Boom goes boom -- so soon?

 

I've written a couple of articles about Boom Supersonic, which is planning to build a supersonic jet aircraft named the Overture to carry passengers.  Rolls-Royce was going to build their engines, but backed out. A company called Kratos took over that job.  That's the last thing I've heard.

Up until I read this. I was surprised, because I thought it was about the Overture. However, it's not -- it's about their test aircraft.  Still, at least they're trying.

Boom Supersonic receives authorization to conduct supersonic flight tests

"On April 16, 2024, Boom Supersonic announced that it had received a Special Flight Authorization (SFA) from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct supersonic flight tests."

"The supersonic phase of Boom’s XB-1 testing campaign will take place in the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor and parts of the High Altitude Supersonic Corridor. The latter is a portion of the airspace over the Mojave Desert that is regularly used for military and research supersonic testing operations, with several major military facilities located nearby, including Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, the National Training Center at Fort Irwin and Edwards Air Force Base."

That sounds promising. If they ever do fly the Overture, I'd like to take a trip on it.

But I don't think that's going to be soon.

If it does fly, that's what it's supposed to look like in flight.

What's underfoot

 

Thousands of years ago, apparently, a prehistoric human (possibly a Neanderthal) took a misstep and ended up in a hot spring. Then, the hot spring, a particular kind that produces limestone formations called travertine (such as Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park or Pamukkale in Turkey) covered the body of the unfortunate human with crystallizing stone. The soft parts of this human decayed, but the harder skeletal parts didn't -- they are similar in composition to the limestone.

Many many years later, the travertine was excavated and cut to make decorative tiles for the floor of a home. And then a dentist spotted the jawbone of the unfortunate human in one of the tiles. 

Dentist Discovers Human-Like Jawbone and Teeth in a Floor Tile at His Parents’ Home

"He [the dentist] found the jawbone in a tile made of travertine, a type of limestone that typically forms near hot springs. This specific tile came from a quarry in the Denizli Basin of western Turkey. The travertine excavated there formed between 0.7 million and 1.8 million years ago, which suggests the mandible did not come from a person who died recently."

Below, the dentist (or somebody) gives the teeth a brushing.  

How's the fish?

 

Or you could ask, "How's the krill?"

I mean, what else are we going to talk about?

Scientists share world's first 'conversation' between humans and whales - and say it's the first step to understanding aliens

"Twain [the name given to the whale which exchanged vocalizations with the researchers] had left the pod and joined the team by their boat, allowing researchers to capture the first one-on-one conversation with a whale - along with chatter of the pod while they hunted their next meal. Although some sounds the whales made could be socializing noises, the researchers believe they could be making commands such as telling each other to go up or down."

Well, clearly, no matter what else happens, Twain made her mark. 

(Sorry.) 

Girlfriend with benefits

 

A few weeks ago, I noted actor Henry Cavill's choice of girlfriend. 

Well, it seems that his choice of girlfriend comes with benefits -- those of fatherhood.

Henry Cavill and Natalie Viscuso are seen exiting New York hotel together... hours after actor excitedly confirmed they're expecting their first child together

So, best wishes on the new tyke. Hope he can fly well. 

Why he's a good guy

 

Joe Biden is indeed a good guy, and a good President (and must be re-elected this November). 

Here's one reason why.

Biden set to block Alaska road key to accessing planned mine

The expected decision on Ambler Road reflects the administration’s selective approach toward boosting domestic mining of minerals used in green technologies

Apparently, though, it's not quite over.

Federal decision to block Ambler Road prompts slams, kudos

"[Alaska Governor] Dunleavy also condemned the Biden administration’s announcement regarding drilling in the NPR-A and the road to connect the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. The governor said this will deprive Alaskans of an opportunity for good-paying jobs and prevent the state from upholding its constitutional mandate to develop natural resources for the maximum benefit of the people of Alaska.

Several Alaska Native tribal entities, including the Tanana Chiefs Conference and Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, meanwhile praised the Biden administration’s decision.

“This is a historic win for the Alaska Native community,” said Brian Ridley, chief chair of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, who called the decision a monumental step forward in the fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.

