IS SURF STILL WORTH PURSUING IN AN AGE WHERE THE NEW FACES OF THE SPORT ARE JONAH HILL AND MARK ZUCKERBERG?

By JP Currie

The fact is this: in the dying days of 2021, surfing is about the most mainstream thing you can do. So what to do? Adapt or die.

And so my hand has been forced.

I will not scroll idly by and watch BG reduced to a barge for sexagenarian surf tripe no-one gives a shit about.

This is a place where writing has lived. Maybe the last place online.

It is more than just a five-minute Google search of “surfing” in the dead après ski hour between canapés and cocktails.

It is more than the raving husk of someone who once worked for a vanished magazine that compiled advertisements for surf brands.

It should be the clear-eyed arbiter of surf culture; not the rheumy-eyed madman no-one cares about.


But is it worth it?

That’s the question.

Is surf still worth pursuing in an age where the new faces of the sport are Jonah Hill and Mark Zuckerberg?

I confess to periods of disillusionment, which will be a surprise to no-one.

Please don’t mistake this for being angry, or jaded. If it were the 7 Stages of Grief I’m on the upward turn towards reconstruction. If not quite hopeful, at least not misty-eyed.

A friend sent me a clip of what I missed at one of our locals the other day.

“The adult beginner pandemic” he called it. Busier than the middle of summer. Ten people attempting to straight hand every wave. Big blue boards flying.


Normally when he sends me clips of missed surf I get pangs of guilt, envy.

But I felt…vindicated?

But I’m not here to gleefully dismember surfing, rather I’d like to consider a more evolved way of thinking about it.

The fact is this: in the dying days of 2021, surfing is about the most mainstream thing you can do.

A “surfer” now is both everyone and no-one you know.

We live in a culture of generalists. Specialised knowledge and deep learning is a thing of the past. We all know a little about everything. Our capacity to retain information is both degraded but bolstered by the GBs in our pockets.

Yet broad swathes of knowledge are perfectly acceptable, even desirable. Flexibility is the ideal.


The same dilution has happened with surfing. Our lives of leisure, choice and comfort allow us to dabble in things formerly reserved for specialists, or those prepared to work for it. Everyone’s an expert now. They might not be an expert in your eyes, but they’re still a surfer, because for them mediocrity and cursory knowledge and/or skill is the norm.

When I saw Jack Dorsey Tweet about surf films and truth last week I felt that was a bellwether of our time. Or perhaps a death knell.

You see, Jack Dorsey is not Mark Zuckerberg.

Where Zuck is the zinc-faced sniveller that no-one liked at school; Dorsey is the geek that didn’t give a fuck and probably transcended cool.

He’s the tech bros tech bro. People trust him. People listen to him.

When he merges surfing and truth in a pithy Tweet to six million-plus followers, you’d better believe the foxes are in the coop.

And I know that this argument has resounded through every generation, particularly the nineties when surf fashion became high street fashion.


But things are truly different now.

People are different.

Spheres of influence are vastly different.

The ability for one voice to reach millions of people makes a mockery of glossy ads in print magazines seen by a few thousand.

Face it: you (if “you” are “the core”) are outnumbered and overrun.

The surf press has no impact, because it doesn’t exist. Have you ever wondered who those thousands of strangers discussing surfing on YouTube and Reddit are? They’re the surfers now. They control the narrative.

You’re just a relic, sat on a sinking barge, listening to old magazine editors sing shanties no-one understands as you disappear beneath the waves.

So what to do? Adapt or die.

Be like Kai Lenny. Be like water. Evolve. Don’t treat surfing as some kind of idol. He has the sense to hold surfing at arm’s length. It’s just part of his portfolio. Worth a HODL, sure, but not worth blowing your whole wad on.

Alternatively, you can stand with Billy Kemper, beating your chest in surf-or-die machismo. Or drown with Ben Marcus and his brand of sexagenarian tangential surf tripe, or the other pensioners caw cawing below the line.

Personally I’m with Kai.

In 2022, surfing’s just another thing to do.

(P.S. SurfAds, if you ever feel like a rebel tour give me a shout. We’ll coerce Longtom back. Maybe persuade Derek to jump ship, too, just to fluff us up a bit. I hear Dorsey’s looking for a passion project to fund. And hey @Jack, get me on @JP_Currie. Happy to talk about ghost-writing that memoir, too).

The Zuckerbergs just bought more land on Kauai, including the site of a deadly dam failure

By Associated Press
Published: Dec. 28, 2021 

HONOLULU (AP) — Billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has purchased more property in Hawaii, including most of a reservoir that unleashed a deadly flood 15 years ago.

Property records show Zuckerberg’s Kaloko LLC bought a 110-acre site on Kauai last month for $17 million from a company owned by the Pflueger family, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

The purchase includes most of a reservoir that flooded in 2006, killing seven people, after a section of a dam burst following 40 days of near-constant rain. James Pflueger was held responsible for the tragedy for his management of the dam.

