Venus pops off

 

Looking back at images from the Magellan mission, which scanned Venus with radar (because it has very thick clouds, if you didn't know), scientists have apparently discovered where an eruption took place.

Venus has lots and lots and lots of volcanoes -- 85,000+, at last count -- so it isn't a BIG surprise that one of them showed some activity.

Active volcano spotted on Venus. The planet's not dead yet.

Caption:  Altitude data for the Maat and Ozza Mons region on the Venus surface is shown at left, with the area of study indicated by the black box. At right are the before (A) and after (B) Magellan observations of the expanded vent on Maat Mons, with possible new lava flows after an eruptive event. (Image credit: Altitude data for the Maat and Ozza Mons region on the Venus surface is shown at left, with the area of study indicated by the black box. At right are the before (A) and after (B) Magellan observations of the expanded vent on Maat Mons, with possible new lava flows after an eruptive event.)

Completely out of touch

 

He has since tried to reel this fat fish back in, but Governor Ron DeSantis demonstrated maximum foreign policy ignorance with this statement.

DeSantis dismisses Russian invasion of Ukraine as a ‘territorial dispute’

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is dismissing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” and says protecting the European nation is not a vital U.S. interest, firmly putting the potential presidential candidate on the side of Donald Trump and at odds with top congressional Republicans."

DeSantis is pandering to the GOP that doesn't think we should be in Ukraine, but his statements since show that he's trying to keep both sides confused while he turns Florida into Hungary.

He's out of his depth -- and is on a lot of other issues, too.

So here's some commentary reinforcing that.

DeSantis joins the pro-Putin MAGA crowd

"His [that would be DeSantis] implicit agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine has no right to territorial integrity contradicts the view of 140 United Nations member countries and gives oxygen to the Russian propaganda effort."

Ridiculousness at TownHall

 

TownHall is an opinion website for the right-wing of the political spectrum. The pretty far right wing.  It provides insight into the mindset and mind-bending scariness of how the right wing is thinking -- which is why I occasionally read an article from it.

So ...

I found this article.  And I blasted out a response, even though it's taken a bit of time to get around to posting it.

America's Reichstag Moment

"Why were the same actions not performed a few days earlier, when everyone knew that then-President Trump was going to hold a large rally and that many of those present would probably go to the Capitol where election certification was taking place in a joint session of Congress? As I said before, for all of the information we do have available, we are still not privy to the thoughts and discussions of key players like Nancy Pelosi and the head of the Capitol police force. But what if Democratic leadership had wanted some destruction and even some bloodshed? I have no evidence to suggest that they did ..."

Of course he doesn't. He's just one of the Republican rabble trying to play down the fact that the President of the United States tried to overthrow the American government. And the gullible readers of TownHall eat this stuff up.

"Had the January 6th riot actually been what Democrats and the media have been trying to sell—namely, a deadly attack on members of Congress and the police,"

They aren't trying to "sell" anything -- that's what it was.

"So why didn’t it work? Because the Trump supporters who entered the Capitol brought no weapons and only wanted to express their disbelief in the 2020 presidential election."

No, they wanted to stop the vote counting process and the certification of the election.

And that stuff about the weapons? Not true. https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/06/15/fact-check-were-firearms-other-weapons-capitol-jan-6/7621149001/

"Court documents, video evidence and news coverage directly contradict this characterization. Several rioters had firearms and dozens more wielded knives, bats and other real and makeshift weapons.

PolitiFact reviewed the case files for hundreds of defendants who were arrested and charged for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and found several defendants who police say were found to have brought firearms. Some were charged with having firearms on Capitol grounds while others stashed them nearby:"

"The Democrats continued with a fictitious narrative of violent insurrection, surrounded a Capitol that faced no further threat and set up their Potemkin committee that edited videos in their favor and brought on a TV producer to make their hearings prime time slick."

