Lighthouse of the Week, April 14-20, 2024: Lido Molo Sud (Faro San Nicolò), Italy

 

This is a fairly simple Lighthouse of the Week; I was looking for a red lighthouse in Italy. I happened to find one outside Venice.

This is where it is located. That map shows where it is in relation to Venice.

The Lighthouse Directory provides the basic info:

"1908 (station established 1898 with a buoy off the end of the mole). Active; focal plane 14 m (46 ft); two red flashes every 8 s. 14 m (46 ft) octagonal brick tower with lantern and gallery. The lighthouse is painted red with white stone trim under the gallery; lantern roof is white."

So, that's about it. Pictures are below.

Another side of Emma

 

Nice dress.  I'm advertising for Dallianse.

Emma Dress

In case you want to

Public / pubic service announcement.

The sex positions most AND least likely to result in pregnancy, according to experts... and why wannabe parents should avoid gravity-defying maneuvers

More good stuff on how to plant the seed:

'Studies have revealed that your body undergoes a series of physiological responses during an orgasm which might increase the likelihood of fertilization,' she said.

'One such change is a rhythmic contraction of your pelvic muscles which creates a "pumping" effect that might potentially help sperm move closer to the cervix.'

Ms Goody noted that a woman orgasming thins the mucus membrane lining the cervix and elongates the vaginal canal, 'which prepares the vagina for sex.'

'You're preheating the oven, essentially,' she said.

'The important thing is spending enough time with foreplay. I'd say about 10 to 15 minutes, at least.'

OK by me.

Bond pays bond

 

Actor Pierce Brosnan, who has done a lot of roles (very well), but is likely best known as one of the movie James Bonds, did something he shouldn't have done in Yellowstone National Park. He went off-trail into a sensitive area in the Mammoth Hot Springs thermal area to get a closer look, which he shouldn't have done. 

So he paid a $1500 fine after admitting he did it.

Pierce Brosnan pleads guilty to illegal hiking charge and agrees to pay $1,500 fine for walking into protected Yellowstone hot spring

Sorry Pierce, that's not allowed.

Another candidate for highest-level dummy

 

By rights, perhaps the dumbest romance move ever was when Fisher Stevens cheated on a young Michelle Pfeiffer and she dumped him.  

But right up there is Benjamin Millepied cheating on the luminous and brilliant Natalie Portman, who even had children with him, and losing her.

So, it's over.

Natalie Portman's divorce from Benjamin Millepied is FINALIZED after actress quietly filed to end marriage in July 2023 - following cheating allegations against ex-husband

Oh, and she's still marvelous.

Natalie Portman shows Benjamin Millepied what he's missing in sexy see-through black lace... a month after finalizing divorce amid affair claims

Signs of the apocalypse

 

While we worry about the potential for Russia to decide to use nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine, and we worry about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station losing power to run and releasing radiation over a large region of Ukraine and Russia -- we can also worry about radioactivity-proof worms living near Chernobyl.

Great.

Worms living near Chernobyl have developed a new 'superpower', scientists discover

Or as Live Science reports it:

Chernobyl worms appear unaffected by radiation from world's worst nuclear disaster

"Scientists sequenced the genomes of 15 of the CEZ worms exposed to different levels of radiation, along with five from other parts of the world, and were unable to detect any clear signs of radiation damage in the worms from the CEZ. These results are in stark contrast to other animals, including frogs, which have changed physically after radiation exposure at the site."

CEZ is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

When the end comes, the survivors will be worms and roaches.

AUGGH!  That means a lot of Republican politicians will survive! 

To tell the truth

 

A Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post really told the simple truth about the past and present of Mitch McConnell's run in the Senate.

Praise for Mitch McConnell is badly misplaced

"Women have lost a fundamental right to privacy in deeply personal medical decisions during crisis moments in their lives because of Mr. McConnell’s impact on the federal judiciary. He has failed to move the Senate to enact legislation to stem the epidemic of gun violence in our country."

They did keep this quiet

 

Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot, who I really wish would have one more movie in the title role, but that is pretty clearly not going to happen -- kept it secret that she and her husband were in the process of adding one more child to their family. News of the birth, and the child, is now a few weeks old, but I thought it worth mentioning.  Her pregnancy occurred out of sight of the prying eyes and typing fingers (and photographic cameras) of the media.

