A quote from a Nobel-prize winning economist

 

In this column, Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel Prize winner in economics, is quoted.

I think it's a good idea to listen to what he says.

Yes, American can fail

"Economic prosperity requires institutions that foster risk-taking and innovation: secure property rights that ensure people can enjoy benefits from their investment; predictable enforcement of contracts; free and fair elections that allow citizens to keep a tab on their leaders and replace them when needed. These things, in turn, require the rule of law, independent judiciaries and freedom of the press.

Unfortunately, Trump is itching to undermine all these institutions. As Acemoglu put it to me, “There are many different ways in which the United States can be hurt really badly.”

Better buckle up, it's going to get bumpy.

Just don't get cursed

 

The Field Museum of Chicago has been looking inside their mummies, to learn more about their lives.

Just as long as they don't invoke an ancient curse, I'm OK with that.

New research on mummified remains offer scientists rare glimpse behind ancient wrappings

This is the face on Harwa's coffin. You can actually see pictures of who resides inside, but I'm going to leave that to your discretion.

More about Harwa:

"The mummified individual known as Harwa has long been a favorite at the Field. Also from the Third Intermediate Period, he lived about 3,000 years ago. The scans taken have revealed that Harwa lived a relatively cushy life as the Doorkeeper of the 22nd Kingdom’s granary. Images of his spine reveal that even at his increased age (early to mid-40s) he shows no immediate signs of ailments that would come from performing repeated physical labor. Furthermore, his extremely well-kept teeth reinforce his high social status as he had access to high-quality foods.

Harwa has an extensive legacy of having a very full afterlife. Archival Field Museum publications share Harwa’s tale as the first mummified person to fly on an airplane in 1939. Upon arrival in New York City, he was welcomed with a variety of activities beyond the wildest dreams of an ancient person, including visiting a Broadway show. When his two-year stint on display at the New York World’s Fair ended, he became the first mummy to get lost in luggage, as he was accidentally sent to San Francisco rather than back home to the Field Museum."

So, as they saying goes, if you don't know, ask your mummy. And they did.

I saw this coming

 

Even though former Stanford basketball star Cameron Brink got hurt (torn ACL) in her first WNBA season, I expect she's got a good career ahead of her.

And there's another career she could have: swimsuit model.

I didn't think that the swimsuit industry, or Sport Illustrated, could pass up a gorgeous 6-foot-4 blonde. Clearly, they couldn't.

WNBA star Cameron Brink lands Sports Illustrated swimsuit deal

I see no problem with her pursuing this line of alternative employment. Her lines look just fine. But I hope her knee is fully healed and that she has a great WNBA career, too.

Lighthouse of the Week, December 8-14, 2024: Motta Misaki (Cape Motta) Lighthouse, Hokkaido, Japan

 

I promised another lighthouse from Japan's island of Hokkaido this week, and this is what I promised. Given the current hype around the movie version of the musical Wicked, I thought this one was quite timely. The Lighthouse Directory calls what it is wearing a dunce cap, but I think of it as a witch's hat.

This is called, apparently, several different names:  Motta Misaki, Motsuta Misaki, or just Cape Motta, which is what Google Maps has it listed as.  Here's where it is located on Hokkaido, and note Sapporo again.

Now the Lighthouse Directory tells us more:

"1937. Active; focal plane 282 m (925 ft); two white flashes every 24 s. 14 m (46 ft) round cylindrical concrete tower with lantern, gallery, and a traditional "dunce-cap" roof, attached to a 1-story concrete equipment room. Lighthouse painted white with a broad black horizontal band. 3rd order (?) clamshell Fresnel lens in use." ... "The unusual height of this powerful lighthouse gives a range of more than 65 km (40 mi). The lighthouse was restored in 2001 and the tall dunce-cap roof was apparently added at the time. At the same time the forest road to the light station was opened to the public." ... "The station commands a spectacular view of the Sea of Japan; the island of Okushiri can be seen in fair weather. Located on a high, mountainous promontory about 16 km (10 mi) north of Setana."

