6.9 Magnitude Earthquake In Japan Plus Movement Around Globe

M	Location Click event below for details	Time UTC	Lat	Lon	D km
6.0	68km WSW of Lata, Solomon Islands	2013-02-02 18:58:06	10.922°S	165.246°E	7.5
6.9	15km SW of Obihiro, Japan	2013-02-02 14:17:34	42.812°N	143.078°E	103.1
6.4	67km SW of Lata, Solomon Islands	2013-02-01 22:18:35	11.063°S	165.326°E	22.0
6.3	47km WSW of Lata, Solomon Islands	2013-02-01 22:16:36	10.926°S	165.450°E	19.9
6.0	52km SW of Lata, Solomon Islands	2013-02-01 05:36:40	11.090°S	165.538°E	9.3
6.0	101km W of Craig, Alaska	2013-01-31 09:53:43	55.584°N	134.745°W	9.7
6.2	60km E of Lata, Solomon Islands	2013-01-31 03:33:43	10.628°S	166.382°E	9.2
6.0	74km ENE of Lata, Solomon Islands	2013-01-30 23:03:45	10.518°S	166.486°E	10.0
6.8	43km N of Vallenar, Chile	2013-01-30 20:15:42	28.180°S	70.784°W	42.7
6.0	61km SE of Kegen, Kazakhstan	2013-01-28 16:38:53	42.598°N	79.699°E	15.0

Source: USGS

Warning: Bacteria With Superbug Gene

Scientists issue urgent world-wide warning on bacteria with superbug gene

Friday, April 08, 2011 by: S. L. Baker, features writer

scientists calling for the "urgent need for global action". This time, it's worrisome news about a gene that turns bacteria into not just superbugs -- but SUPER superbugs.

Bottom line:this gene (dubbed the New Delhi metallo-s-lactamase 1 gene, NDM-1, for short) enables bacteria to resist virtually any and perhaps all antibiotics.

These multidrug-resistantbacteriahave been found in publicwatersupplies and urban effluent in New Delhi. But this isn't a problem limited toIndia. While researchers writing in the latest issue of the journalLancetsay the findings in India pose the worrisome possibility that NDM-1 is widespread in the environment of that country, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned the bacteria could be spreading to other parts of the planet.

Mohd Shahid from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India, warns in an accompanying article that the potential for the global spread of bacteria with the super dangerous NDM-1 gene ".. is real and should not be ignored...coordinated, concrete, and collective efforts are needed, initially to limit their widespread dissemination, and finally to combat this emerging threatening resistance problem."

For the new study, Timothy Walsh from Cardiff University in the UK and hisresearchteam, in collaboration with reporters from Channel 4 television, investigated how common NDM-1-producing bacteria are in community waste seepage (water pools in streets or rivulets) and public tap water in urban New Delhi. Using a variety of sophisticated tests, including DNA probing, the researchers checked for the presence of the NDM-1 gene in bacteria found in the water samples.

The results? The NDM-1 gene was found in 2 of the 50 drinking-water samples and 51 of 171 seepage samples. NDM-1 positive bacteria were grown from 2 drinking-water samples and 12 seepage samples. And there was a surprise -- the gene was found in 20 bacterial isolates comprising 14 different species,including 11 species in which NDM-1 has not been previously reported.What's more, the researchers reported in a media statement that it is particularly worrisome that the superbug-causing gene has spread to extremely pathogenic species of bacteria, including Shigella boydii and Vibrio cholerae, which cause dysentery and cholera, respectively.

That means bacteria that can already make people extremely sick and even kill are now turning up with a gene that makes those disease-causing germs even more dangerous because it makes them "bullet proof" from antibiotics.

The new superbug-with-a-super-gene problem is centered in India at the moment. The situation is largely blamed on a lack of sanitation -- 650 million people or more in India don't have access to clean water, according to the researchers' media statement. Moreover, it turns out that the rate at which the NDM-1 gene is copied and transferred between different bacteria is highest at 30°C and that falls within the daily range of temperatures in New Delhi for 7 months of the year from April to October.


Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/032004_superbug_bacteria.html#ixzz1J3RerWux

Is Your Net Being Censored?

Threats to Internet Freedom

Threats to Free Speech on the Net: Censorship and Copyright Law

Despite the universally recognized benefits of the Internet revolution by academics and millions of Internet users everywhere, some special interests seek to undermine the core feature that has made the Internet so successful: its freedom.

There are two main threats to freedom of speech on the Internet today. The first threat to free speech on the Internet is website filtering and censorship by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Many Americans are unaware that Internet censorship is currently practiced in the United States. It’s true: the Associated Press recently caught Comcast secretly using Web filtering technologies similar to those used in China to censor the Internet.