Gal Gadot gives BIRTH! Wonder Woman star, 38, welcomes a baby girl after secret pregnancy that 'was not easy' - as she reveals poignant meaning behind name

The name of the baby girl is Ori -- which means "my light". 

I was just thinking that the "WW" of Wonder Woman makes a good logo -- Gal Gadot (GG) should have her own logo.

It's been done for Gucci; the Gucci logo is the two G's of the founder's name, Guccio Gucci. But surely there are other ways of doing two G's.

(That sounds a bit weird.)  Anyhow, here's an example.

Last-chance tourists

 

For those people who think climate change, aka global warming, is no big deal in modern times, I've got news for you, from the New York Times.

It Just Got Easier to Visit a Vanishing Glacier. Is That a Good Thing?

“Last-chance tourists” are visiting the melting Mer de Glace in Chamonix, France, in droves. A just-opened lift should make that easier. But some worry tourism is only making the problem worse.

Last-chance tourism

"Can a visit to such a site prompt a change in behavior?

Researchers at the Mer de Glace have found that exposure to its fragile environment can inspire people to adopt environmentally friendly behavior — or at least to declare their intention to do so in a questionnaire.

A 2020 survey of summer visitors to the glacier found that 80 percent said they would “try to learn more about the environment and how to protect it.” Another 82 percent said they would stop visiting glaciers if doing so would protect them, while 77 percent said they would reduce their water and energy consumption.

More research would be required to see whether tourists follow through. But drawing on the survey results, the researchers concluded that using last-chance tourism as an opportunity to educate visitors about climate change — while also engaging people’s emotions and showing them concrete steps they can take to protect the environment — could maximize the environmental benefits of this kind of tourism."

But wait -- is it really vanishing/melting?

Sadly, it sure is.

100 Year Time-Lapse of the Mer de Glace

Read the article for the video.  But the picture is enough.

1909 on the left (Spelterini's photograph from a balloon); 2017 on the right. 

"At the area in the foreground of Spelterini's photographs, where the glacier now terminates, the surface has dropped around 100 metres from its position in 1909. Scientists have calculated that the overall volume of the Mer de Glace has diminished by the equivalent of around 700 million cubic metres of water in the last century."

That's a big bone

 

The dog must have been very excited.

A man walking his dog found a rare intact dinosaur skeleton

"Two years ago, Damien Boschetto decided to take his dog for a walk. He and Muffin, a border collie mix, headed over to a forest in Montouliers, a few miles from his home in Cruzy, in southern France.

While Muffin sniffed and explored the trail, Boschetto kept an eye out for fossils — a favorite pastime for him after studying paleontology in college. Soon he spotted something poking out from an eroded cliff. It was a bone. And a big one."

More about the fossil:

"For a titanosaur, this skeleton was on the smaller side. Boschetto estimates the one he uncovered was about 30 feet in length. The sediment level where it was found indicates it lived about 70 million years ago during the late Cretaceous era."

Lighthouse of the Week, April 7-13, 2024: Queensport Lighthouse, Nova Scotia, Canada

 

There are numerous lighthouses in Canada, of course, so it isn't too difficult to find one to feature as the Lighthouse of the Week. This time I returned back to Nova Scotia, on the eastern side, not the western Bay of Fundy side. 

This week's lighthouse is the Queensport, located on Rook Island. It's the only man-made structure on Rook Island, as you'll see in the pictures.  To find out where it is more definitively, click here.  I used the satellite image to locate it, because it's so small it doesn't show up on the traditional map. Zoom in to see how small it really is.  If you zoom all the way in, you can see the lighthouse.

Now, the Lighthouse Directory provides the following information:

"1936 (station established 1882). Active; focal plane 16.5 m (54 ft); white flash every 4 s. 12.5 m (41 ft): lantern and gallery mounted on the center of the roof of 2-story wood keeper's house. Lighthouse painted white; lantern and roof are red. ... The Municipality of Guysborough painted and restored the exterior of the building. The site is managed by a local organization, Keepers of the Beacon. The Keepers also operate the Out of the Fog Lighthouse Museum in Guysborough, where a fine collection of lighthouse artifacts was on display."

There are other web pages with info about this lighthouse.  A couple are below.

