social media campaign they’re running on Twitter allows fans to control the intensity of the winds:

Our Weather Channel interns got so excited about Tornado Week they wanted to recreate a Twitter powered Tornado in our office – so we did, and sat them right in the middle of it! Now you are in control of the winds. Every public mention of #TornadoWeek on Twitter raises the scale and boosts the winds. You can even Tweet at the interns using the @TornadoWeek handle. Hit 1,000,000 mentions and we will turn up the wind for a full blown EF-5 tornado inside the Weather Channel offices!

That’s The Weather Channel anchor Kyla Grogan on the left. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

This was the speed of the wind in the office before 3 p.m. EST. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

As of 2:30 p.m. EST, more than 1,300 people were watching this and #tornadoweek was trending on Twitter:

Adding to the frivolity, they’ve been showing off the challenges of keep paper orderly in a significantly breezy office, but they’ve demonstrated how difficult it is to toss popcorn into one’s mouth. 

Dave Malkoff shows off one of the growing lists. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Malkoff about to toss popcorn into the wind. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

For those who follow @Malkoff, a Weather Channel correspondent, the interns will put your name on the wall. 

Now, getting up to an EF-5 tornado — that’s more than 200 mph — is entirely up to the success of the Twitter campaign. So if you want to see it happen, include #tornadoweek in your tweet. 

Here’s a suggested tweet: Saw @tornadoweek intern’s #tornadoweek campaign on @TheBlaze. Turn up the wind!

(H/T: ValleyWag)

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(Photo Credit: Chris Gotschalk/Wiki Commons)

WESTERLY, R.I. (TheBlaze/AP) — A 28-foot-long dead basking shark has washed ashore on a Rhode Island beach.

The Day of New London (Conn.) reports that a homeowner in the Misquamicut beach area of Westerly reported the shark to police on Sunday morning.

“Police then contacted the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management which then asked Mystic Aquarium to investigate,” The Day writes.

Biologists with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center are expected to perform a necropsy to determine how the creature died, which may lend some insight as to why it washed ashore.

This photo provided by the Mystic Aquarium shows a 28-foot-long dead basking shark which was found washed ashore on a Rhode Island beach, Sunday, April 28, 2013. The Day of New London. (Photo: AP)

The shark, which is one of the largest living creatures in the ocean, has apparently been attracting curious onlookers who have stopped to take photos and touch it.

According to BBC Nature, only the whale shark is bigger than the basking shark.

The BBC report continues:

Despite a superficial similarity to the fearsome great white shark and a massive jaw one metre wide, basking sharks are actually harmless filter feeders. They use more than 5,000 gill rakers to strain plankton from around 1.5 million litres of water per hour. Basking sharks are born travellers, covering large distances in search of food, at the very leisurely pace of only three miles per hour.

The BBC also has stunning footage of a basking shark swimming mere feet from a man in his canoe:

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Snow falls near the spot where five members of a backcountry snowboarder group were found dead after they were trapped by an avalanche on Loveland Pass, Colo., Saturday, April 20, 2013. According to officials from the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office, the five were killed on the high mountain pass in Colorado’s White River National Forest earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

DENVER (AP) — The sole survivor of an avalanche that killed five other men on the Continental Divide west of Denver was able to clear snow from his face with his unburied lower left arm so he could breathe, but he remained stuck for four hours until rescuers arrived, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said Wednesday.

In its final report on the weekend accident, the center said the state’s deadliest slide since 1962 was large enough to bury or destroy a car. Of the men who died in the 800-foot-wide, 600-foot-long avalanche Saturday morning, one was buried under 10 to 12 feet of snow.

The avalanche was tragic but avoidable, the center said.

The center’s final report offered new details on the avalanche that occurred as snowboarders and skiers converged near Loveland Pass for the Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Gathering. The event was promoted by a Colorado snowboarding magazine as a day for backcountry riding but also avalanche gear and safety demonstrations.

The four snowboarders and a skier who died were all from Colorado. The Clear Creek County sheriff’s office identified them as Christopher Peters, 32, of Lakewood; Joseph Timlin, 32, of Gypsum; Ryan Novack, 33, of Boulder; Ian Lamphere, 36, of Crested Butte; and Rick Gaukel, 33, of Estes Park.

Friends identified the survivor as Jerome Boulay of Crested Butte, who has declined requests for interviews.

All had proper avalanche equipment. At least two had avalanche airbags, and some had Avalung breathing devices but apparently were unable to use them, the report said.

“This was a really tragic accident. There’s no denying that,” said Ethan Greene, the center’s director. “Nobody’s immune from getting caught in avalanches. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing this, how athletic you are. … Everybody can get killed. It’s an equal-opportunity hazard.”

The center has said the avalanche was a deep persistent slab avalanche, which occurs when a thick layer of hard snow breaks loose from a weak, deep layer of snowpack underneath. Colorado Avalanche Information Center forecasters had alerted people about the potential for such avalanches Saturday, warning of likely trigger points.

“If you find the wrong spot, the resulting avalanche will be very large, destructive, and dangerous,” the forecast said.

On Saturday, Boulay and the other five men had left the parking lot of Loveland Ski Area, which wasn’t affiliated with the backcountry gathering, for a one-hour tour.

They read the center’s avalanche bulletin together, were aware of the deep persistent slab problem, and aimed to avoid threatening north-facing slopes as they planned to climb a few hundred vertical feet onto northwest-facing slopes, the report said.

But to get to that safer spot, they had to cross a dangerous area, Greene said. They decided to reduce the risk by leaving 50 feet between each person as they trekked. That turned out not to be enough for the large avalanche they triggered.

The group was heading for a stand of trees when they felt a large collapse and heard a “whumpf,” the report said. In the seconds it took for the crack in the snow to move uphill and release the deep slab, the group ran toward the trees. Everyone but Boulay was completely buried as the group was swept into the Sheep Creek gully.

Boulay was buried except for his lower left arm, which he used to clear snow from his face. He tried to free his other arm and screamed for help.

There was no one around to hear him, the report said.

“It covered everybody. There was nobody left to call 911, nobody left to look for the buried, to help the one person who wasn’t buried but couldn’t get out,” Greene said.

It took a while for anyone to realize the group was trapped.

Two Colorado Avalanche Information Center highway avalanche forecasters spotted the slide around 12:15 p.m. from Interstate 70. When they got to the scene about 30 minutes later, their avalanche beacons detected no signals. Even with binoculars, they couldn’t see tracks heading into the slide area, the report said.

After forecasters drove back to the ski area to ask others at the backcountry gathering whether anyone might be trapped, several people rushed to the scene.

The center urges even expert backcountry enthusiasts to know the conditions, have rescue equipment and get educated on avalanches.

“We owe it to these guys to learn from a really horrible accident they were involved in,” Greene said. “The only thing worse than all these guys getting killed is not to have us learn anything from it.”

(H/T: Yahoo! News)

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But what does the ultra luxury Italian auto maker Maserati think of “zero emission” vehicles?

According to China Car Times, reporting on CEO Harald Wester’s opinion at the recent Shanghai Auto Show, they are “nonsense.”

