Lighthouse of the Week, July 29 - August 4, 2018: Granite Island, Michigan, USA

After a month with the lighthouses of Crete, it's back to the States and the lakes, specifically the Great Lakes. This week's lighthouse is Granite Island, in Michigan, and on Lake Superior. It's very picturesque, and it isn't an actual working lighthouse any longer, but it does have it's own Web site, which is absolutely loaded with information. It's privately owned, and can apparently be used for events.

http://www.graniteisland.com/

Granite Island is located about 11 miles north of Marquette, and the island is about five mile offshore.

According to the Lighthouse Directory, there is a working (1995) lighthouse structure, with this description: "1995 (station established 1869). Active; focal plane focal plane 96 ft (29 m); white flash every 6 s. Approx. 50 ft (15 m) square cylindrical steel skeletal tower."

But the interest (and the pictures) is about the historical lighthouse, established in 1869.

"1869. Inactive since 1939. 40 ft (12 m) square cylindrical granite tower with lantern and gallery attached church-style to 2-story granite keeper's quarters."

The Web site above has panoramas and pictures, but not great pictures. I've got a few below, including a historic black-and-white one. The Web site has aerial shots.  The bottom picture looks even better bigger, so click it and see.

ca. 1913

On Highway 41, northward from Tampa

As we head north of Tampa (finally), Highway 41 gets into one of several Florida regions that has a lot of lakes. But rather than this region being called Lot o' Lakes, it's called Land O' Lakes, phenomenally enough. There are a lot of lakes, but roadside vegetation being what it is, it's not easy to see most of them from the highway. Deer Lake is an exception.

Deer Lake is actually located in the community of Lutz, which rhymes with "boots", not "butts". I had to say that.

Land 'O Lakes near Deer Lake




View of Deer Lake (look down the fence line)




A small community north of Land O' Lakes and Lutz is Masaryktown. Note how quickly we're moving now! On the to Masaryktown, the highway passes by the edge of the Conner Preserve.

By the Conner Preserve




Masaryktown. For some reason it's named after the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. I'm sure he'd be thrilled.




Onward and northward!!

I was thinking the same thing (and that's scary)

I'm not a pundit, but apparently I can think like one.

If Trump does it, it's not a crime - or so Republicans think

"We are very, very close to the Putin Republicans arguing that they’re glad he worked with the Kremlin to beat “Crooked Hillary.” In fact, some MAGA-heads have already made this very case. It is, after all, the natural culmination of the hysteria of so many Trumpists. If you believe, as former White House aide Michael Anton argued, that the Democrats are the moral equivalent of the al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked Flight 93, then anything is permissible to save the country. Even collusion with its enemies."

A New Talking Point from the Pro-Trump Fringe
A new line of punditry is bubbling up among the president’s followers online: It was a positive thing that the Russians hacked the 2016 election.


And here's what I said, in Very Strong Words:

"One wonders where this could end - what if the special counsel makes some irrefutable, stunning revelations about how much Trump was really in league with the Russians, and the Republicans still defend him with their unethical actions? What will diehard Trumpian voters/supporters think about him then? Will they think that what he did was justified and necessary, no matter how illegal and treasonous, because it prevented Hillary from becoming President and stopped another four years of a Democratic Presidency?

I would not be shocked if that's exactly what they end up thinking."

Uncanny, isn't it?

Hayabusa-2 gets closer

The ambitious Japanese asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa-2, is getting closer to its target asteroid, Ryugu.   Read the article to find out how close, and see the latest up-close-and-geological picture.


Japan's Hayabusa 2 snaps stunning close-up photo revealing the surface of the of dice-shaped asteroid Ryugu


Next step - choosing a landing spot. They're going to take their time with this important decision.

Very strong words

The move by House of Representatives Freedom Caucus members to impeach Rod Rosenstein was shocking to me when I first read about it, but given the proclivities of Meadows, Jordan, et al.  (birds of a feather suck together), it shouldn't have been.  It's phenomenal how deeply tied to Trump these nutcases are, but again, it shouldn't be surprising.  They've sold out.  They deserve to be tossed out, but they are in such safe districkts that they can just go on being overbearing, underwhelming, and revolting.

So then I read this:

The baseless, shameful campaign to discredit Rod Rosenstein

BY John S. Martin, who served as U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York from 1990 to 2003 and as U.S. attorney for that district from 1980 to 1983.

which contained this:

"The actions of the Freedom Caucus members are not only baseless, they are also shameful. While they call for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Rosenstein, it may be more appropriate to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate an attempt to corruptly obstruct justice by members of Congress who so obviously use their office to intimidate the deputy attorney general and to undermine the credibility of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation."

One wonders where this could end - what if the special counsel makes some irrefutable, stunning revelations about how much Trump was really in league with the Russians, and the Republicans still defend him with their unethical actions?  What will diehard Trumpian voters/supporters think about him then?  Will they think that what he did was justified and necessary, no matter how illegal and treasonous, because it prevented Hillary from becoming President and stopped another four years of a Democratic Presidency?

I would not be shocked if that's exactly what they end up thinking.

Lighthouse of the Week, July 22-28, 2018: Chania, Crete, Greece

The final lighthouse from Crete is a superstar - well-known, historic, photogenic (and oft-photographed), with classic lines and a pedigree of wealth.  This is the lighthouse of Chania, first built by Venetians, bombed but not toppled in World War II, and still standing as a well-known Cretan landmark.

The Web site Visit West Crete has a good description:

"The original Venetian lighthouse was built around the late 16th century to protect the harbour. A chain could be connected from the base of the lighthouse to the fortress of Firkas in oder to close the harbour.

During the Turkish occupation the lighthouse fell into disrepair and was eventually rebuilt between 1824 and 1832 in the form of a minaret. The modern lighthouse is often referred to as ' Egyptian' because it was built during a time where Crete was occupied by Egyptian troops who were supporting the weakening Ottoman Empire against the rebelious Cretans.

The base of the lighthouse is still the original Venetian base although the Lion of St. Marc which was carved there has long gone.

The 'Egyptian' lighthouse was leaning badly due to bombings during WWII and earthquakes but it was extensively renovated in 2005 and now looks as good as new."

That pretty much covers it, except for the physical stats.

"Active; focal plane 26 m (85 ft); red flash every 2.5 s. 26 m (85 ft) round cylindrical stone tower with lantern and gallery, mounted on a much older stone base."

That covers the basics - now we can look at some outstanding pictures (and there are a lot of them available).

I meant what I wrote - it's a famous lighthouse

The wave is the real star

Just happened to see this pretty-amazing article in the Daily Mail, about a guy that surfed a wave for over a mile and got under the "barrel" eight times.

The surfing is amazing - but the real champion is the wave, that maintained a curl that was surf-able for that distance.

The waves are off the coast of Namibia, and Namibia is basically a desert, so I guess that offshore the deserts of Namibia is a long expanse of smooth wet sand, apparently allowing these long, long waves if the direction is right.  So in surfing, it's not just about the height - the length is important, too.

It's cool that this remarkable surf ride was captured both by the surfer (wearing a GoPro) and a drone.  So there's no doubt it happened.

Barreling along

The best wave EVER! Surfer takes a ONE MILE ride and catches EIGHT barrels in incredible drone video

The video in the article shows extended excerpts from the drone footage.