Jon Bernthal says he was privy to aspects of Kevin Spacey‘s alleged inappropriate conduct before the slew of recent sexual assault or harassment accusations were leveled against the star.

 The actor told SiriusXM, “I just remember losing a ton of respect for him,” when asked to discuss their time working together on the summer hit Baby Driver.

 “I remember being on that set and I remember him really rubbing me the wrong way,” recalled Bernthal. “And it’s funny, anybody who I was working with at the time, and people in my life remember me saying it and a lot of people reached out to me when that happened.”

 Getty (2)

 The actor, 41, explained that he was a longtime fan of Spacey, revealing that as a young theater actor he saw the House of Cards star perform in a production of The Iceman Cometh in London. “[It was] unbelievable sort of transformative experience in my life watching what he did and he was one of my favorite actors,” said Bernthal.

 “The kind of man he was when I saw him, working with, made me lose all respect for him and I was enormously disappointed,” said Bernthal of finally working alongside Spacey in the 2017 film.

 He further elaborated, “Going onto that set and working with him, I wasn’t there much and I wasn’t really in a situation to judge, but when I was there he really rubbed me the wrong way. I thought he was a bit of a bully… I didn’t really care for the way he was behaving toward some of the other people on set.”

 Baby Driver Wilson Webb/Sony

 “I think he was acting toward people in a way that where I remember, at the time, thinking, man if that was a woman that he was talking to I would have done something, I would have said something,” said the actor. “And I was really happy to sort of get out of there.”

 RELATED VIDEO: Kevin Spacey Comes Out as Gay After Anthony Rapp Alleges the Actor Made Sexual Advances Toward Him at 14

 Bernthal noted, though, that he never witnessed behavior from Spacey like some of the sexual conduct allegations that he’s now facing.

 In a BuzzFeed article posted Oct. 30, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey made inappropriate sexual advances toward him when he was only 14. Hours later Spacey, 58, apologized for his behavior – which allegedly occurred at a party in 1986 — and came out as gay.

 Further allegations have since emerged, including a report from CNN in which eight people who currently work or previously worked on House of Cards claimed that star and executive producer created a “toxic�? work environment through sexual harassment and “predatory�? behavior.

 Last week, Netflix officially parted ways with Spacey, announcing that House of Cards‘ final season will be without the actor.

 A representative for the 58-year-old House of Cards star has told PEOPLE that Spacey is “is taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.�? ||||| CLOSE Kevin Spacey was accused by more than a dozen men who say he sexually harassed and attempted to rape them decades ago. USA TODAY

 Kevin Spacey at the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards at in Beverly Hills, on Oct. 27, 2017. (Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

 The first accusation of sexual misconduct against Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey landed on Oct. 29, and a little more than a week later more than a dozen men — including five who said they were teens at the time — have come forward to allege he sexually harassed, assaulted or attempted to rape them.

 Here is a list of accusers, some of them named, some of them anonymous.

 Spacey's lawyers, Todd Rubenstein and Bryan Freedman, have not returned calls and emails from USA TODAY seeking comment.

 1. Anthony Rapp, an actor on Star Trek: Discovery, told BuzzFeed in an interview on Oct. 29 that Spacey made sexual advances in 1986, when he was 14, in Spacey's New York apartment. Spacey issued a statement saying he was "beyond horrified" to hear the accusation, insisting he didn't remember the encounter but apologizing to Rapp. In the same statement, he came out as gay for the first time in public, infuriating gay rights advocates who viewed his acknowledgment as a false conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia in an attempt to distract attention from the underlying accusation.

 Anthony Rapp, actor in 'Star Trek: Discovery,' on September 19, 2017 in Los Angeles. (Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

 2. Roberto Cavazos, a Mexican actor, said in Spanish in a Facebook post on Oct. 30 that Spacey fondled or tried to fondle him against his will while he was at the Old Vic theater in London and Spacey was artistic director there. "Those of us who were around him at the Old Vic know that a lot more people will come forward with their stories in the coming days and weeks," Cavazos said in the post.

 3. Daniel Beal, told London tabloid The Sun on Oct. 31 and The Daily Mail on Nov. 7 that in 2010, when he was 19 and working as a bartender in a West Sussex hotel, Spacey exposed himself to him outside the hotel while he was on a cigarette break. He continued, saying Spacey gave him an expensive watch to buy his silence.

 4. Justin Dawes told BuzzFeed on Nov. 3 he was 16 and a theater usher in New Haven, Conn., in 1988, when Spacey, then appearing in a play there, invited him and a male friend to his apartment to watch a movie. Instead, Dawes said, Spacey gave them cocktails and played pornography on the TV. Dawes said it was "awkward" but not intimidating, and they left without incident. Still, “He knew that I was in high school. It was pretty clear. It's not like I was pretending to be an older, cooler person.”

 5. Mark Ebenhoch was a 35-year-old military advisor working in uniform on the set of 1995's Outbreak when, he said, Spacey (who had a role in the movie) instructed one of his "harem" of young male crewmembers to solicit him for sex with Spacey, BuzzFeed reported on Nov. 3. Ebenhoch turned him down feigning disgust because he was then in the closet himself and feared repercussions for his career. “As a military adviser the last thing you’d want anyone to know is that you were gay,” he told BuzzFeed.

 6. Harry Dreyfuss: The son of Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss wrote a first-person column in BuzzFeed on Nov. 4 describing how Spacey groped his genitals when he was 18 and his father was in the room. Harry Dreyfuss said it happened in 2008 in London when Spacey was directing his father in a play at the Old Vic and the three were alone in Spacey's apartment rehearsing lines.

 Thanks to anyone who's ever spoken out. I add my story in the hope predators learn there will always be consequences https://t.co/DezeSnr6Gj — HarryDreyfuss (@harrydreyfuss) November 4, 2017

 His father didn't see it, and he didn't tell him until many years later. Instead, Harry Dreyfuss, now an actor and writer in Los Angeles, told jokes about it at parties, although now he realizes there was nothing funny about it. “Kevin Spacey is a sexual predator. But I still never thought talking about it seriously was ever an option.” Buzzfeed quoted Bryan Freedman, one of Spacey's lawyers, as rejecting Harry's allegation: “Let me be clear, Mr. Spacey absolutely denies the allegations.”

 7. Tony Montana told USA TODAY on Nov. 1 that a drunken Spacey confronted him in 2003 at a Los Angeles pub, groped his genitals and chased him into a bathroom. "He grabbed my whole package, he grabbed me hard; no one had ever done that to me," said Montana, who was then in his 30s.

 Filmmaker Tony Montana, in June 2004. (Photo: John Sciulli, WireImage)

 8. Kris Nixon, a 20-year-old bartender from Belfast, was working at a bar Spacey frequented near the Old Vic in 2007. He told People and The Sun on Nov. 6 he was invited to a party at Spacey’s London apartment; he was sitting on a sofa when Spacey sat beside him and grabbed his crotch. "He was drunk but not paralytic. I walked over to (my girlfriend) and said, ‘We need to leave.’ ” He brushed it off as "just some drunk guy" and never reported the incident. "It was my word against his and who is going to believe me?"

 Anonymous accusers:

 9. Anonymous bartender: London police said on Nov. 1 it is investigating an allegation by a man, then 23, who said Spacey sexually assaulted him in 2008 after he passed out at Spacey's London home where he had gone seeking advice on his career. He left after Spacey warned him to keep quiet about it.

 10. Anonymous New York artist: A former child actortold Vulture on Nov. 2 that he began a sexual relationship with Spacey in 1983 when he was 14 and Spacey was 24, and that it ended when he was 15 and after Spacey allegedly attempted to rape him. He said he believes Spacey is a "pedophile."

 11. Anonymous production assistant: CNN reported on Nov. 2 that a former production assistant on House of Cards said Spacey sexually assaulted him, putting his hand down the assistant's pants while Spacey was driving them to the Baltimore-area set during one of the show's early seasons. The assistant said the touching was non-consensual.

 12. Anonymous British journalist: BuzzFeed reported on Nov. 3 that a British journalist then in his 20s interviewed Spacey for a magazine in London in the early 2000s and afterward went to a club with Spacey and some of his friends. He said Spacey repeatedly grabbed his genitals and angrily tried to block him from fleeing. The journalist realized he could not write about the encounter because it meant outing then-closeted Spacey as gay. "If I were to publish a story about Kevin Spacey sexually harassing me on the job … there's no way without making it quite clear that he likes guys," he said. The interview ran without his byline.

 13. "John" told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire on Oct. 31 that Spacey tried to seduce him at his New York apartment in 1984 when he was 17. He said Spacey asked him to share his bed, but he slept on the sofa and woke up with the actor's arms around him. He said he didn't believe anything sexual took place, but added, "I was uncomfortable at best, traumatized at worst."

 14. Heather Unruh's son: The former Boston TV news anchor held a press conference Nov. 8 in Boston to accuse Spacey of groping the genitals of her then-18-year-old son in a bar on Nantucket, Mass., in July 2016. Unruh said her son filed a report on the allegation with police and "a criminal investigation has been opened," though police said they could not confirm or deny that due to state law. If confirmed, his case would be the first under police investigation in America. And as the most recent, it could potentially lead to criminal charges.

