Yearly Archives: 2012

Nature’s Mimicry

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Fish Mimics Octopus That Mimics Fish

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) — Nature’s game of intimidation and imitation comes full circle in the waters of Indonesia, where scientists have recorded for the first time an association between the black-marble jawfish (Stalix cf. histrio) and the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus),

Undescribed by scientists until 1998, the talented mimic octopus is known to impersonate toxic flatfish, lionfish, and even sea snakes by creatively configuring its limbs, adopting characteristic undulating movements, and displaying bold brown-and-white color patterns. Thanks to these brazen habits, it can swim in the open with relatively little fear of predators.

The jawfish, on the other hand, is a small and timid fish. It spends most of its adult life close to a sand burrow, where it will quickly retreat upon sighting a predator.

During a diving trip in Indonesia in July 2011, Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen, Germany, filmed an unexpected pairing between the two animals. Like a lackey clinging on to the big man on campus, the black-marble jawfish was seen closely following a mimic octopus as it moved across the sandy bottom. The jawfish had brown-and-white markings similar to the octopus, and was difficult to spot among the many arms. The octopus, for its part, did not seem to notice or care.

Kopp sent the video to Rich Ross and Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences, who identified the jawfish species. Since this association had not been recorded before, they published their observations online last month in the scientific journal Coral Reefs. The authors surmise that the jawfish hitches a ride with the octopus for protection, allowing it to venture away from its burrow to look for food — a case of “opportunistic mimicry.”

“This is a unique case in the reefs not only because the model for the jawfish is a mimic itself, but also because this is the first case of a jawfish involved in mimicry,” said Dr. Luiz Rocha, assistant curator of ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences. “Unfortunately, reefs in the Coral Triangle area of southeast Asia are rapidly declining mostly due to harmful human activities, and we may lose species involved in unique interactions like this even before we get to know them.”

Octopus-jawfish video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4kZAgny5eg

from:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120104153747.htm

Dominican Republic Earthquake

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(As you know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti.  My concern here is the possibility of another quake related to this one which could potentially affect Haiti also, if not the whole island.  This is a land of great poverty and want.  Even small natural disasters are magnified under such conditions, in terms of the effect on people there.)

Shallow earthquake in the southern part of the Dominican Republic

Last update: January 5, 2012 at 11:32 am by By

Earthquake overview : Moderate earthquake with epicenter in the southern part of the island.  The earthquake has been felt all over the island (including in Haiti)


Epicenter landscape – panoramio image courtesy Elnalouise

11:28 UTC : The Dominican Republic Civil Defense has alerted all of his services minutes after the quake occurred but at the time of writing this update, NO damage or injuries have been reported. Authorities in the direct epicenter area are currently inspecting buildings and public works to assess the situation.

11:04 UTC –  Rock slides have been reported along the road from Azua to San Juan. Drivers are warned to be careful in driving this road.

11:02 UTC – The epicenter has been located 17 km South-East of  Ocoa. Following the local media who are referring the the Dominican seismological agency UASD, the depth of the hypocenter was at 33 km and the magnitude was measures as 5.2. Both USGS and EMSC have reported a magnitude of 5.3 at a depth of 10 km.  33 km or 10 km makes a world of difference towards damaging capability.

– As early stated in this report, the earthquake has been felt almost all over the country but will have been felt also in neighboring Haiti !

– A lot of people are downloading our QuakeSOS iPhone application, but so far people are only testing and sending SAFE alerts.

– reports from the Dominican Republic are talking about people leaving their houses in panic (normal with such a magnitude)

– Maximum recorded (reported) MMI seems to be V = moderate shaking. Moderate shaking damage can be cracks in walls at max., but we will have to wait for a few more hours to be certain that no additional damage has been inflicted.