So, this propaganda is the Goebbels method, if you want to make Nazi comparisons: keep telling the people a lie, over and over and over, and they'll believe it. 

And that's what TownHall does.

I missed this mission

 

Just found out about an interesting NASA mission that's in orbit now, and I completely missed when it launched.

It's called IXPE, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer.  It launched in December 2021, when COVID-19 was in full rage.  NASA deserves some credit for getting it launched when everybody was worried about getting infected.

So it began science operations in January 2022.

I found out about IXPE because I came across this recent article.

NASA finds new information from star that exploded more than 450 years ago

"The process by which a supernova remnant becomes a giant particle accelerator involves a delicate dance between order and chaos," Patrick Slane, senior astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a statement. "Strong and turbulent magnetic fields are required, but IXPE is showing us that there is a large-scale uniformity, or coherence, involved as well, extending right down to the sites where the acceleration is taking place."

Here's what IXPE looks like:

 

Lighthouse of the Week, March 26 - April 1, 2023: Gjiri Sarandës, Albania

 

Small in stature and light on details, this is the first Albanian lighthouse I've featured.  The story, such as it is, is below.   At least I can show you where it is.  It's basically across the Adriatic Sea from the bootheel of Italy, which happens to be a place called the Strait of Otranto.

The short entry from the Lighthouse Directory is below.

"2010. Active; focal plane 215 m (705 ft); three white flashes every 30 s. 8 m (26 ft) round cylindrical rubblestone tower with an aluminum lantern. ... Located on the heights above Sarandë (Saranda), a port and tourist center facing the north end of the Greek island of Kérkyra (Corfu)."

And here's what it looks like.  It's so cute.

More on Jenna Ellis, from a left-sided POV

 

The Daily Kos had a post about the Jenna Ellis (dishonest Trump lawyer) admission of committing numerous misrepresentations of the truth, aka lies.  They unloaded, while pointing out that all she got was censure, aka a black mark.  And she can keep on keepin' on with the lies and attacks, which she is doing.

Jenna Ellis admits in court that she recklessly lied about 2020 election. Her punishment is nothing

"In other words, Ellis admitted that she lied, that she did so recklessly, that she did it repeatedly, that she did it for selfish reasons, that it was done in violation of the rules surrounding her role as an attorney, and that it undermined public confidence in the election. That’s quite an admission.

For all this Ellis will get what amounts to a black mark on her permanent record and … that’s it. She remains a practicing attorney “in good standing.” Let that be a lesson to you, attorneys who lie repeatedly in ways that threaten the whole damned nation."

There's more.

"Ellis is, of course, a “Twitter Blue” member so her full response sprawls on at length, explaining how her lie wasn’t really a lie because it was just “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, OR misrepresentation.” Somehow, she believes that does not mean “lie, lie, lie, or lie.”

In any case, she immediately returned to attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, promoting a conspiracy theory that President Joe Biden has brain damage, and making fun of Mitch McConnell’s fall. That’s all spaced out with some bible quotes, because she’s just that Christian."

Republicans.  You can't live with 'em.

Literally.  You can't.  I was hoping to examine the idea of a national split one day, not sure when.  But there are reasons it could be the best way to go.

The El Niño watch is on

 

The SST anomalies off the western coast of South America are pretty high. 

Apparently, the three-year run of La Niña in the equatorial Pacific Ocean is coming to a close, and a lot of people are very interested in seeing if there's a rapid switchover to El Niño, or if the decline of La Niña will result in a long stall in the neutral state. 

Read more in this Washington Post article.

La Niña is over. Scientists eye ‘rapid’ switch to planet-warming El Niño.

"Still, El Niño’s arrival remains uncertain, the climate forecasters stressed. They predict just greater than 50-50 odds of El Niño in late summer, approaching a two-in-three chance by fall. And they note that any predictions made during the spring regarding El Niño or La Niña “are less accurate” because the climate is typically in transition at this time of year."

