Why we need to put a small metallic asteroid in orbit around Earth

 

I know the title of this article seems ambitious, but hey, NASA just proved we can move an asteroid.

What we need to do now is mount an ion drive on a metallic asteroid -- once we find one -- and maneuver it into near-Earth orbit.

Why?  So we (human race, collectively) can actually colonize space, we need a lot more natural resources, specifically metals.  (Rare earths would be nice, too.)

Because I don't think there's enough metal on Earth to build all the things that we (both collectively and as individual nations) need to build in space to actually colonize it.

I'll worry about the oxygen later.

I want you;  the next space race is underway

The article discusses a report (which is linked in the article).  That's the report (noted in bold) that is being referred to below.

"Chinese dominance, they say, would be “an imminent threat to democracy, the free market economy, and the international liberal order.” And because of that threat, the report’s authors, with industry and government input, have issued six key recommendations for U.S. action.

Foremost is the development of a North Star Vision, a “clear and ambitious” plan to rival those of Russia and China, one that spans not just decades but a century of innovation. A “whole-of-nation” approach isn’t new and, in fact, is in its third year of discussion and recommendation from the group creating the report. Paramount to such a plan would be a commitment to seeking off-world power generation and human settlement in space, says the report."

That underlined part is what made me think about putting a metallic asteroid in orbit near Earth.  We (collectively, humanity) can start planning now.

And there are candidates nearby.  (Maybe.)

This Metal-Rich, Potato-Shaped Asteroid Could Be Worth $10 Quintillion

(The mission to check this one out is delayed, but I think it's still going to go.  Launch is planned for October 2023, as of now.)

New Maps of Asteroid Psyche Reveal an Ancient World of Metal and Rock

Hurricane Ian's destruction from the air

 

This Daily Mail article had some of the best pictures of the worst damage that Hurricane Ian did to Florida's west coast.  I'm posting this a bit late, but it's worth remembering, because planning will be needed to prevent something even worse.  Hopefully this was a serious wake-up call for the Tampa Bay area.

The aerial pictures that show the scale of devastation caused by 'biblical' Hurricane Ian as it hit Florida 'like a wrecking ball'

Here's an example.

The I's have it

 

Just a short note about hurricane names.  Clearly, Ian is not getting another chance.

10 Atlantic Hurricanes That Start With 'I' Have Been Retired Since 2001

Here's the list.

Dan Cox is not getting my vote

 

Local politics.  Dan Cox is running for governor against Wes Moore.  Dan is a Republican, Wes Moore is a Democrat.

Trump-backed candidate courts Black voters at Maryland’s largest HBCU

"Cox, who was buoyed in the primary by an endorsement from former president Donald Trump, has focused on “restoring freedom to Maryland,” attacking vaccination mandates and school curriculums on race and gender identity. As a state lawmaker, he has introduced 14 bills that would restrict or roll back access to abortion." 

Nope.

Picture of confidence

 

Another celebration of lovely model Julia Zu, this iime in black and white.  But she's also glorious in color.

Quick real-word test

 

Two words with definitions.  Without checking any other sources, are they real words or not?

Heroical:  having or displaying qualities appropriate for heroes.

Downage:  cumulative or total period of time when a system is down or unavailable.

OK, here are the answers:

Heroical -- is a word.

Downage -- is not an official word.  (But it should be.)

New crater for an old event?

 

Came across this interesting paper in my informational forays on the Web.  I'll provide the abstract and the link to the paper so you, gentle reader, can decide if you find it interesting, too.

The Nadir Crater offshore West Africa: A candidate Cretaceous-Paleogene impact structure

"Evidence of marine target impacts, binary impact craters, or impact clusters are rare on Earth. Seismic reflection data from the Guinea Plateau, West Africa, reveal a ≥8.5-km-wide structure buried below ~300 to 400 m of Paleogene sediment with characteristics consistent with a complex impact crater. These include an elevated rim above a terraced crater floor, a pronounced central uplift, and extensive subsurface deformation. Numerical simulations of crater formation indicate a marine target (~800-m water depth) impact of a ≥400-m asteroid, resulting in a train of large tsunami waves and the potential release of substantial quantities of greenhouse gases from shallow buried black shale deposits. Our stratigraphic framework suggests that the crater formed at or near the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (~66 million years ago), approximately the same age as the Chicxulub impact crater. We hypothesize that this formed as part of a closely timed impact cluster or by breakup of a common parent asteroid."