– The area has a lot of hills (see image)

– Closest villages to the epicenter (errors are possible within a radius of 16 km) : La Palma, Calderon, Hatillo, Agua, Galeon and Bani

– EMSC reports the same values than USGS (5.3 @ 10 km)

– The earthquake occurred during the early morning hours 05:35 AM !, when almost everybody was still sleeping

– the shallow hypocenter (focal depth) makes this earthquake moderately dangerous within a radius of 20 km.

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.3
UTC Time : Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 09:35:29 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 05:35:29 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km
Geo-location(s) :
17 km (10 miles) SSE (149°) from Ocoa, Peravia, Dominican Republic
33 km (20 miles) W (270°) from San Cristóbal, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic
50 km (31 miles) W (260°) from SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/01/05/shallow-earthquake-in-the-southern-part-of-the-dominican-republic/

Quadrantid Meteor Showers 1/4

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EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2012

Via meteorblog.com
The first major meteor shower of 2012 is the Quadrantid shower, predicted to peak on the morning of January 4.

The next major meteor shower will be the Quadrantid shower, which is expected to peak after midnight on the morning of January 4, 2012. This shower favors northerly latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. If the peak happens as predicted – at 7 to 8 hours Universal Time – that means eastern North America might be in a good position to watch the 2012 Quadrantid shower. Predicting the peak and the intensity of a meteor shower is always a tricky business, though. No matter where you live, the best time to watch is in the wee hours before dawn on January 4

Use the Big Dipper and the star Arcturus to locate the radiant of the Quadrantid shower

January 4, 2012 in the wee hours before dawn Quadrantids
When we say January 4, we mean in the wee hours before dawn, not that night. Although the waxing gibbous moon lights up most of the night and doesn’t set until roughly 3 a.m. local time, this is about the best time of night to watch for these meteors. Click here to know when the moon sets in your sky. Although the Quadrantids can produce over 100 meteors per hour, the sharp peak only lasts for a few hours, and doesn’t always come at an opportune time. In other words, you have to be in the right spot on Earth to view this meteor shower in all its splendor. If this year’s forecast proves correct, eastern North America, the North Atlantic Ocean and possibly western Europe will be in a fine position to watch this shower. However, meteor showers are notorious for defying predictions. This shower is worth a try at northerly latitudes all around the globe. Face the general direction of north-northeast, but take in as wide an expanse of sky as possible. Watch from about 2 a.m. until dawn.

from:    http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

Myth of the White Buffalo Woman

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Cover image

Lakota dancer ›

 Lakota dancer

White Buffalo Woman

This is a central myth of the Plains tribes, especially the Lakota, or Sioux. It tells how the Lakota first received their sacred pipe and the ceremony in which to use it. It has often been related, for example by Black Elk, Lame Deer and Looks for Buffalo.

In the days before the Lakota had horses on which to hunt the buffalo, food was often scarce. One summer when the Lakota nation had camped together, there was very little to eat. Two young men of the Itazipcho band – the ‘Without-Bows’ – decided they would rise early and look for game. They left the camp while the dogs were still yawning, and set out across the plain, accompanied only by the song of the yellow meadowlark.

After a while the day began to grow warm. Crickets chirruped in the waving grass, prairie dogs darted into their holes as the braves approached, but still there was no real game. So the young men made towards a little hill from which they would see further across the vast expanse of level prairie. Reaching it, they shielded their eyes and scanned the distance, but what they saw coming out of the growing heat haze was something bright, that seemed to go on two legs, not four. In a while they could see that it was a very beautiful woman in shining white buckskin.

As the woman came closer, they could see that her buckskin was wonderfully decorated with sacred designs in rainbow-coloured porcupine quills. She carried a bundle on her back, and a fan of fragrant sage leaves in her hand. Her jet-black hair was loose, except for a single strand tied with buffalo fur. Her eyes were full of light and power, and the young men were transfixed.

Now one of the men was filled with a burning desire. ‘What a woman!’ he said sideways to his friend. ‘And all alone on the prairie. I’m going to make the most of this!’