 15. Andy Holtmzan: In 1981, the NYU grad was working at The Public Theater in New York when Spacey, then 22 and an up-and-coming actor with a minor role in their production of Henry IV, Part 1, committed what he termed a "wordless assault." Holtzman told USA TODAY he was on a phone call when Spacey began his attack.

 "Within minutes, wordlessly, he was up and all over me," Holtzman, now a 64-year-old marketing consultant, recalled. "The aggression was certainly more than a grope. When I was finally able to push him off and scream (at him), he theatrically stepped back, incredibly angry, grabbed his coat and bag, stormed out and slammed the door."

 Holtzman said the encounter, which happened when he was 27, left him more stunned than traumatized. He was gay and comfortable with his sexuality but said he wasn't interested in Spacey, who was then in the closet. He couldn't fathom why the actor would do such a thing to him and then react the way he did when he was rebuffed.

 "It was the look on his face that was really shocking and then scary," Holtzman said. "The anger was undeserved. If you ask for something and get a no, then I can understand the anger, but you ask for nothing and then try to take everything? Where is that anger coming from?"

 If you have ever experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct while working in the entertainment industry, we’d like to hear from you. Send us a secure tip using the instructions at newstips.usatoday.com.

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2hRShnF ||||| CLOSE Kevin Spacey is facing yet another accuser who says the Academy Award winner grabbed her son’s genitals in 2016. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland). Buzz60

 Former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh says Kevin Spacey sexually abused a relative of hers. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM, AFP/Getty Images)

 Kevin Spacey has been accused by more than a dozen men who say he sexually harassed, groped, assaulted or attempted to rape them in allegations spanning decades since Oct. 29.

 The latest developments:

 Spacey to be cut entirely from 'All the Money in the World'

 In an unprecedented move, beleaguered star Kevin Spacey will be completely cut from his upcoming film, All the Money in the World.

 Instead, USA TODAY has confirmed, Christopher Plummer will be brought in to reshoot the role of J. Paul Getty in the story about the infamous 1973 kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.

 According to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly about it, the decision was director Ridley Scott's and Sony is supporting his decision.

 Scott and Sony are still committed to hitting the scheduled release date of Dec. 22.

 Former news anchor says Spacey assaulted her son

 Heather Unruh, a former TV news anchor in Boston, said in a press conference Wednesday that the Oscar-winning actor assaulted her son, who was 18 at the time. Holding back tears, Unruh said in July 2016 that Spacey stuck his hand in her son’s pants and on his genitals at a bar in Nantucket, Mass.

 Unruh said her son told Spacey he was of legal age to drink, and "Spacey bought him drink after drink after drink and when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him."

 She continued, saying Spacey urged her intoxicated son to go to a private after-party to continue drinking, but a concerned bystander asked her son if he was OK. When he relayed that he was not, Unruh said the woman told her son to run and he did.

 "Nothing could’ve prepared my son for how that sexual assault would make him feel as a man," she said. "It harmed him and it cannot be undone."

 Unruh said her son filed a police report last week and provided evidence to Nantucket police. She says a criminal investigation was opened, though the Nantucket Police Department declined to confirm that to USA TODAY, citing Massachusetts law forbidding it.

 Tara Miltimore , assistant district attorney and spokeswoman for the Cape & Islands District Attorney's Office, confirmed to USA TODAY that "an individual has provided information to the Nantucket Police regarding an allegation of an indecent assault and battery." She said the state statute of limitations for indecent assault and battery is six years.

 Unruh said her son did not report the encounter to police because he was embarrassed and fearful. Now, she said, her son is "committed to doing what he can to stop Kevin Spacey from victimizing anyone else."

 She also had a message for the actor.

 "To Kevin Spacey I want to say this: Shame on you for what you did to my son and shame on you for using your apology to Anthony Rapp to come out as a gay man," she said. "That was an appalling attempt to distract attention away from what you really are: a sexual predator. Your actions are criminal."

 Unruh appeared with attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented victims of clergy sexual abuse, at a downtown Boston hotel. Garabedian, who also has represented an accuser of Bill Cosby, was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film, Spotlight, about The Boston Globe's investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Catholic archdiocese.

 "The civil claim against Kevin Spacey happened in Massachusetts and is well within the civil statute of limitations," Garabedian said. "It is also within the criminal statute of limitations. I am informed that my client did speak to the Nantucket police department and they are conducting an investigation."

 Spacey's reps did not immediately return USA TODAY's request for comment. Spacey issued a statement on Twitter following Rapp's allegations, saying he was "beyond horrified" and insisting he didn't remember the encounter. In the same statement, he came out as gay for the first time in public.

 More: Kevin Spacey scandal: A complete list of the 13 accusers

 More: Kevin Spacey scandal: Journalist Gay Talese says accuser should 'suck it up'

 More: Weinstein, Spacey scandals prompt questions about treatment for sex addiction, criminal behavior

 If you have ever experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct while working in the entertainment industry, we’d like to hear from you. Send us a secure tip using the instructions at newstips.usatoday.com.

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What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A former Boston TV news anchor says that last year, when her son was 18, he was at a bar in Natucket, Mass., when he met Kevin Spacey. The actor "bought him drink after drink after drink and when my son was drunk, Spacey made his move and sexually assaulted him," said Heather Unruh at a press conference Wednesday. She says Spacey stuck his hand down her son's pants and onto his genitals, and tried to convince him to go to a party where they could continue to drink, USA Today reports. A bystander asked the teen if he was OK and the teen said no, at which point the woman urged the teen to flee and he took her advice, Unruh said. Unruh, who appeared with an attorney, says her son filed a police report last week and handed over evidence; she says a criminal investigation has been opened but the Nantucket Police Department has not confirmed that. The attorney with Unruh noted that her son's accusations are "well within" both the civil and criminal statutes of limitations. USA Today has a list of the 14 people so far accusing Spacey of sexual assault or harassment. Meanwhile Jon Bernthal, who worked with Spacey on Baby Driver, told a SiriusXM radio show Tuesday that he lost respect for Spacey while working on the film. "I thought he was a bit of a bully," Bernthal said, per People. "I didn’t really care for the way he was behaving toward some of the other people on set."


– Apparently the rabbits on Washington state's Whidbey Island are going at it like, well, rabbits. The population in the town of Langley, home to barely more than 1,000 humans, is now numbering into the hundreds, reports NBC News, with residents saying "we've never seen it like this before." Many locals believe that the bunnies are descended from European hares that fled the Island County Fairgrounds decades ago. And while they may be cute, it's getting gross. "There is feces everywhere and there are some illnesses that can be carried and transmitted," Brian Miller, facilities director for the South Whidbey School District, tells KING 5. And the rabbits are burrowing so furiously that they've pockmarked the middle school football field and are destroying the foundations of buildings. "Every day there are new holes, and the ones we've filled in are dug out again," says Miller of the football field, which the district just spent $80,000 restoring. Though the mayor in January indicated the town would let the bunnies be ("I don't think we're going to get into the business of trapping and euthanizing rabbits," said Mayor Fred McCarthy per the South Whidbey Record), an Oct. 7 meeting has been scheduled to discuss the problem. Among the proposed solutions: unleash raptors to hunt them down or physically move the rabbits elsewhere. (At least the bunnies don't appear to be pot-crazed.)

Expand this summary.

It's believed the rabbits are the prolific progeny of a few European hares that escaped from the fairgrounds decades ago. (Photo: KING)

 The shores of Langley on Whidbey Island are under siege. The earth riddled with holes, and more. The problem is so bad, kids at Langley Middle School have to be on the lookout for tiny landmines whenever they go out for PE.

 "There is feces everywhere and there are some illnesses that can be carried and transmitted," said Brian Miller. Facilities Director for the South Whidbey School District. "Every day there are new holes, and the ones we've filled in are dug out, again."

 But the culprits aren't gophers or moles or even rats.

 They're bunnies.

 Yes, bunnies. Adorable, fluffy, long eared bunnies. Hundreds of them. All over town.

 "They are cute, but they have an impact on our community," said Miller.

 Countless wild rabbits are digging up the middle school football field that the district just paid $80,000 to restore. They're destroying the foundations of buildings at the Island County Fairgrounds, and posing health risks to people and pets. The critters have found a safe shelter in the city, away from predators. Some people feed them and there are plenty of buildings under which to burrow.

 It's believed they are the prolific progeny of a few European hares that escaped from the fairgrounds decades ago. They've lived in relative harmony, until now.

 "Everybody is saying we've never seen it like this before," said Miller.

 If anyone should have a wild hare over the rabbits it's Babs Small.

 They were breeding like, well, like bunnies under her shed last year. About 100 babies were born.

 "We would watch them instead of watching TV," she said.

 Everything from relocation to releasing raptors to eat them is being considered. Babs, however, says people should just do what she did after the shed incident. She is now keeping the rabbits from nesting by installing pavers and chicken wire around potential breeding grounds. That, along with not feeding them, would force the bunnies back into the forests where predators and nature can take their course.

