And for my final post of 2013: two Nina Agdal swimwear links

I'll keep this last one short, simple, and really, really sweet.  Two links to Nina Agdal doing what Nina Agdal does extremely and pleasingly well:  modeling swimwear.

(Yeah, she's good at lingerie, too, but I've got some other girls in the near future that do that well, too.)

Nina Agdal models Beach Bunny swimwear

Nina Agdal sizzles as she hits the beach for a sexy swimwear shoot

If you want more of the latter, go here:  Sauvage Swimwear

(And if you go to their Models page, there are lots and lots and lots and lots, and some more, pretty girls in swimsuits, and there are videos too, and even look books.  Very fun!)

And I will help out Sauvage with a bit of visual advertising and finish the year on a lovely visual note as well:

Thank you, Nina.  Looking forward to seeing much more of you in 2014.

Who still thinks unlimited gun ownership is a good thing?

"Nearly 1.2 million Americans have died in all the wars in U.S. history since the Revolutionary War began in 1775; by comparison, nearly 1.4 million Americans have died by firearms since Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot June 5, 1968.

In other words, more Americans have died in the past 45 years from domestic gunfire than have died in all the military conflicts since the founding of our nation." 

From  Norman Chad: Excessiveness in 21st century is at its worst since . . . the 20th century

I wish the right to bear arms didn't lead to so much carnage.

 

Say "Australia" to the climate skeptics

Australia, which elected a new Prime Minister bent on getting rid of their forward-looking and future-leading carbon tax (for which they have my admiration), is a demonstration site for the dangers of global warming.

Now wait.  I have chastised skeptics for exploiting short-term variability for their own propagandistic goals, so for me to express that the heat down under is proof or something like it of global warming would be wrong.  So I shouldn't.  All it serves therefore is as a counterpoint to the skeptics who present a generally normal cold winter in the U.S. and northern hemisphere (yes, there was snow in Egypt recently) as something that somehow disproves global warming.  We live in a great big world, and there will be areas that are cool and areas that are warm.  In the case of Australia, record warm. All-time record warm.

Records melt in our hottest year: Australia's heat maps were literally off the charts

"2013 will go down as the year that registered Australia's hottest day, month, season, 12-month period - and, by December 31, the hottest calendar year."

and 

"But for Dr David Jones, head of climate analysis at the bureau, the year's stand-out event was a whole month largely overlooked by a media diverted by the football finals and federal elections. ''From a climate point of view, what happened in September was probably the most remarkable,'' he says.

September's mean temperature soared to be 2.75 degrees above the 1961-90 average, eclipsing the previous record monthly deviation set in April 2005 by 0.09 degrees. Maximums were a stark 3.41 degrees over the norm, with South Australia's top raised by 5.39 degrees and NSW's by 4.68."  (NSW = New South Wales)

Keep up here.  September is a transitional month for Australia - early spring in the southern hemisphere,  early autumn in the northern hemisphere.  So just as the northern hemisphere is seeing major shifts in the spring (like early ice thaws, early blooming seasons), Australia is seeing the same basic thing, perhaps even more pronounced.  And thus even though the world is a variable place and winters still get cold where they are supposed to get cold (despite the fact that winters are not as cold as they used to be, overall), the general pattern, i.e., climate, is still getting warmer. 

This explains a lot of things

A lot of men must learn this lesson.  Some men don't.   Figure out where each path leads.

Why women are happier if they have the last word... but agreeing with everything their wives say only makes husbands miserable

"For the study, published in the British Medical Journal, a group of husbands had to agree with every opinion and request expressed by their wives without complaint, even if they thought they were wrong.

The researchers, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, found that the men’s quality of life dipped from seven out of ten to three out of ten in only 12 days. 

In fact, the impact was so ‘severe’ the study had to be abandoned. And despite the power they wielded, the women’s happiness increased only slightly, from eight to 8.5. 

The study said: ‘It seems that being right is a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness."

So, if you are a husband and you argue (justifiably, when you know what you're talking about) with your wife, you feel happier but you have more conflict in your marriage and your wife might get fed up enough to leave you.  If you don't argue with her and try to agree with all of her ideas and opinions, nutty as they might be, then you end up wanting to leave her. Unless of course she's 20 years younger than you, wants to have sex every night, and looks like Brooklyn Decker.  Then you agree with anything she thinks, even if it means agreeing that natural stone or metal  objects from space are still meteors even after they land on Earth.  I mean, seriously...

So the key is... argue just enough with your wife to salvage your pride.  And then give it up.  That's what happy men have learned to do.

Seriously? This much?

It's hard for me to believe that there was (or is) this much previously undiscovered water under Kenya,  but that's supposedly what just got discovered.   This is likely to be a good thing for Kenya.

Huge aquifers are discovered in northern Kenya

"Radar Technologies International, the natural resources exploration firm that discovered the aquifers, said that they contained “a minimum reserve of 250 billion cubic meters of water,” or about 66 trillion gallons, and that rainfall in Kenya and Uganda refilled them with about 898 billion gallons annually." 

(the linked press release includes an aquifer map)

' Undangerous' predictions for 2014

So here we go. As my 2013 evaluation post indicated, I was both too risky and too sentimental.  Can't do  that in the prediction business if you want your predictions to look good.   These will be better.  But I'll still take a couple of risks.


1. The U.S. men's soccer team won't make it out of the group round at the World Cup.
Discussion:  Hardly a stretch.  They're in a very tough group (Germany, Ghana, and Portugal).  It'd be cool if they make it out of the group.  But none of the experts expects them to, so why should I?

2. Status quo in the 2014 national elections.
Discussion:  The Senate could still be tough to hold in 2014 for the Dems, particularly with Obamacare problems.  Otherwise they could exploit the bad opinion the public held of the Republicans after the budget battle.  They will, of course, still try.  And while a switch in the House looked possible after that, the Obamacare problems cooled it down.  Depending on the savviness of the campaigns, the Dems could pick up a few seats.  There's a long way to go and a lot of potential events that could influence this ultimately, so I'm playing it safe.

