A pretty girl post

 

Another Instagram find;  this is Celeste Decaesstecker, who indicates on her Instagram page that she's a fashion model.

I tend to think that's accurate. 

She's from Belgium.  And that's just about all I need to know.

Why do Republicans mistrust, distrust, and not believe what science says?

 

This is a really good article from Scientific American.   

Hey, if you're a Republican, and you don't believe that human activity is changing the Earth's climate ...

or, if you have a loved one that didn't get vaccinated against COVID-19, and, well, died ...

or, if you don't think the Earth is billions of years old ... (sorry if that causes a religious problem) ...

this is one reason why.  A very BIG reason.

The Reason Some Republicans Mistrust Science: Their Leaders Tell Them To

"Fair enough, but why do so many Republicans distrust government, including government science, and think scientists are “always getting it wrong”? A large part of the answer is that this is what the party's spokespeople have been saying for 40 years, from the early days of acid rain to our ongoing debates about climate change. It was [pollster Frank] Luntz himself who, more than 20 years ago, designed the Republican party's strategy to fight climate change by insisting there was no scientific consensus on the issue. It has mostly been Republican governors resisting mask mandates, even when science showed they slowed the spread of COVID-19. And it was, by and large, Republican governors lifting those mandates in the spring, even while Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, begged them not to."

My take, and my recommendation:  trust the scientists -- they know what they're talking about.  At least most of the time.  But if a Republican in a position of power (like a governor, or a Congressperson, or a Senator) tells you that the scientists are wrong, they are the ones that very likely in error.

So I don't forget

 

This is a documentary about the changing state of Greenland.

I didn't want to lose it.

Greenland - An Icy and Magical World

Candice is still sweet

 

Candice Swanepoel may have moved on from her Victoria's Secret angel days.  And she's also given birth to two sons, so obviously she doesn't have to try to keep herself in tip-top model shape.

But clearly she still does.

Candice Swanepoel flaunts her toned tummy in a skimpy animal-print bikini as she promotes her sustainable swimwear line on Instagram

Is this a responsible gun owner?

 

Gun advocates say that guns kept in the house or carried on their person are for self-defense;  protection against random burglars and house invaders.  (Or armed insurrectionists, if you don't like them.)

And then something like this happens.  Is it worth it?

North Carolina toddler, 2, accidentally shot and killed himself after finding his father's loaded gun in his pickup truck

"Prosecutors say the young boy had climbed into his dad's pickup truck through an open door, where he found the loaded Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun in the front seat. He then started to play with the weapon, and accidentally shot himself in the head."

I'm totally confident that his father did not want this to happen.

But it did.

Guns kill innocent people.

Another reason to detest Senator Josh Hawley

 

Though sadly Mitch McConnell is probably still the minority leader (happy that it's still the minority, said that he's still the leader), Kevin McCarthy's leadership fate is still unclear.

Congressional Republicans panic as they watch their lead dwindle

But this is really about Senator Josh Hawley. It comes at the end of this article.

"In an interview published Friday, Hawley told RealClearPolitics, “I’m not going to support the current leadership in the party,” citing gun control and climate-change legislation. “We surrendered when we should’ve fought.”

I've got one word to describe that quote, and him in general.

Ass.

I guess I'm not the only one to think so, especially after the speed he demonstrated when actually threatened by gun-toting Republicans on January 6th, 2021.

Big Ben rings again

 

In case you missed it, I didn't -- the long-ongoing renovation of Big Ben, the big clock next to the Parliament building, is finally done.   So the gong show can ring out again.

Big Ben bongs again five years and $95 million later

Of course, if they ever decide to start over from the foundations, they could do this:

Cassandrish

 

Cassandra, if you don't know, was a prophet of doom that no one believed. (It was basically because the god Apollo wanted her for a sexual conquest, but she turned him down.)  So now if someone is called a Cassandra, that means that they're prophesying doom but not getting much traction with the general populace.

This NY Times article is a bit Cassandrish.

We Need to Rethink How to Adapt to the Climate Crisis

"This propensity to rebuild in ways we know are not safe must change. What if Fort Myers Beach had prepared not just for today’s climate threats — preparation that clearly was inadequate for a hurricane like Ian — but also for threats decades ahead, when seas will be higher, rainfall more torrential and storms rapidly intensifying in unpredictable ways? That’s the question scientists and innovative leaders should be training their sights on, in Florida and elsewhere."