CEO of Maserati Harald Wester poses for photographers near a new Maserati Quattroporte, in Nice, southern France, during the presentation to the media,Monday, Dec. 10, 2012.The new sixth-generation Maserati Quattroporte is a luxury four-door saloon made by Maserati in Italy and will be revealed at the Detroit motor show in January 2013, production started in November 2012. (Photo: AP/Lionel Cironneau)

“All this discussion about zero emissions is nonsense,” Wester said. “Nobody talks about the efficiency of how the battery is charged. It varies strongly from region to region, depending on how the energy is produced, nuclear, coal and so on, but even the best is not ahead of the internal combustion engine.”

And he has a point. TheBlaze has reported on studies that have found in some regions electric vehicles actually have more global warming potential that their traditional gas counterparts.

Guests attend the unveiling of the new Maserati Quattroporte at Ferrari Maserati Silicon Valley on April 3, 2013 in Redwood City, California. (Photo: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for Ferrari Maserati)

China Car Times reported Wester saying regulators need to be more realistic before issuing mandates favoring electric options when measurement of their actual total emissions, including battery charging options, might not be as accurate as they could be.

(H/T: SlashGear)

–

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This story has been updated.

–

Tuesday’s shocking courtroom drama during the Dr. Kermit Gosnell case sparked outrage and confusion among some Americans after a number of charges against the abortion doctor were dismissed. But on Wednesday, the ruling changed slightly.

During the proceedings, Judge Jeffrey Minehart threw out three counts of murder and five counts of corpse abuse, as TheBlaze previously reported. On Wednesday, however, the justice had a change of heart, reinstating one of the murder charges that he had tossed just 24 hours before.

Citing an error in judgement, Minehart recanted axing the murder charge for “Baby C,” the child who was purportedly alive for 20 minutes before its spine was cut. Some of Gosnell’s own staff members have reported seeing the baby breathe and move before being killed, LifeNews.com reports.

The Atlantic adds the following: “Baby C was moving and breathing for 20 minutes before an assistant came in and cut the spinal cord, just the way she had seen Gosnell do it so many times. And these were not even the worst cases.”

One of the more gruesome, graphic and troubling stories to come from the case, some were dumbfounded when Minehart dropped the charge surrounding it.

Now, it has been reinstated — and in a series of tweets from inside the courtroom, J.D. Mullane, a columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, detailed the judge’s change-of-heart that led to the decision:

#Gosnell Judge Jeffrey Minehart says he erred dismissing murder charge re "Baby C" seen breathing for 20 min. Reverses.

April 24, 2013 10:23am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jdmullane

jdmullane

However, Judge Minehart dismissed murder charges re "Baby F" seen making a single leg movement. Minehart blamed a "clerical error"

April 24, 2013 10:45am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jdmullane

jdmullane

However, Minehart dismisses murder charges re "Baby F" seen making a leg movement before #Gosnell employee snipped infant's neck.

April 24, 2013 10:48am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jdmullane

jdmullane

#Gosnell Judge cites "clerical error" for his confusing "Baby A" w/"Baby F"; "A" state's best evidence, seen struggling for life b4 snipped.

April 24, 2013 10:55am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jdmullane

jdmullane

Minehart also threw out the murder charge for a Baby F — a child purportedly seen making a single leg movement. The reversal and subsequent action were apparently rooted in what he called a “clerical error.”

Early Wednesday afternoon, the defense rested without calling any witnesses. Most notably, Gosnell did not take the stand in his murder trial. Closing arguments will be made on Monday and the jury is scheduled to be charged on Tuesday.

–

Other Must-Read Stories:

• Eyewitness Releases Stunning New Pictures of Dramatic Shootout Between Boston Bombing Suspects and Police
• Gosnell Acquitted on 3 Counts of Murder, 5 Counts of Corpse Abuse in Grisly Murder Trial
• Ann Coulter on Bombing Suspect’s Wife: ‘She Ought to Be in Prison for Wearing a Hijab’ and…
• Army Allegedly Orders That Bible Inscriptions Be Scraped Off of Weapon Scopes
• Mayor Bloomberg: Interpretation of U.S. Constitution Will ‘Have to Change’ Following Boston Bombings

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(Image: Gasland II/Facebook)

A group of farmers traveled from Pennsylvania to New York City for the 3:30 p.m. showing of Josh Fox’s “Gasland  II” premier at the Tribeca Film Festival Sunday.

Phelim McAleer, the journalist who recently released the pro-fracking documentary “FrackNation,” told TheBlaze in a phone interview Monday he and farmers were questioning Fox while he was on the red carpet for the premier about the EPA’s recent studies, which have debunked some of his original film’s claims.

“The questions were pointed but polite, very polite,” McAleer said.

But when McAleer and others tried to enter the theater to watch “Gasland II” they were barred entry, even though they had the appropriate badges and tickets.

The New York Times ArtsBeat blog reported Tribeca’s statement regarding the situation Monday:

On Monday, press representatives for the Tribeca Film Festival said in a statement: “Guests that had purchased advance tickets and were in line for the film 30 minutes prior, as our ticket policy states, were admitted into the screening. Once the house was at capacity, the remaining ticket holders who had not been in line were unfortunately not able to be accommodated in the theater.”

The statement continued: “We are sorry that the few ticket holders who stayed outside gave up their seats to those who waited in line. The film is being shown three more times during the festival and we welcome them to come to any of those screenings.”

McAleer said he was never told by any of the film festival’s representatives that there was a capacity issue, nor was that the reason he was given by security or the NYPD about why the group wasn’t allowed to enter. McAleer said he believes a video taken at the event shows they were banned because of their difference of opinion.

McAleer said that if you had a different opinion or didn’t fit within the “hipster, urban bubble,” it seemed the festival didn’t want you there.

In the video, a representative with the festival said she would be able to offer refunds to those who weren’t allowed inside, which the group begins to call a “freedom of speech refund.”

The representative later tells the camera “we’re happy to render refunds, we just don’t feel comfortable letting them into the movie.”

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Others who came out because of the ruckus that was being made when the group was prevented from entering and talked to farmers about what was going on were then prevented from re-entering as well. But later in the clip, someone in a plaid shirt, sunglasses and with a badge goes up to security, says “I’ve been here the whole time,” and is allowed to enter the theater.

This man who already had a seat inside and claimed his wife was inside is denied re-entry in the clip. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

This man in the sunglasses though was able to enter. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Watch the footage:

McAleer wanted to attend the premier in order to write a review. The farmers, McAleer said he thinks, attended because they “wanted to see what was being said about their lives and their communities.”

“You make a documentary to represent the farmers and landowners and they’re the people excluded from the screening,” McAleer said expressing his frustration.

This story has been updated to correct a typo. 

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The river was at or near crest at several places Sunday between the Quad Cities and near St. Louis. Some towns in the approximate 100-mile stretch of river from Quincy, Ill., to Grafton, Ill., reached 10-12 feet above flood stage.

An inch or more of rain is in the forecast as well as continuing accumulation of snow to the north, especially in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Flood watchers along both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers know that once that snow – record levels in some cases – melts, a lot of it ends up in the big rivers.

