- Spending tens of thousands of dollars to airlift an historic
lighthouse hanging on the edge of a cliff by its "toenails" might
seem like a wasteful use of government dollars, but New Zealand’s powers that be
decided to act anyhow when the historic lighthouse at Godley Head was on the
verge of very literally falling off a cliff. A helicopter rescued the landmark
last late week after an earthquake pushed it to the brink. Department of
Conservation project manager Grant Campbell said the salvage job for the quake-hit
beacon was difficult to plan and required some extremely creative
problem-solving. "This beautiful old structure had an extremely lucky
escape and was left clinging to the cliff by its 'toenails' after the February
and June earthquakes in 2011,” Campbell said. Professional abseilers first
removed the copper dome and outer glass housing from the lighthouse base 50
meters down the cliff face below Godley Head, near Christchurch. Once they were
done, a helicopter then transported the unit to the DOC compound nearby, where
it will be stored for the foreseeable future. The prism glass, prism housing
and light mechanism were placed in crates and flown to the same location for
safe keeping. All of this money and effort were expended because the structure and
operating mechanisms are historically significant, Campbell said. "Once
safely moved, our aim will be to restore the lantern house on a new concrete
base but for the time being it will be kept in safe storage,” he added. The
lighthouse was heavily damaged in the earthquakes and they were then gifted to
DOC for possible removal. The original Godley Head lighthouse was built from
locally quarried stone and was first lit in April 1865, operating in private
hands until Godley Head was taken over in 1951 as a defense reserve for
military purposes. Fortifications were built around the lighthouse during World
War II and a battery of six-inch guns was installed. The lighthouse was
automated in 1976 and now it is crate-o-mated…….
- Pop music singer MIA has caused the director of a
documentary about her career to go AWOL. Director Steve Loveridge executed a rather unique
plan over the weekend as he first leaked a trailer for the film online and then
tendered his resignation while urging MIA's label Interscope to "wake up.”
The five-minute trailer was posted to Loveridge’s personal Tumblr page and the
clip features an eccentric cast of characters including Kanye West, Diplo and WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange. The purported purpose of the documentary is to tell the
story of MIA's life as well as discuss her music and political beliefs. As part
of his anti-MIA rant, Loveridge posted an email he received from Interscope
demanding the trailer be removed from YouTube. He complied, but as with
anything posted on the Internet, there is no way to erase is completely. "I
know how frustrated you must be with the [film]," an Interscope employee
wrote in the email to Loveridge, "but I promise we've been having ongoing
conversations internally, trying to get legal stuff and funding resolved, it is
going to move forward and get done in time for this album cycle and festivals."
The appeal seemed to have little affect on the director, who added that his own
death was preferable to continuing to work on the film. "I really couldn't
give a flying fuck. Count me out. Would rather die than work on this,”
Loveridge wrote. Despite her director’s outrage, MIA forged ahead with
promoting the movie via her Twitter account. "I'm gonna need @kickstarter
and my fans to help make this exist, I've been blacklisted through normal
channels!" she wrote. If the music world is fortunate, the film will go
the same way her new album “Matangi” went. The album was scheduled to be
released in late 2012, but has been pushed back repeatedly……
- Are there fish in an Antarctic lake that it takes a small
fortune and willingness to face death on a daily basis to reach? The answer for
Lake Vostok could be yes, according to a team of researchers currently
working there. The lake, which lies nearly 2 1/2 miles below Antarctica's ice
sheet, has been found to contain signatures for organisms such as bacteria that are
often associated with marine molluscs, crustaceans and even fish. This indirect
evidence in the form of genetic material in ice drilled from close to the lake’s
surface could merely represent past contamination, but it could also suggest
the presence of fish. That theory makes a little bit of sense given that
scientists have found that Antarctica is underlain by a complex network of
rivers. The research team that found the evidence for possible fish theorized
that the animals could have been delivered to Lake Vostok from the ocean. The
lake was first discovered by the Russians in 1956 and mapped in the 1990s by
the British. It covers an area of 900 square miles, is 2,500 feet deep in some
places and resides more than 600 feet below sea level. This remote location is
the reason scientists believe the lake not been open to the atmosphere for many
