Going all the way back to Anna Nicole Smith at her best, and probably back further than that, and certainly since then (including Amanda Cerny), Guess has produced gorgeous women photographed gorgeously.
This relatively new one (I don't know exactly when she showed up in print repping Guess) is Violetta Seleznova. For all of her Instagram pictures, go to her Instagram account.
For a few selections, look below this line.
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| That's a lot of water |
I'm providing a reference to a recent paper about the continuing loss of ice from the continent of Antarctica.
Antarctica Is Losing Ice the Size of Los Angeles Every Three Years"The ice sheet has been retreating from the grounding line at an average rate of 442 square kilometers per year. The most dramatic changes occurred in West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and Getz sectors, where glaciers retreated 10 to about 40 kilometers. Pine Island Glacier retreated 33 kilometers, Thwaites Glacier 26 kilometers, and Smith Glacier an extraordinary 42 kilometers.
“Where warm ocean water is pushed by winds to reach glaciers, that’s where we see the big wounds in Antarctica,” explained Rignot, who’s also a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It’s like the balloon that’s not punctured everywhere, but where it is punctured, it’s punctured deep.”
Researchers compiled data from multiple satellite missions, including the European Space Agency’s ERS-1/2 and Sentinel-1, Canada’s RADARSAT 1, RADARSAT 2 and RADARSAT Constellation Mission, Japan’s ALOS/PALSAR and ALOS/PALSAR-2, Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed, the German Aerospace Center’s TerraSAR-X and Argentina’s SAOCOM.
According to co-author Bernd Scheuchl, UC Irvine project scientist in Earth system science, the study represents a landmark achievement for NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program, marking the first major success involving commercial synthetic aperture radar data providers for polar research."
" “The flip side is that we should perhaps feel fortunate that all of Antarctica isn’t reacting right now, because we would be in far more trouble,” Rignot said. “But that could be the next step.”That's not something to wish for.
Continuing my extended catch-up efforts for Lighthouses of the Week, and covering lighthouses of Uruguay, the next one is the Faro de Colonia de Sacramento, which is likely the closest Uruguayan lighthouse to Argentina, which lies both to the north by land and to the south by water. This lighthouse is on a small extension of Uruguay into the Rio de la Plata, the big estuary that Buenos Aires notably lies on.
The Lighthouse Directory provides this basic information:
"1857. Active; focal plane 34 m (112 ft); red flash every 9 s. 27 m (88 ft) cylindrical brick tower with lantern and gallery, lower half square, upper half round. Lighthouse painted white; lantern painted with red and white vertical stripes. ... The lighthouse is built within the ruins of the Convento de San Francisco Javier, built by Portugal in 1682. Construction of the lighthouse began in 1845 but it was interrupted by a prolonged civil war, the Guerra Grande, which finally ended in 1852. Adjacent to the light station is the municipal museum of this historic city, which faces Buenos Aires across the broad Río de la Plata estuary. Located in the historic district of the city, on a peninsula extending into the Río de la Plata."
Due to the visual interaction with the ruins of the convent, it provides a good photographic subject.
I noted this back in February, and after I put the link to the article in this post, I'll see if there is any current status update.
To review, mercury in the environment is really bad. It's toxic at very low levels, and it makes a neurotoxin when methylated. It gets into the aquatic food chain, so higher level predators also known as game fish concentrate it in their tissues. Mercury is good for a lot of things, but being in the environment is not one of them.
Power Plants Will Be Allowed to Release More Than Twice As Much Mercury Into the Air
"The new rollback eliminates parts of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) finalized under the Biden administration. The 2024 updates strengthened limits on mercury and other hazardous air pollutant emissions from coal-burning power plants.
As a result of the repeal, coal-burning power plants will be allowed to emit more than twice as much mercury as they currently do. Specifically, they will no longer need to adhere to the limit of 1.2 pounds of mercury per trillion British thermal units of heat input (lb/TBtu) and instead must comply with the previous mercury release limit (set during the Obama administration in 2012) of 4.0 lb/TBtu.
The repeal also relaxes limits on emissions of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and nickel from coal-burning power plants."
"Congress has taken an active interest in recent EPA rulemaking related to the regulatory impact of HAPs standards. The stakes are high: the Trump administration's rollback of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule will increase mercury and non-mercury heavy metal emissions while producing hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance cost savings for the power industry, according to EPA's own analysis. By contrast, EPA projected no effect on retail electricity prices from the repeal."So, more emissions, more profits for the companies, no net savings for the public.