3. Sandra Bullock wins Oscar for Best Actress for "Gravity".
Discussion:  I couldn't stop watching, but I didn't think "Gravity" has the gravitas to win Best Picture.  It was a technological triumph, and Sandra Bullock acted the heck out of a part where she was mostly alone.  That's pretty good. As usual, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench will  contend. Dark horse:  Julie Delpy.

4. There will be at least one 8+ (Richter scale) earthquake this year.
Discussion:  According to Wikipedia, there have only been two years between 2000-2013 when this didn't happen (2007 made up for 2008 by having 4).  So obviously this one's a decent chance.  But not a gimme.  I'm rolling the dice here. Stretching - where?  I think South America is due.  I hope it's not the Cascade zone (and I will continue to hope that for as long as I live).

5. Hillary Clinton decides she will run for President in 2016.
Discussion:  Unless something bizarre happens, her status as the person 80% or so of liberals want to see run will force her hand, plus the siren call of history will be too hard to resist.

6. The Washington Nationals make the major league baseball playoffs again.
Discussion:  Call me a sentimentalist because they're a local team, but I think this past year was fluky that they didn't make it.  They're a good team with solid pitching, and added a big piece from Detroit, Doug Fister.  They were also the best team in baseball in the second half but couldn't overcome the slow start.  Question mark:  new manager.

7. NASA's new satellite shows there's more precipitation than expected.
Discussion:  NASA is slated to launch a new precipitation measuring satellite early in 2014. By the end of the year they should have some preliminary results.  If everything works right, I'm predicting that due to the improved coverage and instrumentation, they'll find that there is more precipitation around the world than has been previously estimated and modeled.  This is a coin-flip prediction;  the other side of the coin is that they  could find less than estimated/modeled.  But climate change is making more precipitation, so I go with more.

8.  There's an Entourage movie!
Discussion:  Supposedly, they will start filming this early in 2014. Since it won't have a lot of post-production, I think they'll get it on screens by the end of the year.  Which means seeing the stupendously awesomely lovely Emmanuelle Chriqui on the big screen -- yay!   Side prediction - Emmanuelle will wear lingerie or a hot swimsuit at least once in the picture.  Side prediction #2:  Jeremy Piven will have an epic wig-out in the picture.

9.  There will be at least two landfalling hurricanes on the U.S. East Coast (or Gulf of Mexico coast) during the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season.
Discussion:  This past Atlantic season was abnormally quiet.  So a very modest prediction is a return to more normal statistics, which means a couple of hurricanes make it onshore. I also do expect a few more solid setbacks to the climate-skeptical position this year, too.   I will note them, of course.

10. The Winter Olympics hockey final 4:
Hockey is the "big" thing in the Winter Olympics, and considering that while I enjoy watching the craziness on the slopes or the XC course I don't know anybody by name other than Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White, predicting them is not very reasonable.  (But I will bet that the amazing South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-Na wins it again on the women's singles side).   But as for hockey, it's a very tough sport to predict, so all I'm going to to do is predict that the gold medal team will be from one of four countries:   Canada, the United States, Russia, or Sweden.  I can't go out on a thicker limb than that, can I?   But I will also predict that not all four of these teams will be in the actual final 4, i.e., the bronze medal game and the gold-silver game.  I will predict that three out of these four will be in those games.  But the prediction to base my success on is the gold medal winner.

How shall I do?  Only 365 days will tell.

Final evaluation of the 2013 undangerous predictions

Despite calling them "undangerous", I went too far out on a limb a few times; my heart surpassed my mind in terms of control, and I also had a few totally sentimental unlikely ones.  NEXT YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT.  The point of "undangerous" predictions is to make predictions that have a fairly good possibility of actually happening.   Which means I should get at least 6 out of 10.   Let's make a final assessment of last year's effort:

Because I was a little hazardous, I said I'd be lucky to get five of them right.  So let's see.

1. Caroline Wozniacki wins a tennis Grand Slam.
WRONG. She has faded, and Serena Williams was dominant this year.  Wozniacki's best Slam was the Australian, where she made it to the fourth round.  Second-round exit in the French;  second-round exit at Wimbledon with an ankle injury;  third-round out at the U.S. Open in a 3-setter to a qualifier.  Will she have a  better 2014?  Hard to tell.  I think her best tennis is still in front of her, though. [Though getting engaged to Rory McIlroy might be distracting.]


2. McCauliffe elected governor in Virginia
RIGHT.  Cuccinelli was just too far right and too fargone to win. It was still close due to the October Obamacare rollout fiasco. Thank God Coochie was just to much to take.


3. Arctic sea ice doesn't set new minimum record;  skeptics publicize this everywhere.
RIGHT.  And they are already touting the refreeze stats as something contrary to global warming, too.


4. Jennifer Aniston has a baby
WRONG.  Hard to tell if this will ever happen, because it's hard to tell the current status of her relationship with Justin Theroux (most recently they still look amorously involved). Right now if I had an even-money bet I'd say she won't.  That's not a big deal (despite what the tabloids say), but I think she'll leave the child-rearing to her Friends.


5. The GOP House fights another pitched battle over raising the debt ceiling, and only capitulates when China threatens to cause us economic harm because our pending recession is hurting their economy.
WRONG.  (But close.)  The pitched battle ended up being over Obamacare, resulting in a government shutdown. They made noises about a debt ceiling fight, but the Prez held his ground (smartly), and they realized that wasn't going to fly.  But they've already made noises indicating that they haven't learned their lesson and might fight the next debt ceiling hike.  So if I predict Republicans will show how stupid they are repeatedly in 2014, I'll probably be right frequently.


6. The U.S. Men's Soccer team fails to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
WRONG.  They made it.  And now they're in a very tough group in the actual World Cup.  See my Undangerous Predictions for 2014.


7. Playboy will make an inspired choice for Playmate - Audrey Nicole (Twitter: @msaudreynicole).
WRONG.  I didn't really expect this, but I wanted to show a personal preference here.  Playboy would be
smart to show her off in the monthly feature, but she's done several other things for them already (happily for us!) and thus she probably doesn't qualify as virginal enough to be a Playmate. Too bad.  She's wondrous.


