All Posts Tagged as 'Terraforming'
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Rattlesnakes everywhere: the odd consequences of California’s drought
Rattlesnakes are everywhere these days, he says – on front porches, in potted plants, and under children’s play equipment. “I am busier than I have ever been. Complaints are coming in from all over the state.”
Rattlesnakes everywhere: the odd consequences of California’s drought
‘It’s like hunting aliens’
Used Condoms in Gay Cruising Areas Are Killing Giant Lizards
Hong Kong declares wild boars fair game
Man 'who had sex with goat' goes on trial and faces 20 years in jail
Crocodile bites man who thought he was plastic
Three-month-old puppy was shot and beheaded
Boy, four, has his entire right arm ripped off by grandmother's 'pit bull
Monkeys Go On Killing Spree By Dropping Pups From Trees
LEOPARD scales a 10ft gate and snatches a helpless dog
This is what happens to all the rats when cities flood
The New York City health department knows some rats drown when there is severe flooding, but as the city doesn't take rat censuses, there is no data on how many, spokesperson Michael Lanza said. The department uses complaints of rat sightings and inspection reports to track rodent activity. So far, reports have not increased since Ida passed through. The same is true in Philadelphia, which was also ravaged by rain, according to health department officials there.
This is what happens to all the rats
‘Ankle Biter’ Mosquito Population On The Rise In Orange County
THE RAT PACK
Southern California travelers warned not to transport backyard citrus fruit
The transport of backyard oranges, lemons, grapefruits and kumquats is illegal in most of Southern California, which is under a citrus fruit and plant quarantine. That’s because movement of fruit, citrus trees and even seeds can unknowingly spread a pest that can infect healthy citrus trees with a deadly plant disease that has no cure.
“Any citrus grown in your yard should not be moved,” explained Victoria Hornbaker, director of the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Division at the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “You can share them locally with neighbors.”
By locally, she means within your neighborhood. And if you do share fruit with neighbors, make sure you strip off all the leaves and wash the fruit thoroughly before moving it from your property, to remove any trace of the ACP or leaves infected with HLB.
Southern California travelers warned
Trees to Avoid Having in Your Yard
Rain is about to set off the 'tick time bomb' in California
Black bear attacks couple and their dog
The man and woman, who live locally, were having a picnic on a grassy hill when they were alerted by their dog's barking that a bear was nearby, said Leesa Brandon, parkway spokesperson.
The dog, which was not on a leash, ran toward the bear while barking loudly.
Black bear attacks couple and their dog
Mountain gorilla dies cradled in the arms of man who rescued her
Texas boy, 10, dies in 'freak accident' at rodeo
Kangaroos take over city centre
Leprosy is discovered in wild CHIMPANZEES for the first time
Camera Caught Man's Illicit Horseplay
Terrifying moment 'jealous' brown bear mauls pregnant circus performer
Fish and Wildlife staff remove mountain lion seen prowling in Palm Springs
New York City is struck by an outbreak of a rare disease caused by bacteria found in RAT URINE
Cat tests positive for coronavirus in Michigan
Streetlights are making caterpillars grow up faster—and that’s a bad thing
To gather caterpillars from hedges, “you basically stick drain piping or any kind of open surface under the hedge, and then you basically whack the hedge with a stick five times. Which causes all of the caterpillars to fall out of the hedge and into your receptacles. So that was quite fun.”
In the grass, it’s a bit easier. “The caterpillars spend the day at the base of these grasses, and climb up the stems at night. So you just go along with a sweep net and just sweep through the vegetation.”
The differences were stark: lighted hedges contained just half the caterpillars of their dark counterparts. Grass had one third fewer.
Streetlights are making caterpillars grow
Sick of Mosquitoes?
Investigators are considering whether toxic algae blooms or other hazards may have contributed to the deaths of a Northern California couple, their baby and the family dog on a remote hiking trail, authorities said.
The area in the Sierra National Forest where the bodies were found on Tuesday had been treated as a hazmat site after concerns were raised about the deaths being linked to potentially toxic gases from old mines nearby.
Toxic algae blooms
GM recalls all Chevy Bolts over battery fires
CDC recommends certain travelers avoid cruise ships, even if fully vaccinated
Alarming study finds link between dog foods and heart disease
Conducted by researchers with Tufts University, the study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, compared the compounds in dog foods the Food and Drug Administration has flagged as being linked to canine dilated cardiomyopathy with those from standard dog foods.
Canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a disease of the heart muscle that results in the heart muscle growing larger while its contractions, or heart beats, grow weaker, which can cause heart failure or even death.
Among the compounds examined by the researchers and identified as possible links causing the ailment are compounds found in peas and potatoes.
Alarming study finds link between dog foods and heart disease
Kathy Griffin is enthusiastically greeted by her four dogs
Woman is mauled to death by tiger at safari park
Bull reportedly rammed to death by car after ring escape in Spain
Parents ‘tortured’ by death of baby after magpie swooped in Brisbane park
Ohio Woman Arrested After Leaving Dog in Hot Car Allegedly as a Punishment
Indonesia says ‘Jurassic Park’ project on track despite UNESCO warnings
Video: Black bear captured after visiting California supermarket
Toddler aged 19 months is mauled to death by family Rottweiler
Shocking footage shows a teenage girl forcing a QUOKKA to inhale an e-cigarette
Target pulling products allegedly made with forced monkey labor
Target will no longer sell coconut milk made by the Thai company Chaokoh after an investigation alleged the drink is tied to forced monkey labor, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced Monday.
“By dropping Chaokoh, Target is joining thousands of stores that refuse to profit from chained monkeys’ misery,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman wrote in a statement.
Target pulling products allegedly made with forced monkey labor
Incredible moment a pod of dolphins swim up to eager beachgoers trying to get a glimpse on their lockdown walks
'Wage war on overpopulation'
Dog Food Recalled Over Mold Concerns
Climate change is forcing sharks north
Durham police fatally shoot dog ‘latched on’ to a woman in latest Triangle dog attack
Girl, 12, is attacked by a shark in knee-high water on Maryland beach
Florida veterinarian, 40, pleads guilty to sexually abusing dogs in his care
Pa. Woman Mauled to Death While Breaking up Fight Between Dogs She Was Watching
5-Year-Old Had to Get Stitches After Police Dog Bit Him in the Face
Is There Such a Thing as Eco-Friendly Jewelry?
Good question. Any industrial jewelry mining can have numerous harmful negative impacts on the environment, ranging from erosion of the land, to leakage of harmful chemicals into the water supply, to the alteration of an entire ecosystem. And let’s not forget about the carbon footprint of the heavy machinery that’s used in the process. So yes, there most definitely is such a thing as eco-friendly jewelry — that is, any jewelry that was mined with the least possible negative impact on the environment, or not mined at all.
Is There Such a Thing as Eco-Friendly Jewelry?
Running shoes leave large carbon footprint, study shows
THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT WHERE HAIR EXTENSIONS COME FROM
The environmental impact of cut flowers? Not so rosy
How Green Is Your Swimming Pool?
Rich People Are Bad For The Planet Studies Show
Blame the 'PA-TREE-ARCHY'!
Bella Hadid covers breasts with stunning golden lungs necklace by Schiaparelli
Millions of Shellfish Boiled Alive Due to Pacific Northwest Heat Wave, Harming Ecosystem and Businesses
The big-hipped and chunky-thighed live longer than the pot-bellied
Hip hip hooray!
People with chunky thighs or large hips are less likely to die early compared to those with bigger bellies, a new study suggests.
The study, published this week in the medical journal BMJ, says that central fatness or fat stored around the abdomen is associated with a higher risk of early death from any cause — regardless of overall body fat – while larger hips and thighs are associated with a lower risk.
The big-hipped and chunky-thighed live longer than the pot-bellied
This Parasitic Worm Is Thriving in Nature, but May Affect Your Sushi Dinner

For parasitic worms of the genus Anisakis, life typically goes like this: after floating through the ocean in an egg, they hatch as wriggling larvae with a peculiar desire—to be eaten. Small crustaceans like krill gobble up the larvae, and those infested krill are then eaten by squid or small fish, which are devoured by bigger fish until they finally earn their nickname, whale worms, and end up in the bellies of whales or dolphins where they complete their life cycle by laying eggs that are subsequently ejected in the hosts’ feces.
But sometimes, those big fish full of the worms—like salmon or herring—get intercepted by fishers and end up in markets. Although fish suppliers and sushi chefs diligently remove parasite-infected fish from their wares, occasionally one of those little buggers may wind up in your sushi roll.
