A hotel in No Country

 

This hotel was a location in a movie.  Big clue in the title of the post.

Keegan!

 

Not much more needs to be said.  

It's Michelle Keegan, and she looks fantastic.

Well, incredible.  That's what the Daily Mail says.

Michelle Keegan looks incredible in an optical illusion jumper and bandeau top as she models her latest Very collection

End of the time for McConnell

 

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post breaks down why the current nutcases in the Republican Party don't like Senator Mitch McConnell much anymore.

2 reasons Republicans are done with McConnell

"Why don’t the Republican rank-and-file have more affection for someone who has done so much for their party? Because in today’s GOP, opposing the party “establishment” is de rigueur — and no one is more establishment than McConnell."

"That was true a decade ago, but it’s even more true today. Trump himself pours a never-ending stream of vitriol on McConnell, who never worked too hard to pretend that he thought highly of Trump as a person or a politician. Immediately after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, McConnell put the blame on the former president. He also lamented the Republican Party’s “candidate quality” problem in 2022, which everyone understood to be code for “We’ve nominated too many Trump-worshiping cranks." He was right on both counts."

"But McConnell’s biggest problem might be that he hasn’t made Biden’s life miserable. Instead, Biden got a great deal of legislation passed in his first two years, some of it bipartisan, and has done a good job filling the judiciary with liberal judges."

"While there has never been a more committed partisan than McConnell, he’s capable of taking a long view, which sometimes means pursuing something other than maximal short-term chaos. He might allow a budget agreement or a bipartisan bill on something such as infrastructure to defuse the perception that his party is extreme and irresponsible, which the MAGA wing will see only as a betrayal. In a party gripped by lunatic conspiracy theories and culture war mania, few see McConnell as the vanguard of opposition to the president."

So that's why.  He's out of step with the times.

And also, these times are really weird.

New old wreck in the Lakes

 

The Great Lakes have numerous shipwrecks, many that have been found, and many that haven't been. This is about one that was just newly found.

‘Remarkable discovery’ as intact 1881 shipwreck found in Wisconsin waters

"The 156-year-old Trinidad vessel was located 270 feet deep near the Algoma coast by members of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association, Brendon Baillod and Bob Jaeck, who used sonar technology to locate the vessel, based on historical records and years of research.
... 

Baillod and Jaeck discovered the Trinidad in July using sonar technology after two years of archival research, studying historical news articles and records as well as shipping lanes and nautical charts to narrow down the search area."

Another article:

Shipwreck hunters discover a schooner's 142-year-old remains in Lake Michigan

This is the deck house of the Trinidad.

Lighthouse of the Week, September 24-30, 2023: Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse, Wisconsin, USA

 

I discovered accidentally that while I had featured two pictures of the Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse here (several years ago - I've been doing this awhile!) I didn't actually feature the Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse as a Lighthouse of the Week, with history, location, and things like that.

So this week I fix that oversight.

There are several pages about this one;  so before I do the history thing, I'll do the location thing (if you're familiar with Wisconsin's Lake Michigan coast, that isn't difficult), and then the various pages, and then the history, and then the pictures.

Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse (Lighthouse Friends)

Sheboygan Breakwater Lighthouse - WI Shipwrecks

History Uncovered: the First Two Sheboygan Lighthouses

And of course, there's the Lighthouse Directory:

"1905 (relocated to present site in 1915) (station established 1900). Active; focal plane 55 ft (17 m); continuous red light. 50 ft (15 m) round steel tower, painted bright red, incorporating a fog signal and surmounted by a navigation beacon; lantern removed. Fog horn (blast every 30 s) on demand. The tower also carries an array of weather instruments as a NOAA National Data Buoy Center C-MAN station. ... The lighthouse was originally on the North Pier as the third light at that site (station established 1873); it was relocated when the breakwater was completed in 1915."

 So it's a lighthouse without a light (but we've seen that a few times before).

Lookers

 

Calvin Klein's 2023 Fall Campaign is worth a look.

Calvin Klein’s Fall 2023 Campaign Stars Kendall Jenner, Blackpink’s Jennie, Alexa Demie and More in Their Calvins

A couple of samples:  Alexa Demie and Jennie

This is sobering

 

This article from The Guardian says that the likelihood of the extinction of emperor penguins in the next few decades is more than a possibility.