8. Due to the nation's budget problems, several large national parks will close for at least a few days during the summer vacation season, to demonstrate how bad the situation is.
WRONG.  (But again close.)  I thought this would happen due to sequestration, and various gimmicks kept the parks open, if somewhat limited.  But the parks DID close during the Obamacare/budget/shutdown fiasco. 


9. Joe Lieberman gets a position in the Obama administration.
WRONG.  I thought Lieberman has been vetted sufficiently well to be useful in a Cabinet replacement role. Didn't happen.  So he's gone private.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-12-24-notebook-financial-20131224,0,1273905.story


10. A major satellite collision in space emphasizes the space debris problem.
RIGHT.  I have to call this one for me;  there was apparently a satellite collision with a small Ecuadorian satellite and Russian space debris.  And a little Russian spacecraft was hit by some Chinese debris.  Do I get credit for two? 


Russian satellite hit by Chinese space junk
http://www.space.com/20138-russian-satellite-chinese-space-junk.html

Ecuador satellite hit Soviet era space junk
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-24/ecuador-satellite-hits-soviet-era-space-junk/4711858

Plus, there was the Chelyabinsk meteor (which became a meteorite since parts of it hit Russia), which I didn't see coming. Obviously nobody else did either, but this also emphasized the potential danger of an asteroid impact. 

So, final score:

RIGHT:  3
CLOSE:  2 (1/2 point)
WRONG:  5

Final score on my own biased scoring system:  4 out of 10.  Well, I "predicted" I wouldn't do very well. So the Undangerous Predictions for 2014 will be less risky.

The Baroness was (and is) hot

OK, I watched the live broadcast of The Sound of Music.  Opinions have been mixed - I think it was a stretch to expect that Carrie Underwood would be a great actress when she hasn't done any appreciable amount of acting.  In fact, it was brave of her to try something so iconic.  She sang great, which is what she does, and the best acting was done by others in the cast - notably the Baroness (Laura Benanti).

I knew I recognized her from somewhere, but was surprised to learn what somewhere I knew her from, which was the USA series Royal Pains.  When you read what she's done, including a Tony award, then I should know her from her other accomplishments.  But as the first linked article states, just because she should be well-known doesn't mean she is well-known.  As it says, "Though it’s criminal that none of Benanti’s film and TV star-is-born moments have yet to birth more mainstream recognition, it’s fitting that the latest opportunity comes in the form of a musical that quite literally changed her life."

‘Sound of Music’ Star Laura Benanti Is About to Be One of Your Favorite Things 

Some other articles, if you're interested in finding out more about her:

 Embracing the Baroness:  Talking Sound of Music live with Laura Benanti

'Sound of Music': Laura Benanti talks live performance, Carrie Underwood, and why musicals are ready for a comeback

And there's also this.  She's also very sexy.  Below she shows the proper way not to wear a tie.

3-way tie in the Barclays

Don't look now (actually, it's OK to look) -- as of today, there's a 3-way tie at the top of Britain's Barclays Premier League (soccer) between Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal.  It's good to see Liverpool contending again, and though Arsenal has had some tough matches lately, they're still very strong.  Manchester City has come on very well recently.

Everton is a point back and Chelsea, which actually LOST to Crystal Palace, is two points back.  Which means it's still wide open.

Crystal Palace is still in the relegation zone, but they're only a point from "safety", as the Brits would say.  So it's going to be interesting at the top and bottom of the Barclays.

Man City plays the top (Liverpool) and then Crystal Palace in their next two.

Barclay's Premier League current standings

1 minute 34 seconds of Michelle Keegan

30 seconds of Michelle Keegan. That's real good.



 (Oh yeah, she's in her underwear. Even better!)

World domination looms.

Actually, I found this one too, which is "behind the scenes" of the one above.  It's actually better, and it's a minute 3 seconds long.  More Michelle = more enjoyment.

A good first step

The Chelyabinsk meteorite strike conveyed the potential (if note the probable) danger to the citizenry of the world (and possibly human civilization itself) if a considerably bigger rogue asteroid smashed into our world.  So NASA turned the WISE mission into the NEOWISE mission to look for more of the dangerous ones.

First they looked at images they collected for the four months after the hydrogen coolant ran out.  Then they proposed to turn it on again (it was put into "cold storage" after the end of the official mission).   I wondered how they could do that, but I found the answer on the mission Web site:

"Although the solid hydrogen is gone, the mission could still operate at its two shortest infrared wavelengths, returning valuable data on the numbers, orbits, sizes, and compositions of asteroids and comets."

So they just turned it back on, to look for more threats to human civilization.  If they find any, I sure hope we have time to figure out how to steer it off. 

You can see the snow sculpures in Harbin

 A few weeks ago, Harbin, China was so beset with horrific thick choking smog and fog that drivers couldn't see where they were going with their headlights on in the middle of the day.  This was a combination of weather patterns, coal burning to fuel a city-lentral heating system, and some weather patterns bringing smoke up from the south. 

Anyway, it's nice to see that the clouds have cleared in time for the winter festival.  These are some AMAZING snow sculptures.  I'm glad they're visible.

Stunning snow scupture festival in China

When Cheryl met Michelle

Over on Coronation Street, the British soap opera, stunningly, gorgeously cute Cheryl Cole is doing a one-day cameo appearance that will benefit a charity.  "Corrie" is the soap that features the ready-for-world-domination, incredibly gorgeous with a fiendishly awesome body, Michelle Keegan.  This is a match made in total men's heaven.  And yes, it did happen.   Picture below, preceded by a link to an article about this extraordinary celestial-with-a-British-accent conjunction.

Corrie's Michelle Keegan talks 'idol' Cheryl Cole's cameo - new pictures

Wow.  Just plain ol' wow.

A banana crisis follow-up

Just posts ago I mentioned the global movement of the fungus which could spell the end of the Cavendish banana as we know it, the world's most popular (and virtually the only) banana.  This article discusses potential alternative bananas, which apparently are not as sweet.  And it also gets into the history of the worldwide banana, in which the Cavendish became ascendant when a different fungus (related to the one that could lay the Cavendish low) nearly wiped out the previous world's most popular banana, the Gros Michel.  (I have never heard of that before.)   If the Cavendish gets rotted out, the red banana and the manzano could replace it.  (I tried some mini bananas, but apparently ate them too soon, because they practically turned my mouth inside out.  You have to wait until the skin on minis is all brown.)