Now, new research finds the global population of those parasitic worms, commonly found in sushi and other kinds of uncooked fish, has exploded in recent decades. The worms are 283-times more common than they were roughly 40 years ago, according to a new paper published in Global Change Biology.
Smithsonian Magazine
Masculinity Is Dead. Long Live Masculinity.
The reality is that masculinity is changing. As it often has. Men have routinely adapted to the culture and times around them. American manhood has been idealized – or feared – in a variety of ways over the last half century. Here’s a short list:
The Organization Man of the 1950s, who followed the rules and helped build the grand structures we now know as corporations.
His children, the “delinquents,” the scourge of the 50s and early 60s. They chafed under his rules and were epitomized in West Side Story (especially the Jets) and the career of James Dean.
The Sensitive New Age Guy of the 1970s, who explored his feelings, his sexuality, and pretty much anything else he could think of.
The macho guys of the 1980s, epitomized by a new generation of action films starring guys named Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Reagan’s bluster and one-day wars also fit the bill.
The 1990s saw another set of rebels, this time via the Grunge movement. They certainly didn’t look clean and their drugs were a lot harder.
There’s no particular rhyme or reason as to why these particular images of masculinity made it to the top of the heap, nor is there any meaningful way to draw a straight evolutionary line through all of them. The Organization Man doesn’t logically precede or contribute to the macho guys, while the delinquents and the grunge-rs don’t seem terribly different from each other.
Good Men Project
'Ghost' DNA In West Africans Complicates Story Of Human Origins
About 50,000 years ago, ancient humans in what is now West Africa apparently procreated with another group of ancient humans that scientists didn't know existed.
There aren't any bones or ancient DNA to prove that theory, but researchers say the evidence is in the genes of modern West Africans. They analyzed genetic material from hundreds of people from Nigeria and Sierra Leone and found signals of what they call "ghost" DNA from an unknown ancestor.
Our own species — Homo sapiens — lived alongside other groups that split off from the same genetic family tree at different times. And there's plenty of evidence from other parts of the world that early humans had sex with other hominins, like Neanderthals.
That's why Neanderthal genes are present in humans today, in people of European and Asian descent. Homo sapiens also mated with another group, the Denisovans, and those genes are found in people from Oceania.
npr
From snake oil to science: I peddled 'clean' eating, wellness — until I learned the facts

Marketing that organic food is cleaner is all around us. Just take a look at the campaign “Skip the Chemicals.” It encourages consumers to fear the scary-sounding names of chemicals and adopt a better-safe-than-sorry attitude toward their food. Ultimately, though, it steers consumers toward more costly organic foods, although there is no evidence that organic foods are more nutritious.
The “Dirty Dozen” list is another marketing ploy. Not only did I have this list stuck to my fridge at home, I also encouraged my clients to download and share it. Using pesticide residue data from the USDA, it ranks food by the levels of detected pesticides to generate a list of the top 12 fruits and vegetables consumers should avoid in their conventional versions.
Take strawberries, which topped the list in 2018. The USDA published test results on tens of thousands of nonorganic fruit and vegetable samples across the country. Most of the samples of strawberries showed residues of at least one kind of pesticide and, in one sample of strawberries, 22 different pesticide residues were detected — but that doesn’t mean the pack of strawberries you buy at the grocery store will have 22 pesticides.
USA Today
ARE YOUR PALM TREES HARBORING ROOF RATS?
There’s something inherently relaxing and beautiful about watching palms sway in the warm breeze. Palm trees grow well in Louisiana’s warm, humid climate as well, making them a seemingly perfect addition to your landscape.
Of course, humans aren’t the only ones with an eye for palm trees – other creatures love them too, but not necessarily for their aesthetics.
Roof rats, also known as fruit rats, love palms as a place to live. It’s possible that your lovely palm trees are actually harboring roof rats, and might really be encouraging vermin to invade your home.
What Are Roof Rats?
Call them what you want, roof rats, fruit rats, black rats, it all boils down to the same thing. These are the same rats that spread bubonic plague and fleas. They’ve been with humans for eons, and throughout that time, they’ve been less than ideal houseguests. Rats spread far more diseases than the frightening Black Death, though. Others include murine typhus, salmonella, rat-bite fever and leptospirosis to name only a few.
Where Do They Live?
Roof rats actually prefer to live in trees, particularly in palm trees...
Fischer Environmental