Panoramas at Palouse

I'll end the month with two StreetView panoramas of Palouse Falls in Washington.  Not exactly a roadside landmark, but not hard to get to, either.

Amazing place that I'd like to see in person someday.

30,000 pounds of bananas? How about 7,000 pounds of lobster?

Harry Chapin was an enormously talented singer and entertainer.  He could be humorous, too;  he write an entire song about the crash of a truck carrying 30,000 pounds of bananas outside of Scranton Pennsylvania -- an event that actually happened.

30,000 pounds of bananas - Wikipedia

The Banana Truck Crash - 50 Years Later

YouTube video, from Greatest Stories Live by Harry Chapin (the best version)


SO AFTER ALL THAT, all I really wanted to say is that if Harry was still with us today, he could write a sequel of sorts:

Truck carrying 7,000 pounds of live lobster crashes in Maine

"Authorities say the driver drifted off the right shoulder and hit an embankment, causing the truck to roll over. The driver has been hospitalized with minor injuries.  

The truck was carrying 60 to 70 crates of lobster, and traffic was backed up for hours as crews worked to clean up the crustaceans. 

Police say the lobster cannot be eaten because of how long it was unrefrigerated."

So I guess the accident could actually be termed a lobster roll.

 Practically writes itself !!

We see what you're doing, DeSantis

Florida Representative Ron DeSantis is such a big fan of Donald Trump that he fancies himself as a smaller version of the Trumpster.   And he has already got one aspect of Don's style down -- speaking in code.

Oh yeah, he denies he meant anything by it.  But it's appallingly obvious.  By saying what he says, he gets the voters he wants not just to want to vote for him, but to actually think that he's like them.  Sharing their values (if they can be called that), their beliefs, opinions, and especially, their prejudices.

So here's what he said.

'The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases bankrupting the state. That is not going to work,' he said.

But that's not all he said.

[DeSantis] called Gillum, the Tallahassee major, 'an articulate spokesman for those far-left views' while also referring to him as a 'charismatic candidate.'

Where have we heard that kind of phraseology before? If you don't remember, it was how candidate Barack Obama was referred to.  So what DeSantis is doing here -- and don't worry, I'll support it -- is making the voters he wants think that Gillum is pretty much the same thing as Barack Obama, that he's a black man trying to act white (white people don't like that), and well, that he's not white, implying that he doesn't share the values of white people.

Support  time:

From
An inarticulate kickoff, by the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, written in 2007.

"I realize the word is intended as a compliment, but it's being used to connote a lot more than the ability to express one's thoughts clearly. It's being used to say more, even, than "here's a black person who speaks standard English without a trace of Ebonics."

Articulate is really a shorthand way of describing a black person who isn't too black -- or, rather, who comports with white America's notion of how a black person should come across."

Or, to put it another way, it means "a well-spoken black man", by which it also means, most black people aren't well-spoken.  Meaning they don't speak like us (the white people).  Meaning that they speak a different language.  Meaning that they are members of a different tribe, a foreign tribe, a tribe and culture that is not white and American.

That's exactly what DeSantis wants his voters to think -- and by thinking that, they will have to vote for him, because he is a member of their tribe.



But wait, I'll provide a second concurring opinion.

Former RNC Chair on DeSantis 'monkey' comment: 'It's how white folks talk about black men who are successful'

“… It’s how white folks talk about black men who are successful,” [Michael] Steele said on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Steele also criticized DeSantis for calling Gillum “articulate.”

“I heard that he’s ‘articulate,’ that ‘he performs well,’ … he’s checking off those boxes. Why do you have to describe him that way?” he said. "Doesn’t happen to a lot of white candidates," he added, echoing host Chuck Todd's comment.

Steele is also black, and also successful.  He can see exactly what DeSantis is doing.

As can we all.

It's too bad we can't all tell him that trying to emulate Donald Trump is a very bad idea.  But I'm hoping the Florida voters -- the ones that aren't in the Tribe of Trump -- will send DeSantis a message he needs to hear and understand.

(One way of stating the message is this:  "Shut up and get out.")

