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Mount Etna 
, Europe's tallest and most active volcano, spews lava on the southern Italian island of Sicily September 4, 2007. Even though it is said that there is no direct danger to villages lower down on the slopes, I am still concerned them very much.
Source: Mount Etna spews lava on island of Sicily @ Chinadaily
From the website: A tornado sweeps across Nebulae Lake in Jiangchuan County in southwestern Yunnan Province on Monday [Sept. 3]. The waterspout rotated columns of air and moved over the lake surface, a peculiar phenomenon called "Dragon drinks water" in China.
The similar phenomenon previously was also seen in Singapore in May.
Source: Tornado spotted in Yunnan @ Shanghai Daily
A little cat with six ears was recently found at the Russia' Rostov-on-Don city. The kitten is nothing special other than the 4 extra ears which were found no any functions. Veterinarians said the congenital defects of this six-eared kitten may be caused by environmental pollution or gene mutations. Source: QQ
From Wikipedia:
The Siamang
(Symphalangus syndactylus) is an arboreal, black furred gibbon native to the forests of Malaysia, Thailand, and Sumatra. The largest of the lesser apes, the siamang can be twice the size of other gibbons, reaching 1 m in height, and weighing up to 23 kg. The Siamang is the only species in the genus Symphalangus.
The Siamang is distinctive for two reasons. The first is that two fingers on each hand are fused together (hence the name "syndactylus"). The second is the large "gular sac" (found in the male of the species), which is a throat pouch that can be inflated to the size of its head, allowing the Siamang to make loud resonating calls or songs.
From the website
This NOAA satellite image taken at 2:45 a.m. EDT Sunday Sept. 2, 2007 shows Hurricane Felix
Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico. Veterinarian Travis Schaar of the Main Street Animal Hospital believes it as a strange breed of dog. But when the mysterious mammal with big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin turned up at Phylis Canion's ranch in Cuero, Texas, it did cause a stir there. Make sure check out the interesting AP full story with three demonstrating pictures.
Eric Tan, one of the students who designed and constructed the first Philippine solar-powered car
A prolonged period of dry weather has hit Indonesia's South Sulawesi province where should, otherwise, have received abundant tropical raindrops. Source: Xinhua
A grass snake called Sid, has taken to eating goldfish more than ten times the size of his head for dinner in the pond of the couple of Valerie and Raymond Bell in Appledore, near Ashford in Kent, UK. Luckily, the fish still survived after its master rapped the snake on the nose with a bean pole. Anyway, I am grieved for such a pity goldfish! Source: Dailymail
Before the largest grizzly bear was killed by an employee working for the US Forest service in Alaska using his 7mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle in 2005, it had just killed and ate at least two humans in the past 72 hours. This world's largest bear measured over one thousand six hundred pounds and stood 12′ 6″ high at the shoulder, 14′ to the top of his head. Instead let its employee keep this largest bear as a trophy, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission has made it into a giant specimen and placed on display at the Anchorage Airport to remind tourists of the risks involved when in the wild. Link to Ryan's Blog for the full story.
Spider Web Engulfs Texas Park Trail! An unusual monster spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail at Lake Tawakoni State Park in North Texas.
Now it's filled with millions of mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.
A Texas Forest Service entomologist said the massive web is very unusual and "from what I'm hearing it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event!"
Source: CNN Picture: Startelegram
Due to problems in the drainage system, a road in the Xiangcheng District of Suzhou City in China was flooded during a rainstorn day on August 29. The picture shows a creative boy was paddling a "boat" made of empty plastic bottles along the street by making fun of floods. Source: Chinadaily
It's excited when knowing Safeway Homes that can withstand hurricane force winds! Let's take a look at some of the special features that Safeway Homes can offer Safeway Homes have a special roof cap system which means that any Safeway Homes can be weather tight in only a few hours. As there is usually a few days notice if a hurricane is coming, then Safeway Homes can easily be made ready to protect you and your family in that time.It is so great, especially for the people living in hurricane risk areas! LinkSafeway Homes also are built to be capable for standing 150 mph winds, so Safeway Homes should be okay in the event of a hurricane.