millions of years. A new study tried to sample its waters and examined genetic
material - stretches of RNA - isolated from ice that froze on to the ice sheet
as it moved above the lake. Already, thousands of unique matches have been
identified with sequences already listed in public databases. Although 94
percent of these matches were with bacteria, the remainder were with more
complex, multi-cellular organisms called eukaryotes. The researchers reported
that a large number of the bacterial sequences were from "animal
commensals, mutualists and pathogens… including those associated with annelids,
sea anemones, brachiopods, tardigrades and fish." Oddly enough, some of
the bacteria matches were to organisms that thrive in hot environments, such as
around volcanic hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. If those same organiams
are present in Lake Vostok, they could "provide sources of energy and
nutrients vital for organisms living in the lake", the research team wrote
in its report. Conditions in Lake Vostok and the other 375 sub-glacial bodies
of water in Antarctica are believed to be similar to those in the liquid water
bodies thought to exist under the surfaces of icy moons in the outer solar system………
- This should fix everything for the Los Angeles Lakers. After seeing the walking disappointment that is
Dwight Howard leave via free agency and leave the Lakers adrift with an aging
roster and no future star to take Kobe Bryant’s place as the face of the
franchise when he retires, the Lakers have acted quickly to fill their void in
the middle by agreeing to terms with free agent center Chris Kaman on a
one-year deal. The deal can't become official until the new NBA fiscal year
officially opens on Wednesday, but Kaman's deal is reportedly valued at the
Lakers' mini mid-level exception amount of just under $3.2 million. On one
hand, inking a bearded, pasty dude known to sport a Grizzly Adams beard and
tweet pictures of himself holding dead animals he’s killed and which happen to
be the same species as the mascot for his team’s next opponent and who struggled
through an injury-plagued campaign with the Dallas Mavericks this past season,
averaging 10.5 points and 5.6 rebounds in 66 games might seem like a poor
substitute for an All-Star center who was much better than Kaman last year
despite having arguably the worst year of his career. On the other hand, there
aren’t many options left on the free-agent big man buffet and the two other
“best”” options are extremely injury-prone 7-footers, one of whom (Andrew
Bynum) the Lakers traded last offseason in the deal that brought Howard to L.A.
Nevertheless, the Lakers clearly felt the need to sign a quality starting
center. There may be some debate as to whether Kaman fits that
description, but he is clearly close enough for the Lakers……
- It’s comeback time for former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer – relatively speaking. Spitzer,
who resigned five years ago as a result of a prostitution scandal, wants back
into the world of getting favors of all kinds from people who want to trade
their bribes for his power and influence. Granted, he’s going to have to go
back to the low end of the political totem pole, but it’s a start. Spitzer is
seeking to resume his political career this fall by getting on the ballot for
New York City comptroller. "I have loved every day of public service, when
I was assistant district attorney, when I was attorney general of the state,
when I was governor of the state -- it's been five years since then, and I want
to participate and I want to serve," Spitzer said. He realizes that even
after five years, the public has not completely forgotten about why he had to
go away in the first place. "I want to say to the public: On one hand, I
want to ask their (the public’s) forgiveness for what led to my resignation --
which obviously will be part of this conversation -- but also ask the public to
remember what I did as attorney general,” Spitzer added. “There are so many
issues where I'd like to be a participant, and if the public thinks the skills
that I can bring to the table as comptroller are relevant, then I would be
honored to serve." His constituents may recall that Spitzer resigned as
governor on March 17, 2008 after a federal wiretap exposed him arranging an
illegal liaison with a prostitute. Soliciting a hooker was enough to drive him
from office, but not to keep him down for long. A few months after his
resignation, Spitzer began working a television commentator. That didn’t end
well either; he was fired when the show bombed. Predictably, Spitzer would like
to be remembered for the work he did while serving as New York’s attorney
general fore eight years. In order to officially enter the race for
comptroller, he will need to collect some 3,700 signatures by Thursday to get
his name on the ballot. If he does, he would face Manhattan Borough President
and fellow Democrat Scott Stringer for the job in a few months……..
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