Well, ultimately, I really like the Cavendish banana.  I hope the food scientists of the world solve this problem.

Start Getting Used to the Idea of Eating Really Different Kinds of Bananas

A sonnet for December!

Took me awhile to get inspired.  Here's what I came up with:

Haven't found it yet

There are no limits to my disappoint-
ment; wishing does not make it so,
and trying is frustrated at each joint
of an attempted meeting. Even though
I am considered good, my attributes
are not esteemed by those who I would hope
to take me into their embrace; these fruits
of labor never ripen, so I grope
for satisfactions, seek to find that place
where I am welcomed as I am desired,
disrobed, disrupted from the normal face
that shines the way my simple life required;
a change, an alteration to the flow
is where I wish my hidden life would go.

But she didn't smile

Nina Agdal is obviously one of my current faves.  So I will note just about any new appearance.  And here's one courtesy of the inestimable Daily Mail.  And as usual, she looks great.  But she has a fabulous smile that makes nary an appearance here.  So I'll have to keep looking for more.

Nina Agdal, Max George's girlfriend, in party wear shoot

The real Von Trapps

Despite the Japanese characters, here's a short video of the real Von Trapp singers, which is who "The Sound of Music" is based on.  (As if you didn't know.)   Unsurprisingly, they don't sound anything like the family in the musical. But unlike the musical, they do sound quite Austrian.

Kelly gets paid to tell the naked truth (hopefully)

Apparently, according to this article, Kelly Brook will be writing a book about her amorous adventures to the tune of a million pounds Sterling. (Hmm, converting, that's... well over $1.5 mil USD. Nice renumeration for describing what was hopefully some pleasurable events, which many of us would pay to a) watch, and b) take part in.)

So we will find out what it has been like for her to give of her abundancy to several suitors who were no doubt pleased to receive it.

The thing is, as a male I'd also be quite interested in the male perspective, as detailed as possible, describing as many actions and reactions and contractions as can be crammed into textual form.

More microphotographs

Now it appears that there's more than one microphotography contest. Whatever; the winners of this Olympus contest are pretty outstanding. 

 Example:

The end of the banana? Not kidding

Bad news for bananas - the fungus that kills the main variety of banana in the world (the Cavendish) has been found in Mozambique and Jordan, spreading from the initial site of the "infection" in Asia.  The article seems a bit hopeful that agricultural science may come up with a cure, but that is far from certain.  

I guess we might be seeing one of the downsides of monotype agriculture if this thing spreads and becomes a bigger problem.  And we'll have to find a different kind of banana, too.

Now Congress can't stomach sequestration

Robert Samuelson writes about the budget deal, which does nothing about our long-term budget, debt,and deficit.  Which is fine as long as nothing goes wrong. How likely is that?

"A report from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, lists some concerns: fewer meat inspectors and forest firefighters; less spending on Head Start and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." 

England losing the Ashes down under

I didn't post about the Ashes Test cricket played in England a few months ago, because it was a blowout by the home team (England), 3-0.  And Australia didn't look like they'd recover anytime soon, either.  But now that the series has gone to Australia, they are absolutely dominating England (so unfortunately it isn't very dramatic again). The main reason for this domination is that Australia's fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has just been destroying the English batsmen.

Australia wins second Ashes Test match by 218 runs

In the third match, it still isn't going good for England.  So they'll probably be retURNing the URN soon.

England's Ashes hopes hanging by a thread

Climate shifts soon?

James Hansen, formerly of NASA, spoke at the American Geophysical Union meeting today on the current sad state of the rapidly changing climate.  I couldn't find any quotes from the talk, which was pretty good, but they might show up tomorrow.  

So I found this article, which discusses recently published research, including research by Hansen.

Studies warn of abrupt environmental effects of warming

Regarding the paper:

"If we don't get on a downward emissions pathway this decade, young people are likely to inherit a climate system with dramatic consequences out of their control," said James Hansen, the climate scientist who led the study. 

Stabilizing Earth's climate would also require restoring 100 billion metric tons of carbon to forests and soils through better management, the authors say. Going beyond typical research papers, they call for a global tax on carbon to facilitate a transition to nuclear and renewable energy."

That won't play well in some sectors.  But many big companies are already using a price for the carbon they use.  More on that later.

If you haven't seen this...

... see it, read it, experience it, enjoy it.

Emmy Rossum is a beautiful woman and a lot of fun to boot.

RHYMES WITH POSSUM...AND WITH AWESOME (ROSSUM)

If I put a picture here I'd give it away, which wouldn't be fair.

Kate has a Rocknroll baby

Kate Winslet had her baby with husband and father Ned Rocknroll, a bouncing and healthy 9 pounder, putting Kate in the somewhat exclusive 3-for-3 club, three children with three different fathers (and notably, she was actually married to each of the fathers at the time the kids were born).  I'm not judging;  if anything, I admire her for spreading the wealth of her beauty around -- and I'm sure that though there were probably some regrets from the fathers that it didn't last, they probably appreciated the opportunity at the time.

I know I would.

Kate Winslet gives birth to healthy 9-pound baby boy  (discusses the 3x3 aspect).

Let's face it - Kate is gorgeous. And gorgeous begets love and lust amongst the menfolk.

And babies.

Whatever happened to Alexander Popov?

Alexander Popov, the "Russian Rocket", was one of the dominant freestyle sprinters in the 1990s, winning the 50 and 100 meter freestyle at both Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.  Somewhere along the line he also got stabbed in a street fight and came back and won more medals, notably in the World Championships in Barcelona in 2003.

Interestingly (at least to me), he had two sons in 1997 and 2000 with a fellow Russian swimmer, but he and his wife weren't done, bringing another daughter into the world in 2010.

I knew he was doing something with sports and the Olympics now, but I didn't know how deeply involved he was.  He's on the supervisory board for the Sochi Olympics, even though the water there will mostly be frozen.   You can read more about him at the link, which was apparently written before the decade-later daughter.

So currently he's also on the supervisory board of Adidas, according to Wikipedia.

I also found a picture of him and the wife (and the team doctor for Philips Sports Vereninging, a good soccer team).

