I've never been there. If I somehow ended up near there (for which I have no plans at this time), I might stop by. It's about equidistant from Rochester and Syracuse.
One thing that strikes me about it -- the formations that give the place its name seem both very accessible and somewhat fragile. That seems to invite the possibility of either benign erosional pressure or actual vandalism. See if you agree.
I hope neither occurs, until I get a chance to visit.
Also, I wonder what it looks like buried in lake-effect snow. But that I can find.
"The effects of climate change on winter have claimed another victim, in this case, a community ski hill in Canada. ...
Located just northeast of Drayton Valley, The Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club has been in operation since 1965. The family-oriented resort was a staple of the community with a T-bar, two rope tows, a handle tow, and terrain options for all types of skiers. ...
Alongside difficulties with insurance, [Snow Club President] Beckett also stated that “mother nature has not been kind to us, in any way, over the last 10 years.” The Club lost their $14,000 insurance premium with the Rural Municipalities of Alberta in 2022. Beckett obtained a new policy in 2023, but the hill was unable to open for the entire season due to poor conditions. Of the last seven ski seasons, the hill has only been able to open for three."
Click on this to see where it was. It was southwest of Edmonton. And remember, Alberta is where tar sands oil is exported from. There's a lesson to be learned here, if those that need to learn it are paying attention. (By and large, they aren't.)
I had never heard of Chaudière Falls, in my entire life. But I happened to see an aerial (or drone, I'm not sure, it was definitely in the air, though) view of Ottawa, Canada, and there was a big waterfall going over rocks, with a dam right next to it.
I figured that it was something significant. I think that turned out to be correct.
This is what it looks like in Google Maps satellite view:
And this is what it looks like from the viewing area:
"Chaudière Falls is a captivating destination, steeped in Indigenous history and tales of early exploration. The falls have witnessed centuries of change, making them not only a natural wonder but also a cultural and historical landmark.
Home to Canada’s oldest hydroelectric station still in operation, Chaudière Falls was responsible for lighting Ottawa’s streets with electricity and fuelled the industrial explosion of the mid-1800s by providing water power for the vast complex of lumber mills that once occupied the shoreline of the Ottawa River. Elements of the city’s industrial past remain today, including two of the site’s oldest buildings, which survived the Great Fire of 1900.
Today, a new, modern generating station exemplifies responsible hydroelectric generation with minimal to zero impact on the visual, natural and aquatic environments and serves as a tourist attraction – offering safe viewing platforms, a bridge across the intake canal, and stunning views."
So I'll finish with a video. It's impressive; it would probably have been more impressive if all the dams and mills hadn't been build around it. But that's progress for ya.
"Congress revoked an additional $20 billion from the Internal Revenue Service last week when lawmakers averted a government shutdown, a cut that may undo many of President Joe Biden’s efforts to improve customer service at the tax agency and train fresh scrutiny on wealthy tax cheats.
Biden and congressional Democrats gave the IRS $80 billion in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, but Congress rescinded $20 billion as part of a 2023 budget deal. Shortly afterward, Republicans vowed they’d be back for more IRS cuts.
And because of the way lawmakers extended government funding into March, an additional $20 billion in cuts came automatically."
What's the effect?
"But Biden administration officials said the additional cuts would add $140 billion to the national debt over the next decade by hamstringing the agency’s ability to audit wealthy individuals and large corporations."
Not exactly cost-saving if that turns out to be accurate.
Inside Climate News has a story about threats to the drinking water supply of New York City. It's something that has been happening around the world. It doesn't really qualify as climate change, though climate change may help in some circumstances. Put it more broadly, it's ecosystem change.
Zebra mussels, hydrilla and now a waterflea have made their homes in New Croton Reservoir.
Yes, there are invasive species in the water; so what can they do to it?
In the case of the zebra mussels:
"The mollusks were eventually washed into the reservoir due to extreme precipitation events. These zebra mussels are filter feeders, which means they take in water and feed on plankton within the water column. This reduces the food available to small fish and native mussels, thus disrupting the natural food web. They can also latch on to native mussels, surrounding them and hindering their ability to feed or reproduce, sometimes causing death.
Their ability to accumulate on surfaces can also clog water supply systems, which has happened at the Croton Reservoir. ... Their presence can also influence water chemistry. Zebra mussels feed on specific types of algae and discard others, releasing byproducts in their feces. This can be a breeding ground for cyanobacteria, which is a type of algae that, when found in high concentrations, can create a “bloom.”
These blooms sit on the surface of the water, impeding fishing and boating, often emitting an unpleasant odor which can translate to the water supply, and reducing the amount of oxygen in the water, which affects the survival of native fish in the water body. It can even carry harmful toxins."
In the case of the hydrilla:
"The presence of hydrilla in the reservoir can have implications for not just the marine ecosystem, but also the water quality and the survival of local birds. Hydrilla is also known to harbor cyanobacteria, which can turn into a toxin–Aetokthonos hydrillicola. This type of harmful algae can kill waterfowl and bald eagles, and has the potential to harm human health.
“It’s a neurotoxin, so in places where Aetokthonos is found on hydrilla, lots of wildlife have died from brain lesions,” said White. “So fish have died, reptiles, like turtles, have died, waterfowl that eat the hydrilla, and then the predators of those waterfowl as well.”
Climate change leads to warmer weather in the fall and more extreme precipitation events which move sediments around in the water column. This creates better conditions for the spread of hydrilla, of cyanobacteria blooms, and, by proxy, of these toxins. Their presence has not been confirmed in New York state, though the Department of Environmental Protection is sampling for it."
And how about the water flea?