So, is anyone who needs to listen to this hearing it?  Is anybody that matters paying attention.

I fear that no one is.  Especially in Florida.

 

Cassandra tried to warn her father (the king) and the rest of the Trojans that there were Greeks in that horse.  But nobody listened to her.

How did he get so much ammunition?

 

As I write this, there have been several mass shootings since the one that this post is about.  And somehow in this mass shooting only two people were killed other than the 19-year old who carried it out.

But he could have killed a lot more.  He had over 600 rounds of ammunition.

How does someone get that much ammunition -- especially a 19-year old kid?

Something is definitely wrong in this country. 

PICTURED: St Louis school shooter who was armed with AR-15 and 600 ROUNDS of ammunition before he killed student, 16, and teacher - and left chilling note describing himself as a loner

Really? 

Yes, a real reason to cool things off

 

There are many, many reasons to advocate for addressing climate change/global warming, which I do.  At the top of the list is the endangerment of cold-climate organisms and ecosystems.

And at the top of that list is penguins.  Antarctica may seem resistant to the warming climate, but it really isn't, and the lifestyle of those accustomed to its harshness can actually be threatened if the climate becomes less harsh.

Climate change threatens emperor penguins with extinction, officials say

"While sea ice around Antarctica has proved more durable than ice near the North Pole, nearly all emperor penguin colonies in the southern continent would be pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of the century without dramatic cuts to global greenhouse gas emissions, scientists projected last year."

 

Lighthouse of the Week, November 20-26, 2022: Rozewie, Poland

I've only featured one other lighthouse in Poland before this one, and it has a few more, given that it has a good amount of Baltic Sea coastline between Kaliningrad and Germany.  

As you'll see, this one has an interesting architectural history.  But first, see where it is.  It's located north of Gdynia and next to a monument to Stefan Zeromski. 

But enough about him, let's learn about the lighthouse from the Lighthouse Directory.

"1822 (twice heightened). Active; focal plane 83 m (272 ft); white flash every 3 s. 32 m (105 ft) round tower, lower half concrete-clad (stone?) with a gallery at the top, upper half a tapered 2-stage steel tower with lantern and two more galleries. Lower half of tower is unpainted, upper half painted red. ...

This unusual lighthouse was actually built in three stages. The original tower, now clad in concrete, was about 18 m (60 ft) tall. In 1910, when trees had grown tall enough to obscure the light, a 5 m (17 ft) conical steel tower was added atop the old tower, raising the height to 24 m (79 ft). ...

In 1978, when even more height was required, the tower was extended a second time with a cylindrical steel section. The lighthouse marks Cape Rozewie, the northernmost point of Poland and the western entrance to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The lower section of the lighthouse houses a lighthouse museum with exhibits on all the Polish lighthouses; among the exhibits are the Fresnel lens from Stilo and the lantern from the former German lightship Adlergrund."

That might be a fun place to visit, but I don't expect to have the chance.

So I'll just look at the pictures.

I don't hate conservatives. But I don't like them.

 

This extended post is in reply to a young woman named Amala Ekpunobi, who is associated with Prager University, a very conservative organization.  In my efforts to stay informed in how ideological opponents think, I get email messages from a couple of different conservative orgs.  Some of them drive me absolutely nuts;  I've got some stored up posts that I wanted to reply to, but haven't had the chance.  Some are bit outdated now.

But this one caught my eye a few nights ago, and I composed some very rapid replies to her points.  So here's the whole thing.

First, the video.

Now, my points.

On Abortion: she refers to an unborn embryo/fetus as a "baby", innocent and vulnerable. Says conservatives have "compassion" for the mother. OK, what about a fetus that has no chance of survival? Is it still innocent and vulnerable?  It's going to die, and if born, potentially in pain.  Where does compassion extend -- does it cover the physical burden and mental suffering of forcing a woman to carry a fetus that will not ever be a newborn child, or perhaps delivering a baby that cannot survive, and having to emotionally suffer watching and waiting for the baby to die?

Next: Conservatives are unconvinced about systemic racism. There are "disparities". Good schools would go further. But funding has been based on property taxes, so more wealthy communities will have more money for their school systems. That's systemic. There are more wealthy white communities than wealthy black communities.  That's also systemic. 

Climate change. (Hoo boy.)