Queensport Lighthouse -- Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society

Queensport Lighthouse - Lighthouse Friends

Queensport Lighthouse - Parks Canada (good information here; excerpt below)

Description of Historic Place

"The Queensport Lighthouse combines a lighthouse and keepers’ dwelling, a popular design for lighthouses in remote areas. The two-storey, wood frame residence is surmounted by a square lantern which is accessible fro"m the second floor of the dwelling. Built in 1936, the lighthouse stands 12.5 metres (41 feet) high and is located on Rook Island, a small island off the shore of Queensport harbour, in Chedebucto Bay."

Four pictures are provided below.

Death Valley's lake is still there (at least a little of it, probably)

 

Heavy rains in California drained into the basin that is named Death Valley, and there's still a lake there, named Lake Manly.  According to latest reports, the inevitable drying of the lake has taken away a lot of its surface area, so catch while it's still there, if it is.

California rains resurrect a long-dead lake in dry Death Valley

"Thanks to the record-setting rain that has washed over California during the last six months, Lake Manly — which dried up thousands of years ago — has reformed on the floor of Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. This unlikely and exceedingly rare comeback is a message from the warming climate, which baked the region in a years-long megadrought and has now flooded it with rain.

At the same time, it is delighting visitors, park rangers and the scientists who have devoted their careers to studying Death Valley and have called the lake’s reappearance one of the most spectacular natural phenomena they have ever witnessed. But perhaps most profoundly, it shows that the desert is a dynamic place, home to complex and vibrant ecosystems — not the desolate and barren expanse of popular imagination."

Lake Manly even has it's own Website!

Here's a view from when it was still there, in January 2024. 

This is a trend to watch

 

Actually, this is a trend that's hard not to watch.

Reported in the Daily Mail's inimitable style:

Raunchy new wedding trend sees brides 'freeing the nipple' in 'naked' gowns - after singer Rita Ora embraced the risqué look for her own nuptials

"Kleinfeld Bridal, the New York City boutique featured on Say Yes to the Dress, has an entire section on its website devoted to the 'sheer see-through wedding gown.'

Styles range from plunging necklines to lacy, bra-baring bustiers and beaded bodices."

This one (not from Kleinfeld) has all kinds of appeal. 

Yes, of course, she's a hot mama

 

Model, wife, and entrepreneur Miranda Kerr, married to Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, has collaborated with him again to make a baby.  She's 40 -- and still looks, well, hot.  Maybe I'm not supposed to say that, but hey, I'm thinking it, so why not?

Supermodel Miranda Kerr gives birth to her fourth child - a baby boy named Pierre - as she shares her joy over the arrival of her 'little ray of sunshine'

Here she is, pre-delivery.

Mitch the coward

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is finally and mercifully going to end his time in the Senate at the end of his term, and as minority leader in November. This comes much, much too late, given all of the damage to the country and democracy he's done.

And, while he's on his way out, he has once again confirmed his cowardice and moral turpitude. 

These two articles go together.

Could Mitch McConnell endorse Trump even though he called him an 'old crow', a 'piece of s***' and mocked his wife? Republican Senator's team in talks with ex-president's aides to announce his backing

McConnell endorses Trump for president. He once blamed Trump for ‘disgraceful’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack

Well, from my vantage point, it's pretty obvious that for once, Trump was right in his assessment of someone. 

Making pantethiene is easy

 

The chemical world has been buzzing about the recent article describing how chemists were able to synthesize pantethiene using chemicals that were likely available on the early Earth. 

Pantethiene is not a brand of cosmetics and hair care products.  Here are the supremely simple basics: 

"The compound, pantetheine, is the active fragment of Coenzyme A. It is important for metabolism – the chemical processes that maintain life."

Be aware that it's not just that pantethiene was important for those early reactions; it's currently a basic part of cellular metabolism now.

So, it got made. 

Birth of Life’s Building Blocks: New Study Synthesizes Key Compound in Lab

(I like this article because it includes a link to the actual reference.)

"A notable earlier attempt to synthesize pantetheine was made in 1995 by the late American chemist Stanley Miller, who had started the field of origin of life experiments three decades earlier, creating amino acids from four simple chemicals in glass tubes.

However, in the later 1995 experiment, the yields of pantetheine were very low and required extremely high concentrations of chemicals that had been dried out and sealed in an airtight tube before they were heated to 100 degrees Centigrade.

Dr. Jasper Fairchild (UCL Chemistry), a lead author of the study, who conducted the work as part of his PhD, said: “The major difference between Miller’s study and ours is whereas Miller tried to use acid chemistry, we used nitriles. It’s the nitriles that bring the energy and the selectivity. Our reactions just run in water and produce high yields of pantetheine with relatively low concentrations of chemicals needed.”