So the Chicxulub impact crater asteroid may have had a companion planet smasher.   I find that quite interesting. 

Also, this schematic diagram shows how the structure that was discovered may have formed.

Lighthouse of the Week, October 16-22, 2022: Farul Sulina, Romania

 

When you think of the country of Romania, do you think of a country with a coastline?  I'm not sure if you do or not; while I was pretty certain that Romania probably had a Black Sea coast, I wasn't absolutely sure until I checked.  (Bulgaria does too, not even as long as Romania's.)

Since it has a Black Sea coastline, does it have a lighthouse or lighthouses?  It sure does.  They are in various states of repair or its opposite, disrepair.   This one is a pretty unique looking lighthouse, definitely not traditional.

The Lighthouse Directory, which we'll get more from in a minute, called it Sulina (2) or Sulina Main. But I couldn't find it on Google Maps with that name.  So after a short bit of work, I determined that this one goes by the name of Farul Sulina.   Equipped with that moniker, here's where it is.  It's on the channel where the Sulina Branch of the Danube River empties into the Black Sea.

So here's info about it:

"1983 (station established 1856). Active; focal plane 49 m (161 ft); three white flashes every 16.2 s. 48 m (157 ft) round concrete tower with lantern and two enclosed observation and control levels, rising from a triangular 2-story administration building. The tower is unpainted light gray concrete; lantern painted red."

So know that we know its name, let's see what it looks like.  (The lnntern, the top part where the light is located, doesn't look red to me.)

Have you heard of the Lesedi la Rona?

 

So that's my question;  have you heard of the Lesedi la Rona?

Up until a few weeks ago, I had not.  Which is kind of surprising, because I do follow news of big expensive gemstones.  This one escaped my knowledge until I made a new entry in that category.

So, here is the pertinent information.

From Wikipedia:

"... the fourth-largest diamond ever found, and the third-largest of gem quality."

Graff, which has a Web page on it, gives us more information:

"The 302.37 carat Graff Lesedi La Rona is the largest highest colour, highest clarity diamond ever certified by the GIA, and the world’s largest square emerald cut diamond, expertly cut and polished by Graff’s world leading team of gemmologists and master polishers."

It was discovered in 2015, so definitely a recent find.

There's more here:  Diamond Hall of Fame: The Graff Lesedi La Rona

Uncut stone:

The Graff Lesedi la Rona:

So, next question:  where is the big stone (shown above) now?

That's a good question.  And I have no answer.  My guess is that the owners are quietly entertaining offers of very large sums of money, and that it might end up on a royal collection somewhere.  But there aren't nearly as many royal collections now as there used to be.  It seems a shame that something this wondrous is not located where people (like me) can gawp at it in awe, but it seems that is currently the status of the Graff Lesedi la Rona -- it's in an undisclosed location.

Flying in style

 

I'm not a wealthy person.  Our family income is well above the poverty line, and our savings are modest.  And that's fine.

But inhabiting the great American middle class, financially, means that I won't ever find out what it's like to live the life of the super wealthy.  Or, even the moderately wealthy.  Because even the moderately wealthy might take a flight in one of these in-flight accommodations. 

And just once, I'd like to try it and fly it.

10 of the most luxurious Business Class cabins in the world

I could get used to this (British Airways Business Class), if I was used to getting the better things in life.

Keeping Venice above water

 

Yes, it's still there (Venice), even though the river that flows into the Venice lagoon, the Po, has gone missing in parts of Italy.

PBS has a documentary about what is being done to keep the famous Italian city of canals from sinking into the sediments.

In ‘Saving Venice,’ PBS show follows efforts to save ‘Floating City’

If you want to jump right into it, here it is online. 

(Or you could just do this.  But I don't recommend it.)

Very pretty girl post

 

Here's a few pictures of Tishko  (and on Instagram her URL has two S's, not one).

BTW, she's not just pretty, she's breathtakingly beautiful.  (Apparently her first name is Victoria or Viktoria, and she's Russian.  Oh well. )

To be a fake Messiah, you have to have believers

 

REALLY fun/terrifying read here.

