It SHOULD be a National Historic Landmark

First I'm going to show the bad news.  Then I'm going with the bad climate news. And I'l; finish with the nauseating political climate news.

Climate Change Science Atop Mauna Loa Could Stall Amid Federal Cuts

The NOAA office in Hilo that supports that carbon dioxide sampling has been flagged for a possible lease cancellation.

"The Hilo-based office supporting that Mauna Loa Observatory is one of at least 34 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facilities flagged for possible closure, according to a list circulated by Congressional Democrats."

"Mauna Loa’s peak offers an ideal spot to collect air samples on the planet’s growing carbon dioxide levels, researchers say, due to its thin air and remote location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, away from major urban centers."

"Sample collections began there in 1958 under Charles Keeling, a scientist studying seasonal carbon dioxide patterns in the atmosphere. The rise in carbon dioxide levels detected at Mauna Loa in subsequent decades became known as the Keeling Curve. His research further linked that increase to the growing use of fossil fuels."

That last part is why it should be a National Historic Landmark, and perhaps an International Scientific Landmark as well.  The Keeling Curve is one of the most iconic, and one of the most recognizable, and also the most undeniable, data plots in the history of Earth science. And the flaming idiots supposedly running this country want to end it (and be nefarious about it too). 

So, there hasn't been an update on the potential lease cancellation, as far as I can tell. But there was this:

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory just captured ominous signals about the planet’s health

"Atmospheric levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide aren’t just on their way to yet another record high this year — they’re rising faster than ever, according to the latest in a 66-year-long series of observations.

"Carbon dioxide levels were 4.7 parts per million higher in March than they were a year earlier, the largest annual leap ever measured at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration laboratory atop a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. And from January through April, CO2 concentrations increased faster than they have in the first four months of any other year."

"For decades, CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa in the month of May have broken previous records. But the recent acceleration in atmospheric CO2, surpassing a record-setting increase observed in 2016, is perhaps a more ominous signal of failing efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and the damage they cause to Earth’s climate."

I'm going to finish with a couple of paragraphs from this stupefyingly maladorous New York Times article.

"President Trump has frequently dismissed the risks of global warming. And Russell Vought, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote before the election that the next president should “reshape” the Global Change Research Program, because its scientific reports on climate change were often used as the basis for environmental lawsuits that constrained federal government actions."

"Mr. Vought has called the government’s largest climate research unit, a division inside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a source of “climate alarmism.” "

"Hate" is a strong word. But I truly detest this man. 

 

Lighthouse of the Week, April 27 - May 3, 2025: Faro del Tigre, Isla Aguada (Range Rear), Mexico

 

As promised, this week I'm featuring the other Isla Aguada lighthouse, also called the Faro del Tigre. This one's not for show, it's a working light. 

I can show the location, just like last week, because they're basically in the same place (as you'll see photographically further below).  This time, I'll zoom closer in. Both the original and the new one are located at the "Faro Museo".

The Lighthouse Directory provides this information about the new one.

"Date unknown (station established 1908). Active; focal plane 23 m (75 ft); four white flashes every 15 s. 20 m (66 ft) slender round concrete tower with lantern and gallery. Lighthouse painted with narrow red and white horizontal bands, although it was formerly painted all white. ... Located just north of the historic lighthouse."

I have the pictures next, including one showing both of them.

The North American Sphinx

 

Sphinx Mountain is a very recognizable, somewhat isolated mountain in Montana, located here. It's not very far from either the west or north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It's 10,840 feet (3304 meters) at the summit.

It looks remarkably different depending on what direction it's being viewed from. I acquired a couple of pictures to illustrate that, which appear below.

Wikipedia informs this about the geology of Spirit Mountain.

"Sphinx Mountain is of interest to geologists as it exposes an unusual formation known as the Sphinx Conglomerate (Eocene) which overlays the Livingston Formation (Late Cretaceous). The conglomerate is found only on Sphinx Mountain and the adjacent peak, The Helmet. It was first identified by geologist A.C. Peale during geological surveys of the region in the 1880s."

It is also a popular hike and climb.

The Wreck of the Western Reserve

 

OK, not exactly as tune-worthy as the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot, but this one happened in Lake Superior too, and it was recently found on the bottom. 

Unlike the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Western Reserve wasn't hit by a November gale, but rather an August gale. Lake Superior can be really mean just about anytime of the year. 

Here's the story about the find.

After 132 years, team finds wreck of the Western Reserve in Lake Superior

"The Western Reserve was the flagship of the Minch Navigation Company and carried bulk cargoes like coal and iron ore. When the vessel set out for Two Harbors, the ship was running light with no cargo and only 28 people aboard.