"On the other side, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Fair Air Enforcement Act of 2025, which would repeal citizen suit provisions of the Clean Air Act with conforming amendments to Section 112."
So, as I said, mercury is bad.
So are Republicans.
I admit to having a fascination for the Bond movies -- they are/were entertaining, stylish, and adventurous. I found this video with commercials made from Bond footage and actual commercials, and it's great. The one which commences at the 7:15 mark is fabulous.
Oh, just watch. You know you want to.
"I asked twenty women to pick the perfect penis size"
Back in February, the Senate voted 50-49 to allow a copper and nickel mine near the pristine natural wilderness of the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, in a watershed that flows into the protected area. This vote is a travesty.
So, two weeks ago (kind of keeping up, aren't I?) Governor Tim Walz issued an executive order banning the state from issuing any permits for the mine to proceed. GOOD move.
But -- Walz won't be governor next year. As one would expect, the evil Republican woman running for the seat immediately advocated the mine, and opposed Walz's executive order. This is in keeping with the GOP tradition of besmirching and attacking our natural heritage.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, who voted NO against the lifting of the ban, has not apparently said much about Walz's executive order, and what she'd do if elected. I really hope she plans to do the right thing, and I hope she gets elected so she can indeed do the right thing.
Here's what she said. (As the article notes, copper-nickel-precious metal mining is much more dangerous than iron mining. That's because those ores are sulfides and the mining process will release acidic waste.) "Klobuchar said she has serious concerns about mining next to the BWCA, but also noted that “there is other mining going on across the Range, including Mesabi Metallics iron ore mine about to open up, and some other proposed mining projects that don’t endanger the Boundary Waters, that I think it is important to continue to allow pending environmental reviews to go forward.”
Editorial from the Washington Post:
A copper mine would turn much of this paradise into an industrial zone
A new version of the dinosaur Spinosaurus (one of the best names ever given to the beasts, in my opinion) was recently described based on fossils found somewhere in the Sahara desert.
There's a scientific paper about it: Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation
(I'm sure there's a tongue-twister in there somewhere.)
And back when it was announced, there were lots of articles about it, including this one, which is great, and quite detailed:
New ‘scimitar-crested’ Spinosaurus species discovered in the central Sahara
Apparently it specialized in something, which was to eat fish.
"Another striking feature of the skull is its interdigitating upper and lower tooth rows, which make a deadly trap for slippery fish. Interdigitating teeth, where those of the lower jaw protrude outward and between those of the uppers, is a time-honored adaptation among fish-eaters in the fossil record — including aquatic ichthyosaurs, semi-aquatic crocodile and airborne pterosaurs. Among dinosaurs, it sets Spinosaurus and closest kin apart."
Quite a striking specimen. This artist's recreation was by Dani Navarro.
Yes, indeed, I promise, to the best of my effort, to catch up with the Lighthouses of the Week for 2026, and not miss a week. I have a lot of work to do.
As promised (awhile ago, but I did promise) I'm going to feature a couple more lighthouses from Uruguay. While I was dropping the ball, I also found a really historic lighthouse in the USA that will show up here, too. There are going to be a lot of lighthouses.
So, kicking this into gear, this week's featured lighthouse is the Cabo Polonio light. This handsome tower is located here. It's in Uruguay, of course.
Here is information about it, from where I usually get information, the Lighthouse Directory.
"1881. Active; focal plane 40 m (131 ft); white flash every 12 s. 26 m (85 ft) round brick tower with lantern and double gallery rising from 1-story keeper's house. Tower unpainted except for three narrow white horizontal bands; lantern and watch room painted with red and white vertical stripes. ... The lighthouse marks a rocky point in an otherwise sandy area; nearby offshore are several islands with colonies of seals. The area was declared a national monument in 1976. There's no public road access, but the light can be reached by hiking on the beach from nearby resorts."
Pictures are provided below.
Back in February, the Ice Cube neutrino array at the South Pole added new strings of detectors to make the clarity of a detected event much better.
IceCube Neutrino Observatory gets a major upgrade beneath the ice
Susanna Giovanardi goes by the moniker "Tennis Girl" on Instagram.
To support that, she has pictures like the following, as well as videos demonstrating that she's got a pretty good game (including a solid two-handed backhand):
She also has pictures like this, indicating that she's outstanding from both sides.
