A little good news from the reefs

 

The best kind of lionfish is a dead lionfish (where they're an invasive species, of course).

Florida Keys Lionfish Derby Winners Bring in Record-Breaking 426 Invasive Fish

60,000 lionfish in the region have been culled thanks to programming put on by REEF, the derby’s nonprofit host.

Kill the beast

Lighthouse of the Week, May 8-14, 2022: Kagawong Lighthouse, Canada

The Kagawong Lighthouse is on Manitoulin Island, located in Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes.

The Lighthouse Directory says: 

"1894 (station established 1880). Active; focal plane 13.5 m (44 ft); continuous red light. 9.5 m (31 ft) square pyramidal wood tower with lantern and gallery, painted white with red trim; lantern is red." 

 Here's where it is located: Kagawong Lighthouse

The lighthouse overlooks Main Street and the harbor of Kagawong.

Lighthouse Friends Kagawong Lighthouse Page  

The most noted thing to see near here is Bridal Veil Falls. (I wonder how many waterfalls around the world are named Bridal Veil Falls?) This Bridal Veil Falls looks like this:

Pictures (of the lighthouse) and a Google Streetview are below.

 

Google Streetview:

Cool blue hot rock

It's only 15.1 carats, but it's virtually flawless, and it's blue.  It's a diamond, called the De Beers Cullinan Blue, and it just sold for 39 million pounds sterling, or about $50 million U.S. dollars.

Simply dazzling! Stunning 15ct blue diamond becomes the most expensive ever sold at auction after fetching £39MILLION at Sotheby's in Hong Kong

This video shows off the gem (and you should watch it full-screen).

Lighthouse of the Week, May 1-7, 2022: Santa Ana Hill, Guayaquil, Ecuador

 

My first search didn't work (I looked for lighthouses in Samoa;  there are lights, but not lighthouses), so I then conjured up "blue stripe lighthouse".    Using this, I found one that I am somewhat astonished I have never seen before.   It's not like a have an encyclopedic memory of lighthouses, nor do I devote myself in a consuming hobby to document them all (that's what the Lighthouse Directory is for), but still, this one is pretty outstanding.

I actually haven't featured any lighthouses from Ecuador prior to this;  a quick examination of the Lighthouse Directory page for Ecuador indicates that I'm going to have to feature a couple more.

This one, Cerro Santa Ana (Santa Ana Hill), was built quite recently, in 2002.  Here's the brief amount of information from the aforementioned directory:

"2002. Active (unofficial); focal plane 86 m (282 ft); continuous white light. 19 m (62 ft) round tower with lantern and gallery painted in a blue and white spiral pattern. (The city's flag features blue and white horizontal stripes.)"

Based on that, I'm not totally sure it's for navigation, or if it's just for show.  But it is very prominent.  I think the blue stripes are recent, as there are some pictures of it where it is all white.

They've been lying for decades

 

An article from the UK media outlet (used to be a newspaper, I think) The Guardian.

‘What we now know … they lied’: how big oil companies betrayed us all

The articles notes that there's a "docuseries" about this entire episode/campaign/travesty, from PBS, entitled The Power of Big Oil, which is available online.  I'll have to carve out some time to watch that.  The three parts are entitled "Denial", "Doubt", and "Delay".    (No, those aren't the names of congresspersons from Texas.  Well, one of them actually was.)

Here's an excerpt from the Guardian article.

"Former senator Timothy Wirth tells the documentary-makers how in 1988 he organised historic hearings at which a distinguished Nasa scientist, James Hansen, testified that greenhouse gases were changing the climate.

“That was a kind of a magic sentence,” Wirth said. “This was not environmental groups. This was not some green cabal. This was probably the lead climate scientist in the federal government making this statement.”

The New York Times reported the testimony on its front page. It seemed a turning point to Wirth and Hansen. Now the country would have to face reality. Instead the hearing served as a warning to the oil industry to intensify its campaign of denialism."

And it's been quite successful.  One of its side effects was to reduce the perceived need for reliable alternate energy sources, one of which would be nuclear energy.  There's still time, but it's a lot later than it should be.

Killer shots

 

There's a young woman who goes by the moniker "Killer Katrin";  her actual name is Ekaterina Novikova, and she's a glamour model;  there are nude pictures available of her on the Web (worth a look), and lots of other glamour shots.  She also has an OnlyFans station (don't they all?)

She's blonde, with an innocent pretty face and a superb figure, and somewhat more astonishingly when it is contemplated artistically (of course), she also has two young children, and I believe she also has an extraordinarily fortunate male partner.  I'm not totally sure of that last part;  I haven't seen any pictures of her with a male companion, but they seem to go on holidays as a family, based on the pictures that get taken.  Clearly she had a male contribution to the procreation of the progeny. 

Judge for yourself on her Instagram.

Speaking of that, she recently posted two charming pictures, shown below.  I use "charming" because to truly express their level (despite their lack of particular features that would deem then actual nudes) might go beyond the bounds of decency.

Just down Alaoa Road

While opening the Google search page, I randomly typed in "alaoa".   Turns out that there's an Alaoa Road in Samoa, and it's just across the street from the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.  That's near Apia on the island of Upolu.   (And now I have plenty of vowels for Scrabble.)

I guess whenever I'm in the neighborhood, I'll have to swing by.

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum Website

It's a nice place.