If you live on the coast

 

Important Science paper on hurricane risk.  After Ida, everyone living on the southern East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico coast needs to be aware of this (as do our elected representatives and government employees concerned with natural hazards and disasters).

Increased U.S. coastal hurricane risk under climate change

ABSTRACT

Several pathways for how climate change may influence the U.S. coastal hurricane risk have been proposed, but the physical mechanisms and possible connections between various pathways remain unclear. Here, future projections of hurricane activity (1980–2100), downscaled from multiple climate models using a synthetic hurricane model, show an enhanced hurricane frequency for the Gulf and lower East coast regions. The increase in coastal hurricane frequency is driven primarily by changes in steering flow, which can be attributed to the development of an upper-level cyclonic circulation over the western Atlantic. The latter is part of the baroclinic stationary Rossby waves forced mainly by increased diabatic heating in the eastern tropical Pacific, a robust signal across the multimodel ensemble. Last, these heating changes also play a key role in decreasing wind shear near the U.S. coast, further aggravating coastal hurricane risk enhanced by the physically connected steering flow changes.

Climate change deniers won't like this.

Especially if they live in Florida.

Here's how this increased risk works.

Fig. 6. Schematic illustration of the main mechanisms of coastal hurricane frequency (CHF) changes identified in this study. As the climate warms, an increase in CHF for the U.S. Gulf and lower East coasts is projected to occur and is driven primarily by changes in steering flow. The strengthening upper tropospheric cyclonic circulation above the western Atlantic plays a pivotal role in the steering flow changes. Also, the contrasting upper- and lower-level circulation anomalies reduce the vertical wind shear near the U.S. coastal regions. These changes in circulation can be regarded as a response to the projected increases in diabatic heating and warmer sea surface temperature (SST) over the eastern tropical Pacific, which is a robust signal across the phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) multimodel ensemble.

Who finished last in the NBA?

 

Finishing last in the National Basketball Association (NBA) this year has an upside, as that would mean having the best lottery odds to get the first pick in the draft.

And that, undoubtedly, means drafting Victor Wembanyama. He's a 7-foot-4 player from France who plays and shoots like a guard.  His ceiling (if he doesn't bump his head on it) is really high.

He's wearing number 32, if you hadn't been able to figure that out.

I'm not a big basketball fan, but I pay attention to it, and pay attention to excellence in the sport. Wembanyama is very likely to be an excellent player, with the potential to completely change the fortunes of the downtrodden team that drafts him.

Thus, it is not surprising to see a team attempting to be even more downtrodden to improve their draft position, even if that's not approved of by the league.

Dallas Mavericks fined $750,000 for tanking vs Chicago Bulls as NBA brand it 'detrimental' conduct... but rival fans rage at charging billionaire owner Mark Cuban 'pocket change'

Quoting the article:

"In its statement, the league said it found the Mavericks to have demonstrated 'through actions and public statements' the organization's desire to lose the game in order to improve its chances of keeping its first-round pick.

'I know that many of our NBA teams are salivating at the notion that potentially through our lottery that they could get (Wembanyama), so they should all still compete very hard next season,' [NBA Commissioner Adam] Silver said in October."

By the way, the Detroit Pistons had the worst record in the league this season, and the San Antonio Spurs had the second-worst record.

Powerful eruption of Shiveluch

 

Ever since the massive blast from the volcano in Tonga, there hasn't been a lot of other BIG volcanic activity, but Shiveluch volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula recently remedied that with a nice ashy blast in the northern polar regions. 

This SkyNews article has a short video with views from space and on the ground.

Shiveluch volcano eruption in Russia captured by Maxar Technologies satellite images

Here's an impressive view from ground level.

She's pretty and he's fit

 

Lady Amelia Spencer, niece of Princess Diana, recently was married.  She has always been a petite and pretty Lady;  she still is.  Her real-estate salesman husband is also in very good physical shape. I'll bet ... no, I won't go there.

Lady Amelia Spencer is the picture of newlywed bliss as she puts on a loved-up display with husband Greg Mallett on their 'magical' honeymoon in the Maldives

Putting Clarence Thomas in perspective

 

Times have changed, and for the Supreme Court, not for the better.

54 Years Ago, a Supreme Court Justice Was Forced to Quit for Behavior Arguably Less Egregious Than Thomas’s  (The justice was Abe Fortas.)

So, let's see how the New York Times evaluates it.