And that's really, really, troubling and sad.

I have studied emperor penguins for 30 years. We may witness their demise in our lifetime -- Barbara Wienecke

"Watching the warming-induced changes at the western Antarctic peninsula over the years, as many penguin researchers, I have been concerned about the future. It is important to understand that it does not take the complete loss of sea ice (which may still take decades), but a shortening of the sea ice season, to threaten the emperors’ continued existence.

Untimely break-out events probably happened throughout the history of emperor penguins. Occasional complete breeding failure is devastating for the chicks, but the population is not threatened. Adults will return the following year and will try again to raise a chick. However, frequent catastrophic breeding failure greatly diminish the number of penguins recruiting into the population threatening its long-term survival. Over several years now, the sea ice has formed later in autumn and has not lasted as long as it used to in summer. Recently, several colonies experienced early ice break-outs and consequently huge chick losses. But what happened in the Bellingshausen Sea is unprecedented. Significant chick deaths occurred at multiple colonies in the same region and the same year."

Here are a couple more links about this.

Loss of sea ice causes catastrophic breeding failure for emperor penguins

Emperor penguins may disappear by the end of this century

And they would work in Florida

 

Another bad, stupid, shortsighted move.

Or, just another day in the office for Governor DeSantis.

Ron DeSantis rejects $350 MILLION from Biden for energy-efficient initiatives to make homes more green and to help the poor access solar panels

"The funds he [DeSantis] vetoed included $5 million in federal money to fund administrative expenses associated with a $174 million rebate program for energy-efficient improvements and a $173 million rebate program for energy-efficient home appliance purchases.

DeSantis also rejected a $24 million federal grant that would have been used to upgrade rural waste-water systems."

Now, the article doesn't say that the funding is specifically for solar panels, though the headline does. If that's part of what the funding pays for, it's really dumb to turn it down, because sunny (and hot) Florida is one of the best places in the country to have solar panels on your house -- or in parking lots, as I've advocated before.

I knew he was trouble

 

Years ago, I became acquainted briefly with the beliefs and ambitions of Michael Farris. Though it was a couple of decades ago now, it was clear then he had the potential to be a big source of trouble from the arch-conservative political side.

Now, years later, it turns out that this assessment was pretty accurate. Farris has been operating under the radar (somewhat) on some of the biggest cultural issues currently diving America.

And he seems pretty proud of that.

The Christian home-schooler who made ‘parental rights’ a GOP rallying cry

Some "highlights":

"In recent years, he [Farris] has reached the pinnacle of the conservative legal establishment. From 2017 to 2022, he was the president and chief executive of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a powerhouse Christian legal group that helped draft and defend the restrictive Mississippi abortion law that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. ADF and its allies have filed a flurry of state and federal lawsuits over the past two years alleging that public schools are violating parental and religious rights."

And later on:

"Yet to those who have followed Farris’s career, the adoption of his arguments by so many families unconnected to home schooling is a measure of his success. In the eyes of his critics, he has masterfully imported an extreme religious agenda into the heart of the nation’s politics through the seemingly unobjectionable language of parents’ rights. Some argue that it has always been the goal of the most radical Christian home-schoolers not merely to opt out of the public schools but to transform them, either by diverting their funding or allowing religion back into the classroom.

“Everyone should be aware of Michael Farris and his influence on the Christian right,” said R.L. Stollar, a children’s rights advocate who was home-schooled and has long warned of the conservative home-schooling movement’s political goals. “To Farris’s credit, he is really good at what he does. He is really good at taking these more extreme positions and presenting them as if they are something that would just be based on common sense.”

And finally:

"Farris was approached after the speech by Peter Bohlinger, a Southern California real estate magnate who helps lead Ziklag, a group devoted to expanding Christian influence over American culture and government.

Membership in the organization — named after a town in the Bible that David used to organize raids against enemies of the ancient Israelites — is restricted to people with a net worth of at least $25 million, according to a page on Ziklag’s website that was viewed by The Post but has since been made private. The group envisions schools that welcome prayer and “a conservative, biblical worldview in science, humanities and the arts,” according to a Ziklag document that was among several recordings and other materials obtained by Documented and shared with The Post."

