Thursday, April 30, 2015

Michelle Keegan's quest for world domination continues


I've been saying for a couple of years that the UK's exquisite Michelle Keegan would become a world-reknowned beauty.  (I even predicted that she'd get a part in a major Hollywood movie this year.  That was an Edgy Prediction, so it may not be likely.  But she is getting married to Mark Wright.)

Well, not sure about the movie yet, but Michelle may be moving closer to world domination.   She was named the World's Sexiest Woman in 2015, by Britain's FHM magazine.  Being a British magazine, that's not surprising, even though women from many other places are at least considered (like Kate Upton,  Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Candice Swanepoel, Rihanna, etc.)

Here's the entire list of the 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2015.

What indicated that my notion she's headed for world domination was the fact that her "win" was reported on by the Washington Post.

We'll see where she goes next.  Her main direction is up.






Climate change reduces Tanzanian coffee crop


Tanzanian coffee is famous for the "Peaberry", which is the solo bean instead of the usual double bean.  (Read this if you're confused by that.)  There is peaberry coffee elsewhere, and there is regular Tanzanian coffee.   Well, due to climate change, there is apparently going to be a little less Tanzanian coffee.

Climate change is already hurting the world's most consumed coffee bean

"The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, found that Tanzania’s production of Arabica coffee — the most-consumed coffee species in the world — has fallen by 46 percent since 1966. Over the same period of time, the average nighttime temperature in Tanzania increased 1.4 degrees Celsius.

“Everybody is talking about the future,” Alessandro Craparo, a co-author of the study, told ThinkProgress. “But we can show that this has had a massive impact already.”
...

 “We’ve always known that high temperatures and low rainfall impact coffee,” Craparo said. “What this study found, and what’s really important, is its nighttime temperatures that are increasing at a rapid rate and having a bigger impact on coffee than what’s happening in the day.” "

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Lighthouse of the Week, April 26-May 2, 2015: Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico


I promised a good Lighthouse of the Week, and here it is.  This is the Cabo Rojo Los Morrillos lighthouse, situated on the southwest corner of Puerto Rico.   Not just on the corner, but commanding a view from 200-foot high red cliffs.  Very will-situated and picturesque to the max.

Read more about it here:  Cabo Rojo Lighthouse (from Puerto Rico Day Trips)

Another guide to the lighthouse:   Los Morillos Lighthouse

Some history from Lighthouse Friends:  Cabo Rojo (Los Morillos), PR

And below, the pictures:






Sadly, an Edgy Prediction is correct


I made several Edgy Predictions at the beginning of the year.  The idea of these was that very few on the list were likely to actually happen.  But I knew that one of them was one of those things that unfortunately can occur on this restless planet with regularity.

Here it is again.

6.    A major earthquake or tsunami, or both together, will cause a minimum of 2,000 fatalities.

As you probably know, a major earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday, April 25.   As the BBC is reporting now, the confirmed death toll is now over 3,000.  ("Nepal earthquake:  death toll rises above 3,000").

So clearly I did get that prediction right.  I'm not surprised.  But that doesn't mean I'm happy.

[Checking my Edgy Predictions, a different one was that Hillary Clinton would declare a candidacy for President.  Well, she did that, so as of now, I've got two Edgy Predictions correct.  

It's a start.


Saturday, April 25, 2015

A bonus lighthouse


I missed my Lighthouse of the Week last week, but I've got a good one for tomorrow.   Meanwhile, I found a picture of the Arenas Blancas lighthouse in the Canary Islands, which is a very modern design.




Italy has strange ancient fossil guys


Italy has a couple of strange ancient guys.  One of them is Ötzi, the frozen Bronze Age hunter found in the Italian mountains (a few hundred yards from Austria), who was apparently assassinated in a tribal power struggle.

And after reading this Daily Mail article, I found out about "Altamura Man", a Neanderthal (now conclusively identified as such) who was encased in calcite after falling into a cave sinkhole.  And the pictures of him are positively spooky.