Pflueger was sentenced by a state judge to seven months in jail in 2014 and was released in 2015. He died in 2017 at the age of 91

Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chang are committed to doing their part of fulfilling legal requirements and promoting safety of the reservoir, said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the couple.

The reservoir remains unrepaired and on the state’s list of high-risk dams.

The couple plan to extend farming, ranching, conservation and wildlife protection work on the land, LaBolt said. They already had 1,300 acres (526 hectares) on the island.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Mark Zuckerberg adds 110 acres to controversial 1,500-acre Hawaii estate

The $17m purchase for the Facebook founder includes the Ka Loko reservoir, considered high-risk and in need of repairs

Maya Yang
Tue 28 Dec 2021


Mark Zuckerberg has added 110 acres to his controversial 1,500-acre estate in Kauai, Hawaii, dropping $17m for the purchase.

The 110 acres of land that the Facebook founder and his wife recently bought includes the Ka Loko reservoir, a century-old reservoir whose dam broke in 2006 and released 400m gallons of water that killed seven people on Kauai’s north shore.

According to the couple’s spokesperson Ben Labolt, the reservoir is considered high-risk and has not been repaired. The Zuckerbergs are committed to fulfilling the legal requirements surrounding the reservoir, Labolt told Business Insider.

“Mark and Priscilla continue to make their home at Ko’olau Ranch,” Labolt said. He added that they had “worked closely with a number of community partners to operate a working ranch, promote conservation, produce sustainable agriculture and protect wildlife and look forward to expanding their efforts to include this additional property”.

Zuckerberg’s recent purchase comes after two previous acquisitions - a $100m 750-acre purchase made in late 2014 and a $53m 600-acre purchase made in March that includes a public beach and working cattle ranch.

Zuckerberg’s massive estate has met with criticism and controversy in the past. In 2016, Zuckerberg angered neighbors when he constructed a 6ft stone wall around his property that blocked easy access to Pila’a Beach, in an attempt to decrease highway and road noise.

Pila’a Beach, center, shown in 2017, sits below hillside and ridgetop land owned by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the north shore of Kauai in Hawaii.
Photograph: Ron Kosen/AP

Then in early 2017, Zuckerberg’s lawyers filed lawsuits against hundreds of local Hawaiians who may own an interest in small pockets within his estate’s boundaries. The “quiet title” suits are used to clarify the often complicated history of land ownership in the state and can often force owners to auction off their lands. In certain cases, defendants are even required to pay the legal fees of the plaintiff – in this case, the world’s fifth richest man.

“This is the face of neocolonialism,” said Kapua Sproat, a law professor at the University of Hawaii to the Guardian in 2017. “Even though a forced sale may not physically displace people, it’s the last nail in the coffin of separating us from the land.”

“For us, as native Hawaiians, the land is an ancestor. It’s a grandparent … You just don’t sell your grandmother,” Sproat added.

Zuckerberg eventually dropped the suit, saying that he and his wife wanted to “make this right, talk with the community, and find a better approach”. The pockets of land were eventually sold at an auction.

Along with his Hawaii estate, Zuckerberg owns a total of roughly 1,400 acres and 10 houses in Palo Alto, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, amounting to a $320m real estate portfolio.

ZUCKERBERG BUYS THE LAND THAT WRECKED THE REEF THAT DROWNED THE PEOPLE THAT SCARED GRUBBY CLARK INTO DECLARING BLANK MONDAY SO NOW YOU GOTTA RIDE EPOXY!


By Ben Marcus

Facebook founder linked to land that, in a roundabout way, brought the surf industry to its knees in 2006.

The world’s fifth-richest man and BFF of world’s first best waterman Kai Lenny, Mark Zuckerberg, has dramatically increased his landholdings in Hawaii, buying a 110-acre site on Kauai for $17 million from a company owned by the Pflueger family.

The purchase, reports KITV, “includes most of a reservoir that broke in 2006 and killed seven people. James Pflueger was held responsible for the tragedy for his management of the dam, a section of which burst following 40 days of near constant rain. Pflueger was sentenced by a state judge to seven months in jail in 2014 and was released in 2015. He died in 2017 at the age of 91.

“Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chang are committed to doing their part of fulfilling legal requirements and promoting safety of the reservoir, said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the couple.

“The reservoir remains unrepaired and on the state’s list of high-risk dams.

“The couple plan to extend farming, ranching, conservation and wildlife protection work on the land, LaBolt said. They already had 1,300 acres (526 hectares) on the island.”

So what?

So nothing!

So what we have here is six degrees of surf adjacency: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are paying $17 million for the land that includes a reservoir that collapsed in 2006 that killed seven people and led to a tsunami-sized lawsuit that was one of the factors to inspire Grubby Clark to sell Clark Foam.

Too much?

Let’s back up.