They included the crew and [wealthy shipping magnate Captain Peter G.] Minch, his wife Anna, their 9-year-old son Charlie and 6-year-old daughter Florence. Anna’s sister, Mary Englebry, and Mary’s 10-year-old daughter, Bertha, were also on board.

When they reached Whitefish Bay, wind and waves prompted the captain to drop anchor as they waited for a storm to pass. However, a decision to head back out into the open lake sealed their fates, and waves overtook the vessel around 9 p.m.

The ship cracked in half with most of the crew in the stern and the family and a few crew members in the bow. Crew in the back of the boat began lowering lifeboats as the ship sank."

Sadly, though the family made it into the lifeboats, as they were getting close to the shore many hours later, the lifeboat overturned and the family was lost. One survivor made it to shore.

This video from Inside Edition goes over that, and includes underwater footage.

I wanted to get an idea of how far away the wreck of the Western Reserve was from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The map linked here gives an approximate idea. The point that says "Lake Superior" is a point roughly 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, which is where the Western Reserve is located. The red pin is the location of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  There are maps of Lake Superior shipwrecks that show there are many, many more wrecks in this area of the lake.

Fires will not happen under Trump (apparently)

 

This happened to a place in Maryland, but no matter where it happened it was STUPID.

Trump administration cancels classes at National Fire Academy amid funding freeze

"  “The NFA is a powerhouse for the fire service,” said Marc Bashoor, a former Maryland fire chief and West Virginia emergency services director with 44 years of fire safety experience. “It’s not a ‘nice to have’. It is the one avenue we have to bring people from all over the country to learn from and with each other. If we want to continue to have one of the premier fire services in the world, we need to have the National Fire Academy.” "

This next link goes to the Baltimore Banner, which you'd have to subscribe to in order to read the whole article (I'm not a subscriber), but I think the headline is enough.

Trump-voting town alarmed by FEMA cuts to National Fire Academy

I can say it again: you get what you vote for, if what you vote for wins. And this is what they voted for.

Below is the color map of the Presidential vote in Maryland. (Blue for Harris, red for the idiot, as you'd expect.) To find Emmitsburg, which is the Trump-voting town alluded to in the headline of the second article, look for the light blue patch near where the state starts to narrow down to the Maryland Panhandle extending to the west. There are a few precincts that are light blue -- that's Hagerstown. If you move to the east from there, you can see a few dark red patches. The one of those that is closest to the border is Emmitsburg.

Screw 'em. 

Getting what they voted for, and not liking it

 

Apparently Trump voters (sometimes confused with Republicans) haven't been happy with what the new Administration has been doing.  Polls are dropping as I write this. 

Obviously the President has a floor of about 40% of voters that worship him -- truly -- so no matter what horrid thing he does, they'd still support him. They are, of course, aided and abetted by the Trump-side media, which doesn't tell them things they don't want to know.

But still, there are signs of discordance and disillusionment.

Why buyer’s remorse is boiling over in congressional GOP town halls

Republican constituents are pushing back on Trump’s policies and their representatives.

"And they [the constituents] are angry that their representatives don’t appear interested in doing much about any of these things. Their message, chanted by unhappy voters at a Wisconsin listening session, is directed solely at the elected official: “Do your job!”

Agreement on what exactly the job is, though, can be hard to find, no matter where you are. I remember years ago, at a fancy dinner for public policy fellows from all walks of life, our table of idealistic mid-careerists got lost in a tense debate over what makes for a good leader in government. Some argued that congressional representatives’ primary job is to take their cues from their constituents when deciding matters of law and policy. Others countered that voters entrust representatives to make choices on their behalf using personal judgment instead. Each side believed government must be responsive; we differed only on how best that could be achieved."

If I may be allowed a comment (of course I can, it's my blog):

" "I'm sorry if I startled you. I couldn't sleep. In trying to resolve my dilemma I remembered something I'd once read, "that a representative owes the People not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion." (Lyman Hall, representative from Georgia, in the musical "1776", quoting Edmund Burke, Member of Parliament)

The true 100-foot wave? Maybe

 

I haven't researched this much, and the article came out at the end of January.  

So now I've researched it a bit, and not much else has been said. So I assume that the claim is being assessed.

I'll tell you one thing for sure -- it was a big wave.

100-foot wave surfed at Maverick's? Potentially.

You can see the assessment in the article linked above.  The shot is below.  The name of the surfer is Alessandro "Alo" Slebir.

After orange juice, what goes well with breakfast?

 

With Tropicana in big financial trouble, and orange crops in many places facing difficulties, one has to wonder what other juice goes well with breakfast.

Cranberry juice? Pineapple juice? Apple juice?  Something else?