“This road and all the mining that it would have invited would have destroyed our subsistence resources and water sources in our pristine homeland,” said Kathleen Peters-Zuray, a member of the executive committee of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. “The road would have destroyed our way of life.”

There was also this:

Alaska Native corporation withdraws from the Ambler Road project

Keep it wild. There are too few wild places left. 

An unreal beauty pageant

 

I read this in April, and then checked today, and the contest Top 10 is set to be announced on May 28.

World's first beauty pageant for AI women is announced: 'Miss AI' contest will see computer-generated ladies face off in tests of beauty, technology and social-media clout - with a $20,000 prize at stake

Contest website:  

The World AI Creator Awards

So here's some detail from the article:

"The Fanvue Miss AI pageant will see AI-generated ladies go head-to-head in front of a panel of judges, including two AI influencers.

These synthetic competitors will be judged on beauty, social media clout and their creator's use of AI tools."

So, I don't know if she'll have a chance to win, but I nominate the appealing Evie Decker. (Whoever she is.)

Lighthouse of the Week, May 26 - June 1, 2024: Navesink Twin Towers, New Jersey, USA

 

When I first looked for a lighthouse for this week, I didn't think about it being the Memorial Day holiday weekend. I just suddenly said to myself, "I wonder what lighthouses are in New Jersey?"  I've featured a few of the famous ones:  Cape May, Sandy Hook, Sea Girt -- but this one is historic and famous too. In fact, it is so noteworthy that if I make a trip to New York sometime, I might go see this one, partly for the lighthouse and partly for the view of Manhattan.

So it has a lot of history, and quite a few web pages about it, including it's own website. So let's start with the location;  zoomed out so its location with respect to Raritan Bay and New York.

Next up, the information from the Lighthouse Directory, and there's quite a bit. There's actually one for each tower.

North Tower: "1862 (Joseph Lederle, architect). Station established 1828. Reactivated (inactive 1898-1962, now maintained by the state of New Jersey); focal plane 246 ft (75 m); white light 5 s on, 5 s off. 6th order Fresnel lens (1881) in use. 73 ft (22 m) octagonal cylindrical brownstone tower with lantern and gallery, linked by an ornate, fortress-like structure to the south tower.

South Tower: "1862 (Joseph Lederle, architect). Station established 1828. Inactive since 1953. 73 ft (22 m) square cylindrical brownstone tower with lantern and gallery, linked by an ornate, 2-story fortress-like brownstone keeper's quarters to the north tower. The station's rare 1st order bivalve Fresnel lens (1898), restored in 1999, is on display in the brick electric generator building (1909) [see below]. The former keeper's quarters now house a museum. ... The Twin Lights are not identical twins, since this tower is square and the north tower is octagonal. For a century Navesink Twin Lights was the landfall light for vessels bound for New York, so it was one of the country's most important lighthouses. It was also a showplace for the lighthouse service. This is the first U.S. light station to be equipped with Fresnel lenses (1841), the first to burn kerosene (1883), and the first to be equipped with electric power (1898)."

Definitely a good and historical lighthouse.  

Some websites:

Twin Lights Historical Society

Navesink Lighthouse, New Jersey, at Lighthouse Friends

The New Twin Lights at Navesink (Monmouth County History)

Pictures and StreetView shown below. In the first, the different shape of the two towers can be clearly seen. The fourth picture is in honor of Memorial Day 2024, and the sixth is the rare Fresnel lens.

StreetView:

Bluefin tuna stocks are improving, at least one place in the ocean

 

Good news for the bluefin tuna in the Atlantic.  And we need all the good ocean fisheries news we can get.

‘It’s a bucket-list fish’: bluefin tuna are back in British seas – and so are the fishing boats

"But since 2014, the enormous migratory fish have returned in their thousands off the coast of south-west England after deep cuts to fishing quotas in the eastern Atlantic* to revive the species. Nobody is really sure why they are back in such great numbers – with populations also recovering in the Mediterranean, where the vast majority are caught – but bluefin tuna is no longer listed as an endangered species in the UK, and is now often spotted hunting close to shore by wildlife photographers. With its return, minds have also turned to how to catch it without causing it to vanish from British waters again."

*See? They work.  

So don't catch too many of them, OK?