"The defenses being made on Justice Thomas’s behalf hardly pass the laugh test. It was just, as Justice Thomas put it, “personal hospitality” among close friends? That would be a nice meal at a friend’s home, not an invitation to travel the world like royalty on a plutocrat’s dime. And about that friendship: ProPublica reports that Justice Thomas’s rich benefactor, the real estate developer Harlan Crow, befriended him after he became a justice. It is hard to believe that if Justice Thomas started voting like Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the friendship or the free island hopping would continue.

ProPublica reported that neither Mr. Crow nor his firm has had a case before the court since Justice Thomas joined it. But Justice Thomas and his conservative allies have been catering to the interests of the ultrawealthy for years, from striking down campaign finance limits to making it harder for workers to unionize. Mr. Crow also serves on the board of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, whose website makes clear that it takes a keen interest in cases before the court."

Thomas is probably not self-aware enough to realize the damage he has done and is doing.  He exists in a bubble of power that likely only admits those pieces of information that he wants to know.

It's a shame.  The country deserves far better than this justice, who has become farcical. 

Lighthouse of the Week, April 30 - May 6, 2023: Chicken Rock, Isle of Man

 

This was an easy decision, following up last week's lighthouse on the Calf of Man island with the Chicken Rock lighthouse on Chicken Rock, which is the whole reason for all the lighthouses right here.  The map is very similar to last week, as you might expect, so this time I'll zoom right in close.

The Lighthouse Directory is the source for the information, as usual.

"1875 (David and Thomas Stevenson). Active; focal plane 38 m (125 ft); white flash every 5 s. 44 m (143 ft) tapered round granite tower with lantern and gallery, incorporating keeper's quarters. Tower unpainted, lantern painted black. Twin 300 mm lenses (1999). Fog horn (blast every 60 s). ... Chicken Rock is an isolated bare rock about 2.5 km (1.5 mi) south of Calf of Man; the lighthouse was built when it became clear that the Calf of Man lights were not sufficient to warn ships away from the area. The shore station was originally at Calf of Man but was moved to Port St. Mary in 1886. The interior of the lighthouse was heavily damaged by fire on 23 December 1960, leading to automation of the light in 1961. Located on the rock, swept by the waves; the lowest 10 m (33 ft) of the tower is solid granite."

Here's another site about it with a lot of history:  Northern Lighthouse Board - Chicken Rock

Below are the pictures I found. In the first, Calf of Man is visible behind the lighthouse, with the three lighthouses on Calf of Man just visible to the left.

Some wild new species from the ocean

 

Fun article about 10 new, unusual, and intriguing species discovered in the world's oceans last year.

Ten remarkable new marine species from 2022

This was probably the favorite of several of the very few people that actually read the article.  At least it was my favorite.

Tripaphylus squidwardi Boxshall, Barton, Kirke, Zhu and Johnson, 2022 https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1594406

DESCRIPTION

This worm-shaped parasite is a type of copepod. Copepods are small shrimp like crustaceans that are usually about the size and shape of a sesame seed, but this copepod has evolved a very different shape better suited for its bizarre parasitic lifestyle.

The copepod is named after the Spongebob character Squidward, in reference to its big round head that resembles Squidward’s. It has an elongate body about 2.5 cm in length and it uses its bulbous head to remain firmly embedded in its host, the Australian blackspot shark Carcharhinus coatesi. As a tiny larval stage, this parasite finds a shark and burrows its head into the shark’s throat near the gills and then transforms into an elongate body that remains dangling in the throat of the shark like a parasitic uvula (the dangling structure found in the back of your mouth at the top of your throat). With its head embedded and most of its body hanging free in the throat, it releases its eggs, presumably to exit via the gills rather than the long way out.

Lighthouse of the Week, April 23-29, 2023: Calf of Man Low Light, Isle of Man

 

The Isle of Man is right in the middle of England (it seems, if you look at a map), and it's about the same distance away from Ireland, England, and Scotland, but it's not part of any of them. Except that if you live there you have British citizenship, but your island is a self-governing nation.  It also has a very strange flag.

Because it's right in the middle of the Irish Sea, it also has several lighthouses.  Several of them still work;  the one I'm featuring here doesn't.  Actually, in this one location, there are four lighthouses, three on a small island off of the Isle of Man named Calf of Man, and the fourth on the actual hazard to navigation, Chicken Rock, which I'm contemplating featuring next week.

Here's where it is.  Zoom in to see where it is situated on the Calf of Man. 

The Lighthouse Directory tells us about it.