Enjoy the pictures below.

Get your Leinies while you can

 

Sad news out of Wisconsin;  the Leinenkugel brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin will be closing. While craft breweries proliferate around the country, the mid-size breweries are being swallowed up (ha) by the big corporate interests, in this case Molson Coors.  And sadly, this means a loss of quality and taste and variety.

Molson Coors to close Leinenkugel’s Brewery in Chippewa Falls

Still, Leinenkugels will still be available, but just not brewed with genuine Big Eddy Springs water.

"According to Molson Coors, the company has gradually shifted production of the Leinenkugel’s brand from Chippewa Falls to Milwaukee over the years. Molson Coors says more than 75 percent of the total Leinenkugel volume is already produced in Milwaukee."

Trump in space (I wish)

 

Not really about potentially jettisoning the President-elect (as I write this) out of the airlock sans spacesuit, this is about what space policy might be like during the absolute terror of the second Trump administration.

What a 2nd Trump administration could mean for NASA and space exploration

"And with SpaceX on track to lower the cost of a single Starship flight to less than $10 million, SLS and the broader architecture of the Artemis program is deemed to get a hard look even as NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free urged the incoming administration to maintain the current plans. Historically, SLS and Orion development has received substantial funding from a broad coalition; the program supports more than 69,000 jobs nationwide as of 2019."

That job thing might make it hard to cut Artemis. 

"One concern I have is that U.S. space policy will continue to evolve to enable, even more so, the rapid occupation of Earth orbits without adequately accounting for the risks — operational, environmental, and security — associated with that growth," Aaron C. Boley, who studies orbital debris as co-director of the Outer Space Institute, told Space.com via email.

There is also a looming uncertainty about how NASA will position itself in the coming years. The space agency has notably been a non-partisan entity over the years of changing administrations and conflicting priorities.

With Musk's growing influences over the federal government, however, "the idea of sending humans to Mars could start to be itself seen as a conservative or right wing value," said Dreier, "which, even though there's no inherent reason why it should be, would induce a knee jerk rejection by the opposite party because it will be seen as a defining aspect of the right wing."

That would be strange. Spending an exorbitant amount of money to get to Mars in a budget-cutting, inflation-conscious, deficit-wary MAGA-pandering administration.

Why do I see a problem here?

This is why. 

 

Syracuse ISN'T the snowiest city in the world

 

I've been to Syracuse just a couple of times, and only in the summer. So I can't vouch for the winters, but others I met there could.  Syracuse gets snow from systems crossing both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, so this isn't a big surprise, but given the massive volumes of snow that places like Buffalo can get, I'm surprised that Syracuse is Number One.

Read for more.

The Top 10 Snowiest Cities in the World

Recently, though, Buffalo's huge snow-effect drops have given it a short-term edge.

"With an average annual snowfall of 124 inches, Syracuse is no stranger to snow. Records show that the city occasionally experiences heavy snowfall, with an all-time high of 192 inches in a single season. Statistics like these cement Syracuse’s status as the snowiest metropolitan area in the United States, a claim made possible by a combination of different geological factors: the city’s proximity to Lake Ontario and the regular dumping of snow by nor’easter cyclones.

Known as the economic and educational hub of Central New York, Syracuse is as famous for its weather as for its university’s Division I sports teams. The city consistently wins the Golden Snowball Award, a humorous accolade given to the city in Upstate New York with the most snowfall each season. Syracuse has won the award 14 times but has been beaten out by Buffalo since 2021. Fellow competitors Rochester and Buffalo qualify as the world’s eighth and ninth snowiest cities respectively."

Here's the problem, though.  After reading this article, that quote above in particular, and getting pointed to it by the Daily Mail article (quote: "Travel experts from TripSavvy named Syracuse, New York, the snowiest city in the world this year."

But let's read from the article now.