Conservatives have "little faith in computer models that have been innacurately predicting disaster". Yet right now, as we discuss this, droughts are severe, extreme rainfall events are increasing, ocean warming and ocean acidification are measurable and happening, extreme heat waves are occurring with increasing frequency, glaciers and Arctic ice caps are melting ... not so inaccurate.  What is disaster, Amala?  

Conservatives have faith in human ingenuity to "overcome climate" (poorly phrased) What is air conditioning? (Really.) A human adaptation to the environment. Which requires energy.

So ... "Nuclear power holds so much promise as a safe and renewable energy source." Wow, we agree!! So where are the conservatives who are actively and vocally pushing for more nuclear power? Nope, they want to pump more oil and gripe about the cancellation of a pipeline carrying oil from the Athabascan tar sands, the most polluting petroleum resource known, and one whose extraction is also profoundly damaging to the environment. Skeptical about environmentalists opposing it, enviros don't want to save the planet, she says they want the government to have more power to control people's lives. [I don't agree. Most environmentalists want environmental legislation to protect the environment and protect against the degradation of natural resources due to exploitation and pollution without regard for either nature or humans. So it comes down to regulations vs. the free unfettered market putting business interests and profits above the well-being of both humans and nature.]

On Guns: "Firearms are regulated in every state." Likely an untrue statement for states with very lenient gun laws, such as the proliferation of concealed carry and unlicensed gun ownership. So conservatives want guns "to protect themselves against the bad guys". This ignores that guns in the home contribute to more gun deaths via domestic violence and suicide, as well as accidents, WHICH INCLUDES disturbed individuals and disturbed youth getting guns and using them for mass killings. So does gun ownership for protection outweigh all of the misuse that isn't about that?  Sorry, I don't think so.

I skipped tolerance. I guess I was feeling a bit intolerant.

On Authoritarianism - she repeats conservative talking points. Want to cut taxes (turns out to be just for the wealthy), reduce regulation (such as environmental protection regulations), make government smaller (which amounts to less regulation, because bureaucracy = agencies = executive branch actions), bolster constitutional freedoms like speech and religion. The latter is a joke because abortion is basically a religious issue, and the Supreme Court appointees in the conservative group (five Catholics and a woman from an ultraconservative Christian sect) clearly prefer a monoreligious society when it comes to the law, the Constitution be (ahem) damned.  Conservativism is dominated by White Protestants, and "prayer in school" is about Christians praying in public schools, not recognizing separation of church and state.  If you don't think so, try putting forth the idea to conservatives that the worshipers of Baal, Allah, and Kali should be able to pray in school, too. 

Finally, her discussion of authoritarianism does not discuss the excesses of the Trump era, including the widespread conservative/GOP denial of the 2020 election results (which can lead to reversal of election results in favor of the party in power), and the implementation of laws which reduce voting eligibility and practice, and the newer laws that can allow legislatures to determine or change election results, disregarding the actual vote totals.

So I have a lot of bones to pick with conservatives.  I don't hate them - they're people - but I think some of them are very misguided, and when that misguidedness carried over into questioning the need for and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, the enemyzation of Dr. Fauci and the NIH, and the still ongoing dispute about whether lockdowns and school closures were necessary (perhaps there are families that didn't want their kids coming home with a sniffle that would kill Grandma), I had some heated arguments with a few.  Not to mention my ongoing battles with misguided and mistaken climate change deniers.   

It's not hate to have a strong dislike for someone's (or a group's) philosophy and positions.  But I can definitely think that on a lot of issues, they are clearly wrong, and their wrongness affects my life, my community, and the future of my children.  And I'm not going to be happy about that. 

Are you less bugged?

 

There seems to be a basic declining trend in bugs of all kinds around the world. And one of the indicators of this disturbing trend, which has ecosystemic implications, is less bugs on automobile windshields. 

Wait, why are there so few dead bugs on my windshield these days?

This article has text and figures.  Here's some text:

"Bugs are also just harder to measure than more widely tracked animals. Their numbers swing wildly year to year, season to season, even sometimes day to day. And while the overall trend leads inexorably downward, it’s not uncommon for individual studies to show a local insect population rising."

One other factor;  people drive less on rural roads where there are larger insect populations.  So we aren't driving as much where the bugs are.  Decades ago on family vacations, before the interstates were finished, our drives on the highways would result in a plethora of bug guts on the windshield.  

So things have changed, in more ways than one.  It's not all about less bugs, though with less wetlands (especially less swamps, bogs, and eutrophic ponds), there are probably less bugs. 