"Conservation groups have urged the government to tread lightly. “The success of the [tag-and-release] programme shows us that when advice from scientists, recreational anglers, skippers and conservationists is followed and we treat our seas right, species can stage a remarkable return,” says Dr Kenneth Bodles, the head of fisheries and aquaculture at the Marine Conservation Society. “As we witness this resurgence of bluefin tuna in the UK, it’s crucial that we proceed with utmost care, adopting careful management and continued monitoring that honours the fragile balance of our seas and respects this iconic species.”

Now, if we could that for a lot more of the overfished stocks, we'd be on the right track.

Dana Milbank stakes out the truth

 

A tip of the hat to the Washington Post's columnist Dana Milbank. 

This is why Trump supporters will believe absolutely anything

"As The Post’s Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, and pollsters Scott Clement and Emily Guskin report, Trump’s supporters have become substantially more persuaded by disinformation than they were six years ago. They are more likely to say today that the 2016 election was marred by millions of fraudulent votes and that Russia did not interfere in that election — both demonstrably untrue. A majority of strong Trump supporters today believe his provably false assertions that Joe Biden won the 2020 election because of fraud, that the United States funds most of NATO’s budget and that global temperatures are rising because of natural, not human, causes. While only 28 percent of Americans believe Trump’s false claims on average, those who list Fox News as a primary news source are 13 percentage points more likely to accept the disinformation as true."

Oh, and there's this too.

" If this is your news source [Real America's Voice, hosted by Wayne Root], is it any wonder that you have no idea what’s going on? Trump, doing his best to keep up with the crazy, decreed that “any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel, and, frankly, uh, should be spoken to.” Trump went on to say that “thousands” of Hannibal Lecters — the psycho killer in “Silence of the Lambs” — have crossed the border illegally and are “now in our country.”

Needless to say, not a word was true. But much of it will be believed. Trump’s most faithful supporters will also undoubtedly believe what Trump said on Wednesday: that Biden proposes to “quadruple everyone’s taxes.” And they’ll accept that, as he posted Wednesday, it is a sign of “Communism at its worst” that he will next week “be forced to sit, GAGGED, before a HIGHLY CONFLICTED & CORRUPT JUDGE.” "

Terrifying.  And this is the terrifying truth -- not what much of America that is going to vote for the conman, rapist, and hopefully soon, convicted felon -- is hearing.

If Trump's convicted, can he still be President?

 

I'm writing this about a week before we'll find out if former President Donald Trump will be convicted of multiple felonies in the so-called "hush money" case. It's really not about the hush money, it's about covering up the hush money by falsifying business documents about what it was for, because what it was for was to illegally aid Donald Trump in getting elected President.

So I'll probably revisit this. But I'll get it out there now (even though the article is more than a month old as I strive to reduce my time lag):

Trump’s the likely GOP nominee. He can serve even if convicted of a crime.

"In drafting the Constitution, the framers did not seriously consider that someone convicted of a significant crime would be a viable candidate for the White House, said Kimberly Wehle, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. Instead, she said, such a person presumably would be stunted in their political rise and unlikely to reach the highest levels of the American political system."

Well, it's a measure of how low the GOP has fallen that they are going to nominate Trump again. If he's convicted (and I think the case was pretty strong), then they'll go even lower.

Which boggles the mind, but that's where we are.

And I wish he was here.

Lighthouse of the Week, May 19 - 25, 2024: Punta Nati, Menorca, Spain

 

I checked back in my archives of LOTW and found that I had indeed featured a lighthouse on the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea, but not on the smaller "minor" island of Menorca. Both of these islands have several lighthouses, so I'll likely revisit. 

The lighthouse I'm featuring this week is one of the first that the search found when I searched for Menorca and lighthouse. In the Lighthouse Directory, there's one that is particularly appealing which I'll probably come back to.  But this week's featured light is the Punta Nati lighthouse.

This is the location of the Punta Nati lighthouse. I'm showing virtually the entire island of Menorca to put it in geographical context. 

Here's what the Lighthouse Directory has for it; not a lot of history.

"1913 (Mauro Serret). Active; focal plane 42 m (138 ft); four white flashes, in a 3+1 pattern, every 20 s. 19 m (62 ft) octagonal masonry tower with lantern and gallery, attached to the front of a 1-story U-shaped masonry keeper's house. The lighthouse is unpainted stone; lantern is gray metallic. ... This lighthouse on the relatively wild and barren northwest coast of Menorca is not often visited."

