The Big Wobble - this is horrible

Photo Whittal Tree
Bolivian President Evo Morales is declaring a state of emergency to fight a plague of locusts that is decimating crops in the country's agricultural heartland.
Morales announced the decision Wednesday as part of a contingency plan.
It includes $700,000 in additional funds for fumigation.
Officials say the swarm of locusts first appeared two weeks ago about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the eastern city of Santa Cruz.
It has spread fast and is now about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from Bolivia's largest city.
Bolivia's Eastern Agriculture Chamber estimates more than 2,700 acres (1,100 hectares) of corn, sorghum and beans have already been destroyed by the locusts.
Authorities fear the locusts will reach the breadbasket region that supplies more than 80 percent of Bolivia's food unless there is extensive fumigation.

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Photo Salon
A band of hot air more than 2,000 kilometres wide is expected to sweep across South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, bringing heatwave temperatures - sometimes over 45 degrees - for vast areas in those states over the next few days.
The Bureau of Meteorology is warning about "severe heatwave conditions" caused by a pool of heated air formed over central Australia that has blocked cooler changes from pushing through. Adelaide will today swelter through a hot, humid day forecast to reach 42 degrees, while Melbourne is tipped to hit 37 degrees.
Just two days after copping half a month's worth of rain, Sydneysiders are set to be hit by the northbound heat.
The weekend is expected to reach 39 on Saturday and 39 on Sunday in the city, and a withering 44, 45 and 44 degrees from Friday to Sunday in the west.
Temperatures today are forecast to remain at a relatively mild 29 and 36 degrees in the city and the west.
The sizzling temperatures come after thunderstorms swept through Sydney and parts of NSW on Tuesday, causing flash flooding, property damage, several flood rescues and evacuations.
Farmer Cameron Cox, 22, was killed after being struck by lightning while checking livestock at a family property in the state's central west during a freak storm in the area.
The storms also caused structural damage to dozens of homes across Sydney, while a sinkhole opened up on Wednesday in the harbourside suburb of Point Piper, where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull lives.
The rollercoaster summer weather comes after Sydney recorded its hottest January ever with the average maximum temperature last month at 29.6C.
In Queensland, some remote towns like Birdsville will likely hit 46 degrees as the mass of stagnant hot air moves steadily northeast.
Brisbane will see temperatures in the high 30s on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, cooling slightly into next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology in Queensland's Andrew Bufalino said hot air building in the atmosphere since the New Year had pushed up temperatures in Birdsville and many other parts of the state.
"We have had a stagnant weather pattern that has led to a significant pool of hot air over much of the interior of the country with no significant change of air mass," he said.
Mr Bufalino said records were most likely to be broken in Toowoomba and Applethorpe.
The scorching temperatures over coming days could raise fears of more power blackouts after electricity was cut to about 40,000 properties across South Australia late on yesterday as authorities imposed load shedding to deal with high demand on supplies.
In the state's regional centres maximum temperatures are expected to go even higher with Tarcoola set to have 47C and Port Augusta, Moomba, Marree, Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta all forecast to hit 46C.

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Photo WBBH, NBC NEWSCHANNEL
Thousands of bees have washed ashore in an area where last month 81 false killer whales died, both species use magnetoreception to navigate which may suggest the Earth's magnetospher is failing.
New research has shown in the most detail yet how rapidly Earth's magnetic field - which acts like a shield to protect us from harsh solar winds and cosmic radiation - is changing, getting weaker over some parts of the world, and strengthening over others.
The bees where washing up at Lowdermilk Park Beach Naples in Florida.

Some visitors said they're staying away after being stung while walking the shoreline.
Many people said the bee problem has popped up during the past few days.
Bee experts are describing the event as unusual and get this “uncommon behavior for bees to wash up on the beach!” Really?
They said it could be from nearby pesticide spraying, forcing them to the water, or it could be a swarm that flew over the beach that became exhausted and flew into the water.
Or probably more to the point they just don’t know why!



Just last month 81 false killer whales died after stranding themselves off the South Florida coast, see photo above.
NOAA initially reported that 95 false killer whales were stranded in South Florida.
Then on Monday afternoon, NOAA Fish Southeast tweeted that 81 whales had died and also said the whales were at a remote location off of Hog Key in the Everglades. One whale was seen alive on Monday and 13 others are unaccounted for, NOAA Fish Southeast said on Twitter on Monday afternoon.




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Photo AP
A sinkhole in Florida has swallowed 215 million gallons of radioactive water, leaving residents fearing to shower.
The sinkhole is now in the process of getting filled in.
A massive sinkhole at a Florida fertilizer plant that swallowed more than 200 million gallons of radioactive water is now in the process of being filled.
The toxic sinkhole that opened up at the Mosaic's New Wales plant in Mulberry, Florida, is being sealed by a concrete mixture.



Photo The Weather Channel
Video taken from WFTS-TV's helicopter last week showed a built-up ring around the hole as crews have begun pumping the mixture inside.
The sinkhole, which measures 45 feet in diameter and is 300 feet deep, opened up beneath a pile of waste material at Mosaic, the world's largest supplier of phosphate.
The Daily Mail reported a storage pond containing 215 million gallons of radioactive water sat atop the waste mineral pile and drained into the aquifer system, which supplies drinking water to millions of residents.
Aquifers are vast, underground systems of porous rocks that hold water and allow it to move through the holes within the rock.
Since then, workers and contractors have been trying to figure out the best way to stabilize and fill the hole.

The Floridian aquifer, one of the highest producing in the world, is the principal source of groundwater for most of the state, and extends into southern Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.


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Photo Getty Images
About 15,000 residents of a shantytown beside Manila's port have lost their homes in a fire that raged overnight before being put out Wednesday morning, officials said.
Fire department officials said 1,000 homes were gutted in the sprawling Parola Compound, where several families often share tiny houses running along narrow alleyways.
Fire officer Edilberto Cruz said seven people suffered minor injuries in the fire that broke out Tuesday night then quickly spread.
No fatalities were reported.

Photo NBC News
Three evacuation centers were opened, and food and water are being provided to the 3,000 families who lost their homes, said welfare officer Regina Jane Mata.
But hours after the blaze was put out, many of the people were still huddled on a nearby road with their belongings, including clothes and even washing machines and electric fans.
The fire snarled traffic, blocking delivery trucks going to and from the port and affecting the flow of vehicles in nearby areas.

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Photo USGS


A magnitude 6.3, 26 kilometer deep quake has struck Pakistan.
Green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage.
Today’s major quake is the first of February and comes almost three weeks since the last major quake which was the massive mag 7.9 which struck Papua New Guinea

Today’s major quake is the 8^thto strike the planet in 2017.


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