In the Justice league

 

Victoria Justice has always been a bit of an enigma.  She starred in Victorious (Nickelodeon) about a decade ago, and looking at her IMDb history, she's been working regularly ever since, but not really catching fire (though she was the lead woman's role in the remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where she also snagged a boyfriend that lasted a couple of years). 

She's very, very pretty, but her looks don't have that significant otherness that makes her noticeable and memorable.  Nonetheless, she's very, very pretty.

And this Daily Mail article demonstrates that. 

Victoria Justice shows off her impressive figure in a tiny pale pink bikini while enjoying a spa day in Sin City: 'I think I like waking up in Vegas'

And she's very, very pretty (I may have said that already). 

Pretty girl post - Liydya

 

Another in an occasional series of posts on the glorious girls of Instagram.  This one is dedicated to Liydya (perhaps with a last name of Benjamin), and I don't know much else.  

Other than the basic facts of gorgeousness and hotness.  And living in Australia. And might be in the real estate market. 

https://www.instagram.com/_llyds/

So, let's go with the prettiness (and the gorgeousness and the hotness).

The big (perhaps the biggest) wave

 

When the asteroid that contributed mightily to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs crashed into what we now know as the Yucatan Peninsula, it made a big crater, which was found millions of years later by seismology and hydrology (because the cenotes define part of the rim).   That means that thousands of tons of Earth material got immediately excavated and thrown skyward.

And, now it turns out, it also made a really, really, really big splash.  Which makes sense, but science has to definitively determine that these things happened.

I'm linking below to both a public release article about it and the actual paper.

First global tsunami simulation of the Chicxulub Asteroid Impact 66 million years ago  (this is from NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, because one of their scientists was a co-author)

"The study authors calculated that the initial energy in the tsunami was up to 30,000 times larger than the energy in the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people and is one of the largest tsunamis in the modern record.

“Our study is the first estimate of the global impact of the tsunami generated by the Chicxulub asteroid,” said Vasily Titov, co-author of the study [the scientist from PMEL]. ”The models estimate that virtually all world coastlines experienced catastrophic flooding from that tsunami.”

The Chicxulub Impact Produced a Powerful Global Tsunami  (the actual paper)

"Surf's up, dude."

Just in time for Christmas

 

A couple of weeks ago, archaeologists found the place where Saint Nicolas, who over the centuries morphed into Santa Claus, was actually buried.

Most of his mortal remains aren't there, because in 1087 some enterprising churchpeople absconded with them and took them to Italy.

But where he was buried is in a church that is under a more modern church, in Turkey.

Here's the article about that:

Exact burial spot of St. Nicholas, inspiration for Santa Claus, discovered in Turkish church

It's in Demre, Turkey, which is here.  I actually located the site of the church for my readers.

There are numerous Google Streetview images available;  here's one of the grounds including a statue of St. Nic.   Other images are both outside and inside.

Lighthouse of the Week, November 12-19, 2022: Sidi Bou Saïd, Tunisia

 

You've heard of Carthage, right?  The place that the warrior and conqueror and rock-breaker Hannibal came from?   

Well, presently, Carthage is on the Tunisian coast, officially east of Tunisia and west of Sicily.  And that's where the Sidi Bou Saïd lighthouse is located. 

See where that is here;  zoom out to get the full coastal setting.

When I found this lighthouse, I found out it's the oldest lighthouse in Tunisia.  That came from, where else, the Lighthouse Directory.  And that's where I also acquired the following information:

"1840. Active; focal plane 146 m (479 ft); white flash every 4 s. 12 m (39 ft) round cylindrical tower with lantern and gallery. Tower painted white with a black band at the top; lantern and gallery painted black. ... This lighthouse, Tunisia's oldest, stands atop a high hill at the northern entrance to the Bay of Carthage (now the Bay of Tunis). The hill is called Jebel el-Manar, "Fire Mountain," because fires were built here as long ago as Phoenician times to guide sailors into the bay."

There aren't a lot of pictures of this one in the online world;  here's three.

 

It's not Neuschwanstein

 

Wernigerode Castle in Gernany, which I recently became acquainted with, doesn't have the full Sleeping Beauty effect that Neuschwanstein possesses, but it's still a very good looking castle.

Learn some history and see many more pictures of it here:

Wernigerode Castle in the Harz Mountains of Germany

Now this is NEWS

 

The news:  the return of the Teletubbies.

