All good things come at a price, and when they're as meticulous, wonderful and small as the Astolat Dollhouse Castle, they should. The astonishing vision, meticulous preparation and incredible items (over 10,000) of the 29-room, 800-pound dollhouse justify the hefty $8.5 million price tag. The seven-level masterpiece was created by artist Elaine Diehl around 1980 and unveiled in 2015. It took no less than 13 years to complete and was estimated at the time to be worth over $2,000 per square inch.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
That makes this 9-foot-tall dollhouse castle more expensive than a fully furnished 4-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 4,000-square-foot home in San Francisco, and that's just how much money you'd have left over to buy a Tesla even after buying the house, according to the Zillow listing.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
It may not be a livable space, but it's certainly stunning. The tiny objects and rooms of the world's most expensive dollhouse will make you feel like Alice in Wonderland. What first catches the eye is the historic exterior of a residence named after the castle in “The Lady of Shalott,” a 19th-century ballad by Alfred Lord Tennyson, according to Bloomberg.

The rooms are illuminated by working chandeliers. Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
One can't help but marvel at details such as fountains, topiary and a grand arched entrance with ornate columns. And that's just the exterior. What lies beneath is truly astonishing. Details such as suits of armor, a $5,000 silver flatware set, artwork, paintings and gemstone collections in the extravagant rooms showcase the talent of the carpenters, goldsmiths, glassblowers and silversmiths.

Experienced carpenters and artists have crafted the incredible miniatures. Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
Although all rooms are luxuriously appointed with features such as real parquet floors, hand-stitched tapestries, marble bathrooms and gold trim, it is the library that captured my heart.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
This outstanding section contains tiny books whose actual printed pages are readable under a magnifying glass. In the library, one can find (if one really tries hard) a Bible that is said to be one of the smallest in the world. Some notable items kept here include a folding secretary bookcase valued at $2,500 and a miniature Hebrew Torah valued at up to $2,500.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
Expensive items include a miniature grand piano valued at $7,000, a midget Jeep 949 station wagon valued at over $3,300, and a miniature portrait valued at nearly $2,000. It was apparently so small that it had to be painted with a single bristle brush.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
Of the seven floors containing regular rooms like the main parlor, dining room, bedrooms and butler's quarters etc, the sixth floor was the most exciting as it contained the grand ballroom, musician's alcove, bar area and living rooms. At the very top of this multi-million dollar miniature home was a wizard's tower with fascinating details like astronomical displays and zodiac signs, a telescope and an observatory.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
These are just a few examples of the effort and excellence of the 29-room house, which was presented to the public in 2015 to benefit the nonprofit organization Autism Speaks and a selection of other children's charities. The exhibition was hosted by the Nassau County Museum of Art. “The castle is worth so much just for its structure,” said Paula Gilhooley, the museum's curator. She added, “Astolat is one of the most beautiful miniature structures in the world and has a rare combination of sculpture, art, engineering and attention to detail that sets it apart from anything that has existed before. Astolat is a tremendous feat of construction and when you see it, you will be absolutely speechless.” The museum-quality dollhouse was acquired by collector L. Freeman in 1996 and brought to the Nassau County Museum of Art.

The living area of ​​the house for sale in Francisco. Image – Zillow.

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A 34-foot fishing boat sank on Hyde Street Marina Pier in San Francisco on Wednesday morning, leaking oil and leaving a shine on the bay, the US Coast Guard said.

The U.S. Coast Guard received a report of the incident at 10 a.m., Lt. Junior Grade Martin Dzurik.

Three layers of the containment boom were deployed; The temporary floating barriers are used to contain an oil spill.

Dzurik said the coast guard was also using absorbent pads when an oil sheen was observed on the surface of the bay.

“We’re not sure how much oil was on board or how much leaked, but the maximum potential of diesel fuel on board the ship is 260 gallons,” said Dzurik.

The U.S. Coast Guard deployed oil booms when a fishing boat sank on Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco on October 6, 2021.