I grew up liking, and drinking, orange juice with breakfast. Fresh-squeezed orange juice is still a favorite of mine -- though admittedly it's hard to find juice oranges in the grocery store.

But I think I, and maybe many others like me, will change our ways. Apparently many citizens have already done so.

Tropicana is in big financial trouble

"Supply shortages in top orange-growing areas — worsened by climate change-influenced disasters like more severe hurricanes in Florida and intense droughts in Brazil — plus higher prices, competition and changes in Americans’ diets have hammered Tropicana. The Department of Agriculture expects this year’s orange production to be the lowest in 88 years."

" “Milton came across the center of the state and really impacted probably 70% of the most productive citrus acreage in Florida,” Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, an advocacy group for growers, said last year

"And it’s not just atmospheric disasters that have devastated the industry. Orange production in the United States has declined in recent years due to the spread of citrus greening disease, a bacterial infection that cuts off key nutrients to orange trees, which first hit Florida in 2005. Trees infected with the disease produce fewer, lower-quality oranges and eventually die."

This just in; Lucy buzzes by an asteroid

 

The Lucy satellite, headed out to the Trojan asteroids that are gravitically tied to Jupiter, just flew by a regular asteroid, named "Donaldjohanson", which is named after the paleontologist that assembled and described the australopithecine skeleton named "Lucy". Now, the Lucy mission was named after the Lucy fossil, and the asteroid was named in 2015, so I don't know if the asteroid was named after the Lucy mission had been initiated. If it was named before the mission began (i.e., before funding and before a satellite was built), then it's a heck of a coincidence that the Lucy satellite would fly by this particular asteroid. I can't verify, but I suspect, it was named after the Lucy mission got started and they plotted a course past it.

Meet asteroid Donaldjohanson:  Long and Lumpy (Sky and Telescope magazine)

As I write this, not all of the images Lucy obtained have been sent to its Earth masters. This is what we have seen so far:

Lighthouse of the Week, April 20-26, 2025: Faro del Tigre (original), Mexico

 

This week's Lighthouse of the Week is a bit confusing, because there are two of them right next to each other, one older than the other, and the younger one currently the working one.  

This one came to my attention when I went to the Lighthouse Directory and the picture of it was sitting right there on the homepage, and it was unique enough that I decided to feature it. Since there are two of them (and since it's easy), I'll feature the newer one next week. You'll probably see pictures of the newer one in the pictures of the older one that I show here.

So where is it?  It's about where the Yucatan Peninsula joins with mainland Mexico, but it's on an extended island / peninsula called Isla Aguada. Even though it's called Isla Aguada, I looked closely and I don't think it's an Isla. Judge for yourself.  Both lighthouses are located where the map says "Faro Museo". 

Now, getting back to the Lighthouse Directory, here's what it says about our featured lighthouse:

"1908. Inactive (a decorative light is displayed). 20 m (66 ft) square concrete tower with lantern and double gallery, rising from one corner of a 2-story concrete keeper's house. Entire lighthouse is white. ... The lighthouse was long abandoned but in 2010 the state port authority restored it thoroughly and opened a museum in the light station. ... Located on the main street of Isla Aguada, two blocks north of the former ferry terminal and one block east of highway 180."

Now you'll see what I found for pictures of it. It turns out that none of these show the new lighthouse, but I found a very cool picture for next week's feature on it.  

The last one below was a small image that doesn't look better when it's larger, so I kept it small.

How to boggle the mind more than it can be boggled

 

Physicists recently turned light into a solid.

That's right on the edge of "Oh my god, how is that even possible?"

Laser light made into a supersolid for the first time

"Supersolids are entities that exist only in the quantum world, and, up until now, they have all been made using atoms. Prior research has shown that they have zero viscosity and are formed in crystal-like structures similar to the way atoms are arranged in salt crystals.

To create their supersolid, the researchers fired a laser at a piece of gallium arsenide that had been shaped with special ridges. As the light struck the ridges, interactions between it and the material resulted in the formation of polaritons—a kind of hybrid particle—which were constrained by the ridges in a predesigned way. Doing so forced the polaritons into forming themselves into a supersolid.

The research team then set themselves the task of testing it to make sure it truly was a supersolid—a task made more difficult by the fact that a supersolid made from light had never been created before. Despite the difficulties, they were able to show that their supersolid was both a solid and a fluid and that it had no viscosity."

It's been said before, but the quantum world frequently defies common sense. This is yet another demonstration.

Seriously, who would attack Ireland?

 

Even in past centuries, there was less war in Ireland than in Scotland and England. Oh, there has been conflict, and obviously there has been some tragic history due to the differences in viewpoint (independence vs. stay with England) in Northern Ireland, but overall, not one of the more war-torn regions.