The current flooding is bad enough. In scenic Grafton, a small tourist town 40 miles north of St. Louis, floodwater 3 inches deep seeped into the basement of Pam and Dennis Bick’s home where they’ve lived for four decades.

“We have time to figure out what to do, where we would go and where we would put everything,” Pam Bick, 57, said. “I don’t want it to come up any more. But I can’t stop it.”

Rain last week started the whole mess, causing the Mississippi and many other rivers to surge in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Flooding has now been blamed in three deaths – two at the same spot in Indiana and one in Missouri. In all three cases, vehicles were swept off the road in flash floods.

Here are photos of the flooding within several of these states:

Spots south of St. Louis aren’t expected to crest until late this week, and significant flooding is possible in places like Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Cairo, Ill.

Adding to concern is the forecast. National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Phillipson said an inch of rain is likely in many places Monday night into Tuesday, some places could receive more than that.

“That’s not what we want to see when we have this kind of flooding, that’s for sure,” Phillipson said.

In La Grange, Mo., sandbags were holding back the murky Mississippi River water at City Hall, a bank and a handful of threatened homes, and the water was dropping. This flood was little more than an inconvenience, Lewis County emergency management director David Keith said.

“What we’re worried about now is all that snow melt in North and South Dakota and Minnesota,” Keith said, referencing the state’s mounds of April snow.

Forecasters said up to 6 inches of new snow were possible in the Black Hills area of South Dakota through Monday morning. But AccuWeather meteorologist Alan Reppert said it may stay cold long enough to the north to make for a gradual melt. Of greater concern, he said, is the Red River in North Dakota, which could see significant flooding in the coming weeks.

Sandbagging was beginning this week in Fargo and Cass County to prepare for forecast record amounts of high water along the Red River and its tributaries.

By Sunday, sandbagging had all but stopped in Clarksville, Mo., evidence of the confidence in the makeshift sandbag levee hurriedly erected to protect downtown. The river Sunday was about 10 feet above flood stage and expected to rise another foot before cresting Monday.

“We believe we’ll have a successful conclusion,” said Jo Anne Smiley, longtime mayor of the 442-resident hamlet.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., the Grand River peaked at 21.85 feet Sunday night, topping the previous record of 19.64 feet set in 1985, the National Weather Service reported Monday. Flood stage is 18 feet.

Hundreds of volunteers filled sandbags to stack around downtown buildings. Mayor George Heartwell, who declared a state of emergency, has estimated that the city will spend at least $500,000 on flood defenses, MLive.com reported.

“We have prepared for the worst,” Heartwell said.

Here’s a look at the flooding in a couple local news report:

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared at least 41 counties disaster areas from flooding. Flooding along the Fox and Des Plaines rivers has left many roads impassable in communities such as Lisle, Gurnee and Des Plaines, and in some cases residents are getting around in canoes.

Take a look at this local news report from areas flooded in Illinois:

Indiana officials were still determining if flooded communities like Kokomo, Tipton and Elwood will be eligible for disaster aid.

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(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Brad Waters, a licensed clinical social worker, takes an in-depth look into the lives of two neighbors living off the grid in Michigan’s upper peninsula in a recent article for Psychology Today. And it’s fascinating.

The Jungwirths and the Larsons live three miles apart. Both neighbors live miles way from the nearest power line, making their existence without any electricity. No microwave, Internet, you name it. But the Jungwirths sometimes do run a small TV with power from solar panels. Waters, who is a life and career strategy coach-consultant, even wrote in his article that he had to communicate with Charlie Larson by exchanging letters via snail mail; John Jungwirth on the other hand had a cellphone.

Although many would balk at such an existence without the use of modern technology, Waters reported a drastically different perspective from the off-the-grid households:

“It keeps my brain healthy. It’s a paradise,” Jungwirth responded, when asked about the psychological impact of living off the grid. “It’s nice to be alone and have time to think, but when you don’t have many people around you do relish people.”

A typical Thursday for Larson includes traveling to town to pick up mail and a few groceries and visiting with family. It takes a few hours to drive back to his cabin where he tends his cactus collection, weaves tapestries — the fiber is homespun and the loom homemade, Waters includes — and grinding grain for breakfast.

Off the grid to the Jungwirhts also means a life without medical insurance too. According to the article, Jungwirht hasn’t been to a hospital for care since 1988.

“We’re experts with infections and skin abrasions, tinctures for colds. When you don’t have insurance, you really pay attention,” Jungwirht said. “Connecting to others is real insurance.”

What does it take to go off the grid? Mother Nature Network recently reported Nick Rosen, founder of the Off-Grid website and author of “Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America,” saying it doesn’t take much.

“As long as it’s the right half-acre,” that’s about all you need, Rosen said. By right he means, hopefully with some woodland, space for farming, light for solar power and a good water supply.

“The era of 40 acres and a mule has been replaced by the era of a half an acre and a laptop and a solar panel,” he said, according to MNN.

He acknowledged it can be still be a lot of work though, even on a small plot of land.

Rosen too discussed why people decide upon this sort of lifestyle. Reasons included environmental consciousness, finances and “loss of trust in the government and social networks to look after us.” The latter is one of the biggest reasons he said people are going off the grid today.

Why did Larson, who has lived this way for 26 years, choose it? After waiting for weeks to get his reply letter via traditional mail, Waters recorded this account:

“When I was in junior high, my great uncle and my grandfather took me to stay at a camp which is down to my East about 4 miles or so,” he wrote. “After staying there that night I always wanted to live out in the woods. Just getting up in the morning and smelling all the clean fresh air was enough to hook me. Everything was so sweet and fresh smelling, and you could detect the different odors throughout the day and into the evening. All different, telling you the time of day or night. No rush to get things done, but things do get done. You enjoy doing them and at a slower pace but satisfying one.”

Read more of Water’s article in Psychology Today about the two households living off the grid here.

(H/T: MLive.com)

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Off the coast of Hawaii, a team of divers with camera equipment swam down to film where lava was flowing from the Kilauea crater.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

“As new lava emerges, it quickly cools, forming billowy, round shapes called pillow lava,” PBS explained. “The constant accumulation of new rock results in frequent collapse and avalanche on the reef slope — an accelerated cycle of creation and destruction that makes for a very unstable environment.”

Check it out (Note: Actual footage of the erupting underwater volcano comes into play around 2:30 and there is a bit of strong language when the divers surface and describe their experience at the end):

When the diver surfaces, he calls it “the most intense thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“As we decided to come up, the entire earth is rumbling at a frequency that makes your whole body vibrate. It feels like the entire side of the mountain is going to explode,” the diver said.

The UnderH2O series will not only provide cool, below the surface footage but will delve into how cameramen are able to capture such scenes.

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The Miami Heat forward posted photos on his Instagram account — kingjames — with the caption “Miami ain’t always sunshine!” The photos show several inches of water flooding the road.

(Photo: kingjames/instagram)

“Mother nature ain’t nothing to mess with,” the caption continued. “Rain rain go away, come back another day!”

It wasn’t long after this note was posted on Twitter that the National Weather Service issued their own alert Saturday, crediting James for the tip.

(Image: NWS/Twitter)

Although some in the comments of James’ Instagram photos discuss his potential in news or weather reporting, James seems to be doing alright on the court at the moment. He went on to score 24 points Sunday, helping his team beat the Chicago Bulls 105-93.

