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H5N1 bird flu kills more than 50 skuas in first Antarctica wildlife die off #Antarctica

H5N1 bird flu kills more than 50 skuas in first Antarctica wildlife die off
For the first time, deadly H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed as the cause of a wildlife die-off in Antarctica, killing more than 50 skuas during the 2023–2024 summers. Researchers on an Antarctic expedition found the virus ravaging these powerful seabirds, with some suffering severe neurological symptoms—twisted necks, circling behavior, and even falling from the sky. While penguins and fur seals were examined, skuas emerged as the primary victims, especially on Beak Island, where a mass die…

With a stroke of his pen, Trump made the oil flow on behalf of Sable Offshore 
— oil that hadn’t flowed for 10 years.
It began flowing from underwater oil wells located seven miles out to sea.
It flowed up to what used to be Exxon’s massive industrial plant along the Gaviota Coast.
And, ultimately, it flowed into two old pipelines that caused the 2015 massive oil disaster,
-- pipelines so corroded that Sable had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to patc…

Why Trump’s Order to Restart Oil Production Along Santa Barbara’s Coast May Not Be the Final Word
History shows that in California, the battle over Sable Offshore is still ongoing.

So the new #Kreutz #comet #MAPS is *still* following the constant rapid rise in brightness it has shown since discovery: a dumb extrapolation - https://cobs.si/analysis/?comet=2688&from_date=2026-01-15 00:00&to_date=2026-04-30 00:00&observation_type=V&observation_type=C&plot_x_value=1&plot_y_value=1&fit_option=1&exclude_faint=on&exclude_issue=on&observer=&association=&country=&compare_values=compare - has it get 10,000-times brighter than the Sun at its extremely close perihelion which makes so sense at all, of course, physically.
"It must therefore be assumed that this increase in activity will level off significantly in the near future," writes https://fg-kometen.vdsastro.de/koj_2026/c2026a1/26a1eaus.htm: "More likely are parameters m m0=12.0 mag / n=4 (or even lower), which would still result in a (very short-term) maximum brightness of about –9 mag (but this would probably still be significantly too bright) – always assuming that the comet survives its perihelion passage unscathed."
For other views see http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iau/cbet/005600/CBET005663.txt and https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.17626 and https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10236580364221799 and https://cometografia.es/cometa-kreutz-2026-a1-maps-analisis/ - and the actual brightness is tracked at https://cobs.si/obs_list?id=2688 where it has reached ~11.5 mag. now.

I would love to have seen a 15kg echidna
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-14/ice-age-giant-echidna-fossil-found-in-east-gippsland/106561526?utm_source=…

Giant echidna fossil rewrites understanding of Victoria's prehistoric past
A fossil hidden in a museum collection for 119 years has revealed giant echidnas once roamed Victoria's east, filling a major gap in Australia's prehistoric record.