 "I would just prefer a more natural solution than extinction, than trying to just exterminate them," she said.

 The middle school has taken some of those measures, but dozens of bunnies still hop all across campus every day. The district is now considering spending $60,000 to fence the property off.

 A community meeting is scheduled for October 7 to discuss how to handle the problem. Whatever decision is made, everyone in Langley is simply hoping it doesn't lead them further down the proverbial rabbit hole.

 Read or Share this story: http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/2015/09/16/langley-overrun--rabbits/32527853/ ||||| Fran Johnson scowls at a pair of bunnies in a Langley neighbor’s yard. The longtime resident was sorely miffed with rabbits for devastating her recently landscaped yard.

 Worried that a mass culling or relocation of Langley’s abundant rabbit population would be political suicide, Mayor Fred McCarthy has decided to let the bunnies be.

 Despite fielding several complaints about the booming bunny population in Langley, the city will not hire a trapper or authorize the slaying of rabbits under McCarthy’s governance.

 “I don’t think we’re going to get into the business of trapping and euthanizing rabbits,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think that would go over well in Langley.”

 Residents are split on their opinions of the furry critters. Some have taken to feeding and sheltering the big-eared bunnies, which in Langley are largely a combination of semi-wild/feral rabbits or hares and non-native eastern cottontail rabbits, according to Russell Link with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

 Other Langley folk, such as Fran Johnson, are fed up with losing their gardens and landscaping to the voracious herbivores. At her home, a recently landscaped slope in her backyard is pockmarked with holes dug by rabbits scrounging up young plants. Johnson pointed out several shrubs and trees, many of them well withered when they should be leafy or covered in needles, that she will have to replace. She estimated the damage to be around $300, nearly half of the cost to have the whole area landscaped last year.

 “I’m not going to plant anything,” Johnson said. “It’s a waste of money. They come in and eat everything right to the ground.”

 Out in her front yard, she points out a circle planter that is just beauty bark, dirt and a stone bird bath. Once it was filled with vegetation, even a corner for cabbage, which unsurprisingly did not survive a bunny’s appetite.

 “I had some stuff in there,” she said. “Now it’s gone.”

 Some residents expressed fears about coyotes preying on the rabbits in Langley, which would eventually move on to household pets. A request on The Record’s Facebook page for any stories of losing pets to coyotes or noticing an increase in coyotes was met with little comment other than request to leave the bunnies alone.

 Dave Marks, Langley’s police chief, said he has not responded to any calls about coyotes attacking pets. He did notice an anecdotal increase in sightings, saying he spotted one in December near the Langley fire station, even taking video of it.

 “They are pretty good size,” Marks said of his coyote sightings. “But I don’t know how you prove that they’re coming into town because of the rabbits or not. There have always been coyotes around.”

 “Cats do vanish quite a bit, but it’s hard to say if it’s raccoons or eagles,” he added.

 Rabbits became such a nuisance for one resident that he ended up shooting them with an air-powered gun. That led to a citation by the Langley Police Department and a criminal charge, Marks confirmed, because it violated the ban on discharging a firearm in city limits.

 Trapping and hunting rabbits is a more complicated series of rules. According to the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website, “Living With Wildlife,” the best way to sort it out is to contact a local wildlife office for the most recent legal status and restrictions. Three species — Nuttall’s cottontail rabbit, Eastern cottontail rabbit and snowshoe hare — are classified as game and require a hunting license and an open season.

 Domestic rabbits, the kind most often spotted in Langley, are unclassified and may be trapped or killed year-round without a permit. Trapping device restrictions still apply.

 But just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it will be popular, and that includes Langley police.

 “I’m not into killing animals for no reason,” Marks said. ||||| Play Facebook

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 Embed Bunnies Have Town Hopping Mad 1:53 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog

 A horde of wild bunnies have left one city in Washington hopping mad.

 Hundreds of bunnies are running wild around Langley, on Whidbey Island. They're burrowing holes in school football fields, destroying the foundations of buildings and posing health risks to people and their pets, according to local officials.

 "There is feces everywhere and there are some illnesses that can be carried and transmitted," Brian Miller, facilities director for the South Whidbey School District, told NBC affiliate KING 5.

 The bunnies are even digging up a middle school football field that the district just spent $80,000 to restore.

 "Every day there are new holes, and the ones we've filled in are dug out, again," Miller said.

 The fuzzy scourge is believed to be the progeny of European hares that escaped from the Island County Fairgrounds decades ago, according to the station.

 But the bunnies have found a safe haven in the city of Langley, where some residents feed them and there are buildings under which they can burrow, away from natural predators.

 "Everybody is saying we've never seen it like this before," Miller said.

 A community meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7 to address the city's rabbit problem.

 Langley is considering everything from relocating the creatures to releasing raptors to control the population, according to KING 5, and the school district is now considering $60,000 in protective fencing.

 "They are cute, but they have an impact on our community," Miller said. |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious enclosure hidden deep inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

 The massive cavity stretches for at least 30 metres and lies above the grand gallery, an impressive ascending corridor that connects the Queen’s chamber to the King’s in the heart of the historic monument. It is the first major structure found in the pyramid since the 19th century.

 It is unclear whether the void is a chamber or a corridor, or whether it played any more than a structural role in the pyramid’s construction – such as relieving weight on the grand gallery below. But measurements show that it has similar dimensions to the grand gallery, which is nearly 50 metres long, eight metres high and more than a metre wide.

 Scientists discovered the void using sensors that detect particles known as muons, which rain down on Earth when cosmic rays slam into atoms in the upper atmosphere. The muons travel at close to the speed of light and behave much like x-rays when they meet objects. Armed with suitable equipment, researchers can used them to reveal the rough internal structure of pyramids and other ancient monuments.

 “We know that this big void has the same characteristics as the grand gallery,” said Mehdi Tayoubi at the HIP Institute in Paris, a non-profit organisation that draws on new technology to study and preserve cultural heritage. “It’s really impressive.”

 Tomb raiders: what treasures could lurk inside Egypt's lost chambers? Read more

 Also known as Khufu’s Pyramid, or the Pyramid of Cheops, the Great Pyramid was built in the 4th dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu, who reigned from 2509 to 2483 BC. The monument rises 140 metres above the Giza Plateau and has three chambers known from previous explorations: a subterranean one at the base of the pyramid, the Queen’s chamber at the centre, and the King’s chamber above. While a granite sarcophagus sits in the King’s chamber, King Khufu’s mummy is missing, and his queens were buried elsewhere. Whatever riches were once in the chambers were looted long ago.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The ScanPyramids team examining an augmented reality review of the newly-discovered void. Photograph: ScanPyramids mission

 Egyptologists have scores of theories about how the pyramid was built, but there are no reliable accounts of its construction. Herodotus wrote of stones being drawn from quarries near and far, with some being shipped down the Nile on boats. The mammoth construction project occupied the lives of a hundred thousand men, fuelled in part by radishes, onions and leeks, he noted.

 To pinpoint the cavity, scientists from Nagoya University in Japan, and KEK, the country’s high energy physics lab, installed muon-detecting photographic plates and electronic muon detectors around the Queen’s chamber. At the same time, researchers from CEA, France’s energy research organisation, trained “muon telescopes” on the pyramid from the outside. All three techniques can tell from which direction incoming muons arrive.

 When the teams compared their results, all had found a muon hotspot in the same place, indicating the presence of a large cavity in the pyramid. While most of the monument is made of stone that absorbs muons, chambers and cavities let the particles pass through.

 Great Pyramid tombs unearth 'proof' workers were not slaves Read more

 Muon analysis allows scientists to look deep inside ancient monuments without drilling holes or causing other damage to the precious structures. But the technique produces low resolution images, making it impossible for the researchers to tell if the newly-found void runs horizontally or parallel to the grand gallery. Nor can they be sure it is a single enclosure rather than a series of smaller cavities close together, they report in Nature.

 “What we are sure about is that this big void is there, that it is impressive, and was not expected by any kind of theory,” said Tayoubi. To shed more light on the purpose of the cavity, Tayoubi called on specialists in ancient Egyptian architecture to come forward with ideas of what it may be so they can be modelled and checked against the team’s data. The cavity may have relieved weight on the roof of the underlying grand gallery, or be a hitherto unknown corridor in the pyramid. The team has no plans to drill into the cavity to explore inside, but they are developing a tiny flying robot that might one day be sent in, if the Egyptian authorities approve.

 “It’s a tribute to humankind,” said Tayoubi of the pyramid. “It asks a question about what is our future. If they have been able to do this with the means they had 4,000 or 5,000 years ago and they left this heritage today, what will our own society leave for future generations?”

 Peter Der Manuelian, professor of Egyptology and director of the Harvard Semitic Museum, said the discovery was “potentially a major contribution to our knowledge about the Great Pyramid.”

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Researchers using muon detectors discover a void in the Great Pyramid of Giza. Credit: ScanPyramids mission

 “I’m sure there are imperfections and perhaps small voids or cavities in several locations in the pyramid. What makes this one so interesting is the size, seeming to rival the grand gallery itself in scale,” he said.