James made his first seven shots, one of them a dunk off a bounce pass by Chalmers to give Miami a 46-31 lead midway through the second quarter.

Miami is at Cleveland on Monday, with Wade, Udonis Haslem and Shane Battier not even making the trip. James said he would be a game-time decision Monday, but “leaning toward” not playing against his former team.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(H/T: Yahoo! Sports)

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(Image: Imgur via Reddit)

As the image above shows, what appears to be a fluorescent green liquid is emptying from a drain pipe into a stream. The Redditor going by whatthecaptcha who posted the photo on Imgur and began the thread claimed to see the liquid “coming out of a Citgo plant.”

One commenter deemed it looking “too stereotypically dangerous to actually be dangerous.” Others said the “glow looks a tad bit fake.”

But some identified it as a fluorescent tracer dye. A tracer dye is exactly what we saw coming from of a local Texas hospital in March 2012. Check out this photo below to see the similarities in the dye’s color:

Harmless dye seen coming from a Texas hospital testing for leaks. (Image: WFAA)

The hospital in Dallas last year, according to WFAA, was using the non-toxic dye, which is primarily water-based, to test for plumbing leaks, not realizing the dye would make it into a local creek in the process.

One Redditor going by firstresponder1492, who claimed to be an industrial engineer at a chemical plant, explained what could be going on in the top image further:

The chemical used is most likely Fluorescein which is a synthetic organic compound and has been in use for industrial applications for many years. It is a completely inert substance and dissipates in the environment (think large amounts of food coloring). In fact, one of the common names for it is D&C Yellow #7.

In this case this is coming from a storm and rainwater treatment system. This is part of the bi-annual inspections required by the EPA. One if the things they look for is where runoff actually goes to make sure there are not pollutants in those locations. That way if anything had been spilled on-site they know where the runoff would go. They then test water and soil samples wherever they see the green to ensure full compliance with the vast array of rules, laws and regulations. Bottom line, when you see this you know someone is doing their job.

As for locations, although I am not certain, I would bet 100 Karma points this is at one of the facilities in Louisiana. And just in case anyone is still worried about the environmental impact, note this is the same dye that is used to dye the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s day.

The original poster of the thread confirmed the location of the drain was in Louisiana.

Redditor FiMack, claiming to be an environmental health officer, said they too thought it could be flourescein, which they had used before to evaluate leaks as well.

–

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SGTE-Power CEO, Jean-Pierre Alberici loads a car with a ‘CHAdeMO’ quick charger on a production line on February 19, 2013 at the SGTE-POWER factory in Le Mans, western France. Boasting fifty years of experience in the production of battery chargers, the SGTE-Power company became in 2010 the first European manufacturer to commercialize European Fast chargers called ‘CHAdeMO’ throughout Europe in partnership with car manufacturers and oil companies. (Photo: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP/Getty Images)

At the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam Thursday, Ofer Shezaf, a product manager for security solutions at HP ArcSight, presented on the many things that could go wrong with such charging stations, especially if people ever become more reliant on electric cars.

“Essentially a charging station is a computer on the street,” Shezaf said, according to IDG News Service (via PC World). “And it is not just a computer on the street but it is also a network on the street.”

It is “smart charging,” or connecting charging stations so energy is distributed evenly and no one area becomes overloaded by demand, that could make it easier for hackers to a significant portion of them down.

A charging station in Oregon. (Photo: guynamedjames / Shutterstock.com)

“If someone can prevent charging for everyone in a small area you have a major influence on life. In a larger area it might be a really, really big problem,” IDG News Service reported Shezaf saying. “If somebody finds a way to confuse the smart car charging system, the denial of service can not only hit charging cars, but also the electricity system.”

A couple years ago, Fast Company’s Neil Underleider reported on similar issues that are presented with the future of electric cars:

Unexpected IT issues in the massive support network that enables electric cars to work (think of garages, parking lot recharging stations, cloud-based management apps) will have to be detected and secured. But most interestingly of all, the industry will have to find a method of making sure that recharging transactions are legitimate. What happens when aspiring cyberthieves try to hack into the new tech of electric car recharging stations?

According to Pike Research’s Bob Lockhart, “a malicious attack on the electric vehicle cyber infrastructure could potentially result in brownouts or stranded vehicles, and any failure in smart charging systems could strike a huge blow to utilities as well as consumer confidence in the reliability and viability of electric vehicles as a preferred mode of transportation.”

In addition to a denial of energy services, Shezaf also brought up identity and monetary theft (if the payment system is linked) and privacy (if a person’s information is tied to time of transactions) infringement as possible vulnerabilities. Those using credit cards at traditional gas station pumps have long been warned of the similar potential for identity skimming.

Shezaf admitted that because such charging technology is still in its infancy, he doesn’t think there have been problems yet. But he acknowledged some of the methods being used to connect them for short range communications often lack proper security, and he considers now the time to start putting in safeguards.

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(Image: Yahoo video screenshot)

ThinkSpain reported that the home in the town of San Sebastián de La Gomera has now been blocked off due to the infestation. The nest itself was measured to be 21’9″ long.

(Image: Yahoo video screenshot)

(Image: Yahoo video screenshot)

Officials said they don’t believe native wasps would build a nest so large, leading them to speculate it is an invasive species from Africa.

Watch Yahoo’s Odd News video report about the infestation (via Daily News 24):

(H/T: Gizmodo)

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Docks stand on the dried bed of Lake Colorado City near Colorado City, Texas, in this Aug. 11, 2011 file photo. (Photo: AP/Jae C. Hong)

Last year’s major drought impacting much of the United States was said to be the effects of global warming in action — or at least indicative of what a future of a warming climate would hold. But a new federal study is saying the huge drought was a freak of nature that wasn’t caused by man-made global warming.

Scientists say the lack of moisture usually pushed up from the Gulf of Mexico was the main reason for the drought in the nation’s midsection.

There are those who criticize the study though, saying it didn’t take into account some factors causing the drought, which they believe to be related to climate change.

Thursday’s report by dozens of scientists from five different federal agencies looked into why forecasters didn’t see the drought coming. The researchers concluded that it was so unusual and unpredictable that it couldn’t have been forecast.

“This is one of those events that comes along once every couple hundreds of years,” said lead author Martin Hoerling, a research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Climate change was not a significant part, if any, of the event.”

In this Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012 photo, Debbie Blythe stands in a drying pond on her farm near White City, Kan. Blythe is among thousands of farmers looking for alternative ways to feed their animals this winter after one of the worst droughts in the nation s history dried up grasslands in much of the country. (Photo: AP/Orlin Wagner)

Researchers focused on six states – Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and Iowa – but the drought spread much farther and eventually included nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 states. For the six states, the drought was the worst four-month period for lack of rainfall since records started being kept in 1895, Hoerling said.

He said the jet stream that draws moisture north from the Gulf was stuck unusually north in Canada.

Watch this animation showing NIDIS-US Drought Monitor archived data from November 1, 2011 through to December 25, 2012:

Other scientists have linked recent changes in the jet stream to shrinking Arctic sea ice, but Hoerling and study co-author Richard Seager of Columbia University said those global warming connections are not valid.