"1819 (Robert Stevenson). Inactive since 1875. Approx. 15 m (50 ft) round cylindrical stone tower with lantern and gallery, connected by a covered walway to a 2-story stone keeper's house. The keeper's house continued in service until 1912 but is now in poor condition. ... The two 1818 lighthouses were deactivated in favor of the Chicken Rock Light in 1875. Although they are very sturdily built they are now endangered by long abandonment."

Pictures and a video below - the lighthouses are at the end of the video.  Chicken Rock Lighthouse is visible in the distance in the third picture.

There's a Godzilla down there

 

Japanese scientists recently named a seafloor feature after the famed nuclear-powered, plasma-breathing, reptilian monster Godzilla (who arose from the seafloor originally).

So Godzilla does exist - at least geologically.

Godzilla gets a forever home on the seafloor

The world’s largest oceanic core complex is named after the reptilian monster from Japanese science fiction. Parts of the seabed feature were recently christened with the beast’s anatomy.

Here's what the monster Godzilla and the geological Godzilla look like.

This seems like an obvious development

 

Artificial intellligence (AI) is in the news, because it can make fakes look real, and it can create something based on just a few brief descriptive words and phrases.

Which sure seems ideal for porn. The possibilities are manifold and magnitudinous. 

‘Claudia’ offers nude photos for pay. Experts say she’s an AI fake.

It's a brave new world out there. Watch your steps.  But hey, you might be able to find something fake that you'd never find in the world of reality.

I'm glad this worked right

 

Actress Hilary Swank, at age 48, recently gave birth to a healthy pair of twins (which were sired by her husband, in case you were wondering about that). 

At that age, that's not always easy to do.  So I'm happy that it worked out for her. 

Baby joy! Hilary Swank, 48, reveals she has given birth to twins - a boy and a girl - as she shares adorable Instagram snap: 'Posting from pure Heaven'

Thus far, the doubled family has only posted one picture, which is easy to find, so I'll leave to the readers of this post to find.

US NE didn't get much SNOW

 

Very little snow has fallen in the northeastern states of the United States.  That little factoid has been buried  (sorry) by the blizzard (sorry) of news covering the immense amount of snow that fell in parts of the West.

But it should be newsworthy, too.  Because it affects a lot of things;  the growing schedule, seeds sprouting, flowers blooming, water resources, winter recreation, fish spawning, frogs laying eggs, etc.

Inside a historically snowless winter in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

"While weather stations are fewer as one gets away from city centers, the Allegheny Mountains saw the largest snowfall deficits in the eastern United States. According to National Weather Service data, the broad swath of the mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania saw 50 to 100 inches less snow than average.

Elkins, W.Va., was among the mountainous areas that saw historically low snowfall totals. At an elevation of about 2,000 feet, the city had its least snow on record, with just 15.3 inches (the previous record low was 20.9 inches in 1958-1959) compared with an average of 69.6 inches. Elkins has seen seven winters with 100 or more inches of snow since 1900."

You should read the article, because this doesn't have a direct connection to climate change. It's a big swing in natural climate variability.  But climate change can make things more energetic, which can affect weather patterns like this, and so in a broader sense it could be connected to climate change.  But to be sure there has to be a trend, and this was just one very unusual winter.  Both here where it didn't snow and elsewhere, where it snowed a lot.

I didn't skate by this one

 

I haven't paid much attention to Jake Paul.  But that might change (a little), because I think I'm going to pay a bit more attention to his girlfriend during the next winter sports season.

His girlfriend is a champion speed skater.  In the speed skating suit, aerodynamically tight, hooded, with sun/snow goggles, it isn't obvious that the wearer is a very feminine athlete.

But when she's not wearing the suit ...

Burning up the ice! Inside the VERY glamorous life of the 'world's hottest speed skater' - and Jake Paul's new girlfriend - Jetta Leerdam, 24, who has soared to sports stardom with Olympic success... while raking in a fortune as a social media sensation

Her athletic credentials are completely solid -- she's an Olympic silver medalist in the sport.  And her hotness credentials are bona fide, too.  So below, a picture of her in action on the ice, and a couple of pictures demonstrating the warmer side of her life.

BTW, the Daily Mail spelled her name wrong in the headline (which I kept verbatim for authenticity purposes).  It's actually Jutta. 

The view of behind

 

Three examples of this genre.

