PSoTD

Now up and running. So far my pic isn't there. Don't forget to donate for the cause, which goes to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Red Cross.

Just thought I'd put down a marker about the areas around the country starting to become concerned about drought:

Kentucky:

State officials are warning homeowners to prepare for what could turn out to be a year of dangerous forest fires.

If drought conditions that have plagued the state over the summer continue into the fall, MacSwords said the results could be disastrous.

North Carolina:

The water supply in Durham is too low for comfort. As a result, the city has enacted voluntary conservation practices, effective Wednesday.

Texas:

Grayson County Judge Tim McGraw said weather forecasters don't predict the county will get out of the danger zone on the drought index any time in the next 14 days.

New York:

In a year when farmers of many other crops are complaining about severe drought, "Sun generates the sugar in the fruit," something that is technically called the brix level, so apples are "sweeter than normal," according to Peter Gregg, a spokesman for the New York Apple Association.

Well, after convincing the kids to try Chocolate Covered Chirpies at the Great Insect Fair at Penn State on Saturday, I ate a couple of pieces myself, plus the mealworm stirfry (the mealworms are just like crunchy noodles). The Waxworm h'ourderves just didn't appeal to me, visually, at all.

And discovered this web site: Insects as Food. Worth a look.

From NOAA...

AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE LOCATED ABOUT 360 MILES SOUTH OF BERMUDA IS GRADUALLY BECOMING BETTER ORGANIZED. THIS SYSTEM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME EITHER A TROPICAL OR A SUBTROPICAL CYCLONE TODAY OR SATURDAY. LITTLE MOTION IS ANTICIPATED.

AN AREA OF DISTURBED WEATHER ASSOCIATED WITH A TROPICAL WAVE IS CENTERED A FEW HUNDRED MILES SOUTHWEST OF THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. THIS SYSTEM HAS SOME POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT DURING THE NEXT DAY OR TWO...AS IT MOVES WESTWARD OVER THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC. TR

So many public officials described Katrina as a storm of "biblical proportions". I suspect we're about to hear the same thing about Rita.

So here's something to chew over for those who see these events biblically. If there is a God, what do you make of God sending two hurricanes, two biblically-proportioned hurricanes, into the Gulf and seriously damaging America's energy industry in the same year? What do you make of God using much warmer than usual Gulf waters to energize these two biblically-proportioned hurricanes? What is God trying to tell us?

For those so inclined to believe this is something "biblical", what is God's point?

After Rita, there are four remaining official Hurricane or Tropical Storm names:

Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma

What happens if we go past Wilma? According to this, the National Hurricane Center will turn to the Greek alphabet and we'll have Hurricanes Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc.

Two bits of news...

Alligators as Nuisance Neighbors

More people are moving to alligator country, causing an increase in the number of encounters that may lead to severe injuries and fatalities from alligator attacks. A new study provides information on these attacks reported in the United States as well as infections that are commonly associated with alligator bites. The study is published in the latest issue of Wilderness & Environmental Medicine.

Add 200 more alligators to the mix...

Katrina frees alligators from Mississippi ranch

Hurricane Katrina flooded the enclosures at the Gulf Coast Gator Ranch & Tours, freeing nearly 200 alligators into a nearby swamp.

Big Bull, a 25-year-old male alligator that is more than 15 feet long, was among the escapees, along with Whitey, a near-albino alligator, and another named One Eye Willie, business owner Allan Adams said.

Before Katrina, an 8-foot-high wire fence surrounded the alligators' water-filled homes, but Katrina's storm surge flooded the pens, allowing the alligators to escape.

Adams said he's not worried that anyone, including his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Jordan Sumrall, will be attacked by one of his gators because their instinct is to flee from humans and other dangers.

Really Mr. Adams? From same article:

Gary Casper, a nuisance alligator control agent, said humans typically create any dangerous situations involving gators, such as getting too close to them or trying to catch them. But he said the ranch alligators associate food with people because Adams fed them, and the animals may approach humans for a handout.

Most Americans don't realize how troubled scientists are about the survival of frogs and other amphibians on Earth. Here's one of the problems besetting them...

Zoo, botanical garden unite to save frogs from fungus

Atlanta is fast becoming an E.R. for the frog world as researchers from two local institutions try to halt a mysterious and deadly fungus threatening to send all amphibians the way of the dinosaurs.

For the last few months, curators from Zoo Atlanta and the Atanta Botanical Garden have been flying to Panama - ground zero for their research - and carrying back as many frogs as possible, transported in little black roller bags outfitted with Tupperware tubes.

"In some cases this is the last spot on the planet where those frogs exist," says Joe Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta, who returned last week from an expedition.

Captive frogs at the zoo and garden now number more than 600, from about 35 species. Some may be the only survivors of their kind in existence.

The Atlanta effort with frogs is "incredibly important," says Karen Lips, associate professor of zoology at Southern Illinois University, who has been studying amphibian declines for more than 10 years. "It's the first project to make any attempt beyond just studies, to see what we can actually do to save them."

Although their method seems to fly in the face of conservation biology principles - it's usually forbidden to remove endangered species from protected native areas - Atlanta's frogmen have permission from the Panamanian government to take as many specimens as they can from two sites located near national parks.

Holding the creatures in captivity may be the only way to save some frogs from extinction until the fungus can be eliminated in the wild.

The fungus has been eradicated in captive frogs through treatment. "We give them an anti-fungal bath," says Brad Lock, assistant curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta.

Discovered in the 1990s - exact dates vary - the fungus has invaded Australia, South America, Central America and the United States. It typically affects frogs at high elevations, which may be why Georgia is not reporting a problem yet. Western states, however, such as Arizona, California, Idaho and Montana are "in bad trouble," Mendelson says. So are mountainous countries such as Ecuador where "any place above, say, 8,000 feet is almost completely devoid of amphibians."

How does the fungus kill? It seems to particularly affect frogs' ability to maintain water balance and interferes with respiration, says Ron Gagliardo, curator of tropical collections at the botanical garden.

The frog's enemy in this case is the chytrid fungi, and scientists have actually known about it for nearly 30 years.

Currently, there's not much blogreading about it, but please visit Invasive Species and PA Liberal for more.