"The DNA is the oldest to ever be extracted from a Neanderthal and the researchers now hope to further analyse the genetic information from the skeleton. ... However, few could agree on whether the skeleton belonged to a Neanderthal or a modern human, or how long it had been down there. But after taking a tiny part of the skeleton's shoulder bone, researchers at the Sapienza University of Rome, University of Firenze and Newcastle University have been able to answer the questions. They found mitochondrial DNA they extracted from the shoulder bone matched that of other Neanderthal skeletons."
Here's a spooky picture of Altamura Man:





Properly improper


Elle Evans (formerly known as Lindsey Gayle Evans)  has established herself as a fashion model and rising recognizable celebrity.   Her career got a big boost from her appearance (and I use that word in its best sense) in the "Blurred Lines" video.  She's made more appearances, on TV, in LOTS of high-fashion shoots, avant garde photography, and she's also now making movies.

She might also be in a newly initiated high-profile dating relationship.  Read about that here.  I won't speculate.

The reason for this post is a recent Instagram from her management team (photographer unknown, but I wouldn't mind having had the opportunity) showing the proper form for eating breakfast in bed, though not necessarily entirely in proper attire.  On the other hand, depending on what you've got planned or what you've recently accomplished, she might be entirely appropriate.



Fetching.




Great shot of Calbuco eruption


Calbuco volcano in Chile started erupting on April 22, with more plumes of ash on April 23 and 24.  Like most Chilean volcanoes, this eruption is producing a lot of ash, and a lot of that ash is falling on Argentina.   This also appears to be a volcano that's easy to watch, as there are many picture of it erupting.  

There were videos and pictures of the first eruption at sunset and the second one at night, the latter with lots of lightning.  The picture below must be of the eruption on Friday the 24th, because it was viewed from space during the day.  See link below.





Here's an article with more pictures, an ashfall map, and an excellent view from space.  The article notes that Calbuco is considered Chile's 3rd most dangerous volcano.

Calbuco volcano in Chile could erupt for months


Vote on the bright spots


I, like many other astronomically interested persons, am wondering what the bright spot features on Ceres are.  We may know fairly soon as the Dawn satellite makes more observations.

A couple of posts ago, I guessed that the bright spots are ice.  Well, now anybody can vote on what they might be:

What's that spot on World Ceres?  (Ha ha, get it?)

So I voted for ice.  Ice was leading the voting totals with 34%.   "Other" is second with 27%.

Can't wait to find out.


Monday, April 20, 2015

I have to mention...



Because of my long-running admiration for Kate Hudson  (don't believe me? here's my blog search results), I have to mention this compendium of both her glam and casual (including bikini) fashions, in which she almost invariably looks marvy.

Kate Hudson's twenty hottest looks

Somehow, though, they missed this appearance, to which I paid ample tribute at the time it appeared:


Marco Rubio says very little about climate change



I was stunned by the lack of anything substantive in Marco Rubio's interview statement on climate change.  It's confused, vacuous, and pandering.  By the title of the article, you might perceive that the author agrees with that assessment.  Full disclosure here:  I read the whole article and agreed with the author of it, which is why I say that this statement is confused, vacuous, and pandering, because that's basically what the author said it is.

And that's what it is.

From "Marco Rubio's intellectually vacuous position on climate change":
"Humans are not responsible for climate change in the way some of these people out there are trying to make us believe, for the following reason: I believe the climate is changing because there’s never been a moment where the climate is not changing.  The question is, what percentage of that … is due to human activity? If we do the things they want us to do, cap-and-trade, you name it, how much will that change the pace of climate change versus how much will that cost to our economy? Scientists can’t tell us what impact it would have on reversing these changes, but I can tell you with certainty, it would have a devastating impact on our economy."

Questions:

1.  Who are "some of these people", and in what way is climate not changing that they are trying to make us believe it is changing?  (Can we have a few names? )

2. If you have a question about how much climate change is due to human activity, why don't you ask some experts who can give you a good answer?  (I can give him a few names.)