So, the watch phrase is the classic weather statement of uncertainty:  Weight n' C.

Lighthouse of the Week, March 19-25, 2023: Port Isabel, Texas, USA

 

Looking back in blog history, I did have one picture of this lighthouse before -- on a special Halloween Lighthouse of the Week where this one had a spider climbing up the side of it.   And as I've noted before, Texas, despite having a fairly long coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, doesn't have a lot of lighthouses, though it does have a lot of steel towers with lights on them.  This is the third Texas lighthouse I've featured.

It may be the most famous (or at least most visited) -- it's a Texas state historic site, and can be visited and toured.  It offers a great view of Port Isabel, as you'll see.  Websites about it are common;  I'll list a few.

Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site

Point (Port) Isabel, TX - Lighthouse Friends

Port Isabel Lighthouse SHS, Port Isabel  - Having Fun in the Texas Sun

So, now that I've listed some informational sites, where is the actual site?  In Texas, of course, and very close to the Mexican border, which is where the Rio Grande River enters the Gulf of Mexico. That would be here.  But it's actually not literally on the coast, because South Padre Island constitutes the real coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 

So, what does the Lighthouse Directory provide on this one?

"1853 (John E. Garrey). Reactivated (inactive 1905-2018, now privately maintained and unofficial, though charted as a lighthouse); focal plane 91 ft (28 m); continuous white light. 57 ft (17 m) brick tower, painted white; lantern and gallery black. A replica of the 1-story frame 1855 keeper's quarters (1995) houses a small museum and the city's visitor center. ... The lighthouse reopened in late July 2000 following a major restoration. In 2014 the buildings were repainted and the stairs of the lighthouse repaired. The lighthouse was closed to climbing in October 2016 for restoration and repairs. Various problems caused the planned four-month restoration to extend more than a year, but the work was completed by the end of 2017 and the lighthouse reopened on 2 January 2018. In September 2019 control of the light station was transferred from Texas Parks and Wildlife to the Texas Historical Commission. In 2022 a replica 3rd order Fresnel lens was installed and a lighting ceremony held on December 9. Located on TX 100 at Tarnava Street in Port Isabel, at the west end of the bridge to Padre Island."

So, it's a well-maintained lighthouse worth visiting, if you're ever way down south in the land of Texas.

A bonanza of pictures resides below.

The replica 3rd-order Fresnel lens

A news item I bet never appeared on Fox News

 

Judge for yourself.   Is this Fox News-worthy?

Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis ADMITS to making false claims about 2020 election fraud as she is censured in Colorado for trying to overturn Biden's win

"In a decision released Wednesday, Colorado's top disciplinary judge Bryon Large wrote that Ellis had agreed she made 10 misrepresentations on Twitter and during television appearances during November and December of 2020.

Those misrepresentations included tweets in which she said the 'election was STOLEN' to longer statements saying that there was evidence widespread fraud occurred."

As the headline says, Ellis was censured but didn't lose her license to practice law in Colorado.

She called that a victory.

Parking lot solar is a good idea -- again.

 

Of course I wrote about the idea of parking lot solar panels four or so years ago. ("Now is the time for PLUGS-In").   And I have tweeted noting that it's now a law in France that new parking lots will have to have solar panels.

And now it's in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

How to expand solar power without using precious land

Here's the part from the article about parking lots.  (The numbers are references in the article.)

"The lakes of asphalt that dot our landscape offer another untapped resource that could host solar installations. Photovoltaic panels can act as solar canopies for parking lots, shielding people and cars from sun and rain, reducing the urban heat-island effect, and providing power for our burgeoning fleets of electric vehicles.

Joshua Pearce and systems engineer Swaraj Deshmukh at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, have calculated that if a solar canopy covered every Walmart parking lot in North America, they would have a total peak generating capacity of more than 11 gigawatts (11).