Lighthouse of the Week, August 26 - September 1, 2018: Holland Harbor, Michigan ("Big Red")

Since there is a lot of information about this famous lighthouse, I'll excerpt from the Lighthouse Directory first:

1936 (light tower added to the 1907 fog signal building; station established 1872). Active: focal plane 52 ft (16 m); flash every 10 s, alternating red and white. 45 ft (13.5 m) square cylindrical steel-clad wood tower with lantern and gallery (1936) mounted on a 2-story steel-clad brick fog signal building (1907); 250 mm lens (1932). Entire building painted red. The 6th order Fresnel lens (1907) is on display at the Holland Museum. The second (1907) lighthouse was relocated in 1937 as the Calumet Harbor Breakwater South End Light in Indiana. The building was painted a buff color for the first four decades of its life; it acquired its trademark red in 1956. In 2005, the lighthouse was offered for transfer under NHLPA; the Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission was the only applicant. In February 2007 title to the lighthouse was transferred to the Commission. By 2012 the lighthouse had faded to Big Pink; it was repainted for free by Lamar Construction using donated paint and supplies. Located on the south pier at the harbor entrance in Macatawa, west of Holland.

Big Red Lighthouse Web page from Holland, Michigan's Web site.

Holland, Michigan locator map (Google Maps)

Lots of pictures!

From Fine Art America by Michelle Calkins

It's cold there in the winter

Collectible 1

Collectible 2 

The Fresnel lens that used to be Big Red's light

Mount Etna is back in action

With Kilauea volcano cooling off after decades of activity and a final (apparently) climactic rift zone eruption that burned and buried a bunch of houses, it's time for another volcano to get hot.  (Of course, there are active volcanoes all around the world, all the time.  But it's more fun to find one that has reactivated.)

In this case, the volcano is Sicily's world-famous Mount Etna.  Put simply, there is activity in the summit craters again.

Sicily's Mount Etna Erupts, Spews Lava Chunks and Ash

Picture from a distance:

Florida towns and springs on Highway 41

Highway 41 and 27 are the same highway for awhile out of Williston.

Archer, Florida Historical Society Railroad Museum

There isn't much in Archer, Florida, especially right on Highway 41, so I turned off for a block to look at the Archer Historical Society Railroad Museum.  It must mention Bo Diddley, because this is his home town.



Newberry, Florida, by the Post Office




Approaching freight train




The train disappears!




Pretty spring flowers on the side of the highway.





High Springs

On the map it looks like you can drive to the High Springs Museum right here. But I don't see it. So instead, get something sweet at the Secret Garden Bakery inside the Wisteria Cottage.




Since we're in High Springs, there's another famous springs just off the road, which we'll visit: Ginnie Springs. StreetView doesn't get close enough to see them from a road, so we'll use a couple of panoramas. First, Route 340 / South State Highway 236 does go by Poe Springs Park, but you can't see anything through the trees.

Natural side of Poe Springs




And here's Ginnie Springs.




What Ginnie Springs looks like underwater. (Didn't expect that, did you? Neither did I.)  This is the big spring, the Devil's Ear.  This is one place that you can do one of the world's most dangerous sports -- cave diving.




Santa Fe River Bridge, just north of High Springs.




Next stop - LAKE CITY!

It matters where it erupts

No, not that rash you've been worrying about.  This is on the topic of  volcanoes and Earth's climate.


Volcano eruptions at different latitudes impact sea surface temperature differently

"Analysis of the simulations indicates that the Pacific features a significant El Nino-like warm SST anomaly 5-10 months after northern and tropical eruptions, with the Nino3 index peaks at the winter of next year.

Compared with northern eruptions, the warm SST anomaly is mainly confined to the eastern Pacific with a stronger intensity following tropical eruptions. Following southern eruptions, the Pacific shows a weaker warming anomaly over the eastern Pacific and the time at which the Nino3 index reaches its peak is about 4 months earlier than that after northern and tropical eruptions."

I find that intriguing.

Just to remind us all what a volcanic eruption looks like (in this case, Indonesia's Mount Bromo):

Not going as well as the last Test

England is playing India in the third Test of their five-Test series, and unlike the last, close Test that they won at Edgbaston, this time they haven't done very well.   They don't have any great batsmen, and that means they have to rely on their bowling, and if they can't get the best batsmen on the other side out, then they're sunk.

Tomorrow (as I write this), they'll be sunk.  They need 210 runs -- a lot -- and they're down to their last wicket.  And when that happens it means their bowlers are batting, so 210 is pretty near to impossible.

After this one is over, England is going to have to do some serious thinking about how to improve the batting of what's called the top of the order -- the guys who specialize in batting and not bowling.  If they don't, they'll be sunk -- again.

Here's the basic problem:  in their first innings, India's star Kohli had 97 runs, and Rahane had 81.  In their second innings, Kohli had 103 and Pujara had 72.   In England's first innings, the most any batsman had was 39.   In their second innings, Stokes had 62 and Buttler had his first "century" (over 100, he finished with 106), but after that, the best run total was 30.  That won't do it.