According to Tsunami from the Mountain Crashes Through Kauai Town by Malia Zimmerman in The Hawaii Report for March 15, 2006:

Devastated — that is how residents in Kilauea on Kauai’s North Shore said they felt early Tuesday after a 70-foot high, 200-foot wide “tsunami” wave that sounded like thunder, came crashing down from the mountain around 5 a.m., washing through homes and dragging between three and eight people away.

The “thunder,” which residents say kept getting louder until they could hear nothing else, was actually more than 300 million gallons [20 Surf Ranches] of fresh water that raced toward the tiny beachside community from the mountain after several weeks of heavy rain caused the 116-year-old Kaloko Dam to breach its earth barrier.


A man was swept out to sea by what became a raging river — his body was found around noon in the river mouth leading to the ocean, according to the State Adjunct General Robert Lee. Between two and seven other people still are reported missing.

To be fair, the rainstorm that collapsed the dam was a then-Biblical, now legendary 40 days and 40 nights of rain that people still talk about in hushed tones.

An historic deluge.

In the end, eight or more homes were destroyed and seven people were killed, including Aurora Solveig Fehring, her husband Alan Gareth Dingwall, and their two-year-old son, Rowan Grey Makana Fehring-Dingwall. Christina Michelle McNees, who was seven months pregnant. Daniel Jay Arroyo, her fiancé who she was set to marry just hours later, also died along with Timothy Wendell Noonan, Jr., a friend of the Fehrings, and Carl Wayne Rotstein, the Fehring’s caretaker and business partner.

Zimmerman further reported:

According to numerous media reports and public record, Pflueger has a long history of manipulating the land on his North Shore property, which caused the state to pursue a criminal case against him, and area residents to sue him civilly for subsequent damage to their property.

Pflueger, 79, received the largest fine in state history for an environmental case, and one of the largest criminal fines ever in U.S history, when the 5th Circuit Court on Kauai ruled he knowingly violated water pollution laws and committed 10 felonies.


Pflueger also was ordered to pay $7.5 million in penalties for construction he initiated without proper Clean Water Act permits, including $2 million to the state and federal government, $5.3 million to stop further erosion to the land and for stream restoration and $200,000 to replace area cesspools. The repair to the environment was supposed to be completed by 2007.

Righteous bucks!

Pflueger dicking around with nature flooded property and wrecked a reef which is a huge no-no in Hawaii.

He was also held responsible for the dam breach.

According to (a fact-checked) Wikipedia:

The owner of the dam (James Pflueger) performed grading operations near the dam without permits and may have filled in the emergency spillway for the dam. Neither the current nor prior owners of the dam maintained the dam adequately. Finally, the County of Kauai knew about the unpermitted grading operation, but did not enforce a stop-work order.

On November 21, 2008, James Pflueger was indicted for manslaughter and reckless endangerment in relation to the dam failure. Pflueger’s lawyer claimed that the indictment was an attempt by the state of Hawaii to deflect its own responsibility in the matter.


On August 4, 2009, it was reported that a settlement between the parties of all civil cases has been agreed upon, pending judicial review. On July 17, 2013, Pflueger entered a plea of no contest to reckless endangering in a deal with prosecutors. In exchange for the plea, state prosecutors agreed to drop seven manslaughter counts.

The story goes on and on, with many twists and turns.

According to Pflueger Defaults on Settlement for Victims of His Ka Loko Dam Breach by Malia Zimmerman in Hawaii Reporter for September 9, 2011:

The civil suits were settled for an estimated $25 million in 2009, with another possible $25 million from an insurance company. Pflueger chose not to pay that settlement by the September 1, 2009 deadline: “Pflueger’s attorneys have told attorneys for the victims that Pfleuger does not have the money to pay his share of the undisclosed civil settlement, and that he would like a 2-year extension.”

The victims put a lien on the property, which included more than 384 acres along Pilaa Bay. But that property already had a $5,000,000 lien on it filed by Pflueger’s own family trust and another $4,000,000 lien from 2001 when Pflueger’s extensive illegal grading activities on the Pilaa property flowed 1,000 tons of mud into neighboring homes and properties and into once-pristine Pilaa Bay.

Is this why Hawaiians sometimes don’t like the haole? Maybe.

Oh what a tangled web that runs amok, when with nature we try to…

The Pflueger saga goes on and on with suits and countersuits and millions of dollars flying around like fruit bats.

So what?

So it was Pflueger getting his okole sued off by multiple parties for tens of millions of dollars that was at least partially responsible for Gordon Clark declaring *Blank Monday and closing Clark Foam without warning on December 5, 2006.

Grubby was worried about lawsuits from employees who had been cancerized by exposure to all those toxic chemicals and especially something called TDI that could have caused a Bhopal-class disaster in the once-vacant and deserty Orange County that had sprouted up around Clark’s formerly isolated factory.

And that’s why you’re still getting used to epoxy.