 “The muons can’t tell us about chambers, form, size, or any possible objects, so it’s far too early to speculate. I know most people want to know about hidden chambers, grave goods, and the missing mummy of King Khufu. None of that is on the table at this point. But the fact that this void is so large warrants further non-invasive exploration,” he added.

 In 2011, Rob Richardson, a researcher at the University of Leeds, sent a small snake-like robot into one of the tunnels of the Great Pyramid and took pictures of hieroglyphs that had not been seen for 4,500 years. “I think people assume that all these mysteries of what’s in our world are known but there are still places like the pyramids where we simply don’t know,” he said. “The pyramids have been there for thousands of years and we still don’t know exactly why they are there, what they were used for, or how they were built.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Lehner: "A space that the builders left to protect the grand gallery?"

 The mysteries of the pyramids have deepened with the discovery of what appears to be a giant void within the Khufu, or Cheops, monument in Egypt.

 It is not known why the cavity exists or indeed if it holds anything of value because it is not obviously accessible.

 Japanese and French scientists made the announcement after two years of study at the famous pyramid complex.

 They have been using a technique called muography, which can sense density changes inside large rock structures.

 The Great Pyramid, or Khufu's Pyramid, is thought to have been constructed during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu between 2509 and 2483 BC.

 At 140m (460 feet) in height, it is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids located at Giza on the outskirts of Cairo.

 ScanPyramids has already detected a smaller void on the northern face

 The new cavity is perhaps 30m long and several metres in height

 All three muon technologies sense the same feature in the same place

 Khufu famously contains three large interior chambers and a series of passageways, the most striking of which is the 47m-long, 8m-high Grand Gallery.

 The newly identified feature is said to sit directly above this and have similar dimensions.

 "We don't know whether this big void is horizontal or inclined; we don't know if this void is made by one structure or several successive structures," explained Mehdi Tayoubi from the HIP Institute, Paris.

 "What we are sure about is that this big void is there; that it is impressive; and that it was not expected as far as I know by any sort of theory."

 Image copyright SCANPYRAMIDS Image caption The newly found void is directly above the Grand Gallery

 The ScanPyramids team is being very careful not to describe the cavity as a "chamber".

 Khufu contains compartments that experts believe may have been incorporated by the builders to avoid collapse by relieving some of the stress of the overlying weight of stone.

 The higher King's Chamber, for example, has five such spaces above it.

 The renowned American archaeologist Mark Lehner sits on a panel reviewing ScanPyramids' work.

 He says the muon science is sound but he is not yet convinced the discovery has significance.

 "It could be a kind of space that the builders left to protect the very narrow roof of the Grand Gallery from the weight of the pyramid," he told the BBC's Science In Action programme.

 "Right now it's just a big difference; it's an anomaly. But we need more of a focus on it especially in a day and age when we can no longer go blasting our way through the pyramid with gunpowder as [British] Egyptologist Howard Vyse did in the early 1800s."

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mehdi Tayoubi: "It's a big void, similar to the Grand Gallery, but what is it?"

 One of the team leaders, Hany Helal from Cairo University, believes the void is too big to have a pressure-relieving purpose, but concedes the experts will debate this.

 "What we are doing is trying to understand the internal structure of the pyramids and how this pyramid has been built," he told reporters.

 "Famous Egyptologists, archaeologists and architects - they have some hypotheses. And what we are doing is giving them data. It is they who have to tell us whether this is expected or not."

 Much of the uncertainty comes down to the rather imprecise data gained from muography.

 This non-invasive technique has been developed over the past 50 years to probe the interiors of phenomena as diverse as volcanoes and glaciers. It has even been used to investigate the failed nuclear reactors at Fukushima.

 Muography makes use of the shower of high-energy particles that rain down on the Earth's surface from space.

 When super-fast cosmic rays collide with air molecules, they produce a range of "daughter" particles, including muons.

 These also move close to the speed of light and only weakly interact with matter. So when they reach the surface, they penetrate deeply into rock.

 But some of the particles will be absorbed and deflected by the atoms in the rock's minerals, and if the muon detectors are placed under a region of interest then a picture of density anomalies can be obtained.

 Image copyright SCANPYRAMIDS Image caption The muon detectors have to be placed under the region of interest

 The ScanPyramids team used three different muography technologies and all three agreed on the position and scale of the void.

 Sébastien Procureur, from CEA-IRFU, University of Paris-Saclay, emphasised that muography only sees large features, and that the team's scans were not just picking up a general porosity inside the pyramid.

 "With muons you measure an integrated density," he explained. "So, if there are holes everywhere then the integrated density will be the same, more or less, in all directions, because everything will be averaged. But if you see some excess of muons, it means that you have a bigger void.

 "You don't get that in a Swiss cheese."

 The question now arises as to how the void should be investigated further.

 Jean-Baptiste Mouret, from the French national institute for computer science and applied mathematics (Inria), said the team had an idea how to do it, but that the Egyptian authorities would first have to approve it.

 "Our concept is to drill a very small hole to potentially explore monuments like this. We aim to have a robot that could fit in a 3cm hole. Basically, we're working on flying robots," he said.

 The muography investigation at Khufu's Pyramid is reported in this week's edition of Nature magazine.

 Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos ||||| Scientists Say They've Found Hidden Space In Great Pyramid Of Giza

 Enlarge this image toggle caption ScanPyramids mission ScanPyramids mission

 The Great Pyramid of Giza has been probed with the tools of modern particle physics by scientists who say they have discovered a huge, secret space hidden within its ancient walls.

 It is located above a tall, cathedral-like room known as the Grand Gallery, and this newly found space is comparable in size — about 100 feet long, according to a report in the journal Nature.

 That makes it a major structure within this royal tomb, which was built around 2500 B.C. and is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Yet until now, despite centuries of study, no one knew this space was there.

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Amr Nabil/AP Amr Nabil/AP

 "The romantic interpretation and what everyone wants to hear is that this is a hidden room and the king's body is inside or there's grave goods we didn't know about or we're going to learn more about history ... and none of that is responsible speculation at the moment," cautions Peter Der Manuelian, an Egyptologist at Harvard University who was not part of the research team.

 "All we know is that we have a void, we have a cavity, and it's huge, which means possibly intentional and certainly worthy of further exploration," Manuelian says, noting that it's not yet clear whether it's a single chamber or more than one.

 "In that sense it's obviously frustrating," he says. "On the other hand, as an architectural discovery, something we didn't know about the interior of the Great Pyramid, it's absolutely big news."

 Indeed, the team that made the find reports that it is the first significant internal structure found within the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.

 Mehdi Tayoubi, with the HIP Institute in Paris, explains that he and his colleagues wanted to investigate the pyramid using the best available non-destructive analytical techniques. They settled on a type of imaging that involves muons, which are tiny particles, like electrons.

 "What is strange, for me, is to use those very, very small particles for a huge monument like the pyramid," says Tayoubi.

 Muons are made when cosmic rays from deep space hit the atoms of the upper atmosphere. These particles rain down and lose energy as they pass through materials — like the thick stones of the pyramid — and that makes them slow down and decay. By placing muon detectors in strategic locations, researchers can count the number of muons coming through and create a kind of picture that reveals whether the material above is dense, like stone, or an empty space.

 Tayoubi explains that his team installed sheets of muon-detecting film in a lower-level room of the pyramid known as the Queen's Chamber. The goal was to test whether they could use muons to accurately discern two well-known rooms located above: the King's Chamber and Grand Gallery.

 They saw those rooms but, to their surprise, they found an additional large space as well.

 "The first reaction was a lot of excitement, but then we knew that it would take us a long, long time, that we needed to be very patient in this scientific process," says Tayoubi.

 Because they didn't want to rely on just one method, they confirmed the find using two other muon-detection techniques.

 "The good news is the void is there. Now we are sure that there is a void. We know that this void is big," says Tayoubi. "I don't know what it could be. I think it's now time for Egyptologists and specialists in ancient Egypt architecture to collaborate with us, to provide us with some hypotheses."

 He's interested in whether small robots might somehow enter this space through tiny cracks or holes and provide more information.

 In the past, before the modern science of archaeology evolved, folks sometimes blasted through walls in the pyramids, says Manuelian.