Teletubbies is BACK! Netflix shares trailer for reboot of cult 90s show ahead of its November debut - with revival set to add to British creator's $170m fortune

In order to distinguish the episodes from the rebooted show from the original show, the four Teletubbies will have the same names, but will be different colors.

(No, not really.  But that sure would consternate the purists and devotees, wouldn't it?)

Apparently now there are also baby Teletubbies (Tiddlytubbies).  I guess I will have to watch now.

How could there ever have been that many?

 

The vastness of the oceans is still hard to comprehend when numbers like those in this article are considered.

And it's pretty important to the future of the oceans to figure out where they went.

The Smallest Catch: Mystery of the disappearing Alaskan snow crabs deepens as it's revealed SEVEN BILLION have disappeared from the Bering Straits in the last four years - and entire industry faces ruin

"Fishermen across the Pacific northwest face financial ruin after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game canceled the state's lucrative snow crab fishing season in the Bering Sea.

The news will also have a huge bearing on the restaurant industry as price increases and shortages become inevitable. Alaska provides 60 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States.

The decision came after an ADF+G study found that billions of snow crabs had disappeared from the region.

Experts are divided on the cause of the disappearance. Some scientists believe the disappearance is related to migration or starvation, both of which would be connected to climate change."

I had to check on the difference between King Crab and Snow Crab.  This picture helped. 

Why are authoritarian leaders appealing?

 

One of the downsides of the democratic process is that it rarely produces the type of leaders that people think of when they think of a LEADER.   For example, this guy is a LEADER:

And leadership isn't exclusively male, of course.  The woman below is also clearly a LEADER.

Clearly, being mounted on a horse with a sword helps that leadership perception.  But moving forward into modern times, why is it that leaders don't emerge readily from the democratic process?

The simplest answer is that to get into a leadership office in politics, it's hard to be bold, because boldness can offend those who don't agree with where a leader is attempting to boldly go.  So politics is the art of compromise, negotiation, deal-making, appealing to ideological opponents, and generally not being offensive.  Leadership makes you a target of the opposition, and even your friends if you don't keep them on your good side.  (Just ask Julius Caesar.)  

This article discusses the problem.

Leaders of democracies increasingly echo Putin in authoritarian tilt

" “The trend we are seeing reflects a disillusionment around the world that the democratic process fails to produce effective, charismatic leaders,” said Nikolas Gvosdev, a professor of national security studies at the U.S. Naval War College. “In country after country, the idea spreads that we need strong leaders who get things done."

So, as we await the final results of the election held two days ago, we might wonder if any LEADERS were selected, and who they are.  Because the USA needs leaders, not autocrats.  Where have all our leaders gone?

(By the way, the top statue is El Cid, and the bottom one is Joan of Arc.)

 

A strong piece on extreme weather disasters

 

This is by Gabrielle Canon, from a newsletter.  And it deserves wider readership, so that's what I'm trying to give it.

Extreme weather disasters are on the rise – and it’s no coincidence

In a historic and deadly storm surge, the system known as Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc in Cuba and along the south-east coast of the United States last week, as strong winds and rising waters turned communities into piles of debris.

Across the US, large bathtub rings encircling major reservoirs still tell the story of the American west’s catastrophic drought, believed by scientists to be the worst in more than 1,000 years. Elsewhere, across millions of acres, spiny skeleton trees pierce ashen air over once-lush mountainsides, the aftermath of ferocious wildfires that left little in their wake.

Disasters are on the rise – and it’s no coincidence. They are connected, oftentimes caused by two sides of the same hydrological coin. Compounding extreme events are testing humanity’s resilience and capacity to respond and adapt, layering both chaos and catastrophe. Climate scientists have cautioned that this is just a taste of what’s to come as the world warms.

My name is Gabrielle Canon and I am the Guardian’s new extreme weather correspondent. Based in California, I focus on the American west, telling stories that highlight the human and environmental toll of the climate crisis that is already unfolding. Extreme weather events here are nothing new, but they are growing more intense, more frequent, and more disastrous, fuelled by the rising global temperature.

An escalation in events like forest fires, drought, and last week's storm are "all extremely consistent with our baseline well-understood expectations of climate change”, Dr Karen McKinnon, a climate scientist and professor at University of California, Los Angeles tells me. As the atmosphere warms, she explains, it holds on to more moisture. It sucks the moisture out of dry landscapes and sets the stage for stronger storms. The drought spurs more disastrous wildfires and, when and where the coin flips, the floods begin.