Nevertheless, it's scenic and pretty wild/isolated.

Pictures, including one with goats, and a fairly spectacular StreetView scene are shown below.

Now THIS is an opinion

 

New York Times columnist and opinion writer, the noted Maureen Dowd, did not pull punches in this piece.

This is who the GOP is going to nominate for President. It's clear how far those who call themselves Republicans (though I think many call themselves MAGA and NOT Republicans) have fallen into the pit of despair.

Donald Trump, Blasphemous Bible Thumper

"In January he [Trump] put up a video on Truth Social about how he is a messenger from God, “a shepherd to mankind.”

Trump is, as the nuns who taught me used to say, “a bold, brazen piece.” He is a miserable human who cheated on his wives, cheats at golf, cheats at politics, incites violence, targets judges and their families and looked on, pleased, as thugs threatened to hang his actually pious vice president.

Yet, more and more, Trump is wallowing in his messiah complex.

Two-Corinthians Trump wouldn’t know the difference between Old and New Testaments. So he may not realize that, rather than a sacrificial lamb, he is the golden calf, the false god worshiped by Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments."

You remember what happened when "I Am" aka Yahweh aka Jehovah, found out that the Hebrews were worshiping the Golden Calf, right?

It wasn't pretty.

By the way, one of those Commandments was "Thou shalt not commit adultery."  Donald must have missed that one. (Actually, he missed more than all 10 -- read the column.)

NASA's DC-8 lab is retired

 

After years and years and years and years of service, NASA is retiring it's reliable and dedicated DC-8 flying laboratory aircraft. It'll be replaced, but it's easy to call this the end of an era.

NASA’s DC-8 bows out after 37 years of groundbreaking scientific research

"NASA’s DC-8 was built in 1969 and stretches 157 feet long with a 148-foot wingspan. The aircraft has a range of 5,400 nautical miles and can fly at altitudes from 1,000 to 42,000 feet for up to 12 hours.

The jet has been highly modified to support the Agency’s Airborne Science mission and incorporates a suite of sensors and data systems that can be tailored to specific missions or instruments."

So I now SALUTE this workhorse of the skies. 

This is Montana Cox

 

OK, I admit it -- I have not been able to watch the Australian version of Next Top Model.

(Seriously, I think I managed to watch a couple of episodes of the American version, but I'd have to do some research to determine if my vague memories of that are accurate.)

Still, when the Daily Mail had an article about Montana Cox, who is from Australia, not Montana, I did take a look at it, because she was on a beach in a bikini.  And this confirmed she is quite attractive, which models should be, and also has a very slender model body, which not all models have but which is the type I prefer, along with the somewhat curvy but still in pretty darned good shape body. While I understand body positivity and plus-size models, we all have our preferences. 

Montana Cox turns heads as she flaunts her incredible beach body in a VERY racy bikini

I invite you to peruse the article for its educational content. That shouldn't take long.

And then you can peruse this fairly nice picture of Montana, modeling lingerie.

One final note;  like many good Aussies, she also occasionally sunbathes topless on the beach. You can verify that for yourself.

It's pretty and scenic and historic - but swimming in it?

 

Paris is trying to clean up the Seine River so that it can be used as a competition venue during the Olympics, which are getting close. 

Not for rowing or canoeing or kayaking -- but for swimming?  I know that it's planned for open water swimming, and I believe for the water leg of triathlon, as well.

As of April, it wasn't exactly clean. And now we're past mid-May.

They say that it will be fine for the Olympics -- let's hope so.

‘Alarming’ bacteria levels found in Seine River, where Olympians will swim

"Along with select sporting events, the river is to be the centerpiece of the Opening Ceremonies. Athletes will sail down the Seine on cruise boats with spectators lining its banks, in lieu of the traditional parade on land.

In an open letter, Surfrider said it had growing concerns about the risks to Olympic athletes if the water is still contaminated by July, calling its test results “alarming.” "

Surfrider Foundation is described as a nonprofit devoted to waterway conservation.