‘You fool,’ said the other. ‘This woman is holy.’

But the foolish one had made up his mind, and when the woman beckoned him towards her, he needed no second invitation. As he reached out for her, they were both enveloped in a great cloud. When it lifted, the woman stood there, while at her feet was nothing but a pile of bones with terrible snakes writhing among them.

‘Behold,’ said the woman to the good brave. ‘I am coming to your people with a message from Tatanka Oyate, the buffalo nation. Return to Chief Standing Hollow Horn and tell him what you have seen. Tell him to prepare a tipi large enough for all his people, and to get ready for my coming.’

The young man ran back across the prairie and was gasping for breath as he reached his camp. With a small crowd of people already following him, he found Standing Hollow Horn and told him what had happened, and that the woman was coming. The chief ordered several tipis to be combined into one big enough for his band. The people waited excitedly for the woman to arrive.

After four days the scouts posted to watch for the holy woman saw something coming towards them in a beautiful manner from across the prairie. Then suddenly the woman was in the great lodge, walking round it in a sunwise direction. She stopped before Standing Hollow Horn in the west of the lodge, and held her bundle before him in both hands.

‘Look on this,’ she said, ‘and always love and respect it. No one who is impure should ever touch this bundle, for it contains the sacred pipe.’

She unrolled the skin bundle and took out a pipe, and a small round stone which she put down on the ground.

‘With this pipe you will walk on the earth, which is your grandmother and your mother. The earth is sacred, and so is every step that you take on her. The bowl of the pipe is of red stone; it is the earth. Carved into it and facing the centre is the buffalo calf, who stands for all the four-leggeds. The stem is of wood, which stands for all that grows on the earth. These twelve hanging feathers from the Spotted Eagle stand for all the winged creatures. All these living things of the universe are the children of Mother Earth. You are all joined as one family, and you will be reminded of this when you smoke the pipe. Treat this pipe and the earth with respect, and your people will increase and prosper.’

The woman told them that seven circles carved on the stone represented the seven rites in which the people would learn to use the sacred pipe. The first was for the rite of ‘keeping the soul’, which she now taught them. The remaining rites they would learn in due course.

The woman made as if to leave the lodge, but then she turned and spoke to Standing Hollow Horn again. ‘This pipe will carry you to the end. Remember that in me there are four ages. I am going now, but I will look on your people in every age, and at the end I will return.’

She now walked slowly around the lodge in a sunwise direction. The people were silent and filled with awe. Even the hungry young children watched her, their eyes alive with wonder. Then she left. But after she had walked a short distance, she faced the people again and sat down on the prairie. The people gazing after her were amazed to see that when she stood up she had become a young red and brown buffalo calf. The calf walked further into the prairie, and then lay down and rolled over, looking back at the people.

When she stood up she was a white buffalo. The white buffalo walked on until she was a bright speck in the distant prairie, and then rolled over again, and became a black buffalo. This buffalo walked away, stopped, bowed to the four directions of the earth, and finally disappeared over the hill.

Buffalo in the Badlands

A lone bull buffalo in the Badlands

from:    http://www.livingmyths.com/Native.htm#White

Phoenix Rising Star in Ego

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Messages from my heart: Healing Ego Driven Responses

By Phoenix Rising Star

I was anticipating a future conversation, feeling that anxiety, that sinking feeling that says ‘this isn’t going to be pretty’.

I was organizing a come-back in my mind. Trying to think of the best and fastest way to make my point, to not allow myself to be put down, and to respond so brilliantly, there would be no further discussion.

This woman really gets to me. Fortunately I don’t have to deal with her very often, but when I see an email from her, I cringe. She’s power driven, uses corporate-minded tactics that cuts the rug out from under me, and pressures everyone to do things her way.

I haven’t yet figured out a way to work with her without anxiety on my part.

As I was mulling this over, creating my exceptional responses, I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was just as much in my head as she was. I was responding from my head to her actions from her head; from the ego.