In a story called Blank Monday in The New Yorker for August 21, 2006 by surfing’s own Pulitzer-prize winning Bill Finnegan, we find the final piece of the puzzle that links mudslides to Clark Foam to Zuckerberg:

Then in the summer of 2005, Clark took a trip to China.

When he returned, he spoke to Luis Barajas, his wood-mill foreman. “He said, ‘Luis, they got us. They build an Orange County every couple of days,” Barajas told me.

Not long afterward, according to friends, Clark was in Hawaii, dirt-biking with Jimmy Pflueger, who is something of a local magnate on Kauai. During a break, Pflueger told Clark a story. He had got into trouble with the state and the E.P.A over some grading he’d done without a permit. There had been a rainstorm and a mudslide and a lot of dirt had ended up on a coral reef. The state fined him four million dollars.

The worst part, though, Pfleuer said, was the way the government calculated some fines, compounding sums daily by a formula that, given time, could break the Federal Reserve.

Clark flew back to California. He brooded all weekend, according to a friend. On Monday morning, December 5th, he went into Clark Foam and approached the first worker he saw pouring foam into a mold.

“That’s it,” he said. “That’s the last foam we pour.”

So what?

So that Kauai property with bad voodoo circling it like bats from a belfry, the property that flooded the reef and killed seven people and put a septuagenarian in prison for sept months and cost him millions which he may or may not have paid and inspired Grubby Clark to pull the plug, now belongs to Mark Zuckerberg.

This latest buy is Zuckerberg’s second for 2021.

In March, Zuck paid $53 mill for 600 acres of prime Kauai land included a public beach and a working cattle ranch, this on top of the 750 acres he bought in 2014.

Which could be good as Zuckerberg has way too much money and is way too high profile and too careful to ever flood a reef or drown people and get his ears sued into the stratosphere.

And Zuckerberg has the money to do right by that reservoir, and restore it to whatever nature intended.

And if Zuckerberg really wants to be a good neighbor he should turn some of that land into a working cattle ranch.

Hawaiians love cowboy work, boy howdy, whether it’s working from horses or throwing hay one-handed, two bales at a time, which they can surely do.

Even swimming cattle out off the beach to waiting boats, which they did a hundred years ago.

Hawaiians are natural cowboys and if Zuckerberg made some of that land into cattle land, and offered real paniolo jobs and riding opportunities to the kama’aina, they would love him.

Vivaldi opera gets premiere in Ferrara nearly 300 years late
By NICOLE WINFIELD

December 30, 2021

In this Dec. 29, 2021, photo provided by the Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, singers perform in Antonio Vivaldi's "Il Farnace" in Ferrara, Italy. The Catholic Church and the city of Ferrara are making their peace with Vivaldi nearly 300 years after the city's archbishop canceled the staging of one of his operas, sending the famed Baroque composer into debt for his final years in exile. The decision was hailed by the theater's artistic director Marcello Corvino as a "marvelous gesture" that helps heal the past and highlight one of Vivaldi's lesser-known works. 

(Marco Caselli Nirmal/Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara via AP)


ROME (AP) — The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara made their peace Thursday with Antonio Vivaldi nearly 300 years after the city’s archbishop effectively canceled the staging of one of his operas, sending the famed Baroque composer into debt for his final years in exile.

Ferrara Archbishop Giancarlo Perego attended the ceremony opening Vivaldi’s “Il Farnace” at the city’s public theater, a decision hailed by the theater’s artistic director as a “marvelous gesture” that helps heal the past and highlight one of Vivaldi’s lesser-known works.

“We want to restore to Vivaldi what was taken from him here in Ferrara,” Marcello Corvino told The Associated Press ahead of the premiere of “Il Farnace,” which tells the story of the tragic dynasty of King Pharnaces II.

According to historians, in the late 1730s, Ferrara Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo banned Vivaldi from the city because Vivaldi, an ordained Catholic priest, had stopped celebrating Mass and was said to be in a relationship with one of his singers, Anna Giro. The decision effectively meant the cancellation of the scheduled 1739 Carnival production of Vivaldi’s “Il Farnace,” which had already enjoyed success in Italy and beyond.

In reality, Vivaldi didn’t celebrate Mass because he had long suffered from respiratory problems, and his relationship with Giro was like that of any of a composer with his lead singer, while Giro also served as something of a nursemaid to the sickly composer.

The cancellation proved financially disastrous for Vivaldi, Corvino said, since he had paid for the production himself ahead of time and was already experiencing a period of decline as his instrumental works had fallen out of favor.

Vivaldi went into debt and died in 1741 in Vienna. Only after his manuscripts were rediscovered did he earn posthumous fame for “The Four Seasons” and other concertos.

Massimo Faggioli, a Ferrara-born church historian and theologian, said Vivaldi like other artists of his era had enjoyed much more artistic freedom in his native Venice than in places like Ferrara, which had been part of the papal states and under the authority of the pope.