Yet they've decided to upgrade their air defense systems by improving their radar and buying some fighter jets. 

Ireland plans €2.5bn fighter jet purchase, first acquisition in 50 years

"Since 1998, when the Irish Air Corps disbanded its Light Strike Squadron, which operated aging French Fouga CM170 Magister jets, Ireland has had no combat jets. The country also lacks a primary radar system. Without these capabilities, a “secret bilateral pact” has seen the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) tasked with intercepting and responding to aerial threats in Irish airspace.

According to former Irish Air Corps head General Ralph James, this reliance on a foreign power, coupled with Ireland’s lack of radar coverage, has made the country “probably the most vulnerable” in Europe. Speaking at the Slándáil 2020 security summit, James warned that neutrality alone was not a defence strategy, stressing that Ireland must be able to deny its airspace to both sides in any future conflict."

So now I get it. They aren't really planning on fighting an attacker/invader; they just want to make sure that any parties engaged in conflict leave them alone.

That's fine with me.

Dublin Castle and Irish flag

A civilization built on sand

 

If you didn't know or didn't think about it, sand is one of the world's very important and heavily used natural resources.

And now, we're running out of it.

This is turning into a serious issue.

Here's an article to consider.

Building on sand

"According to UNEP, sand consumption has tripled in recent decades and is steadily growing at a rate of 6% annually. As demand grows, mining frontiers expand, coastlines deepen, rivers widen, and environmental and social harms worsen. As discussed by Bisht and Martinez-Alier in a Commentary in this issue, damages including riverbank erosion, diverted river flows, polluted groundwater, degraded wetlands and ecosystems, endangered fisheries, compromised agricultural practices, and threatened livelihoods, are persistent and widespread, often with devastating consequences. As an example, along the Mekong River, where sand is extracted at a rate of 40 million tonnes each year, riverbank erosion has contributed to the destruction of five villages. Although the properties of marine sand are less ideal than riverine deposits, coastlines are also being increasingly dredged, in some cases encroaching into marine protected areas. In the absence of good governance and regulation, sand mining is leaving other societal scars: violent gangs in South Africa, the sand mafia in India, and beach battles for sand in Kenya, are just a few examples of societal unrest triggered by the sand mining industry (see this month’s Q&A for more on the conflicts and challenges associated with illegal sand mining)."

And there could be a developing "sand gap".

"However, fully closing the sand value chain and maintaining a circular economy for sand will prove challenging should demand continue to exceed supply. Should a circularity gap persist, continued extraction of virgin sand will be required to meet demand. In this issue, Zhong and colleagues investigate the likelihood of a sand circularity gap. Using the construction sector as an example and assuming continuous technological progress to optimize concrete recycling and reuse, the authors show that despite a five-fold increase in the supply of material from the built environment, massive population growth and inertia within the sand value chain mean an 11 gigatonne circularity gap will still exist in 2060."

Like I said, could be a serious issue. Time for an entrepreneur to jump on this.  We don't want these to be history.

A different wave than 'The Wave'

 

'The Wave' is a famously photogenic sandstone formation in part of Antelope Canyon, Arizona. I've seen many pictures of it over the years.

However, I just found out that there is another sandstone wave, the 'Fire Wave' in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.  I had to skip that on a short visit to Bryce Canyon (and plus, it was pretty hot and I wasn't prepared for hot-weather hiking).  So I've had to content myself with enjoying the pictures of it.  By the way, if you zoom in to it using the link above, it's pretty impressive that way, too.)

Here's one (and one of the best I've seen). There are more that can be found.

Photo by Andrew Kearns

The collapse of the natural world is continuing

 

I hate to be the bearer of honest tidings, but one cannot avoid reality, unless one is in the Trump presidential administration or is a card-carrying member of the Trump cult. OK, there are other reality deniers in other countries, too, but this country has numerous flagrant examples.

But here is the honest tidings. All around us, there are numerous indicators that the natural world is collapsing. It is a slow erosion, but it is happening. It is insidious because it is slow, and magnificent TV series like The Americas show us that there are still bastions of nature holding out against the process of loss, but the loss is as undeniable as it is inexorable.

My age precludes me from thinking I will see beyond the middle of this century, if I make it that far. The worst effects of this process, the endgame, won't happen until later than that. Sadly, though, not by much more.

The reason I said all that said stuff is the following article about a disheartening study.

Butterfly populations are plummeting across the United States

"The researchers behind the study collected and analyzed observations of more than 12 million butterflies from nearly 77,000 surveys by both scientists and community volunteers. Most of the records came from state and local nature clubs, as well as national organizations such as the North American Butterfly Association, which organizes annual surveys in many places.