Just a warning, I may have more posts like this.
Vaccination During Pregnancy Protects Newborns From Whooping Cough"A research team under the auspices of Prof. Beate Kampmann, Director of the Institute of International Health at Charité and Scientific Director of the Charité Center for Global Health, has now been able to prove for the first time that the antibodies transmitted by the mother are not only present in the blood but also in the nasal mucosa of newborns – which is precisely where the pathogens enter the body. "We knew that maternal antibodies are passed on by way of the placenta. We were surprised, however, to find that we could also detect them in the nasal mucosa of newborns – in a manner that is gentle on the children. This underlines the effectiveness of indirect vaccination"
"Even today, whooping cough remains a deadly disease in many parts of the world. Every year, between 200,000 and 300,000 people die from it, mainly young children in low- and middle-income countries where good vaccines are not always available. Consequently, the research team is planning further studies to help improve existing pertussis vaccines and test the efficacy of new vaccines."
REFERENCE:
This post is about swimmer extraordinaire Kate Douglass.
Just a few weeks ago, she set a world record in the 50 meter (long course, of course) freestyle. Several days after that, her former teammate at Virginia and current teammate on the USA team, Gretchen Walsh, broke that record.
So, at the Pan Pacific Championships that just concluded in Irvine, California, Douglass rebroke/reset the 50 meter freestyle world record by a few hundredths of a second. That happened in the preliminary heats in the morning.
So, in the evening, in the lane right next to Walsh, and with a few other darned good sprinters in pursuit, she did it again. But she didn't just lower it a bit -- she eradicated it by nearly three-tenths of a second. In a swimming sprint, that's enormous.
Furthermore, in about 20 minutes, she was second in the 200 meter breaststroke, which is a crazy mix. Maybe she was a little tired.
But not so tired that she couldn't anchor the winning 4x100 meter medley relay -- over the Aussies. (OK, they were missing a couple of stars. But still, it was the Aussies.)
But wait -- the night before, leading off the 4x100 meter freestyle relays, which also beat the Aussies, she missed breaking the world record for the 100 meter freestyle by one-hundredth of a second.
Seriously, that is a massive set of accomplishments over a couple of days.
Finally, I think she's also taking her image a bit more seriously, too. I tried to find some advertisements I'd seen recently, but couldn't immediately locate them.
Instead, if one wonders how she's doing this, one clue is her arms. She's slender, but ...
Combine those with unnatural flexibility, and she can slice through the water with power.
By the way, was she even mentioned on ESPN Sports Center?
If she was, I missed it.
I fear that I can never catch up with the pace of events happening in the world. Politically, environmentally, athletically -- everything seems to be going on at an accelerated pace. And my own life is similar; such that I have not been able to blog at the pace that I have been accustomed to.
As I've noted before, I want to change that and get back on a regular pace. Once a day would be fine -- if I can get that going. Three times a month is not worth it. So I am going to try and change my trajectory.
I'm also going to have a lot of Lighthouses of the Week. I have an extended backlog there, too. But I intend to catch up, even if I have to have five Lighthouses of the Week in one week a couple of times.
So, meanwhile, let's finish with a picture. This is Pointe de Dinan in France, which can at times have surfable waves. This was not one of those times.
Why is this place interesting? Well, for one thing, it also has this incredible sea arch.
You can see more pictures of it (and the Pointe) on this page.
I know what you're thinking, and I did that deliberately. The best what? Best ice cream? Best Certified Public Accountant? Best place to get a beer and watch the game?
No, none of those things. It's another one of the lists, this time the "Best Small Town in Your State", on the discoverer.com blog.
Out of curiosity, of course, I read the list to see which ones I've been to. Six of them; I need to get out more. Maryland has Oakland, actually a long haul from most of the state. Illinois has Galena, which I haven't been to, but I've been to Galesburg. A couple of them are touristy, like Branson in Missouri and Helen in Georgia and Leavenworth in Washington and Bar Harbor in Maine (one of the six I've been to).
I'll finish this with a picture of one I'd like to visit: Meredith, New Hampshire. Looks good in every season.
OK, so England didn't win the World Cup (again). There was considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth. But soccer is mostly about disappointment. So they'll figure out how to live with it.
But a couple of days later, an Englishman did what Englishmen have been doing for decades -- he broke the world record in the mile.
Remember that the mile is an English unit of measure, too. Because of that, the track mile race is not contested very often. The 1,500 meter race is. So when someone lines up to break world record in the mile, they probably plan to do it.