Yes, that's Farris.  And he's trouble.

Bad trouble, not good trouble.

Dolphins swam in ancient seas

 

The Washington Post recently reported on the discovery of a ancient dolphin near Calvert Cliffs (which I'm quite familiar with).

As the title notes, the current cliffs are where an ancient sea once was, and the area is well-noted for an abundance of shark teeth. (I have a couple.) So where there were sharks, it makes sense that dolphins where there, too.

Late at night on a deserted beach, she found a 15 million-year-old fossil

[Fossil hunter Emily] "Bzdyk snapped a photo and quickly sent it to Stephen Groff, an assistant paleontology collection manager at the museum. The fossil, it turned out, was a remarkably intact skull of a 15 million-year-old, now-extinct dolphin-like crature that once swam in a shallow sea that covered most of Maryland.

Groff said the Aug. 5 discovery was like hitting the fossil jackpot.

Rarely are skulls found in such complete condition, and Bzdyk just happened on it at the right moment, while it was exposed but before it was damaged by waves. What’s more, there’s a small possibility that the specimen is from a yet undiscovered species."

Eurhinodelphis is a Miocene dolphin that has been found in the cliffs before.

Lighthouse of the Week, September 18 - 23, 2023: Eddystone Lighthouse and Smeaton's Tower, UK

This is actually two lighthouses. The first used to be next to where the second one is now. That's understandable, right?

Let's show where they are, and then get into how they got there.

Eddystone - Smeaton's Tower 

Eddystone - English Channel 

So, about the one that's in the English Channel (first). It's the fifth one that has been located there. The Lighthouse Directory (as one would expect) has lots of good information.

"1882 (James Douglass). Station established 1698. Active; focal plane 41 m (135 ft); two quick white flashes, separated by 2.5 s, every 10 s. In addition, a red light (5 s on, 5 s off) is shown to the northwest from a tower window at a focal plane of 28 m (93 ft). 51 m (168 ft) round granite tower, incorporating keeper's quarters, with lantern and a helipad built above the lantern. Tower is unpainted gray stone; lantern and helipad painted red. ... This is probably the most famous British lighthouse and indeed one of the most famous lighthouses in the world. The first tower, built of wood, had to be rebuilt one year later and lasted only 4 more years. The third (Rudyerd's Tower), was designed by John Rudyerd and built with alternate courses of oak timbers and granite blocks. Remarkably durable, this tower (the first successful open ocean lighthouse in the world) stood from 1709 until it burned in 1755. The fourth tower was a tapered granite and concrete structure built by John Smeaton. A huge advance in civil engineering, it introduced techniques that became standard in lighthouse construction. Completed in 1759, it stood until cracks in the masonry forced its removal in the 1880s. The upper portion of Smeaton's Tower was rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe (see above) but the base of the original remains next to the current tower. A Fresnel lens was installed in Smeaton's Tower in 1845. The present tower, designed by Sir James Douglass, is built with granite blocks that are interlocked both side to side and above and below, giving the tower exceptional strength. Located on a rock that barely breaks the surface of the sea about 25 km (15 mi) south southwest of Plymouth."

Here are the pictures of the Eddystone light, and a video.

 

So that's the first one. Now, about the rebuilt upper portion that's now in Plymouth, which is called Smeaton's Tower.

"1759 (John Smeaton). Inactive since 1882. 22 m (72 ft) tapered granite tower with lantern and gallery, painted with red and white horizontal bands. The lantern, formerly red, is now painted white. ... Smeaton's Tower was the first successful stone waveswept tower and one of the great engineering marvels of the 18th century. When the current Eddystone lighthouse was built the upper 2/3 of the 1759 tower was saved for reassembly in Plymouth. It was carefully restored and renovated in 2000-02. The 250th anniversary of the lighthouse was celebrated on 17 October 2009."

Three pictures and a painting below; as you can see, it's located in a nice Plymouth coastal park. 

Under the sea, an octopus garden

 

I'm not the first to think of that.

But this really is a terrific discovery -- and a tidy explanation.