 "That's the good thing about the muon project, there's absolutely no damage to the pyramid at all," says Manuelian. "I hope that, in collaboration with the Egyptian antiquities authorities, further exploration will be set in motion. The study of the pyramids has been going on for an awful long time. So any new contribution is always a welcome addition to our knowledge." |||||

– It's not every day that what is essentially nothingness would be major news, but today is that day: Scientists announced in Nature that after two years of study, they've identified a roughly 100-foot-long void in Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza—built around 2500 BC, it's the most ancient of the seven wonders of the ancient world, notes the Guardian. It's the first discovery of a new structure in the monument since the 19th century, and it came by using muography, which can pick up on changes in density within rock. What was found, the BBC reports, isn't being called a "chamber," and it explains why: Also known as Khufu's Pyramid, the structure contains voids that are believed to have been incorporated to bolster the structural integrity of the pyramid. While three muon technologies confirmed its existence, "we don't know whether this big void is horizontal or inclined ... [or] made by one structure or several successive structures," says Mehdi Tayoubi. It sits above the pyramid's "most striking" chamber, the Grand Gallery, a corridor that links the Queen's and King's chambers. An archaeologist who reviewed the work says it's possible the void was intended to "protect the very narrow roof" of the gallery, though others contend that for the cavity to effectively have that function, it would need to be smaller. The Guardian notes the pharaoh Khufu's mummy is missing, but a Harvard Egyptologist tells NPR the idea that the cavity is "a hidden room and the king's body is inside ... none of that is responsible speculation at the moment." The team next hopes to get approval to drill a 1.2-inch hole that a robot could fit into. (The world's largest pyramid was mistaken as a mountain.)


Article:

Members of Occupy Philadelphia remain on site at City Hall into the evening of Nov. 28. (David M Warren / Staff Photographer)

 About 100 Occupy Philly protesters sat down on the cold concrete of Dilworth Plaza at 5 p.m. Sunday and waited to be rousted for violating a deadline Mayor Nutter had set for the group to leave.

 But the expected police eviction had not happened by late Sunday evening, and city officials continued to avoid saying when, or whether, they would throw the Occupiers and their tents off City Hall's so-called front lawn.

 "We are expecting people to pack up and leave," said Mark McDonald, spokesman for Mayor Nutter. "I'm not going to speculate about what the city might do at any time down the road from now."

 For about 90 minutes, protesters chanted slogans such as, "What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like."

 They served squash soup in paper cups, handed out bottles of water, and railed against what they believe is excessive corporate greed and power.

 All the while, police looked on calmly.

 Police had no plans to evict anyone, Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said about 6:30 p.m.

 "We look forward to working with Occupy Philadelphia and a resolution of the problem. Confrontation is never good. Anyone who is being fair would have to say that there is a big difference between the police reaction to Occupy Philadelphia than in other cities," he said.

 "I definitely, definitely want to really stress that the vast majority of people participating in this movement have been cooperative, nonviolent, and very respectful," he said.

 Sullivan cautioned, however, that protesters would be prevented from setting up another camp elsewhere in the city unless they got a permit.

 The city has said it needs to erect fencing this week for work at Dilworth Plaza, including renovation of the SEPTA tunnels and the addition of grass, a cafe, stage, and winter ice rink.

 Over the last few days, Occupy Philly participants, many homeless, had begun to take down their tents. By 7:15 p.m. Sunday, roughly a third of what originally was about 300 tents were gone.

 Darrin Annussek, an unemployed career counselor, and William Tuttle, a student, were folding up Annussek's tent Sunday. Someone had stolen Tuttle's tent, and the men, who got married at Occupy Philly last month, said they probably would move to the Occupy site in Washington.

 "I wanted to protest the fact that corporations have too much control and government hasn't done much to stop it," Annussek said.

 He said he believed Nutter had exaggerated the health and safety concerns the mayor cited in explaining why he could not issue protesters a permit for a new location once the $50 million renovation project began.

 "I really thought this would become one of the longer occupations," Annussek said.

 Ellen Rogovinhart of Elkins Park said she thought the city could have done more to help the Occupiers find a new location, possibly in a church.

 "I know the city has work to do," Rogovinhart said. "But I think this is a very important movement."

 She was hoping Philadelphia police would not use force, as police in Oakland and other cities have, to get Occupiers to move.

 Rogovinhart held a sign that read, "The eyes of the world are watching to see if we are the city of brotherly and sisterly love today."

 At times it seemed the whole world were watching. On Sunday night, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, using the screen name @Uncle Rush, went on Twitter to ask Nutter to "remember this is a nonviolent movement - please show restraint tonight."

 Nutter tweeted back that he agreed.

 On the west side of City Hall, several hundred people gathered to observe what would happen to those risking arrest. The crowd used its "human mic" system of amplification, in which others repeat what each person says so all could hear.

 "I went to college. I graduated with honors," Marcel Williams Foster yelled, and the crowd repeated. "I work three part-time jobs with no benefits and I have $50,000 in student loans."

 Lauren Keiser, 26, a student from Audubon, said she was willing to get arrested because she believed homeless people, who are a constant presence on the plaza, deserve more help. She thinks the money that will transform Dilworth could be better spent on housing, addiction programs, and other services. ||||| The LAPD early Monday declared an unlawful assembly on the streets surrounding City Hall and ordered Occupy L.A. protesters to immediately disperse or face arrest.

 Police officers carrying batons, plastic handcuffs and non-lethal weapons lined up on 1st Street directly outside LAPD headquarters in anticipation of possible arrests of protesters who were standing in the streets.

 "It is not our intent to clear the park at this time," an officer said over a loudspeaker. "It is only our intent to clear the street. Thank you in advance for your cooperation."

 PHOTOS: Occupy L.A.

 The dispersal order came nearly four hours after the midnight Sunday deadline for protesters to clear the lawn at City Hall, where Occupy L.A. protesters have camped out for two months.

 Police were on scene since before midnight, urging protesters to stay off the streets and warning them that arrests would be imminent. They first gave a 4 a.m. deadline to arrest protesters who were in the street, then pushed the time to 4:30 a.m.

 No arrests have yet been made.

 "Right now, we have no plans to go into the encampment," LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said.

 RELATED:

 FULL COVERAGE: Occupy protests around the nation

 City councilman urges Occupy L.A. to move indoors, into politics

 Occupy L.A. campers play, pray as city’s midnight deadline looms

 -- Nicole Santa Cruz and Rick Rojas at City Hall

 Photo: With a line of LAPD officers behind them, Occupy L.A. demonstrators sit in the middle of the street near Los Angeles City Hall early Monday morning. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times ||||| 1 of 6. The Occupy Los Angeles encampment at City Hall Park is seen before the midnight deadline for eviction from City Hall Park passes in Los Angeles, November 27, 2011.

 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in riot gear closed in before dawn on Monday on anti-Wall Street activists in Los Angeles who defied a midnight deadline to vacate a camp outside City Hall, but stopped short of clearing the encampment.

 Police managed to reopen blocked streets for morning rush-hour commuters after a tense standoff with protesters who had taken over a downtown intersection, but remnants of a crowd that had swelled to 2,000 overnight remained at City Hall.

 Four demonstrators were arrested during the brief confrontation, accused of being present at an unlawful assembly, before police ultimately pulled back from City Hall park.

 Later, attorneys for Occupy LA asked a federal judge for an injunction barring police from evicting the camp, arguing that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police chief Charlie Beck had violated their civil rights by ordering it dismantled.

 The Los Angeles encampment, which officials had tolerated for weeks even as other cities moved in to clear out similar camps, is among the largest on the West Coast aligned with a 2-month-old national Occupy Wall Street movement protesting economic inequality and excesses of the U.S. financial system.

 Villaraigosa eventually gave protesters until just after midnight to remove their tents and leave or face a forcible removal, setting the stage for the latest showdown between leaders of a major U.S. city and the Occupy movement.

 But about two hours after the eviction deadline had passed, police commanders said they would permit the Occupy LA encampment to stay until at least daybreak. Police Commander Andrew Smith later said he thought it was "highly unlikely" that the camp would be forced to shut down on Monday.

 Elsewhere in the country, a 5 p.m. Sunday deadline set by Philadelphia officials for Occupy protesters there to move from a similar encampment came and went without incident.

 Dozens of people heeded the order but many tents and other structures stayed put. Police sources said authorities were hoping the rest of the protesters would relocate voluntarily and that no major actions were expected before Tuesday.

 'WHOSE STREET? OUR STREET!'

 Staking its place since October 1 on the grounds surrounding City Hall, the Los Angeles camp had grown to roughly 400 tents and 700 to 800 people, organizers and municipal officials said. At least a third of campers were believed to be homeless.

 By Sunday night the size of the crowd outside City Hall swelled further as supporters from organized labor, clergy, civil rights and other groups streamed into the area, answering a call for an 11th-hour show of support.

 The overall number of protesters, some wearing gas masks, had grown to at least 2,000 by late Sunday, police estimated.

 After keeping out of sight throughout the day on Sunday, police began to make their presence known as the mayor's eviction deadline passed, and the protesters' mood turned from calm and festive to rowdy.

 Demonstrators and police confronted each other overnight but except for some debris thrown by protesters at one point, there was no violence. One skirmish involved an intersection occupied by protesters.

 Minutes after ordering protesters in the street to disperse, dozens of helmeted police carrying night sticks and special shotguns for firing "bean-bag" projectiles enclosed the intersection and forced their way into the crowd.

 Most in the crowd quickly retreated into the park, as onlookers chanted "Whose street? Our Street" at police and shouted at those defying police to "Get off the street!"

 Someone hurled what appeared to be pieces of a bamboo pole and a bottle at police, and Smith said four people were arrested.

 Los Angeles has been relatively accommodating to its Occupy group compared to other major cities, with Villaraigosa at one point providing ponchos to campers when it rained.