“Vivaldi got away with a lot of things in his life, but at a certain point he couldn’t avoid the Vatican controlled or church controlled culture,” Faggioli said.

Federico Maria Sardelli, a Vivaldi expert who is conducting the opera, said that after Cardinal Ruffo prohibited the Venetian composer from entering Ferrara, Vivaldi initially tried to score the production from afar. He wrote down explicit stage directions as well as expressive and interpretative notations that he normally would have given his singers in person.

Those notations remain in the manuscript prepared for the Ferrara production, which was never staged. Those notations provided guidance for the opera opening Thursday for a two-night run, Sardelli said.

“We have this treasure, this score, which is a mirror of Vivaldi’s process,” he said. “He wrote incredible things that no Baroque composer ever wrote in a score because they would say it in person. We have the fortune of having the voice of Vivaldi written down on this score.”

At a conference Thursday at the theater before the premiere, Sardelli gave the current Ferrara archbishop, Perego, a bound copy of the score.

“With this gesture, we want to heal a fracture that needed to be healed,” Sardelli said.

Perego, for his part, accepted the score and admitted that Cardinal Ruffo had taken a decision against Vivaldi that was based on rumor rather than fact. He noted that even Vivaldi’s parish priest had attested to the “morality” of the priest-composer in a letter to Ruffo and that Giro was known to be a woman of “virtue and faith.”

While insisting Ruffo had merely sought to promote “public morality,” Perego said the lesson of Vivaldi, “Il Farnace” and Ferrara was one that Pope Francis often makes: “The tongue kills more than the sword.”

GOOD NEWS ENDS 2021

Ozone layer hole that was once larger than Antarctica has finally closed

Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc
Thu, December 30, 2021

Ozone layer hole that was once larger than Antarctica has finally closed

Scientists from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) are ending 2021 with an announcement worth celebrating: the 2021 Antarctic ozone hole has finally closed.

This ozone hole was once larger than Antarctica and reached its maximum size on October 7th. It is the 13th largest since 1979 and closed later than 95 per cent of all ozone holes that have been tracked since 1979, one year after the Montreal Protocol was signed.

The ozone hole over Antarctica at its peak on October 7, 2021. (NASA Ozone Watch)

The Montreal Protocol is often cited as one of the most successful political initiatives aimed at protecting the environment. The agreement, which is signed by 197 countries, regulates the production and use of dozens of human-created chemicals that are ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and bans particularly damaging chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

CFCs were gases used in refrigerators and aerosol sprays in the 1960s and 70s before scientists discovered they were linked to a thinning region in the ozone layer over Antarctica.

A thinning ozone layer allows more UV rays from the Sun to flow through Earth’s stratosphere, which can be a dangerous risk to human health. The U.N. estimates that the Montreal Protocol has prevented millions of additional cases of melanoma, other cancers, and eye cataracts.

Scientists estimate that the ozone layer could recover by mid-century, but there are still areas in the ozone layer that are thinning and holes that have struggled to close. However, scientists have stated that certain conditions and patterns within the Earth’s atmosphere have contributed to some thinner regions and holes in the ozone layer, such as the one that recently closed over Antarctica.

“This [was] a large ozone hole because of the colder than average 2021 stratospheric conditions, and without a Montreal Protocol, it would have been much larger,” stated Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in an article published by NASA.

Many ozone holes in the 1990s and early 2000s were significantly larger than the 2021 ozone hole in terms of average ozone hole area from early September to mid-October. (NASA’s Earth Observatory/ Joshua Stevens)

Many ozone holes in the 1990s and early 2000s were significantly larger than the 2021 ozone hole in terms of average ozone hole area from early September to mid-October. (NASA’s Earth Observatory/ Joshua Stevens)

The Southern Hemisphere experienced an abnormally cold winter, with Antarctica seeing a record-breaking average temperature of -60.9°C from April through September, and strong persistent winds in the stratosphere, which led to a deep and larger-than-average ozone hole.

NASA stated that even though the 2021 Antarctic ozone hole was larger than average, it was “substantially smaller” than those recorded in the late 1990s and early 200s.

“If atmospheric chlorine levels from CFCs were as high today as they were in the early 2000s, this year’s ozone hole would have been larger by about 1.5 million square miles (about four million square kilometres) under the same weather conditions,” NASA stated.

Thumbnail credit: Adastra/ The Image Bank/ Getty Images

Terrifying video shows moment man is struck by lightning

Monica Danielle
Thu, December 30, 2021

A security guard in Indonesia is lucky to be alive after he miraculously survived a lightning strike earlier this month.

Abdul Rosyid, 35, was on patrol as rain fell at a depot in the coastal town of Cilincing in North Jakarta, Indonesia, on Dec. 20. As Rosyid was walking, a bolt of lightning struck his umbrella out of nowhere.