Sapporo, Japan: average annual snowfall 191 inches.
Chamonix, France: not clear, because the article makes it sound like it's the snowfall in the mountains, not in Chamonix itself.
Quebec City: average annual snowfall 124 inches, same as Syracuse.
St. Johns, Canada: average annual snowfall 131 inches.
Toyama, Japan: average annual snowfall 143 inches.
Erie, Pennsylvania: average annual snowfall 104 inches.
Aomori City, Japan: average annual snowfall 312 inches.
Muskegon, Michigan: average annual snowfall 76 inches (I don't know why they didn't include Houghton, MI).
Valdez, Alaska: average annual snowfall 326 inches.

So Syracuse isn't anywhere close to the snowiest city in the world. Somebody is confused out there, and that's confusing the rest of us.

I tried to find a picture that showed what it's like; there are quite a few (and videos too), many showing the almost-tunnel of the main road created by the snow-throwing trucks.  But I went with this one.

By the way, remember that in many cases, global warming is making heavy winter snowfalls heavier, due to more moisture in the atmosphere (mainly) and various other regional factors, like higher lake and ocean temperatures adjacent to these snow-prone locations. 

Lighthouse of the Week, December 1-7, 2024: Hiyori Yama Lighthouse, Hokkaido, Japan

 

I don't think I've visited Japan for awhile in the ongoing Lighthouse of the Week feature, so I'm back there this week. In the past, I've featured three lighthouses on the northern island of Hokkaido. This one will be the fourth, and I just found one for next week to be the fifth. You'll see why when I get there.

But back to this one.  It's the Hiyori Yama (also spelled Hiyoriyama) lighthouse, and it's officially in Otaru City, but it's not far from the somewhat better known Sapporo.  See where that is using this link.

It's well-located, but it's not notably historical, so the Lighthouse Directory entry is short.

"Date unknown (station established 1883). Active; focal plane 50 m (164 ft); two white flashes every 20 s. 10 m (33 ft) round cylindrical concrete tower with lantern and gallery, rising from a 1-story keeper's house. Entire stucture, including the keeper's house, painted with red and white horizontal bands. ... This lighthouse stands at the end of a sharp promontory that shelters the harbor of Otaru."

Before I provide three picture, this is a link to a great picture of the location on Flickr. I thought about grabbing it and showing it here, but since it's on Flick and owned by a Pro account, I decided using the link was better. If you click the link, you can magnify the picture, but I haven't figured out how to demagnify after you do that.

My other picture finds are below.

Fifteen?

 

The Daily Mail published an article with an intriguing (to say the least) headline.

Revealed: the 15 types of orgasm and how to achieve them, by sexologist JESSICA TOSCANO

To which I immediately thought:  Fifteen?  (As you can see from the title.)

This type of thing deserves further examination. I would also encourage numerous experiments, but I can't tell you what to do.

If you read the list (obviously I encourage doing that, too), you'll see that women are highly advantaged in the different kinds of orgasm section of the sexological lexicon. 

According to this list, I've had three different kinds, and I don't think there's going to be an opportunity for any more. Certainly not cervical. 

But hey -- it's good to have goals.

This is dumb (and bad)

 

After the kangaroo, the animal that most people associate with Australia is the wombat.

NO! It's the platypus.

NO! It's the koala.

Yes! At least I would think so.  There must be a poll somewhere. Even if it's not, the koala is one of Australia's most recognized animals, and it's very cute too.

Oh yeah -- it's endangered.  Because its main source of nutrition is the leaves of eucalyptus trees. They live in forests, of course.

"Thousands of koalas died in devastating bushfires five years ago, and many populations were already in decline after a steady drumbeat of logging, housing developments, dog attacks, car strikes and other threats. In 2022, the federal government declared koalas endangered."

So to help them out, they agreed to create a sanctuary for the koalas.

" “We are committed to creating the Great Koala National Park,” New South Wales Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said in an interview. “It’s a really important part of our plan to save koalas in the wild. I just ask people to be patient for a little bit longer. We’re going to do it right and we’re going to do it well.”

Great idea, right? Yes, but ...

"Although logging has been suspended in roughly 32 square miles identified as “koala hubs” — the most critical koala habitat — that means 95 percent of the state forests under consideration are still open to logging."

That is just dumb. Save the koalas -- and save the forests, too, because that's where they live.

Speaking of blondes

 

Was I speaking of blonde women?  It seems like I was. 

Well, if I was or if I wasn't, blonde (I think) Margot Robbie, who played Barbie (definitely a blonde) in the movie Barbie, celebrated the big success of the movie by seeing her gynecologist, making sure everything was working, then getting together with her husband Tom and proving everything was working by getting pregnant. 

And everything kept on working until she gave birth quite recently, which is how it's supposed to work.

Margot Robbie gives birth! Barbie star, 34, delivers healthy baby boy as husband Tom is pictured stocking up on nappies and booze

I don't think we've seen any pictures of the tot, but here's a picture of Margot with the tot on the walk.

Is this Volaire's most famous painting?

 

Not Voltaire, Volaire. Pierre-Jacques Volaire, a French painter with a penchant for volcanoes.

He painted Vesuvius erupting many times, frequently under moonlight. The painting below is currently on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is entitled "The Eruption of Vesuvius, A View of Naples Beyond".  I'm wondering if this is his most famous painting. It probably is right now, considering it's on exhibit at the Met.

However, he moved to Naples in 1769, and two years later, Vesuvius erupted. He painted that eruption -- see below. I'm not sure how quickly he painted it and how soon it went on exhibit (if it did), because if it was done soon after the eruption, people in Europe who heard about the eruption -- and who also perhaps knew their ancient Greek history -- might have wanted to see what the eruption, which should have been in the news, looked like. So maybe the painting below is his most famous work.

Given the recent reports of activity around this location, it might be useful to know what has happened there before. 

Lighthouse of the Week, November 24-30, 2024: Porthcawl Breakwater Lighthouse, Wales, UK

 

This lighthouse isn't particular tall or architecturally outstanding. It's a small one, on a breakwater in Wales, and its exact location is found here. It's fairly near Swansea and a little farther away from Cardiff.

What it does have is waves.  Big, monstrous, foamy, crashing waves.  As you will see.

First, though, you will see the short notes from the Lighthouse Directory.

"1860. Active; focal plane 10 m (34 ft); continuous light, white over the entrance channel and red or green to the sides. 9 m (30 ft) hexagonal cast iron tower with domed lantern, painted white with a black band around the base. ... This is one of the only two surviving cast-iron lighthouses in Wales. Long powered by gas, the little lighthouse was not converted to electric power until 1997. Located at the end of the breakwater on Porthcawl Point in Porthcawl, at the eastern entrance to Swansea Bay."

See, I told you it was near Swansea.

Now, about those waves:

More waves, and a couple of pictures of the lighthouse itself, appear below.

The first one accompanied this article:  Remembering the days Wales' iconic Porthcawl Lighthouse was kept lit by coins fed into a meter

Surf's up. 

Can't ever pass this up

 

This Daily Mail article has several pictures of Michelle Keegan wearing fashionable clothes.

Of course I pay attention to an important news article like this.

As you may know, or if not, you will now, she does fashion lines with Very UK.  These pictures show off some of the glamorous looks, which look particularly fashionable on glamorous Michelle.

Michelle Keegan puts on a leggy display in black strapless gown with a daring thigh-split as she marks a major career milestone

I checked out the Very UK website and found a couple of intriguing views of Michelle posing in the line items that bear her name branding.  There's a lot of appealing shots where she smiles, which she does well. But in the picture below, she injected some personality. 

And this picture is about as close to nightwear as I've seen. Of course, she's done some great swimwear shots, too. But this has a certain appeal beyond the obvious.

This happened

 

Not long ago, I commented on the marriage of Ed Westwick and lovely Amy Jackson.

Well, it appears that they've been doing what comes naturally. She does have experience in this endeavor; she had a baby with her previous boyfriend.

Amy Jackson is pregnant! Actress, 32, reveals her bump for the first time as she announces she's expecting first child with husband Ed Westwick, 37 - two months after lavish wedding

And as I have done with other lovely women, here's a lovely picture of Amy.

A new place to see

 

I probably won't be able to visit this place anytime soon. But maybe, if I'm in the area, I'll remember to swing by. It's a "moderately challenging" hike to get to them. 

Here's a picture:

So how did they get that way?   This article covers that question.

Mystery of Crowley Lake Columns Solved

"In describing the formation of the columns, researchers believe that falling snow melted on top of the tuff rock deposits left after the eruption. This still-heated porous material caused the melted snow to boil, which created the even spaces between the columns that exist today."

Cement without the CO2 release?

If you didn't know, and if you want to read this article in its entirety, making cement gives off a lot of greenhouse gas CO2.  Nice quote from the article I'm about to link:

"If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of carbon, behind China and the United States."

So, here's the article:

Reinventing the world’s favorite building material

The idea is to use an industrial byproduct -- slag -- as a substitute for the limestone that is used to make cement in the traditional process. Because limestone is CaCO3, the process releases CO2.  A lot, as the quote above demonstrates.

So is this alternative feasible?

Perhaps.  As the article alludes to, at commercial scale, a lot of slag would be necessary. And I'm not sure how the amount of available slag compares to the amount of available limestone.

But if it could, it would probably be a significant improvement on the current situation., 

"The inventors at Material Evolution are using slag to make their cement because it has been already been super-heated and contains silica and alumina, materials that were transformed and are now “chemically activated,” ready to add strength to the concrete when water is added."

If you're curious, here's how cement is made:

It's been a (short) while

 

I have frequently noted, with a connoisseur's eye, the remarkable perfection of supermodel Izabel Goulart's prime posterior (such as here).  It is not difficult to find pictures of this fundamental feature online as well. But it hasn't been featured recently, until the Daily Mail provided another rear view. 

Izabel Goulart puts on a cheeky display in barely-there bikini while flaunting her incredible figure

This is where they hid it

 

A couple of weeks ago, there was a major theft in Britain.

The thieves (actually, scammers) purloined 24 tons of prime British artisanal cheddar.

Who stole 24 tons of cheddar? ‘Sophisticated’ cheese heist sparks police hunt.

"The stolen cheeses — Hafod Welsh Organic cheddar, Westcombe cheddar, and Pitchfork cheddar — are among “the most sought-after artisan cheeses” in the United Kingdom, the company said."

There was an arrest a couple of days later, but I don't know if there has been progress since then.

If you might be interested in the cheddar cheese that the cheese thieves chose, Pitchfork cheddar was one of the three stolen varieties.

Life all over

 

The Mars rovers, both working now and defunct, are looking for geological indications that life might have existed on Mars at one time. They won't necessarily find signs of life that unmistakably indicate it was alive; they are searching for indications that there could have been conditions when life was possible.

But this article refers to a study that suggests there could be real living life on Mars now.

Life on Mars? Researchers say mid-latitude ice could support life

"If the dusty mid-latitude ice on Mars melts below the surface for part of the year, then, like on Earth, microbes such as cyanobacteria could take advantage of the nutrients in the Martian dust mixed with the ice. They could use small amounts of melt water while living in a ‘radiatively habitable zone’ below the surface, where the temperature is just right for liquid water to be present."

This is the actual study:

Potential for photosynthesis on Mars within snow and ice

There aren't any pictures of Mars or Martians in this paper.  So here's a nice one.

This is from the Curiosity rover, and here's the article it appears in:

NASA's Curiosity rover captures 360-degree view of Mars — and finds strange sulfur stones

The mine vs. the flower

 

Short note:

Lithium is really, really important to the global economy due to its use in batteries. So more lithium from the U.S. would be a great thing, right?

Well, not for an endangered flower. And I'm torn. We need the lithium. And we need the biodiversity of the environment.

So, what to do, what to do?

U.S. approves massive lithium mine in Nevada, overriding protests

"In a final permit issued Thursday afternoon, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management found that the mine would not jeopardize the survival of Tiehm’s buckwheat, a rare, cream-colored wildflower that grows only on lithium- and boron-rich soil in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The agency noted that Australia-based Ioneer, the company behind the project, plans to protect roughly 719 acres designated as critical habitat for the wildflower."

However, it's not over yet.

"But Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the conservation group plans to challenge the final permit in court. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited mining as the greatest threat to the survival of Tiehm’s buckwheat when the agency listed it under the Endangered Species Act in 2022; Donnelly said the suit will argue that the BLM violated the law in allowing the mining operation to move forward.

“There’s this real question of how our bedrock environmental laws are going to hold up under the pressure of the energy transition,” Donnelly said. “The Endangered Species Act does not have carve-outs if we really, really want the minerals that are going to drive a species extinct.”

It's not too far away from California's Mono Lake, but I don't think that's a consideration.

Marvin Gaye wrote this by himself

 

One of the great songs of the 1970s, which was very prescient, was written entirely by the gifted Marvin Gaye. It was the third song by Gaye to win a "Grammy Hall of Fame" award.

It's full title was "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)".  The song was featured on the album "What's Going On".  

You can hear it here on YouTube.

Here are the full lyrics. In part, it's a prayer; I wonder if we still have one.

[Verse 1]
Woah-oh, oh, mercy, mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the North and South and East


[Verse 2]
(Father) Woah-oh, mercy, mercy me (Ah, mercy)
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no (Have mercy, Father)
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas (Have mercy, please have mercy, Father)
Fish full of mercury (Please have mercy, Father)

[Verse 3]
Oh, oh, oh mercy, mercy me (Help us, Father, have mercy, please help us, Father)
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no (Have mercy, you oughta help us, Father)
Radiation underground and in the sky (Please have mercy, ah, help us, Father)
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying (Oh, please help us, Father, Father, help us, Father)

[Verse 4]
Oh, mercy, mercy me (Have mercy, mmm, mercy, Father)
Oh, things ain't what they used to be (Please have mercy, ah, mercy, Father)
What about this overcrowded land? (Have mercy, Father, oh, have mercy, Father)
How much more abuse from man can she stand? (Please have mercy, mmm)

[Outro]
Ooh, ooh, oh, no, no, na, na, na, na
My sweet Lord, na, na, na
My, my Lord, my sweet Lord
Breathe

Road trips that are going to take some time

 

A few years ago, I spent some time using Google StreetView to go from the southern end of U.S. Highway 41 (in Miami) to the northern end (in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula).  All of these posts are still on the blog;  I have been meaning to organize the links to them by state for awhile, but I need a lot more time than I currently have to do that.

In any case, Highway 41 might be pretty long, but it's not as long as the roads in this article from the Daily Passport folks:

Cruise Down 10 of the World's Longest Highways

Here's one example:

Interstate 90:
"Beating Interstate 80 by just 121 miles to the top spot on the list of longest interstate highways is the 3,020-mile-long Interstate 90. It crosses 13 states in the northern part of the country, traveling between Boston and Seattle. From the shorelines of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan (two of the Great Lakes) to the Great Plains of South Dakota and the Rocky Mountains, the highway passes through many areas of breathtaking natural beauty. Due to its northerly location, temporary closures of the route are common in the winter following heavy snowfalls. A few highlights along the route include Minnesota’s 55-foot-tall Jolly Green Giant Statue, Mount Rushmore National Monument, and Garnet Ghost Town in Montana.

And Wall Drug (as the picture in the article indicates), a bit to the east of the Black Hills, where Mount Rushmore stands.