Mother ship cloud

One of the spectacular storm chaser clouds from this Daily Mail article about a guy who quit being a worker at a corn plant to chase severe (tornadic) storms and take pictures of them.

He does this well.

The mother ship is landing

Three hot looks from the AMAs

This is a little bit old news, but the American Music Awards had some hot looks.

Sweet Ariana Grande, who proved indoors that she has incredible pipes (look for the video, which I might post here soon), looked spectacular in a sparkly red dress, even though on the red carpet she didn't smile. She has a great smile, too.






















Taylor Swift looked fierce.























But the showstopper was Christina Aguilera, who is back to her curvalicious self, and showing off that state confidently.  Makes me dream again of when she said he and her ex-husband spent the day in the nude y (which is still one of my posts on this blog that gets frequent hits). That's my kind of girl.

Crystal Palace won today

I'm still following the adventures of Crystal Palace in the British Premier League.  They beat Cardiff City 2-0, and they have 13 points, which is tied with two other teams.  And they have more wins (4) than three teams ahead of them, that only have 3 (but with several more ties).   They might still get out of the relegation zone by the end of the season.

They also have a new coach. 

Good luck, Palace.

Roundup of celebrity bikini moments in 2013

PopSugar, an outstanding news Web site, has a roundup of the top celebrity bikini appearances of 2013.

How Kelly Brook's topless show in Cancun didn't make this list, I don't know (but well, it is about bikinis).  And clearly they didn't know about Toni Garrn and her wet T-shirt, just mentioned in the Daily Mail.

But it's still worth reviewing the review.  My favorites were 17, 20, and 31.

I really need to write a long article about nuclear energy, and another one on the basics of climate change.  But seriously, who would read that?

It's good to keep a backup

Interesting article - NASA had a small experiment on three of the Apollo lunar landing mission experiment packages that measured the buildup of dust.  And they never looked at the data and thought they lost the data because the tapes were gone, but it turns out that the principal scientist kept a set of backup tapes.

Turns out, according to now-published analysis of the data, that the dust builds up incredibly slowly, but 10x faster than the incredibly slowly that was previously thought to be the rate of buildup.  The way it happens is that solar radiation knocks some electrons off some of the dust particles, so they build up a positive charge.  On the dark side of the moon, the solar wind puts some electrons on the dust particles, and they get a negative charge.   When the nightside meets the dayside, the charge attraction lofts the dust into the lunar sky.

Seriously.  At least that's what I think the article says.

Rediscovered Apollo data gives first measure of how lunar dust piles up

Can Gal Gadot really be the next Wonder Woman?

Movie news is that Gal Gadot will be Wonder Woman in the upcoming movie Batman vs. Superman.  To which one must immediately ask, "Is she qualified?"

Maybe.

Gal Gadot cast as Wonder Woman in "Batman vs. Superman"

Photosynthesis explained, cleverly

This is how photosynthesis works.  I recommend turning the volume down.

What a little effort can do

With a little effort and several images of Saturn's moon Dione, an enterprising individual put together a really big, really high resolution picture of the moon.  It's very impressive.  What's more impressive is that currently this moon and it's parent planet are about 1.6 billion (yes, billion) kilometers away from Earth.

Our satellites are GOOD. 


Pretty picture: newly processed high-res view of a fractured icy moon, Dione

Short-sighted

The World Bank won't provide funds to countries that need more energy for the construction of new nuclear power plants - which means they won't fund the only proven non-greenhouse-gas-emitting energy source that can provide large enough scale energy production for increasing energy demands of a growing economy.

That's short-sighted, folks.  To get to the future without catastrophic consequences, all of our energy production options need to be on the table.  ESPECIALLY the best ones.

World Bank says no money for nuclear power

"We don't do nuclear energy," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim as he and UN leader Ban Ki-moon outlined efforts to make sure all people have access to electricity by 2030. 

Kim said $600-$800 billion a year will be needed to meet the campaign target of universal access to electricity, doubling energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy by 2030. 

In some countries, only 10% of the population has electricity."

Without nuclear power, that status quo is not going to change very much.

Another critical meeting for bluefin (and other kinds of) tuna

Well, ICCAT may have done something good for Atlantic bluefin tuna last week, but now something has to be done about Pacific bluefin and several other species - and the problem there is that many countries, TOO many countries, are overfishing Pacific bluefin.  And there's a meeting this week, right now, addressing (or more likely ignoring) the eventual fate of the Pacific tunas.

Showdown looms for lucrative tuna industry

"A record 2.65 million tonnes of tuna was hauled from the Pacific last year, accounting for 60 percent of the global catch, with most of the fishing conducted by so-called "distant water" fleets from as far afield as Europe, the United States, China, Korea and Taiwan. 

Island nations, many of which rely on tuna for a significant portion of their income, fear stocks are becoming unsustainable and want action at the December 2-6 meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Cairns. 

"If distant water nations support sustainability of the resource, then they need to commit to a 30 percent reduction in catches," Marshall Islands fisheries director Glen Joseph said. 

"It's not a question of should they do it or not -- they have to do it or face the consequences."

And the main consequence to be worried about is not being able to catch bluefin tuna at all, because there won't be enough of them to make it economically worthwhile to try to catch them.

The Hough vs. Menounos Thanksgiving dance wars

People magazine was all a-Twitter and a-Vined about the impromptu video dance war waged between the Menounos family and the Hough family.  Read about that here:

Epic Thanksgiving Dance Wars

Many of the videos are there, watch if you care.  As it is, watching them reminds me that there is something that I like about Maria Menounos.  Hmmm...

Now if I could just put a finger on that special something.  Or actually a hand.  Actually TWO hands...

Did I mention she also has unbelievably sculptured abs, too?

Will China get its environmental act together?

Scientific American has a fairly long exposition of China's environmental woes and worries.  It puts the Chinese problems in great perspective, assessing whether or not the government can stand by its promises to clean up the environment while continuing to grow the economy at a breakneck pace.   And it's not optimistic.