The second threat to free speech on the Internet is oppressive copyright law enforcement by media conglomerates like Viacomand Warner Brothers. The old-fashioned, literal interpretation of copyright law in a digital age is threatening to stifle the creativity of our generation by criminalizing our creative social behavior. Some awesome Stanford University professors have played a crucial role in the fight to defend free speech on the Internet. Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society has led the fight to preserve freedom on the Internet. Professor Lessig’s work to establishCreative Commons, a groundbreaking non-profit organization “devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally” has been one of his greatest successes.

read more here http://www.censorshipwatch.net/2011/01/threats-to-internet-freedom.html

Dead Fish...Lapu-Lapu

FISHKILL IN LAPU-LAPU

Residents gather, eat dead fish floating in barangay Ibo

By Jucell Marie Cuyos, Doris C. Bongcac
Cebu Daily NewsFirst Posted 09:08:00 12/18/2010Filed Under: Fishing Industry, Agriculture, Disasters (general)

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Maribel Mori asked her teenage son to fetch water yesterday morning.

Michael John came back with a pail of fish locally known as “potpot.”

He and other residents had collected the fish, which were floating dead along the coastal waters of barangay Ibo, in Lapu-Lapu City.

A few hours after eating the fish, which was cooked with vinegar as inun-onan for breakfast, Maribel was at the barangay health center complaining of nausea, vomiting and headache.

She told health workers she started to feel sick after eating the fish.

“Murag nang hugot akong panit unya ni init akong nawng (It felt like my skin tightened and my face burned),” said Mori.

Health and fishery officials yesterday started looking into the origin and cause of the fishkill in barangay Ibo, where thousands of fish have turned up dead.

Pollution is the most common cause of a fishkill.

But Dr. Rodulfo Berame, chief of the City health Department, said it could also be a result of the seasonal low tide in December.

He warned Ibo residents not to eat the dead fish or sell it pending results of a laboratory examination.

Samples of the seawater and fish were gathered by city health personnel yesterday. Results will be known after three to four days.

Health workers will check the quality of the seawater for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and its biological oxygen demand (BOD).

Dr. Berame said that if the fishes were killed by pollution or chemicals, many other residents would have gotten sick.

Some residents told radio dyAB pointed to the wastewater from two companies at the Mactan Export Processing Zone as a possible source of pollution.

Company representatives were supposed to hold a dialogue with barangay residents yesterday but asked barangay captain Cahilog to postpone it to next week because their Christmas parties were scheduled yesterday afternoon.

Resident Cynthia Honda said she thought the fish was an early Christmas presence.

“Panagsa ra kaayo ni ang grasia ihatag sa amo kay kada December ra jud ni siya mahitabo. Sympre grasia nani mao amoa lang gipahimuslan (It is rare that such blessing will come to us because this only happens every December. Of course, we will take advantage of this blessing),” she told CEBU DAILY NEWS.

She joined her neighbor in collecting the floating fish about 5 a.m. yesterday.

She wasn’t bothered by the warning that eating the fish was a health risk.

Honda, a mother of three children, said she would leave their fate to God.

Honda said she cooked the fish as inun-onan but didn't get sick after eating it. She had two kilos of fishes also processed into dried fish.

Lapu-Lapu City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez ordered the City Health Department to investigate the matter.

“What happened was part of the cycle if there was a low tide. Ang mga isda kay buhi paman gani pag kuha sa ubang residenti (Some of the fishes were still alive when these were gathered by the residents),” said Dr. Berame, health department chief.

He said islets in Lapu-Lapu also had reports of fishkills during low tide.

During low tide, he explained, there is low supply of oxygen in the water, causing the fishes to weaken or die.

“We are asking residents not to eat the fish because we don't know yet what killed them,” said barangay captain Ferdinand Cahilog

He said he ordered the confiscation of dead fish gathered by residents .

Cahilog said he suspects water pollution or contamination was a cause.

Allan Poquita, assistant regional director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), sent personnel to investigate what caused the fish kill.

“We just learned about the fish kill so we cannot yet determine what caused it,” he said.

Until the cause is known, Poquita asked Ibo residents to refrain from collecting and eating the dead fish.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20101218-309667/Residents-gather-eat-dead-fish-floating-in-barangay-Ibo

Dead Penguins.

Weather patterns lead to mass bird deaths

NZPA

Last updated 14:46 23/12/2010

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Thousands of seabirds are expected to die this summer as a result of unusual La Nina weather patterns.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) said penguins, petrels and other seabirds were already dying in large numbers and the summer weather was likely to cause the deaths of thousands of birds.

