I found this report of a pair of killer whales sighted off Japan intriguing. I don't know if it constitutes an omen of good fortune or bad luck.
In rare wildlife encounter, whale watchers spot two white killer whales off the coast of Japan
Here's one of them with a normal-coloration companion.
With California and the Southwest in the midst of an increasingly severe drought, verging on a crisis, the question arises -- where do places that get even less rain annually than these locations -- sometimes a lot less -- get water?
One answer to that question is -- they make it, via desalination.
Recently, they also experimented with making rain.
It’s so hot in Dubai the government is paying scientists to make it rain"Scientists created rainstorms by launching drones, which then zapped clouds with electricity, the Independent reports. Jolting droplets in the clouds can cause them to clump together, researchers found. The larger raindrops that result then fall to the ground, instead of evaporating midair — which is often the fate of smaller droplets in the UAE, where temperatures are hot and the clouds are high."
"In recent years, the UAE’s massive push into desalination technology — which transforms seawater into freshwater by removing the salt — has helped close the gap between the demand for water and supply. Most of the UAE’s drinkable water, and 42 percent of all water used in the country, comes from its roughly 70 desalination plants."
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Bulgaria?
If you said "Nina Dobrev", you're not alone. Or Sofia -- not Sofia Dobrev (though I'm sure there's one somewhere*), but the capital city.
*found one in Canada
Lighthouses? Did you have to think if Bulgaria even has a coastline? Well, it does, on the Black Sea, and that coast has several lighthouses.
Having determined that, I went with the most well-known, on Cape Shabla. It's a candy-striped special, and well-photographed, famous enough to be on a stamp. It's located just south of the easternmost point of Bulgaria.
The basic stats from the Lighthouse Directory (of course):
"1856 (Ottoman; station established 1786). Active; focal plane 36 m (118 ft); three white flashes, in a 2+1 pattern, every 20 s. 32 m (105 ft) octagonal brick tower with lantern and gallery, mounted on a large 3-story square stone base; the tower is covered by metal panels. Entire lighthouse, including the base, painted with red and white horizontal bands. A 1- and 2-story keeper's house is attached to the base of the lighthouse."
One of the responses to the devastating flooding in Germany that occurred just a few days ago is the recognition that this is going to be more events like this as part of a continuing, increasing frequency trend. So some in Germany are stating what's going to have to be done.
"Flooding is a complex phenomenon with many causes, including land development and ground conditions. While linking climate change to a single flood event requires extensive scientific analysis, climate change, which is already causing heavier rainfall in many storms, is an increasingly important part of the mix. Warmer atmosphere holds, and releases, more water, whether in the form of rain or heavy winter snowpack.
...
“We have to make the state more climate-proof,” Mr. Laschet said. “We have to make Germany climate neutral even faster.” "
Representative Lauren Boebert exemplifies so much about what makes Republicans ...
Republicans.
"Boebert's outburst at the staffer was first reported by Sarah Ferris of Politico and Ben Siegel of ABC News.OK, so I know that this reprehensible Rep has been on record and on-stage opposing the "Fauci ouchie", so I expect that her beliefs and politics would have prevented her from getting the vaccination on the sly. So ... while I wouldn't wish the calamity of discomfort and life-threatening illness on anyone, it seems to me if someone is apparently actively trying to see what that's like, they should be given every opportunity to find out.
'Wow. GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert just threw a mask in the face of a floor staffer when she came to the floor not wearing one, per someone watching the exchange,' Ferris tweeted.
Meanwhile, Siegel tweeted: 'Rep. Lauren Boebert just threw a mask back at a Democratic floor staffer who tried to give her one, per source on the House floor who saw it happen.'
The House reinstated its mask mandate amid a surge of the Delta variant, after Congress' attending physician Dr. Brian P. Monahan said in a memo late on Tuesday night that he was recommending the change."
Much as I admire the Daily Mail, their headline fact-checkers occasionally let a howler slip through. (I wonder if there's a Web site featuring Daily Mail blunders. I know I've featured a few.)
In this case, I wonder if they realize how many names of states in the United States start with "W". I wonder about this because apparently they stopped before they got to the last one. The article blurb (which links to the full article) was screen-captured directly off the tabloid's main page.
Actually, this might be good news, because if Trump supporters are looking for candidates in Wisconsin to unseat Liz Cheney, she'll have a much better chance of being re-elected, because she won't have much trouble winning the primary in Wyoming.