“An average parking lot would make more energy than the store needs and could power 100 vehicle chargers,” Pearce says. These systems would be much more expensive per watt than utility-scale, ground-mounted solar, but potentially closer to the cost of commercially available roof-mounted solar, depending on the materials used for the canopies. They could also be a profitable investment, adds Pearce: “The store could let customers charge for free, encouraging them to spend more time there.” An analysis in Time magazine concluded that covering 50% of all US parking lots would allow for roughly 400- to 800-gigawatt generating capacity, a big chunk of the US government’s 2035 goal of 1,000 gigawatts from solar (12).

Could that happen? In December, France’s national assembly approved a law that would require businesses with large parking lots—a surface area of more than 1,500 square meters—to install solar panels (13). In the United States, such a sweeping policy would likely have long odds, due to the higher costs and objections related to property rights, so the spread of solar parking may hinge on its economic benefits."

Maybe it would be long odds -- but it is such a good idea it should beat those odds.

Well, I guess he's still procreating

 

Impressive.  The age, the accomplishment, and the girlfriend.

Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli is a dad for SIXTH time aged 82 after welcoming a son with 38-year-old former Swedish Playboy model

In addition to the baby, he also gave her an island.

"He gifted Sandra £2.2 million Stora Rullingen isle off the cost of Strängnäs, around 50 miles east of Stockholm."

I didn't remember the girlfriend, Sandra Nilsson, but I should have.  Here's a tame picture from her Playboy appearance.  She was quite acceptably gorgeous.

Certainly procreateable

Pandemic? You're on your own

 

In case you didn't notice this (and given all the other news, I hadn't noticed it either), there have been lots of laws passed recently that make it harder, MUCH harder, for public health officials to take action to limit the spread of a pandemic.

So, stockpile your bouillon and your canned food, because if it gets bad the next time (and sadly, there is very likely to be a next time), we're pretty much on our own.  So get in the bunker.

Covid backlash hobbles public health and future pandemic response

"The movement to curtail public health powers successfully tapped into a populist rejection of pandemic measures following widespread anger and confusion over the government response to covid. Grass-roots-backed candidates ran for county commissions and local health boards on the platform of dismantling health departments’ authority. Republican legislators and attorneys general, religious liberty groups and the legal arms of libertarian think tanks filed lawsuits and wrote new laws modeled after legislation promoted by groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative, corporate-backed influence in statehouses across the country."

(ALEC is a menace to the American public, by the way.)

"The push to dismantle the nation’s public health system was ramping up in the summer of 2020 — months into a widespread shutdown of restaurants, workplaces and schools — when the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, hosted a virtual forum on how state legislatures could curtail governors’ shutdown powers.

On tap were representatives from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as well as a think tank and legal support group.

The message was clear: The government reaction to covid is a threat to individual liberties that must be stopped.

“You have to narrowly define the authorities of the governor and make it very clear to society and to the courts that certain things are to be protected, such as individual and constitutional liberties,” said Jonathon Hauenschild, who had worked on model legislation for ALEC, according to a video recording of the July 2020 forum."

Well, when the next pandemic gets going, I can hope that people that work for ALEC are some of the first to get it.

Who's making methane?

 

Well, it turns out that EMIT (a NASA mission) can find emitters.

Methane emitters, that is.

EMIT is an instrument on the Space Station, ostensibly deployed there to measure mineral dust characteristics in the atmosphere and how the dust might cool or warm up the atmosphere.  

But it also turns out that EMIT is a really good detector of methane.  And that means that the big methane emitters can be found, defined, and potentially mitigated.

"In a span of four months, NASA identified “more than 50 methane ‘super-emitters’ in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Southwestern United States” using an imaging spectrometer aboard the International Space Station."

 But there are different kinds of dust, too.

Remember, more anti-vax Republicans die than Dems

 

There have been many studies showing that, as vaccines became available, there were increasingly more deaths from COVID-19 in Republican enclaves with Republican leaders compared to majority Democrat areas with Democratic political leadership.