"The fishhook waterflea was found in the reservoir last year. The novelty of its arrival means that the Department of Environmental Protection officials have not seen adverse impacts on the marine ecosystem yet, and its wider implications for the food chain are unknown. The waterflea can impact water quality by eating large quantities of zooplankton, which creates better conditions for the growth of harmful algae blooms. Taylor believes it was likely transferred through fishing gear because the waterflea’s eggs can survive drying out for long periods of time."
So that's what they can do. And once change gets started in one direction, it's hard to stop.
For this week's Lighthouse of the Week, I looked at Brazil, which has a lot of coastline, and many lighthouses, which are in a variety of conditions. Some are in great shape, functioning, and tourist attractions, and others aren't in such great shape. It's a big variety.
This one is in good shape, and on a really nice beach. It's in the Bahia province, well north of the most famous locations on the Brazil coast, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. So there are quite a few pictures of it.
It is located here, and you can zoom out to see where that is with respect to the rest of the big country of Brazil.
Here is what the Lighthouse Directory has about the Farol de Itapuã:
"1873. Active; focal plane 24 m (79 ft); white flash every 6 s. 21 m (69 ft) round cast iron tower with lantern and gallery, mounted on a concrete base and connected to shore by an arched concrete bridge. Lighthouse painted with red and white horizontal bands; lantern and gallery are red. ... This is one of nine cast iron lighthouses prefabricated for Brazil by P & W McLellan of Glasgow, Scotland."
A short video and three pictures are provided below.
“It is known that regular coffee consumption benefits cognitive performance among healthy people. The most frequent cardiac arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, is known to independently increase the risk of dementia,” said Massimo Barbagallo, M.D., lead author of the study and a resident in the neuro intensive care unit at the University Hospital Zürich. “Thus, the question is whether coffee might offset the increased risk of cognitive impairment in people with AFib.”
“Many myths are around, but our study found no reason to discourage or forbid a patient with AFib from drinking coffee. Instead, say, ‘Enjoy, it may even be good for you!’” said Jürg H. Beer, M.D., senior author of the study and professor of medicine and hematology at the University of Zürich in Switzerland.
The study found:
Overall, higher cognitive test scores were associated with higher coffee consumption.
Specifically, scores for processing speed, visuomotor coordination and attention improved significantly by 11% among coffee consumers compared to non-consumers.
Cognitive age was calculated to be 6.7 years younger among those who drank the most coffee compared to those who drank the least.
Inflammatory markers were more than 20% lower in participants drinking five cups daily than in participants drinking less than one cup daily.
Researchers did not find any interaction between age, sex and coffee consumption."
Every now and then you come across something entirely unexpected and worth the time to contemplate and explore.
That's the case with Inga Sunagatullina.
I can't really show all of her qualities, but they aren't hard to find. Enjoy what I've provided here, and if you agree with me, employ the grand capabilities of web searching.
As we know now that science (particularly climate change science, but likely epidemiology, environment and pollution, and biomedical research) is under attack by the new and stupid Trump administration, this article from December is so future-predictive it's scary. But it's not like we didn't expect that this was going to happen.
"Bennett [director of senior policy at the activist group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)] heard stories from EPA employees across the country during Trump’s first term, detailing how their contributions to scientific knowledge were politicized and ignored. She warned that “every single employee” at the EPA is “at risk” right now. Having worked at the EPA for almost 10 years as wetlands enforcement coordinator in New England, Bennett understands EPA workers’ plight viscerally as well as intellectually. Perhaps that’s why she is unapologetically frank when speaking on behalf of government scientists, especially about the millions of American voters who share Trump’s hostility to science."
And there's this:
"Another EPA official who left during Trump's first term, who requested to remain anonymous, experienced this hostility directly. The official explains that a lot of their work “pretty much stalled” during all four years when Trump was in office. Even though Trump, Musk, Kennedy and others in the MAGA camp characterize themselves as champions of free speech, this official noted a chilling effect against all references to climate change being caused by the fossil fuel industry.
“We kind of had to talk about the work differently,” they told Salon. “No one used the word ‘climate.’ Everybody kind of just talked about, ‘What are the outcomes of climate work?’ and not necessarily name ‘climate’ just as it is, if that makes sense.”
On a practical level, this made it essentially impossible for scientists to do their jobs, all of which require dispassionate analysis of empirical data without regard to any special interest groups their conclusions might offend. Many scientists, who entered the field out of passion for knowledge and a desire to protect nature, became demoralized and quit."
There's a war going on -- against science. As if we didn't know.
This book is slated for July -- if the current fascist government in the United States allows it to be published and distributed.
Wow, it's been a long week this first week of Apocalypse February (which is now). The U.S. government it being prepared for total collapse and capitulation to the rule and whims of a criminal and egocentric idiot, aided and abetted by a putative genius who is also an egocentric eccentric. And that's putting it mildly.
So there is much to be blogged and discussed, and I have yet to fully catch up on a massive information backlog. So who knows what's going to happen in the next number of posts.
First, we'll catch up with Christina Aguilera, the talented, good-looking, and talkative singer/dancer/host, who just turned 44 years old. She always did seem like a fun date.
Here's one of the reasons she might be a fun date.
"Speaking during a recent interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the singer wasn't shy in revealing what turns her on in the bedroom, revealing that vibrators were a 'game changer', while she detailed the wild places she likes to get intimate.
The performer, who is well known for her hit track Dirrty and the racy video that accompanied it, has been dating fiancé Matthew Rutler since 2009 and it's clear that the spark is far from diminishing from their long-term relationship.
Opening up about her skills between the sheets, the Christina spoke about her accomplishments when it came to oral sex, telling how she 'enjoys' the oral sex act and is rather good at it.
When asked what her best sex skill was, Christina confessed: 'Hands down it’s gotta be blowjobs. I love blowjobs. I enjoy it.
'I know every different part and the sensitive areas. I do enjoy it. It’s a turn on.'
