A good quote

Don't normally comment on religion, apart from my little fishing related conversations with God, but this verse caught my eye. Which holy text is this quotation from?

Good and evil are not equal. Repel evil with what is best in goodness, and you will see that the one you had mutual enmity with, will turn around as if he were a close friend.

Not always true when you're dealing with psycho's and frothing at the brain madmen, but it works for most ordinary people. Pity it's so often hard to tell the difference.

An interesting idea

On how to manage fish stocks and begin to put an end to overfishing.

Enlightened self interest solves a potential crisis? Who'd ha' thunk it?

A little note on Archery equipment

Comment from the Sea Shepherd forum.

"More likely the arrows were to ber (sic) used to take dna skin samples from whales to do real research. The arrows are fitted with small cookie cutters to take a miniscule wad of whale skin and blubber, real research, the sort of non lethal research the whalers try to bullshit the world that they are doing."

Pure fantasy. That comment is so completely ignorant that it begs for response. Whoever wrote that knows bugger all about arrows or archery. The arrows (or Bolts or Quarrels if you like) displayed are standard shafts fitted with standard target points. 'Cookie cutter' samplers would look quite different, rather like the business end of an endoscope. Furthermore, there are no fixing points on the shafts for retrieval line, essential if using them for mythical Cetacean 'DNA sampling'.

See the video below for how arrows behave in flight. Google Archers Paradox if you don't believe me. As additional proof, here's a slow motion video of an arrow in flight.
Crossbow bolts do not flex so much as they tend to be stiffer, but they do flex in flight, demonstrating a slight up and down flight pattern like the shaft in the video.

Update: Have been looking more closely at the tips of those arrows. They appear in that low resolution shot to have hardened chisel edged points. Not a high res enough shot to definitively identify the make though.

Update on the update: I'm looking at those arrows again. Again, too low res to be sure, but those look like arrow nocks on the back of the shafts. Crossbow bolts tend to have a half moon or blunt nock. Something doesn't quite gel here.

Fishing thoughts

Whenever I've wandered down the foreshore of late, I've noted how many Black Sea Nettle Jellyfish get washed up at this time of year. From early September onwards to the end of October the shingle beach not far from our little domicile is liberally littered with purplish sticky (I've trod in one) gelatinous cowpats. Today I was standing on the rocks with rod in hand (Which can bring tears to your eyes Guv) and observed literally dozens of these things floating down the tide.

This is just an observation, and I'm not going to do the hundred metres conclusion jump, but the thought occurred that perhaps these things are partially responsible for the shortfall in the Fraser River Salmon run. They are carnivorous, and feed off zooplankton, so what effect do they have on Salmon fry or juvenile Salmon? I know many authorities go on about Sea Lice and the great evil of commercial Salmon farms, but I find myself wondering how many Salmon die in the wild due to the stinging tentacles of these nasty little beasties. Anecdotally speaking, there do seem to be rather a lot of these sea nettles and other Jellyfish around at present, and overall during the past couple of years I've lived here.

Jellyfish have killed Salmon before, in this specific incident they wiped out an entire Salmon farm. This blog keeps track of such large swarms, which seem to indicate that there is a definite problem, whatever its source. Unfortunately, while certain Environmental activists are leaping up and down to blame 'global warming' for everything even slightly out of the ordinary, no proper research into the Jellyfish blooms goes on.

Working on the basis that for every issue there is rarely a single definable cause, I wonder what effect a glut of jellyfish have on the Salmon population, and how much of an effect overfishing has on jellyfish blooms. Maybe there's something in it, but so long as the global warming activists are getting in the way, we aren't going to find out in a hurry.

Labour day

It's Labour day today, which means, apart from one minor foray to look at a new house, it's a fishing day.

Mrs S fed and watered - check
Dog fed and walked - check
Cap on - check
Rod - check
Reel with new line - check
Tackle box and lures - check
Shades on - check
Beer - check

TTFN.

Ahhh.......

All is right with my particular little bit of the world for the moment. Dog is snoozing lightly snuggled at his master's feet, the apartment has been cleaned top to bottom. Well, it will be by this afternoon; I'm just taking a short blogging break.

Did have a problem with our little 4x4 which turned out to be a loose oil sensor causing a knock on effect that made the engine cut out. Refitted the loose sensor after cleaning all the clag off it with some WD40. Have treated it with some oil and a tank of 89 octane gasoline and now it purrs up hill and down dale like a big ol' pussycat. I've even given it a wash.

The kitchen is cleaned and I just have to give the bathroom (and the dog) the once over and my chores are done. Mrs S and I take turns to do this, and I try not to be too competent at cleaning, or else she'll insist I get the scrubbing brushes out every spare moment I have. Heavy sigh. It begins when you sink into her arms, it ends with your arms in her sink.

After I'm done I'm going to bunk off for an hour or twos fishing this afternoon when the tide is full. The rod is refurbished with two hundred feet of new 30lb line to compensate for my improved casting. I may take a beer with me. The rest of the world can carry on without my input for a while. It's a lovely day and I shall be seeing our youngest later on this evening when Mrs S and she return from Vancouver.

Two questions...