Scientists uncover the secret of the deep-sea ‘octopus garden’

Not quicksand - it's fastmud

 

The mud flats of Turnagain Arm in Alaska (adjacent to Anchorage) are no joke.

They can trap unwary (or foolish) hikers, and never let them go.  And drown them.

Shocking video shows how quickly a 5lb rock completely disappears in Alaska mudflats in stark warning to tourists months after Illinois college student Zachary Porter, 20, got stuck in Turnagain Arm and died

• A shocking video demonstrating the power of Alaska's deadly mud flats has gone viral online months after Zachary Porter, 20, drowned at Turnagain Arm
• The alarming footage shows how quickly the black veiny mud flats in Anchorage, Alaska can swallow up a five pound rock
• Porter, a college student from Lake Bluff, Illinois, was visiting the tourist attraction with friends in May when he became stuck in the flats and drowned

The other problem is, if you get stuck (like the unfortunate young man), the tide comes in fast, sometimes with a surfable tidal bore.

About those vaccines

 

Ever wonder why Republicans (a lot more of them than Democrats) don't believe that vaccines work, and even worse, believe that they actually hurt and even kill people -- and do that more than saving people's lives?

So do I.

This helps explain it a bit.

Why do Republicans disproportionately believe health misinformation?

"Respondents to new polling from KFF were presented with a number of statements and asked to evaluate whether they thought the claims were definitely or probably true. Asked about false claims that have been made about covid and other vaccines, Republicans were on average 20 percent more likely to state that they believed the false claims were accurate. Foremost among them: the regularly debunked idea that the coronavirus vaccine has caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people. Nearly half of Republicans think that’s true."

"Some of this is rooted in the impulse that could have driven [Representative Marjorie Taylor] Greene to share that story about covid-19 conspiracies. Objection to the government’s presentation of the pandemic is now ingrained in right-wing politics, and demonstrating one’s rejection of those presentations is a partisan signifier. In some cases, it’s probably less that the respondents believe the false claims than they are willing to express some acceptance of them, given how their politics establishes that as a standard response."

So that's why they believe things that are false.  They're Republicans, and because they are, they are being told what to believe.

Where they vacation

 

Sorry, but I consider Mark Wright one of the luckiest men in the world, because he's really, really good looking and he's married to the incandescently gorgeous Michelle Keegan.

They aren't seen together a lot, apparently by choice. But when you can spend your downtime at a place like Ravello, Italy, why go out on the town?

Inside Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright's romantic Ravello holiday: TV star shares lavish snaps of the couple's luxurious Italian getaway

Not a tough call

 

When I saw the first article, I thought that actress Sienna Miller was pretty obviously pregnant.

EXCLUSIVE: Sienna Miller, 41, slips into a tiny bikini as she enjoys a relaxing day at the beach with friends in Ibiza

When I saw the second article, I found out that was a correct conclusion. 

Sienna Miller Is Pregnant! Actress Expecting Second Baby as She Shows Off Bump While on Vacation (Exclusive)

O, this is big fun

 

AI-generated images of orgasms.

Seriously.  And this was scientific research, too. 

Scientists use AI to visualise 10 people's ORGASMS - and say 'every single one is unique'

"The team at LoveHoney used heart-monitors to record 10 volunteers as they climaxed, before using AI to bring the data to life."

This one is my favorite.  According to a different article about this same study, this is a male orgasm. 

Here's the original article on the website, complete with the stimulators used to achieve the necessary event for the depictions. 

Failure to govern, failure to mature

 

I read this article in late August, but it's even more appropriate and timely now.

Chance of a government shutdown grows

Before supporting a continuing resolution (CR), the Freedom Caucus is demanding the legislation include:

- A House-passed border security bill;
- A way to “address the unprecedented weaponization” of the Justice Department and the FBI; and
- Provisions that would put an “end” to the “woke polices in the Pentagon.”

The group didn’t specify how to address Justice Department “weaponization” or how to end “woke policies” in the military.

CRs generally extend existing funding levels and are usually free of such big policy provisions, but the group is seeking to leverage House Republicans’ razor thin majority to force a shutdown showdown right from the start.

The group’s escalatory and “unrealistic” tactics are becoming an increasing source of frustration for some of their GOP colleagues.