I was curious what pantethiene "looks" like; the molecule is shown below. If you don't immediately recognize the name (or the molecule), you might be more familiar with pantothenic acid, aka vitamin B5. And what does the vitamin do?  "The main function of this water-soluble B vitamin is in the synthesis of coenzyme A (CoA) and acyl carrier protein."

Melissa Satta sighting

 

Going way back in time on this blog, I wrote about Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition when they featured WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends) of some World Cup players wearing nothing but body paint. The links in the article are dead, but the pictures (the Internet never forgets) are still available. See below.

In my scholarly discussion of this artistic expression, I noted Abbey Clancy (whom I have also noted many times since) and Melissa Satta.  I've written about Melissa a couple of times since, as she has been the WAG of more than one high-end player, and also had a child with one of them.  Despite the deadness of most of the links in the long-ago article, Melissa still has her Instagram page. 

Moving on to the present, Melissa was in the news (the Daily Mail kind of news) due to the end of her relationship with high-end tennis player Matteo Berrettini. You can judge from the headline and the article as to her lifestyle choices. 

Tennis star Matteo Berrettini splits from sex addict supermodel girlfriend Melissa Satta after 'very intense' year-long relationship 

- Italian tennis star Berrettini, 27, started dating Satta, 38, in January last year 

- He has now confirmed they have split amicably despite a 'difficult' relationship 

- She once confessed to having sex 'seven to ten times a week' with ex-husband Kevin-Prince Boateng

Now, sex addiction is very serious, and might be something that needs treating. But if not, unless you have the time for your addicted partner, being called upon to perform repeatedly and often might detract from one's high-end sports training. This is what apparently happened with her baby daddy. On the upside, if you're capable and have the time ...

By the way, she was also seen with legendary basketball star Kobe Bryant, which caused some problems with the Bryant marriage at that time.

In case you didn't know

 

What more is there to say on this one?

Republicans who say they support IVF backed a bill protecting life ‘at conception’

The antiabortion bill in the House has no provisions for processes like in vitro fertilization

Excerpts provided below.

"The congressional proposal, known as the Life at Conception Act, defines a “human being” to “include each member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization or cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” The bill would also provide equal protection under the 14th Amendment “for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.”

And this:

"The legislation is co-sponsored by 125 Republicans in the House, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who, in the wake of the Alabama ruling, said in a statement to The Washington Post that he supports efforts to allow IVF treatments because he believes “the life of every single child has inestimable dignity and value.”

They've been trying to have it both ways on this ever since the Alabama decision, but in reality, they can't have it both ways.

It doesn't work this way, by the way.

 

Just one of the things Mike Johnson has done

 

If you missed this in passing, I'm bringing it up now. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, hard-right Christian and Trump apologist, recently sponsored California-based pastor Jack Hibbs to be the House Guest Speaker. 

That didn't go over well in a lot of sectors.

Thousands Sign Christian Petition Rebuking Mike Johnson

"In addition to this pushback from his House colleagues, Johnson now faces a growing rebuke from his fellow Christians, with over 12,000 signing off on a petition hosted by Faithful America, a Christian group that backs social justice causes and opposes "Christian nationalism." The petition condemns Johnson's support of Hibbs and calls on him to "stop manipulating the Guest Chaplain program to uplift divisive and hateful figures, and to commit to following the rules of the program moving forward -- including those that require attention to religious diversity and inclusion and to a focus on justice and peace."

Hibbs is a bit problematic.

"Hibbs attended the January 6 MAGA rally in Washington, D.C., that led to the pro-Trump insurrection, preaching that January 6 would go down in history alongside the Revolutionary War," the petition's official page explained. "After the violence, Hibbs even tried to justify the attack on False Prophet Tony Perkins's radio show, falsely claiming that the election was 'manipulated.' He has also previously slurred Jewish [people] as being in a 'stupor' and Muslim Americans as a 'death cult' and a vehicle for Satan."

It's guys like him that keep good Christians voting for really bad politicians. 

 

Chicago sues over climate change

 

I'm not sure how far this will get in the courts.  But it's an interesting move, concerning both climate change and science in general.'

Chicago Sues 5 Oil Companies, Accusing Them of Climate Change Destruction, Fraud

The suit says BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell have hurt the city by discrediting science even as their products lead to “catastrophic consequences,” including strong storms, flooding, severe heat and shoreline erosion.