They need someone like Kevin Pietersen at his peak (but not when he wasn't).


England vs India, RECAP – Third Test, day four: Jos Buttler hits maiden Test century but tourists need just one wicket for victory on final day

Another sonnet: "when the Earth moves"

When the Earth moves

She sees me as I am, and as I hope
to be for her — enthralled, extended and
in special state — this reason to elope
is when two lives accede to life's demand,
the combination of a fervency
akin to passion in the broader brand
of love, creating seismic urgency
in a receding world as waves expand
and flow in convoluted forms, some spiked
and sharp, or in sonorous rolls, a grand
event of incoherency — the striked
tremendousness of nature breaks my band
and forms enduring bonds in distant lands
that rise above what once were coastal sands.

A sonnet for Anaïs

Anaïs

She has so many aspects that I like
that I cannot begin a lengthy list
while unaware of miles I would hike
before I finished it! I have not kissed
her lips, but I admire them; her eyes
are feline and hypnotic; she is long
and lithely slender, fit as a prize
awarded for decathlons — so both strong
and feminine, seductive, without know-
ing that she is. I only see her rare-
ly, so I'll never get the chance to show
what she inspires — I could not even dare
to make a soft suggestion, so I must
release this verse to quell my pining lust.

Next stop on Highway 41: Williston, Florida

Next stop on Highway 41 in Florida, heading north, is Williston, Florida.  Here's Main Street, which is also Highway 41, of course.





Just outside Williston is the Devil's Den Prehistoric Spring:




Here's what Devil's Den Prehistoric Spring looks like on the inside.

If you like lighthouses... you might like this

As you may have noticed, I feature a lighthouse from somewhere around the world as the Lighthouse of the Week.  Lighthouses are unique features of the world's coastlines, and they commonly end up in extraordinarily scenic locations.

Well, here's some more (and a book to go with it):

Fascinating pictures show some of the world's most stunning lighthouses

Here's one of the lighthouses in the article;  I got a different picture of it.  This is the Ko Sichang, aka Ban Tha Thewawong lighthouse, Thailand.

It's probably over

I don't know if you've been paying any attention to the fissure eruption of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, but if you haven't, after a few weeks in which a pretty large amount of lava was pumped out (by Kilauea standards, not necessarily what Mauna Loa is capable of), the fissure eruption waned quickly and shut down.  As each day passes, it's less and less likely that it will restart, which could mean the end of an eruptive sequence that began in 1983. 

It's been a very eventful run, and resulted in the destruction of many homes, the natural paving-over of a great black sand beach (that I visited a couple of years before it happened), and a couple of fatalities, unfortunately.  And it also provide a huge volume of volcano pictures featuring flowing, glowing fountains and rivers of lava, as well as chunky a'a flows, lava lakes and ponds, spectacular and varied ocean entries, lava bench collapses, and a lot of acidic vapors. 

I've collected several pictures, and to note the apparent (not for sure) ending, here's the Fissure 8 cone on June 30th, in full flow.

Lighthouse of the Week, August 19-25, 2018: Chiram Hang, Busan, South Korea

With the Little League Baseball World Series underway, and Major League Baseball is in the playoff run, this lighthouse (which I hadn't heard of before), seemed appropriate.  It comes from Korea, the world's home of creative lighthouses.

This one is called Chiram Hang, and it's on a breakwater for a harbor north of Busan, which is on the southeast coast of South Korea.  (Here's a map.)

So here's what my guiding light (ha), the Lighthouse Directory, has to say.

"2011. Active; focal plane about 11 m (36 ft); green light, characteristic unknown. Approx. 8 m (26 ft) round tower shaped like a baseball bat. Next to the tower are sculptures of a baseball and a baseball glove."

Well, that pretty much gives it away.  Here's a very short article about it:

"Baseball City" Busan lights up a baseball bat-shaped lighthouse

All they need now is a gigantic box of Cracker Jack to go with it.

Thought I remembered her

As is my wont, I was perusing the articles in the Daily Mail when I spotted this one about British soap opera actress Kara Tointon:

Kara Tointon cups her prominent belly as she joins boyfriend Marius Jensen at The Festival premiere... months after sparking engagement rumours

When I saw her name, I thought I remembered writing something about her in my blog.  And I was correct about that -- I did, way back in 2009.