And I was judging HER for this.

Ouch.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s how ego works. It creates a scenario, and the automatic response in most of us is to respond in kind. Her power driven words were causing me to try to respond in an equally power driven manner.

And it wasn’t working. I was failing miserably at it; feeling badly. The words weren’t coming out right. Nothing about my comebacks worked or felt right.

And that is also how ego works. There will never be enough. There will always be a shortage, a limitation, a lack, a need that is unfulfilled with ego. Nothing will ever be complete with ego. ‘An eye for an eye’ will go on until there are no more eyes.

There’s a part of us that understands that lack is not in alignment with our soul. Our natural state as a soul is to be abundant. This awareness gives us the opportunity to look at other options for our reactions, our emotions, our thoughts, our ways of living. Propelling us into living in the heart. If we choose it.

I decided to call this my healing opportunity.

Healing my automatic reactions to ego driven experiences.

Healing my ego responses and choosing to react from my heart.

Or rather, to not react, but to be in my heart.

Period.

I didn’t really know how to do this.

There may be a manual on it, but I doubted that amazon.com had it.

Just thinking about books gave me an idea, though.

I went into my sacred space of my heart.

I’m very visual, so when I’m there, I see incredible details.

In my sacred space of my heart, I have an Akashic records room. It looks just like an old library or book collection. Books are on shelves, and the shelves stretch way up over my reach. Fortunately there is a ladder for me to climb so I can get to the very top if need be.

Volumes and volumes and volumes of bound books are in my records room.

Recording all my awarenesses, knowledge, understanding, hopes, dreams, aspirations, as well as all the people, players, situations, lifetimes, and experiences I’ve had.

Ever.

When I need something, I go here.

Everything has already been experienced.

I’m just reliving it or relearning it, if I so choose.

I figured this wasn’t the first time around this knowledge.

Now I choose to remember it and live it.

As I entered my Akashic record room, I asked for the book or chapter that would help me heal the automatic reaction of my ego.

Immediately I was led to the top shelf of the third bookcase from the left. Climbing the ladder to retrieve it, I was a bit overwhelmed to see a huge volume entitled, “Healing Ego Driven Responses”.

Curiously I took it down from the shelf, climbed back down the ladder, and took the volume into my tiny space of my heart. Curling up in a comfortable position, the book fell open to a section titled, “Addictions”.

Under this title, written similarly to a medical dictionary, there were different addictions in sub-categories such as ‘Sugar’. ‘Emotions/Drama’. ‘Mental Beliefs’. ‘Spiritual Experiences’.

And under each sub-category, was a description of that particular addiction as well as its origin. With suggestions for healing.

I knew I probably could learn from the sub-category of sugar, but I found myself irresistibly drawn to Mental Beliefs.

Under that sub-category were several chapters on different belief systems.

Again I was irresistibly drawn to one.

‘The Need To Be Right’.

Curious, I began reading.

“The need to be right is demonstrated in the actions of a person who insists. It can also be seen in actions similar to stubbornness and persistence, but in a manner that indicates an unwillingness to allow for any one’s opinions, thoughts or feelings. This need can also be demonstrated in control issues, because controlling the outcome ensures the individual is always right.

“The origin of this addiction may be in past lives that were not healed, and also in childhood of the present lifetime. Individuals who were looking for validation outside of themselves, and were never encouraged to believe in his/her own perspective or intuition will many times build this belief system within. Individuals who were sporadically, but not consistently rewarded for good ideas, sometimes build this addiction over time. Individuals who are filled with fear of making a mistake will also build this addiction.

“Like all addictions, mental beliefs build on themselves. It starts with a subconscious decision, and in the cellular memory, becomes reinforced through subsequent experiences. Until eventually, the individual actions become those that feed the addiction, in this case, the need to be right, rather than the focused intention of the occasion or meeting.