Interesting paper; turns out that when the first A-bomb was tested (i.e., blown up) in the New Mexico desert near Los Alamos, in addition to making crystals of the fused sand mineral trinitite, the explosion also created a quasi-crystal. This occasion marks the first time a quasi-crystal was synthesized. Of course, they weren't really trying to make one, but they did.
Accidental synthesis of a previously unknown quasicrystal in the first atomic bomb test
I haven't mentioned actress Nina Dobrev for months, even years. Since the Vampire Diaries ended, she's done several guest star spots, and a 13-episode comedy on Paramount called Fam (first I've heard of it was when I started writing this). And according to IMDb, she's got several projects in post-production, so she appears to have been working pretty regularly.
She also had time to start up a wine label with her best friend Julianne Hough, who is now, ahem, footloose and fancy free since she couldn't resolve her differences with former hunky hockey hubby Brooks Laich. If the vines and grapes can survive this summer's heat and lack of water, that might be interesting to try.
But, about Nina. She showed up in front of the appearance wall at Cannes 2021 for the amFar gala wearing a little black dress, which of course is always fashionable. And her display of strapless cleavage was also something quite fetching, too. Julianne was there in white, and Nina definitely both overshadowed and outstood* her lithe dancing friend.
*Technical note: I'm not sure I've ever used this word before, in any instance in my writing, ever.
Now back to the dress. I'm sure glad she didn't walk by me wearing this rig, because I'd probably have sprained my neck.
There are a lot of ways available in the world now that enable someone interested to figure out what someone else is up to, into, or doing.
Trust me on this.
"The top administrator of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after a Catholic media site told the conference it had access to cellphone data that appeared to show he was a regular user of Grindr, the queer dating app, and frequented gay bars."
So, after exploring lighthouses along the Mediterranean coast of Algeria, I'm returning to the Gulf Coast of the United States. This lighthouse was in fact inspired by a T-shirt I saw being worn by someone else, showing the lighthouses of northwest Florida. A brief investigation indicated that there is a great variety of lighthouses, from skeletal towers to one that looks more like a house, along with more traditional forms.
This lighthouse is one of those; the tower is the tallest lighthouse on the Gulf of Mexico coast of the United States. (Is there a taller one in another country? There aren't many candidates for that.) It has another notable distinction; it's still operating a first-order Fresnel lens. Those are the big ones.
So, let's be systematic about this. If you don't where Pensacola and the Naval Air Station are, this map shows where they are with respect to the lighthouse.
The Lighthouse Directory's basic stats:
"1859 (John Newton). Station established 1824. Active; focal plane 191 ft (58 m); white flash every 20 s. 150 ft (46 m) "early classical" brick tower attached to a 2-story brick keeper's house. The light shines from a revolving 1st order Fresnel lens (1869), one of very few of its type still in service in the U.S. Upper two thirds of the lighthouse painted black, lower third white."
Here's the Web site devoted to the lighthouse: Pensacola Lighthouse and Maritime Museum
Just interested in history? Read this; the tower did come under fire a few times during the Civil War.
Unforunately, it isn't currently possible to visit the lighthouse, due to COVID-19 restrictions at the air station, so no one can climb the tower or watch the Blue Angels jets practice. So I found this Trip Advisor page, which apparently has over 1,000 pictures.
And below are the six pictures I selected, one with jets.
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| Inside the lens! |
In the previous Highway 41 end-to-end Streetview trek post, the route went around Appleton, Wisconsin. Now, the somewhat more interesting trip through this midsize Wisconsin city.
Back to College Avenue. This time the trek took the exit, and first, provides a view of the commercial strip outside the main city.
Vanessa Hudgens does it right before the NBA Final Game 5.
This is a picture of model Jehane-Marie Paris, who's more commonly known as Gigi Paris. Find her on Instagram there.
I saw this picture on Instagram and had to note it.
She's apparently been modeling for quite awhile, and it's not hard to see why. If you want to see more (as in all of her), that's available without too much difficulty. She was seen on the beach pre-Covid with an actor named Glen Powell, who is in Top Gun: Maverick. Not sure where she's been hanging out, or with who, more recently. But I doubt it's difficult for her to get a date.
Appleton, Wisconsin is an interesting spot in the trek because you can go around the small city (boring), or go through it (more entertaining). So this part of the trek will do both. First, we'll get there.
This was an eye-opening / sobering article in The Guardian.
The scientists hired by big oil who predicted the climate crisis long ago"It never actually occurred to me that this was going to become a political problem. I thought: “We’ll do the analyses, we’ll write reports, the politicians of the world will see the reports and they’ll make the appropriate changes and transform our energy system somehow.” I’m a research scientist. In my field, if you discover something and it turns out to be valid, you’re a hero. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to convince people, even when they saw objective evidence of this happening.Well, that's kinda why they're in court now.