From coast to coast, these surveys reported observations of 554 species. The total number of butterflies of all those species decreased by 22% from 2000 to 2020, the study reveals. These declines didn’t impact all species equally: About half the species observed suffered population drops of 42% or more. “It was way worse than I thought,” says Cheryl Schultz, a conservation biologist at Washington State University who helped lead the analysis. 

“Just an enormous loss.”

Yes, it is. And let's not forget the current Presidential administration is contending that there is no "harm" to an endangered species if their habitat is destroyed.

Tell it to the Saint Francis' Satyr, once thought to be extinct, that only inhabits wet meadows in North Carolina (and maybe a little bit of Virginia).  (Source:  10 Endangered Butterflies and Their Host Plants)

Lighthouse of the Week, April 13-19, 2025: Faro de Cortes, Mexico

 

Located on the occasionally very windy coast near Tehuantepec, Mexico, this isn't a fancy lighthouse, but it's still flashing. 

The Lighthouse Directory informs us about it:

"Date unknown. Active; focal plane 30 m (98 ft); two white flashes every 10 s. 8 m (26 ft) hexagonal concrete pillar painted with red and white vertical stripes. Luis Nolasco has a 2021 photo and Google has an indistinct satellite view.  The lighthouse is named for the explorer and conqueror Hernán Cortés, who arrived here in 1527. Located on a promontory about 800 m (1/2 mi) south of La Ventosa and 5 km (3 mi) east of Salina Cruz." 

Let's see a few pictures and a video. The video is first; the Faro de Cortes appears in it from about 3:00 to 6:00.  Around the internet, there are more pictures of the old tower than the new one.

Orange juice isn't what it used to be

From the Washington Post;  I'll quote a bit.

Orange juice is getting squeezed by competitors, prices and storms

"But consumers’ tastes are changing as shoppers look for drinks with less sugar — and with promises of added functions such as boosted hydration, extra vitamins, increased energy or gut health. Orange juice is increasingly competing with beverages with dazzling ingredients and flavors, whether elderflower or probiotics, and sales are continuing to decline."

"But the Sunshine State’s most famous crop is getting seriously squeezed, and not just by lack of demand or by all its new competitors. Production of Florida oranges is down to record lows, after years of hurricane damage, diseases, and commercial and residential development that is eating up former farmland. According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, the 2024-2025 crop is expected to be 11.5 million boxes, down 36 percent from last season, which itself was a record low. For context, a record 244 million boxes of oranges were harvested in Florida during the 1997-1998 season."

"OJ’s fortunes rose briefly during the coronavirus pandemic, when people were looking for immunity-boosting foods, experts note. That’s when consumers demonstrated that their concerns about sugar were overridden by their desire for foods long associated with fighting illnesses."

" “But that health halo around immunity has worn off, and the bigger issue for most shoppers is their pocketbook and also, like, do I also have enough money left over for these six other cool beverages that are more functional?” Nielsen says."

It's still there

 

I just (April 13) checked, and the grounded iceberg is still located southwest of South Georgia Island. Where it is located, I don't think it's a problem for marine and semi-aquatic wildlife, avian or mammal.

World’s Largest, Oldest Iceberg Runs Aground Near Antarctic Island

"After a leisurely five-year journey, the ginormous iceberg A23a appears to have run aground near the Southern Ocean’s South Georgia Island, according to the British Antarctic Survey.

A23a weighs nearly a trillion metric tons, making it the world’s largest active iceberg. It calved from Antarctica in 1986, making it the world’s oldest berg. And now, after drifting for half a decade, A23a has grounded itself about 56 miles (90 kilometers) south of South Georgia."

Lighthouse of the Week, April 6-12, 2025: Faro Marina di Ravenna, Italy

 

Italy has a lot of coastline and numerous lighthouses, and I have only featured a few of them. This one is on the Adriatic Sea, i.e., on Italy's east coast.  It's funny how the USA has a West Coast and an East Coast that are over 3,000 miles apart, while Italy's East and West Coasts are somewhere between 80 and 130 miles apart on the longest section of the boot-shaped peninsula.

So, this week we have the Faro Marina di Ravenna, which one might presume is near or in Ravenna. That is correct. Ravenna might not be as famous as Venice to the north or Bologna to the west, but it does lie on the water and it isn't (apparently) sinking into the mud.  Here's where it is,  zoomed out far enough to locate Bologna, too.

Let's get the Lighthouse Directory description:

"1862 (Achille Buffoni) (rebuilt in 1950). Active; focal plane 35 m (115 ft); white flash every 5 s. 33 m (108 ft) octagonal cylindrical tower with lantern and gallery, rising from a 3-story brick building that includes the port captain's office. Tower painted white; building is unpainted red brick; lantern dome is gray metallic. ... This lighthouse marks an artificial channel cut in the 18th century for the city of Ravenna; the channel connects to a harbor, the Marina di Ravenna, dredged from the lagoon and wetlands behind the barrier island. The original light was 24 m (79 ft) tall; it was raised in 1935 and rebuilt after being heavily damaged during World War II."