CCTV footage captured the moment lightning zapped the umbrella Rosyid was holding. The lightning instantly vaporized the umbrella and created an explosion of sparks, knocking Rosyid to the ground. The footage of the incident can be seen at the top of this story but can be difficult to watch.



These images show the security guard seconds before the strike and the moment he is struck by the bolt of lightning. (Photo credit: Newsflare)

The security guard lay motionless after being shocked as his coworkers rushed to his side and transported him to a nearby hospital where he was treated for burns to the hand that was holding the umbrella. Amazingly, he was discharged after just four days.

The incident brings up a popular myth that warns holding an umbrella attracts lightning. As explained in an article published by Real Simple, which debunked the myth with the help of National Weather Service Meteorologist and Lightning Safety Expert John Jensenius, metal doesn't attract lightning, but it can conduct lightning.

The electric discharge from the clouds can travel through the metal rod of the umbrella, resulting in the electric discharge to the person carrying it. As noted, in Real Simple, "Metal doesn't attract lightning. Even a lightning rod doesn't, it can only conduct lightning, should a bolt happen to strike nearby. People who are zapped while holding a golf club or listening to an iPod are just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Lightning is caused by electrical imbalances between the clouds and the ground. About 100 cloud-to-ground bolts strike the Earth every second, with each bolt containing up to a billion volts of electricity. The danger of a lightning strike depends on many factors, including where a person is when struck or even the amount of water on the person's skin. When lightning strikes someone, most of the current flashes across the surface of a person's skin, with only a small fraction entering someone's body.

"It's such an overwhelming amount of energy that not all of it can go through the person," Jensenius previously told AccuWeather. "It's like taking a gallon bucket of water and in three seconds trying to pour it all through a straw."

The actual risk of being struck by lightning is very low, with odds being set at one in 15,300 of a person being hit in their lifetime (estimated at 80 years), according to the NWS. Experts recommend remaining vigilant and taking proper safety precautions when lightning is a risk in your area.

For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.

BAN LEG HOLD TRAPS
Rare leopard captured in northern Iraq

Issued on: 31/12/2021 

The big cat sustained a wound to its back leg when it was caught in a trap Ismael 

Dohuk (Iraq) (AFP) – An endangered leopard captured in Iraq's mountainous north had its hind leg amputated on Friday following a trap-inflicted wound, an AFP photographer said.

The Persian leopard, taken in a day earlier in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region near the border with Turkey, had injured two people, said Colonel Jamal Saado, head of the environmental protection police in Dohuk province.

Residents of a village near the town of Zakho lost around 20 sheep before realising a leopard was attacking their flocks, he said.

The big cat sustained a wound to its back leg when it was caught in a shepherd's trap, but managed to escape before villagers helped police track it down.

Saado said the leopard was given anaesthetic before it was captured.

"We had two or three similar cases in Arbil province" several years ago, he said, adding that an animal of the same subspecies had previously been found dead near a village in Dohuk province.

Persian leopards are a panther sub-species native to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus.

They are extremely rare and have been listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Fewer than 1,000 are believed to exist in the wild, with another 200 in captivity.

Veterinarian Soleiman Tamr, who conducted the amputation at Dohuk zoo on Friday, said the animal weighed around 90-100 kilogrammes (200-220 pounds).

"We will monitor it for a long time," said the vet, who also heads an animal protection society in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"If it can't be returned to the wild, it will live at the zoo," he said.

Rare Endangered Persian Panther Captured in Iraq

31 December 2021n

Duhok (Iraq) - A Persian panther, one of the subspecies of leopards native to western Asia, has been captured in northern Iraq, local media reported Friday.

Considered "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with less than a thousand specimens in the world, this feline was captured in a mountainous region in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The animal, which is about five years old and weighs between 90 and 100 kilos, had to have a leg amputated after being injured by a trap set for its capture, according to Souleiman Tamr, a veterinarian at Dohuk Zoo.

The panther was being hunted by environmental protection authorities because it had allegedly killed about 20 sheep near Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan, said Colonel Jamal Saado, head of the environmental protection police in Dohuk province.

A trap set by a shepherd injured the leopard, which managed to escape and wounded two villagers, he added, noting that the animal was eventually found by police with the help of villagers and was captured on Thursday.

"It was injured in the leg, we gave it two or three doses of anesthetics to capture it," Colonel Saado added.

Persian panthers are found in an area covering the Caucasus, Iran and Afghanistan among others.

THEY MAKE EM MEAN IN WALES
Welsh squirrel bites 18 people before being captured
By Megan Hadley

A neighborhood in North Wales has been terrorized by a squirrel that bit up to 18 people. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A squirrel named Stripe attacked 18 people in North Wales before being trapped and handed to the RSPCA.

Some residents in the Welsh Village were too scared to leave their homes after being attacked by the rodent, which left bite marks and scratches, requiring a few people to get tetanus shots.

The rampage lasted about two days, and had folks running down the street.

Stripe also bit several cats and dogs.

