Frogs, China, and Bakersfield, CA

[NJCher]

I heard on C2C the other night that 10 days prior to the earthquake, there were frogs migrating from the area of the epicenter of the earthquake. Then I heard that there are frogs taking leave of Bakersfield, CA. Could this be true?

I googled it and found that the Chinese gov't is very alarmed about the stories of the frogs being prescient of the earthquake. They are trying to shut down any discussion of it.

Here's an excerpt about the frogs leaving:

A massive frog migration took place in the city situated in the vicinity of the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that hit southwestern China on Monday, several days before the disaster struck. The authorities announced today the casualty figure might reach 50,000.

The unusual movement of frogs that overwhelmed the streets of Mianyang by the end of the last week, triggered numerous blogger comments, who recognized an omen to the earthquake in the phenomena.

However the New China agency cited a statement of a scientist who rejected these claims. "The anomalies among the animals may be triggered by numerous reasons. The earthquake is just one possibility, there are also the climate changes and the atmospheric conditions," a member of the Chinese Institute for Seismology Research said.

Senior citizens who were interviewed by the local paper had said that the frog migration is an omen to disaster.


http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/1420/53/

Jim Berkland, the earthquake researcher who watches the news on missing cats and dogs (this activity always increases before a quake), says that there are more than the number of missing cats and dogs in the Bakersfield area. His site: http://www.syzygyjob.com/

Something to think about. Let's be on the watch for Bakersfield.



Cher

[Why Syzygy]

1. wow. Very interesting.

I hope they take warning.

http://www.kget.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=7cc4e93f-cd84-434d-a5c2-e07b632bf275

[NJCher]

2. so far they're clueless

Look at this, at the end:

Meanwhile, Kern Mosquito and Vector Control in Bakersfield said they don't deal with infestations like this one, and say more than likely the frogs will either die off, or find another place to live.

Infestations? Oh, and so casual about "they'll just die off."

Good grief, it appears these ignorant people don't know we're killing off species right and left these days.

Very interesting find, though. We will see what happens, although I have said all along, throughout the entire bush takeover of our gov't, that the biggest nightmare will be if CA has an earthquake while these thieves who have no governing capabilities are at the helm.

It could make China look like a walk in the park.



Cher

[ebayfool]

3. I'm in Bakersfield & hadn't heard a thing @ this!

I don't see a lot of TV, though. The local lore does back up the theory of critters picking up on emminent quake activity. It's been passed down from the old folks (most of the people I grew up with are/were products of the Okie/Dustbowl migration that ended up here ... think 'Grapes of Wrath'!). I remember my old papa telling us kids to watch the animals for 'quake sign' over 40 years ago, so science is catching up w/him!

I'll be keeping an ear out for more - most definitely!

(It's split between an oilfield & farming economy - the farmer half has no problem w/frogs. The skeeter control people are pretty much harmless to any wildlife around here ... that would require them to actually TRY to earn their paychecks!)

[Callie McAllie]

4. Animals do sense earthquakes

When I lived in LA, my cat used to hide under the bed on the day of a quake...before it happened!

[Callie McAllie]

5. Reminds me of an episode of X-files

Where they said that they dying off of the frogs is the first sign of the planet's ultimate destruction.

:tinfoilhat:

[I Have A Dream]

6. Your subject line was irresistible!

:D

It will be really interesting to see what happens. I hope that it doesn't happen, of course.

[LaurenG]

7. They were having this discussion in GD last week or so

It's a telling sign for trouble ahead IMO.

here's the thread with a picture.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3285593

[Sanity Claws]

8. Could the frogs have reacted to the unusual weather?

I sure hope no earthquake comes to Riverside. Here's a link to a LA Times article on the wild spring weather in Riverside yesterday: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-weather23-2008may23,0,6556824.story?track=rss

[SpiralHawk]

9. "As I always say, it's not easy being green." - Kermit

[Why Syzygy]

10. I'm now getting earthquake feeds

in my google RSS Reader. Here's the page to subscribe > http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/catalogs/

(The reader sure beats having my email flooded with 'facts' every day.)

[cliss]

11. Incredible news, NJCher.

And thanks for the update.

China - savvy to natural disasters.
I read a while back that traditionally, the Chinese have had tiny cages with crickets in them. It seems that if an earthquake was coming, the crickets would stop chirping and by so doing, would give the owners time to prepare for the worst.
China has a long history with earthquakes, and it's too bad their government would discourage this kind of knowledge. They should encourage it, instead.

Animals - a history of knowing when something's up.
I believe animals can sense changes in the earth's magnetic field - or something which happens when there is an earthquake on the way. Right before the Tsunami in Thailand, the locals reported that the Elephants became rowdy and started to run to higher ground. They seemed to understand that the water level would rise.
Even in myown experience, I've seen it.
I'm in Portland, and in 1992 we had a disastrous flood. That very same morning, I looked out the window of my house and I saw a raccoon running along the street. It was running towards higher ground. I was completely surprised, because raccoons are nocturnal animals; they're out at night. This was around 10:30 a.m.
That same day, we had a big flood which caused a lot of damage.

I've also heard that dogs will start howling and barking ahead of an earthquake. Apparently people reported neighborhoods with dogs barking in San Francisco, right before the earthquake in 1909.

My teenage son is headed for China. He's decided he's going to spend a year there doing some tutoring. I asked him to "please get a small cage with crickets, then. If they stop chirping, then get ready.

[catzies]

12. It's true!! Here's the picture from Yahoo News

(Sorry for the shameless hotlink but it's AMAZING)

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2008/05/13/frog-migration-omen-to-china-earthquake-disaster/

[LWolf]

13. This reminds me of Charles Fort, who said:

Terrified horses, up on their hind legs, hoofing a storm of frogs.

Frenzied springboks, capering their exasperations against frogs that were tickling them.

Storekeepers, in London, gaping at frogs that were tapping on their window panes.

We shall pick up an existence by its frogs.

Wise men have tried other ways. They have tried to understand our state of being, by grasping at its stars, or its arts, or its economics. But, if there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere.

I have collected 294 records of showers of living things.

Have I?

Well, there's no accounting for the freaks of industry.

It is the profound conviction of most of us that there never has been a shower of living things.But some of us have, at least in an elementary way, been educated by surprises out of much that we were "absolutely sure" of, and are suspicious of a thought, simply because it is a profound conviction.

I got the story of the terrified horses in the storm of frogs from Mr. George C. Stoker, of Lovelock, Nevada. Mr. John Reid, of Lovelock, who is known to me as a writer upon geological subjects, vouches for Mr. Stoker, and I vouch for Mr. Reid. Mr. Stoker vouches for me. I have never heard of anything -- any pronouncement, dogma, enunciation, or pontification -- that was better substantiated.

What is a straight line? A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Well, then,what is the shortest distance between two points? That is a straight line. According to the test of ages, the definition that a straight line is a straight line cannot be improved upon. I start with a logic as exacting as Euclid's.

Mr. Stoker was driving along the Newark Valley, one of the most extensive of the desert regions of Nevada. Thunderstorm. Down came frogs. Up on their hind legs went the horses.

http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/007525.php