“The most basic influence of us putting more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is temperatures warming,” McKinnon says. “We can pretty confidently say going forward that these types of events are just going to be more likely because temperatures keep going up and up.”

Steve Ostoja, director of the USDA California Climate Hub, puts it more starkly: “It’s just kind of like the analogy of the frog in the slow-to-boil pot of water.”

Scientists are also learning about how the events can influence one another, escalating the intensity. Even if we put our thirsty atmosphere aside, heat bakes more moisture out of environments just as people, animals and ecosystems require more to adjust to the conditions. But drought, too, increases heat: water cools, and with less of it, landscapes cook. Parched plants are then primed to burn – and when these conditions align, ignitions are more likely to turn into infernos.

Compounding catastrophes, or the layering of disasters like drought, floods and fires that overlap, are already testing the capacity of the United States’s resilience and straining resources. As they become more likely, agencies are struggling to keep pace.

“The field of emergency management is at a pivotal moment in its history,” Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) administrator Deanne Criswell said during a hearing of the House of Representatives’s homeland security subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and recovery. The agency is managing more than triple the amount of disasters this year as it did a decade ago.

Last year, the US spent an alarming $145bn on natural disasters – the third highest amount on record – and grappled with 20 extreme events that cost more than $1bn each, close to triple the average since 1980. Fema is already bracing for an escalation in need this year and for the ones that follow, requesting $19.7bn for its 2023 disaster relief fund.

Yet, still, the weather whiplash that causes extreme events is only going to increase as the world warms.

“It is going to continue to get hotter,” said Andrew Hoell, a meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s physical sciences laboratory, noting that rising temperatures are unequivocally linked to human activities. “That is going to be a gamechanger in terms of how we live.”

Seen this, but not like this

 

New York's Taughannock Falls, in the autumn.  I've been there in the summer, but never in the glory of the fall colors.  Admittedly, these may be enhanced a bit by photographic effects (maybe/maybe not), but it's still quite amazing.

Yet another argument for gun control

 

The sad litany of tragicness repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats and ...

Georgia high school football star, 18, is shot dead in mall parking lot while on a date with his girlfriend: Two teenagers, aged 18 and 19, are arrested as cops investigate motive

Not sure how they got the gun, but if guns were banned from being carried by individuals under the age of 21, that would have potentially influenced the course of events. 

I must also mention;  the football player that was shot and killed was almost impossibly good-looking; male model level.   So that's another loss caused by gun violence.

Lighthouse of the Week, November 6-12, 2022: Faro Isla del Morro, Colombia

 

I've featured a couple of Colombian lighthouses before, but not a lot of them, so this post returns to northern South America.  The lighthouse this week is picturesquely situated on a prominent rock off the coast named Isla del Morro, adjacent to the city of Santa Marta, so this lighthouse can also be found as the "Santa Marta lighthouse".  But Isla del Morro is where it's at.

And that's here.

A bit of history;  Santa Marta is the first Spanish settlement in Colombia. It's up (east) on the Caribbean Sea coast from Cartagena and Barranquilla.  There's a nice beach nearby called the Playa Blanca, looking like a much smaller version of the Rio de Janeiro beaches.

So, about the lighthouse:

"1971 (station established 1870). Active; focal plane 82 m (269 ft); three white flashes every 15 s. 23 m (75 ft) hexagonal tower on a 2-story square base; the lighthouse is built of cement blocks with a frame of reinforced concrete. Lighthouse painted gray with white trim; the lantern has red and white vertical striping." (Excerpted from the Lighthouse Directory.)

Apparently the red and white striping was a recent paint job, because you can see a picture without that the color scheme below, too. 

 

 

More bad weather news (due to climate change)

 

Climate change and its effects are, well, global.  This event occurred in Venezuela in October.

Landslides Leave at Least 35 Dead, and Dozens Missing in Venezuela

"The rains began late Saturday afternoon, and intensified throughout the night. Overflowing streams carried away trees and electricity poles, and damaged homes and businesses. Cellphone service, already spotty in the region, was almost wiped out by the storm.

This is ordinarily Venezuela’s rainy season, but it has been especially bad this year.

“The effects of the climate crisis are causing this tragedy,” Ms. Rodríguez said.

Of course. Too bad so many Republican voters in the United States don't get it.

Great run

 

This happened a couple of weeks ago, but it's worth noting.  The USA might not have world-record-setting (or holding) women's marathon runners, but they're good.