Here's a quote from the article:

"The suit also accuses the companies of deceiving the public by waging campaigns to undermine scientific proof of the climate impact.

In addition to the companies, the city singles out the American Petroleum Institute, which it said since 1988 has led a number of “front groups” that include the Global Climate Coalition and Partnership for a Better Energy Future “to promote climate disinformation and advocacy from a purportedly objective source.”

These groups were organized to cast doubt on climate science and promote consumer demand for fossil fuels, the suit claims."

In short ...

With an interactive Mimas image!

 

This article, about the unmistakable moon of Saturn, Mimas, potentially having an ocean under its crust, is quite interesting.

But the interactive Mimas image in the article, which you can rotate any which way, is fantastically cool. So read the article and then roll Mimas around a couple of times. 

That's no Moon; It's an Ocean World

"There is no way to explain both the rotation and the orbital motion of Mimas with a rigid core,” Lainey said. “Whatever the size and whatever the shape of the silicate core, there is no way you can have a rigid interior. You must have liquid water and an icy shell that slips on the surface.”

Their simulation suggests that Mimas’s subsurface ocean rests under 20–30 kilometers of ice. As much as 50%–60% of Mimas’s total volume could be liquid water, Lainey said."

Mimas and the rings

What if they have both (it happens)?

 

A new bill in Alabama defines a person's gender as what they are identified as when they are born -- if they have male or female genitals.

The problem with that is;  disregarding any LGBTQ situations, there are people that are born with both (and sometimes neither).  Called "intersex", they cause a bit of hemming-and-hawing in the redneck legislation. 

Alabama lawmakers advance bill that would define male and female based on sperm and ova

What's it say about intersex people?

"The measure would create a vague exemption for people with intersex conditions — saying that individuals with congenital or medically verifiable differences in sex development “must be accommodated” in accordance with federal law — while declaring that such people “are not a third sex.”

Research indicates that the U.S. population of intersex people, born with physical traits that don’t match typical definitions of male and female, is even bigger than that of transgender people."

Hope they don't try to live in Alabama, and obviously none of them want to be born there if they can help it.

(They can't, by the way.)

Godliness?

You can just read the Daily Mail headline and shake your head.

North Carolina pastor sparks fury with sermon saying he'd clear any rapist whose victim was a scantily-clad woman because 'a man's a man'

(Also, remember that Republicans, led commonly by very conservative Christians in many states, have voted for laws that force a woman to carry her rapist's baby to term and birth.  How Christian of them.) 

Let's find an additional quote.

He said: 'You find more women going to those places with shorts, than you will women with pants and dresses put together.

'Try it, if you got time, try it. Have your boy go ahead and try it and watch for it, have your girl go out and watch for it.

'I used to say this, I haven't said this in a long time, you ready: I say if you dress like that and you get raped, and I'm on the jury, he's gone go free, you don't like it do you, I'm right though.

'I'm right, because a man's a man.'

He later apologized on a sign outside the church that said "I was wrong."

That's accurate, at least.

Important news reporting

 

It is important news when model Barbara Palvin models swimwear or lingerie.

In this case, it's swimwear.

Barbara Palvin flaunts her bikini body in $266 ViX Swimwear two-piece... after husband Dylan Sprouse revealed what led to a newlywed spat

(If you don't want to read the article, the spat was that one of them watched a show by themselves that they had apparently agreed they should watch together. So no spoilers!)

Now, back to the swimwear worn by the model.

Lighthouse of the Week, March 31 - April 6, 2024: Oyster Rocks, India

 

Reviewing my lighthouses from different regions of the world, I discovered that I have only featured two from India. The photographic coverage of lighthouse in India is not as good as for other lighthouses in other regions, but I managed to find several of this lighthouse.

The lighthouse is on an island off the coast of the province of Karnataka, which is about halfway between the southern tip and northern mainland, on the west coast.  My location map shows its proximity to the city of Karwar. It is necessary to zoom way, way out to see where in India this is located.

Let's see what the Lighthouse Directory says:

"1864. Active; focal plane 63 m (207 ft); white flash every 10 s. 19 m (62 ft) round masonry tower with lantern and gallery, painted red with one white horizontal band; lantern painted white with a red dome. 2nd order Fresnel lens. ... This is the oldest lighthouse of Karnataka, built by the British to support their new outpost at Karwar following the Indian Mutiny uprising of 1857. The Oyster Rocks are the westernmost of several reefs and islets protecting the harbor of Karwar."

