Originally Posted By magnet Have you seen the news coming out of AR lately? Over 1,000 dead birds fall from the sky on New Year's Eve. 100,000 drum fish wash up on the shore of an Arkansas river. Over 500 Earthquakes hit Guy, AR since Sept. 2010. These are three of the freakiest stories I've ever seen, and all happened within the same state. There is something very weird going on here. I didn't post links to these stories, but you can easily find them on Google News.
Originally Posted By magnet ...seems that the number of dead birds was considerably higher than 1000, maybe as high as 5000. News agencies have someone on record speculating about the cause of the bird catastrophe: "...the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail, or may have been startled by fireworks." That's pretty wild speculation if you ask me. Stressed-out to death by fireworks? Killed by mysterious high-altitude hail that never reached the ground? Yeah, uh huh. I mean, c'mon. How high in the air do these birds fly? They're not zipping around in the stratosphere with supercell thunderstorms. Did hail kill these birds a couple hundred feet off the ground and then magically sublimate in the 3 seconds it would take to hit the ground? What about the birds on Merrit Island? Is there a mass bird kill every time the shuttle takes off? Standing about 50 feet from a launching rocket would be pretty stressful if you ask me.
Originally Posted By mawnck Birds: probably hail. Earthquakes: something that tends to happen on fault lines. Most aren't felt by humans, as is the case here. Fish: Just happened yesterday and still under investigation. Probably something to do with the zombie apocalypse. As is Wal Mart.
Originally Posted By magnet Dr. Horton of the University of Memphis feels that the ample amount of earthquakes in this state is quite unusual. "In the New Madrid Seismic Zone there's approximately 200 per year, so if we had that many in Central Arkansas in less than a month, something is going on," Dr. Horton told CNN's Sarah Hoye. The problem is that part of central Arkansas isn't even part of the New Madrid Fault Zone, so researchers are trying to figure out what's causing all those earthquakes.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>researchers are trying to figure out what's causing all those earthquakes.<< It's the zombies digging themselves up from the graveyards. John Boehner summoned them.
Originally Posted By magnet I can believe that the earthquake thing is probably just a geological oddity. However, the bird and fish events deserve some careful investigation. Right now the only answer officials should be giving to the media is, "I don't know why this happened, but we're going to find out." That kind response gives me some confidence because it is honest. This crap about fireworks, lightning, and hail is a misinformation tactic meant to deflect attention from something that is truly weird and deserves a close look. In the end, these speculations might be true, but right now these excuses have about as much validation as our jokes about political parties being behind it.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. - Mark 13:8
Originally Posted By mawnck Yes, and a 4.5 in Southern Utah. I always said everything east of the San Andreas was going to fall into the Atlantic Ocean someday .......
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt >>Wasn't there a 7.1 quake in Chile today?<< "Yes, and a 4.5 in Southern Utah." See, the Bible was right!
Originally Posted By ecdc The bird story illustrated nicely why the news media sucks. CNN's headline was "Mysterious Bird Deaths Baffle Scientists." Then I read the article and the experts didn't seem baffled at all, just pending a necropsy to pinpoint what it was. They specifically said it wasn't all that uncommon.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>The bird story illustrated nicely why the news media sucks.<< Yep, every story has to be a looming crisis, or baffling, or frightening. No wonder so many people just tune it all out.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Or think that there's a conspiracy or that it's some Kind of payback from God because somebody committed a sin.
Originally Posted By magnet No idea why it happened. I don't subscribe to either of the somewhat polarized opinions that have been expressed so far. I don't necessarily find these events as cause for alarm. However, I also think it is a bit disingenuous to just brush it off and tune it out. Mass bird and fish kills should not induce yawns. I agree that media coverage often tends to hyperbole, but my focus is on what happened, not the commentary of how the news reporting reflects our own biases. Unfortunately, because the reporting stinks, we probably won't hear anything beyond the initial speculations that have been offered as explanations. Although this is certainly not the first time mass kills have occurred for fish or birds, these occurrences still are evidence that something went really wrong. I'm glad an investigation is happening -- even though we'll probably never hear the result.