Emily Sisson smashes American marathon record by 43 seconds in Chicago

"Conditions on the Chicago Marathon’s relatively flat course were ideal Sunday [October 9], with Sisson — who won the 10,000 at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials last summer — finishing second to Ruth Chepng’etich. The Kenyan repeated as the Chicago champion with a time of 2:14:18, 14 seconds off the world record set by Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei in the 2019 Chicago Marathon.

Sisson finished in 2:18:29, taking 43 seconds off the American record set by Keira D’Amato in January in Houston."

We take lasers for granted. Once, they were incredible.

 

Lasers are very commonplace.  Even though the era of the CD is ending, lasers made and read them. Lasers scan bar codes at the grocery store.  Lasers are used to mark straight lines on walls, instead of a string infused with chalk.  Lasers are in little pointers that can be used for lectures, and also to endanger aircraft when directed at airplane cockpits (not a recommended use). Lasers are used for surgery, especially eye surgery.  Lasers might be the key to nuclear fusion power.  They're used for cutting and welding and drilling.  Lasers are used to measure distance from a satellite to the ground, or ocean, or ice surface. Lasers are used to measure the speed of chemical reactions.  Lasers are used to measure precise distances. 

So yes, lasers are commonplace, so commonplace that we take them for granted in our daily lives.

Once (and in my lifetime), it wasn't that way.  They were new, exciting, "dangerous", and incredible inventions, when very few of the applications described above were even envisioned.

This article describes when and how they were invented.

Laser Fest - Early History

Did you ever wonder what "sic" means?

 

I don't know if you've seen it or not, but if there's a misspelling in a quote or excerpt that's used in another piece, editing practice is to put "sic" after it.   

Example: 

"They decided to take a chance and trust to lick [sic]" 

There are very few places where "lick" would be correct.

So what does it mean?   The simple definition is "thus", but the real long-worded meaning is "intentionally so written".  

More about that here:

Showing Off Your [Sic] Moves

Nature Conservancy's 2022 photo contest winners

 

I have a considerable backlog of photo contest articles in my archives.  I may, eventually, or perhaps not, go back and pull some of them out of the files and post them here.   I am usually alerted to the results via the Daily Mail, and this is one of those cases.

From dramatic lightning strikes to eye-opening jungle deforestation: The extraordinary winning images in a prestigious nature photo contest

Here is the actual site from which the pictures in the article were acquired:

The Nature Conservancy 2022 Photo Contest 

There are a lot of good pictures, because this one from Iceland by Ivan Pedretti was only an Honorable Mention in the Landscape category.

My bros

 

It's great that they're committed and eager.  I just wish they were more influential.

These ‘nuclear bros’ say they know how to solve climate change

Meet the internet subculture obsessed with nuclear power — and proud of it

A quote:

"Armond Cohen, the co-founder and president of the environmental group Clean Air Task Force, says he was once opposed to nuclear. But now, he says, “We’re just staggered by the size of the energy system and the pace at which we have to replace fossil fuels.” Nuclear, he argues, has three benefits: Its power doesn’t fluctuate, like solar and wind; it has a small land footprint; and it can be scaled up dramatically over a period of decades. Many modeling studies find that the world’s electricity could be powered by around 70 to 80 percent renewable energy, like solar and wind, but that nuclear could help support the grid [and] fill the remaining gaps after that."

 

Water under the ice discovered

 

If this hasn't been seen before, it's possible to think that it's not unusual.  When ice freezes on a lake or the ocean, there's water underneath it, right?

Usually.  But this is different.  It's on Mars, and the water appears to be under the ice that is frozen on both poles.  For a long time it was thought that the ice was solid, because Mars is cold.  The new research indicates that there might be some liquid water down there, too.

Don't get too excited, it's probably not drinkable.  But having water there is significant, because it adds more data to the pretty-much-proven concept that Mars had a lot more water once, on the surface, and that might have made the place hospitable to life.   A long time ago.

New evidence for liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars

" “The combination of the new topographic evidence, our computer model results, and the radar data make it much more likely that at least one area of subglacial liquid water exists on Mars today, and that Mars must still be geothermally active in order to keep the water beneath the ice cap liquid,” said Professor Neil Arnold from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, who led the research."

Lighthouse of the Week, October 30 - November 5, 2022: William Livingstone Memorial, Michigan

 

So, continuing and catching up, this is the second Michigan lighthouse, which gets back on the right week of the calendar.