Trump's Messiah Scam Increases His Threat To America

Let's start here:

"Back in 2019, when Trump actually was president, Dana Milbank noted for The Washington Post:

“On Wednesday morning, he tweeted out with approval a conspiracy theorist’s claim that Israelis view Trump ‘like he’s the King of Israel’ and ‘the second coming of God’ (a theology Jews reject). He shared the conspiracy theorist’s puzzlement that American Jews don’t view him likewise.

“Hours later, he explained why he has taken a tough trade policy against China: ‘I am the chosen one.’”

Followers of the Qanon cult and the Fox “News” cult appear to believe him. And, like those who followed the people mentioned above, it’s tearing apart families, devastating our politics, and causing deaths across the nation."

And let's end here:

"We have multiple Republican governors now using the power of law, enforced by armed police, courts, and prisons to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, an emulation of Trump’s misogyny.

In an attempt to out-Donald his role model, Ron DeSantis is using Florida taxpayer’s money to fly Texas-based asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard and elsewhere: it got him a standing ovation in Kansas this past weekend.  [And hopefully he'll get charged with a crime for that, too.]

Half of the Republicans in Congress refuse to say if they’re vaccinated (although all probably are; outside of Gohmert, Greene, and Boebert these people are grifters, not idiots), thus modeling behavior that is destroying families and even today killing around 400 people a day in America."

But what should we expect from the party of Trump, the party of death and suffering?  More weirdness? And more danger to democracy.

Yes, I daresay -- both. 

At some point you have to admit ...

 ... that extreme rainfall events are increasing around the world.

It's not news, but there are some that don't want to admit this trend is real, despite all of the events demonstrating it is.

There have been several this summer; this is one of them.

It's Nigeria's turn to be submerged underwater due to climate-driven extreme rainfall

"Nigeria sees flooding every year, often as a result of non-implementation of environmental guidelines and inadequate infrastructure. Authorities are blaming the floods this year on water overflowing from local rivers, unusual rainfalls and the release of excess water from Lagdo dam in neighbouring Cameroon’s northern region.

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency predicted more floods in 2022 than last year due to “excessive rainfalls and contributions from external flows” such as the dam in Cameroon."

There are some people that need to read this that I'm sure won't read it.  But I have other plans for them. 

Lighthouse of the Week, October 9-15, 2022: Dongding Island (Tungting Tao), Taiwan

 

Well, every now and then I'm late with a Lighthouse of the Week, and this is one of those times.  Not feeling particularly inspired, I decided to search for black lighthouses.  I know I've featured a couple of these, i.e., a lighthouse painted black, before, but I'm sure there are more.

And there are.  This is the Dongding Island (seriously) lighthouse, where Dongding Island is a small island claimed by Taiwan, but dangerously close to the mainland of Mainland China, aka China.  Here is where it is.  I'm quite amazed that this is still a Taiwanese property, given this location.  If you switch to satellite view and zoom in, you can see the shadow of the lighthouse right in the middle of the island, which is not a big island.

The Lighthouse Directory informs us of these details:

"1871. Active; focal plane 69 m (226 ft); white flash every 10 s. 19 m (62 ft) round brick tower with lantern and gallery, painted black. This is a staffed station. A photo is at right and Google has an indistinct satellite view. The lighthouse survived World War II but it had to be repaired in 1964 after being damaged by artillery bombardment from the mainland."

Below are two pictures that are findable, which is about half of all the ones that can be found via searching.  Note, because the island goes by several names similar to Dongding, the lighthouse has different names, too.  But that doesn't mean there are more pictures of it.

Sex in space IS going to happen

 

Recently reported in the science and technical news is the important information that Hilton Hotels will be designing astronaut hotel suites for inflatable space habitats.

One of them will have to be honeymoon suite.  At least if I was in charge of the project, it would be.

Hilton hotels will design astronaut suites on private Starlab space station

"Going forward, Hilton and Voyager plan to work together on the architecture and design of Starlab. The private space station will include hospitality suites, sleeping arrangements, and communal areas for visiting astronauts. Further in the future, the two teams plan to create a "ground-to-space astronaut experience," along with branding opportunities and efforts in tourism, education and commercial realms."

I couldn't find a realistic image of a space hotel suite.  This is what accommodations look like on the International Space Station.  Not exactly romantic.  I'll do more research. 

 

Of course she is

 

I'm still a bit behind commenting on the news, so this piece about the judge who decided that former President Trump's purloining of documents he shouldn't have had, classified or otherwise, required a special master to sort them out, is a bit dated.  But the truth of it is still relevant.