Antje Utgaard

Julianne Kissinger, aka juliannee

Julia Zu

The depth of Republican nuttiness

 

In the above headline, "nuttiness" is a substitute for some much stronger language that I could use.  This will get more interesting if more serious charges come forth (which I sure hope happens).

Provocative writing from the Washington Post's Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman.

The unhinged GOP defense of Trump is the real ‘test’ for our democracy

"The position implied here is that the price of social peace is absolute impunity for Trump. The insistence that Trump must be kept above the law — no matter his wrongdoing — courses through all these GOP responses. Media accounts should centralize this fact.

 This appalling civic conduct is itself a major story."

(I underlined that last part.)

 

Not many women can wear this

 

Model Izabel Goulart can wear almost anything, and frequently (happily) wears almost nothing.

In this case, she wears something tight and purple.  This wouldn't look good on most women, even most fit and fabulous women.

But she is ridiculously unusual.

Izabel Goulart cuts a racy figure as she goes braless in a skintight purple catsuit at singer Anitta's birthday celebration in Brazil

Wear sunglasses?

 

Astronomers report on the brightest gamma-ray burst observed ever.

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen a 1-in-10,000-years event that's 'absolutely monstrous,' scientists say

 

"An extragalactic outburst whose light hurtled through the inner solar system last fall was 70 times brighter than any other such eruption that scientists have observed, researchers report.

Radiation from the explosion — a gamma-ray burst (GRB) known as GRB 221009A — swept over Earth on Oct. 9, 2022. It saturated gamma-ray detectors on multiple space telescopes, earning the nickname the BOAT, short for "brightest of all time." "

I'm surprised a few of us didn't turn green and get really jacked.

Here's a NASA animation of a gamma-ray burst.

Who needs a metal detector?

 

Previously I've noted the remarkable discoveries of treasure hunters using metal detectors (and sometimes less, like using a snorkel and mask to find a medieval sword underwater).

In this case, Paul Newman's daughter just had to rummage through the drawers of a family chest at home.

Two of Paul Newman's beloved Rolexes found sitting in a desk are expected to fetch millions after chance discovery - timepieces include one he won in famed 24-hour race at Daytona Florida speedway

You can bid on it, too (but like the headline says, be prepared to pay a few mil)

"Its message from his wife [Joanne Woodward] advising him to drive safely is similar to advice inscribed on the backs of two other watches she gave him, which read 'Drive slowly, Joanne' and 'Drive Carefully, Me.' The first sold for $5.5 million at auction, while the second fetched $17.8 million."

 

Troubling article about the imperiled Great Salt Lake

 

Excellent writing by Terry Tempest Williams in the New York Times, on the dire state of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

I Am Haunted by What I Have Seen at Great Salt Lake

Some short excerpts are provided below.

"For 13,000 years, the lake has existed with no outlet to the sea, her large deposits of salt left behind through evaporation. Lately, evaporation from heat and drought accelerated by climate change, combined with overuse of the rivers that feed it, have shrunk the lake’s area by two-thirds. A report out of Brigham Young University and other institutions this year warned that the contraction has been quickening since 2020 and that if we do not take emergency measures immediately, Great Salt Lake will disappear in five years."

 

"Housing developments near Antelope Island and other shores of Great Salt Lake have grown beyond what is sustainable. Each new subdivision needs its own water lines; each home waters a green lawn. Gone are the miles of wetlands and fields bursting with meadowlarks, gone are the tangles of cattails where flocks of red-winged blackbirds rose as a vibrant dark cloud as they banked west to Antelope Island."

"Scientists tell us the lake needs an additional one million acre-feet per year to reverse its decline, increasing average stream flow to about 2.5 million acre-feet per year. A gradual refilling would begin. Two-thirds of the natural flow going into the lake is currently being diverted: 80 percent of that diversion by agriculture, 10 percent by industries and 10 percent by municipalities. Water conservation provides a map for how to live within our means. We can create water banks and budgets where we know how much water we have and how much water we spend. Public and private green turf can be retired. State and federal agencies must turn toward Indigenous leaders for traditional knowledge about watershed restoration and conservation.

But for Great Salt Lake to survive, we need to cut 30 to 50 percent of our water usage."

The heavy snow of the 2022-2023 winter has reportedly provided a short reprieve for the Great Salt Lake.  But if this window of opportunity is not seized, the lake's future is certainly in doubt.

Scenes from a solar storm

 

A couple of weeks ago, there was big (and surprising) solar storm, which caused an outbreak of very strong and pretty auroral displays.

Let's learn more about it.