I have to admit, it will be impressive, as long as it's safe. 

Hopeful sign

 

One of the worst / deadliest cancers that can happen to a person is pancreatic cancer. There are several reasons for this: early on, it rarely provides symptoms that indicate it's happening; it's most treatable early (when it's largely undetectable); and because it's such a killer when it's advanced, it has been hard to develop treatments for it that work.

That might possibly be changing.

Breakthrough in fight against world's deadliest cancer - new drug shrunk up to 70% of pancreatic tumors in lab study

"Dr Olive said: ‘RMC-7977 [name of the new drug] as a single agent outperformed the best combination regimen that has ever been reported in the literature in that model system,’ adding that it was the first time he had seen tumors routinely get small across all models.

They also found that the treatment did not harm other, healthy cells. Many cancer treatments, including chemo and radiation, can harm healthy cells while targeting cancer cells."

That sounds good. Let's hope the success continues.

Something to not look forward to

 

In the past couple of days, and also weeks, Texas has been slammed with flooding rains and a very powerful storm packing both tornados and downbursts that brought down office building windows in Houston.  Meanwhile, strong storms and tornados have blasted through the Midwest and the "northern" Southeast, including Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Alabama and northern Georgia. Driving these storms is above-normal heat, higher-than-normal Gulf of Mexico temperatures, and increased moisture in the atmosphere.

All of which makes this predictive article from the New York Times a couple of weeks ago a bit more alarming. Oh look -- it's even in the headline!

‘Alarming’ Ocean Temperatures Suggest This Hurricane Season Will Be a Daunting One

" It’s the Colorado State researchers’ biggest April prediction ever, by a healthy margin, said Dr. Klotzbach. While things could still play out differently, he said he was more confident than he normally would be this early in the year. All the conditions that he and other researchers look at to forecast the season, such as weather patterns, sea surface temperatures and computer model data, are pointing in one direction.

“Normally, I wouldn’t go nearly this high,” he said, but with the data he’s seeing, “Why hedge?”

If anything, he said, his numbers are on the conservative side, and there are computer models that indicate even more storms on the way."

 

Don't agree

 

As a perusal of my political postings proclaims, I'm a pretty liberal person. But I don't agree with transgender athletes, particularly biological men who identify as women, competing against biological women (after puberty) and all the physiological benefits puberty provides to men, which confer an athletic advantage over women. And I say this as a full supporter of LGBTQ rights and against discrimination of LGBTQ people for virtually everything else. 

(Before puberty, it really doesn't matter.)

The competition between transgender women and biological women is simply not fair, and that's been demonstrated as pretty obvious in many different sporting competitions.

So I don't agree with this veto by the Wisconsin governor. 

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoes ban on transgender athletes competing in high school sports as Riley Gaines and Libs of TikTok slam politician for not caring if 'daughters get beat up'

Oh, I pretty much support anything else Tony Evers is for, and I'm likely also against virtually everything else he opposes. Because he and I are liberals. And I'd vote for him every time over whoever the GOP ran against him. 

Still, I agree with this:

"During testimony last year, state Representative Joel Kitchens said: 'Men have major physical advantages. They're bigger, they're stronger, they're faster.'

'Title IX was created so that women can have the same access to the same advantages, the same character building that takes place (in sports) that men always have experienced.' "

So keep sports fair. That's all I want.

Still hot, and now she's single

 

Let's check back with Maura Higgins (who I posted about a few weeks ago).

Maura Higgins flaunts her incredible figure on display in racy bikini snaps as she shows Hollywood stuntman ex what he's missing after shock split

I doubt she'll have any trouble finding dates. 

A higher level of ludicrousness

 

Obviously, I am strongly hoping that this ludicrousness doesn't have a chance to happen.

Sadly, at the moment, at still has a chance of happening.

Trump allies want racism protections for white people: Ex-president's inner circle plotting focus on 'anti-white racism' in civil rights if he is elected to a second term

"A key figure in providing a template for action is [Stephen] Miller, who helped shape Trump's 'America First' ideology and who served as a main driver for immigration policy during Trump's White House tenure, and who has been mentioned as a potential top official in a second term."

Yes, this Stephen Miller.