Here's another page about it:  Marina di Ravenna Lighthouse (World of Lighthouses)

Four pictures I found of this one are below. One of them is small, but it's a pretty sunrise or sunset.

Capricious and cruel

 

There are so many ways that the current Trump administration is offensive.

Playing the game of renaming military bases ("forts") back to the names they had before, but naming them for someone else other than the Confederate heroes they were originally named for, is one of the most offensive. And that's saying a lot. 

Particularly this one.

Not that Benning: Hegseth renames Fort Moore, but not for Confederate general, he says

"Hegseth renamed the Georgia base [which had been named Fort Moore] in honor of Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a World War I veteran awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and not the Confederate general for whom it was originally named, according to a memo released Monday. Earlier this month, Hegseth also renamed Fort Bragg – another base whose original Confederate-inspired name was restored – in that case to honor a distinguished World War II soldier named Roland Bragg."

So who was (actually were) the honoree that gave the base the name Fort Moore?\

"Fort Benning's name was changed to Fort Moore in 2023 in honor of Hal Moore, a Vietnam War general, and his wife Julia. Hal Moore was highly decorated for his service during the battle of Ia Drang. Julia Moore changed the way the Army notifies families of service members killed in action through her activism."

So was changing the name back to Fort Benning, but naming it for someone else, NOT the "ardent secessionist, bitter opponent of abolition and senior officer in the Confederate Army" it was originally named for, a good idea?

Not so much.

"Ty Seidule, a retired Army brigadier general and co-chairman of the commission that swapped out names of Confederate soldiers who waged war against the United States for American heroes, blasted the decision on Monday. He called Hegseth’s decision “capricious and cruel.”

“I’m heartbroken. First family to ever be recognized. First spouse. Legendary heroes who are buried on the post,” Seidule said. “The Moores were and are an inspiration to all soldiers and all Americans.”

Hegseth’s decision, Seidule said, overturns the will of the American people. Congress created the commission and accepted its findings.

“Commemoration reflects our values and nobody better reflects the values and mission of Fort Moore than the Moore family,” Seidule said."

Hegseth should obviously have left it that way. But he's a jerk and he worships the horrid President, so what else was he going to do?

Screw him. 

 

More on the big melt

If you didn't know, the world we live on is warming.  This is causing the ice of the mountains and the polar regions to melt.  

It's not news, it's true, and it's not going to stop just because a new Presidential administration wants to stop talking about how it's happening and that it's not going to stop. 

And the ice is not going to stop melting unless it gets colder. 

This is what's happening now:

Why Melting Glaciers Are Losing 273 Billion Tons of Ice Yearly

"From 2000 to 2023, the global glacier mass loss totals 6,542 billion tons. This loss contributed 18 mm to global sea-level rise at an annual rate of 273 billion tons or 0.75 millimeters yearly. With this, glaciers are currently the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise, after the warming of the ocean and before the contributions from the Greenland Ice Sheet, changes in land water storage, and the Antarctic Ice Sheet."

Here's the reference (also at the end of the article):

Zemp M, Jakob L, Dussaillant I, et al. Community estimate of global glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023. Nature. 2025:1-7. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08545-z

Let's finish this blog post with the final paragraph of the article:

" “Our observations and recent modeling studies indicate that glacier mass loss will continue and possibly accelerate until the end of this century”, says UZH glaciologist and [Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise] GlaMBIE project manager Samuel Nussbaumer. “This underpins the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s call for urgent and concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and associated warming to limit the impact of glacier wastage on local geohazards, regional freshwater availability, and global sea-level rise”, he concludes."

The disaster is fully underway

From Inside Climate News:

Legal Protections for Wildlife in Jeopardy as House Hosts Oversight Meeting

GOP-led Natural Resources Committee questions efficacy of Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"The hearing wasn’t [representative] Hageman’s, nor the committee’s, first time tackling the ESA. The Natural Resources Committee held two oversight hearings and three legislative hearings on the conservation law during Congress’ last session. Those hearings resulted in eight bills related to the ESA, three of which passed the House, two of which also passed the U.S. Senate. Both bills were vetoed by President Joe Biden.

The U.S. Supreme Court has examined the ESA and found it extremely clear, said Daniel Rohlf, a wildlife law professor at Lewis and Clark Law School, referring to a 1978 landmark case that ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority was in violation of the ESA in building a dam due to the discovery of the snail darter fish in the Little Tennessee River.

