Texas has won the right to develop a large-scale wind turbine research and testing facility, Jerry Patterson, Texas General Land Office commissioner, said today. The facility, just one of two in the nation to be built, will be located at Ingleside, just north of Corpus Christi. It will develop the next generation of wind-turbine technology to produce more kilowatts per turbine than can be achieved now. Continue reading Texas Awarded Wind-Turbine Research Center
A 53-year old man learned his lesson the hard way when a 5-foot rattler slithered onto his central Washington property, about 50 miles southeast of Yakima. Apparently, he was unaware of past rattlesnake research, which shows that a severed rattlesnake head will try to attack objects waved in front of it for up to an hour after death. The man and his son pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and then cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck. But that’s not the end of the story. Continue reading Bodyless Rattlesnake Head Bites Man
A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday while departing Lima, Peru, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it clinging to his ponytail. The man boarded a flight to Florida and then caught a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York. During the flight, people seated around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat. Continue reading Airplane Passenger Smuggles Monkey Under His Hat
Here is some good news for birds and birders on the east coast. The tiny Atlantic piping plover, a federally protected bird, has given beachgoers headaches for decades. The species breeds on East Coast beaches during warm weather, which means entire stretches of shoreline can be put off limits just as people want to enjoy the coast. However, two decades after the plover was declared a threatened species, biologists are crediting the beach closures, twine barriers and other buffers between birds and humans for a 141 percent increase in the Atlantic piping plover population. Continue reading Piping Plover Makes A Comeback
Authorities found 83 cats, three dogs and two iguanas inside a Ben Lomond home reeking with the stench of urine and feces. “Imagine 83 cats living in a house with no litter boxes for two years, and you get the general idea,” said Todd Stosuy, supervising field ranger for the Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority. It was one of the county’s largest-ever animal hoarding cases, Animal Services spokeswoman Tricia Geisreiter said. Continue reading 83 cats, 2 Dogs, and 3 Iguanas Found in Stinky Home
A mayor in eastern Germany, believe it or not, has filed charges against workers at his local zoo for shooting animals and selling them as meat. A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said deer were among the animals killed and sold by workers at Erfurt Zoo without permission over a number of years. “The case is now with the state prosecutors,” said the spokeswoman, declining to give further details. Continue reading German Zoo Sells Animals as Food
Hantavirus is carried by certain species of rats and mice and the illness is rare. Infected rodents shed the virus in their urine, droppings and saliva. The virus can be transmitted to people when infected rat or mouse urine, saliva, droppings or nesting materials are stirred up, temporarily aerosolizing the virus, which can be breathed in by humans. Continue reading Information on Hantavirus