The report on 'Sharpiegate'

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.

And now there's an official report on that.


NOAA leaders violated agency’s scientific integrity policy, Hurricane Dorian ‘Sharpiegate’ investigation finds

"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."

We need to get rid of them.  All of them.

Even the good ones.

Visit scenic Montenegro

I probably won't ever visit Montenegro, but if I do, I'd want to see this place.

It's the Đurđevića Tara Bridge, which is located here.

Here are a couple of pictures -- I'm sure it's better in person.

Home cooking

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.)


Elsa Hosk models sheer baby blue lace thong underwear as she shoots sexy Victoria's Secret advertorial with boyfriend Tom Daly from their home during isolation

Lighthouse of the Week, June 14-20, 2020: Yaquina Head, Oregon

This week's lighthouse is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Oregon.  There's are interesting stories about it at Lighthouse Friends:

Yaquina Head Lighthouse 

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)

And now the pictures:

by Luis Henrique Boucault

Lighthouse of the Week, June 7-13, 2020: Cape Campbell, Marlborough, New Zealand

You might recognize this lighthouse, and if this works right, a couple of the next ones, too. But I'm not going to give the game away.   So let's just do the basics.

This is the Cape Campbell lighthouse in New Zealand.  (Let's see where.)

Let's get some specifications;  from this site:  Cape Campbell

Year built:
1870  (first made out of wood, then cast iron)

Tower height:  22 meters

Range (visibility distance):  19 nautical miles

Piece of trivia:   one of three New Zealand lighthouses that are painted other than just white.

Pictures:

The superbness of Susanna Canzian

Superbness isn't a word that's used very often.

But it applies here to the phenomenally exquisite Italian model Susanna Canzian.

It's a bird! It's a plane! Actually, it's SUPER-antibodies

Yes, I am not making this up.

Super-potent human antibodies protect against COVID-19 in animal tests

"For the new project, [Thomas] Rogers (M.D., Ph.D.) and his UC San Diego colleagues took blood samples from patients who had recovered from mild-to-severe COVID-19. In parallel, scientists at Scripps Research and IAVI developed test cells that express ACE2, the receptor that SARS-CoV-2 uses to get into human cells. In a set of initial experiments, the team tested whether antibody-containing blood from the patients could bind to the virus and strongly block it from infecting the test cells.

The scientists were able to isolate more than 1,000 distinct antibody-producing immune cells, called B cells, each of which produced a distinct anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody. The team obtained the antibody gene sequences from these B cells so that they could produce the antibodies in the laboratory. By screening these antibodies individually, the team identified several that, even in tiny quantities, could block the virus in test cells, and one that could also protect hamsters against heavy viral exposure.

All of this work -- including the development of the cell and animal infection models, and studies to discover where the antibodies of interest bind the virus -- was completed in less than seven weeks."

So now, we  (collectively) have to make more.

A lot more.

Fast.