“The court emphasized that, quote, ‘The plain intent of Congress in enacting this statute was to halt and reverse the trend towards species extinction, whatever the cost,’ close quote,” Rohlf said."

It should be pointed out that the Endangered Species Act is so strong and so powerful as an environmental protection law that it is the envy of many other nations around the world. It has resulted in the preservation of natural land in its natural state in numerous locations. Species are endangered because their habitat is shrinking, and the only way to really improve things would be to expand natural habitats. That's very unlikely to happen, so preserving what's left of them is their only real chance. If the GOP dunces mess with the ESA, we're going to use more land and more species. It's simple. It's also simple that they hate it because it frequently has stopped their drill-pave-build priorities. 

As you might expect:

"Many of the federal workers tasked with carrying out duties of these laws have been fired in recent weeks as the Department of Government Efficiency, an unauthorized government entity run by Tesla CEO and tech billionaire Elon Musk, continued to slash federal programs and employees.

The firings, coupled with Congress’ underfunding of ESA programs at federal agencies for years, have led to conflicts with endangered species listings, permitting and consultations regarding whether developments impact an endangered species or its designated habitat, said Rep. Val Hoyle, an Oregon Democrat.

“The recent Trump administration actions, firing tens of thousands of federal workers without any strategic analysis as to the effect on agencies to do consultation, approve permits and recover species is irresponsible,” Hoyle said Wednesday. “[It] is another example of undermining the ability of government to do the work, then blaming federal agencies and those workers for not getting the job done.”

And then there's this:

Celebrating 50 Years of Endangered Species Act Success (in 2023)

The Tea Pot is hard to find ...

 

I don't know where I first saw this. It's a small rock formation / hoodoo near Lupton, Arizona, called the "Tea Pot". I guess it's not well known, perhaps because its on the Navajo Reservation in far eastern Arizona, nearly on the New Mexico border.

It's on the map, and some of the best pictures are next to the map, like the ones below.  I did also find one video located below the pictures.

Note, this Tea Pot should not be confused with the Teapot Rock in Wyoming that is associated with the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s. 

Not somewhat bad, all bad

 

The horrendous Trump administration is all bad news for the environment. 

Here's one of the leading examples:

Trump to tear up 'holy grail' regulation that will free up trillions in taxpayer cash... but could spell global disaster

"EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has reportedly lobbied to strike down the scientific finding so the White House can more easily repeal regulations which fight climate change."

Earlier this month, the Trump Administration notified more than 1,100 EPA employees that they could be dismissed 'immediately' at any time.

That group included scientists and experts who research and enforce policies related to air pollution, hazardous waste cleanup, and environmental emergency response.

Members of two influential EPA advisory committees which provide scientific guidance to the head of the agency were ousted in January.

Myron Ebell, the leader of Trump's EPA transition team during the president's first term, noted that striking down the endangerment finding would likely make overturning Joe Biden's climate policies a smoother process.

'If you want to go back and redo one of these rules, you're going to have a very spirited court battle if you ignore the endangerment finding,' Ebell said. 'So I think they really need to do this.'

However, Sean Donahue, an attorney for environmental groups which support the endangerment finding, believes any effort to repeal the 2009 scientific finding would be struck down in court."

Get your sleep

 

One of the top health tips that is found practically everywhere is to get enough sleep.

I don't, I admit. I do try, but I seem to fall short of my ideal by about an hour several times a week. I should do better.

This article provides a couple more reasons why it's a good idea.

Sleep Deprivation Alters the Immune System and Inflammation

A single night of sleep deprivation shifts immune cell profiles, mimicking obesity and increasing inflammation risk.

"The study, published in The Journal of Immunology, found that even a single night of 24-hour sleep deprivation in young, lean, and healthy individuals altered the profile of immune cells that help regulate the immune system to resemble that of individuals with obesity - a condition known to drive chronic inflammation. This suggests that the immune system is highly sensitive to sleep and may adapt rapidly to changes in sleep pattern. According to the researchers, if these shifts persist, they could contribute to long-term inflammatory states and increase the risk of disease."

"Dr Fatema Al-Rashed, who led the study, said: “Our findings underscore a growing public health challenge. Advancements in technology, prolonged screen time, and shifting societal norms are increasingly disruptive to regular sleeping hours. This disruption in sleep has profound implications for immune health and overall well-being.”

So those Z's are good. Get more of 'em. 

How do you spell that?

 

It's either anetmlcak0va or Anet Mlčáková. I don't know how that should be pronounced.

In her case, that doesn't matter much. Her pictures speak for themselves.

It sure would be easy to wake up to this. 