In essence, they are immature children who demand there own way, or they won't play.

And they are making it worse, threatening to end McCarthy's speakership (which hasn't been good anyway) and not pass a CR until Biden's impeachment (a demand that McCarthy caved on).

Useless.  This is not the way to run a country.

But they're so stupid they don't even recognize that.

Good advice

 

Senator Bill Cassidy advised Donald Trump not to get the Republican nomination and not to run, because he thinks Trump would lose to Joe Biden.

If Trump had the Republican Party's best interests at heart, he wouldn't have even thought about running again. The Trump-backed candidates got beat bad in 2022, largely because they were Trump-backed candidates.  Even given the GOP Electoral College advantage, it sure is hard to see sufficient independents in swing states switching back to Trump to beat Biden, especially given the clear importance of abortion rights to women and climate change to young voters. 

So I think it's good advice. Trump won't take it. The question is, will GOP voters sense Trump's vulnerability as the legal cases go forward, and abandon ship?  It doesn't seem like it now, but if signs of weakness appear -- or if a couple of those close to him fold and talk, perhaps Mark Meadows or John Eastman -- then there could be a sudden rush to the lifeboats. 

'Trump will LOSE to Biden': Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy warns ex-president will be defeated in 2024 if he wins GOP nomination and that it will mean four more years of Democratic policies

"Cassidy appeared on CNN's State of the Union and said he believed the federal case against Trump's mishandling of classified documents was 'almost a slam dunk' and he didn't believe 'Americans will vote for someone who's been convicted.'

The Louisiana lawmaker was then asked by the network's Kasie Hunt if Trump should drop out of the race and answered in the affirmative.

'I think so. But, obviously, that's up to him,' Cassidy replied. 'I mean, you're just asking me my opinion. But he will lose to Joe Biden, if you look at the current polls.'

Cassidy has been critical of Trump before and was one of the seven GOP senators to split with his party and vote to convict the ex-president when he was impeached for inciting an insurrection."

Lighthouse of the Week, September 10 - 17, 2023: Balbriggan, Ireland

 

I returned to the European stage for this week, and selected a lighthouse in Ireland that has been recently restored: Balbriggan. That's a pretty good name for a lighthouse in Ireland, I'd say

As is the usual manner in presenting these, first I'll start with where it's located. It's located about halfway between Dublin and Drogheda (remember The Thorn Birds?), as you'll see.

Next, here is information from its entry in the Lighthouse Directory.

"1769. Active; focal plane 12 m (39 ft); directional light: three flashes every 20 s, white, red, or green depending on direction. 11 m (36 ft) round stone tower with lantern and gallery attached to a 1-story keeper's house. The original lantern was removed around 1960 and the light was displayed from a short mast atop the capped tower. Lighthouse painted white. ... This is Ireland's second oldest active lighthouse, after Hook Head; it was built by a local nobleman, Baron George Hamilton, to promote commercial development of the port. Fingal County Council made plans to restore the lighthouse and replace the lantern. By 2012 the lighthouse was repainted and refurbished but no funds had been secured for the lantern. In 2015 it was announced that funding for a lantern had been secured. Restoration of the lighthouse was underway in the fall of 2017 and installation of the new lantern took place sometime around the beginning of 2018."

I will note that Google Maps says the lighthouse is Permanently Closed. Since the LD says it's active, I assume that means you just can't go inside it.

Link to a website devoted to the lighthouse:  Balbriggan Lighthouse

And now, of course, here are pictures.

And a video!

Too perfect (and too big)

 

The Daily Mail (naturally, but in this case, unnaturally) had a recent article about Gina Stewart, "World's Sexiest Grandmother", who is indeed pretty hot.

What the article concerned was something hotter:  Gina's AI version of herself, aged 28, and a bit inflated in the vavoom! department as well.

(Actually, after a bit of investigation, maybe not inflated that much.)

EXCLUSIVE: Playboy bunny creates world's first AI model based on younger self to relive glory days, reveals 'men love' her digital persona that has been featured on magazine covers across the globe

Shown below is an example. 

For comparison, here's the real thing:

So ... I prefer the real thing over the too perfect, and I was going to say too big (in the breast section) AI clone. Now, Gina may be close to that size ... but the AI version has no imperfections. And imperfections make uniqueness and memorableness. 

