The strange interstellar object we named 'Oumuamua (apparently it didn't visit the Solar System with a nametag) might possibly be even stranger than its initial strangeness suggested.
Because it might not be made of standard dirty ice (rock and snow) like most comets apparently are made of. So just read the headline.
When I was looking for another in this thematic series (have you guessed the theme yet? Did you even know there was a theme?) and found this one, I was stunned I hadn't featured it before now. This is the very very famous Point Reyes Lighthouse in Marin County, California. It's famous because a) it's in a stunning location, b) it's in Marin County, one of California's most stunningly scenic counties and also one of its most visited, due to its proximity to San Francisco, and well, wine, and c) because it's on a stunningly gorgeous national seashore.
(Did I use the word "stunning" enough up there?)
Also -- it's the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the entire continent of North America, according to the National Park Service. (Most foggiest is Grand Banks, Newfoundland, which basically isn't on the North American continent, it's in the ocean, so Point Reyes would actually appear to be the leader on land.)
It took three years to get built and they had to blast a flat place on the side of an oceanside cliff to put it in the best location.
So yeah, it's famous.
The basics about it are these:
Built 1867-1870, retired from active service in 1975, with the warning light duties taken over by an automatic tower lower down on the cliff.
Restored and reopened in 2019 after $5.7 million in renovations. And of course as of this writing, it's closed (it has been converted to a museum).
The tower is only 35 feet high, but when the actual structure is nearly 300 feet above the ocean surface, a big tall tower seems hardly necessary.
Visitors get to it by going down 308 stairs, which are closed when it is too windy. And apparently too windy is not an uncommon condition.
So that's about all we need to know. Below are pictures and a video. The lighthouse appears at the beginning of the video, so it's not necessary to watch the whole thing, except you might want to because the whole area is quite stunning.
If you remember 'Sharpiegate' in the midst of all the other havoc and turmoil in the world, it was basically Donald Trump's extension of the threat cone from Hurricane Dorian into Alabama, because he had previous said that Alabama was threatened. Numerous officials in various agencies took steps to defend the President's stupidity (which was stupid in itself) and in so doing, seriously damaged both scientific integrity and morale.
"The report, whose findings were accepted by NOAA’s leadership and released Monday, found that Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, and former NOAA deputy chief of staff and communications director Julie Kay Roberts twice violated codes of the agency’s scientific integrity policy amid their involvement in the Sept. 6 statement."
And Jacobs is a pretty decent guy, actually.
This just shows how POTUS/PoS Trump corrupts everything he touches ... or scribbles on. Because ultimately, it was the White House and the Commerce Department that ordered the statement Jacobs and Roberts got tagged for.
"Importantly, the NAPA [National Academy on Public Administration] was not permitted to interview the Commerce Department officials who demanded the statement be released. As The Washington Post has reported, the White House sought for NOAA to correct the record on the Hurricane Dorian forecast, and orders to NOAA were handed down through top aides to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, because NOAA is part of the department."
Because of the pandemic, Victoria's Secret model Elsa Hosk has been at home modeling lingerie and having pictures and videos taken of her modeling efforts by her boyfriend/ lover/ paramour/ very lucky guy in her life. These videos have been used by Victoria's Secret advertising.
This is not a bad deal for either of them; they get to stay at home, they make money, and presumably after the modeling is over they make good use of the lingerie, vis-a-vis removal thereof and enjoyments to follow. (At least I would, if I could.)
It wasn't easy to get to the site, and it wasn't easy to build, and parts of the lantern room were lost at sea. So it took a year between finishing the keeper's house and lighting the light in the lantern room (it was a first-order Fresnel lens). The light was lit in September 1873.
It's tall: 93 feet.
It's on a bluff, so it's 162 feet above the ocean.
It faces rough seas and high winds, so it has been damaged more than once. Its location throws off magnetic compasses (it really does).
It's reputedly haunted by more than one ghost (which somewhat fits the theme of this lighthouse, the last lighthouse, and hopefully a couple more coming up). Not reputedly, but really, the area is designated an Outstanding Natural Area by the Bureau of Land Management, with numerous tide pools nearby (I have one picture showing them).
Restoration of the tower was completed in 2006.
Where is Yaquina Head? (click that to find out, a map showing it in relation to Portland)