"This squirrel came out of nowhere, jumped on to my arm and bit me on my hand before I even had chance to get it off -- it all happened so quick," one resident said in The Guardian.

"He had five or six of my neighbors. He had me when collecting my recycling bags. He jumped out from behind my green bin. It had me good and proper. I've got teeth marks on the top and bottom of my finger. It latched on and I had to shake it off," another neighbor told the news outlet.

According to the RSPCA, they had no choice but to put the animal down.

"We were incredibly sad to have to put this squirrel to sleep but were left with no choice due to changes in legislation in 2019 making it illegal to release grey squirrels back into the wild," one spokesperson said.

DID EVERYONE GET THEIR RABIES SHOTS?

This is what an albino squirrel looks like
ARTICLE FAILS TO INCLUDE PICTURES!

Pete Warner, 
Bangor Daily News, Maine
Thu, December 30, 2021

Dec. 30—Doug and Christine Chadwick had an unexpected visitor at their home on Christmas morning.

The Chadwicks were treated to a rare sighting: an albino gray squirrel.

"It showed up at our bird feeder on Christmas morning. Quite a surprise and a really nice gift from Mother Nature," the Chadwicks said in an email.

It has been a gift that keeps on giving.

"It is really enjoyable watching it, as it has been coming every day since Christmas along with about 10 other squirrels," they said.

While many Maine wildlife sightings involving white or mostly white animals and birds are a treat, the squirrel appears to be special.

"Albinism and leucism are inherited conditions that are caused by lack or reduction of pigments in the skin, fur, feathers or scales [yes, birds and reptiles can be white, too!]," said Shevenell Webb, furbearer biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

"Albino animals tend to be completely white, whereas leucism can result in patchy white areas, pale colors, or the entire body being white," Webb said. "These conditions are difficult to tell apart, especially at a distance."

We recently published a photo of a piebald deer, one that was mostly white with some subtle patches of tan hair. And we also showed you Larry Gooding's video of a cow moose with a large patch of white fur along its back.

But the squirrel appears to be a true albino animal.

"It actually is a full albino because it does have pink eyes, even though they don't show up in the photos," the Chadwicks said. "This is the first one we have ever seen."

Webb said the eyes are the detail that makes the albino identification more definitive.

"Pink or pale eyes are a red flag for albino, whereas dark eye color points to leucism," Webb said.

Being an albino definitely has short-term advantages for the squirrel, but also poses some dangers.

"Camouflage is pretty good in the snow and we are hoping it survives after the snow leaves because we have several hawks and eagles in the area," the Chadwicks said.

Webb agreed that the lack of pigmentation likely could be problematic for the squirrel next spring.

"Most animals have fur or feathers that provide camouflage with their environment. The white squirrel may match his snowy background now, but being white is a big disadvantage to hide from predators during other times of year," Webb said.

We greatly appreciate Doug and Christine Chadwick sending along the photos of the albino squirrel and many thanks to Shevenell Webb for continuing to enlighten us about Maine wildlife!

SO HERE YA GO...

Demystifying the Illusive White Squirrel

4/15/2019

 

For many of us on the West Coast of North America the existence of a white squirrel is difficult to imagine, but it is not as uncommon as you may think! Populations of white squirrels can be found in places across the United States and sightings of these mystical creatures are becoming more common.  🦄🐿👀

​The white squirrels we see in North America are the result of various rare genetic variants or mutations. However, in Thailand and other parts of East Asia there is a sub-species of tree squirrel, the Finlayson's squirrel (Callosciurus finlaysonii), in which a white coat is characteristic of the species. White coats may be common place amongst this group, but broadly speaking it is still a vary rare squirrel color. There are over 200 species of squirrels and only one subspecies is found to have white as a primary color morph! 🌈🐿

Finlayson's squirrel (Callosciurus finlaysonii)

There are two primary forms of white squirrels in the United States- albino squirrels and a rare morph of the eastern grey squirrel. ​

The easiest way to know if the white squirrel you spotted is albino or a rare morph is by its eye color. Albino squirrels are completely white with red or pink eyes.  This unique eye color is found in all albino animals and is a result of a lack of melanin​ pigments that produce eye and coat color. Albinism is a genetic condition caused by a recessive gene. This means that both the mom and dad squirrel have to be carriers of this gene in order to produce albino offspring. This is what makes it so rare!  It is estimated that 20-30% of white squirrels in North America are albino.

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The rare white morph of the eastern grey squirrel has black eyes and can have a mix of white and grey coat. Similar to albino squirrels, white eastern grey squirrels owe their unique coat color to their genes. But, unlike albino squirrels who have a mutation on the gene coding for pigmentation, western grey squirrels actually have a gene that codes for a white coat! Despite having this 'white coat' gene, it still only occurs very rarely because being so brightly colored makes a squirrel less able to blend in amongst the trees and thus more visible to predators.
​
Here are some examples of the diversity seen amongst white morph squirrels:  ​

Squirrels that are white due to this white coat color gene are more common than albino squirrels and account for roughly 70% of the white squirrel population in the United States. 