3.  How much will uncontrolled climate change cost our economy, in terms of agriculture, extreme event damage, infrastructure deterioration, resource use, and mitigation?   (Quick answer: a lot.)

4.  What are your reasons for "certainty" that economic impacts would be devastating?  (Probably because he believes without question everything the Heartland Institute writes.)

5.  Have you evaluated the use of a carbon tax to address some of your scenarios?  (Very unlikely.)

Pathetic.  Or as the author (Stephen Stromberg) says:

"But most important, he [Rubio] keeps it all really vague. He opposes some unspecified policies favored by unspecified “people” because of an unspecified amount of skepticism about the science. He seems to admit that humans have some role in driving climate change, not as much as “some” claim, but he doesn’t say how much. And he fails to articulate what policies he does favor."

But wait ... this is a GOP Presidential candidate.  To expect much better would be comical.



The bright spots on Ceres are back



April 23rd is not here yet, but we're getting there, and Dawn is taking a closer look at Ceres.  And in very recently released images, the enigmatic, intriguing, and mysterious (all of which are synonyms for We Don't Know What They Are) bright spots have been seen again.  So the next question is:  how long will it take to figure out what they really are?

I'm going to hazard a speculation here.  The spots are ice.  (Wow, major speculation effort.)  What I'm expecting is that there is going to be some unique asteroidal geological process in that location that keeps the ice "fresh" and reflective, i.e., not covered by regolith -- another word for dust.

What that process might be -- I have no clue.  But I don't think that they are vapor, like a gas jet, because they are too immobile and there has been not a mention of any kind of Cerean atmosphere with a little tenuous water vapor.

I could be very, very wrong.  But I'd place a modest wager on ice.

Ceres' bright spots come back into view

Recent image 
Watch the animation below the single frame image to locate them (right side of the disk)




Sunday, April 19, 2015

A muse of fire


It's poetry month, and I'm inspired.  I was inspired by a photograph, a very GOOD photograph.   So I captured the picture, wrote a sonnet, and made the composition below.   I hope you like it.  I hope she likes it too - being my muse and all.    (Yes, I'm going to tell her about it.)


Thursday, April 16, 2015

Spam, spam, spam...


I found this bit in a National Geographic article ("How Spam Helped Shape Hawaii") amusing.

At Hawaii's Spam Jam:
"And dessert, too: Ono Pops is making peanut butter cream pops with bits of candied Spam inside"


Oh, go ahead and read the article.  It's not long, and it's pretty informative.  You know you want to.

Meanwhile, I have to go buy a can of Spam.

I've heard this before


According to Eric Holthaus in Slate:


2015 Is Shaping Up to Be the Hottest Year on Record


Seems to me like it's a bit early to make that prediction.  But it is warm, everywhere but eastern North America, it seems.

But why?  WHY?

"The news comes amid increasingly confident forecasts that there will be a strengthening El Niño for the remainder of 2015, which could spark a litany of impacts worldwide, not the least of which is the more efficient transport of heat from the oceans to the atmosphere. That liberated heat from the Pacific Ocean should boost global temperatures to never-before-recorded levels, making 2015 the warmest year ever measured."

Funny how that El Niño that never quite arrived suddenly has transformed into an El Niño that won't go away.

But wait... there's more.

"The PDO [ Pacific Decadal Oscillation ]  has skyrocketed to record-high monthly levels over the past four months. In fact, there have only been four other similarly warm four-month bursts of the PDO in the last 115 years (in 1940, 1941, 1993, and 1997). A quick look at the historical record (for both 15 years prior to and 15 years after the bursts) shows that global temperatures rose at twice the rate of the 20th century average immediately after these bursts."

OK, I would say that bears watching.  Wouldn't you?



Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Lake Tahoe's clarity improves


Quick background:  California and Nevada's extremely famous Lake Tahoe is partly extremely famous because it has very clear water.  But over the past few decades, its vaunted supreme clarity has declined.  The main factors pointed to have been the increasing development around the lake, which has supposedly increased the amount of sediments and nutrients in the lake, so that both the suspended stuff in the lake and the plankton living in the lake have increased.

To find out more:  State of the Lake Report - 2014

So, the following article indicates that the lake is clearer this year, but not for a good reason -- it's clearer because the drought has limited the inflow of particulates and nutrients into Lake Tahoe.  So that's good, in a way.   But if the weather would go back to being as wet as it normally gets, the original problem would probably return.


My Twitter post


I had some political fun on Twitter yesterday (April 14).  But you have to read the linked article to know why I did it.

https://twitter.com/oakden_wolf/status/587980407318175744


Monday, April 13, 2015

April brings a sonnet


Erotic sonnets can take many forms.  In this case, I wrote one about the basic act of having sex.

in the midst

Adoringly I gaze up as your breasts
describe my fascination -- nakedly
their rhythm rides upon the troughs and crests
of our confluent waves, the sensate sea
that centers on my penetrating lance
within your cherished cove. Alone we are
together, where my questing adamance
joins your acceptance and where we then far
exceed our singularities, immerged
in shared duality, the soft and stark
connected to the mystery, converged
within the midst, committed to the spark
which ignites pleasure's ultimate domain,
where wisdom leaves and only dreams remain.



April 23rd??!


According to this page about the Dawn mission and Ceres,

"Ceres' surface is heavily cratered, as expected, but appears to have fewer large craters than scientists anticipated. It also has a pair of very bright neighboring spots in its northern hemisphere. More detail will emerge after the spacecraft begins its first intensive science phase on April 23, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers) from the surface, said Martin Hoffmann, investigator on the Dawn framing camera team, based at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany."

So the mission will START its first science phase on April 23, which as I write this is still 9 days away -- and it may be days after that before it gets a clear image of the bright spots.  So this is what we know to this point:

The bright spots are bright spots.  And there are two of them.

We need more than that, soon.

There's a good map of what it saw on the approach phase here (in false color).




Lighthouse of the Week, April 12-18, 2015: Little Sable Point, Michigan


The Little Sable Point lighthouse is a nice brick tower situated in the coastal Michigan lakeside dunes.  Actually, they are named the Silver Lake Sand Dunes.

Here's more from Lighthouse Friends:   Little Sable Point

Here's some pictures of this one.  It's quite accessible, so there are lots of pictures of it on the Internet (many of them quite artistic).   These are pretty tame.   Second is by John Bough.




Saturday, April 11, 2015

Now I know where that is


Last week my Lighthouse of the Week was actually a project built to commemorate the turn of the millenium (i.e., the year 2000), and also to bring in more tourists.

Well, something else that might bring in tourists is a very unusual natural event.  So, totally coincidentally, right near where this non-lighthouse lighthouse is located, it rained a little.  OK, so raining a little is not exactly something that might bring in droves of tourists, except for the fact that where this rain fell is the Atacama Desert of Peru, the world's driest place, the closest thing we have to a Martian enviroment on Earth.  (Because a little rain is so unusual here, this little bit of rain caused major flash flooding and property destruction.)

As described here:  Rain in the Atacama

If you click that line and go to that page, you'll see a map of where this bit of rain fell.  And prominent on the map is the location of the town of Chañaral, which is the town that the lighthouse I highlighted as Lighthouse of the Week presides over.  And until I wrote the Lighthouse of the Week article, and looked up Chañaral, I had never heard of it nor knew where it was.   So now I do, and hopefully you do too.


Friday, April 10, 2015

My kind of girl


Kate Hudson makes even a very casual outfit very sexy.


Floral delight: Kate Hudson shows off extreme cleavage in seriously plunging maxidress with patterned skirt


So nice and so fine.