It's going to be an issue this November

 

I haven't seen much about this recently, but I know from the reaction at the time that there is going to be a massive campaign to get reasonable abortion rights in Florida, and it could put the state into play for the Presidency.  We shall see.

Florida Supreme Court allows one of nation’s strictest abortion bans to take effect

"The ruling reflects a major shift for the Florida Supreme Court, which has struck down several abortion restrictions over the past few decades. It has recently been reshaped by DeSantis into what many consider one of the most conservative courts in the country. Several judges who ruled to uphold the abortion ban have roots in the antiabortion movement.

One of those justices, Charles Canady, is a former Republican congressman who sponsored legislation to outlaw abortions later in pregnancy. His wife, state Rep. Jennifer Canady (R), co-sponsored the six-week abortion ban.

Even if voters decide to add abortion protections to the constitution in November, the battle for abortion rights in Florida could be far from over, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who specializes in abortion.

In the ruling on the amendment, Ziegler noted, the justices emphasized that any new constitutional protections for abortion could conflict with “personhood rights as applied to the unborn child.”

I need to point out here that this was recently a problem in Alabama. Like I said, we shall see.

Go, Florida, go!

Lighthouse of the Week, May 12 - 18, 2024: Cape Reinga, New Zealand

 

Back in 2019, I wrote a blog post about lighthouses based on an article about lighthouses that were very photogenic.  

I subsequently featured some of these lighthouses in Lighthouse of the Week blog posts. However, one of the lighthouses I didn't feature was the one I'm featuring this week: the Cape Reinga lighthouse of New Zealand.

Here's where it is located. Basically, it is in one of the greatest locations in the world to put a lighthouse.

Let's get the story (which is not very long) about this one, from the Lighthouse Directory. 

"1941. Active; focal plane 165 m (542 ft); white flash every 12 s. 10 m (33 ft) octagonal concrete tower with lantern and eight ribs. Tower painted white; lantern roof is black. ... This light on Cape Reinga replaced the 1879 Cape Maria van Diemen lighthouse as the main landfall light at the northern extremity of New Zealand. It carries the original Maria van Diemen lantern, but the 1st order Fresnel lens has been replaced by a small modern lens. It stands on a spectacular site overlooking the Pacific to the northeast and the Tasman Sea to the northwest. The surrounding area is included in the Te Paki Recreation Reserve."

A couple of other sites:

The Ivory White Lighthouse at Cape Reinga

The Cape Reinga Lighthouse - Pukenui Holiday ParkThe Cape Reinga Lighthouse - Pukenui Holiday Park

Lots and lots of pictures to choose from, so here are four.

And a video: 

Who's the statue?

 

In the city of Nancy, France, there is a large city square called the Place Stanislas.

There are many pictures of it; here's one of them.

You will notice that there is a statue in the center of the square.  The picture below has a closer look. 

So, you are hopefully wondering by now, who is the statue?

As you might be able to guess, the first name of the man depicted by the statue is Stanislas.

He was Stanislas Leszczyński, born in Ukraine and formerly King of Poland (twice), and then exiled a long way away, in France.  He married his daughter to Louis XV, invested a lot in the city of Nancy (because he was the Duke of Lorraine, where Nancy is located), and then died when his robe caught fire, but he had a long life -- he was the longest living Polish king. Wikipedia has the details.

I'm glad that I've informed three or four of my blog readers of this story. 

This could still be bad

 

I've still been endeavoring to catch up on news, and this ship sank in the Red Sea after being hit by Houthi rebel missiles. It's carrying an enormous amount of fertilizer, which if released could markedly change the low-nutrient waters of the Red Sea.

As far as I can tell, there hasn't been any news since it went down. That's good, I think, but it may be that in the turmoil of the Middle East, it's just been moved down the priority list. And getting that fertilizer out of the hull could be difficult.

So, here's hoping it stays there. In one piece.

Fears of environmental disaster rise as ship sinks after Houthi attack

" “As well as any further leaks of fuel oil from the engines, the sinking of the vessel could further breach the hull, allowing water to contact with the thousands of tons of fertilizer, which could then be released into the Red Sea and disrupt the balance of the marine ecosystems, triggering cascading effects throughout the food web,” Jreissati said."