Lastly, if you know me you know I have a special affinity for the eastern fox squirrel. 🐿💕💁🏻‍♀️ White coat color has also been spotted in these guys. However, fox squirrels do not have the gene that western grey squirrels have that codes for a white coat. White eastern fox squirrels occur due to a condition called leucism. Unlike the mutation that causes albinism which prevents the production of melanin, leucism is caused by a decrease in several different types of pigments. Fox squirrels with leucism will not have pink or red eyes but may have patches of white or pale fur. 

Take a look! 👀

​Where can you see a white squirrel? 🐿👀

Catching sight of these rare variations of squirrels is tough unless you know where to find them. There are five main cities that claim to be the official ‘home of the white squirrel’. 
1. Olney, Illinois
2. Marionville, Missouri 
3. Brevard, North Carolina 
4. Exeter, Ontario Canada 
5. Kenton, Tennessee
​
Traveling to one of these locations will greatly increase the success of your white squirrel sighting adventure! 

Below is map of sightings in the United States created by researcher Rob Nelson and Roland Kays a zoologist at North Carolina State University. You can help them keep track of white squirrel populations by logging your sightings! 

Log Your White Squirrel Sightings Here! 

​Want to learn more about white squirrels? Check out this video from the awesome biologists at Untamed Science  and their white squirrel sighting adventure across the Eastern United States! 

SOUTH CAROLINA
Midlands keep shaking as seventh quake is confirmed. Here’s when, where the latest hit.

David Travis Bland
Fri, December 31, 2021

United States seismologists confirmed that the Midlands had its seventh earthquake in four days Thursday afternoon.

The 2.4 magnitude earthquake happened around 2:15 p.m, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Like the six other quakes, its epicenter was near Elgin about 20 miles from Columbia.

The first earthquake in the recent string happened Dec. 27. With magnitudes of 2.5 or less, most of the earthquakes have been minor. Thursday afternoon’s quake was the second of the day. The first occurred about 7 a.m.

Tremors might not even be felt with magnitudes of 2.5 or less though they are picked up by seismic activity detecting devices. But over the last four days people have reported feeling their homes shake and hearing loud booms caused by the quakes.

The first quake on Dec. 27 reached 3.3 magnitude which is still relatively weak, according to seismologists. Anything less than 5.5 isn’t likely to cause damage.

Seismologist say that earthquakes can happen in clusters.

This map from the USGS shows a cluster of earthquakes that have happened in the Midlands in late December.

England hospital staff absences double as virus surges


NHS England has already started building temporary field hospitals to contain a possible overspill of inpatients if beds in main hospitals become full

 (AFP/JUSTIN TALLIS)

Fri, December 31, 2021

Hospital staff absences due to Covid have more than doubled in a month in England as the virus surge puts strain on beds, according to data published Friday.

The number of hospital staff ill or self-isolating due to the virus rose from 11,375 on November 29 to 24,362 on December 26, NHS England said.

The "sharply increasing staff absences" coincide with "a 10-month high for the number of patients," warned national medical director Stephen Powis.

The number of patients in hospital with Covid in the UK reached 11,898 on Wednesday, the highest level since early March, and a rise of 40 percent in a week.

"We don't yet know the full scale of rising omicron cases," Powis acknowledged.

The National Health Service (NHS) "is on a war footing and staff remain braced for the worst," he added.

The UK is one of Europe's worst-hit countries with a death toll of 148,421. It reported 189, 846 new cases on Friday, slightly above Thursday's figure and a new record.

NHS England reported that only 67 percent of Covid patients were receiving treatment primarily for the virus, however, with others testing positive after being admitted with other conditions..

NHS England has already started building temporary field hospitals to contain a possible overspill of inpatients if beds in main hospitals become full.

It plans to make available as many as 4,000 "super-surge beds", in some cases using existing hospital facilities such as gyms or education centres.

It is also trying to free up hospital beds by sending medically fit patients to care homes, hospices and even hotels.

Despite the surge in cases, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has opted not to increase virus curbs over the festive period in England, unlike the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The prime minister is focusing on encouraging the public to take up booster jabs, so far administered to more than 33 million.

In a New Year's Eve message he urged people to "make it your New Year's resolution -- far easier than losing weight or keeping a diary."

The UK medical regulator MHRA also announced Friday that it has approved Pfizer's new antiviral pill for over-18s.

The Paxlovid pill for high-risk people with Covid was authorised last week by the US Food and Drug Administration for those aged 12 and over.

Pfizer says clinical trials prove the pill reduces hospitalisation and deaths among at-risk people by almost 90 percent.

The UK government announced earlier this month that it had signed deals to buy more than 4 million courses of Pfizer's Paxlovid and US rival Merck/MSD's molnupiravir.

am/pvh