The main reason, if you weren't aware of this?  The anti-vax know-nothingness of the Republican leadership led to much lower vaccination rates among the Republican populace compared to where the Democrats lived and led.

This remarkable dichotomy was well-illustrated recently in Florida.

Republican-controlled Florida county with nearly 240K COVID-19 cases bans vaccine

Some quoted excerpts:

A. "Florida’s Lee County Republican Party took a vote and passed its anti-science resolution titled “Ban the Jab.” The measure bans the sale and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and is now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk."

B. “This is the first time that we’ve seen a state government weaponize bad science to spread anti-vaccine disinformation as official policy,” David Gorski, a surgical oncologist, and debunker of anti-vaccine misinformation wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. He added that the move by [Florida Surgeon General] Ladapo was “a dangerous new escalation in anti-vaccine propaganda.”

C. The mostly-white Lee County boasts a population of around 780,000 people. There’ve been nearly 240,000 cases of COVID and 2,550 deaths, The New York Times reports.

So pay attention, those of you out there reading this, who possess rationality;  Ladapo is the kind of gjy that a President DeSantis (perish the thought) would choose for his Cabinet.  And that's very, very bad, because we already had a great demonstration of incompetent and fraudulent Cabinet members in the Trump administration.

Lighthouse of the Week, March 12-18, 2023: Derby Wharf Lighthouse, Massachusetts, USA

 

Here's the Derby Wharf Lighthouse near Salem.  No witches in sight, but the early Pilgrims and other Puritan Massachusetts settlers would have approved of both this lighthouse's color scheme and design. 

Here are a couple of Web sites about it:

New England Lighthouses: Derby Wharf Lighthouse

National Park Service:  Derby Wharf Light Station

"Constructed in 1871 at the end of Derby Wharf, in Salem, Derby Wharf Light Station is one of only five square plan lighthouses in Massachusetts."

Lighthouse Friends:  Derby Wharf, MA

So where is it, other than on the Salem waterfront?  That would be here.

And the Lighthouse Directory tells us:

"1871. Reactivated (inactive 1977-1983; now maintained by the National Park Service); focal plane 25 ft (7.5 m); red flash every 6 s. 14 ft (4 m) square cylindrical brick tower with lantern and gallery, painted white; lantern black. ... This is probably the smallest traditional U.S. lighthouse. There was never a keeper's house for this light; keepers lived in their own houses in town and walked to work."

So here we go with four pictures, including an aerial shot.

by Jeff Folger

Oh MY, Nina

 

The incredible gorgeousness of model Nina Agdal has not been as widely visible as it was a couple of years ago, but in this next article, it is definitely very visible.

'It instantly felt like I had known him for years': Nina Agdal flaunts her incredible figure as she reveals intimate details of how her and new boyfriend Logan Paul met

Below, Nina shows what world-class is made of.

Justice or karma, either way

 

Former senator James Inhofe recently stated that he retired partly due to symptoms of long COVID.

I'm glad he didn't die.  That's it.  Other than that, any amount of suffering and anguish serves him right, considering how much he has undoubtedly caused due to his long career of scientific skepticism in Congress, including opposition to aid for previous COVID sufferers.

GOP Ex-Sen. Inhofe Retired Due To Long COVID After Opposing COVID Aid

"Inhofe voted against multiple coronavirus aid packages meant to help Americans at the height of the pandemic, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act approved overwhelmingly by 90 senators in March 2020, and the American Rescue Plan in March 2021."

 Hope you don't enjoy your retirement, Senator.

Ancient pieces of Ryugu

 

The samples returned by Hayabusa2 from asteroid Ryugu have provided some interesting results.

'Building blocks of life' recovered from asteroid Ryugu are older than the solar system itself

"And according to a second study, also published in Science, the organic materials on Ryugu may even predate the formation of the solar system itself, instead having formed in a primordial cloud of interstellar dust that eventually coalesced into Ryugu's parent body. In other words, many of the ingredients for life may be baked into the solar system from the very start."

