Whatever happened to Liz Cambage?

 

Truly not very long ago, Liz Cambage was one of the WNBA's rising stars. I could say "big stars", because she's pretty big.

Then POOF! -- she seemed to disappear, and the shadows of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese got bigger and longer.  She's still playing ball, but overseas. So her name fell off the domestic sports headlines (even if the WNBA rarely gets on the front page).

So imagine my surprise (I wasn't that surprised) when it turned out she was Only Fansing to maintain her income flow. Actually, she substantially enhanced it.

WNBA All-Star Liz Cambage joins OnlyFans and makes more money in one week than her entire playing career

After she did the cover of the SI Body issue, I figured Only Fans was in her future. And she hasn't been shy elsewhere. She has an impressive body of work. 

It's just medicine, but it works

 

Given the recent events in American politics, the Supreme Court may be feeling somewhat overlooked. I have a feeling that they don't mind.

However, prior to the start of the regime, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case in which a Christian-owned business didn't want to provide a healthcare plan that included drugs to treat or prevent HIV, because that might encourage homosexual behavior.

(Heterosexuals get HIV too.)

Supreme Court to hear case challenging Obamacare’s preventive coverage

At issue is a provision requiring health-care plans to cover no-cost preventive care, including cancer screenings, immunizations and contraception.

Great, right?

"In Becerra v. Braidwood Management Inc., a Christian-owned business and six individuals challenged the preventive-care provision because it requires health-care plans to cover pre-exposure medications intended to prevent the spread of HIV among certain at-risk populations. The plaintiffs argue that the medications “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior,” which conflicts with their religious beliefs."

Could that be a problem?

"Both the plaintiffs and the government asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, saying the lower court’s rulings could allow other plaintiffs to seek a nationwide ruling that would invalidate the preventive-care provision.

"Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, who defended the case on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, warned in court filings that such a decision could be catastrophic, putting preventive care out of reach for many Americans who have come to rely on it.

“Such a remedy would upend healthcare coverage for millions of Americans,” Prelogar wrote."

But wait, there's more!

"The plaintiffs wrote in their filing to the Supreme Court that they also objected to mandates in the preventive-care provision requiring plans to cover all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, including contraception that the plaintiffs contend induces abortions."

Of course they did. But, if you reduce the availability of contraceptives, there could be more unplanned pregnancies, leading to more abortions. Did they even think about that?

As the article notes, the position of the Trump administration was unclear prior to the change in administration.

But The Hill had a comment:

Our nation’s hard-fought right to preventive care is at risk

"Access to preventive care is a cornerstone of an equitable healthcare system. Without the mandate, under-resourced populations — including low-income families, racial and ethnic minorities, and rural communities — would face significant obstacles to care. Health inequities, already pervasive in the U.S., would deepen as financial barriers force individuals to forgo preventive services."

Somehow I don't think that health inequities really both our new overseers much.

Speaking of swimsuit modeling

 

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned swimsuit modeling in my post about St. Vincent's Dark View Falls. In fact, that post was inspired by a lovely and courageous model. See below.

So, here I've visually noted the remarkable Jocelyn Binder demonstrating how to do great swimsuit modeling.

FLIP will still flip (probably)

 

The somewhat iconic oceanographic research vessel FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform) was innovative, and it served science for a long time. I seem to remember pictures of it in science books back to my high school days, and that goes back more than just a few years. 

But FLIP had aged, and it was officially retired, and it appeared for awhile that it was going to be sold and turned into scrap metal.

But that changed recently.

Flipping Ship FLIP Freed from Fateful Trip

"FLIP, formerly owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was in service from 1962 to 2017. The vessel can flip from a long, horizontal platform to a vertical one. Submerging 90 meters (300 feet) of its baseball bat–shaped hull provided a remarkably stable platform from which scientific instruments could gather data without the interference of ocean waves. Over FLIP’s lifetime as a research vessel, it hosted scientists working in a wide array of scientific fields, from meteorology to geophysics to physical oceanography."

"News of FLIP’s retirement was a disappointment to a scientific community that cherished the vessel, Ortiz-Suslow said. Leadership at DEEP shared the sentiment, said Tom Hutton, mission planning and execution lead at DEEP. The company decided that obtaining FLIP aligned with DEEP’s plans to develop ocean research technology and intervened, purchasing FLIP and towing it away from the scrapyard in Mexico."

So it's not over for FLIP yet.  Get ready for FLIP2. 

The video provided below shows FLIP flipping. 

Beautiful views, not so dark

 

I really like discoveries of beautiful scenic places that I have not heard about before. That's the case with Dark View Falls on the island of St. Vincent.  Until two weeks ago I had no clue it existed. And now I know it does, and that it is a really scenic destination (and the tourists to the island know that too). 

So, as I do for each of the Lighthouses of the Week, I'll first provide a location map. 

And then I'll provide pictures; both of the approach and the falls themselves.

The highlight of the approach:

The falls themselves (with columnar basalt):

It is also a very good location for swimsuit modeling:

Lighthouse of the Week, February 9-14, 2025: Puno Lighthouse, Peru

 

It's probably not news to a lot of you that Lake Titicaca is the largest high alpine lake in the world. It might be news to you (as it was to me) that Lake Titicaca is large enough to have a lighthouse. In fact, it has a couple of them.

This one, the most lighthousey of the lights on the lake, is the Puno lighthouse. Apparently, Puno is a somewhat touristy destination for those interested in the traditional lifestyle and crafts of the indigenous population, such as reed boats. 

You may know where Peru is, and where Lake Titicaca is in Peru, but this map shows where the lighthouse is on the lake in Peru. 

And the Lighthouse Directory describes it like this:

"Date unknown. Active (privately maintained and unofficial); focal plane 10 m (33 ft); white light, pattern unknown. 9 m (30 ft) round metal tower with lantern and gallery, mounted on a round stone base. Tower painted with red and white horizontal bands."

That's pretty simple. The pictures will confirm the above is an accurate description.

 

Might not seem like much

 

Back in January, before the Trump Disastriministration, the U.S. government completed a very important transaction with the state of Wyoming.  They bought the 'Kelly Parcel' for $100 million dollars. It was only 640 acres, not much, but it was in a pretty notable location.

Government buys Grand Teton National Park land for $100 million to protect from developers

The Department of Interior provided $62.4 million for the purchase and the Grand Teton National Park Foundation raised the remaining $37.6 million through private donations.

"As for the Kelly Parcel specifically, there had been discussions in the past of opening up the land for public auction, which would have allowed private developers to buy it."

"The Kelly Parcel is a state trust land, which means that assets from the land generate income for Wyoming public schools, as stated in the state's constitution. The parcel, according to the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, currently obtained about $2,800 annual through various permits.The sale of the Kelly Parcel will return approximately $69.6 million into Wyoming's Common School Permanent Fund within the first 10 years, according to the Grand Teton National Park Foundation."

So where was the Kelly Parcel? (Actually, where it still is, but it won't be separate from the national park anymore.)

It's the yellow box in the map below. The concern was that while it was still state-held, it could get sold, and a few wealthy people with nothing better to do could build palaces on it with a view of the Tetons. So selling it to the U.S. government was a great idea.  I'm glad it got done.