Hoerling used computer simulations to see if he could replicate the drought using man-made global warming conditions. He couldn’t. So that means it was a random event, he said.

Using similar methods, Hoerling has been able to attribute increasing droughts in the Mediterranean Sea region to climate change and found that greenhouse gases could be linked to a small portion of the 2011 Texas heat wave.

Another scientist though, blasted the report.

Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federally funded university-run research center, said the report didn’t take into account the lack of snowfall in the Rockies the previous winter and how that affected overall moisture in the air. Nor did the study look at the how global warming exacerbated the high pressure system that kept the jet stream north and the rainfall away, he said.

“This was natural variability exacerbated by global warming,” Trenberth said in an email. “That is true of all such events from the Russian heat wave of 2010, to the drought and heat waves in Australia.”

Hoerling noted that in the past 20 years, the world is seeing more La Ninas, the occasional cooling of the central Pacific Ocean that is the flip side of El Nino. Hoerling said that factor, not part of global warming but part of a natural cycle, increases the chances of such droughts.

Some regions should see more droughts as the world warms because of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, he said. But the six state area isn’t expected to get an increase of droughts from global warming – unlike parts of the Southwest – Hoerling said.

–

Related:

• ‘Clear Statistical Evidence’: 130 Scientists From Iowa Schools Blame Recent Drought on Climate Change
• Federal Climate Change Report Released for Public Comment Declares: Global Warming Already ‘Affecting American People’
• Is Global Warming Past the Point of No Return?
• Climate Scientists: ‘What We’re Seeing …Is a Window Into What Global Warming Really Looks Like’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Science classes like biology would include other real-world applications for the knowledge according to the Next Generation Science Standards. (Image: Shutterstock.com)

For the past two years, 26 states collaborated to develop a new set of voluntary educational standards for science in schools, updating what some consider horribly out of date previous guidelines from 1996.

“The [Next Generation Science Standards] aim to prepare students to be better decision makers about scientific and technical issues and to apply science to their daily lives,” Matt Krehbeil, science education program consultant, of Kansas, said in a statement. “By blending core science knowledge with scientific practices, students are engaged in a more relevant context that deepens their understanding and helps them to build what they need to move forward with their education – whether that’s moving on to a four-year college or moving into post-secondary training.”

Drafting of the Next Generation Science Standards was coordinated by Achieve, a bipartisan non-profit seeking to help states raise education standards. Achieve also helped developed the Common Core State Standards Initiative.  The National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science were involved in phases of the standard’s development process as well.

The K-12 standards have already been getting buzz from those who believe global warming education was missing from schools for years  and “climate deniers” who call it a “victory for progressives and liberals” that “doesn’t reflect correct science.”

Mark McCaffrey, the programs and policy director with the National Science Teachers Association, told TheBlaze their hope is that the standards aren’t “painted as [only] climate change standards” just because climate science and information involving man-made global warming is included.

“[It] cover a wide range of topics,” McCaffrey said. “The new standards are designed to provide young people with scientific understanding and skills.”

A look at the press release about the standards released earlier this week doesn’t even mention climate science being an addition to the standards that was missing from the 1996 recommendations.

Climate science though, MCaffrey said, is one that has “continued to fall through the cracks.”

“Because climate change was not included in national science standards, we’ve lost almost 20 years,” he said. “Now we need to have informed citizens.”

McCaffrey said if climate change education was included earlier, we would be in a “different situation” instead of “paying the price right now.”

When asked about teaching “both sides” of climate change — teaching that there are those who believe the data does not confirm anthropogenic activity is causing global warming — McCaffrey said it is a practice that “shows a false balance.”

NGSS establishes a set of Disciplinary Core Ideas the framers believe students should know by high school graduation. Some of these ideas will include “societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technological knowledge.”

When it comes to climate change and the core idea progression, students learn about weather in younger grades eventually leading up to learning about historical weather patterns and how patterns compose climate. As early as third grade, students would begin learning about how a warming temperature would impact life on Earth.

Once the student is in high school, the NGSS would have them learning about “the role of radiation from the sun and [how] its interactions with the atmosphere, ocean, and land are the foundation for the global climate system.” At this age, information about global climate models predicting future changes in climate, “including changes influenced by human behavior and natural factors,” would be taught as well.

Students will also learn about human impacts on earth systems. Those in grades K-2 will learn about how human actions affect the environment and how “they can make choices to reduce their impacts.” High school students in this category will learn about “sustainability of human societies and [how] the biodiversity that supports them requires responsible management of natural resources, including the development of technologies and regulations.”

The core ideas also include everything from human biology, chemistry and physics to environmental science, evolution and information systems.

Watch this promotional video about the standards:

The framework of the standards want these topics to draw connections between the “interdependence of science, engineering and technology” and how they influence society and the natural world.

“The Next Generation of Science Standards promise to help students understand why is it that we have to know science and help them use scientific learning to develop critical thinking skills-which may be applied throughout their lives, no matter the topic,” Joseph S. Krajcik, professor of science education in the college of education at Michigan State University and a member of the writing team, said in a statement. “Unlike previous standards, where you have separation of inquiry and ideas that students should know, in the NGSS they are now together.”

In the promotional video, Rodger Bybee, executive director of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education, said “the standards …have the power to influence all of the components of the education system.”

McCaffrey told TheBlaze their hope with the NGSS is that it will also help uniform science standards among the states. He called science education across the nation a ” complete hodgepodge” at the moment.

The standards, which were developed with funding from the Carnegie Corporation, now will be considered by states for adoption. They are completely voluntary and states are not obligated to adopt them.

Check out this infographic about the NGSS:

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Chompy was a 400 to 500 pound tiger shark after the same kawakawa tuna Brumaghim was reeling in toward his kayak.

With a camera situated on the front of the kayak filming himself, footage captured the shark leaping out of the water, stunning the fisherman.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

“Holy s***. Oh my God, ,” he exclaimed, shaking the willies from the encounter out of his body.

“Yeah I did get the shivers a bit on it just thinking about the whole thing and the possibility of me actually putting my hands in after my fish. It made me think how foolish that would have been,” Brumaghim, an Aqua Hunter participating in a fishing competition, told Hawaii News Now. He noted that the shark came around under the kayak to nab the fish.

Shaking out some of his adrenaline after the encounter. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Watch Brumaghim’s video posted on his YouTube channel (Content warning: some strong language):

Wayne Samiere, a marine biologist and Honolulu Fish Company president, told the news station Brumaghim had a rare experience and noted the “incredible” look on his face.

“If a fish is distressed it sends out electrical vibration signals, plus if it’s hooked it’s probably also leaking some blood, and all a shark needs is just one little small taste of that signal and it’s going to make a beeline right for that target,” Samiere said. “It would have been an intimidating thing to be around and in the water.”

Watch KTLA’s report with some of Brumaghim’s account:

According to Hawaii News Now, the encounter didn’t deter Brumaghim from staying out a bit longer to catch a couple more fish.

“It definitely was an adrenaline rush for me out there. Life and death right in front of you. It put some things into perspective,” he said.