This is definitely a non-traditional lighthouse, and as you can deduce from the name, it's also a memorial.  It's located in Detroit, on Belle Isle in the Detroit River.  This time, strangely enough, instead of like the previous lighthouse where Canada was located to the north, in this case, Canada is actually to the south.

See what I mean by that.

Now let's find out more about this one, again from the Lighthouse Directory.

"1930 (Gaza Moroti). Active; focal plane 58 ft (17.5 m); white light occulting every 4 s, day and night. 50 ft (15 m) square fluted white marble tower, unpainted, with black lantern but no gallery. ... The only marble lighthouse in the U.S., this tower was built with private funds as a memorial to William Livingstone, president of the Lakes Carriers Association from 1902 until his death in 1925. Although it is not officially a leading light this light is aligned with the entrance to the Detroit River for southbound ships."

Lighthouse Friends page on the Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse

A short video:

And pictures:

Lighthouse of the Week, October 23-29, 2022: Spectacle Reef, Michigan

 

If you're looking at this post and noticing that it fell into the November blog post listing, you're right, I've fallen a bit behind.  I'm going to remedy that right now with two back-to-back Lighthouse of the Week posts, and then I'm going to do some catching up because my busy October put me behind my one post a day schedule, which makes me proud.  Not all my posts are masterpieces (or even artistic), but I try to keep abreast of current events, as well as top notch bosoms.  As anybody perusing this blog could determine for themselves.

I'm also going to feature two lighthouses from the state of Michigan.  This first one stands fairly close to Canada, near the Straits of Mackinac.  If you're not sure where that is, click right on this line.

Because it's way off the coast of anywhere, I don't expect that there's a lot of pictures of it (I'm making this up as I write), so we'll find out.

But first, let the Lighthouse Directory tell us some facts about it.

"1874 (O.M. Poe). Active; focal plane 86 ft (26 m); red flash every 5 s. 93 ft (28.5 m) round limestone tower with lantern and gallery, incorporating keeper's house, mounted on a square limestone crib and attached to 1-story limestone fog signal building; solar-powered lens. Tower unpainted; lantern roof painted red. The original 2nd order Fresnel lens, removed in 1982, is on display at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio."

The rest of the history involves who bought and sold it after it was put up for auction.

But this How Stuff Works page tells some more history, and discusses how dangerous the reef that the lighthouse marks was considered.

And here's a page just about this one lighthouse:  Spectacle Reef Light Station

And I'm providing an extended video about preserving it:

So, let's see what pictures can be found.  I added a historical one from 1891.

This is what denial, distrust, and disobedience result in

 

Not unexpected, but unfortunate.  You'd think that Republicans would learn not to lie to their constituents.

They haven't yet.

Note that the source of this story is the conservative rag, er, newspaper, the Washington Examiner.

Republicans had higher death rate than Democrats during pandemic: Study

"For much of the early phase of the pandemic, voters from the two parties endured a somewhat comparable excess death rate, with Republicans sustaining about 22% higher excess deaths. However, when the pandemic shifted into the vaccine phase, a much more drastic dichotomy between the two parties emerged, with Republicans sustaining 76% more excess deaths than Democrats, the study found.

"Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points (pp), or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats," the study said. "The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available."

Based on this, I wouldn't wish death on anyone.  But there are a few in my circle of acquaintances that I wish had felt its brush. 

 

Lake ice thickness and duration related to climate change (of course)

 

One of the lesser-publicized dangers of global warming in northern climes:

Thin ice.

Don't crack: Deteriorating safety on frozen lakes in a warming world

"The conclusion of the study is straightforward, namely that global warming will make lake ice much less safe. This is likely to affect indigenous communities in the Arctic as well as regional economies, where people rely on ice roads as a means for fast and comparatively cheap transportation and supply during winter. Thinning future ice-conditions also threatens unique lake ecosystems that have adapted to recurring frozen lake conditions over tens of thousands of years.

"Our results demonstrate that the duration of safe ice over the next 80 years will shorten by 2-3 weeks depending on the future warming level. In regions where lakes are used as ice roads to transport heavy goods and supplies, the number of days with safe ice conditions will decline by more than 90%, even for a moderate warming of 1.5°C above early 20th Century conditions," says Dr. Lei Huang, corresponding author of the study and former postdoctoral researcher at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP), in Busan, South Korea."