The La Nina weather pattern led to a reduction in fish stocks on which they fed, DOC vet Kate McInnes said.

Dead penguins had been washing up on northern beaches for several weeks and autopsies had shown they starved to death.

"Its not just penguins. All seabirds are struggling to feed their chicks or get into breeding condition as a result of the La Nina climate pattern," she said.

"It's sad but it's a natural event. It all points to a lack of small fish on which all these species depend to raise their chicks."

Grey-faced petrels, sooty shearwaters and gannets have all been affected.

Ms McInnes said the La Nina weather event was the biggest event of its type since 1975 and characterised by stationary anticyclones east of New Zealand bringing calmer weather in spring.

She said the calm seas reduced the feed for fish which went elsewhere, reducing the fish and food stocks for the birds.

Although many seabirds would die, they had excellent breeding last summer and population levels would cope.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/4490315/Weather-patterns-lead-to-mass-bird-deaths

Global Animal Deaths Update...

Over 30 cases of mass animal deaths around the world have armchair pundit in hysterics

Calcutta News.Net
Saturday 8th January, 2011

Mass animal deaths around the world have become an issue of great concern and debate on the Web, but experts are keen to play down the Armageddon-like theories of many and find rational explanations. 

The news reports that have proliferated in recent weeks have put conspiracy theorists and catastrophe enthusiasts on high alert. 

Inndeed the reports are both baffling and concerning. 

Over 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky in Arkansas and 300 doves died simultaneously in Italy. 

Similarly, 100 pelicans died in Jacksonville, 70 bats in Tucson and thousands of dead fish have washed up Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brazil and the United States. 

A new map released by Google Maps, tracks the ongoing mysterious mass animals deaths that have occurred in the last month or so, the incidents of which currently number around 30. 

Some conspiracy theorists believe the animal deaths to be the work of various government agencies from Mossad to the CIA, testing chemical weapons or other hostile machinery, while others have suggested it is the beginning of the end of days prophecy foretold in The Book Of Revelations. 

Yet amid the online buzz, animal experts are attempting to put a rational face on events. 

“Blackbirds roost communally in the wintertime, and they sleep more soundly than most animals,” Susie Kesielke, curator of birds at the Los Angeles Zoo, told CNN Radio, suggesting that fireworks were the most realistic factor causing their spectacular mass death. 

Jonathan Sleeman, director of the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, added that although the number of mass animal deaths was unusual, it was not by any means unique. 

“Most of the cases involved pesticides or poison ingested by the birds, but trauma has also been found to be the cause of mass bird deaths,” he told CNN, supporting theories that the birds were killed by sudden loud noise. 

The reason that the mass animal deaths seem so sudden, and numerous, is due to the nature of news in the modern age, suggests Universe Today. 

They point out in an online blog that digital news travels further faster than ever before, while the modern news cycle tends to get caught up in a particular issue, often blowing it out of proportion.


http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/728861/ht/Over-30-cases-of-mass-animal-deaths-around-the-world-have-armchair-pundit-in-hysterics

Dead Fish in Florida, Dead Birds in Texas

n the Media

1 HOUR AGO by ■ Kev Hedges - 3 comments

Thousands of fish found dead in Florida, 200 dead birds in Texas

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The mysterious spate of mass fish and bird deaths continues as the latest two separate incidents see thousands of fish floating in a warm creek in Florida and 200 birds strewn across a bridge in Texas.

Experts yesterday were still carrying out tests on the dozens of dead jackdaws that fell from the sky in the town of Falkoeping in Sweden, as reported in Digital Journal. These birds join the casualty list of 5,000 red-winged blackbirdsthat fell from the sky only days ago in Beebe, AR, and now some media quarters have termed the animal death mysteriesAflockalypse.

On the Brazilian coastline around 100 tons of sardines, catfish and croaker have washed up dead along the coastline near Paranaguá. This follows the death of 40,000 crabs found dead along the Kent coast and thousands of New Zealand snapper littering the Coromandel Peninsula beaches.

Hundreds of dead starlings and robins have been found dead in back gardens of Gilbertsville residents in Kentucky and two million dead fish have washed ashore in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

According to the Mail Online, New Year fireworks, hail and thunder, cold weather, parasites and even poisoning are possible theories behind the global phenomena.

Conspiracy theorists have also been busy - secret government experiments, HAARP events and the end of the Mayan calendar have all been mentioned in on-line forums.

Like • 6 people liked this article

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/302244#ixzz1AIXAZjcd

Map of Mass Animal Deaths

Google Mass Animal Deaths

• January 6th, 2011 1:57 pm ET

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