A different view of Neuschwanstein


The group that makes remarkable panoramic views of the Earth, AirPano, was featured in the Huffington Post.

It's a big world and these are big, BIG photos.

There are a lot of classic photos of Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, but this is a new perspective. (Don't forget that clicking it makes it bigger.)



Lots of great shots like this are at their Web site (link above).  Be careful, if you go there you could get lost for hours.


Are the climate deniers in retreat?


Well, some writers at the Washington Post think that the climate denier cadre is on the run.  As Dana Milbank writes here:

Climate-change deniers are in retreat

Example:
"But on Christmas Eve, Justin Haskins, a blogger and editor at Heartland, penned an article for the conservative journal Human Events declaring: “The real debate is not whether man is, in some way, contributing to climate change; it’s true that the science is settled on that point in favor of the alarmists.”

Haskins called it “a rather extreme position to say that we ought to allow dangerous pollutants to destroy the only planet we know of that can completely sustain human life,” and he suggested work on “technologies that can reduce CO2 emissions without destroying whole economies.”
Well, that does sound promising.  But don't get too excited.

 Washington Post column by Dana Milbank read too much into a four-month-old op-ed  (from Joe Bast at the Heartland Institute)

"The man-made global warming paradigm is crumbling, public support is vanishing, and except for a few last hold-outs at the Washington Post and New York Times, the whole world knows it. Human activity is not causing a climate crisis."

That doesn't sound like much of a retreat, does it?  Well, this is the "Unabomber" Heartland Institute, and they are deniers to the core.  So they even have to deny that they aren't denying climate change as much now.  And Bast is delusional, because other than the United States and some tiny little enclaves in other countries, the rest of the world knows that climate change IS a crisis.





Half right right now


Rand Paul's announcement got one-half of one of my political Undangerous Predictions for 2015 right.   To whit:

"5.    One of these Democrats:  Hilary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, or Joe Biden;  and one of these dangerous Republicans:  Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, or Scott Walker;  will declare their candidacy for President in 2015.  I don’t consider Chris Christie or Jeb Bush dangerous.

This one doesn’t require a lot of thought, because most of these names have taken steps toward candidacy or at least declared interest in running."

Now we're just waiting on the Democratic side - and from a lot of reports, Hilary may declare this Sunday (two days from now as I write this).    Which would mean the whole prediction is right - not that I'm surprised by this one.



Monday, April 6, 2015

Didn't understand who went where when in 'Interstellar'?


Well, if you didn't follow along with the planetary, interplanetary, and intertemporal journeys in the movie Interstellar, the linked diagram might help.

Or not.

Interstellar Timeline


Sunday, April 5, 2015

Lighthouse of the Week, April 5-11, 2015: Chañaral, Chile


Here is a case of a lighthouse that isn't really a lighthouse.  This particular fixture is located on the hills above the small Chilean town of Chañaral, and whilst near the coast, it isn't really ON the coast.  Apparently it was built as a monument or project for the turn-of-the-century about 15 years ago, also known as the Millenium.   So it was built for tourism, apparently.  

From UNC:
"2000. Active; focal plane 83 m (272 ft); white flash every 5 s. 15 m (49 ft) round metal (steel?) tower with lantern, mounted on a 1-story circular stone base.  ...  This lighthouse was built by the city of Chañaral as a Millennium project and tourist attraction. It was inaugurated 1 September 2000. The interior of the tower contains an exhibition space. Located on a steep hillside above Chañaral. Site open, tower believed to be open but we do not have schedule information."

The town the lighthouse overlooks, Chañaral, is in the dry Atacama region of northern Chile, just south of a coastal national park. So I guess tourism and maybe a little fishing are its main attractions. And the lighthouse.

Chile has a lot of interesting, and real, lighthouses. After all, it has a tremendously long coastline.  I'll have to revisit there in the future.

Four pictures of this unusual inland lighthouse overlooking the town of Chañaral are below.