 But after the collapse of negotiations aimed at persuading protesters to relocate voluntarily, the mayor said last week the encampment would have to go.

 The mayor complimented the protesters on Sunday for staying peaceful. But he added in a statement: "It is time for Occupy LA to move from focusing their efforts to hold a particular patch of park land to spreading the message of economic justice and restoration of balance to American society."

 He said he hoped to avoid the sporadic violence that erupted in other cities when police used force against Occupy protesters.

 A number of protesters early on Monday credited the police with showing restraint, including Clark Davis, an Occupy LA organizer, who said to Smith and a group of other officers standing by, "You guys have been fantastic."

 (Writing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by Lucy Nicholson and Dave Warner in Philadelphia; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston) |||||
What is a summary?

– The Occupy LA encampment got a stay of execution this morning—though a few arrests have been reported beyond the boundaries of City Hall Park. Two hours after protesters defied city hall's order to vacate the park by 12:01am, lawyer and Occupy supporter Jim Lafferty told Reuters he expected police to give the camp a two-day reprieve. At around 5am, police told protesters over a loudspeaker that they didn't intend to clear the park, the LA Times reports. Police do, however, intend to clear protesters out of the street, and several people who refused to move out of an intersection have already been arrested. "We definitely need to get morning traffic in," a police commander explained. Everything also seems calm at Occupy Philadelphia, where protesters defied a 5pm Sunday deadline to disperse. But as of last night, a police inspector said they didn't intend to forcibly evict anyone. "We look forward to working with Occupy Philadelphia and a resolution of the problem," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Confrontation is never good."


Write a summary based on this article:

Thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the waters between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, and officials are asking people to catch as many as possible. Tribal fishers, concerned about native salmon populations, call the accident “a devastation.”

 It’s open season on Atlantic salmon as the public is urged to help mop up a salmon spill from a damaged net pen holding 305,000 fish at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm near Cypress Island.

 Lummi fishers out for chinook on Sunday near Samish, south of Bellingham Bay, were shocked to pull up the spotted, silvery-sided Atlantic salmon — escapees that turned up in their nets again Monday.

 The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is urging the public to catch as many of the fish as possible, with no limit on size or number. The fish are about 10 pounds each. No one knows how many escaped from the floating pen, but the net had some 3 million pounds of fish in it when it imploded about 4 p.m. Saturday, said Ron Warren, fish program assistant director for the WDFW.

 Cooke, in an estimate to WDFW Monday, put the number of escaped fish at 4,000 to 5,000, according to Ron Warren, fish program assistant director for the WDFW. The department has been monitoring the situation and crafting a spill-response plan with Cooke, Warren said.

 Anchor lines to the pens broke Saturday afternoon, and walkways for servicing the pens tipped, making it unsafe for employees even to get in the water and assess the scope of the spill, Warren said.

 In a statement Tuesday morning, Cooke said, “exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse” caused the damage. Cooke said the salmon escaped after a “structural failure” of a net pen.

 “It appears that many fish are still contained within the nets,” Cooke said in the statement. “It will not be possible to confirm exact numbers of fish losses until harvesting is completed and an inventory of fish in the pens has been conducted.”

 An aerial view of the net-pen structure taken by KIRO-TV shows widespread damage, which Warren, after viewing the video, called “severely compromised.”

 The salmon escapes come as the company is considering a controversial net-pen operation in the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Port Angeles, east of the Ediz Hook, Clallam County.

 The company’s explanation met with disbelief from fishermen and environmental groups. “Part of the feed going to these salmon is chicken feed, but this is B.S.,” said Chris Wilke, executive director of Puget Soundkeeper, a nonprofit environmental group that opposes the company’s planned replacement and expansion of its existing operation.

 “If they can’t be trusted in an accident like this how can they be trusted to tell the truth in the permitting process?”

 The Wild Fish Conservancy, in a statement released Tuesday, noted that on July 27, one of three net pens in the Cypress Island location broke free from an anchor and needed emergency repairs. The statement said the pens should be built to withstand high tidal movements.

 Nell Halse, vice president of communications for Cooke, stuck with the company’s statement in an interview later Tuesday. “We did have very high tides and it was coinciding with the eclipse. Tides and currents and tidal surges in the last weeks have been very strong.

 “Our people are out there every day and that is what they have been seeing. The tides were extremely high, the current 3.5 knots. People can believe it or not.”

 The fish were soon due to be harvested and Cooke had intended to replace equipment at the site to strengthen it, but was awaiting permits, she added.

 She dismissed any environmental concern, saying the fish would not survive and that native fish were not at risk. “It’s primarily a business loss. The salmon will be food for the seals and the fishermen can enjoy them.”

 Atlantic salmon are a nonnative species to the Pacific Northwest. Between 1951 and 1991, state fishery officials tried to introduce the fish in the region by releasing — on 27 occasions — young smolts into Puget Sound. Those efforts were unsuccessful.

 Atlantic salmon also are a mainstay of the global salmon-farming industry, which has expanded in British Columbia and, to a much lesser extent, in Washington state. And in the 1990s, the Pacific Northwest industry repeatedly had large-scale escapes, with some 600,000 Atlantic salmon finding their way out of Washington state net pens between 1996 and 1999, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric technical memorandum.

 Salmon farming amid the region’s thriving wild salmon fisheries has been fraught with controversy, with concerns that Atlantic salmon could escape and cause harm to native runs. Alaska went so far as to ban salmon farming in coastal waters.

 But Michael Rust, a NOAA researcher who co-authored the technical memorandum, said the risk of farmed Atlantic salmon passing diseases on to wild fish is low. And, over the years, he says, they have not been able to interbreed with Northwest native species or successfully establish themselves in the wild over multiple generations.

 They are more likely to be prey than predators, Rust said. “These things are kind of couch potatoes. They are domesticated. Imagine a dairy cow getting lost out in the Serengeti. It doesn’t last very long.”

 But plenty of fishers and environmentalists continue to have big concerns about salmon farming.

 Lummi fishers were incensed at the Atlantic salmon intruding in home waters of native Washington Pacific salmon. “It’s a devastation,” said Ellie Kinley, whose family has fished Puget Sound for generations. “We don’t want those fish preying on our baby salmon. And we don’t want them getting up in the rivers.”

 “I wouldn’t call them healthy. They have weird little deformations on their faces,” said Lucas Kinley, who for the past two days has caught a few of these fish as he set out a seine net for wild Northwest salmon.

 G.I. James, a member of the Lummi Natural Resources staff and fish commission, said Pacific salmon face enough trouble as it is without dueling with invaders in their home waters. “It is potentially a disease issue, and impact on our fish, as dire a shape as they are in, right now any impact to them is difficult to absorb.”

 Warren, of the WDFW, also is concerned about potential impacts on wild stocks.

 The department is urging recreational fishers to get as many of the Atlantic salmon as possible. A valid fishing license is needed, but the fish don’t need to be recorded on fish tickets and there are no bag limits. Buyers may also legally buy the Atlantics from commercial and tribal fishers, Warren said.

 “Catch as many as you want,” he said. “We don’t want anything competing with our natural populations. We have never seen a successful crossbreeding with Atlantic salmon, but we don’t want to test the theory.”

 He said the fish were placed in the pens in May 2016 and treated for yellow mouth, a bacterial infection, in July 2016. He said the fish that escaped are believed to be healthy and disease-free. “We have no concerns about disease at this point.”

 Penalties for the escape are being evaluated, Warren said. ||||| It was a convenient explanation.

 Officials said the eclipse brought on high tides around Cypress Island, off Washington state – and that’s why thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon managed to free themselves from their floating net pens in Puget Sound.

 It turns out that explanation doesn’t hold water.

 That’s because the tides around Cypress Island, where the pens are located, were not abnormally high on Saturday, when the pens collapsed. Tide tables show that the island had higher tides every month this year than the 7.9-foot tide predicted to reach the island about 5 p.m. on Saturday.

 The escape of so many Atlantic salmon is an “environmental nightmare,” said Kurt Beardslee, director of the Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest.

 “The Atlantic salmon bring with them pollution, virus and parasite amplification, and all that harms Pacific salmon and our waters of Washington,” Beardslee said.

 An unlikely excuse

 The pen holding the fish failed Saturday afternoon after an anchor pulled loose and metal walkways twisted.

 “Our understanding is with the solar eclipse came some pretty severe tidal exchanges, and within the San Juan Islands themselves, those currents are pretty strong at times,” Ron Warren, the department’s assistant director, told KUOW’s The Record.

 Cooke Aquaculture, which owns the fish farm, said in a statement to the Seattle Times that “exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse” caused the damage.

 Tides are driven by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, yet around Cypress Island they were not abnormally high on Saturday.

 Tidal-gauge data kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the San Juan Islands show high tide was actually 3 inches below the tide-table forecast for Saturday afternoon. The year’s highest tides, in January, had reached more than a foot higher.

 The tidal current off the southeast shore of Cypress Island, where the net pens sit, was about 1 mile an hour at the time of the spill, according to the nautical site DeepZoom. It had reached nearly 4 miles an hour around dawn on Saturday.