“Healing this addiction begins with healing the fear of making a mistake. The individual must recognize that mistakes are old programs frequently associated with shame and blame. When the word opportunity is substituted for mistake, the negative connotation is replaced, and the painful emotions are neutralized. Thus, enabling the individual to view everything as an opportunity for growth. Not to be judged harshly.

“Healing this addiction may also be accomplished through the intention of releasing the cellular memory where this belief began. And with the intention that the replacement of that memory be a higher belief system embodying self love and support.

“Healing this addiction may also be accomplished through the experience of seeing it in others. Having others reflect it back. Becoming aware of it within through the viewing the actions without. Using heart-felt intention will create a powerful transformation in this way.”

Oh my goodness!

I recognized that what was giving me anxiety about this situation was my own fear of making a mistake. Of not being right. Of being judged for it. I had this very fear within me. And seeing it in her, made me aware of it. ‘Becoming aware of it within through viewing the actions without.’

I knew what I needed to do.

I invited the woman I had viewed as egotistic and the antagonist into my tiny space of my heart. The place closest to God. My space of creation for my heart’s desires.

I intended to share with her what I had learned about myself. What I had learned about us. What I learned about humanity.

When she came in, she appeared younger than I’d ever seen her. She looked around interestedly and then sat down.

We sat and smiled at each other.

And kept smiling and smiling.

I found I had nothing to say.

There was nothing to say.

It was complete.

“Healing this addiction may also be accomplished through the experience of seeing it in others. Having others reflect it back. Becoming aware of it within through the viewing the actions without. Using heart-felt intention will create a powerful transformation in this way.”

I felt at peace.

And so, it appeared, did she.

After quite a long time of sitting in silence and smiling at each other, quite comfortably, she got up and left.

Later that morning, when I went to my computer, I saw an email from her.

And I smiled. Feeling quite at peace.

 

Respectfully yours,
Phoenix Rising Star

from:    http://www.spiritofmaat.com/jan12/healing_ego_driven_responses.html

Hybrid Sharks

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World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

By Amy Coopes | AFP 

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan’s research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia’s east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

“If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion,” Morgan said.

“It’s enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters.”

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species — a literal survival of the fittest — Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.

“We don’t know whether that’s the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we’ve generated from these animals,” he said.

“Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals.”

The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn’t appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.

“We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don’t fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate,” he said.

“And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two.”

from:    http://news.yahoo.com/world-first-hybrid-shark-found-off-australia-070347608.html

New Year’s Eve Fireball

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NEW YEAR’S FIREBALL: The first bright fireball of the New Year streaked over the southwestern USA on Jan. 1st at 03:15 UT. It was visible from Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. “I was able to see it out my window,” reports amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft from his rural observatory outside of Santa Fe. “It was brilliant turquoise blue.” Ashcraft operates a combination all-sky camera/forward-scatter meteor radar system, which captured the fireball’s flight. Click on the image to play the movie–and don’t forget to turn up the volume to hear the ghostly radar echo:

Cameras belonging to NASA’s All-Sky Fireball Network also recorded the fireball from multiple locations. An orbit calculated from those data show that the fireball was a random meteoriod hailing from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It hit Earth’s atmosphere at 26 km/s (58,000 mph), which is relatively slow compared to other meteoroids, and disintegrated 82 km above Earth’s surface.

from:spaceweather.com

Logic & Gut Thinking

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People Don’t Just Think With Their Guts: Logic Plays a Role, Too

ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2011) — For decades, science has suggested that when people make decisions, they tend to ignore logic and go with the gut. But Wim De Neys, a psychological scientist at the University of Toulouse in France, has a new suggestion: Maybe thinking about logic is also intuitive. He writes about this idea in the January issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science

Psychologists have partly based their conclusions about reasoning and decision-making on questions like this one:

“Bill is 34. He is intelligent, punctual but unimaginative and somewhat lifeless. In school, he was strong in mathematics but weak in social studies and humanities.

Which one of the following statements is most likely?

(a) Bill plays in a rock band for a hobby.