Thanks, Jonathan - Caps get an Undangerous Prediction right


Thanks to the heroic goaltending of Jonathan Bernier of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who only let in one goal in a seven-round shootout against Ottawa (the Senators), the Senators only got one point out of that game, which combined with Washington's wild 2-1 victory over Detroit, supplied the final points necessary for the Capitals to get into the playoffs.

Had it not been for the Senators late run, this Undangerous Prediction for 2015 would have been very undangerous, because no other team really had a chance to knock either Washington or Boston out of the wild card spot.  Now, things have changed -- by virtue of a late season losing streak  by the Penguins, the wild card teams in the East are now Detroit and PITTSBURGH.  (Boston has the same number of points as those two teams, but is ahead on a tiebreaker, I guess.)  So Ottawa still has a chance, as there are only two points behind all three of those teams (93 for Ottawa, 95 for Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Boston).  So it could be an interesting last week of the season in the Eastern Conference.   (The Western too - LA and Winnipeg are tied on points, but LA leads on the tiebreaker, wins in regulation or overtime (ROW) and Calgary is only a point ahead of those two).  

So now that they can't catch the Caps, the Senators should be cheering for them against Boston on the upcoming Wednesday, just like we were cheering for Toronto.   The Caps have incentive, as if they stay out of the wild card, they get home ice advantage for the first round (I think).




Saturday, April 4, 2015

When do we get new pictures of Dawn from Ceres?


After the Dawn mission satellite went into orbit around the asteroid Ceres, I figured it would be a matter of days until we saw many new pictures of the planetoid. 

Still haven't seen any yet. But there's a good reason.

Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy tells us why.

It's mainly due to saving fuel and maneuvering in closer, slowly, to the asteroid with ion propulsion.  

Phil says we'll get more pictures of Ceres in April.  Well, it is now April ---- should be soon.

I checked to see if the Dawn mission Web site has any new information on when more pictures will be forthcoming.

Not yet.

Could an iceberg help California's water woes?


The idea has been bandied about for decades:  could we tow an iceberg to a place where the contained water could be obtained by melting to help alleviate parched areas of the world?  Well, the place I'm thinking of now is California, which would be a long trip for the big tabular bergs from Antarctica that might really make a difference, but I wonder if the bergs spawned by glaciers in Alaska might work.

This article comments on the idea in general, not for California:  Could we really tow an iceberg to make drinking water?

Note:  there really is iceberg water available for drinking - Bergwater: Harvesting Icebergs

The current problem in California underscores the need for more and cheaper energy (i.e., nuclear).  If you don't think it's cheaper, then you don't realize the problems accruing from not having enough.  If we had plenty of generating capacity, we could run desalination plants, which would reduce the demand on reservoirs like Lakes Mead and Powell and Tuolomne that are going lower inch by inch.  (Not to mention the groundwater that is getting drained from below California.) 

Somebody might mention that nuclear power plants need water for cooling.  But nuke plants can be cooled with seawater, and the steam can be used to get steam-distilled water.   It works.  We just need the energy.  Read:  Advanced Applications of Water-Cooled Nuclear Power Plants, Chapter 2.

Better than towing an iceberg by far. 


Listen to the sea organ


I found this article about the "sea organ" (not an anatomical thing) in Croatia.  What it is:  a set of organ pipes exposed to the wave action of the sea, so the tune changes as the mood of the sea changes.  Very interesting sounds.


This Croatian 'Sea Organ' Uses Wind And Waves To Create Enchanting Harmonies


This reminded me of another mix of sound and light and nature, which is called "The Place Where You Go to Listen", at the University of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska.   It too changes as the natural conditions it interacts with change.  I always thought it would be interesting to have a live feed so that it would be possible to listen in to what was happening there, but I guess that defeats the purpose of interactive, immersive art.  So watch a couple of the videos if you want a taste of what it sounds like, synaesthetically speaking.


