How climate change is altering Earth's cloud cover and other top stories.

• How climate change is altering Earth's cloud cover

  

  Nicknamed the wild cards of climate change, clouds have evaded most scientists’ attempts to nail down their long-term patterns. But one team just found some answers.An innovative study published Monday in Nature pieces together vaporous cloud data, providing the first credible demonstration that the cloud changes scientists expected from climate change are really happening and could speed up global warming.An analysis of satellite data between 1983 and 2009 reveals that cloud tops are reaching ..

  >> view original



• An Account of The Algal Affliction in Florida

  

  Anyone who has experienced algal blooms knows how troublesome they can be. The appearance of a thick, green eyesore is just the beginning. The air becomes putrid and unbearable for humans while aquatic life is put into a potential life-or-death situation due to a variety of toxins. Unfortunately, for residents of South Florida, algal blooms have become a regular part of daily existence. Last week’s declaration of a State of Emergency in two counties may have put the issue in national headlines; ..

  >> view original



• 9-year-old girl catches record fish weighing 94.6 pounds

  

  A 9-year-old girl has set a new Maryland fishing record after catching a 94.6-pound cobia. The Daily Times of Salisbury reports that Emma Zajdel of Ocean City caught the fish on June 30 while fishing with family and friends at Little Gull Shoals near Assateague Island.  Zajdel says she struggled for about 20 minutes to reel in the fish, which she originally thought was a shark. After catching the fish, Zajdel kept it iced overnight before taking it to a certified scale, where a fisheries biolog..

  >> view original



• Here's What Explains the 'Morse Code' on Mars

  

  At last the evidence is in and no one can deny it any longer: There is intelligent life on Mars, it’s sending us a message and that message is: “Zrrmgc tflmtip brzzzz.” OK, so maybe it’s not so intelligent at all. The “message,” to the extent it exists, is a series of dots and dashes on the Martian surface photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, that looks for all the world as if it’s written in Morse Code—even if that code would be gibberish when translated. All the same, it’s strik..

  >> view original



• Scientists unearthed a trove of 700-year-old stone tools — used by monkeys

  

  New archaeological evidence suggests that Brazilian capuchin monkeys have been using stone tools to crack open nuts for at least 700 years. (University of Oxford) The sound can be heard from a distance. Bang, bang, bang! Clack, clack, clack! Hairy little arms raise a stone, then bring it down with force on a cashew still in its sack of tough skin and toxic resin. The sound echoes as the stone smashes the nut on a bigger stone used as an anvil. A hungry capuchin monkey wants the meal contai..

  >> view original

Jersey City anti-violence demonstrators thrown off private Downtown ... .	Gap's June results excite investors but analysts remain wary .
Jersey City Deputy Fire Chief dies after 37 years of service .	Jersey City mural flap illustrates complications when government ... .