Clouds don't get in the way

 

Cumulus clouds, the puffy white cotton-candy kind, are called "fair weather" clouds.  They form (via condensation) when there's some rising moisture, with a bit of heat coming from the ground.  And when that cools off, they disappear.

So when the ground cools off as the eclipse shadow approaches, they disappear.

If you watched the recent total solar eclipse, did you notice that? Obviously it depends on where you were. 

Low-Level Clouds Disappear During a Solar Eclipse

Lighthouse of the Week, May 5 - 11, 2024: Rivingen, Norway

 

Norway has a LOT of lighthouses. Just checking the front page of the Lighthouse Directory will confirm that, because it has a large number of regional sections of Norway to deal with all of them. 

That means there are many to choose from, and I chose this one: Rivingen. It's perched on some hard rocks on a small island, and it's actually a 2-for-1, with a new little lighthouse in front of the older building.

This is the location (near Grimstad). It's also on the wide opening of the Skagerrak, the water passageway to the Baltic Sea.

So there's two descriptions.

The old one:

"1886. Inactive since 1925. Approx. 8 m (26 ft) square cylindrical tower with a sharply pyramidal roof and a spire, attached to the front of a 1-1/2 story keeper's house. Building painted white; the tower roof is a dark maroon metallic. ... The active light stands in front of the house, which is now a private summer residence."

The new one:

"1925 (station established 1886). Inactive since 2022. 5 m (17 ft) square wood tower with lantern and gallery, painted white; lantern roof painted red."

The pictures are below, and there are some good ones. And there's one strange thing; in the last picture, the little lighthouse is gone. The last picture was taken from a boat (the site is called "Boatview"), and fairly recently, in 2022.  Did it get taken down or knocked off the rocks by a big wave?  I don't know.

The true Republican agenda

 

Be aware.  And Democrats need to run on this.

Trump can’t remember much. He hopes you won’t be able to, either.

"The Heritage Foundation-run Project 2025, to which Trump has unofficially outsourced policymaking for a second term, said that a “glitch” had caused its policies — including those embracing a mifepristone ban — to disappear from its website. The Biden campaign said it was “calling BS on Trump and his allies’ shameless attempt to hide their agenda,” and the missing documents returned — including the language calling abortion pills “the single greatest threat to unborn children” and vowing to withdraw regulatory approval for the drugs.

About 7 in 10 Americans believe the abortion pill should be legal. So it’s easy to see why Trump might wish to erase his plan to ban the pill — just as he would like to erase his calls for the repeal of Obamacare, which has the support of 6 in 10 Americans.

The extremism isn’t just at Project 2025, stocked with former Trump advisers. The House Republican Study Committee, which counts 80 percent of House Republicans as members, put out a budget last week that would rescind approval of mifepristone, dismantle the “failed Obamacare experiment” and embrace a nationwide abortion ban from the moment of conception.

Yet here the [Republican Study Committee] RSC is, embracing a nationwide abortion ban without exceptions; a ban on the abortion pill; an increase in the retirement age for Social Security; defunding the police (through cuts to the Community Oriented Policing Services program); ending Amtrak funding and selling it off; eliminating broadband provided by the Affordable Connectivity Program; and blocking the “red flag” provisions that keep guns from dangerous people."

Seriously, how can anyone not see the potential danger?

And the answer to the question is ...

 

Here's the question, also the title of an op-ed in the Washington Post:

Should anti-Trump Republicans endorse Biden?

The answer is an obvious "YES".

Let's expand on that a bit:

"It’s notable that the left isn’t rushing to welcome Pence into the Trump resistance movement just yet. “Pence’s announcement that he won’t endorse Trump is particularly weak because he refuses to rule out voting for him,” Zeeshan Aleem writes for MSNBC. “That means, if he casts a ballot, he’ll vote either for a third-party candidate or for Trump. By publicly refusing to rule out a vote for Trump, his non-endorsement looks more like performative piety than it does a punch at his former boss — and a far cry from fomenting resistance within the GOP.” "

So if Pence really had what's best for the country first and foremost in his mind, he's endorse Biden. But he still can't quite Trump, despite knowing how bad for the country another Trump Presidency would be.

Trump called him a different name, but I'll stick with ... wimp.