Pictures, as well as a video, are provided below.

Video:

Quoting Jennifer Rubin again

 

Washington Post opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is frequently quotable, and the article that I'm noting here exemplifies that fact.

Midterm voters rejected MAGA chaos. So the GOP doubled down on crazy.

(These are quoted from her weekly newsletter.)

"What has happened since [the 2022 midterms]? House Republicans have cycled through speakers, tried to shut down the government several times and brought the United States to the brink of default. They spent months on bogus impeachment investigations and harassed local district attorneys prosecuting defeated former president Donald Trump. They also demanded, and then nixed, a border-control measure. To top it off, they refused even a vote on vital aid for Ukraine. It sure doesn’t appear as though they learned their lesson.

"President Biden gets harangued constantly about his age, but no one seriously thinks he is impulsive, destructive, chaotic, plundering, violent or bent on dismantling our constitutional system."

More Cheryl

 

Even though I am most fascinated currently with Michelle Keegan, Cheryl (who has had the last names Tweedy and Cole previously) still catches my eye when she shows up in the news.

And here's a recent appearance in the news.

Cheryl wows in a sheer black lace dress as she leaves London Fashion Week event after partying with her Girls Aloud bandmates

There are a lot of pictures of her in the article. She was wearing the dress shown in the picture below, and looked quite striking/elegant/glamorous/desirable (take your pick, or use all of them).

Wondered where she was

 

I hadn't noticed Bridgit Mendler, youthful actress star of Wizards of Waverly Place, Lemonade Mouth, Good Luck Charlie, Undateable, and Nashville, around in recent times. 

She's apparently left show business to become the CEO of an aerospace startup company.

Quite a change of direction on the career path.

Bridgit Mendler goes from Disney Channel to CEO as the head of a new start-up company Northwood Space... which just got $6.3M in seed funding: 'Expect the unexpected!'

So what does it intend to do?

" 'The vision is a data highway between Earth and space. Space is getting easier along so many different dimensions but still the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult. You have difficulty finding an access point for contacting your satellite,' she said.

The company won't be focused on building rockets of satellites, but instead ground stations, which are described as, 'typically large and often circular antennas that connect to satellites in space.'

A recent pic is below.

We're all naked under our clothes

 

Beyonce proves the point stated in the title.  

The Daily Mail loves nakedness, even when there isn't much of it visible.

Beyonce goes NAKED under a coat as she shares family history that inspired her haircare brand: 'It stems from growing up in my mother's salon'

There's a reason Dracula came here

 

Whitby, England has the ghostly remnants of an abbey above the coastal port town. It's really spooky.

Perfect place for a first-order vampire to put down roots. (Ha.)

Buy now and save

 

Other than the possibility of a massive earthquake or ash from a nearby volcanic eruption, this sounds like a bargain.

Incredible untouched private island in Patagonia that is more than SEVEN TIMES the size of Manhattan goes on the market for a staggering $35 MILLION

This Daily Mail article didn't indicate exactly where the island is, but I found the website that's selling it, which does show right where it is.

Private Island In Chilean Patagonia

There's a map; this island doesn't currently have a name (if you buy it, you can name it), but it's next to Isla Humos, so I have a linked Google map here. The island for sale is the one directly to the east of Isla Humos.

I visually explored around the island a bit, and there are some interesting features. There are a few dry bare streambeds, like this one. I wonder what caused that? 

It's a very nice place (see below), if you can afford it. And if you can afford the trip to get there.  (And the volcano is more than 200 miles away. You'll be fine. Also, there are some volcanoes closer to the island;  Mentolat Volcano is a mere 80 miles up the coast.) 

Good news for bananas

 

You can review the news, even this blog, to read about recent concerns regarding a global Cavendish banana blight.  This was, and to some extent still is, a serious agricultural concern.

Yet there may be succor for the bananas coming out of the lab. That's good news for triathletes everywhere, as well as anyone that needed to be on the BRAT diet for resolution of dietary difficulties.

World first: disease resistant GM banana approved for consumption

A few comments from the article are excerpted below.

" “We welcome this decision as it’s a very important step towards building a safety net for the world’s Cavendish bananas from TR4 which has impacted many parts of the world already.”  -- James Dale, Queensland University of Technology professor, also quoted below.