Cute Soap Opera Actress Appreciation Day #2  (that never really did catch on)

In this most recent article, she looks suspiciously like she's been pregnant for a few months, and fortunately for that supposition, she has a boyfriend who could have supplied the male contribution to the formation of the zygote.

I'm such a romantic.

Oh, final thought: In that 2009 article, I linked to an FHM article about her, but that link doesn't work now.  So I found what was in it elsewhere.

Kara Tointon Sizzles in Burlesque

Since it hasn't been officially announced, we'll just have to wait and see if an announcement is forthcoming. 

One thing's for sure

One thing is certain for Crystal Palace in this year's Premier League season.

They'll win more games and score more goals in their first seven games than they did last year.

(That's because at the beginning of last year's season, a season in which they finished a remarkable 11th place, they started 0-7-0 and didn't score a goal.)

In the opening game of this season, they defeated Fulham by a score of 2-0.  So they've won a game and scored two goals already.

It's a step, at least.

Fulham 0-2 Crystal Palace: Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp give hosts reality check on Premier League return as Eagles soar in opening day London derby

Lighthouse of the Week, August 12-18, 2018: Phare de Gatteville, France

On the Cotentin Peninsula, where Cherbourg is located, on the coast west of the Normandy beaches where the Allies landed on D-Day, is the Phare de Gatteville, a big and tall lighthouse.  The nearest village is Barfleur. (Barfleur is cute.)

It has it's own Web page;  if you mainly speak and read English, click right here.

If you read and understand French:  http://www.phare-de-gatteville.fr/

What are the important characteristics?

From this Web site, the significant information:   "Built between 1829 and 1834, the Gatteville lighthouse is the second highest in France, with a height of 75 metres. Climb the 365 steps and admire the magnificent panorama of the Saire as well as the English Channel."

75 meters is around 230 feet or a little higher, so yes, it's tall.

There are videos, if you are interested feel free to search for them.  Below are some selected pictures.

On Highway 41: Dunnellon

North of Inverness, Florida, is Dunnellon, Florida.  And there is a very interesting location really, really close to Highway 41 in Dunnellon.

First, going into Dunnellon, we cross the Withlacoochee River.




Just up the river from this crossing, the Withlacoochee joins the Rainbow River.  Don't forget that.

Because just 3.7 miles up the road (I checked), turn off Highway 41 onto Southwest 81st Place Road, and ride over to the Rainbow Swimming Hole.  This is where the Rainbow River starts, and is a great place to start a tubing trip down the clear waters of the Rainbow River.  Which is something that a lot of people in Florida do.   (Picture example here.)

And here's a StreetView panorama of the swimming hole.  This is one of the most accessible of Florida's famous springs.  There are more north of here.




After cooling off in the swimming hole, the next stop is Williston -- and another spring.  I'll get there quickly.

Hot engineer

Lindsey Morgan plays youthful engineering whiz Raven Reyes on the CW Network's post-apocalyptic show The 100.  Below is how she appears in the role of Raven.

In this role, Lindsey's youthful sexiness, as well as her great smile, are not exploited to their fullest extent, which is probably in keeping with the tone and theme of the show, but which is definitely not taking advantage of all of Lindsey's attributes.

Which is probably good for Lindsey's career, because it proves that she's more than just a great body and fabulous smile.

Did I mention she has a curvaceous figure and stunning smile?

Yes, I guess I must have.

Seriously sexy

See?  Great smile!

Smile + sexy together 

OK, I have never heard of Bermuda fireworms

I admit never having heard of Bermuda fireworms.

But apparently they spawn like clockwork.  So they glow and they spawn with meticulous timing.

And they live in Bermuda.  What's not to like?


Study Sheds Light on Mysterious Glowing Fireworms Seen by Christopher Columbus


“The female worms come up from the bottom and swim quickly in tight little circles as they glow, which looks like a field of little cerulean stars across the surface of jet black water,” says Mark Siddall, a curator in the Museum’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology and author on the study. “Then the males, homing in on the light of the females, come streaking up from the bottom like comets—they luminesce, too. There’s a little explosion of light as both dump their gametes in the water. It is by far the most beautiful biological display I have ever witnessed.”

And I know that now you're asking yourself, as I did when I read that paragraph...

Is there a video?  (As God is my witness, when I just typed that question, I do not know if there's a video. But I am now going to look for one.)

Well, there would have to be, right?

Yes, they are out there

We know that there are numerous pieces of rock in space;  ranging from dust motes to sand grains to pebbles to rocks to boulders to asteroids from the size of a bus to the size of a city.  And it's a concern that some of the bigger ones might hit Earth and cause a problem, and potentially a catastrophe.