 “I fish up there — that's nothing unusual in that area,” Chase Gunnell with Seattle-based Conservation Northwest said.

 In fact, the channel off Cypress Island had stronger currents at least once every month of 2017 than it did Saturday, according to DeepZoom.

 Saturday was a calm day as well: Winds in nearby Anacortes never exceeded 6 miles an hour that day, according to the National Weather Service.

 Since the spill, commercial fishing boats have scrambled to catch Atlantic salmon. Fishers reported thousands of the non-native fish jumping in the water or washing ashore.

 ‘Environmental nightmare’

 Warren said his main concern is that Atlantic salmon could out-compete native chinook salmon and steelhead for food and spawning grounds.

 Kurt Beardslee of the Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest said this event should be of concern — especially as the same company, Cooke Aquaculture, is proposing a larger Atlantic salmon net pen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

 “The majority of our salmon migrate through the straits when they’re leaving as juveniles. You start having a viral or parasitic outbreak there, when our juvenile fish are moving through — it could be a disaster,” Beardslee said.

 Beardslee rode around Point Williams Tuesday afternoon collecting Atlantic salmon from commercial fishers.

 Lummi Nation leaders worry that all this fishing could end up hurting endangered chinook salmon.

 “[Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife] has encouraged recreational harvesters to catch as many as they can, but what does that mean to the other species? The chinook?” said Elden Hillaire, Lummi Nation Natural Resources Commission chairman.

 The state posted an identification guide to help fishers distinguish Atlantic salmon from native Pacific salmon species.

 Hillaire said Lummi fishers had reported catching Atlantic salmon from Bellingham Bay down to Samish Island.

 He said this isn’t the first time the tribe has dealt with fish farm escapees.

 “We had an escapement a decade or more ago where we actually had them caught in the [Nooksack] River as well,” Hillaire said.

 He said there should be a backup system and better alerts for when farmed fish get loose.

 Penalties for the fish farm are still being evaluated.

 Phone calls to Cooke Aquaculture, a Canadian company with salmon farms on three continents, were not returned. While Cooke just purchased the Cypress Island salmon farm last year, the company is no stranger to tides. It is headquartered in the province of New Brunswick on the Bay of Fundy, home to the world’s biggest tides. ||||| A net pen holding 305,000 fish imploded at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm on Monday. Photo: Wild Fish Conservancy.

 BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Did Monday's eclipse play a role in a huge Atlantic salmon spill from a fish farm in the San Juans? The company says yes. Environmentalists say no.

 The public is being asked to help mop up a salmon spill from an imploded net holding 305,000 fish at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm near Cypress Island.

 Lummi fishers out for chinook on Sunday near Samish, south of Bellingham Bay, were surprised to pull up the Atlantic salmon - escapees that turned up in their nets again on Monday.

 The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is urging the public to catch as many of the fish as possible, with no limit on size or number. The fish are about 10 pounds each. No one will know how many escaped until harvesting is completed.

 Longtime fish conservationist Pete Knutson, owner of Loki Fish Company, says that's not the way to do it.

 "If they want to get these out of the water, they should be contracting with the tribal or commercial fisherman. Saying, 'Go out and catch all you can' is irresponsible. It's not controlled, and there's no way to know the impact on other species. If you're seriously going to remove these, you contract with commercial fishermen and remove these," Knutson said.

 Ron Warren, fish program assistant director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the net had some 3 million pounds of fish in it when it imploded Saturday, and the department says Cooke Aquaculture estimates between 4,000 and 5,000 fish got out and is working to repair their nets.

 Warren said the spill was caused by tides pushed unusually high by Monday's approaching total solar eclipse.

 Cooke said high tides mixed with strong currents of "up to 3.5-knot currents" impacted the incident. Cooke's observation of the currents was "based on the experience of the people on site."

 But the environmental group Wild Fish Conservancy has been protesting these farms for some time and said it's not buying the company's explanation.

 “They had the same issues a month ago, and they had to have crews come from the east coast and to fix these net pens,” Marine Affairs Specialist Molly Ogren said.

 Cooke says there were strong tides in July as well but said they have been growing fish successfully there for 30 years and have not had ongoing issues.

 The Wild Fish Conservancy doesn't agree, because “the external cost of operating in the water is not just on the Atlantic Salmon it's on the natural environment, as well.”

 The department has been monitoring the situation and crafting a spill-response plan with Cooke.

 “Our focus is on the safety of our people, securing the farm facilities, and protecting the environment we work within,” Cooke Aquaculture said in a statement. “Farm crews are on site, working to stabilize the farm and to recover as many fish as possible, when conditions permit. The health and safety of our employees continues to be our priority and we will wait for tidal conditions to improve before we send divers into the farm to do a full assessment.”

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 Environmental groups don’t see it that way.

 “They really are like an invasive species,” said Wild Fish Conservancy biologist Nick Gayeski.

 Gayeski is concerned about the spawning of native fish and their feeding.

 “They're going to be looking for fresh water at some point as they age, but in the meantime, they're looking for food, so they're out there competing with our native salmon,” Gayeski said.

 The group has already heard from a local fisherman who posted pictures of the salmon they caught on their Facebook page.

 Knutson has another concern.

 "Aquaculture fish are commonly treated with antibiotics and pesticides are used to combat sea lice infestations. Normally those fish go through a withdrawal period if they've been treated with drugs. Has the state verified or checked on contaminants involved?" Knutson said.

 NOAA is also involved in the cleanup and says their research shows farm-raised fish usually stay near the nets. Mike Rust, science advisor with the Office of Aquaculture, said their research shows farm-raised fish don’t do well outside the nets.

 “Those fish that escape are much more likely to be prey than they are to be predator,” he said.

 A Lummi fisherman has reported finding one in the Nooksack river, but NOAA says in the past native salmon have proven stronger than most escapees.

 “Their ability to compete really goes down quickly,” he said. “Farmed Atlantic that have been domesticated would be like a dairy cow competing with a gazelle on the Serengeti, it's just not going to be significant.”

 Rust says he believes people need to give more consideration to farm-raised fish and says the U.S. doesn’t utilize farmed fish nearly as much as some other countries.

 “People should educate themselves and learn more, because when you line it up it’s not a bad way to make animal protein,” he said.

 Cooke Aquaculture has applied to expand its operation in Puget Sound waters. It's something environmental groups continue to fight and point to incidents like this as the reason why. A protest is planned on September 16 near Bainbridge Island.

 KING 5's Alison Morrow and Travis Pittman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 © 2017 KING-TV |||||

– In what one conservationist is calling an "environmental nightmare," an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Atlantic salmon busted out of their holding pen over the weekend after a net broke, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is now pleading with locals to help catch as many as they can. Cooke Aquaculture's net pen was holding around 305,000 farmed salmon when anchor lines to the pen gave way and service walkways tipped on Saturday, reports the Seattle Times. The WDFW is now asking for the public's help in scooping the escaped fish out of the waters near Cypress Island (or wherever they may turn up), with no size or quantity restrictions. The exodus has environmentalists concerned, as they're afraid the farmed escapees could take over the feeding and spawning grounds of native chinook and steelhead salmon and pass on disease, KUOW notes. Cooke says in a statement that "exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week's solar eclipse" contributed to the "structural failure" that led to the salmon's breakout. But environmentalists are pushing back on that, KING 5 notes, with one organization claiming Cooke had the same net issue earlier this summer. KUOW also reports that tide tables and current and wind speed numbers weren't unusually high on Saturday. A Cooke spokeswoman doubled down on the eclipse explainer late Tuesday, and she also added that the escaped salmon weren't a threat to native fish because they wouldn't survive. "It's primarily a business loss," she tells the Times. The salmon, which weigh about 10 pounds each, "will be food for the seals and the fishermen can enjoy them." (Is California's salmon population in big trouble?)


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When a 10-mile stretch of L.A.'s interstate 405 is closed this weekend, there will be only one way to get through the gridlock: Fly over it. WSJ's Tammy Audi takes a ride with Briles Wing & Helicopter.

 LOS ANGELES—To help anxious Angelenos survive this weekend's shutdown of a chunk of one of the nation's busiest freeways, Kim Rodgers is offering to photograph their pets—at a discount.

 "You've got to be crazy to try to drive anywhere," says Ms. Rodgers, co-owner of Bark Pet Photography, which takes pet portraits at customers' homes. "So if you're stuck, why not have your cat or dog photographed?" The Santa Monica company is offering 20% off on account of the planned closure of Interstate 405. The "4-0-fido" deal extends to all pets.

 For 53 hours starting Friday night, the 405 will be closed for a 10-mile stretch through the Sepulveda Pass on the western side of Los Angeles so the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, can partially demolish a bridge to create a new lane for high-occupancy vehicles. The project won't be complete until 2013.

 The closure of a major artery already notorious for daily gridlock is expected to produce a traffic jam of epic proportions. Locals have dubbed it "Carmageddon" and "Carpocalypse."

 Officials fear it will bring Los Angeles to a standstill. The 250,000 vehicles that normally use that part of the 405 daily are expected to overwhelm smaller highways and surface streets.