A claimed 7000-carat diamond was unearthed in South Africa by an unnamed mine. The stone, as large as a coconut is twice the size of the Cullinan Diamond
, centre-piece of the British crown jewels. If the gem with a greenish tinge were genuine, it would be the stone of the century. Source: BBC
Puffins, which resemble half-pint penguins except that they can fly, were once heavily hunted along the Maine coast for their meat and feathers, and by 1901 only one pair remained on the Eastern Egg Rock island. Now under the Puffins Project starting from 30 years ago, scientists have successfully saved them from extincting there. The picture above shows an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) imitating a decoy by standing on one leg on the Eastern Egg Rock island of Maine . The one-legged, wooden decoy were used to lure the gregarious birds ashore. Just so cute!
Source: Chinadaily
It's good for me to know something more about U.S.A like Minnesota State Tree.
The red or Norway pine (Pinus resinosa) became the official Minnesota state tree in 1953. Red pines are tall, stately trees that reach heights of 60 to nearly 150 feet. Their trunks are straight and uniform and may grow to five feet in diameter. When mature, the trees usually are bare of branches for two-thirds of the way up the trunk, with rounded tops or “crowns.” Their needles are four to six inches long and grow in pairs. Red pines begin producing cones at 15 to 20 years of age. Their cones, about two inches long and stout, have a two-year growing cycle; they begin growing in mid-summer the first year, remain attached through the following summer, and ripen in the fall. Red pines are popular as Christmas trees when small, and when mature are harvested for use as structural timber and pulpwood; they also make suitable poles, pilings, mining timbers, and railroad ties because their wood is easily penetrated by preservatives. Red pines can live to be about 400 years old. They grow on outwash plains, level or gently rolling sand plains, and low ridges adjacent to lakes and swamps; in northeastern Minnesota, they often grow on very exposed sites including islands, peninsulas, lakeshores, and steep slopes.
The 4.25 billion years old diamonds were discovered encased in a crystal in Western Australia by scientists lead by Simon Wilde, a geologist at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia.
The tiny diamonds were found trapped in zircon, a rare and exceptionally stable mineral that forms under temperatures between 1,112 and 1,652 Fahrenheit (600 and 900 degrees Celsius). Source: National Geographic via SN
Mr. Dong fished a strange-looking fish with crocodile-like jaws in the Labor Lake of 219 Park in Anshan, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Aug. 21, 2007. Lakeside residents said they had never seen such kind of fish, even though they had fished in the lake for years. According to experts, the catch, 90 centimeters long and three kilograms in weight, is a spotted gar, a voracious predator which originates in the Americas and is raised by many as a pet. Source: Xinhua
As the Hurricane Dean with Grade 5 which already lashed Mexico Yucatan Peninsular possibly hits USA, and thus it may pose the threats for the shuttle Endeavor's safely landing in Florida. Before that bad scenario happens, you can have a good reading of BBC's How the Shuttle Returns to Earth
To return to Earth the space shuttle must make a series of complicated manouevres to align itself into the correct position to achieve a safe descent.
1. The shuttle flies upside down in orbit to control its heating.
2. To re-enter the atmosphere, the shuttle is turned tail first to the direction of travel, and fires its engines to slow its speed.
3. The orbiter is then flipped the right way up and enters the top layer of the atmosphere at about a 40-degree angle from horizontal with its wings level.
4. The orientation keeps its black thermal tiles facing the majority of the heat - as high 1,650C (3,000F) on the leading edges of the wings and nose.
5. As its speed drops, the shuttle starts to fly more like an aircraft, using its rudder and wing flaps for control. It banks sharply to slow its speed still further
6. The shuttle falls from a height of more than 360km at speeds that top Mach 30, and at an angle of 19 degrees, far steeper than that of a commercial aircraft. The spacecraft comes to a dead stop half a world a way from where it began the descent.