Back in 1980, there was a guy working for Exxon and he was one of the inventors of the lithium battery, which electric cars now use. This guy won the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work on lithium batteries. Just imagine if Exxon management had taken our prediction seriously! They could have easily built huge factories to make lithium batteries to facilitate the transition to electric cars. Instead, they fired this guy. They shut down all their energy work. And they started funding climate [change] deniers."
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| Down on the Viking farm |
I read an interesting article about the Vikings and how they dealt with climate change on their farms. While they were famous for raiding and trading, like most societies back in their time, they kept their bellies full via agriculture. The article noted that they had to deal with some significant climate shifts (partly due to volcanic activity) up in the the northern climes, and they shifted the livestock vs. crop balance depending on the prevailing winds and temperatures.
Food Security Lessons from the Vikings
“Our findings demonstrate that climate already changed in the past, it is not something new, and societies had to adapt to it already 1,500 years ago. This shows that we also have to adapt to the rapid climate change we observe today in order to maintain and improve our food production,” said Manon Bajard of the University of Oslo, who presented the research in April at the 2021 general assembly of the European Geosciences Union."
"The key finding was that warmer phases were dominated by the cultivation of crops, whereas cooler phases were dominated by livestock farming. Manon’s team, as well as archaeologists working at Rakni’s mound, suggest that it is, perhaps, not surprising that farmers would rely more on animals during colder periods (when crop yields are reduced) and are reexamining archaeological evidence to support this theory."
So, the next time you're quaffing a mug of mead, you can think about this.
It was always perplexing why the White evangelical Christians in this country embraced a President so sinful as Donald Trump. Especially when in the 1990s, they practically passed out at the mere thought of fellatio in the Oral ... Oval Office and a bit of fun with the tip of a cigar. Might have been offensive, but it wasn't impeachable. But the main issue motivating the right Christian Whites is opposition to abortion, which translates to birthing as many babies as possible, keeping them in poverty as long as possible, and then denying them the right to vote in elections when they grow up.
Simple, eh?
Well, this article in the Washington Post does a good job of describing where the White evangelicals are, politically, right now, and why they're there, and what we have to fear as they try to cling to their fading share of the power profile in this country.
Why are White evangelicals embracing an anti-democratic movement? Because they’re panicking.
"Our politics have fallen victim to the primal scream of once-dominant White evangelicals. Having failed to capture the hearts, minds and souls of a majority of Americans, these communities are turning against democracy. They prefer an authoritarian theocracy to a multiracial society in which they are a distinct minority. And that, candidly, is a threat to our democracy and to the notion of equal justice under the law."
It's probably not a problem exclusive to Minnesota, but the keepers of Minnesota lakes are reporting a problem with goldfish.
As the article explains, people don't want to keep the goldfish, but they don't want to kill the goldfish. So they let the cute little goldfish go into the local lake or stream.
The problem is, they don't stay cute and little out in the wild.
Life finds a way.
People dumped their pets into lakes, officials say. Now football-size goldfish are taking over.
I read about this survey in the Daily Mail, which focused on one key aspect, but right here I'll go to the actual survey summary discussion, and highlight what they say about it.
"Support for secession under the specific hypothetical unions format is illustrated in the map below. As in the previous survey, levels of expressed support for secession are arrestingly high, with 37% of respondents overall indicating willingness to secede. Within each region, the dominant partisan group is most supportive of secession. Republicans are most secessionist in the South and Mountain regions whereas it is Democrats on the West Coast and in the Northeast. In the narrowly divided Heartland region, it is partisan independents who find the idea most attractive."
"Yet rather than support for secession diminishing over the past six months, as we expected, it rose in every region and among nearly every partisan group. The jump is most dramatic where support was already highest (and has the greatest historical precedent) — among Republicans in the South, where secession support leapt from 50% in January/February to 66% in June. Support among Republicans in the Mountain region increased as well, by 7 points, from 36% to 43%. Among Democrats in the West, a near-majority of 47% (up 6 points) supports a schism, as do 39% (up 5 points) in Northeast. Support jumped 9 points among independents in the Heartland as well, reaching 43%. Even subordinate partisan groups appear to find secession more appealing now than they did last winter, though only increases for Democrats in the South, Heartland, and Mountain regions are statistically discernible at the 0.05 significance level. The broad and increasing willingness of respondents to embrace these alternatives is a cause for concern."
Malinkaaa95 is actually model Alina Lobacheva, who possesses raven black hair, large lips, and a virtually impossible body. I say that in a good way.
