Cracking Zipingku dam in China
The Zipingku dam is near to the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake, by the small town of Dujiangyan. Dangerous cracks appeared in the structure after Monday’s earth quake. Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday that 2,000 troops had been sent to work on the Zipingku Dam, upriver from Dujiangyan in Sichuan province. More than 14,000 people were still missing and nearly 26,000 people had been buried. The Dujiangyan project, built in 256 BC, is more than 50 kilometers from the provincial capital of Chengdu and irrigates 666,000 hectares of land. Its the world’s oldest irrigation system.
Photo Source:flickr.com/photos/christait/1072716442/
Cat’s Urine And Machoism In Rats
Researcher had expected that the smell of a cat would reduce the sexual drive in rats and the scared mice aren’t sexy mice. But now they have found that cats could help mice get lucky in love.
According to a new study cat’s urine not only scare mice away, but it also seems to act like an aphrodisiac (agent that arouses sexual desire) for the rats. The smell make male mice more macho and attract females.
Photo Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Texas Sinkhole Keeps Growing
View Larger Map
In southeast Texas in the small town of Daisetta, a giant sinkhole has continued to grow which swallowed up oil field equipment, poles and a few vehicles - including the tractor and cab of an 18-wheeler and a farm tractor. Officials are taking steps to try to prevent any disaster connected with the growing sinkhole. The sinkhole may have been a result of the land lying on top of a salt brine where oil and natural gas are naturally stored in the earth’s surface.
Do Birds Know If You Look In The Eye?
The eyes are the window to the soul. Eyes can tell us one’s emotions and intentions. According to a research done by Julia Carter and her colleagues from University of Bristol, Starlings keep away from their food dish if a human is looking at it. When the person is just as close, but if their eyes are turned away, the Starlings started feeding earlier and consumed more food.
Photo Source: http://www.bristol.ac.uk
Chilean Volcano erupts
View Larger Map The 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) volcano some 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) south of Santiago,Chile began erupting Saturday. About 4000 inhabitants of nearby town Chaiten has been evacuated. The volcano blasted ash more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the sky. Wind-blown ash has traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) as far as Argentina’s Chubut province, where town authorities have issued health emergencies, closing down schools, airports and main roads, and have distributed drinking water to some areas.
Thousands feared dead in Myanmar cyclone
Myanmar, also known as Burma was hit hard by a cyclone. The devastating cyclone killed more than 10,000 people and left thousands more missing. The cyclone unleashed 12-foot tidal surges and high winds that swept away bamboo homes in low-lying coastal regions. Government officials welcomed international humanitarian aid. Cyclones develop over large bodies of warm water, and lose their strength when they move over land. The last major storm to ravage Asia was Cyclone Sidr, which killed 3,300 people in Bangladesh last November.
How Do Birds Navigate?
Animal species, ranging from birds and mammals to reptiles and insects, navigate by using the Earth’s magnetic field. But Earth’s magnetic field is very weak. So how exactly birds do it. New research finds that a photochemical compass helps migrating birds to use the magnetic field along with light. The photoreceptors in a bird’s retina absorb light, which then produces a short-lived photochemical substance that is sensitive to the magnitude and direction of a weak magnetic field. It’s been supported by the fact that blue light photoreceptors have been detected in retinas of migratory birds when they perform magnetic orientation.
Photo Source: http://multimedia.bostonherald.com
Bumblebees And Thievery
Normally, bumblebees crawl into flowers to get nectar and in return it serves as couriers of pollen, helping the plants breed. But now scientists revealed that the bumblebees discover how to “rob” flowers of nectar without carrying the pollen. Since they get something for nothing by drinking nectar without helping the flowers mate, such a behaviour can be seen as theft. It’s been proved that when one bee learned how to rob nectar by watching its comrades, the skill rapidly spread to other bees.
Photo Source: http://homepage.mac.com
Corporations caught spying on GreenPeace
S2i, a private security firm that was hired by several large corporations, including Kraft Foods and Dow Chemical, to spy on various environmental groups, Greenpeace,the National Environmental Trust and the Environmental Working Group was exposed. The firm, built and managed by former Secret Service Officers, kept close tabs on these organizations for several years. One of the tactics employed by the spy firm is to plant undercover operatives within groups.
Vertical farm in NY
New York magazine asked four architects to come up with ideas for the plot at Canal and Varick Streets, in New York city. Work AC came up with building a farm in the lot; a vertical farm. Work AC’s co-principal Dan Wood said “We are interested in urban farming and the notion of trying to make our cities more sustainable by cutting the miles [food travels]. Underneath the farm there will be a farmers market, selling what grows above.
(Photo Source:www.treehugger.com)
New Madrid Fault Lines Shaking: Illinois earthquake
Seismic activity along the New Madrid Fault lines on April 18 caused a massive earthquake in the Midwest states of Illinois and Indiana,United States. The earth quake did not result in major structural damage. The earthquake reached 5.2 on the Richter scale. The New Madrid Fault lines, also known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone or the Reelfoot Rift, runs across Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. A group of scientists recently has been touting a theory that gauges the risks posed by the New Madrid fault as minimal.
Earth quake severity and Richter scale:
Under 6.0 At most slight damage to well-designed buildings. Can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions.
6.1-6.9 Can be destructive in areas up to about 100 kilometers across where people live.
7.0-7.9 Major earthquake. Can cause serious damage over larger areas.
8 or greater Great earthquake. Can cause serious damage in areas several
hundred kilometers across.
National Geographic’s Human Footprint’
National Geographic Channel’s latest documentary “Human Footprint“, shows how our wanton consumerism is choking the planet. Over the two-hour broadcast, the consumption of a lifetime is piled up and put on display. Show host Elizabeth Vargas believes everyone watching this show can see that as each of us has an impact, each of us has a footprint. We also each have a responsibility to monitor our consumption and work on reducing our footprint. Consider this show as an ecology lesson with the most creative, dazzling and ambitious visual aids imaginable. Quantity of some items an American consumes over the life time: 5 054 Newspapers, 12 888 Oranges, 3796 Diapers, 12 129 Hamburger buns, 31 350 Galons of gas
-
About
We bring interesting News to light. We filter the clutter and bring the best to you. Concise information on the go.
-
Post a story