Ryugu from Hayabusa2

Great story about an adventurous surfing photographer

 

A Big-Wave Photographer Faces Frigid Water, Sharks and Currents to Get the Shot

"To understand the challenges of the work, imagine swimming around in a cosmic washing machine filled with mortal hazards: icy water, sharks, currents, numerous bodies on 10-foot surfboards jockeying to catch waves that can grow up to 50 feet. As surfers take off at the peak of the wave, Cunningham waits and watches around the impact zone, holding on long enough to get the shot and mindful of the rapidly closing window she has to swim down deep and fast enough to escape the hundreds of tons of water falling on her head. She is often the only photographer swimming in the water at Mavericks, female or not."

Here's her Instagram page of you want lots of great surfing shots.

As an example (from NPR):

OK, I laughed

 

Found this in/on the Daily Mail;  cartoon caricature reimaginings of all the Presidents of the United States.

I will keep this non-political and will not show pictures of any of the Presidents subsequent to 1960.

Every US president as a Pixar character: Baseball writer uses AI to generate America's 46 leaders as cartoon characters

The creator, Dan Szymborski, a baseball writer, has a Twitter thread about what he did, and how he did it.

Teddy Roosevelt as a teddy bear

Martin van Buren (from Twitter)

Why gun control laws don't get passed in Congress

 

What the filibuster does to Congress, with the specific subject being gun control.

Our system doesn’t act even when we agree. That’s killing us.

"The Senate filibuster, requiring 60 votes on most issues, enhances the power of a minority to veto majority opinion. After the 2012 slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Senate voted 54 to 46 in favor of an amendment on background checks crafted by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), hardly a liberal duo. Those 54 senators, representing 63 percent of the population, were not enough to overcome an opposition speaking for just 37 percent of the nation. It’s hard to find a starker example of how the Senate vastly overrepresents the attitudes of rural states."

If we can Remember the Alamo,  we can remember the victims of gun violence.  And somehow, eventually, stop the madness of gun rights in America. 

 

That thing about Fox News

 

Put simply, I detest Fox News. It is the single most malevolent force misleading, misinforming, and actually MISTREATING its viewing audience in the United States. 

Over the past few weeks, we have learned how truly and badly Fox News -- particularly its front-line personalities -- misleads its audience.  For the sake of ratings, they lie, they repeatedly lie, to the audience. They tell the audience mistruths even though they don't themselves believe them;  even more importantly, they tell the audience mistruths that they themselves know are not true.

Politics, climate change, social issues, arts and theater, education;  you name it, they lie about it.

And when they don't lie, the audience gets p*ssed off, and looks around for a media outlet that lies more and more outrageously to reinforce the things they already believe.

So, to keep their audience happy, they lie to them.  Over and over and over again.

And that's what political cartoonist Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post showed us.

Fox New's 'big lie'

And for good measure, this is from Nick Anderson.

Surf's up on Mars (at least it was)

 

I'm not sure if you saw this;  if you didn't, one of the reasons I do this little-followed blog is that I might note something that people didn't see.  So if you are someone who accidentally encounters my posts, you'll find out about it too.

So, moving on to the story;  the Mars Rover Curiosity found waves on Mars.

Not actual waves, silly;  there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars now. But there clearly was.  And the water that was there left evidence of waves, fossilized in sediments of an ancient lake.

I know -- cool, right?  I thought so.

NASA rover snaps photos of ancient 'waves' carved into Mars mountainside

"The ripple marks are about 0.5 mile (0.8 kilometer) up Mount Sharp, a mountain made up of a layer cake of rock that records Martian history. The 3-mile-tall (5 km) mountain was once dotted with lakes and streams, making it an intriguing area to search for signs of ancient Martian life, according to the NASA statement."