I discovered Alina on Instagram, and this is where to find her. She also has OnlyFans, but I have no idea if it's worth it.
Below are some selections. If you want to get closer, head to Dubai, she's there pretty often. In the first two, she demonstrates the advisability of breakfast with a remarkable Instagram model near a beach. Towel optional.
The other pictures just show other aspects of advisability.
Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post:
GOP death cult attitude toward vaccines isn't just lethal, it's stupid
(Now, that isn't the title you'll see on the Internet page at the link. It IS the title based on the URL. I like that one better.)
" “I’m perplexed by the reluctance of some to get vaccinated, totally perplexed,” the most powerful Republican in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), said last week in a grotesque display of faux concern. The hesitancy, and the misinformation that drives it, is coming from inside the house — and the House.
McConnell and other GOP leaders need to forcefully explain to their constituents that, by refusing to get vaccinated, they’re owning no one except themselves. The measure of devotion to a belief might be how much a worshiper is willing to sacrifice to it, but offering up one’s loved ones, one’s livelihood and even one’s own health to a god this stupid is deranged. "
As the last of three lighthouses in the Algerian mini-set, I'm going to finish with a 3-for-1; the lighthouses on Cap Bengut, located near Dellys, Algeria. And there's a bonus; the lighthouses are located right next to a coffee shop on the water, if you ever visit there.
So, speaking of being there, click here to see where there is, and zoom out if you want a better concept of the geographical location. I left this in close so it's possible to see where the coffee shop is.
So, from the esteemed Lighthouse Directory, we can get all this information:
Pretty exciting, isn't it? And the pictures are pretty good, too.Cap Bengut (1)
1881. Inactive since 2003. 29 m (95 ft) square masonry tower with lantern and gallery, rising from a 2-story keeper's house. Lighthouse painted white, lantern dome green. This elegant and historic lighthouse was damaged seriously by the earthquake of 21 May 2003, which caused great damage throughout the Dellys area.
Cap Bengut (2)
2004. Inactive since 2017. Approx. 15 m (49 ft) triangular cylindrical skeletal tower. Lighthouse painted red with a white band at the top. Hacene Hacntizi has a 2017 photo of all three Bengut lighthouses. This temporary tower replaced the light in the historic lighthouse after the 2003 earthquake.
Cap Bengut (3)
2010. Active; focal plane 63 m (207 ft); four white flashes every 15 s. 29 m (95 ft) octagonal concrete tower with four robust buttresses, lantern and gallery, rising from a semicircular 1-story administration building. The tower is unpainted white concrete; lantern gray metallic.
A brief collection of black-and-white beauty.
Susanna Canzian
That's all I need to say. This essay by David Brooks in the New York Times is incredibly good, and massively accurate.
Mind if I excerpt? (But like I said, Read It - the whole thing)
"As Jonathan Rauch brilliantly writes in his book “The Constitution of Knowledge,” the acquisition of this kind of knowledge is also a collective process. It’s not just a group of people commenting on each other’s internet posts. It’s a network of institutions — universities, courts, publishers, professional societies, media outlets — that have set up an interlocking set of procedures to hunt for error, weigh evidence and determine which propositions pass muster.
These are the same principles as those of the scientific method. An individual may be dumb, Rauch notes, but the whole network is brilliant, so long as everybody in it adheres to certain rules: No one gets the final say (every proposition might be wrong). No claim to personal authority (who you are doesn’t determine the truth of what you say, the evidence does). No retreat to safety (you can’t ban an idea just because it makes you feel unsafe)."AND
"The collapse of trust, the rise of animosity — these are emotional, not intellectual problems. The real problem is in our system of producing shared stories. If a country can’t tell narratives in which everybody finds an honorable place, then righteous rage will drive people toward tribal narratives that tear it apart."
Japan disagrees.
Extreme rainfall events are increasing around the world. Extreme rainfall events (the highest 1% of the amount of rainfall delivered by a storm(s) in a short period of time, like one day) cause landslides and flash floods. Landslides and flash floods are disaster that destroy property and endanger lives.
Rescuers seek 24 missing people after deadly landslide in Japan seaside town
"Some areas had received more rain in 24 hours than they normally receive in the whole of July, but nature may not have been entirely to blame.
Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu said the prefecture was looking into whether development projects played a role by leaving a large mound of dirt that appears to have collapsed into the river, while also deforesting the area and reducing the capacity of mountain soil to retain water, according to Japanese media reports."