Strongest solar storm in nearly 6 years slams into Earth catching forecasters by surprise

" "These nearly invisible storms launch much more slowly than eruptive CMEs and are very difficult to observe leaving the sun's surface without specialized training," she said, adding that the stealth CMEs can also be "camouflaged" by other, more dense structures emanating from the sun, which makes them difficult to observe."

This was the auroral view from Utah.

And from upstate New York:

What's the first thing you think?

 

I recently was made aware of the beautiful sculpture of a graceful ballerina that stands on a rock in the waters adjacent to Budva, Montenegro, which is here.

Here's a link to a short article about it, and then a picture.

Sculpture of Dancer (Statue of Gymnast)

With all due respect to its artistic merit, what is the first thing you think when you see this picture?  (It might be a gender-specific thought process.)

Good and sane move

 

I'm a liberal, an LGBTQ rights supporter, appalled at the attack on "wokeness" from the right (a smokescreen for the culture wars they've been engaged in for decades to rile up their dwindling, aging base), and a dedicated critic of the right-wing mudslingers that unfortunately inhabit our halls of government these days.

But I'm also for fairness in sport.  And I know it's not fair when a transgender woman, which is a person that is biologically male but identifying female, competes in an elite, adult sporting competition.  (There are some rare exceptions in the world of sport where both genders are essentially equal, perhaps archery, riflery, and chess.  But in nearly every sport where there is a physical aspect, biological males that have gone through puberty as a male will have an advantage.)

So, I am in favor of this move.

World Athletics votes to ban transgender athletes from women’s events

Lighthouse of the Week, April 15-22, 2023: Hunting Island, South Carolina, USA

 

I skipped a week for the Lighthouse of the Week during my hiatus (which I haven't done very often). So I'm getting back to the schedule at the end of this week.

And for this week, I'm featuring the Hunting Island lighthouse in South Carolina, another two-tone, black-and-white type.  

As I said, it's in South Carolina, located here. I zoomed out a bit so its location can be seen in relation to Hilton Head and Kiawah islands.

This lighthouse has some history, so I'm going to start with what Lighthouse Friends says about that.

"Obviously, the original Hunting Island Lighthouse is no longer standing, but its demise was not due to the advancing ocean but rather to a retreating army. Confederate forces blew up the lighthouse in 1861 to hinder the approach of the Union fleet before the Battle of Port Royal.

At 9:50 p.m. on August 31, 1886, the effects of the Charleston earthquake were felt at the station. It was easy to note the exact time, as the clock in the lighthouse was stopped by the tremor. The first shock, which lasted for about four minutes, was so strong that a bucket that was half full of water on the top landing in the tower was nearly drained. The two assistants atop the tower couldn’t stand up without holding onto something. One assistant was outside on the gallery and was thrown back and forth between the railing and the tower. The station’s chickens were shaken from their perches and ran out of the coop in seemingly great terror."

Next, excerpts from the info provided by the Lighthouse Directory. 

"1875 (station established 1859). Reactivated (inactive 1933-1995, now maintained by the state of South Carolina); focal plane 132 ft (40 m); continuous white light with a more intense flash every 30 s. 136 ft (41 m) round cast iron tower, upper third painted black, lower 2/3 white.

This lighthouse replaced an 1859 tower destroyed during the Civil War. Fears of beach erosion caused the lighthouse to be relocated 1.3 miles (2.2 km) inland in 1889. Rapid beach erosion in the area continues and is threatening the lighthouse again; in September 2014 the Friends of Hunting Island State Park warned that erosion could reach the lighthouse in 5-10 years."

Below I have lots of things;  a video, a StreetView, and pictures.

Language lesson

 

I always wondered about this, so I decided to make sure everybody knew how use these words right.

systematic

1 : relating to or consisting of a system

2 : presented or formulated as a coherent body of ideas or principles 

systematic thought

3 a : methodical in procedure or plan

a systematic approach 

a systematic scholar 

b : marked by thoroughness and regularity

systematic efforts 

4 : of, relating to, or concerned with classification

specifically : TAXONOMIC

systemic

: of, relating to, or common to a system: such as

a : affecting the body generally
systemic diseases 

b : supplying those parts of the body that receive blood through the aorta rather than through the pulmonary artery

c : of, relating to, or being a pesticide that as used is harmless to the plant or higher animal but when absorbed into its sap or bloodstream makes the entire organism toxic to pests (such as an insect or fungus)

d : fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice
systemic poverty

So now you can keep them systematically straight.