US Coast Guard

Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association, said it’s not entirely uncommon for a boat to sink.

“I wish it was more unusual,” said Collins.

Collins said he did not know why the boat went down, but said, “As limited as our seasons have been and so, a lot of people have a hard time and may not be maintaining the boats as usual.”

Collins said the fishing community has been hard hit by COVID-19 and the crab seasons that have been cut short in recent years to protect whales. Several of the past few seasons have also been influenced by concerns about the toxic domoic acid, which is sometimes found in crabs.

“When I started fishing in ’83 or ’84 there were 4,700 fishing boats,” said Collins. “It’s about 300 now. It’s a sad day for the guy who lost his boat.”

San Francisco’s commercial fishermen are fishing for salmon this month, with the season ending soon.

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The infamous chapter of environmental history in the Bay Area is over because there is no fanfare and most people don’t know it. Or rather, it set sail.

The 873-foot military freighter Cape Mohican, which was involved in the largest oil spill in San Francisco Bay in the last half century, was towed from a long-standing port under the Port of Oakland and the Golden Gate Bridge. on Friday.

It had arrived in Mexico on Wednesday, tied to a tug with a steel rope the thickness of a beer bottle, and on August 1 it was moving at 7 miles an hour on its way to the Panama Canal and then to Beaumont, Texas. Long after that, it was dismantled and recycled at the Brownsville shipyard until the last day.

A huge 50-year-old ship, a gray barge stretching as long as the Trans-American Building was put into service in the Persian Gulf War.

However, his fame (or notoriety) came to fame on October 28, 1996 when a dry dock worker accidentally opened the ship’s valve near Pier 70 in San Francisco, south of what is now Giants Stadium. It occurred. He released water. Instead, 96,000 gallons of heavy black bunker oil were poured out. About 40,000 gallons of oil poured into San Francisco Bay.

Windy weather and early-season storms spread it quickly. The spill blackened for miles along the coasts of Alcatraz and Angel Island, drifted north to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and launched onto the beach at Point Reyes National Sea to Half Moon Bay.

“It was horrific to see the pollution,” said Mary Jane Shram, then a volunteer at Farallon Bay National Marine Reserve. “You are entering a beautiful looking beach area and there will be a pool of oil. Your shoes are ruined. There was hardly much under the sand. “

The oil spill was modest but devastating compared to the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989, which dumped 11 million gallons of oil into the pristine Prince William Sound of Alaska. was.

Nearly 600 birds, including the little grebes, gulls, red-throated grebes and pelicans, were found dead and covered in oil. Thousands of coatings were applied but could not be captured or recovered.

A seagrass bed spilled in the bay, in which herring spawns annually. At least 12 seals were oiled. The oil has spread to marinas, piers and sea walls along the San Francisco waterfront. Overall, investigators reported that the 120-mile coastline was contaminated with oil spills and tar balls.

In October 1996, oil leaked from Cape Mohawk at Pier 70 in San Francisco. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

The spill was the largest in San Francisco Bay since 1988. At that time, 432,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a broken storage tank at Shell’s Martinez Refinery into streams and swamps and into the bay. When the cargo ship Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge in the fog in 2007 and dumped 53,569 gallons of bunker fuel into its waters, it was eleven years before another major oil spill hit the bay.

“I rarely find anything so big and fast,” said Michael Roseau, an Auckland attorney who was general secretary of the San Francisco Baykeeper environmental group during the 1996 disaster.

The ship is now nearing the end of its lifespan.

Tech-wise, the US Maritime Bureau, a branch of the Department of Transportation that owns the ship, says its status has been downgraded. The Cape Mohawk was part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet for many years. This is a group of cargo ships that can be put into service during war. It is currently “owned”, a sort of waste from an old ship, sealed and repaired without a crew, often waiting to be recycled.

“It’s basically being scrapped. It’s too expensive to run, ”said Sal Mercogliano, marine historian and history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina.

Steam ships like Cape Mohawk have been replaced by diesel ships, he said. The ship was designed to carry barges that could carry ammunition and grenades. But the technology has been replaced by container ships, he said.