Several Premier League teams have acquired new managers for this season (some of them have acquired a manager released by a different team, in fact). Crystal Palace didn't do that -- they acquired a former player, a really good former player, who played for Arsenal (and was one of the 'Invincibles'), and also played for Juventus. He has previously managed Olympique Gymnaste Club Nice and New York City FC.
"However, given the fact 11 players are set to become free agents, Vieira will need to use the summer transfer window to complete a major squad overhaul."
Just don't lose Eze. Even though he ruptured his Achilles tendon, he'll get better (eventually). And he's one of the best young talents on a team that was getting a bit long in the tooth.
I noted two lighthouses ago that I would make the lighthouses of Algeria a short series, and here's the second one. It's a historic lighthouse -- also inactive -- but definitely a landmark on the coast of the city of Algiers.
You can find it here (on a map).
The Lighthouse Directory tells us this about it:
"1834 (station established before 1700). Inactive since the 1920s or 1930s. 16 m (52 ft) 12-sided cylindrical tower with lantern and gallery rising from a 12-sided building. Lighthouse painted white, lantern black. The Peñon is a 16th century fortress at the center of the Amirauté (Admiralty), a complex of historic buildings on what was originally several small islands just off the coast."
If I was to visit Algiers (unlikely), I would try to see this.
The pictures I found:
Cycling sprinter Mark Cavendish could be on the verge of history in the Tour de France -- if he can just stay on his bike long enough.
You see, in the TdF, you have to finish within a certain time behind the winner, or you're out of the race. And sprinters aren't very good climbers, so they can get cut from the peloton if they can't climb the mountains.
Today, Cavendish barely made it. And this is not the toughest climbing day of the 2021 Tour -- this is.
So, if Cavendish can stay in it, he's good enough to win a couple more sprints. Two more would tie him with the truly legendary Eddie Merckx.
Cavendish winning earlier in the Tour:
Washington Post columnist memorably and honorably blasted back at some of the Fox News personalities and right-wing activists masquerading as journalists. It was delicious.
Imagine if a Squad member called a general a stupid pig. Tucker Carlson just did."At a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee last week, Republicans expressed outrage that an elective course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point includes information about critical race theory and “white rage.” This prompted a memorable rebuke from Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military … of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there,” Milley said. “I want to understand white rage — and I’m White. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?”
With conservatives like this, it’s no wonder our country is so screwed up. Thanks to Trump, the guardrails are gone. These right-wing blowhards — most of whom have never served a day in uniform — now feel free to revile decorated combat veterans such as Milley. Imagine what kind of hissy fit the right would throw if a member of “the Squad” called a four-star general a stupid pig. Yet the most popular cable-TV host in America does it without a peep of protest from the right."
I was pulling for Sorana Cirstea of Romania to go further in Wimbledon, but she ran into Cinderella (almost literally), Great Britain's teen queen Emma Raducanu, who defeated her 6-3, 7-5. The reason I wanted Cirstea to go further was that I found the pictures of her shown below in the great big world of the Internet.
She's in that unfortunate place of being good, but not quite good enough (currently ranked 54th). She's one a couple of tournaments and defeated a lot of really good players, but doesn't seem to be able to string together the wins needed to win a Slam. She makes it through the first couple of rounds, ends up going out in the 3rd or 4th round.
For this week's lighthouse, I went south. South to nearly the end of Europe, which happens to be in Greece. This lighthouse is at the second southernmost point of the European continent. (The most southern point is Punta de Tarifa, Spain.) However, this point has a lighthouse, and the one in Spain doesn't.
So, the location is Cape Tenaro, also known as Cape Matapan. I can't determine which is actually the more commonly used. Offshore was the site of a large naval battle in WWII.
Onshore, Cape Tenaro has a lighthouse. And the lighthouse has a Web page, Lighthouse Tenaro.
From that Web page, I have this information:
"This lighthouse was manufactured in 1882. The altitude of this square stone tower is 16 metres and the height of the focal plane is 78 metres. The light first worked with petroleum (machine Sautter Lemonnier made in Paris 1887). The luminosity was 12 n. m. and height of Focal Plane about 41 m up to sea level. Located in Cape Tenaro (aka Tainaro) or Kavo Matapa."
[ They call it Kavo Matapa, but "cape" in Greek is "akrotiri". I haven't resolved that.]
I also haven't resolved why there are two focal plane heights. The 41 m height agrees with the Lighthouse Directory.
To find it, click here (zoomed out so you can where most of Greece is -- north of it).
A nice picture is located here (it's got a copyright, so I didn't include it in this post).
More nice pictures, and a video, are below.
I have no idea why this video is set to Christmas music, but it's a good lighthouse video.