Josh Kerr did just that. He broke the record in the mile. If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching.
Here:
But getting back to England; if you look at the mile record progression, ever since Roger Bannister (English) broke 4:00, it has been held by runners from England, the British Commonwealth (I can rope in Australia and New Zealand that way), and former English colonies (USA) for the latter half of the 20th century, until an Algerian and a Moroccan held it in the 1990s. The record that Kerr broke was set in 1999.
So it's a very British/English thing to hold the world record in the mile. And even though they didn't win the World Cup, Kerr brought the record home.
While we're on the subject of sports that recently happened, I have to mention two things that happened TODAY (hard to do that when I'm trying to catch up on a couple of lost months).
A. The FIFA World Cup. Spain defeated Argentina 1-0. It was a soccer fan's dream, and a nightmare for those trying to sell the sport in the USA. Because it wasn't exciting. It was clearly a mismatch, the classic where one team is dominant and the other team is hoping for some luck. Now, the other team was Argentina, and they had Lionel Messi, and he's good at making luck. Amazingly enough, in the last desperate minutes, down a man, he still almost made the luck he's famous for.
But was it exciting? If you hope for something more than a boring game, maybe. It was like hoping for a miracle but not expecting one. So the better team won, as expected for the whole game.
Yes, there was great defense and some amazing saves from the Argentinian goalkeeper, Martinez. But when one goalkeeper is making a lot of great saves and the other team is not getting any shots on goal, that's not a great contest.
So let's move on to B. the British Open (aka The Open Championship).
That was actually exciting. In this case, because of numerous surprises. An unexpected first-found leader, golfers shooting 62s when hardly anyone else could, including a 39-year old New Zealander. The really surprising thing was that one of the 62 shooters, Sam Burns, stayed in it until nearly the end, an early starter (Cameron Young) posted a score that almost got him into a playoff, and one of the other 62 shooters, the New Zealander named Ryan Fox, sank an 11-foot birdie putt to win it.
(By the way, Fox is a very accomplished international golfer. But the USA sports networks don't cover the PGA Tour of Australasia or the European Tour very much. Golf aficionados have likely heard of him, and he has won a PGA Tour event and the RBC Canadian Open. So even though he's not particularly well-known, he had the game, obviously.)
So the players that were expected to win didn't, an unlikely winner took the cup, and the outcome was uncertain until the last hole.
That's exciting. And Ryan Fox knew it.
My first post in July was a gentle prediction for the outcome of Wimbledon, in which I suggested that Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, or Jessica Pegula might have a chance to win the big one on grass. I never had any idea that either Noskova or Muchová was going to be in the final, much less both of them (Noskova won after nearly losing the chance to win, if you didn't know). Now, Gauff had a heroic semifinal against Muchová, so she almost made it.
On the men's side, I was right about Sinner, but I said "as long as he's playing, no one else is". I didn't give Zverev a thought. I should have. Sinner is indeed a bit more consistent, and was able to do what champion players do, which is to exploit a couple of mistakes. But Zverev gave him a good battle.
Next up, we'll consider the U.S. Open in late August.
I don't know if anyone reads this blog (though looking at my stats, there are a few readers). With a changing schedule, I've found it hard to get to it daily like I used to. And I still have so much to say! So, I'm going to be trying to catch up for awhile.
Meanwhile, here's a nice picture from the past.
As I write this, the Tour de France is doing a special Stage 3 due to a nearby large wildfire. The public was asked not to watch from the roadside.
They're getting into the last couple of climbs in the Pyrenees right now.
Anything can happen, but what's still most likely to happen is that Pogacar will win it again.
(Yes, I'm back. More on that later. Lots to post.)
Well, maybe a little more than halfway, actually. Stunning surprises on the women's side, with Sabalenka, Swiatek, and Rybakina all knocked out. So, is this Jessica Pegula's year? Maybe. Gauff has weaknesses, everybody knows that, and Pegula is smart enough to exploit them.
Still, I think it's Naomi Osaka's comeback that's going to capture the headlines and the title. Great to see Jasmine Paolini still playing (like she is right now), but I don't see her winning on grass. I wouldn't mind being wrong about that.
On the men's side, as long as Sinner is playing, nobody else is. Taylor Fritz could make it through to the final, but I'm afraid Sinner is to Fritz what Federer was to Andy Roddick, i.e., unbeatable.