Preserving the last of Europe's wildness

 

I was surprised to find out this was the first completely wild river that had been designated as a national park in all of Europe.

‘Historic moment’ for nature as Europe’s first wild river national park announced in Albania

 "The park will encompass the 118 miles of the Vjosa in Albania, three main tributaries, and some land, including areas at risk of flooding. Phase II will add other tributaries. Unlike the IUCN’s Wilderness Protected Areas, which limit the number of visitors, it will allow recreational tourism and some other activities such as local fishing, particularly for 60,000 residents in the catchment."

Wild River

Idaho GOP pushes the limits

 

This is about as Extreme as it can get --

and if we don't stop going in this direction this country is going to be split, like it or not. 

Idaho hospital to stop delivering babies, partly due to ‘political climate’

"The Idaho Republican Party platform — adopted in the summer of 2022, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that allowed states to ban abortion — goes further. It declares that “abortion is murder from the moment of fertilization” and calls for its prevention “regardless of the circumstances of conception, including persons conceived in rape and incest.” The platform says the party supports criminalizing all abortions within the state."

Hiatus

 

I'm taking a break from the blog for a few days of rest, reassessment, and refreshment.

Don't worry (if anyone ever did);  I'll be back.  There are still many things to see, battles to fight, and issues to discuss.

Well, I guess it was safe there

 

National Treasure writers/producers/fans, take note.

A historical and magnificent large painting/mural of George Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River before the attack on Trenton was "rediscovered" -- even though it was kind of known that it was stuck in the basement somewhere.  The artist was George Harding.

Long-lost mural of George Washington found rolled up in a basement

Here's the coolest part:

"As [historian] Millen dug deeper, she learned the painting, measuring nearly 16 feet by 10 feet, was supposed to have been the centerpiece for a new museum at the New Jersey state park, which was scheduled to open for America’s Bicentennial in 1976.

Except Millen never recalled seeing the artwork at the visitor center museum when she volunteered there. “I’m getting old enough where I’m thinking, ‘Was it there and I forgot it was there?’” said the 65-year-old historian.

But Millen hadn’t forgotten. She located an old article that told what had happened: The mural was too big for the new structure, so it was never displayed there. Instead, it was rescued by volunteer conservators as the old opera house was being torn down and then stored at Ringwood State Park in New Jersey, located about 80 miles away on the New York state line.

“I contacted the park and asked if it was still there,” Millen said. “One of the historians went to the basement of a building and found it rolled up next to Christmas decorations, still on the sawhorses where it had been placed in 1971.” "

Can't wait to see it (I hope I get the chance). 

"The Washington Crossing Park Association is raising $60,000 to save the Harding mural, which this time will go in a new visitor center being constructed for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding in 2026."

If you want to contribute to the restoration, go here:

Washington Crossing Park Association

And if you do donate, I salute you.

Lighthouse of the Week, April 2-8, 2023: Needhams Point, Barbados

 

Did you ever want to stay at a tropical Caribbean island resort with a lighthouse (formerly working) on the beachfront?  Well, in Barbados, you can.

This lighthouse is the Needhams Point Lighthouse, which was built in a location that was highly desired for a beachfront resort, south of Bridgetown, Barbados (the main town on the island), which you can see right here.  So when Hilton built the hotel, they bought the lighthouse, renovated and maintained it, and kept it right in front of the beachfront rooms (with the light turned off, obviously).

So, the Lighthouse Directory info is rather short.

"1886 (station established 1855). Inactive, probably since 2005. 13 m (43 ft) octagonal masonry tower with lantern and gallery, painted white, lantern and gallery black. In 2005 Hilton Hotels built a large hotel next to the lighthouse, blocking its light from reaching the sea. Hilton took ownership of the lighthouse and restored and painted its exterior."

Yes, that's true.

Now for pictures.

 

Unexpected consequences of climate change

 

Melting Arctic sea ice could change geopolitical dynamics and national security -- not just for the United States. 

Third world thaw: Melting ice in the Arctic could allow the Chinese navy to confront Nato in the Atlantic within 20 years, defence chiefs warn

"Russian and American submarines routinely operate in the Arctic, and British boats have conducted exercises there.

Western intelligence sources do not believe China has developed the capability to date.

However, Navy chiefs now think a combination of thinning polar ice and advancing Chinese submarine technology could allow Beijing to deploy its huge underwater fleet to the Atlantic within a few years when the conditions are likely to be less challenging."