Words of wisdom and preparation

 

The Washington Post op-ed I'm quoting from is now a few days old, but I think the advice will be applicable for many weeks and months to come in the next year.  Especially now that Malevolent Mitch McConnell is the main stumbling blockhead in the way of more economic relief during the GOP-created COVID-19 crisis.

How Democrats should wage war on coming GOP obstructionism

Heed the excerpt (the column is by Greg Sargent).  I added the underlining.

     "The public needs to understand that at this moment of extraordinary crisis — when so much damage has already been done by President Trump — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are preparing to sabotage the country in order to gain political advantage from the destruction they cause."

     We all know that Republicans are indeed hypocrites when it comes to debt and deficits. They eagerly run them up in order to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, or to goose the economy when a Republican is in the White House, then turn around and pretend to care deeply about debt when a Democrat takes office."

     So what should Democrats say instead? They need to make clear that Republicans want Biden’s presidency to fail, and to make it happen they’re attacking the American economy. They want to take food off families’ tables, force cutbacks in state and local services, make it harder for businesses to open safely, and create a vicious cycle of austerity from Washington and anemic recovery in the rest of the country, in the hope that Americans will blame Biden for all of it."

Be prepared to be on the offensive.  We need to keep pushing on Mitch, daily, to get out of the way.

An Amy Willerton update

 

Every now and then I get an update on someone or something that I've previously featured on this blog.

In this case, the someone is Amy Willerton, formerly Miss England (Universe) in 2013 or so.  

Here's the update.  She's engaged and has recently birthed a daughter with her intended in the interim (so it must be pretty serious), but she's still world class, it appears.  (Here's a picture of the couple, he being named Daniel Day, in expectatious mode.)

Amy Willerton displays her stunning figure in an olive bikini as she poses alongside her daughter Demelza during Dubai break

It's an interesting article;  Amy was pretty candid about her real life post-baby, and it wasn't always world class, but it was real.  And she came through the tough times in great shape.

Lighthouse of the Week, December 6-12, 2020: Anapa Light, Black Sea, Russia

 

In the previous post for last week's (late) Lighthouse of the Week, I noted that I was looking for lighthouses on bodies of water other than oceans and seas.  Still, I ended up at the Black Sea, which is a sea, and I've featured a couple of lighthouses there previously.  

This one is the black-and-white Anapa Light, in Anapa, which is just to the east of the Kerch Strait (subject of an upcoming post), the connection between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.   The interesting thing about the paint job on this brick structure is that the black and white stripes are only on the side facing the Black Sea -- I guess to make sure that people know what direction to look to see the Black Sea.

So, again, the Lighthouse Directory provides summary info of interest:

"Built in 1955 (station established 1909). Active; focal plane 44 m (144 ft); red light, 3 seconds on, 3 seconds off, 3 seconds on, 6 seconds off. It's a 20 m (66 ft) octagonal cylindrical masonry tower with lantern and gallery. Lighthouse painted white with black horizontal bands only on the seaward side. The historic lighthouse was destroyed in 1943 during World War II."

The pictures below include a picture of the previously mentioned historic lighthouse in the fourth position.

Lighthouse of the Week, November 29 - December 5, 2020: Gull Harbour, Manitoba, Canada

 

This particular Lighthouse of the Week was found when I was looking for bodies of water other than oceans and seas that have lighthouses on them.  There are bays, rivers, and lakes, of course.  So I was looking to see if there are lighthouses on Canada's Hudson Bay, and there are, but they aren't that interesting.  

However, this led to lighthouses in Manitoba, and because Manitoba has big lakes, there are lighthouses on the big lakes, notably Lake Winnipeg.   So this is a two-for-one posting, because Gull Harbour has both an old and new lighthouse.  The new one is one of the metal tower kind, and the old, recently renovated one is quite small and cute.   You'll see what I mean in a moment.

But first, specs and history.  All of the below is excerpted from the Lighthouse Directory, and slightly edited.

The old Gull Harbour light:  Established 1898, and inactive since 1926. An 8 m (27 ft) square pyramidal wood tower, painted white with red trim. The Gull Harbour lighthouses mark the Lake Winnipeg Narrows, a passage between Black Island and Hecla Island. Located at the end of a long sand spit at the northeastern end of Hecla Island.

The new Gull Harbour light: Established 1926 -- focal plane 27.5 m (90 ft); white flash every 4 seconds. It's a 23.5 m (77 ft) square pyramidal steel skeletal tower with enclosed lantern, gallery, and wood watchroom. Lantern and skeletal tower painted red, watchroom white. This substantial lighthouse is visible for at least 10 miles up and down the lake. 

Where, exactly?  Click here.  I zoomed the map way out so it's possible to see where the lighthouse is in relation to the whole of big Lake Winnipeg.

I'll finish with the pictures.  The first one shows just the old lighthouse, in its renovated state.

Back to our childhood

 

Here, the stupendous Abigail Ratchford makes grown men wish they were kids again, when they could sit on Santa's lap and read off a list of what they want for Christmas.

In this case, I think that's rather obvious.   (And a short list.)

Recent eruption of Semeru

 

Semeru volcano in Indonesia had a large eruption last week, and it looks like there were numerous lahars (hot mudflows) and pyroclastic flows (extremely hot gas and ash flows).

A couple of articles about it:

Mount Semeru eruption  (8 pictures)

Semeru volcano (East Java, Indonesia): spectacular pyroclastic flows  (Volcano Discovery)

This was the best one, provided by @harywp_ on Twitter.

This couldn't have been an accident

 

Venice flooded again a few days ago.

It wasn't supposed to.  After years of delays, the city is now protected with a system of flood gates that are supposed to rise and block the incoming high tide to keep the Venetian lagoon from rising onto the Venetian plazas.

Apparently, though, the forecast was just below the threshold at which the floodgates are raised.  So they weren't raised, and then the forecast turned out to be wrong, and the city was flooded.

I would think that the authorities should maybe lower the forecast threshold after this event.

So, the Daily Mail covered it, and in typical Daily Mail style, their article had lots of pictures.  What caught my eye, as I expect the editors thought it might, along with numerous other readers, predominantly male, was the top picture in the article, which I show below the linked title.

Venice floods again: St Mark's Square is swamped as officials warn of 'terrible situation' a year after city suffered a billion pounds of damage during high tides

OK, here's that picture.

So, I must ask:  what are the odds that a young and curvy woman wearing a red dress with a very revealing décolletage would happen to be walking right past the photographer as a friendly gust of wind attempted to disrobe her? 

Well, if it's a lucky shot, it's a heck of a shot.

I note that she is properly wearing a face mask.  I can't tell if she's wearing any underwear, but I think there's no chance she's wearing a bra.

I hope the damage to the city isn't too bad this time.  And I hope somebody gave the young woman someplace to dry off.