We have reminders;  fireballs in the atmosphere, impacts on the ground, shock waves in the sky, and the occasional mystery explosion over a U.S. air base.

And meteors also hit the Moon, and those quick flashes of incineration can be seen from Earth.

(Now, I'm a bit confused about the jargon here.  They are meteors before they hit something, and meteorites after they've hit, but isn't it a meteor hitting the Moon and becoming a meteorite when it does that?)

Watch two meteorites hit the Moon

As I write this, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower is two nights away.  Astronomers and amateurs will be watching -- and we'll all be reminded that the dust and sand and pebbles and rocks and boulders in space are out there.

Somewhere.

England edges out a win at Edgbaston

Obviously you saw what I did there.

Cricket Tests can be anti-climactic. If one of the sides takes a big lead early, there isn't much drama unless something freakish happens for the other team.  England has had some recent Test matches like that. Even in this format that can go five days, it's been obvious that the match was over by the second day.

The most recent Test match at Edgbaston, versus India, was not like that at all.

The basic setting was this;  in the second innings (each side bats twice), England's top batsmen went out early, with low scores.  But a valiant score of 63 by a newcomer named Sam Curran gave them a lead of 197 runs.  This is pretty good, but not great, especially when India has a star batsman named Kohli that scored 149 all by himself during India's first innings.  And at the end of the third day, Kohli was batting.  England needed 5 wickets to win, and India needed 84 runs to win.

So it basically came down to getting Kohli out.  Do that, and England had a chance.  If they couldn't get him out, then England would be toast before tea (well, that should be obvious).

They got him out.  The rest of India's batsmen couldn't rescue the game, and England won by a narrow (but not dangerously narrow) 31 runs.

It was a good one.   The next Test match starts on Thursday, August 9, at Lord's Cricket Ground.

England vs India, first Test day 4 RECAP: Ben Stokes shines as England claim victory by 31 runs at Edgbaston


Highlights from Day 4

Lighthouse of the Week, August 5-11, 2018: Sombrero Island, Anguilla

This lighthouse is located on a place that I've never heard of before.  It's on Hat Island aka Sombrero Island, which is a bare scrap of land about 40 miles northwest (more north than west) of Anguilla.  It happens to be defined as the northernmost island of the Lesser Antilles.

It's not big.  They used to mine for guano on the island, but that's not done anymore.  There used to be a lighthouse keeper for the old lighthouse until they automated it (read about that here).

Now there's an automated lighthouse on Sombrero Island. Since it is so far from anywhere, these pictures are useful, because they are likely the only way that millions of people around the world will ever see it.  There isn't much reason to go there -- I checked and apparently the reefs are good enough for scuba diving, but it's a long haul.

So what do we know about it?  From the Lighthouse Directory, of course:

"2001 (station established 1868). Active; focal plane 28 m (92 ft); white flash every 10 s. Approx. 15 m (50 ft) round tower, painted white."

There are foundations on the island for both of the previous (1868, 1962) lighthouse towers. And some mining equipment.  And that's about it.  But the lighthouse is famous enough to have been on a stamp.

A sonnet conceived while gazing at the night sky

there could be thousands out there

When I look upon the multitude of stars
I wonder if we share this galaxy;
Not with some small bacterium on Mars,
but with another branch of entity
that ponders on this question just as I --
and as we know that planets populate
each gravity that underlies their sky,
it is not hard to hope we have a mate
that thinks and wonders on this topic too;
yet massive distance makes the dark abyss
uncrossable by single lives, and through
the vastness of both length and light we'll miss
connection of our intellects, and might
be ever unaware we grok this night.

Rolling down Highway 41

Now that we're north of Tampa, Highway 41 goes through several small towns.  There is an interesting area up the road a bit, but right now, let's go hamlet hopping.



Brooksville, a nice little Main Street




Floral City




Fort Cooper State Park (just off the highway), Lake Holothlikaha (which sounds Hawaiian), via StreetView panorama




Inverness, by Paige's Root Beer



Masaryktown to Inverness is about 30 miles.

Next stop:   Dunnellon !

First Test between England and India is close

It's hard to write sports posts about ongoing events because they get outdated pretty fast.

Nevertheless...

As I write this, Day Three of the first summer 2018 Test between India and England is starting off quite close.  England only managed a modest 287 in their first innings, but a good defense meant that India only scored 274 in their first innings, despite their current star Kohli getting 149 all by himself.