Playboy at its height featured beautiful women, but they had variety and uniqueness. Not every one of them was big-breasted and blonde. Sure, many of them were, but there were obviously differences in hair color, hair length, breast size, legs, butt ... and they weren't all classically gorgeous. And if you think about models, Cindy Crawford had her beauty mark, Gigi Hadid has moles, Lauren Hutton had the gap in her teeth, Claudia Schiffer had a hint of cat eyes, Barbara Palvin has a deeply curved upper lip -- uniqueness does make beautiful women more memorable. 

So AI Gina leaves me a little cold -- and after looking at a few images of her, they are a bit repetitive. She has three facial expressions! Still gorgeous, but though quite realistic, still artificial.

However ...

I can think of a dozen influencers/actresses/models without trying (let's start with Demi Rose Mawby, Natalee007, Alexis Ren, Susanna Canzian, and several participants on The Bachelor) who I'd like to see naked, and who probably won't get naked. There are some examples, but not necessarily many of them. Some of these notable ladies are available that way on OnlyFans, but I'm not subscribing just for that chance. So if AI wanted to step in with its ability to make quite realistic imitations and fill that gap, I'd take a look at those.

There's copyright and privacy and all that, of course. But you know ... these things happen.

A short political editorial

A bit of straight-up editorializing from the Opinions section of this blog (which means, it's my opinion):

I want to know something; given the mounting evidence of Donald Trump's multiple crimes committed in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, how many Republicans who still support him condone those crimes because they feel it was most important for him to stay in office using whatever means necessary? I have to say that it sure looks like that.

This doesn't address the crimes unrelated to the election, including the hush money payments to pornstars and the hoarding of documents, some of them classified, which the Library of Congress wanted back, which he wasn't supposed to have, and which apparently he hid after he was asked (nicely but firmly) several times to give them back.

I sure hope not

 

It can't have escaped the notice of many people that this summer has had some pretty nasty weather conditions in a lot of places. This New York Times article addressed that, putting this into the context of something that a lot of people expect to do in the summer -- go on vacation.

Is This the End of the Summer Vacation as We Know It?

"As the summer travel engine kicked into high gear this year, it wasn’t just the scorching heat affecting carefully laid plans. There were also fires, floods, tornadoes and hail storms. Eight inches of rainfall left parts of Vermont coping with catastrophic floods. Tens of thousands of people, including thousands of tourists, had to evacuate islands in Greece because of wildfires. [And after that, extreme rains and major flooding.] (Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday offered a free weeklong stay in 2024 to those travelers affected — in spring or fall.) The popular music festival Awakenings canceled a date in the Netherlands because of concern over hail, lightning and thunderstorms."

 And it may affect where you decide to go:

"Yet change is coming, whether or not cooler destinations have the room. The European Commission projects that tourism on the continent — already the world’s biggest tourist draw — will grow regardless of warming conditions, but that higher temperatures will migrate demand, sending more tourists to Northern Europe instead of the Mediterranean. Southern regions would lose nearly 10 percent of their current summer tourists in one scenario."

So, if you can, book your travel for some time other than summer. But make sure that you don't go to hurricane prone regions in the fall (I don't recommend Bermuda right now!) and also, forested regions like the Pacific Northwest and California get more wildfires in the fall. Canada, of course, had wildfires this spring. 

Go Figueres (if it's not too hot there). 

And stay cool, if you can.

So who's the Viking princess?

 

If you've been watching the U.S. Open of tennis (I have been), you've probably seen the Riveting Viking Saga.

Naturally, I had to know who the wide-eyed princess is played by.

Her name is Gemma Higgins.

Gemma Higgins at Mandy

Gemma Higgins at Backstage

She's only 4 feet, 11 inches tall. So she's perfect for the Viking princess daughter role here.

These eyes have it

 

A couple of eye-catching pictures of eyes, highlighting the faces of beautiful women.

Recently married Barbara Palvin

Bethany Lily April is known for much more than just a beautiful face, but it's beautiful here.

Three in black and white

 

Three more examples in my ongoing intermittent provision of black-and-white photography of the female.