No pants beach

 

Gorgeous model Sofía Alegre Costa (see her Instagram for verification of that) poses provocatively on the beach, and it is much appreciated. Her tan lines are much appreciated, too.

Turning the nuke back on

 

Reignite the atoms

This is one way of cutting fossil fuel emissions from power plants; turn decommissioned power plants back on.

Shuttered Michigan nuclear plant gets $1.5bn federal loan to restart operations by 2025 - and could power at least 800,000 homes

Just make sure the control rod seals are fixed first!

MIT Technology Review has an article about it too.

How to reopen a nuclear power plant

"The state funding and federal loan will help support the fixes and upgrades needed for the plant’s equipment and continue paying the approximately 200 workers who have stayed on since its shutdown. The plant employed about 700 people while it was operating, and the company is now working on rehiring additional workers to help with the restart, Culp says."

But still, small modular reactors are the key to the future.

I'm glad I wasn't on this plane

 

I guess they walked away from it, but I'm sure a few of them had weak knees.  Hopefully not weak stomachs.

TAP Airbus A321neo lands nose first as pilot battles wild Madeira winds: video

Here's the video.  Make sure your seats are in the upright and locked position and that your seatbelts are fastened.

Tight.

You have to repeat the lie, even if you don't believe it

 

Apparently today's Republican Party has some new requirements for management positions:  you have to at least state that you believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Even though it wasn't.

The revamped Republican Party turns Trump’s lies into a loyalty test

"New reporting from The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey suggests that fealty to this Trumpworld idea is becoming a litmus test for people seeking (or hoping to retain) jobs with the Republican Party. The effective ouster of Ronna McDaniel as the party’s chair and Trump’s confirmation as the GOP presidential nominee meant an overhaul of the party itself. Among the changes: quizzing at least some potential employees on their views of the 2020 election."

Further down in the column, a sign of authoritarism is discussed:

" “[L]ies can help ensure the loyalty of subordinates who are forced to repeat them,” Marquez wrote, more than three years before the 2020 contest. “These kinds of lies need not be credible at all to people outside the regime. The more incredible a lie is, the more it can credibly signal loyalty to a political leader in conditions of low trust. When a subordinate repeats an obviously ridiculous claim he or she is degraded, and bound more closely to the leader.”

George Orwell’s famous quote from “1984” comes to mind: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

From the top down, to be a true member of the GOP, you have to believe a lot of lies. Or at least say you do.

It's a crater!

 

New insight on the Luna structure in India, now identified as a meteorite impact crater, and potentially one of the biggest whacks on Earth in the last 50,000 years.

Deciphering India's Luna Crater

"The Luna structure is situated in India’s Gujarat state in a grassland called the Banni Plains. The Great Rann of Kutch, an expansive white salt desert, lies just to the north. Parts of these low-lying areas are submerged for much of the year, and the Luna crater often contains water. Researchers took advantage of a dry period in May 2022 to collect samples from throughout the structure."

Here's the paper with the results:

The Luna structure, India: A probable impact crater formed by an iron bolide

Abstract:

The Luna structure of India has been rumored to be an impact crater for more than a decade without any convincing evidence. This structure (1.5–1.8 km) is prominently visible in the low-lying Banni Plains of the tectonically active Kutch Basin as a circular morphological feature with a less-prominent rim. Luna area is strewn with melt-like rocks having high specific gravity and displaying wide range of magnetic properties. It contains minerals like wüstite, kirschsteinite, ulvöspinel, hercynite, and fayalite. The whole rock analysis denotes PGE enrichment, with notably higher average concentrations of Ru (19.02 ppb), Rh (5.68 ppb), Pd (8.64 ppb), Os (6.03 ppb), Ir (10.63 ppb) and Pt (18.31 ppb). The target is not exposed at Luna, owing to the overlying thick sequence of Quaternary sediments. The mineralogical and geochemical signatures points to an impact into a target, which is rich in clay with elevated calcium and silica (sand/silt) content. Geochemical data suggests an iron or stony-iron meteorite as the potential projectile at Luna. The silt layer containing plant remnants, underlying the strewn layer, yielded a radiocarbon age of 6905 years, making Luna the biggest crater to result from an iron bolide within the last 10,000 years.