The Trump judge ruling on the Mar-a-Lago affair is defying established law

"Judge Aileen Cannon’s two rulings in the Mar-a-Lago affair offer a master class in illustrating how a young and ideologically-driven judge can badly bungle important issues of law and public policy and distort the proper role of courts in protecting state secrets and supervising criminal investigations."

And what happened during the Trump administration was that underqualified and overly-ideological judges got appointed at every Federal court level up to the SCOTUS -- but the infection in that last tier is pretty obvious by now.

Glad we cleared that up

 

One has to admire the diligence of the Daily Mail in discovering the important stories of the world, as well as their diligence in finding paparazzi pictures of celebs, wanna-be celebs, and Instagram models on vacation, in bikinis and lingerie, or both at the same time.

And then there's this work of deep and detailed investigative reporting:

Mystery of female squirting solved: Stream of clear liquid expelled by some women during an orgasm 'is just watered-down urine'

Wait, though, there is something very interesting exposed here in the sidebar:

"* Squirting refers to the involuntary expulsion of a fluid 'as clear as water', and enough to make some women feel like they've wet themselves.
* In contrast, female ejaculate is a thicker, milky substance which is secreted in much lower quantities.
* Ejaculate can be found in the squirt of women, tests have shown.
* Both are different to the lubricating fluid released during arousal, which the vagina oozes naturally in anticipation of sexual intercourse."

All of which is important to know.

A sign of the sad (environmental) times

 

Absolutely excellent article from the Washington Post Magazine on the demise of the mayflies.

The World’s Oldest Winged Insect Is in Trouble. How Frightened Should We Be?

"Mayflies require relatively cool, clean water to live, which makes them among nature’s best ecological sentinels. For those who know how to look, their bodies hold precise clues about the state of the water and land around them. Some scientists call them “biosensors.” Overly warm water, pesticides, silty runoff from development and other pollution will wipe them out or force them to move to cleaner environs.

In other words, these little-known creatures are invaluable narrators of environmental change. They are also, unfortunately, victims of the very trends they can identify — and they are now fading at a disturbing pace from freshwater streams, rivers and lakes around the world."

Only one time in my entire life have I experienced a mayfly hatching.  It was incredible.  They were everywhere.  I was at summer camp (the only time I ever went to a semi-traditional summer camp, this one was a YMCA camp), and one morning, the mayflies arrived.  Even there seemed to be millions, when I told my father about it, he told me that he had seen worse -- so many that the roads became hazardous because the bodies of the mayflies on the road made it slick.   (There's a similar anecdote in this article.)

Like many things that we were once accustomed to, and which we expected, an event like this may not occur anywhere like it used to.  And that's both sad, and bad news.

Two more excerpts:

"In the mid-20th century, at a time when industrial activity sometimes poisoned lakes and rivers where Hexagenia live, their numbers plummeted in the Great Lakes region. Eventually, clean water legislation curbed much of the pollution, spurring a decades-long rebound in Hexagenia populations."

That's right - clean water legislation. The kind of government regulatory legislation that Republican polluter-friendly politicians seriously dislike.

Last one:

"One study in the [International Conference on Ephemeroptera] conference concerned the upland summer mayfly in the United Kingdom. Craig Macadam of Buglife, a conservation nonprofit at the University of Stirling in Scotland, has studied the bug for years. It’s the only Arctic mountain mayfly in the British Isles. A decade ago, he predicted it would be forced to move north because of rising water temperatures. And now it’s happening. Upland summer mayflies are moving to smaller, colder streams higher in the hills. The species no longer inhabits 4 out of 5 sites where Macadam found them in the past. The outlook for them is grim."

Tell that to anyone that tells you climate change isn't happening, or that it isn't important. Nature knows.

(Ephemeroptera is the taxonomic group that mayflies are in.)

At what point are we no longer surprised?

 

Well, it's a bit of older news by now, but this headline (and story) just shouldn't be surprising.  But to see the level of undemocratic discourse in the GOP side of politics is troubling and disappointing.  And the future is more of the same, until democracy collapses.  I'm not the only person -- by far -- to think that, but the next election is going to pivotal, and could be catastrophic.