Also read:

"QCAV-4 is genetically modified to be resistant to Panama Disease tropical race 4 (TR4) which has decimated banana markets around the world.

“TR4 is caused by a soil-borne fungus that stays in the ground for more than 50 years, wiping out banana crops and destroying farms for generations,” said Dale.

“It is a huge problem. It has devastated Cavendish plantations in many parts of the world and could cripple the Cavendish banana export industry worldwide.”

Two years is not that long

 

The Guardian reports that a "big" deposit of hydrogen was found in France. It's enough to meet global demand for hydrogen for TWO YEARS.

Whoop-de-doo. I think we need more than that, especially since this is global hydrogen demand now (all uses), not global energy demand. 

Put the solar arrays on the parking lots -- a much better plan!

Underground hydrogen discovery in France raises hopes for clean energy

Lighthouse of the Week, March 24-30, 2024: Punta Tuna, Puerto Rico, USA

 

I cast around for a new location for a lighthouse this week, and though I've featured a couple of lighthouses from Puerto Rico, I haven't featured many. I actually looked at a couple of other Caribbean (West Indies) islands in the Lighthouse Directory, and in some cases the lighthouses were in a sad state. So I ended up finding this one in Puerto Rico.

This particular lighthouse is somewhat simple and by itself not remarkably picturesque, but it's in a great location and has a scenic view. It's on the southeasternmost point of the island, with a pretty beach next to it, and you can see Vieques from there. This is where that is.

So, since I spoke of the Lighthouse Directory, this is what it provides about this lighthouse.

"1892. Active; focal plane 111 ft (34 m); two white flashes, separated by 10 s, every 30 s. 49 (15 m) ft octagonal cylindrical brick tower rising from a 1-story brick keeper's house; 190 mm lens. Lighthouse painted white, lantern black; the keeper's house is painted cream with white trim. The original 3rd order Barbier, Benard & Cie. Fresnel lens, somewhat damaged by vandals, remains in the tower but is not in use. ... In 2009 the lighthouse became available for transfer under NHLPA and in October 2012 it was announced that it would be transferred to the City of Maunabo."

(NHLPA -- National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act)

I actually found two videos of this lighthouse, one from an "amateur", and both are below, followed by three pictures.

Nuclear power demise? Not really

 

Read this article if you think nuclear power is not in the planet's future.

Nuclear power output expected to break global records in 2025

"China, India, Korea and Europe are likely to have new reactors come on stream, while several in Japan are also forecast to return to generation, and French output should increase, according to a report on the state of global electricity markets published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday."

AND

"Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, hailed the developments as a positive sign for the fight against climate breakdown, though he said far more effort was needed.

“The power sector produces more carbon dioxide emissions than any other in the world economy, so it’s encouraging to see that the rapid growth of renewables and a steady expansion of nuclear power are on course to match all the increase in global electricity demand over the next three years,” he said.

“This is largely thanks to the huge momentum behind renewables, with ever cheaper solar leading the way, and support from the important comeback of nuclear power. While more progress is needed, and fast, these are very promising trends.”

Oh, and about that ever-cheaper solar energy -- don't miss my update on parking lot solar arrays (or actually, the lack of them). 

It's good to have goals

 

The Daily Mail is a tabloid, which explains headlines on articles like this:

Australia's most sexually-active woman Annie Knight reveals she's set herself a goal of 365 encounters in 2024 after losing her corporate job because of her secret OnlyFans gig

"Annie Knight, 26, based in the Gold Coast, sent the internet into meltdown last year after sharing details of her active sex life, and has revealed her new goal: raising the bar to sleeping with 365 men in 2024.

But it turns out the 26-year-old, who boasts being part of the 'top 0.02% on OnlyFans' may well exceed her goal because she's already slept with around 70 men."

Only. This article was on February 14, Valentine's Day, which is about 45 days into the year.

I thought there were only about 70 men in Australia.  (Well, of course I didn't think that, but the population of men available to fill one of the day slots -- ahem -- isn't that large -- ahem.)

I'm sure you're curious as to her appearance; she is quite comely. 

Seen here wearing clothing,
which must not be a very common state.

 

Parking lots are better

 

A recent New York Times article highlighted the conflict between nature/wildlife and solar power development.

The Planet Needs Solar Power. Can We Build It Without Harming Nature?

"Animals need humans to solve climate change. But they also need places to live. Loss of habitat is the top driver of a staggering global decline in biodiversity, the variety of life on earth. The boom in solar, set to be the fastest-growing energy source in the United States, is predicted to fence off millions of acres across the nation, blanketing them in rows of glassy squares."