Some parliamentary leaders, including Congressman John Garamendi and D-Davis, are pushing the Pentagon to replace old cargo ships faster.

“There are concerns about how military equipment and supplies (beans, bullets, gasoline) can be delivered to the military in the event of a conflict,” said Mercogliano.

Marine Administration and San Francisco Dry Dock Inc after oil spill damage aggregated. The case was settled in 1998 for $ 8 million. Approximately $ 4.3 million was repaid to state and federal agencies for oil purification.

An additional $ 3.6 million was invested in an environmental remediation fund overseen by the National Park Service and other agencies.

Coast Guard members experienced an oil-absorbing boom in San Francisco Bay during the 1996 Cape Mohawk oil spill. (US Coast Guard)

Over the next decade, the money will be used from clearing debris and invading plants in San Francisco’s Crissy Field to restoring the Farallon Islands’ wolf, lizard and other bird nests, and building new stairs in the Bay Area. Paid for 12 major projects. A hiking trail for hikers on Angel Island.

The number of oil spills from California ships has declined in recent decades due to the double hull structure of oil tankers and the stringent legislation that requires crew training. But according to experts, there are always risks.

“People forget how awful it’s going to be,” said Ed Uber, a former director of Farallon Bay National Marine Reserve. “These big ships are controlled by humans. I was an officer on a merchant ship. I know that people make mistakes. “

OAKLAND, CA – JULY 9: Cape Mohican, which caused a major oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 1996, crossed the Bay Bridge as seen from the Port of Oakland in Oakland, California on Friday, July 9, 2021. She was towed away. (Reichves / Bay Area Newsgroup)

Ship involved in major oil spill leaves San Francisco Bay forever – Times-Herald source link

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Clean-up operations are underway after 600 gallons of a petroleum-water mixture leaked into the waters of San Francisco Bay from a Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California.

Tuesday afternoon was a shine watched in the water at Long Wharf, about a mile offshore from the Chevron Richmond Refinery near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

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Authorities investigating the incident discovered that a pipeline near the wharf, which is used to carry a variety of oil and products that are returned to the refinery for reprocessing, was leaking about five gallons per minute until that Leak was stopped around 4:40 p.m.

The spill resulted in a Level 2 Incident Warning and a State of Health advisory constitute the Contra Costa Health Department for those who live in Richmond, North Richmond, and San Pablo. Officials advised people that the strong petroleum odor could cause irritation to their eyes, skin, nose or throat. Beaches in the area have also been closed. The notice was lifted later Tuesday evening after the spill was contained.

“It smelled like someone had spilled gasoline in front of my house, it smelled very, very bad all day,” said Margaret Berczynski, a resident of the area ABC 7.

“I’m really devastated. I can’t take my kids into the water, I can’t walk on water, I can’t enjoy it. I’m really scared, ”Berczynski told the news agency.

Chevron Richmond said it is working with federal, state and local authorities to clean up the mess. More than 2,000 feet of containment booms were installed around the leak, and oil skimmers were in the area to extract the petroleum from the water.

The impact on wildlife in the area is not currently clear, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says there have been no reports of oiled animals.

The spill is still being investigated.

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The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from oil companies like BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. It left a key procedural decision that benefited two California cities suing billions of dollars to combat the effects of climate change.

The judges refused, without comment, to consider the industry’s offer to move the lawsuit in federal court, where companies tend to do better than state courts.

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The rejection is a victory for San Francisco and Oakland, part of a group of litigants across the country calling for reimbursement of costs related to sea level rise, including coastal flooding, increased coastal erosion and saltwater impacts on sewage treatment plants.

Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

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Cities are suing state law, claiming the companies created a “public nuisance” through a decades-long campaign to discredit the science of global warming, misrepresent and cover up the dangers of fossil fuels, and downplay the potentially disastrous consequences.

The companies said the lawsuit raises federal issues that cannot be adequately addressed from state to state. An appeals court rejected this line of argument, but said the companies could still bring other arguments in favor of referring the case to federal court.