This paragraph does a good job of describing how bad it can get:

"Haze wreathes the country, completely obscuring landmarks like sacred Mount Tai. Breathing can feel like smoking a cigarette, including rawness at the back of the throat and an unrelenting cough. The smog and smoke can achieve a density sufficient to block cellphone reception or prevent GPS from providing the requisite guidance coordinates, with the sky itself become like the ceiling of a building. (Perhaps it’s a defense mechanism against spy satellites, ordinary Chinese joke.) Even China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection provides tacit acknowledgement by noting tersely that a full third of the year in major cities across the country is taken up by days that boast “substandard air quality.” And that’s just the air."

And this is a pretty good summary of the current economic situation vis-a-vis the environment:

"China may have begun to become rich enough to afford the seeming luxury of a healthy environment (as predicted by economist Simon Kuznets long ago) but that reduction in carbon intensity has come about largely through replacing small, inefficient, heavily polluting coal-fired power plants with larger but more efficient ones (along with a growing contribution from large dams, which have their own environmental impacts in China and beyond.) Pollution apportioned per capita is tiny when meted out over a population of 1.35 billion. Like the rest of the world, a lot depends on class, however. The newly rich are responsible for pollution that exceeds that of the typical European bourgeois, while hundreds of millions of poor peasants hardly contribute to this global environmental burden."

And what's also interesting is that the comments have a good (as far as comments section discussions go) discussion of China's energy usage profile, including NUCLEAR ENERGY.  Because nuclear energy can maintain or increase their energy output while reducing their emissions drastically.  And the Chinese government KNOWS that.

NASA tries to bring back Kepler

Despite a couple of bad wheels (which is pretty much the end of a career for an NFL running back or an Olympic runner), the NASA planet-finding Kepler mission might possibly have a plan to keep going.

How NASA revived the Kepler Space Telescope

Well, it's not for sure yet, but they're going to see if this plan works.  The basics are illustrated here (click so you can see it full size, if you're interested).

By the way, isn't it amazing what Kepler has done regarding the prospects for life (maybe even intelligent life) elsewhere in the galaxy and Universe?   It used to be one big unknown was if other stars had planets.  Now it seems that the odds that a star doesn't have planets of some kind are higher than the odds a star will have planets of some kind.

Serious female motion

Just found this, even though it's a couple of years old and they're both mommies now.  This is Shakira and Beyonce doing "Beautiful Liar" together.

Despite the title of the song, both of those pairs of hips don't lie.




More on Shakira on video soon. VERY soon.

Cheryl Cole is DEFINITELY date-bait now

She's single, she's super cute or gorgeous depending on the occasion, she's highly talented, she dances like a dream, and now she's about $2 million dollars (U.S.) richer.

Cheryl Cole 'receives £1.4million fee' after court battle with X Factor USA is settled

Now if she'd just get a new (good) guy and do a U.S. tour, I'd be happy.  For her and for me. 

It's not every day there's a new island

Similar to Iceland's Surtsey, a new island (that may or may not last) has arisen in the Pacific Islands south of Japan.  Technically it is part of Japan, but I don't think anyone's going to be living there for awhile.

Volcanic eruption raises new island

Is there a CHANCE for Atlantic bluefin tuna?

ICCAT takes positive action to rebuild Atlantic bluefin tuna population; ignores sharks

Many environmentalists and fisheries advocates have said that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) hasn't exactly done what it's name indicates it's supposed to do, but apparently at their latest meeting they at least held the line on current quotas.  As the title of the article indicates, they didn't do much for sharks, but one thing at a time, I guess.

What they didn't do was take good additional steps to track the stocks and to control illegal fishing. But they did take steps to track fishing vessels, which could help a bit.

As for the sharks, they didn't do anything to control the catch of porbeagle and shortfin mako sharks.

Also, the European Union is taking steps to control illegal fishing.  Every little step helps.

"ICCAT has taken the next step in supporting the recovery of severely depleted Atlantic bluefin tuna by maintaining catch limits, in line with scientific advice, for both the western and eastern bluefin populations at 1,750 metric tons and 13,400 mt, respectively. The future of one of the ocean’s most iconic and valuable fish—the Atlantic bluefin tuna—is brighter today. - See more at: http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/press-releases/iccat-takes-positive-action-to-rebuild-atlantic-bluefin-tuna-populations-end-illegal-fishing-but-ignores-sharks-85899522599#sthash.9YothaT2.dpuf

"ICCAT has taken the next step in supporting the recovery of severely depleted Atlantic bluefin tuna by maintaining catch limits, in line with scientific advice, for both the western and eastern bluefin populations at 1,750 metric tons and 13,400 mt, respectively. The future of one of the ocean’s most iconic and valuable fish—the Atlantic bluefin tuna—is brighter today - See more at: http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/press-releases/iccat-takes-positive-action-to-rebuild-atlantic-bluefin-tuna-populations-end-illegal-fishing-but-ignores-sharks-85899522599#sthash.9YothaT2.dpuf

"ICCAT has taken the next step in supporting the recovery of severely depleted Atlantic bluefin tuna by maintaining catch limits, in line with scientific advice, for both the western and eastern bluefin populations at 1,750 metric tons and 13,400 mt, respectively. The future of one of the ocean’s most iconic and valuable fish—the Atlantic bluefin tuna—is brighter today - See more at: http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/press-releases/iccat-takes-positive-action-to-rebuild-atlantic-bluefin-tuna-populations-end-illegal-fishing-but-ignores-sharks-85899522599#sthash.9YothaT2.dpuf

"ICCAT has taken the next step in supporting the recovery of severely depleted Atlantic bluefin tuna by maintaining catch limits, in line with scientific advice, for both the western and eastern bluefin populations at 1,750 metric tons and 13,400 mt, respectively. The future of one of the ocean’s most iconic and valuable fish—the Atlantic bluefin tuna—is brighter today - See more at: http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/press-releases/iccat-takes-positive-action-to-rebuild-atlantic-bluefin-tuna-populations-end-illegal-fishing-but-ignores-sharks-85899522599#sthash.9YothaT2.dpuf

"ICCAT has taken the next step in supporting the recovery of severely depleted Atlantic bluefin tuna by maintaining catch limits, in line with scientific advice, for both the western and eastern bluefin populations at 1,750 metric tons and 13,400 mt, respectively. The future of one of the ocean’s most iconic and valuable fish—the Atlantic bluefin tuna—is brighter today - See more at: http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/press-releases/iccat-takes-positive-action-to-rebuild-atlantic-bluefin-tuna-populations-end-illegal-fishing-but-ignores-sharks-85899522599#sthash.9YothaT2.dpuf

Pretty girl, Actress: Emily Bett Rickards

On the glad-it's-doing-well CW superhero show Arrow, Emily Bett Rickards plays a technogeek who has been added to the Arrow secret identity  "in the know" team, named Felicity Smoak.  As per the character, Felicity wears BIG glasses, but does dress smartly in office dresses and heels.  The thing is, she's PRETTY, and so far they have occasionally found a way to showcase that in a more glamorous mode. 