(H/T: NPR)

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Fracking well in Wyoming. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Earthquakes have been touted as one of the negative effects of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from shale rock. In fact, last year an Ohio tremor was purported to have been caused by fracking activities.

Although some studies claim to find evidence that the process pumping water and chemicals into the rock leads to earthquakes, a recent study is questioning just how likely it is such quakes would even be felt.

The results of a study released Wednesday from Durham University found fracking is “not significant” when it comes to causing earthquakes.

“We have examined not just fracking-related occurrences but all induced earthquakes – that is, those caused by human activity – since 1929. It is worth bearing in mind that other industrial-scale processes can trigger earthquakes including mining, filling reservoirs with water and the production of oil and gas. Even one of our cleanest forms of energy, geothermal, has some form in this respect,” professor Richard Davies with the Durham Energy Institute said in a statement.

“In almost all cases, the seismic events caused by hydraulic fracturing have been undetectable other than by geoscientists. It is also low compared to other manmade triggers. Earthquakes caused by mining can range from a magnitude of 1.6 to 5.6, reservoir-filling from 2.0 to 7.9 and waste disposal from 2.0 to 5.7.”

Fracking activities, Davies said, release an amount of energy that is “equivalent to or even less than someone jumping off a ladder onto the floor.”

This is not to say fracking-related tremors can’t be felt. The press release about the research pointed out three examples, with the “largest ever” occurring in Canada’s Horn River Basin in 2011 with only a magnitude of 3.8. The issue, according to the study, comes when fracking is done near dormant faults that could be reactivated by the activity.

The quakes felt in Ohio last year that were said to have been related to fracking were between 2.7 and 4.0 on the Richter scale. A recent study also looked into the 4.8 and 5.7 magnitude quakes felt in Oklahoma in 2011. This study published in the journal Geology stated that the first quake was caused by fracking water, while the larger quake that occurred the next day was induced by the first earthquake and pre-existing tectonic stress, the Huffington Post reported.

Davies said although it is “extremely unlikely that any of us will ever be able to feel an earthquake caused by fracking,” it “cannot be ruled out completely.”

The researchers hope these findings could encourage the oil and gas industry to learn to avoid fault lines that are already stressed in order to prevent any larger quakes that could actually be felt. Davies also said the number of wells could be an issue to focus on as well.

Watch Davies discuss the results of the review:

–

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• Major Fracking Concerns Lack Scientific Backing: ‘Basically Not Using Science’

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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(Photo: YouTube/NEWSdotin)

When most people think of deer, they probably think of the great outdoors, Bambi, or how irritated they get when the creatures destroy their flowers.  But no matter the annoyance, they probably don’t think of them as violent animals.

But recently, rare video out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota surfaced showing two of the animals engaged in a vicious fight while standing on their hind legs.

It looks a little bit like a parody of a slap fight (and will probably be modified on humor sites along those lines), but KELO-TV reports the fight was quite brutal:

…did you know that deer have a dark side? When bucks don’t have antlers to fight with, they stand straight up on their hind legs and battle with razor sharp hooves.

“What they’re trying to do is establish dominance or hierarchy in the herd. Things have changed over the winter time. Some animals that were dominant might have died, might have gotten hit by a car or shot in the hunt and so they need to be replaced, so the animals are working toward getting those things settled again,” Game, Fish and Parks Wildlife Biologist Julie DeJong said.

DeJong says combat at this time of year doesn’t last as long as antler fights in the fall and that’s why you rarely get to see it.

“These battles are really quick in the spring time. Just a little fist fight there and then they’ll get back to what they were doing,” DeJong said.

And while brawls like this don’t usually result in injuries, this one in the video does. And there’s a dramatic end to this fist fight.

The video already has more than 200,000 views on YouTube, but you’ll have to watch to see the “dramatic end”:

(H/T: GrindTV)

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In a video posted on the Field & Stream website by blogger Tim Romano, an unnamed man spots two keeper-size largemouth bass in the lake. So, what’s weird about this story? One of the bass had actually half-swallowed the other one, even though it was nearly the same size.

(YouTube)

Highly amused, the angler pulled the bass out of the water and into his boat, gently separated the two and let them swim away. The video was uploaded on YouTube on March 21 and has nearly 3,000 views.

“That’s why I had to share this video one of my friends sent me the other day. I’ve seen bass eat some crazy things, like birds, snakes, obviously other fish … but this one has to take the cake,” Romano wrote.

Some YouTube commenters have suggested that the fisherman may have intentionally put one of the bass in the other one’s mouth in order to make a really cool video. But we’d like to believe this cool thing happened naturally.

Watch the video below:

(H/T: GrindTV)

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A member of ExxonMobil’s cleanup crew is reflected in water and oil in a drainage ditch along State Highway 365 in Mayflower, Ark. , Monday, April 1, 2013. (Photo: AP/Courtney Spradlin)

An oil pipeline burst late last week in a suburban Arkansas neighborhood, forcing evacuation of residents. Clean-up continues this week with the physical impacts still being assessed, but a video from a homeowner showing the oil bubbling up from the pipe has gone viral, giving people a glimpse at the situation experienced by people in the area.

The homeowner driving in his car shows on the left-hand side of the road a steady stream of oil flowing from the site that ruptured Friday to a drain at the end of the street.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

“The smell is unbelievable,” he said in the video.

Watch the footage where you can hear the oil coming up:

The ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline leaked in the city of Mayflower 20 miles northwest of Little Rock. About 12,000 barrels of oil and water have been recovered during cleanup in the time since.

A crew member with ExxonMobil washes oil from another crew member’s boots at North Starlight Road in the Northwoods subdivision in Mayflower, Ark. , Monday, April 1, 2013. Other crew members are seen power washing oil from the street near the pipeline that ruptured and dumped several thousands of barrels of oil Friday. (Photo: AP/Courtney Spradlin)

On Monday Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson said a couple of dead ducks and 10 live oily birds have been found.

An oiled duck recovered near the Bell Slough State Wildlife Management Area in Mayflower, Ark. , is rescued Monday, April 1, 2013 and prepared to be taken to HAWK Center, a wildlife rehabilitation group. (Photo: AP/Courtney Spradlin)

Investigators are still working to determine what caused the spill, which led authorities to evacuate nearly two dozen homes in a subdivision.

It’s not clear when residents will be able to return to their homes, but Dodson said it could be within days for some people.

“Our focus is to protect the community,” said Karen Tyrone, vice president of operations for ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. “We have air monitoring going on seven days a week, 24 hours a day … and to date, we have no indication that there’s a health impact on the community.”

A worker starts to clean up the oil that threatened Lake Conway after a crude oil pipeline ruptured Friday afternoon, March 29. (Photo: AP/The Log Cabin Democrat, Angela Spencer)

Here is footage of crews working to clean up areas impacted by the oil’s spread:

The pipeline that ruptured dates back to the 1940s, according to ExxonMobil, and is part of the Pegasus pipeline that carries crude oil from the Midwest to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon spokesman Charlie Engelmann said the oil is conventionally produced Canadian heavy crude.