Lighthouse of the Week, March 30 - April 5, 2025: Constanţa Lighthouse, Romania

 

Only once before have I featured a lighthouse in Romania;  the country has a short coastline on the Black Sea, and there are several lighthouses, both old and relatively new, on that coastline. 

This one is a historical lighthouse, since replaced by something taller and closer to the coast, but this is more traditional.  First of all, let's see where it is.  What you will see if you click that link is that it is also called the Genovese Lighthouse.

Genovese Lighthouse is also the name of this website, which has more history. It can be read in English. 

The Lighthouse Directory provides these excerpts:

"1886. Reactivated in 2020 but unofficial; inactive as an official light since 1913; charted as a landmark; continuous (?) white light. 8 m (26 ft) octagonal stone tower with lantern and gallery. The lighthouse is unpainted; lantern painted black or very dark blue. ... this tower was built by Genoese traders around 1300 and was restored around 1860. "Restored" may mean "rebuilt," but in any case this historic lighthouse was restored again in 1948 and has become a fairly well known tourist attraction. It was relighted in February 2020 after several years of effort by interested volunteers. It stands near the Casino on a headland projecting into the Black Sea north of the harbor but close to Constanţa's downtown business district."

So if you're a tourist in Romania, check it out in person. Here's what it looks like:

 

Lifestyles of the rich and ... well, rich

 

From Fodor's Travel:

200 People Pay Millions to Live on a Luxury Yacht. Here’s How They Spend Their Days

"Life on board The World [a mega-yacht that continually circumnavigates the globe] is full of adventure and bespoke luxury. The affluent, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic residents are from about 20 different countries and live on the ship as much or as little as they want. Typically, there are around 150 to 200 residents at one time. Most come and go from their home(s) on land, with an average time of four months living on board intermittently. While most residents are retired, some do work remotely from the yacht—thanks to the Starlink satellite internet connection, which also allows them to easily keep in touch with friends and family from anywhere in the world."

Here's another story about it that's a little bit spicier:

‘Scandals and secrets’: On board the world’s most exclusive private residential ship

" “I’m not saying that everything that happened on ‘The White Lotus’ has happened on The World, but I think, in large measure, the comparison is not inaccurate,” former resident Peter Antonucci tells CNN Travel.

“There are a lot of wealthy people doing playful things, sometimes naughty things, sometimes scandalous things.”

That's about as spicy as the article gets, but Antonucci has written novels set on the ship that apparently go up higher on the Scoville scale for yacht-based fiction. 

A good Bump

 

Philip Bump is still a Washington Post columnist. Despite the attrition at the paper, there are still people with good insights, as in the following. 

The right-wing media machine is hitting a wall
The right is doing a good job convincing the right that Trump is doing a good job. But only the right.

"Consider recent polling conducted by YouGov for the Economist. It found that only about a third of Americans supported the Trump-Musk push to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers. Among Republicans, more than 6 in 10 supported the idea. Among non-Republicans, though, fewer than 1 in 5 did."

"Last week, Fox News host Jesse Watters offered a succinct and accurate explanation of how the right elevates stories.

“We are waging a 21st-century information warfare campaign against the left, and they are using tactics from the 1990s,” he said, mocking Democrats’ reliance on news conferences and traditional media stories. “What you’re seeing on the right is asymmetrical. It’s like grassroots guerrilla warfare. Someone says something on social media. Musk retweets it. [Joe] Rogan podcasts it. Fox broadcasts it. And by the time it reaches everybody, millions of people have seen it.”

"This, he insisted, reflected the right’s interest in “expressing information” in contrast to the left’s “suppressing information.”

"The important thing to remember is that what Watters is describing is unreliable or inaccurate information, claims that are compelling to the right. What media outlets outside of the right’s bubble try to suppress, by our own admission, are false or dishonest claims. Democratic officials still rely on the traditional media as conduits to the public in part because we serve as validators of accuracy — validation that is (lamentably) less valuable in politics today."

Well, who would try to do this?

 

A Lithuanian attempting to row across the Pacific Ocean was rescued when he ran into a bit of trouble. 

AU Air Force, Navy rescue Lithuanian hit by cyclone while rowing Pacific Ocean

"Lithuanian national Aurimas Mockus, aged 44, was attempting to row from San Diego, United States, to Brisbane, Australia, when he hit Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The cyclone caused the rower to be stranded for three days in the Coral Sea, located roughly 740 kilometers from the Queensland state coastal city of Mackay.

Mockus activated his emergency beacon on February 28, 2025 after rowing into stormy seas with rough winds of 80 kph.

Mockus began his 12,000-kilometer journey in October 2024, and was days away from Brisbane when he ran into the tropical cyclone."

Here's what the rowboat looked like: