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.

We need more nukies

 

"Nukies" = nuclear submarines. 

One of the demonstrative examples of how well modular nuclear reactors could work is that the Navy has nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The Navy has had these for a long time. So why can't they be scaled up just a bit, mass-produced, and all this energy/power/electricity can be used to get humanity to a lower-CO2, higher energy future?

I don't know why that hasn't happened. Part of the reason it hasn't happened is that the concerns which should have motivated the development of the modular nuclear reactor revolution were derailed by the misinformation spread by the oil and gas interests of the fossil fuel industry. 

But that's secondary to the subject of this post, based on the Washington Post op-ed from George Will, which is that the Navy doesn't have enough nuclear submarines.

Nuclear submarines, crucial for U.S. defense and in short supply

"The most recent figures are that the U.S. submarine fleet now numbers 68, only 50 of which are of the hunter-killer “fast attack” category. And 20 of those are, Hendrix says, “in drydocks or tied to piers” because of the Navy’s three-year maintenance backlog. So, “the Navy is currently short three drydocks and the workforce that goes with them.” No entirely new shipyard has been built in a century."

The solution is to train more workers, build more, repair what are waiting, and get the fleet back up to the numbers it needs. Yes, I know it will cost money. So don't pass tax cuts, ye stoopid Republicans.  Let's get our priorities in order.

They work and we need more of them

Lighthouse of the Week, November 3 - 9, 2024: Horsburgh Lighthouse (Pulau Batu Puteh), Singapore

 

I looked at several candidate countries and lighthouses before choosing one for this week. It's owned by Singapore, and has an interesting look to it.

It's called the Horsburgh lighthouse, and it's located here.  Right smack in the middle of the entrance to the Singapore Strait, on the eastern side. It's on an island named Pedra Blanca ("white rock"), which apparently in Portuguese can also be Pedra Branca -- I checked -- and that's what Google Maps has.

There's some history here, according to the Lighthouse Directory.

"1851 (John Turnbull Thomson). Active; focal plane 31 m (102 ft); white flash every 10 s. 34 m (112 ft) round granite tower with lantern and gallery, attached to a 2-story concrete keeper's complex. Lighthouse painted with black and white horizontal bands. ... This lighthouse, Singapore's oldest, was named for James Horsburgh (1762-1836), the hydrographer of the East India Company who charted the seaways around Singapore. Following his death in 1836 British merchants in China quickly proposed that a memorial lighthouse be built at the Straits, but a decade passed before the site was selected and construction was authorized. The lighthouse stands on a notorious rock outcrop, long called Pedra Blanca ("white rock," batu puteh in Malay) by European navigators. The islet is about 40 km (25 mi) east of any other Singapore territory. In the late 1900s Malaysia maintained a claim to Pulau Batu Puteh on the grounds that the islet was historically under the control of the Sultan of Johor (Johor is now a state of Malaysia). Malaysia did not object to Singapore's continued operation of the lighthouse but sought sovereignty over the island. In 2003 Malaysia and Singapore agreed to refer their territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands. The case was argued in November 2007 and in May 2008 the court ruled in favor of Singapore."

 It's not gorgeous, because there are a lot of structures on that rock outcrop. See below.

When is "soon"?

 

Soon for this?

2 years? 

10 years?

This century?

Just curious.  (Oh yeah -- how much is it going to cost to fly on this thing?)

London to New York in 1 hour? Hypersonic jet dubbed Stargazer could soon transport passengers across the Atlantic at dizzying speeds of up to 4,600mph - three times faster than Concorde

"A Texas aerospace company called Venus Aerospace is working on a jet plane called Stargazer, along with the engine that will power it."

"When ready, VDR2 [the engine] will power high-speed drones as well as Stargazer, which the company has raised $33 million to build."

About that "soon" thing -- the article doesn't say. But Boom Supersonic is shooting for 2027.

I'll believe it when I see it.

The Supreme Court did this?

 

The Supreme Court of the United States (the current version) actually did something in the interests of the people of the United States.

What? 

Well, we can be amazed briefly.

Supreme Court clears way for Biden limits on methane and mercury pollution

"The Supreme Court on Friday refused to block new Biden administration rules requiring fossil-fuel-fired power plants to slash emissions of mercury and other toxic substances and oil and gas firms to curb methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from their operations.

The issues were two of three playing out on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket over a suite of Biden administration plans to clean up fossil fuels. Together, those plans represent some of the president’s most ambitious efforts to address climate change and reduce pollution."

By the way, the opposition in the case was mainly two dozen Republican-led states.

Of course it was.

Lighthouse of the Week, October 27 - November 2, 2024: Sidero Lighthouse, Corfu, Greece

 

For some reason, when I was thinking of a lighthouse for this week, the island of Corfu came to my mind. I didn't know if Corfu had a lighthouse, but being a Greek island, I suspected it did.

In fact, it does. It's an active lighthouse, but it isn't in the greatest shape. It's part of an old fortress that overlooks Corfu city. This time, I've got a zoomed-out map that shows where it is on Corfu, and a zoomed-in map that shows where the fortress is.

The Lighthouse Directory provides this information (and also says it is endangered due to poor maintenance, a state to which the pictures attest):

"1828 (British). Active; focal plane 78 m (256 ft); two white flashes every 6 s. 8 m (26 ft) round stone tower with lantern and gallery, attached to a small 1-story stone keeper's cottage. The lighthouse is unpainted; the lantern roof is green. ... The lighthouse was built by the British to light the way to their principal naval base in the Ionian Islands. It stands at the east end of the town of Kérkyra within the Venetian citadel, which withstood repeated sieges by the Turks."

 Four pictures are below.

 

Bacteria can eat plastic

 

This might be one way out of the plastic crisis. 

Plastic-eating bacteria could combat pollution problems, scientists hope 

A bacteria commonly found in wastewater can break down plastic to turn it into a food source, a new study finds. Scientists hope it is a pollution solution.

"In a study published Thursday [October 3]  in Environmental Science and Technology, scientists laid out their examination of Comamonas testosteroni, a bacteria that grows on polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a plastic commonly found in single-use food packaging and water bottles. PET makes up about 12 percent of global solid waste and 90 million tons of the plastic produced each year."

Unlike most other bacteria, which thrive on sugar, C. testosteroni has a more refined palate, including chemically complex materials from plants and plastics that take longer to decompose."

 It's a very special bacteria.

A reference on Authoritarianism

 

The link to this page was in a Washington Post op-ed by the esteemed and remarkable Jennifer Rubin, entitled "How JD Vance underlined Trump's worst vulnerabilities". 

Authoritarianism, explained

It's very good. Now, I'm not sure how I can spread this more widely, because my blog is not widely read (if it's read at all), but if I could spread it more in the mediasphere, I would.

What caught my eye was the quote that Rubin used:

“The goal is not always to sell a lie, but instead to undermine the notion that anything in particular is true.”

If you're wondering, here's the seven tactics of authoritarians:

1. Politicizing independent institutions
2. Spreading disinformation
3. Aggrandizing executive power
4. Quashing dissent
5. Scapegoating vulnerable communities
6. Corrupting elections
7. Stoking violence

Remind you of anyone?

Let's hope America goes the right way.

Lost ice, new borders

 

Italy and Switzerland are redrawing a small section of their border in the Alps because the glaciers are melting and changing the landscape.

Italy and Switzerland to redraw Alpine border due to melting glaciers

Melting glaciers changed the topography of a roughly 330-foot-long segment of the border between Italy and Switzerland.

"The change, which impacts an approximately 330-foot-long segment of the border, is happening near one of Europe’s most popular skiing destinations, Zermatt, and the iconic Matterhorn mountain. One of the biggest glaciers near Matterhorn, the Theodul Glacier, retreated almost 1,000 feet between 1990 to 2015.

The melting, which has been attributed to climate change, revealed new topographical details that raised new questions about the dimensions of the border between the two countries. In 2022, the jurisdiction of a glacial Italian mountain lodge there came under question when melting ice revealed the refuge was actually straddling the border.

“Significant sections of the border are defined by the watershed or ridge lines of glaciers, firn or perpetual snow,” the Swiss government said in a statement obtained by Bloomberg. “These formations are changing due to the melting of glaciers.”

There's a really good graphic image showing why this is happening here, but I can't download it without an account.  

So I'll just use this one below, which is from the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo.

Voyager 1 keeps hanging on

 

Voyager 1 is way, way, way, way, way out in space. And it's old. And it's cold. And it's radioactive isotope heaters are running out of radioactivity. And it's running with a computer that requires weeks to reprogram.

Yet still it persists.  And what's more, when they ask something on it to work, it still does.

NASA built this one right.

47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft just fired up thrusters it hasn’t used in decades

The basic story is that the elderly spacecraft has three sets of thrusters, and only needs one to keep it aligned and communicating with Earth. But as the thrusters are used, they get clogged (somewhat like arteries). One set got so clogged that they decided they had to switch to a different set of thrusters. But that required some extra effort, as described here:

"As Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, have aged, the mission team has slowly turned off nonessential systems on both spacecraft to conserve power, including heaters. As a result, components on Voyager 1 are colder now, and the team knew it couldn’t just send a command to Voyager 1 to switch immediately to one of the attitude propulsion thrusters without doing something to warm them up.

But Voyager 1 doesn’t have enough power to switch any heaters back on without turning something else off, and its scientific instruments are too valuable to shut off in case they don’t come back on, the team said.

After going back to the drawing board, the team realized it could shut off one of the spacecraft’s main heaters for about an hour, which would enable engineers to turn on the thruster heaters and safely make the switch.

This plan worked, and by August 27, Voyager 1 was back to relying on one of its original thruster sets to stay in touch with Earth."

At this time, Voyager 1 is 15 billion miles from Earth, and Voyager 2 is 12 billion miles away. 

Keep in touch a couple more years, V1.

Is this feasible?

 

When I read this, the first thing I thought was:  where are all the resources (raw materials, fuel, people to control the ships) coming from?

The second thing I thought was -- what happens when they get there? Are they just going to crash them into the surface?  If so, that seems both wasteful and arrogant.

Elon Musk, despite all of his flaws and misconceptions and biases (which are substantial) and misguidedness, dreams big. And at times, those dreams have become a useful reality (SpaceX, Tesla). But he also misses the mark a lot (X, formerly Twitter; support for Donald Trump). 

So we'll see if this happens in any form.

SpaceX to launch five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years, says Musk

"If the uncrewed mission lands successfully [just one of them?], crewed missions could happen in four years, Musk said. However, if any challenges arise, then the crewed mission will be postponed by another two years, he added."

...

"However, Musk said SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity, adding that eventually there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars."

That's a lot of resources.

That's the idea, anyway

T

Lighthouse of the Week, October 20-26, 2024: Geomundo Island, South Korea

 

This week's lighthouse is on an island group, the Samsan Islands, south of South Korea. It was an important location, so the Brits established Port Hamilton on the island of Geomundo. This lighthouse is thus both the Port Hamilton lighthouse and the Geomundo Island lighthouse.

Here's where it is.  Zoom much further out to see where South Korea is.

The Lighthouse Directory says:

"2006 (station established 1905). Active; focal plane about 95 m (312 ft); white flash every 15 s. 33 m (108 ft) hexagonal cylindrical concrete tower with lantern, gallery, and a large hexagonal observation deck. Fog siren (blast every 50 s). Entire lighthouse is white. ... This new lighthouse was completed in August 2006. It is clearly designed for public access, but we have no information on the schedule. Located adjacent to the historic lighthouse."

As you might have guessed, there's a historic lighthouse too. They are both in a very striking location, on a narrow ridge overlooking the ocean.

See what I mean below. The historic lighthouse is visible in the pictures, particularly the second and fourth pictures.

 

Black and white and Rosa

 

I sure like British glamour model Rosa Brighid. I don't subscribe to her OnlyFans, where you can definitely see more of her, and occasionally on Twitter (oh, I'm sorry, X) she shows more of herself, but I stick with Instagram, where she's both flirty and fashionable, and provides lifestyle advice.

And she's also sometimes nude in an artsy way, as shown here. 

Totally natural, too. Lots to like. 

And this is ... what, exactly?

 

On Mars, the Perseverance rover is climbing higher. On its way up, it spotted a striped rock.

(Ha.)

The question is: what is this rock, composition-wise, mineralogical-wise, formation-wise, origin-wise?  They didn't stop to check it out, so now they have to speculate. 

One thing to note:  it's not covered by much dust. So maybe it arrived where it is currently perched recently, geological-wise.

 A Striped Surprise

"While driving across unremarkable pebbly terrain, beady-eyed team members spotted a cobble in the distance with hints of an unusual texture in low resolution Navcam images, and gave it the name ‘Freya Castle’. The team planned a multispectral observation using the Mastcam-Z camera in order to get a closer look before driving away. When these data were downlinked a couple days later, after Perseverance had already left the area, it became clear just how unusual it was! ‘Freya Castle’ is around 20 cm across, and has a striking pattern with alternating black and white stripes."

They think it's possible it rolled down from higher in the crater, which is where Perseverance is going. So be on the lookout for more striped rocks.

My first nice thought about this is that it's gneiss, and I'll stop now.

 

Silly, unserious people deny this is happening

 

Ocean acidification is happening. It has to be. The oceans are continuing to absorb more CO2, which has kept atmospheric concentrations lower than if they weren't doing that, but by absorbing it, they become more acidic. That's basic seawater chemistry.

And it's getting worse, of course. But how much worse is somewhat scary.

World's oceans close to becoming too acidic to sustain marine life, report says

A new report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research details how a crucial threshold for ocean acidification could soon become the seventh factor breached – out of of nine – considered critical for the planet's ability to regulate life-sustaining natural systems. The growing acidification of the planet's oceans is due to ever-increasing emissions of carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, which the oceans then absorb.

"Acidic water damages corals, shellfish and the phytoplankton that feeds a host of marine species. This means it also disrupts food supplies for billions of people, as well as limiting the oceans' capacity to absorb more CO2 and thus help limit global warming."

It constantly amazes me (and distresses me, so much that I've given up engaging with some of the more ludicrous deniers) that people can deny this is happening. But they do.

Got too much tofu?

 

If you make tofu, apparently there are leftovers. (Sometimes when you eat it, too.) This place in Washington that makes tofu found a good way to use the leftovers, rather than just dumping them. The leftovers consist of soybean pulp and tofu whey. 

Tofu manufacturer turns waste into energy with a biodigester

"The company [see below] is partnering with the Seattle-based energy company Chomp, which installed what’s called an anaerobic biodigester behind the factory.

Lukoskie: “Imagine it’s like a compost bin, but it’s enclosed.”

Any type of food waste – in this case, damp soybean pulp and leftover liquid called whey – can be put inside the biodigester’s large sealed tank, where bacteria break it down in an oxygen-free environment.

The process creates fertilizer that can be sold to farmers, as well as renewable biogas that can be used for energy in place of natural gas – a fossil fuel."

Since this company is doing such a good thing, I'm featuring them here.

Island Spring Organics

Have some!

Egypt in the Bronze Age

 

I really like amazing archaeological finds. And this is one of the more recent ones.

3,200-year-old ancient Egyptian barracks contains sword inscribed with 'Ramesses II'

"In addition, the archaeologists discovered the remains of weapons, including a bronze sword inscribed with the name of King Ramesses II (ruled circa 1279 to 1213 B.C.). The sword was found in a small room in the barracks, near an area where an enemy could try to infiltrate, an indication that this sword was intended for fighting and wasn't just for show, El Kharadly said.

They also found two inscribed limestone blocks; one has a hieroglyphic inscription that mentions Ramesses II, whereas the other cites an official named "Bay," the statement reported."

I'd give them my leaves

 

This is short, but cool;  a company in Europe makes paper out of leaves, saving trees in the process.

I'd give them all of mine. Even better, they could come and get them off my lawn and take them back to the factory themselves.

European cities give their dead leaves to this startup to turn them into shopping bags and paper

"Using a combination of chemical and mechanical processes, Releaf produces one tonne of cellulose from 2.3 tonnes of dead leaves.

It would usually take 17 trees to produce the same amount.

Cities around Europe give Releaf dead leaves they have collected off their streets, instead of burning them as many places usually do.

“We are working only with the leaves that we are getting from the cities because we cannot use the leaves from the forest. It's not easy to collect them in the forest, and there is no need because there's an ecosystem."

Come and get 'em

Alexis Ren, artistically posed

 

Model, actress, influencer, etc. Alexis Ren, who is also a well-known gorgeous woman, posted a picture to Instagram in which she had apparently decided to take a nap sans lingerie, in fact, sans anything.  The pose was such that while the lack of garments was apparent, nothing of censorial significance was bared (this being Instagram, of course). 

Despite the outright sexiness of the shot, what struck me was the artistic contrast in it, though I'm not sure it was intentional. The linearity of the bed, the bed frame, the walls, even the bookshelves contrast geometrically with the feminine curves of Alexis. It's very well done.

Of course, Alexis is marvelous in this pose, as would be expected. In fact, I don't remember any poses in which she was anything less than marvelous. (I reviewed my archives, and I have featured Alexis a couple of times, and also sometimes on a bed. That's a good theme, in my opinion.)

The Grand Canyon has caves and ... wow

 

I don't remember how I grabbed this link. But when I did, I was astonished. 

I've been to the Grand Canyon once. I had no idea it had any caves. I'm not sure how many people know it has caves like this.

Ancient Bats: Inside the Grand Canyon's Longest Known Cave

It appears that this cave doesn't have a name. What it does have, however, is really old bats. I'm not sure if they should be called fossils or not. But they are old.

" "When I first looked at the bats, I was totally amazed," [professor of wildlife ecology at Northern Arizona University Carol] Chambers said, during a recent interview. She was instantly sold on helping to determine the bats’ ages, but it wasn’t until 2018 that the initial funds for radiocarbon dating were secured. With the wheels in motion, she spent hours reviewing Thomas’s and Oswald’s photos, agonizing over which bats to sample.

"I was trying to figure out what looks old," she said, eventually deciding on nine bats representing five different species. "It turned out everything was old." The samples ranged in age from 3,700 to 31,000 years before present — shockingly ancient. "I thought, holy smokes, we are really on to something here," Chambers said. The ages were astonishing, and only the tip of the iceberg. Needless to say, all were eager to date more of these exceptionally rare bat remains found throughout the cave.

After false starts in 2019 and 2020 due to wildfires and the coronavirus epidemic, Thomas returned to the cave in 2021 and collected samples from a different set of bats. Chambers sent them off to a well-regarded lab for dating.

When her phone rang with the results, they asked her if she was sitting down.

The samples revealed ages beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating, which caps out around 50,000 years before present."

Below are a picture of one of the bats, and a second showing the profusion of gypsum "flowers" in the cave. They won't be opening this to the public anytime soon (and access is pretty tough, anyway).

Credit to Steven Eginoire for this pictures. And as the title of this post says,

Wow.

Brit amateur diggers have all the luck

 

Now, before I go further, I have to admit that there are places around the country where you can find arrowheads, or other places where it might be possible to still find Civil War artifacts, and there are still some occasional early colonies locations (like Jamestown) that provide some trinkets of yore. 

But Britain is way ahead of us when it comes to historic junk just lying around waiting for the picking-up. This account of another find is further confirmation of that observation.

‘Remarkable’ Pictish ring discovered by volunteer

"Professor of Archaeology at the university [of Aberdeen, I think], Gordon Noble, has led excavation work - funded by Historic Environment Scotland - over the last three years.

"John [last name Ralph] was digging and then came over and said ‘look what I’ve found’," Prof Noble said.

"What he handed over was truly incredible.

"We could see it was something really exciting as despite more than 1,000 years in the ground we could see glints of the possible garnet setting."

He added: "There are very few Pictish rings which have ever been discovered and those we do know about usually come from hoards which were placed in the ground deliberately for safekeeping in some way."

The ring is now with the National Museum of Scotland’s post-excavation service for analysis."

Of course, a picture of the ring is necessary.  The paired image below shows it after discovery, and then after it got cleaned up.

 

I sure hope so

 

There are a couple of space missions headed to Jupiter (and Europa) now. One is the very recently launched Europa Clipper. The other is the Jupiter Ice Moons Explorer, aka Juice, which did a flyby of Earth back in August to get a gravity assist. 

As it zipped by, a couple of the Juice instruments took a look at Earth, and determined that for at least right now, Earth is a habitable planet.  I hope humanity figures out a way to keep it in that condition.

Juice confirms that Earth is habitable

"ESA Juice project scientist Olivier Witasse says: “We are obviously not surprised by these results… it would have been extremely concerning to find out that Earth was not habitable! But they indicate that MAJIS [the Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer) and SWI [the Submillimeter Wave Instrument] will work very successfully at Jupiter, where they will help us investigate whether the icy moons could be potential habitats for past or present life.”

MAJIS took a look at the Pacific Ocean:

The Juice mission now heads to Venus, then will loop past Earth two more times before finally heading toward Jupiter. You have to be patient to be a mission scientist with these deep runs. Some of us might not make it that long (2031 is the slated arrival year).  I hope to still be around then.

As a note, both Juice and the Europa Clipper have really large solar panels. No one has the courage to launch nuclear-powered satellites into space anymore. 

Michelle Keegan: still married, still incredible

 

I haven't said a great deal about Michelle Keegan lately. I've been waiting to see if all the buzz from Fool Me Once turned into something bigger; quite a bit was said, but I haven't heard about any major deals. She was in an short-run TV series called Ten Pound Poms, which will have a Season 2, but nothing else is in the works, except for a return engagement in Brassic (which looks amusing, wish I could watch it).

There's something I've been thinking about writing regarding her, but it's a bit longer than my usual, and I haven't found the time for it. It's a speculative piece, and still could be applicable. Probably not for long, though.

But this isn't about that. It's about her red-carpet appearance at the British National Television Awards. She showed up looking totally awesome in black, and with her husband, who made sure everybody knew what a great thing he's got by giving her a public kiss. Sigh. 

See below.

The Wolf Covered Bridge

 

Being interested in all things Wolf, I am sad to report that I just found out about this place. Now I have to contrive a way to visit it.

The Wolf Covered Bridge (Knox County, Illinois).  It's northwest of Peoria.

According to this simple website, "The original bridge 234 feet long, 11 feet wide and spanned 102 feet."

What's there now is a replica; the original caught fire and burned down on August 1st, 1994. 

The replica bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lighthouse of the Week, October 13-19, 2024: Faro Cabo de Hornos, Chile

 

There are a few places that might be called the "End of the Earth". Cape Horn (Cabo de Hornos) in Patagonia (the Chile side) is one of them.  Famously a hard place to go around in a ship, the necessity for which was reduced by the Panama Canal, Cape Horn is a real place that legends surround.

And it has a lighthouse. The lighthouse, and the Cape Horn monument, aren't exactly on Cape Horn -- I think the powers-that-be decided the real cape should be kept pristine and natural. So the lighthouse and the monument are one point over on the Isla del Hornos, which you can see here. Zoom out to place it in Patagonia and southern Chile.

Now we learn about it. The lighthouse has been modified, as you will read from the Lighthouse Directory excepts.

"1991 (reconstructed in 2006). Active; focal plane 61.5 m (202 ft); white flash every 5 s. 11 m (36 ft) round cylindrical steel tower with lantern and gallery, originally painted with red and white bands, now incorporated into a 1-story brick station building. ... The station building was built in 2006. A sculpture and a monument near the lighthouse are memorials to the many sailors who have died "rounding the Horn." This is the world's southernmost traditional lighthouse, the true Lighthouse at the End of the World; it stands in latitude 55º 57.9' S."

Another website with info: 

Tierra del Fuego / Isla Hornos / Faro Monumental de Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn) -- World of Lighthouses

 This is what it looked like before they built a building around it.

And what it looks like now, with four pictures below. There are many pictures of this lighthouse, but a lot of them are commercial (iStock, Getty, etc.)

 

Not a surprising conclusion

 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) does amazing things. And it also does very expensive things. Furthermore, those very expensive things have commonly become even more expensive as they are being built, modified, delayed, redesigned, and finally reach the point where they can (usually) be launched.  Not everything NASA makes is launched into space; they make communications antennas and airborne instruments and do tests and models and lots of things like that -- but the expensive stuff is usually the stuff that ends up in space, hopefully, and works, also hopefully.  Usually it works, but not all the time, and that can make things even more expensive, too.

So, given all this expensiveness, it isn't surprising that a report about NASA concluded that NASA isn't going to be able to keep doing business-as-usual as expenses go up and budgets stay flat.

Underfunded, aging NASA may be on unsustainable path, report warns
NASA is not focused enough on the future, fails to think strategically and has a mismatch between ambitions and budget, says a sweeping report by aerospace experts.

"NASA pursues spectacular missions. It has sent swarms of robotic probes across the solar system and even into interstellar space. Astronauts have continuously been in orbit for more than two decades. The most ambitious program, Artemis, aims to put astronauts back on the moon in a few short years. And long-term, NASA hopes to put astronauts on Mars.

But a truism in the industry is that space is hard. The new report contends that NASA has a mismatch between its ambitions and its budget, and needs to pay attention to fundamentals such as fixing its aging infrastructure and retaining in-house talent. “NASA’s overall physical infrastructure is already well beyond its design life, and this fraction continues to grow,” the report states."

Despite all that, NASA just launched the Europa Clipper. Actually, SpaceX launched it, but NASA built it and operates it. Hopefully all the way to Europa (see below for what that might look like). 

Of course she is

 

Nina Agdal very recently gave birth to her child (a girl) with Logan Paul just a couple of days ago. 

But before that, she posed nude and pregnant. Being a supermodel, that seems a requirement.

If you want to see that picture (actually a couple of them), check the article below.

Logan Paul's pregnant fiancée Nina Agdal, 32, poses nude on a rock as she shows off her blossoming bump

Here's two other less revealing pictures of her in the midst of being pregnant.

Bepi-Colombo's fourth flyby

 

There's so much space news these days -- back in early September, the Bepi-Colombo mission from the European Space Agency made its fourth of sixth flybys of Mercury, with the eventual goal of going into orbit around Mercury in November 2026 and then performing lots of measurements.

There's a fun video from the flyby below. 

Lighthouse of the Week, October 6-12, 2024: Main Duck Island Lighthouse, Ontario, Canada

 

Back in the Great Lakes region for this week's lighthouse, which is at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. There's both a Main Duck and False Duck Island in that area, which both have lighthouses.

Maybe next week I'll take a look at the lighthouse on False Duck Island, but this week, it's the Main Duck.

Here is the location of that lighthouse, zoomed way way out for geographical navigation.

The Lighthouse Directory tells us the following about it:

"1914. Active; focal plane 23.5 m (77 ft); white flash every 6 s. 24.5 m (80 ft) octagonal concrete tower with lantern and gallery, painted white; lantern and gallery are red. Abandoned fog signal building and other structures in poor condition. ... Owned by U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles from 1941 to 1959, the island has been owned by Parks Canada since 1977 and was added to Thousand Islands National Park in 1998. Located at the western end of the island."

Another website is Main Duck Island, ON (Lighthouse Friends)

Pictures are below.