It's a valid question

 

Oh, just watch. You know you want to.

"I asked twenty women to pick the perfect penis size"

The Boundary Waters mining battle

 

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

The new Spinosaurus

 

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.

Lighthouse of the Week, May 10-16, 2026: Farol de Cabo Polonio, Uruguay

 

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. 

 

Ice Cube adds more strings

 

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

IceCube is headquartered at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and I think has survived budget cuts, so far.

There's more information here:  Beyond IceCube

It's a pretty impressive place, in a James Bond villain kind of way. Below the lab picture is the new detector, which also has a bit of a Bondian quality.

I like the way she plays

 

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.

Vaccinations work, episode 1

 

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: 

Saso A, Fröberg J, Jobe H, et al. Mucosal immune responses to Bordetella pertussis in Gambian infants after maternal and primary vaccination: an immunological substudy of a single-centre, randomised, controlled, double-blind, phase 4 trial. Lancet Microbe. doi: 10.1016/j.lanmic.2025.101219

She's getting to be incredible

 

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.

There is SO much going on

 

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.