“Crude oil is crude oil,” Dodson said. “None of it is real good to touch.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

(H/T: Business Insider)

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Scientists published a paper in March with paleotemperature data they believe shows an unnatural “uptick” in the last 100 years. (Image: Marcott et al./Science/AAAS)

In early March, the Associated Press, the New York Times and many other media outlets reported about a new study that claimed to have reviewed the past 11,000 years of global temperatures and deemed the heat wave in the 20th century as unnatural and unlike anything seen prior to this time.

Now though, others who are considered “climate deniers” are saying they have found flaws in the study and are calling its conclusions “groundless.”

The study published in the reputable journal Science in the first week of March led by Shaun Marcott with Oregon State University used marine fossils to reconstruct global temperatures beyond the historical record to the end of the last ice age. What they found was a trend of cooling for thousands of years interrupted by an abrupt shift toward warming in recent history.

“In 100 years, we’ve gone from the cold end of the spectrum to the warm end of the spectrum,” Marcott said, according to the Associated Press. “We’ve never seen something this rapid. Even in the ice age the global temperature never changed this quickly.”

Here’s more from the Associated Press report of the study when it was released last month:

Marcott’s data indicates that it took 4,000 years for the world to warm about 1.25 degrees from the end of the ice age to about 7,000 years ago. The same fossil-based data suggest a similar level of warming occurring in just one generation: from the 1920s to the 1940s. Actual thermometer records don’t show the rise from the 1920s to the 1940s was quite that big and Marcott said for such recent time periods it is better to use actual thermometer readings than his proxies.

Before this study, continuous temperature record reconstruction only went back about 2,000 years. The temperature trend produces a line shaped like a “hockey stick” with a sudden spike after what had been a fairly steady line. That data came from tree rings, ice cores and lake sediments.

[...]

Marcott’s research finds the climate had been gently warming out of the ice age with a slow cooling that started about 6,000 years ago.

Then the cooling reversed with a vengeance.

The study shows the recent heat spike “has no precedent as far back as we can go with any confidence, 11,000 years arguably,” said Pennsylvania State University professor Michael Mann, who wrote the original hockey stick study but wasn’t part of this research. He said scientists may have to go back 125,000 years to find warmer temperatures potentially rivaling today’s.

However, another outside scientist, Jeff Severinghaus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography thinks temperatures may have changed even more dramatically 12,000 years ago, at least in Greenland, based on research by some of his colleagues.

Ross McKitrick on April 1 published an opinion piece in the Financial Post (via Watt’s Up With That) called “We’re not screwed?” countering the research in the study. McKitrick, it should be noted, is not a climate scientist but is an economics professor at the University of Guelph.

McKitrick wrote that the researchers “quietly admitted over the weekend, their new and stunning claim is groundless.”

Calling up what was noticed earlier by Steven McIntyre, a Canadian mathematician who maintains what would also be considered a “climate denier” blog Climate Audit, McKitrick pointed out what they believe are flaws in the Marcott et al. methodology.

The analysis of temperatures was based on 73 proxies established by other research prior to the study. Thirty-one of these proxies were established by dating an organic compound produced by microorganisms that have properties that will correlate to the temperature at the time. The problem is though, according to McIntyre and McKitrick, is that Marcott et al. dated the cores of the organic compounds at an area subject to more variability. The original research for the proxies, McKitrick wrote, stated that core tops varied in age and are more likely to be disturbed in the drilling process. McKitrick said taking measurements further down the core could yield more reliable measurements.

“Had Marcott et al. used the end dates as calculated by the specialists who compiled the original data, there would have been no 20th-century uptick in their graph, as indeed was the case in Marcott’s PhD thesis,” McKitrick wrote. “But Marcott et al. redated a number of core tops, changing the mix of proxies that contribute to the closing value, and this created the uptick at the end of their graph.”

With McIntyre and others pointing out that this was disclosed in the research, Marcott et al. published an FAQ on Real Climate for clarification over this past weekend. Here’s what they wrote about the temperature uptick (emphasis added):

Our global paleotemperature reconstruction includes a so-called “uptick” in temperatures during the 20^th-century. However, in the paper we make the point that this particular feature is of shorter duration than the inherent smoothing in our statistical averaging procedure, and that it is based on only a few available paleo-reconstructions of the type we used. Thus, the 20^th century portion of our paleotemperature stack is not statistically robust, cannot be considered representative of global temperature changes, and therefore is not the basis of any of our conclusions. Our primary conclusions are based on a comparison of the longer term paleotemperature changes from our reconstruction with the well-documented temperature changes that have occurred over the last century, as documented by the instrumental record. Although not part of our study, high-resolution paleoclimate data from the past ~130 years have been compiled from various geological archives, and confirm the general features of warming trend over this time interval (Anderson, D.M. et al., 2013, Geophysical Research Letters, v. 40, p. 189-193; http://www.agu.org/journals/pip/gl/2012GL054271-pip.pdf).

Real Climate, which published the full FAQ, wrote that it considers the accusations against the study “from the usual suspects” “characteristically misleading.”

“Our view is that the results of the paper will stand the test of time, particularly regarding the small global temperature variations in the Holocene. If anything, early Holocene warmth might be overestimated in this study,” Real Climate wrote.

Think Progress too wrote that “ disinformer blogs” attacking the proxy flaws they believe to identify in the study is “anti-scientific” because the uptick in temperatures within the last 100 years mentioned in the study “just happens to match the uptick in the heavily documented and independently verified instrumental record.”

McIntyre wrote though that using this logic shouldn’t fly. Here’s why:

The modern record is sampled continuously and as a result is able to register short-term trends and variability. The proxy model, by the authors’ own admission, is heavily smoothed and does not pick up fluctuations below a time scale of several centuries.

Overall, McIntyre wrote that he believes recent, high-profile climate studies have shown that some scientists “rely on unseemly tricks, fudges or misleading analysis.” He continued saying when these things are exposed, people calling them out are labeled “deniers.”

“There’s denialism going on all right — on the part of scientists who don’t see that their continuing defence of these kinds of practices exacts a toll on the public credibility of their field,” McIntyre writes, ending his post.

Read McIntyre’s full analysis in his opinion piece here.

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The Independent Oil & Gas Association, an industry group that supports gas drilling, filed the complaint Tuesday with the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The complaint is based on an AP story that found that Artists Against Fracking and its members, including Ono, her son Sean Lennon, actors Mark Ruffalo and Robert De Niro and others, aren’t registered as lobbyists and therefore didn’t disclose their spending in opposition to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to remove gas from underground deposits.

Actor Mark Ruffalo, professor of engineering at Cornell University, Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, and Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono speak at the Artists Against Fracking Coaltion Event at Paley Center For Media on August 29, 2012 in New York City. (Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

“The public has been unable to learn how much money is being spent on this effort, what it is being spent on, and who is funding the effort,” said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York. “I understand the power of celebrity that this organization has brought to the public discussion over natural gas development, but I do not understand why this organization is not being required to follow the state’s lobbying law.”

The group confirmed it filed the complaint but didn’t comment further.

Artists Against Fracking, formed by Ono and Lennon, says its activities are protected as free speech. The group was created last year amid the Cuomo administration’s review to determine whether to allow hydraulic fracturing to remove gas from vast underground shale formations in southern and central New York.