The case is Chevron v Oakland, 20-1089.

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An oil spill at the Chevron Richmond refinery that entered San Francisco Bay was halted late Tuesday afternoon and clean-up operations are ongoing, the energy company said in a statement.

Chevron first noticed the shine on the water near the refinery at 3 p.m., and about 600 gallons of “a mixture of petroleum and water” seeped into the bay before the leak was stopped.

CHEVRON OIL SPILL: State emergency officers say a pipeline containing a mixture of oil and gasoline is leaking 5 gallons per minute into San Francisco Bay. #oilspill https://t.co/B3osX1POEN pic.twitter.com/pkJ5W90dzM

– ABC7 News (@ abc7newsbayarea) February 10, 2021

“We understand that the source no longer flows into the bay, but that there are products in the bay,” Maria Dulazo, a specialist in hazardous materials in Contra Costa County, told KCBS Radio. “They have a containment boom and are working to contain it to minimize the spread of the sheen and petroleum product.”

Contra Costa county director John Gioia wrote on Twitter that the refinery was leaking five gallons of oil per minute and that Chevron employees and local firefighters were on site.

“A full investigation will take place,” Gioia wrote on Facebook. “I spoke to Congregation member Buffy Wicks tonight and she plans to introduce a bill to increase fines and penalties to make deterrence more effective. … This is unacceptable!”

Point Richmond-based Don Mill said he first smelled the spill after Tuesday lunchtime. A friend of Mill painted the outside of his house, which is on the beach just 300 to 400 feet from Long Wharf where the spill occurred, and she told him the smell would make her sick.

“I’ve lived here for a long time, 35 years, and we’ve had some oil spill incidents,” Mill said. “It smelled more toxic. We didn’t smell of gasoline. We had neighbors, the three of us Called hours later and said, ‘Do you smell that?’ “

There is currently a 5 gallon per minute petroleum product leak at Chevron Richmond Long Wharf.

Chevron & Fire Agency on site and about to boom the leak. County HazMat on the route. A Public Health Advisory applies to Richmond, San Pablo and N. Richmond. Pic.twitter.com/6HWKocfgLR

– John Joy (@supejohngioia) February 10, 2021

Booms have been put in place to control the spread of the spill, but the East Bay Regional Park District has had to shut down beaches for safety reasons and “oil washes ashore along the South Richmond coast, which will harm wildlife and marine life,” said Gioia across from the Bay City News operator.

The refinery said it was “fully cooperating with government agencies” including the US Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Spill Prevention and Response.

Chevron’s initial response was “inadequate” and “oil has quickly violated Chevron’s containment boom,” Oakland-based environmental monitoring group San Francisco Baykeeper said in a statement and released photos to support its claims.

The crews of Chevron and the fire department respond to a leak of petroleum products at a rate of 5 gallons per minute in the waters of Point Richmond when an absorbent next to the Chevron Richmond Long Wharf in Richmond, Calif Boom will be installed in 2021.

Ray Chavez / MediaNews Group / The Mercury News via Getty Images

“Chevron’s oil leak today is bad news for the bay – we’re unfortunately still learning the size and impact of the oil spill. The five refineries in the Bay Area have a long history of environmental pollution so they should be aware of this Be prepared for a situation like this, “said Baykeeper Executive Director Sejal Choksi-Chugh, describing the initial containment response as” pathetic “.

“The Baykeeper field researcher was one of the first to come and he saw a small yellow boom near the wharf, with a lot of oil already spread over the boom into the bay and to nearby coasts and beaches” said Choksi-Chugh said.

The cause of the spill was not immediately known.

The Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

The crews of Chevron and the fire department respond to a leak of petroleum products at a rate of 5 gallons per minute in the waters of Point Richmond when an absorbent next to the Chevron Richmond Long Wharf in Richmond, Calif Boom will be installed in 2021.

Ray Chavez / MediaNews Group / The Mercury News via Getty Images

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