 The ensuing snarl will effectively cut off the San Fernando Valley in the north from shoreline communities like Santa Monica and Venice.

 "It will be an absolute nightmare," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a press conference last month. "Avoid the area, or stay home. Go on vacation that weekend."

 City officials enlisted the help of celebrities to spread the word, tapping "CHiPs" star Erik Estrada ("Ponch") to film a public service announcement. "LAPD asked me 2tweet: 405fwy btwn 10 & 101 will be closed July16-17," actor Ashton Kutcher told his seven million followers on Twitter. "In xchange I would like a free pass on that stoplight tickt IT WAS YELLOW."

 Bark Pet Photography Merchants hope to recover traffic-related lost business.

 Amid the pre-emptive panic, a cluster of Carmageddon capitalists is emerging to combat the shutdown's impact on the local economy.

 Fearful that the traffic will slow business, scores of merchants—from hotels and bars to florists and jewelers—are offering deals to lure spenders from their homes. Those located on shutdown-friendly thoroughfares, or neighborhoods with captive residents, see an opportunity to profit.

 "It's the perfect time to get a tattoo. You can say, 'I got a tattoo the weekend they closed the 405.' It'll make it more special," says Howard Teman, owner of T-Man Tattoo on Ventura Boulevard, which is expected to clog during the 405 closure.

 Mr. Teman is offering 15% off "any piercing or tattoo." He's not only hoping to attract people who live in his neighborhood, but also those stuck in the anticipated traffic crawl outside his location. To lure weary drivers out of their cars, Mr. Teman says he's thinking of hiring a man dressed in a chicken suit to stand on the sidewalk.

 On Wednesday, JetBlue Airways Corp. announced a "Fly Over the 405" deal with a $4 one-way flight from Burbank to Long Beach, 40 miles away. For $150, travelers fearing Carmageddon can fly over the snarl in the same luxury helicopters that ferry celebrities like Will Smith and, most recently, England's William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, during their Los Angeles visit.

 "We're trying to make something good out of this," says Lance Strumpf, the chief pilot of Briles Wing & Helicopter Inc. in Van Nuys. The company usually charges at least $5,000 for a minimum two-hour charter flight in an Agusta copter, which features Italian leather seats, sound-proof interiors and subtle lighting.

 The price gets passengers a 15-minute flight (one-way) from the Van Nuys Airport, in the San Fernando Valley, over the 405 to the Los Angeles International Airport or the Santa Monica Airport. For no extra cost, passengers "can look at all those people stuck in traffic down below," Mr. Strumpf says.

 "Brave the 405 closure with a four-course dinner for $40.05," declares the Wilshire Restaurant on Los Angeles' west side. In Santa Monica, Harvelle's bar is offering $5 for an "Irish Car Bomb" or a "Cadillac Margarita."

 The shutdown has spawned Car-mageddon.com, a website that has become the regional clearinghouse for shutdown events, deals and commentary. It sells T-shirts for $20 that read "My gridlock is bigger than yours."

 On the upside, Angelenos can thank the closure for lowering the price they pay for diamonds.

 Fifth Generation Readers Fine Jewelers is offering 20% off all merchandise except single diamonds over half a carat.

 Avo Guerboian, whose family owns the Santa Monica shop, says he has offered discounts for Rose Bowl games and holidays, but never for a road closure. To distract potential customers from the nonromantic side of combining a gift of jewelry with the freeway shutdown, Mr. Guerboian says he will encourage clients to "Think of it not like 'Oh, the highway is closed, and I got this necklace.' But like 'Oh, you're getting 20% off, why don't you get me the matching earrings?'"

 Many businesses privately are worried the deals won't be enough to pry spenders from home.

 "The idea of the 405 being closed for a critical weekend in the summer is unfortunate timing for us," says Jeff Klocke, marketing director for Pacific Park, the amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier. About 60,000 to 80,000 people visit the pier on a summer weekend day, Mr. Klocke said, most of them from outside Santa Monica.

 The park is offering 53 hours of free rides to anyone with a San Fernando Valley zip code on their driver's license. It also ordered special "traffic-cone orange" cotton candy for the weekend—free with a day pass. Hard pressed to find an orange variety, the park got a local novelty food vendor to whip up the shade on short notice, using a banana-flavored base and experimenting with color and heat.

 The cotton-candy color: "Caltrans Orange."

 Write to Tamara Audi at tammy.audi@wsj.com ||||| The army of men and machines chewed through the Sepulveda Pass, casting aside in a geological blink of an eye what had taken nature millions of years to make. From above, the Santa Monica Mountains, its crest splayed apart, looked as if it was undergoing open heart surgery "This is the toughest highway job I've ever seen," project manager Gordon Bawden said at the time.This weekend's closure of the 405 Freeway, also known as the San Diego Freeway, through the Sepulveda Pass as part of a $1 billion widening project is being foretold as "Carmageddon" — a potential cataclysm that underscores the region's servitude to an overburdened freeway system.But in fact, the corridor has been under renovation for centuries. California's original commuter, Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola, rode a horse through the area in 1769 following Native American hunting trails. Wagon roads were carved on top of footpaths.The road that prefigured the 405, four-lane Sepulveda Boulevard, opened in 1935 and was hailed in the Los Angeles Times as a "new and wondrous highway" over the mountains, vastly superior to the overcrowded Cahuenga Pass and Laurel Canyon.Sepulveda would become a clogged deathtrap within a few years. It's hairpin curves claimed 65 lives during the 1950s alone in often-spectacular multi-car crashes. More than 40,000 vehicles a day squeezed through a three-lane tunnel at its crest like sausage into a casing. Northbound traffic routinely backed up to Sunset Boulevard."It could take you more than an hour to drive Sepulveda to West L.A. It was a long haul," said Chuck Mathews, 77. As a young man just out of the Air Force, he took a job as a surveyor for the highway department and would work on the corridor's next incarnation.In August 1960, work began on the 405 Freeway connecting western Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley — part of a 12-mile, $20 million project, then the most expensive California highway project to date.Newspaper accounts marveled at the supersized numbers involved. Eighteen million cubic yards of earth removed! Ninety thousand cubic yards of concrete poured! Six million pounds of steel holding it together! A 30-story building could be hidden within the depths of the so-called Big Cut."Back then it was bang, bang, bang — get them designed and get them built as fast as you can," Mathews said of the heady days when new freeways were embraced as the liberator of an expanding metropolis.Dec. 21, 1962, was a day to celebrate the opening of eight lanes of freeway that flowed through the mountains with the grace of a river.Some 800 people watched Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty cut a ribbon and then fly off in a helicopter, leading a caravan of cars southbound across the Sepulveda Pass.Motorists flooded the northbound lanes above Sunset Boulevard. Traffic backed up for more than a mile, causing the route's first SigAlert.Meantime, in the southbound lanes, police pulled over Ron Tamkin for going 72 mph in a 65 mph zone — the new freeway section's first ticket."I was driving my newborn son, Bobby, home from the hospital," said Tamkin, now 72. "I told my wife not to tell anyone. I was embarrassed. Here I was speeding with a baby in the backseat."The next day's Times reported the incident — and Tamkin's name. Every detail about the new freeway was news. Tamkin clipped the story and put it in Bobby's baby book.The 405 would come to play an integral role in Tamkin's life.He and his business partners profited from land deals that led to new apartment complexes in the now easily accessible western San Fernando Valley. In 1970, Tamkin and his family moved from Mar Vista to a new home in Encino. ||||| Tweet with a location

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– LA residents are planning to flee or hunker down this weekend as a 10-mile stretch of the 405, one of the nation's busiest freeways, shuts down for 53 hours. For non-Angelenos: This is a big deal, hence the nicknames "Carmageddon" and "Carpocalypse." Some of the most amusing developments: Some businesses are offering discounts to woo customers tempted to stay home, the Wall Street Journal reports. A pet photog who makes house calls will give you 20% off with her "4-0-fido" deal. A tattoo shop on a sure-to-be-clogged thoroughfare is offering 15% off. One restaurant will serve a $40.05 four-course meal; a bar is offering $5 Irish Car Bombs and Cadillac Margaritas. JetBlue ran a "Fly Over the 405" special—$4 one-way tickets between Burbank and Long Beach, a 40-mile, 20-minute trip. That sold out in less than four hours, the Los Angeles Times notes, but you can still snag a $150 luxury helicopter ride over the traffic snarl, the WSJ adds. Best tweet? @latimestot quotes Jay Leno: "2 days til Carmageddon closes the 405 freeway & u wont be able to go anywhere. As opposed to when the 405 is open & u cant go anywhere." In truth, the Los Angeles Times notes, the 405 has been under construction for centuries, and it traces its evolution dating back to a Spanish explorer who rode through in 1769. Is there mayhem in the works? The LA Weekly seems to think so. One "after-hours bicycle mob" may be planning a "4PACOLYPSE" ride on the empty freeway, while officials are also worried about skateboarders. And one group says it's filming a "top secret" flash mob publicity stunt. That's not all: Watch two of the best viral videos, in the gallery.