(b) Bill is an accountant and plays in a rock band for a hobby.”

Most people will let their stereotypes about accountants rule and pick (b). But, in fact, we have no idea what Bill does for a living — he could be a politician, a concert pianist, or a drug dealer — so it’s more likely that only one random possibility, the rock band, is true, than that both (a) and (b) would happen to be true.

This line of research has suggested that people don’t use logic when making decisions about the world. But the truth is more complicated, De Neys says. When most people read a question like the one above, there’s a sense that something isn’t quite right. “That feeling you have, that there’s something fishy about the problem — we have a wide range of ways to measure that conflict,” De Neys says. For example, he has shown with brain imaging that when people are thinking about this kind of problem, a part of their brain that deals with conflict is active. “They stick to their gut feeling and don’t do the logical thing, but they do sense that what they are doing is wrong,” De Neys says.

De Neys thinks this sense, that something isn’t quite right with the decision you’re making, comes from an intuitive sense of logic. Other scientists have found that children start thinking logically very early. In one study, 8-month-old babies were surprised if someone pulled mostly red balls out of a box that contained mostly white balls, proof that babies have an innate sense of probability before they can even talk. It makes sense, De Neys says, that this intuitive sense of logic would stick around in adults.

This research deals with the basics of how we think, but De Neys says it may help explain more complex decision-making. If you want to teach people to make better decisions, he says, “It’s important to know which component of the process is faulty.” For example, if you want to understand why people are smoking, and you think it’s because they don’t understand the logic — that smoking kills — you might put a lot of energy into explaining how smoking is bad for them, when the actual problem is addiction. It’s a long way from a question about Bill’s career to understanding something like why someone decides to get married, for example; but research like this should help,” De Neys says

from:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111229131356.htm

Earthquake Shakes Northeastern Ohio

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Unusual very shallow magnitude 4.0 earthquake in Ohio

Last update: January 2, 2012 at 12:23 pm by ByArmand Vervaeck and James Daniell

Earthquake overview : A single shallow earthquake alerted people in Ohio and even in the neighboring states.  Some officials suspect “fracking” to be at the origin of this earthquake, others say that there is no proof that the earthquakes are caused by fracking but are caused near brine injection wells, not fracking.
Update 02/01 – 12:19 UTC
An official in Ohio said on Sunday that the underground disposal of wastewater from natural-gas drilling operations would remain halted in the Youngstown area until scientists could analyze data from the most recent of a string of earthquakes there.

There are luckily no reports of serious damage.

Earthquake-Report received a big number of experience Felt It reports. We thank the many people sending us their testimonies.  The Felt It reports can be found below.

NPR writes : Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.  The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes. “The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking,” he said.
“Fracking” is common in this area of the state, but this earthquake, and the others in the area over the past year have been near a “brine injection well“, and not any fracking wells. Officials do now believe that the earthquakes are related to the injection wells, but not fracking.
Earthquake-report.com knows that fracking is a highly controversial issue. Both sides have a hard time to proof that they are right.  The heated discussion is not only actual in Ohio, but also in a number of other US States.

Feli It map – image courtesy USGS

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/01/01/unusual-very-shallow-earthquake-in-ohio/

January 1-7, 2012

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It is completely appropriate that this new year begins on a Sunday, the traditional first day of the week, signifying new beginning, changes, revelations, choices, and so much more.  This will be a year of firsts in so many ways.  Change will be a major theme this year, and some of it can be dramatic, even cataclysmic.  Secrets will be coming out at a faster pace than ever before.  There is a potential for war and famine to strike deeply, swiftly, and harshly.  And then things will make an 180 degree turn.  Peace will return, accompanied by political strife that will not really affect the masses of the population as they have learned many hard lessons through the war times.  In drought and famine stricken areas, the weather will become clement, but with the possibility of too much moisture.  The happy medium will be difficult to reach, especially in the first half of they year. Continue reading →