Birds in trouble? Yes ... here's why

John Roach writes: Birds are indeed in trouble. But this trouble has nothing to do with freakish events such as the thousands of blackbirds that fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve. Rather, experts say birds are falling prey to a laundry list of long-term threats ranging from pollution and habitat loss to climate change.

You think birds falling from the sky is weird? How about a meat shower?

One of the interesting theories that followed the “Kentucky Meat Shower” of 1876 was buzzards were suspected of vomiting up chunks of venison, and/or beef as they flew over Louisville. Apparently if the lead buzzard disgorges meat the rest of the flock will follow. That’s news to me.

This story was too fun to pass up sharing this morning:

Flocks of birds falling en masse from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and even Sweden is strange, but these mysterious mass deaths don’t hold a candle to the “Kentucky Meat Shower” of 1876 when it comes to avian oddities.

“Flesh Descending in a Shower. An Astounding Phenomenon in Kentucky – Fresh Meat Like Mutton or Venison Falling  From A Clear Sky,” read the headline in the New York Times on March 10, 1876.

Read story here.

Man with the golden voice reunites with his mother

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Miracles can happen…ask Ted Williams, the man with the golden pipes!

I had to follow up this “feel good” story which I first posted yesterday.

It seems more like a movie than real life. Mr. Williams hit the jackpot without playing the lottery. I just hope the new found riches don’t lead him back to a life of drugs.

Former panhandler-turned-celebrity embraces mom for first time in 20 years

‘Study was a fraud’ - Doctor defends research tying vaccine to autism

This is a troubling story for a lot of reasons. How many children, and adults, got sick, or died, because they weren’t vaccinated after reading that report?

I admit when I read the study I stopped getting vaccinations. Millions of parents nationwide did the same thing because of this one man. Now it’s almost impossible to calculate the damage he’s done. 

Excerpt:

“New report shows Dr. Andrew Wakefield, colleagues altered facts about patients

The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.

The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues were renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published.

In an accompanying editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee and colleagues called Wakefield's study "an elaborate fraud." They said Wakefield's work in other journals should be examined to see if it should be retracted.

Last May, Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. Many other published studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism.”

PHOTO - British doctor Andrew Wakefield, right, and his wife Carmel arriving at the General Medical Council (GMC) in central London, Jan. 28, 2010 Shaun Curry  /  AFP - Getty Images file

Weird Festivals: Empire Asparagus Festival is Artsy Fun

The Empire Asparagus Festival in Empire, Mich., is dedicated entirely to this perennial vegetable. Michigan is one of the top asparagus producers in the U.S., but since Empire is known more for its artsy side than its agricultural one, the festival includes many touches of whimsy. Each May, revelers gather to celebrate with a parade, a 5K fun run, asparagus hat-making and even an "ode to asparagus" poetry contest. The food at the festival is hardly your typical fair fare: You can dine on everything from deep-fried asparagus to asparagus bratwurst, and wash it all down with asparagus beer. To see more weird festivals go here.

‘Golden-voiced’ homeless man lands dream job, house

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YouTube video sensation draws attention of Cleveland Cavaliers

Here’s a feel-good story to perk up your day: 

“An Internet video of a homeless man showing off his self-described “God-given gift of a great voice” has landed him a spot on a local radio show, a dream job with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a house. “The Cleveland Cavaliers just offered me a full-time job and a house! A house! A house!” Ted Williams said while appearing on a morning radio show in Columbus called “ Dave and Jimmy.”

The plot thickens? More dead birds found in Sweden

I’m starting to think these mass bird, and fish deaths, are Twilight Zone material. See posts below.

Veterinarian refuses to speculate on cause of death but is investigating

“First, New Year's Eve fireworks were blamed in central Arkansas for making thousands of blackbirds confused, crashing into homes, cars and each other. Then 300 miles to the south in Louisiana, power lines likely killed about 450 birds, littering a highway near Baton Rouge.”

AND…

“To add to the mystery, 50-100 jackdaws, a bird species in the crow family, fell dead in central Sweden late Tuesday night, English-language Swedish news website The Local reported Wednesday.”

Okay…this is weird – more dead birds drop out of sky!

The birds are dropping out of the skies in Arkansas and now Louisiana, and officials are playing it off like it’s no big deal.

I don’t think Americans are as dumb as these officials would like to think. Someone knows something about what’s going on. If I had to guess, I’s say it’s some biological agent in the upper atmosphere. It kills what passes through it. Perhaps whatever deadly agent is there comes down to the ground for whatever reasons and that would account for the 100,000 dead fish that are littering the banks of the Arkansas River not far from the first dead bird occurrence. There’s more than meets the eye here…

Excerpt:  

“Some 500 dead and dying birds fell onto a Louisiana highway on Monday, just three days after a similar incident in Arkansas.

The events have led to speculation running from poisonings to "End of Days" scenarios, but a key federal agency emphasized that mass bird die-offs are not that rare.”

Most of the birds found on Louisiana Highway 1 near Point Coupee were red-winged blackbirds, as was the case in Beebe, Ark., some 360 miles away. The species is one of the most common in the United States, with a population estimated at up to 200 million.

United Nations Human Rights Council Exposes US Secret Detention Facilities

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New study claims Depression gene really exists

Analysis of research finds link between gene variant and susceptibility to stress

“The 2003 discovery of a gene variant that seems to predispose people to depression when stressed out created great excitement — and a flood of research — in the field of psychiatry. In 2009, however, an analysis of research on the gene threw cold water on that enthusiasm by finding no consistent link between the gene variant and depression.”