A tortoiseshell tabby named Towser allegedly killed 28,899 mice in 21 years. See more pictures of cats. Some people are cat people. They take pictures of their cats, tell stories about their cats, and feed their cats designer food. For a cat lover, even the most unremarkable cat is special, but the following cats have been singled out for extra-noteworthy achievements or distinctions. 1. Cat Most in Need of a Babysitter: Bluebell Bluebell, a Persian cat from South Africa, gave birth to 14 kittens in one litter. She holds the record for having the most kittens at once, with all of her offspring surviving -- rare for a litter so large. 2. Most Aloof Cat: Big Boy When Hurricane George hit Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1998, Big Boy was blown up into a big oak tree. In 2001, Big Boy's owner claimed the cat never left the tree. The feline eats, sleeps, and eliminates in the tree and climbs from branch to branch for exercise. 3. Big Mama: Dusty In 1952, a seemingly ordinary tabby cat gave … [Read more...] about 9 Top Cats
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Can FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund Ever Run Out of Money?
FEMA Corp members load water and cots into truck trailers at the Atlanta Distribution Center in anticipation of Hurricane Matthew, Atlanta, Georgia, in October 2016. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images After Hurricane Harvey left the city of Houston badly battered and flooded in August 2017, and a second hurricane called Irma was poised to wreak similar devastation upon Florida, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) revealed that its $6 billion Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) was down to its last $1 billion or so. Following disastrous flooding due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA deployed shelter trailers to the Gulf Coast, where thousands of evacuees were still living in tents in 2006. Marianne Todd/Getty Images That led to alarming headlines such as "FEMA could run out of cash this weekend" and "FEMA is Expected to Run Out of Money by Friday," and possibly raised public fears that the multi-faceted relief effort financed by the relief fund — which pays for … [Read more...] about Can FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund Ever Run Out of Money?
Do We Need a Category 6 for Hurricanes?
Absurdly powerful storms like Irma, pictured here slamming into Fort Myers, Florida, on Sept. 10, 2018, have led some to wonder if the Saffir-Simpson scale is still an adequate measure of the destructive potential of hurricanes. Spencer Platt/Getty Images When Hurricane Irma roared across the Atlantic in September 2017, it became the most powerful hurricane to form outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Irma was a monster Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 miles (298 kilometers) per hour. Irma cut a deadly path, devastating a small string of Caribbean islands and a chunk of the Southeastern United States. As Irma pounded the region with ferocious wind, high surf and flooding rain, some scientists renewed their calls to change the Saffir-Simpson scale to account for the emergence of these so-called "super hurricanes." Scientists use the Saffir-Simpson scale as a yardstick to measure the destructive potential of hurricanes. The scale begins with Category 1, the … [Read more...] about Do We Need a Category 6 for Hurricanes?
What Hurricane Categories Really Mean
Hurricane Irma was the strongest hurricane to ever form in the open Atlantic. It was able to sustain winds of 185 mph (297 kph) for 35 hours. NOAA When hurricane season arrives each year on June 1, phrases such as "storm surge," "wind speed," and "eyewall" suddenly become part of the summer lexicon in the United States. But probably the most important words to know about a hurricane are those that describe its power — and those include whether it's a Category 1 or a Category 5. The variance between the strengths of these two storms could mean the difference between life and death. Meteorologists rank hurricanes from one to five based on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The scale is a yardstick that takes into account a hurricane's wind speed, storm surge and air pressure. The scale begins with a Category 1, the least powerful and dangerous hurricane, and moves towards its climax at Category 5 — the most catastrophic. But how did the Saffir-Simpson scale come to be, and what … [Read more...] about What Hurricane Categories Really Mean
Weather Bombs Are Spectacularly Destructive
This photo was taken on Dec. 10, 2014, during a weather bomb that hit the U.K. This wave was smashing into Blackpool, which is situated on England's northwest coast. Waves as high as 40 feet (12 meters) battered the U.K., which also faced serious winds... Jonathan Nicholson/NurPhoto via Getty Images Scientists in Japan may have stumbled on a window to deep-Earth. In a study recently published in the journal Science, researchers traced a rare type of seismic activity detected in Japan in 2014 to a "weather bomb" on the other side of the planet. According to the authors, as the storm pounded the North Atlantic, it generated S-waves, a kind of faint Earth tremor never detected before, that registered in Japan. The authors suggest weather bombs may help us map deep-Earth and better recognize activity preceding earthquakes. If true, this might be the first upside to the weather bomb. The bomb phenomenon, known as "bombogenesis" (seriously), occurs in extratropical cyclones, … [Read more...] about Weather Bombs Are Spectacularly Destructive