Now on to the Tour de France.
This Instagram account belongs to Olya Abramovich. I checked, and the rich Russian oligarch that used to own the Chelsea football club, Roman Abramovich, has a son named Ilya, but no daughters named Olya.
So, Olya Abramovich for your viewing pleasure. And she is pleasurable to the eyes. And she has a reasonable resemblance to Angelina Jolie.
Yes, I am well behind on the news, but I have to report this sad loss of a famous and romantic geological feature.
Italy's famous 'love arch' collapses on Valentine's Day as storm lashes the country
Supposedly, if lovers kissed under the arch, they would be in love forever. Well, maybe love lasts, but coastal landmarks are subject to the forces of wind and wave, and have a finite existence.
The arch, called the Torre Sant'Andrea, was located on the coast of Puglia, locatable as the heel of the boot of Italy. Here's a 'before' picture:
Because of the current World Cup, I was looking at various countries that are participating that would have lighthouses. I checked and discovered that I have never featured a lighthouse from Uruguay, and it has a few -- some very handsome ones, too. So as I catch up to the present time (which might still take awhile) I'm going to do a Uruguay series.
I'm starting off with the Faro de José Ignacio, which I presume is named after a gentleman named Ignacio. Now, remembering that Uruguay is on the eastern coast of South America south of Brazil, this map shows where this lighthouse is. It's up the coast from Montevideo, which is really the only urban center of note in Uruguay.
As is customary, here's the excerpted basics from the Lighthouse Directory:
"1877. Active; focal plane 32 m (105 ft); white flash every 2 s. 25 m (82 ft) round brick tower with lantern and gallery rising from 1-story keeper's house. Tower unpainted except for three narrow white horizontal bands; lantern and watch room painted with red and white vertical stripes. ... Located on a rocky point in a popular resort area on the coastal road (national route 10) about 55 km (35 mi) southwest of La Paloma."
As is also customary, pictures of this lighthouse are below.
The lists go on ... this one, from Fodor's Travel, lists the 10 Best Burgers in America (like that one hasn't been done before). Still, they are intriguing. The nearest one to Maryland is in Boston, so I'm not taking a road trip just for that purpose. But if you're in the neighborhood and don't mind dishing out some serious cash for fancy ground beef, go right ahead.
The 10 Best Burgers in the United States
The one that intrigues me the most is from Pasjoli, in Santa Monica, CA, and I won't be visiting there anytime soon.
Now, for something simpler and easy to find, I just found out that the Texas Roadhouse franchise has a "Texas Roadhouse Roadkill" dish. A picture of what purports to be the actual restaurant version is shown below. Apparently this one is fairly easy to imitate at home, and some of the picture of the homemade imitations look pretty darned good. It's basically just ground beef, egg, onion, mushrooms, cheese, and a mix of steaky spices. I've never been to the Texas Roadhouse, but I'm tempted to try making this myself. Maybe there should be a "Top 10 Texas Roadhouse Roadkill Copycat Recipes" list.
Just found this out: depending on the weather (specifically the humidity), sweat bees can change color from blue to green.
Sweat bees change color based on humidity levels
I figured that since the video says scientists discovered this in April 2026, there must be a paper about it. So I went and looked ... These Bees Change Color With the Weather and Scientists Finally Know Why. This article has a link to the actual paper in the journal Biology Letters, and I've got that linked below.
Though Albania has a lot of coast on the Adriatic for a small country, as the Lighthouse Directory says, there isn't a lot of information about lighthouses there. I've featured one before this. Most of them are not the traditional tower and light shape that lighthouse fans are accustomed to. At least this one has a tower.
The name is a bit confusing: The Directory uses Kep i Treporteve (kep means cape), but you'll find more pictures of it with Zvërnec, though not many. It's near Vlorë. Here's the map to show where it is. Zoom IN to see the interesting situation of it (and also one of the pictures shows it). Apparently the nearby monastery is also something for tourists to see.
This is what the Directory says about it:
"Date unknown. Active; focal plane 18 m (59 ft); white flash every 5 s. 10 m (33 ft) 2-stage stucco-covered stone tower; upper portion octagonal, lower portion square. The lighthouse is unpainted. A building near the lighthouse may be a keeper's house. ... Located on the northeast side of the entrance to the Gji i Vlorës, about 8 km (5 mi) east of Sazan Island and the same distance northwest of Vlorë."
There are three of the few pictures that are findable of this lighthouse below.