So that's where it went

 

After 15 years, scientists have found the crater that was formed by crashing a rocket fuel tank into the Moon.

Fifteen Years Later, Scientists Locate a Lunar Impact Site

"In 2009, NASA intentionally crashed a spacecraft into the Moon and used a small trailing spacecraft to observe the results: The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was designed to search for frozen lunar water and other volatiles in the lunar regolith by knocking them off the Moon. Volatiles are materials that readily vaporize, or shift from liquid to gas. The LCROSS impact kicked up a cloud of regolith containing plenty of water (5.6% by mass), along with small amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, and ammonia. But it did so in a permanently shadowed area of the Moon, leaving scientists unable to directly observe the crater after its formation.

Now, new research has located the crater the LCROSS mission left behind, allowing scientists to better contextualize the mission’s results and informing future efforts to locate and use resources on the Moon."

The figure below is from the paper about the discovery, entitled "The LCROSS Impact Crater as Seen by ShadowCam and Mini-RF: Size, Context, and Excavation of Copernican Volatiles"; read it for the full details.

Figure 1. Mini-RF S1 (total backscattered power) (a) before (lsz_00455_87s324) and after (lsz_03391_85s318) for the LCROSS centaur impact location, overlaid on LOLA hillshade (Barker et al., 2023). The D ∼ 900 m fresh crater near the LCROSS impact site has radar-bright rays that cross where the LCROSS impact occurred (also noted by Neish et al., 2011). (c) and (d) are zoom ins. Both the before and after collects were averaged to 7.5 m/px, 3 × 3 Kuan speckle filtered (Kuan et al., 1985), and stretched to a 0.1%–99% range, and gamma corrected (γ = 0.25). The spatial extent of (c) and (d) are the same as Figure 2 (a) and (b) below. Data are in south polar stereographic projection."

Lighthouse of the Week, November 17-23, 2024: North Queensferry Lighthouse, Scotland

 

I came across this lighthouse by accident, and was immediately intrigued by the statement that it was the world's shortest traditional tower lighthouse. I would have thought that Rhode Island's somewhat famous Castle Hill lighthouse, which I've been to in person, held that title. Castle Hill is 34 feet (10 meters) tall.

This week's featured lighthouse, the North Queensferry lighthouse in, well, North Queensferry, is 17 feet (5 meters) tall. So it's clearly shorter than Castle Hill.  For location, you can see where it is on the map (it's officially called the Forth Bridges Lighthouse Museum, it appears), and note that it is north across the water from Queensferry -- which makes sense -- and Queensferry is northwest of Edinburgh. By the way, the water body to the east of the lighthouse and the bridge next to it is the Firth of Forth.

So now the Lighthouse Directory can fill us in on this diminutive but brave example of lighthousery.

"1817 (John Rennie). Reactivated (inactive 1964-2010), now unofficial; focal plane about 7 m (23 ft); light character unknown. 5 m (17 ft) hexagonal stone tower with the original lantern but no gallery; unpainted. ... In November 2006 plans were announced for a restoration of the lighthouse. After a number of delays the restoration was carried out in the spring of 2009-10 and the light was relit by Princess Anne on 22 June. Located at the foot of Main Street, between the Forth Road and Railroad bridges, near the Deep Sea World aquarium in North Queensferry."

The Daily Mail had an article about it, but they said it was six feet taller than the Lighthouse Directory's listing.

Inside the world's smallest working lighthouse: How a 23ft tower once powered by whale oil still shines for up to three miles

And I've got pictures below this line, and also a short amateur video.

The northernmost plant

 

National Geographic went to the ends of the Earth.

Again (they've been there before). 

The last flower at the top of the world—and the perilous journey to reach it

"Here, above the Arctic Circle, the planet is warming four times faster than anywhere else on Earth. Changes here will have ripple effects across the globe, which is why the team braved harsh conditions to find what lives on the edge."

If you want to know where it is, I found it on Google Maps.  The satellite photography isn't even good.

Read the article if you want to see the last flower.  Here's the species, the Arctic poppy.

There's a tomb in Petra

 

Petra is the famous city of stone in Jordan. It's been in movies (notably, as the article below reiterates, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and numerous scenic pictures. 

Inside the most famous of the buildings (?) in Petra, called the Treasury, archaeologists found a tomb. I don't think that they were expecting that, even though there are other tombs around.

‘Stunning’ hidden tomb found at Petra site featured in ‘Indiana Jones’

Underneath the Treasury in Petra, Jordan, archaeologists found remains and a ceramic vessel some said looked similar to the “Holy Grail” depicted in “Indiana Jones.”

OK, they must have been important to be buried there. Who were they?

In general, they know.  But who the individuals buried in the Treasury were, not so much.

"But many questions about the Nabataeans and their city still remain. “There is so much that we have yet to learn about the Treasury, said Creasman in the Warner Bros. news release. One major remaining unanswered question: “When was this remarkable structure built, and why?”

I know, why? 

A view of the Treasury:

A great review of a terrible (yet fascinating) science fiction movie

 

I'll admit to watching The Chronicles of Riddick a few times. Hated every minute. And kept watching every minute of it. I can recite dialogue from it. 

Science-fictionally, it's ridiculous. It's a space opera and all that entails. Of particular awful fascination is the impossible planet of Crematoria.  There is literally no way this planet works. Yet it's ideal for the action in the movie.

Crematoria, artist's conception, because it's certainly not real:

And if you loved and hated it, somewhat like I do, the good news/bad news is that there is going to be a sequel!  Yay/ugh!

Read more. He agrees with me (but offers more insight).

The World Wasn’t Ready For Vin Diesel’s Sci-Fi Epic

This looks watchable

 

It's only in theaters, so I have to find the theaters.  Lord of the Rings fans might like this one. I hope I do, too.

The War of the Rohirrim

Zendaya channels Cher

 

I don't know if you saw this from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this year, but Zendaya paid tribute to Cher by looking amazingly like her, in a dress very similar to one Cher wore years ago.

Zendaya leaves very little to the imagination as she channels Cher in a daring gold cut out gown at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony

The coat she wore there was pretty cool, too.

If you missed the show (which I did), here's the full list of 2024 inductees.

Performer Category: 

• Mary J. Blige 
• Cher 
• Dave Matthews Band 
• Foreigner 
• Peter Frampton 
• Kool & The Gang 
• Ozzy Osbourne 
• A Tribe Called Quest 

Musical Influence Award: 

• Alexis Korner 
• John Mayall 
• Big Mama Thornton 

Musical Excellence Award: 

• Jimmy Buffett 
• MC5 
• Dionne Warwick 
• Norman Whitfield 

Lighthouse of the Week, November 10 - 16, 2024: Farol de Câmara de Lobos, Madeira, Portugal

 

If you don't know exactly where the Portuguese island of Madeira is, that's OK. Because while it's not real far from Portugal, it's considerably closer to Morocco, sitting in the Atlantic Ocean and fairly isolated.

This week's lighthouse, the name of which you can garner from the title of the post, is located here on Madeira. If you want to know where Madeira is, zoom out. I also recommend the pictures. 

The Lighthouse Directory says this much about it, and in this case, there's not much to say.

"1937 (station established 1920s?). Active; focal plane 23 m (75 ft); red light, 4 s on, 2 s off. 5 m (17 ft) square concrete equipment room with gallery; the light is displayed from a short mast on the roof. Building painted white; the mast has a red horizontal band. ... Located atop a vertical volcanic dike adjacent to the main pier at Câmara de Lobos, a village about 8 km (5 mi) west of Funchal on the south coast of the island."

All that's left to do, then, is show the pictures.

It's all we need

 

In this era of uncertainty and doubt and distress and anger,

let's just take a break and watch Shakira dance and sing and party with beautiful friends.