The real glamorous star of the show is Katie Cassidy, deservedly, but Emily also gives us guys plenty of reasons to keep watching when the show isn't doing superhero action stuff.

She's got a crush on the main character, and this occasionally comes out in her adoringly bumbling dialog. Whether or not she'll have an unexpected fling with him, or her own love interest, allowing the potential lingerie moment, we'll just have to wait and see.

Have to note that Oliver had a fling with Summer Glau's character, who's his business partner. Unfortunately we only got a glimpse of her in lingerie (a bit of that at the 0:18 mark here, http://youtu.be/yGPjjGGw7zU ) but in those scenes she showed a different side of her actress self, because previously she's played a terminator (The Sarah Connor Chronicles), a Reiver-slayer (Serenity), and a geek (both on Dollhouse and the lamentably short-lived The Cape).  She actually acted nicely and smiled.   And then jumped Oliver's bones.  All good things.

Returning to Emily, below are some selected pretty-girl shots.

Wears those pants well

Now THAT's hot

Isabel Lucas looks a lot different

I wrote about Isabel Lucas a couple of year ago (right here).

I noticed her in this appearance in Vogue Australia (courtesy of the Daily Mail).

Jessica Hart and Isabel Lucas pose in preppy ensembles

She's got a REALLY short haircut.  Still really really pretty, but a lot different from how she looked in that Fekkai ad.

Here's another example:

What a massive storm surge looks like

Here's what the storm surge from what was probably the strongest typhoon (and hurricane, of course) at landfall EVER looked like.  That would be Super Typhoon Haiyan, a couple of weeks ago, in the Philippines.

It's impressive.  Especially on the other side of the world from it, where we don't have to live through it.  I hope the Filipinos will be able to recover from this smash -- they are subject to a lot of different types of natural disasters.

Polar Bear Wars

Canada's refusal to protect polar bears comes under scrutiny

Here's the basics.  Canada's neighboring countries (mainly us, somehow Mexico is included) signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.  Part of that includes a Committee on Environmental Co-operation.  Because Canada is not paying enough attention to the findings of scientists who have strongly indicated that climate changes will seriously deplete polar bear populations (which is typical of the current Canadian government not being very kind to scientists in general), the other countries are asking for an inquiry into this polar bear situation.

Yeah, but this is a better part of the article:

"Meanwhile, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, has been accused of weakening environmental regulations and "muzzling" government scientists who do not fit in with his energy agenda.

"This is a government that believes first of all that economic development, particularly resource extraction, is substantially more important than environmental protection and environmental stewardship," said Chris Turner, whose book, The War on Science, charts the government's clashes with scientists."

And here's the best part:

"The Centre for Global Development this week ranked Canada last among the world's 27 richest countries for its environmental record."

 OHHH, Canada...

Same old, same old snarky Republican tactics on the budget

 While they hold court on Obamacare, behind the curtains the Republicans are screwing with the country's budget and economy again.  How could we possibly expect anything less from these clowns?

Dems hammer Ryan over budget talks

Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, said Ryan is slow-walking the process for the same reason GOP leaders refused to go to conference on the House and Senate budgets all year: "Because he does not believe there is any agreement that he can bring back to his caucus that his caucus will support."

"There does not seem to be a serious effort [among Republicans] to reach agreement in the budget conference," Hoyer said during his weekly press briefing in the Capitol. "And the reason for that, of course, is that, by definition, reaching an agreement will require compromise.

"I will reiterate that I don't believe that Mr. Ryan believes that if he did that [compromised], he could bring it back to the House and get an agreement from his caucus," Hoyer added. "And therefore, politically it's not wise for him to do so."

 These guys are absurd, useless, and also dangerous to the immediate future of this country.

Great news for AREVA

AREVA is still in business of building nuclear power plants, this one in Brazil.  Good for them, good for the world.  More on the latter, later.

AREVA wins a major contract for third nuclear reactor at Angra

"AREVA has signed a contract worth 1.25 billion euros with the Brazilian electrician Eletrobras Eletronuclear for the completion of the construction for the Angra 3 reactor, located in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

AREVA will supply engineering services and components, as well as the digital instrumentation and control system for the reactor. The group will also provide assistance in the supervision of the installation works and the commissioning activities."

 

The Misses trying-to-be Universe are stupendously pretty

When I was looking around for pictures of Miss England Amy Willerton (previous post), I found this site with the glamor shots of many of the Miss Universe contenders.  The winner was another Miss Venezuela.  She was a typically Venezuelan package of gorgeousness, but in reviewing the results I felt that several contenders offered a bit more personality and uniqueness.

Anyway, the Web site that offered the shots apparently was mildly complaining that Miss Vietnam was presented a bit frosty in her picture, while many of the other girls were much warmer.   Not all of them were - the picture of the outstanding Miss Switzerland wasn't particularly friendly. 

I invite you to peruse the page, but I must note that my love was given to Ukraine,  Olga Storozhenko (below).   There's a gallery of Olga at her linked name that demonstrates she's got the necessary physical qualifications quite markedly.

Another November sonnet

simple inspiration

Now speak to me the words that I desire --
an invitation from the wanting need
to share the bareness undiluted by
propiety, to show the cracking seed
which brings forth roots and shoots and stalks from my
innateness -- as these phrases do inspire
my overt display , then you shall provide
the satisfaction that my loving eyes
require, the goal and font and space, the dest-
ination for the strength you have made rise,
the place where I am more than just a guest,
where I become a part of you, inside 
your beauty and your hope, so deeply held
that we are alloyed by our naked meld.