Almost and probably


As of today (April 4, 2015), as I write this, the Washington Capitals have a 92.8% chance of making the Stanley Cup playoffs.   (Hockey for those you who are not sports-versed.) The Caps making the playoffs was one of my Undangerous Predictions for 2015, but it has not been a sure thing, and it still isn't. 

But if they defeat Ottawa in regulation tonight (meaning they win in the allotted sixty minutes, not in overtime or the shootout), then they're in.  Ottawa could still get in by passing  Boston or (gasp!) Pittsburgh, but not the Caps.

They will be playing the hottest goalie in the league right now, the "Hamburglar", Ottawa's Andrew Hammond. But stellar Alex Ovechkin didn't have much trouble scoring two on Montreal's MVP candidate goalie Carey Price.  I'll bet he wants to find out how porous the Hamburglar is, too. 

I'll put a postgame update on here, particularly if this becomes a fulfilled prediction.

Note:  I also made an Edgy Prediction that the Caps would get into the Stanley Cup Finals.  They have to make the playoffs first to do that.


POSTGAME UPDATE:  Well, not quite.  After a disastrous first period, which featured two consecutive 5-on-3 power plays for Ottawa -- they scored during both of them -- the Capitals came back to tie the score, putting the game into overtime.  That meant they couldn't clinch, and Ottawa ended up winning when they gave up a breakaway goal.

So, so fulfillment yet.  According to the statistical analysis, the Caps now have a 98.5% chance of making the playoffs.  Any kind of win combined with an Ottawa loss (even in OT), and they're in.   Since I'm invested now, I'll have another update tomorrow.   The Capitals play the Detroit Red Wings, who are good, and Ottawa plays Toronto, which is awful.  But in hockey, anything can happen and commonly does.


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Josie in Victoria?


This recent article about model Josie Maran on the beach with her brood mentioned that she was a Victoria's Secret model.  I didn't remember that, even though I've been a Maran fan for a long time. 

Quick research on this indicated that while she wasn't an Angel or on the runway, (though in her modeling prime she could have easily done both), she apparently did some catalog work.

Sooo...

The first two pictures below show why I think she was one of the prettiest models ever, though she never quite hit the name-recognition heights of Elle,  Heidi, Kathy, or Christie.   The second two pictures show what I think are Josie in some Victoria's Secret lingerie.  Lacking confirmatory proof, I'll just have to accept these as indicative.






 

 

Wallace remains wrong, doesn't realize it


I already showed how totally wrong this guy is on ocean pH and ocean acidification, but like any pseudoscientist, he just keeps nattering on and on and on, continually wrong but unable to grasp that he could be wrong.

The ridiculous article at the Watts Up With That denier blog is entitled "Ocean pH Accuracy Arguments Challenged with 80 Years of Instrumental Data".

There isn't anything particularly new here, so my detailed refutation is still good and still shows why this guy is a total crock.  Sorry if the language turns you off, but he is.

My  refutation:  What Wallace did wrong

Final note:  even in the comments he gets schooled, but he doesn't get it.   Ferdinand Engelbeen punches some serious holes based on sampling, which I only pointed out didn't get the whole picture if it was only in the top 200 meters.  Ferdinand notes that there is no geographical consistency in where the pH measurements were taken.  That's bad too.  (Note:  Peter Foster's comments are drastically erroneous, too, as a replier tries to tell him, but he follows the pseudoscientific tradition of Not Getting It, either.)




Kel's looking REAL good


Kelly Brook, currently starring on American TV in One Big Happy, famously went on a training and diet program after the holidays to get her marvelous shape back into ship-shape.  From what can be ascertained from her tweets and Instagrams, she's been dedicated.

And it shows.  It really shows in this outfit (see the linked article).  Now, she decided to do this herself, and merely transformed herself from a yummy state to a delectable state. 

Pretty much any state works for Kelly, but this one's just fine.


She's got good jeans! Kelly Brook displays the hard-earned results of her gruelling LA fitness regime as she flashes toned abs in a tie-up denim shirt