However, there is lots of acreage that has already been paved over, and offers a perfect place for the deployment of large-scale solar power with no additional loss of natural habitat. 

Parking lots.  

As I wrote several years ago.  In 2018, in fact.

And nothing has changed much since then.

Except that TIME magazine had this article at the end of 2022.

The Overlooked Solar Power Potential of America’s Parking Lots

And CNET wrote this in early 2023.

Solar Parking Lots Are a Win-Win Energy Idea. Why Aren't They the Norm?  It makes some of the same points I made way back in 2018.

And YaleEnvironment360 also had this in 2021.

Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots Is a Smart Green Move

But this one is interesting, because now we can find out why it isn't proliferating. (I added the italics.)

"One other reason for the persistent scarcity, according to Blocking The Sun, a 2017 report from Environment America, a Denver-based coalition of state environmental groups, is that utility and fossil fuel interests have repeatedly undermined government policies that would encourage rooftop and parking lot solar. That report described anti-solar lobbying by the Edison Electric Institute, representing publicly-owned utilities; the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a lobbying group known for inserting right-wing language into state laws; the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity; and the Consumer Energy Alliance, a fossil fuel-and-utility front group, among others.

Throwing Shade, a 2018 report from the Center for Biological Diversity, gave a failing grade to 10 states for policies that actively discourage rooftop solar. These states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin — represent a third of the nation’s rooftop solar potential, but delivered just 7.5 percent in 2017. They typically make it difficult for homeowners or property owners to install solar and connect it to the grid, or they prohibit a third party from paying for the installation. Most also lack a net-metering policy, or otherwise limit the ability of solar customers to feed the excess energy they produce by day into the grid, to be credited against what they take back at other times. Most also lack renewable-portfolio standards, which would require utilities to generate, or purchase, a portion of their electricity from renewable energy sources."

What a surprise that is not. 

Something sure needs to change, and I wish that I could be an agent of change. Meanwhile, I just have to hope somebody notices.

This is not hard to do!

 

It can happen fast

 

If people think that climate change is a slow and leisurely and linear process -- sometimes it's not. If the major ocean circulation patterns of the world's oceans change, climate change can be fast and brutal.

And yes, it could happen soon, even in my lifetime. Which, if that was the timetable, would be bad.

Ocean system that moves heat gets closer to collapse, which could cause weather chaos, study says

"A collapse of the current—called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC—would change weather worldwide because it means a shutdown of one of key the climate and ocean forces of the planet. It would plunge northwestern European temperatures by 9 to 27 degrees (5 to 15 degrees Celsius) over the decades, extend Arctic ice much farther south, turn up the heat even more in the Southern Hemisphere, change global rainfall patterns and disrupt the Amazon, the study said. Other scientists said it would be a catastrophe that could cause worldwide food and water shortages."

Not fun. Somebody better start building Snowpiercer. (Speaking of which, the final season of the show will finally be released -- next year.) 

Creatures of the underwater forest

 

Another title for this post could be: "Musseling up in shallow waters".

Here's the article that inspired it:

A New Creature Emerges From a Forest Drowned by the Gulf of Mexico

"Dr. Distel and his colleagues discovered the mussel while they were investigating an ancient underwater forest off the coast of Alabama. During the last ice age, bald cypresses grew in what was then a swamp a hundred miles from the ocean. Then, sometime between 45,000 and 70,000 years ago, as sea levels rose, the trees were swallowed by the advancing sea. Swirling sands wrapped the dead trees in a natural sarcophagus. For millenniums, all was still in the forest, until heavy waves stirred up by one of the hurricanes of 2004 scooped away the sand. Fishermen were startled to discover trees on the otherwise featureless bottom of the Gulf of Mexico 10 miles from dry land, and a journalist, Ben Raines, helped bring the site to scientists’ attention.

Since then, the ancient wood has provided a splendid buffet for organisms of all sorts, and Dr. Distel and his colleagues have been collecting and characterizing them as fast as they can. The wood won’t last forever, and the forest could be buried again by another big storm. But the scientists believe that this unusual environment could host organisms with unsuspected talents. Dr. Distel’s main focus is shipworms, a group of clams that tunnel through waterlogged wood, and that may be a source for new antibiotics."

 

Click here to learn more about the mussels and the forest and the picture above.