In this file photo of Jan. 17, 2013, Yoko Ono, left, and her son Sean Lennon visit a fracking site in Franklin Forks, Pa., during a bus tour of natural-gas drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania. Ono and Lennon have formed a group called Artists Against Fracking, which has become the main celebrity driven anti-fracking organization. (Photo: AP/Richard Drew, File)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues his review as public opinion has shifted from initial support based on the promise of jobs and tax revenue from drilling in economically depressed upstate New York to mixed feelings because of concerns over potential environmental and health effects.

Seven months after Artists Against Fracking was formed, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute on March 20 found that New York voters were for the first time opposed to fracking, 46 percent to 39 percent.

“There’s no doubt the celebrities had an effect,” Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said. “As far as I can tell, they made all the difference.”

“Gasland” documentary Director Josh Fox attends the launch of Artists Against Fracking, an activist partnership project opposed to hydraulic fracking, at a press conference in New York, August 29, 2012. Artists Against Fracking is a new coalition of artists, musicians, filmmakers and public figures opposed to hydraulic fracking, which includes 146 members including Yoko, Ono, Sean Lenbnon, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Salman Rushdie, Ringo Starr, David Bryne, Alec Baldwin, Marina Abramovic, Kronos Quartet, Cindy Sherman, MGMT, Wilco, Bonnie Raitt, Liv Tyler, Mario Batali, Roberta Flack, Mark Ruffalo, Uma Thurman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and many others. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GettyImages)

A spokesman for Artists Against Fracking said the group and its individual members don’t have to register as lobbyists.

“As private citizens, Yoko and Sean are not required to register as lobbyists when they use their own money to express an opinion and there’s also no lobbying requirement when you are engaged in a public comment period by a state agency,” spokesman David Fenton said.

“If the situation changes then, of course, Artists Against Fracking will consider registering,” Fenton said. “Up to now, there has been no violation because they are entitled to do this as private citizens with their own money.”

On its website, the group implores readers: “Tell Governor Cuomo: Don’t Frack New York.” Celebrities supporting the group have led rallies and performed in the song “Don’t Frack My Mother,” also carried on the Internet. Take a listen to the song:

Ethics commission spokesman John Milgrim didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. By law, the commission doesn’t confirm or deny pending investigations.

New York’s former lobbying regulator, attorney David Grandeau, said he believed the group and the supporting artists, including musicians Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga and actress Anne Hathaway, should be registered and required to disclose details on their efforts to spur public opposition to gas drilling.

“When you are advocating for the passage or defeat of legislation or proposed legislation and spend more than $5,000, you are required to register,” Grandeau said Friday. “Just because you are a celebrity doesn’t mean that lobbing laws don’t apply to you. Your celebrity status does not protect you in Albany.”

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and developer Donald Trump are among the high-profile figures who clashed with the commission when Grandeau was regulator. The biggest penalty for failure to follow the lobbying law resulted in a $250,000 fine against Trump and others over casinos in 2000.

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(Image: Wikimedia)

Some have called the latest G.I. Joe flick “pretty bad” but “not completely horrible” – yet still “terrible” — for its plotline and script. But a liberal blog has an idea of people who might like it — conservatives or, more specifically as they put it, the “paranoid wingnut.”

As Asawin Suebsaeng wrote on the liberal-leaning website Mother Jones, “G.I. Joe Retaliation” is “the anti-Obama Conservative’s fantasy.”

What does Suebsaeng see in the sequel to “G.I. Joe: the Rise of the Cobra” that puts it in the category of “political trolling”?

The U.S. president in the movie, a Democrat, is a person foreign-born, who lies about it, and who also uses drones against American citizens, among other features. Without saying it, Suebsaeng seems to be alluding that this person is representative of real-life President Barack Obama whose place of birth has been questioned by some and who has come under recent criticism for his position on drone use over U.S. soil against citizens.

The U.K.’s Metro news in its review too notes there are times when it “seems like a bizarre riff on Obama voters disappointed with their president’s drone strike policy.”

Here are more examples Suebsaeng calls out as “trolling” in the film:

In one scene, a female G.I. Joe soldier crashes a White House gala, wearing a tight red dress and impersonating a Fox News reporter; the imposter president then quips that her media affiliation explains why her body looks so “fair and balanced.” In one scene, a villain gleefully discusses torturing people, and says, “You know…they call it waterboarding—but I never get bored,” which I can only assume is an homage to “I got soul, but I’m not a soldier,” “I got ham, but I’m not a hamster,” and “They call ‘em fingers, but I never see them fing.” Democratic political strategist James Carville has a speaking role in this film, which has to qualify as trolling of some kind. And the movie casually explodes London, taking with it centuries of culture, architecture, and over eight million souls; the death and destruction isn’t mentioned even once after it happens, and nobody sheds a tear for London.

The hero in the story, an Army vet played by Bruce Willis, Suebsaeng points out is also a weapons hoarder.

The Washington Times reviewer for the film, Danny de Gracia, on the other hand, called the new G.I. Joe “explosive fun.” Gracia wrote that G.I. Joe has “always been a caricatured, tongue-in-cheek hyperbole of U.S. nationalism, its pop culture PSA-rife patriotism of ‘A Real American Hero’ fighting the terrorist organization Cobra…”

Unlike the initial film, Gracia wrote “Retaliation” is “an enjoyable romp that fully redeems the G.I. Joe franchise.”

Here’s a look at the film’s trailer:

In other news for the flick that came out Friday in theaters, it was banned in Pakistan for negativly portraying the country, Pakistan’s Express Tribune reported censor officials saying. “G.I. Joe Retaliation” has terrorists from the country in possession of stolen nuclear warheads, among other scenes painting the country in a negative light.

“There is a scene which shows the assassination of the Pakistani president and the imposition of martial law, which is not a fair representation of the country,” the Express Tribune reported Iftikhar Durrani, the adviser on national regulation and services, saying.

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(Photo: KHOU11)

A Houston woman woke up Saturday morning to find an estimated 8,000 honey bees swarming around her pick-up truck, according to KHOU 11 News.  Almost over night, it seems, they had built a massive hive under one of her tires.

Unsure of what to do, Gwen Gayden made some calls and stayed away from her car in the intervening days.

“I was afraid that the bees would attack and also, we have lots of kids in the neighborhood,” she said. “I’m afraid to even open that door!”

KHOU 11 called “the pest guru” Michael Sexton for advice, but he offered to come solve the problem himself.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” he warned, adding: “It takes 500 bees to equal the venom of a rattlesnake bite.”

(Photo: KHOU 11)

KHOU 11 continues:

[Sexton] said the maroon color of Gayden’s pickup truck is a magnet for insects.

“If she would’ve drove off, it would’ve disturbed those bees,” explained Sexton.

Sexton geared up and moved in to round the bees up in a cardboard box.

“Once you start messing with them, they can start swarming,” he said, beginning to put the bees in the box.

Sexton gently scraped as many as he could into the box. He was able keep much of the swarm intact with their queen. A number of other bees dispersed into the air.

Gayden was extremely appreciative, adding: “I’m just happy they’re gone.”

Here’s more on the story, via KHOU 11:

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