But ... Alastair Cook, one of England's main batsmen who is always in the first pair, only scored 13 in his first at-bat, and got 0 in his second at-bat at the end of Day Two.  Not great for someone that needs to score more runs than that to give England a reasonable chance of winning.

So Day Three, with England up, should be an interesting one.  And as I finish this, the start of Day Three is just a few hours away.

England vs India, first Test day 2 RECAP: Relive the action from Edgbaston

Hell of a closing statement

From this Washington Post article:

The President is flouting the law in plain sight,
by Max Boot

comes this devastating final sentence:

"The impeachment proceedings would have already started if congressional Republicans weren’t colluding with Trump to obstruct justice."


Read the rest.  It's massive, sobering, true, and unapologetic.

Where blue diamonds are made

If you search in this blog with the word "diamond", you'll find that I've written a few posts about diamonds, particularly big ones.  Ever since a young age I've had a fascination for gemstones, particularly large ones, and the history of large diamonds has been interesting to me.  That's one reason that I'm curious if they'll be able to cut one of the new large white diamonds recently discovered into a gem larger than the Cullinan I in the scepter of the British Crown Jewels.

But it's not all about size and value.  Part of the fascination is their rarity, and how they are formed, deep in the Earth (under a lot of pressure, of course).   Well, science has now determined where and how deep the very rare blue diamonds are formed.  As you might expect, it's very deep in the Earth's subsurface layers.

Rather than try to explain, I'll link to an article and excerpt from it. If you're curious, the blue color comes from traces of boron.

How Rare Blue Diamonds Form Deep below the Ocean Floor
Minerals and elements are recycled in Earth’s mantle to form the precious gems

So where are they formed, you must be wondering?

"Over the course of hundreds of millions to billions of years, the seafloor absorbs boron. As the floor becomes older and colder, it eventually becomes denser than the mantle beneath it and sinks. “It’s like a continuous conveyor belt that just keeps going for hundreds of millions of years,” says Lars Stixrude, head of Earth sciences at University College London who was not involved in the research. The boron, encompassed by rock that protects the mineral from the mantle’s high pressure and heat, continues on its path hundreds of miles downward until it reaches the lower mantle. There, the environment has such intense levels of heat and pressure that it melts boron’s protective rock sheath. Here in this deep-Earth pressure cooker, blue diamonds form. The process can take hundreds of millions of years—and that does not include the hundreds of millions of years the diamonds take to travel to the surface via volcano-like burrows called kimberlites (known to most as mines)."

So that's how.  Now that we've settled that, let's have a little fun.

The blue diamond shown above, called "The Heart of the Ocean", was featured in the movie Titanic.  It is not real.  Kate Winslet, luckily and happily, certainly is.

What you may not know is that there really was an expensive blue diamond on a necklace on the Titanic.  And it still exists.

The True Story Behind Titanic's "Heart Of The Ocean" Diamond Necklace!

It is a fascinating story.  And here's what the real gemstone and necklace look like:

It needs a name

The article doesn't say how big this blue diamond is. My guess is about 10 carats.














So now you know the rest of this story.

A Michelle Keegan roundup

After weeks of absence from the electronic pages of the Daily Mail, Michelle Keegan is back.  And since I am devoted to all things Keegan, I must make it easy for my readership to find these important articles.  So let's get to it.

First one:
Michelle Keegan showcases her tanned physique in a patterned bikini as she snaps selfies with shirtless Mark Wright on a luxury boat trip in Mallorca

(I stopped reading the title at "bikini".)  There are 37 pictures of Mark and Michelle on this boat.  Michelle is in 31 of the pictures.  This is what I call first-class journalism.

And excellent paparazzi photography.






















Second one:
Michelle Keegan 'signs up for a new series of Our Girl'... as intense filming schedule means she'll be away from husband Mark Wright for two months


Third one:

Michelle Keegan sports bohemian white summer dress as she cheers on husband Mark Wright during personal appearance in Mallorca

"The talented pair split their time between three countries - their marital home in England's Essex, Mark's place in Los Angeles, and South Africa, where Michelle filmed the bulk of her BBC military drama.

Luckily Michelle is able to join Mark in Los Angeles between filming series of her TV show. 'She comes out and spends time in LA which she loves, so we just make it work,' he said.

I hope it keeps working for them.

I think men only have one kind (sadly)

Well, after you read the title, you HAVE to read the article:

Revealed: The 12 different types of orgasms ALL women can experience

First time I've ever heard of a " U-spot ". 

Now there's no way you can avoid reading the article, right?