Slender Alexis Bumgarner

Glamorous Katerina Kostenko (kkostenko.ru on Instagram)

Voluptuous and invigorating Rosa Brighid

Two from The Guardian

 

Two recent articles of interest from The Guardian newspaper aka online information source.

The first is:

‘Something weird is going on’: search for answers as Antarctic sea ice stays at historic lows

"In February [2023], the floating sea ice around Antarctica hit a record low for the second year running. Since satellites started tracking the region’s ice in 1979, there had never been less ice.

As it does every year, as the temperatures around the continent plunged towards winter, the sea ice started to return.

But the moderate alarm from scientists at that record low – coming only a year after a previous record low – is now being overlaid with astonishment. Some are worried they could be witnessing the start of a slow collapse of Antarctica’s sea ice.

By now there would usually be about 16.4m square kilometres of Antarctic sea ice. But this week, there was just 14.1m sq km. An area bigger than Mexico has failed to freeze."

The second article says:

Thursday briefing: Inside South America’s summit to save the Amazon

"The conference had two distinct programmes over two days: on Tuesday, presidents, prime ministers and senior ministers from Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and Ecuador met with the Brazilian delegation to discuss Amazon-specific measures.

The day concluded with the Belém Declaration, in which the politicians called on wealthy nations to help them develop a Marshall-style plan to help defend the Amazon, and pledged to work together to ensure its survival. The document calls for debt relief in exchange for climate action, agrees to strengthen regional law enforcement cooperation to crack down on human rights violations, illegal mining and pollution, and urges industrialised countries to comply with obligations to provide financial support to developing countries.

“The forest unites us. It is time to look at the heart of our continent and consolidate, once and for all, our Amazon identity,” said Lula (pictured above). “In an international system that was not built by us, we were historically relegated to a subordinate place as a supplier of raw materials. A just ecological transition will allow us to change this.”

Crossing the bridge

 

Here's a StreetView from a landmark: from the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge, you can see where the Ohio River confluences with the Mississippi River.

Lighthouse of the Week, September 3-9, 2023: Faro de Peñíscola, Spain

 

I've featured a few lighthouses from Spain as Lighthouses of the Week -- it has a lot of coastline, obviously -- but I don't think I've ever gone to the southeastern coast, which is the region of Valencia. So this time I did, and I found a coastal village and a light that it is important to pronounce correctly: Peñíscola.

I've provided a general description of where it's located, but here's a map to find it. I had to zoom it out quite a bit so you can see where it is in relation to Valencia.

So now, let's get the basic information about it, from the Lighthouse Directory:

"1898 (Francisco Pérez Alonso). Active; focal plane 56 m (184 ft); three white flashes, in a 2+1 pattern, every 15 s. 11 m (36 ft) round masonry tower with lantern and double gallery, attached to the front of a 2-story masonry keeper's house. 3rd order Fresnel lens in use. Lighthouse painted white; lantern is gray metallic. ... The lighthouse stands just below the castle on a walled promontory extending from the village of Peñíscola. Site open, tower closed."

Castle?  What castle?  In the first picture, you can see the lighthouse next to the castle, which according to the Lighthouse Directory (and history) once was the refuge of an excommunicated anti-Pope. Seriously.

Here are four other pictures of this faro.

WOW WOW WOW

 

That was my reaction when I read the news about the kids in Montana winning their case in the Montana climate change trial. Clearly, they benefited from a article in the Montana state constitution, to whit: 

"Article IX -- ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES. Section 1. Protection and improvement. (1) The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations."

But if it's in the Constitution, they might as well take it to court.

Judge rules in favor of Montana youths in landmark climate decision

"Republican state lawmakers and a petroleum industry representative said that while they are hopeful the state’s appeal will be successful, Seeley’s decision could result in fewer energy projects being permitted or subject permitting decisions to cumbersome litigation.

“If this decision stands, it will cause great economic harm to the state of Montana,” said Alan Olson, the executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association.

Though it remains to be seen whether the Montana Supreme Court will uphold Seeley’s findings, experts said the favorable verdict for the youths could influence how judges approach similar cases in other states and prompt them to apply “judicial courage” in addressing climate change."