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Daily Archives: 19 February 2015
新年快乐
Southern Florida areas at risk to a five foot sea level rise – Maps on the Web
via Southern Florida areas at risk to a five foot sea… – Maps on the Web.
(Source: National Geographic)
Dalmatian Pelicans
Riisitunturi national Park Tykkylumi Trees
Photographers on Flickr:
markus kiili
Sara Winter
valokuvia PEKKA KOSKI
Antti Peuna
Joni
Mikko
Ala-Kojola
Hanneke Luijting
Pekka Isomursu
(via b-l-a-c-k-o-r-c-h-i-d)
Taughannock Falls Ithaca, NY
via The Cranky Professor | katietakespictures: Taughannock Falls Ithaca,….
katietakespictures:
On the road to Cornell. I have NOT gone to see the Falls this season. Brr.
The Situation in Libya, as of 14th Feb 2015 … – Maps on the Web
via The Situation in Libya, as of 14th Feb 2015 … – Maps on the Web.
Turkey and Qatar back the Green. West/Egypt backs the Red and the grey/black are aligned with the Islamic State. Thus there are three major factions with their respective backers.
(Source: reddit.com)
How safe are America’s pipelines?
via CLIMATE ADAPTATION • How safe are America’s pipelines? There are 2.5….
There are 2.5 million miles of oil and gas pipelines in the U.S. Safety inspection, leak detection, and accountability mechanisms are weak and rare. And utilities are mostly not required to use new pipe inspection technologies, mainly because the public has shown no interest in this issue, and politicians are left to depend on listening to oil and gas industry ‘experts.’ So, the risk/reward ratio of maintaining pipes and avoiding leaks and spills bends towards assisting utilities, and away from citizens.
One of the biggest problems contributing to leaks and ruptures is pretty simple: pipelines are getting older. More than half of the nation’s pipelines are at least 50 years old. Last year in Allentown Pa., a natural gas pipeline exploded underneath a city street, killing five people who lived in the houses above and igniting a fire that damaged 50 buildings. The pipeline – made of cast iron – had been installed in 1928.
The oil and gas industry successfully lobby politicians to keep the public from discovering and worrying about leaks. They’ve also secured delays in upgrading old pipelines and avoid using new leak-detection technologies. Best of all their successes is they’ve kept penalties and fines for leaks and spills so low that they have no punitive affect.
Philadelphia has some of the leakiest natural gas distribution pipes in the nation. So does Boston, whose natural gas pipelines leak like a faucet – again due to old pipelines (many were built some 80 years ago).
If the issue for the environmental-political-left is to prevent leaks, spills,and increase penalties, then send a note to your representative asking for better inspections and steeper fines. Go here.
Bluebonnet Field in Ellis County – Texas
7 things you didn’t know about prairie dogs | MNN – Mother Nature Network
via 7 things you didn’t know about prairie dogs | MNN – Mother Nature Network.
One of the rare charms of an otherwise dismal several months spent in Albuquerque was the time spent watching the prairie dog colonies along Tramway Blvd.
They build their own towns, they help the environment, and they even talk about us.
By: Laura Moss
Wed, Feb 18, 2015
Prairie dogs are so cute and they also do some incredibly interesting things. (Photo: Larry Smith/flickr)
Travel through the grasslands of central and western America and you’ll likely see and hear countless prairie dogs.Millions of the adorable burrowing rodents call these plains home, and while they may be a common sight, they have many unique characteristics.Read on for some fascinating facts about prairie dogs.1. They were once the most abundant mammals in North America.Photo: Larry Smith/flickr
There are five species of prairie dog — black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison’s, Utah and Mexican — and black-tailed prairie dogs once numbered in the hundreds of millions.However, hunting, poisoning and habitat loss decreased the population by more than 95 percent, and today the species numbers somewhere between 10 million to 20 million.2. They have well-organized homes.Photo: Kabacchi/flickr
Prairie dogs live in complex underground burrows with designated areas for nurseries, sleeping and toilets. The tunnel system is designed to allow air to flow through them, providing ventilation, and every exit also has a listening post.3. They live in towns.Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/flickr
Prairie dogs are social animals, and they live in family groups called coteries that typically contain an adult male, one or more adult females and their young. Coteries are grouped together into wards, and several wards of prairie dogs make up a town or colony.The largest town ever recorded belonged to a large group of black-tailed prairie dogs in Texas and was about 100 miles long.4. They ‘kiss.’Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/flickr
Prairie dogs often “kiss” when they come and go in the area around their burrow. When they do so, they’ll touch noses and lock their teeth with one another, which allows them to determine if they’re members of the same family group.5. They’re ecologically important.Photo: Stuart Richards/flickr
As a keystone species for the prairies, entire ecosystems rely on these tiny mammals. Their tunneling aerates the soil, and their dung is high in nitrogen, which improves soil quality.Prairie dogs are also a food source for many animals, and their deserted burrows provide nesting areas for a variety of species, including snakes and burrowing owls.6. They have their own language.Photo: Larry Smith/flickr
Prairie dogs have a complex means of communication that’s even better than that of chimpanzees and dolphins.After recording and analyzing prairie dog calls for more than 30 years, Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University found that the animals have barks and chirps that communicate numerous messages.Many of these messages are designed to alert others in a colony about the presence of a predator, and the animals’ communication is so advanced that not only do they have different calls depending on the type of predator, but they also make sentences that describe the predator.Prairie dogs can embed information about the predator’s size, color, direction and speed in a single bark, and a colony — which can include hundreds of animals — consistently uses the same barks to describe the same predators. Prairie dogs even have a specific call that describes a human with a gun.By showing captive prairie dogs a series of shapes, Slobodchikoff has also found that the animals can develop new calls to share information about items they’ve never seen before.7. They do ‘the wave.’Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/flickr
Prairie dogs are under constant threat from predators like hawks and coyotes, so they protect themselves by staying in continuous communication. This often results in contagious behavior where one prairie dog’s action is mimicked by others.One of these often-mimicked displays is the jump-yip, in which one animal stands on its hind legs, stretches its arms out, throws back its head and yips. Upon hearing the sound, other prairie dogs copy the behavior, and jump-yips spread throughout the colony.Why do they do this? Researchers have been studying the behavior for decades, trying to discern why the animals jump-yip in a variety of situations: when predators arrive, when predators leave, when keeping watch or when defending territory.Recently, scientist at the University of Manitoba suggested that the wave-like response is an indicator that everyone in the group is being vigilant. By initiating a jump-yip, one prairie dog is reminding the others to pay attention, which explains why prairie dogs jump-yip in many different situations.Watch some jump-yipping prairie dogs in the video below.Related on MNN:
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