Lighthouse of the Week, March 5-11, 2023: New Dungeness Lighthouse, Washington, USA

 

I just happened to see this lighthouse, which from some angles has a unbelievable photogenic background, namely Washington's Mount Baker.  That was, in fact, the picture I saw.  While I've been to Sequim, WA, and parts of Olympic National Park, I unfortunately didn't a) have time to see, and b) know about this lighthouse.  So if you're just learning about it reading this, join the club.

As you may already have figured out, it's in Washington State, on the Olympic Peninsula.  Let's zoom in (leaving Sequim on the map for orientation):  Here it is.  It's on the Dungeness Spit, a sea-level-rise threatened sand spit jutting into the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  I have no idea how stable that location is.

It's historical, too:  the Lighthouse Directory has a long entry on it, on this page, where I invite you to read all of it.  Below this link, excerpts from that same long entry.

Lighthouses of the United States:  Western Washington  (That's where all the lighthouses are, as Eastern Washington is inland and all; but the directory does have a page for Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, which are technically east of Western Washington.)

So here are those info excerpts:

"1857. Active (privately maintained); focal plane 67 ft (20 m); white flash every 5 s. 63 ft (19 m; lowered from 100 ft (30.5 m) in 1927) stucco-clad brick tower with lantern and gallery, rising from a 1-story assistant keeper's house; VRB-25 aerobeacon (1998). Buildings painted white with red roofs. 1-1/2 story frame principal keeper's house (1905). The lantern was relocated from the Admiralty Head Light in 1927. The 4th order Fresnel lens installed in 1927 is now on display at the Coast Guard Museum Northwest in Seattle. Brick fog signal building (1927). ... In July 1999 a quick-thinking volunteer used lawn sprinklers to deflect a bursh fire that burned around all sides of the station. In early 2006 the Coast Guard announced plans to deactivate the lighthouse and move the light to a small structure at the end of the spit. Preservationists protested this announcement, and the New Dungeness Light Station Association negotiated an agreement with the Coast Guard to keep the light in the tower under the Association's maintenance. The 250 pound vent ball atop the tower was replaced in December 2011 and in 2015 the lighthouse was repainted by volunteers. Located 1/2 mile (800 m) from the end of a 6 mile (10 km) long sand spit extending into the Strait of Juan de Fuca north of Dungeness. The spit is the major part of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge."

So here are some pictures (there are many available):

Want a monster? Get a woman

 

Thought-provoking article:

Why So Many Mythological Monsters Are Female

"Female monsters represent “the bedtime stories patriarchy tells itself,” reinforcing expectations about women’s bodies and behavior, argues journalist and critic Jess Zimmerman in Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology. In this essay collection, newly published by Beacon Press, she reexamines the monsters of antiquity through a feminist lens. “Women have been monsters, and monsters have been women, in centuries’ worth of stories,” she notes in the book, “because stories are a way to encode these expectations and pass them on.” "

Later on in the article, we learn that Medusa was initially portrayed as hideous, but has evolved into something much more sexier (see below, courtesy of VMR photos on DeviantArt).  The problem with that is -- if you want to make love to her, you have to keep your eyes closed the whole time. Because if you don't, everything's going to be rock hard, not just ... well, you know.

Yes, there was a battle here

 

I understand there are places in the World War I theaters of battle in Europe where there is a lot of unexploded ordinance, and it isn't safe to walk in certain places.  

But where the Civil War took place in the United States, it's pretty safe,

Nonetheless, every now and then they find something indicating where the battles took place.  Usually it's something small, like a Minié ball (bullet) or uniform buttons or a piece of a gun, or soldier's equipment.

Just recently, at the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania, they found something bigger.

Civil War artillery shell found on Gettysburg battlefield

Prudently, they didn't put the shell on display, and they blew it up.  Even though it was discovered by a metal detector wielded by a pro archaeologist, it shows it's still possible to find these things.  So be careful out there.

Ocean moments to watch in 2023

 

This is from the World Resources Institute.