OK, this is fun, but it's also pseudoscience

Supposedly a group called the Norvik (or maybe Jorvik) Viking Center has decided that we're in the midst of Fimbulwinter* (the winter to end all winters) which precedes Ragnarok, the battle in which the major Norse Gods all get wiped out by the Fire and Ice giants.

* a massive global cold snap, which really isn't happening

[ Don't tell Thor, because he's currently doing great business at the box office. ]

But anyway, this apparently has been foretold on the basis of solar activity (we're having a lower-than-normal solar max) and a couple of oarfish that washed up on the beach in California.

Seriously.  Or maybe not.

"The Jorvik Viking Centre predicted that Ragnarok would occur on 22 February because this is the end of the feast of Jolablot. 

While not a scientific conclusion, they claim that Vikings loved to feast and wouldn't want to miss this event. For this reason, they argue that Vikings would believe the world would end in 100 days. 

The end of the world is coincidentally the start of the grand finale of the Viking festival in York."

Well, since I think that this pseudoscientific prediction is unlikely to happen, but they can always make the same prediction before next year's Viking festival.

Should you care who Miss England (UK) is?

I don't know if I should or not.  Apparently Miss England (UK), previously Miss London, is a gal named Amy Willerton, who counts Katie Price (Jordan) as a friend/mentor, and she's going now on a reality TV show called I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (kinda like Survivor  with British humor).

But should we care?  Hmm, hmmm, hmm...

OK, I care. 

GOCE goes in

As reported and as expected, the gorgeous GOCE satellite made reentry on November 11th.  There's still a lot of ocean out there and that's where it ended up.   Here's the expected track.

As the "Bad Astronomer" found out, at least one photographer was looking up when GOCE went down over the Falklands.

Sequestration squelching science

(Alright, I'm very proud of that post title).   The news is in, and the news is bad for science.  The sequestration may be stealthy in its impact on the average American, but it is not with regard to scientific research.  The latest news and numbers, to put it bluntly, SUCK.

This figure is blatant and disgusting.  And that's what I think of the Republicans who forced this scenario on us and blame the President for doing what he had to do to avoid the disaster that they were promulgating.  And they are still at it, with budget negotiations reportedly making scant progress on the Hill.

Detestable.  And sad, sad, sad, for the best and brightest coming out of our schools and colleges.

Not good, not good at all

Sardines are a major intermediate pelagic fish.  That means that bigger fish eat them.  And as you might expect, we humans eat them too.  They were a big staple of the Cannery Row in Monterey, California, and certainly elsewhere up and down the West Coast of North America.

Not any more, apparently, as the West Coast sardine fishery is apparently mainly kaput.

This is bad for squid, seals, sea lions, bigger fish, seabirds of many kinds, cetaceans (dolphins, whales) -- just about all of the major consumers. 

And us. 

Want BAD? This would be BAD!

Ocean acifidification could trigger economic devastation

"The authors of the report, released today from the Third Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World, review the current science on the effects on marine organisms, and write that there is a “medium confidence” level that shellfish harvests will decline. There is also a medium confidence level that economic damage will result from impacts on coral reefs, with tourism, food and shoreline protection suffering. The size of this is unclear but one estimate is for $1 trillion in damage from coral loss alone."

and

"The report authors also say that the acidity of the oceans could increase by 170% by the end of the century, corresponding to a drop in surface ocean pH by 0.32. This occurs under a pessimistic scenario of high human emissions. Since the industrial revolution, surface ocean pH has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1. As pH is a logarithmic scale, the increase in acidity since the industrial revolution could reach around 170% under this scenario.

Under lower-emissions scenarios, this decrease would be around 0.07. But current emissions show no sign of dropping to those necessary to achieve such a goal, cautions Riebesell."

 Yeah, like the title says, BAD.  Simply bad. Indubitably bad. Totally bad.

I totally missed Morena's baby

Most of us have known that luminous Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Serenity, Homeland) was due to give birth in autumn.  Seems she was pregnant a long time, and REAL pregnant at the Emmys.  So I was surprised I missed any announcements of the actual birth until I went looking for them, and found out the blessed event had occurred in late October.

The tyke came into the world butt-first, but mama and baby are apparently doing fine.

Morena Baccarin gives birth, breech delivery

The 'real' Jasmine

Neat little feature about an artist that paints the Disney princess characters as almost-real people.   I always thought Jasmine from 'Aladdin' was pretty good-looking.

Oh heck, I thought she was hot.

(Still do, in fact.)

For comparison:

I have to say, this 'real' Jasmine has a whiff of Kim Kardashian about her.

And in the feature, I'd swear Chrissy Teigen posed as Pocahontas.

Lest we forget

Even though it seems like the Mars rovers get all the publicity, we shouldn't forget that there are still orbiting satellites sending home much information about Mars.  Images from the European Mars Express recently was used to create a detailed and striking Mars flyover video (see here if you haven't seen it elsewhere).

Another satellite that keeps going and going is the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, which has the HiRISE camera.  HiRISE keeps sending back scads of high resolution pictures.   One of the newest ones is shown below (explanation at this link).

That's an easy site to get lost in and explore Mars for hours, days, months...

Top 10 most familiar classical music overtures

I was listening to the classical radio station the other day when they played van Suppe's "Light Cavalry Overture".  I said to myself, "I should know that", but until the familiar theme in the middle started, I didn't recognize it.   But once having recognized it, I started thinking about the other very famous overtures that get played over and over and over

and over and over and over

and over and over and over

etc., again.

So this is the list I came up for the Top 10 most-played (perhaps "overplayed" also fits) classical overtures.   See what you think.

Sometimes I regret that my blog has so few followers.  This would be a fun little topic to have comments on.  So if you are reading this and you can think of someone who might like to comment, tell them about it.

 Top 10 most familiar classical overtures

1. Poet and Peasant
2. 1812
3. Light Cavalry
4. Egmont
5. Academic Festival
6. William Tell
7. Barber of Seville
8. Romeo and Juliet Fantasy
9. The Bartered Bride
10. Carmen