Republicans in key battleground races refuse to say they will accept results

Of the 19 GOP candidates questioned by The Washington Post, a dozen declined to answer or refused to commit. Democrats all said they would respect the results.

"The reluctance of many GOP candidates to embrace a long-standing tenet of American democracy shows how Trump’s assault on the integrity of U.S. elections has spread far beyond the 2020 presidential race. This year, multiple losing candidates could refuse to accept their defeats."

And in so doing, threaten the existence of the nation for which I assume they call themselves "patriots". 

Disturbing and dangerous. 

She should be in the movies

 

Every now and then I see this fake archerwoman in ads for Raid:  Shadow Legends.  Not being a gamer, I'm not interested in the game, but I sure would like to see more of the fake archerwoman.  It turns out that if you search with this image, Google Image Search finds other images of "digital storm ranger", "fantasy female ranger", and "fantasy blue eyed warrior female ranger relaxing in a medieval tavern and enjoying a few ale's [sic]".   Try it and see.   They're all commercial images, with watermarks, so I can't show them here.  But they exist, even though the fantasy female ranger doesn't.

Darn.

Lighthouse of the Week, October 2-8, 2022: Mevagissey Lighthouse, Cornwall, UK

 

I found an amazing historical lighthouse that I will feature next week, but this one is much simpler, quicker, and easier to post this week.   

This week's lighthouse is the Mevagissey Lighthouse, also known as the Victoria Pier Head Lighthouse, as I found out when I looked for it on Google Maps.  The much-esteemed Lighthouse Directory calls it Megavissey Lighthouse, which is what I originally went with.  But as you'll see on the map, Victoria Pier Head Lighthouse is how to find it.

As you can surmise by now, it's on the end of breakwater pier protecting Megavissey Harbor.  Below are more specs from the Lighthouse Directory:

"1896. Active; focal plane 9 m (30 ft); white light, 1.5 s on, 2 s off, 1.5 s on, 5 s off. 8 m (27 ft) hexagonal cast iron tower, painted white; base of the tower painted black. Fog horn (blast every 30 s). ... Located at the end of the south breakwater in Mevagissey, about 7 km (4.5 mi) south of St. Austell."

So this is a small and clean lighthouse that has been photographed and utilized artistically quite often, despite its humble location and reputation.   The pictures I've selected are below.

This first one was taken by Andrew Eadie. 

When lies become inconvenient

 

There are lots of Republicans campaigning for office who are outright lying; if they didn't lie in concert with the former President and his lying cabal, they'd lose hard-right voters.  But when they win the primary and they need to get more voters to win the general election, they find these lies to be inconvenient.

Case in point:

Election denying New Hampshire Republican Senate hopeful flip-flops and says Biden is the 'legitimate president' and the 'election was not stolen' 24 hours after winning tight GOP primary

"Appearing on Fox News Channel's America's Newsroom with Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer Thursday, Bolduc was asked if he continued to stand by a letter he signed alongside 120 other generals saying that Trump won the 2020 election. 

'So, we live and we learn right?' he answered. 

Bolduc said he had 'done a lot of research on this.' 'And I have come to the conclusion - and I want to be definitive on this - the election was not stolen,' he said. 

'Was there fraud? Yes. Is that a concern to Granite Staters all over the state? Yes, there is. Is there a responsibility for public servants in elected positions to ensure that our citizens have faith in their voting system? Yes.' 

 'But elections have consequences,' he continued. 'And, unfortunately, President Biden is the legitimate president of this country,' the Senate hopeful said."

In other words, he didn't do the research before, and he lied. 

Bolduc is currently several points behind (outside the margin of error) in polling for the Senate race he's in.  Which is very good news.

I can answer that

Well, this article caught my eye and stirred my attentions:

Here’s How Long Foreplay Should Last, a Sex Therapist Says

My answer:  Continue to perform preliminaries prior to her participatory promise.

In other words, do it until she says she's ready.

Let's see what the sex therapist recommends:

"Everyone is different when it comes to sex and experiencing pleasure," Rayburn says. The Canadian study might illustrate her point: "Women and men have different sexual arousal and peak needs," she says, "so foreplay should not be put on a timeline, but rather be determined through preferences and response." In the study, the actual timing of foreplay varied from person to person—meaning a specific timeline doesn't matter when it comes to how long foreplay should last."

Yep, I pretty much nailed that one.

Hah.