5 Ocean Moments to Watch in 2023

Here's the list; read the article to learn more.  The first one just took place; I'll have to do a follow-up to see what happened (if anything).  The last one is the most intriguing from a scientific perspective.

1) Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty Negotiations (Feb. 20 – March 3, New York)

2) A Focus on Marine Tourism and Pollution at Our Ocean Conference (March 2-3, Panama)

3) Advancement of Deep-Sea Mining Regulations

4) Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights

5) Recognition of the Ocean as a Fundamental Climate Component

"It is hoped that the second dialogue and COP28 in Dubai will continue to highlight the ocean as a fundamental component of the climate system. More than that, these discussions must seek to integrate ocean-based climate actions into countries’ climate goals, as research shows that ocean-based climate solutions can deliver up to 21% of the annual greenhouse gas emission cuts needed in 2050 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). Given this potential, it is essential that the ocean is recognized as a key part of decision-making at COP28."

Have some anolini

 

Sure looks good to me.

Do you know your pasta shapes?

"Welcome to Emilia Romagna, a region known for wide ribbon pasta like tagliatelle, but more so for its pasta ripiena (stuffed pasta), like lasagne, and its pasta in brodo (in broth). Why not try both pasta ripiena and pasta in brodo at once? Anolini–stuffed, ring-shaped pasta swimming in brodo in terza (savory broth made from capon, beef, and hen)–have origins dating back to the 12th century, when their elaborate preparation made them fare for the noble classes. Good news–even humble folk like us can enjoy anolini today, particularly during the winter holidays. Different versions of anolini crop up in Piacenza and Parma, filled with breadcrumbs and cheese or beef stew."

Not just pretty, she's ravishing

 

I occasionally have a "Pretty Girl" post, with pictures of a pretty girl.  In this case, "pretty" does not do justice to the heat this model generates.  So I went with "ravishing".  (I gotta use that in a sonnet, too.)

The model is Dehandré van Tonder.  She's from South Africa;  there's a bit more about her on this page, but the page is kinda messy.

She also has an Instagram page, as one would expect.  I first noticed her in the topless view from the back down below, and that was hard to forget.

She reminds me of the young Salma Hayek, for several reasons, her face and her figure primary among them. (This is not to say that older Salma Hayek is not as hot as young Salma Hayek, because she is, but she's different now than then.)

Returning to Dehandré, let's just watch. 

Lighthouse of the Week, February 26 - March 4, 2023: Ventės Ragas, Lithuania

 

I've had one Lithuanian lighthouse featured before, and let's face it, Lithuania doesn't have a lot of coastline.  So here's another one;  by a quick and unofficial count on the Lighthouse Directory Lithuania page, there's a dozen or so.   This one is no longer a useful lighthouse, but it's still there.

Here's where it is;  it happens to be very close to the little piece of Russian that includes Kaliningrad, which can be seen on the map.

So, speaking of the Lighthouse Directory, let's get some information on it.

"1860 (station established 1837). Active; focal plane 13 m (43 ft); continuous white light. 11 m (36 ft) octagonal brick tower with lantern and gallery, attached by a covered passageway to a 1-1/2 story brick keeper's house. The buildings are unpainted red brick; lantern and gallery painted white. ... The keeper's house is part of an ornithological field station and museum, founded in 1929 and well known among birders. The light no longer has any navigational importance, but it is maintained as a historical symbol."

We now proceed to the pictures.  People are included in the second one for scale.  I think the third one was taken to show the contractors where the electrical connections are. 

 

Pay attention, Daily Mail !

 

The Daily Mail gets the news out, fast, and in volume. So mistakes can happen.

So what's an order of magnitude, anyway?

It's not common to see four zeroes after the comma, unless there's a decimal point, too.

And in this case, the terrible Greek train crash has resulted in charges against the station master -- and because it was a tragedy, this particular tragic event didn't deserve the typo here. I'm sure they were looking for "negligent".