There are a couple of questions that are bugging the hell out of me, and have been for some time. Being only a thickie and not able to understand all the physics that get bandied about, although to me a lot of the seemingly high powered and jargon filled papers seem to come from the 'baffle with bullshit' school of thinking. Lots of talk about proxies which aren't, and peer reviews which tell John Q Public next to nothing. Although having had engineering training I'll warrant I know a little more about latent heat and the method of mixtures molecular weights, and materials technology than many AGW 'believers'. You know, boring stuff like real physics, and not the fantasy versions you hear being taught.

First question. Despite multiple failures of varied 'Global Warming' doomsaying prophesies, and with physical proof and empirical evidence (Arctic not melting, lower average global temperatures) now pointing to Carbon Dioxide being less than a bit player in the natural cycles of Earth's climate, why do high level politicians still insist that "we're aaalll dooomed" unless we stop giving off CO2?

Second question. Why did various governments 'bail out' certain banks and effectively nationalise them so readily?

Now I have my own thoughts on both matters, and would like to link both questions to a common thread. My logic may be less than impeccable, as I possibly lack certain pertinent facts. On the other hand, my bullshit detector array has been twitching wildly whenever various politicians and soi disant 'environmentalists' pontificate upon either topic.

The easy answer to both is 'follow the money', but where is that going? Over the past twenty (Possibly forty plus) years by my observation, we have seen a gradual sea change in the power structures of the Western Democracies. A new political elite has arisen and slowly supplanted the old order. This new and very loose grouping, come from a predominantly academic background, and go from University Activist to Party Faithful to Elected Representative because this is their alleyway to power. The respective party machines they are part of are geared up to fight elections more effectively than an independent ever could because they make use of the societal polarisations e.g. Conservative vs Liberal and so on, that we are all used to following.

Because the new elite have no real money such as currency based on finance derived from an agricultural or industrial financial base, they cannot rely on the old 'mutual' system and must therefore create their own. Said financial power base relies on the creation of the putative 'Carbon economy' in which the investment houses can speculate. The new elite need to consolidate their power base with new channels of money, hence the 'need' for a 'carbon trading' which appear little more than a tax masquerading as a commodity. This seems behind all the otherwise groundless scare stories we the public are bombarded with.

The investment banks which gambled with 'sub prime' products (High risk mortgages) over a property bubble are another. The subsequent collapse of several high profile investment banks can be cited as a proof. Bail outs were required because the new elite, whose speculative fortunes these banks manage, would have otherwise faced penury when their dosh was subject to a massive and some would say necessary deflation. The rest of us would have been hurt financially by the contraction of these investment markets, but not nearly so badly as the new elite. But better the little people should go to the wall, rather than them eh? Hence the mortgaging of our own, and our children's futures.

If asked, I would prophesy a further collapse because a certain level of genuine wealth generating economic activity is required to support such large political edifices. I think it was Terry Pratchett who pithily observed that it takes forty people with their feet on the ground to support one with his head in the air (Small Gods).

Now all this imperfect thinking can easily be dismissed as the ravings of a solo whack job conspiracy theorist, but being that particular lone voice I'm not so sure. I was bright enough to see the current mess coming and sell up almost at the top of the market. Had Mrs S and I stayed put in the same jobs and house we'd both be hating every minute, and probably a lot worse off; both in terms of quality of life, and financially. We got out just in time.

Now whilst I do not ascribe to the 'Bilderburg' and 'New World Order' conspiracy theories, I do recognise that the power structure of the Western Democracies is changing and has changed. We are getting a very different breed of politician selected to be on our ballot papers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries because of the highly polarized party system, and the reluctance of voters to change political horses or gamble on an independent. What the electorate need is statesmanship and true leadership, but all we get is empty rhetoric and cleverly scripted sound bites from well oiled party machines, those highly specialised fund raising and vote catching juggernauts. In some respects, voting can be rather like going to a fancy restaurant and only being presented with a set and highly limited menu. Democracy? Mmmmm, sort of.

Not that my observations and opinions are worth the hard disk they sit on of course.

Current reading:
'Meltdown' by Thomas E Woods
'The Wizard of Menlo Park' a biography of Thomas Alva Edison by Randall Stross

On a more useful note, my casting technique is improving. I did the most perfect lobbing cast of my entire life this afternoon. Pity it stripped all the line off my reel leaving me without lure or line. Bummer.

Clearing the decks

In preparation for two week long visit of youngest from the UK, Mrs S and I spent Sunday turning our apartment upside down. Mrs S has tired of reading up on Feng Shui, and picked up one of these interior design books about the Indian discipline of Vastu. This means that I have spent my day moving furniture around. The joys of cosy domesticity eh?

I ended up having to fix the TV when a cable broke, leaving half a phono plug rather awkwardly jammed in the DVD video feed socket. Once I'd cleared the socket, which involved stripping off the TV's casing, and shoving the broken piece out from the inside, a new cable was purchased and I'm keeping the old one as a spare in case Mrs S manages to break one of our Hi-fi leads. My dearest one does have a propensity for moving things without looking, and when I hear a thump followed by her particular cry of frustration I know it's time to reach for my tool kit. Sigh, all makes work for the working man etcetera, etcetera..

In spite of that, the apartment looks more spacious, my dog likes his new sleeping arrangements underneath the TV, and the vacuum cleaner nearly packed up with all the dust bunnies and dog hair it had to swallow. I'm prepared to put up with the current disruption to my working routine because I get the place to myself for two whole weekends while les girls spend time shopping in Vancouver and Kelowna next weekend and the one after. Me? I have a couple of local fishing spots scouted out, and intend to pursue the life piscatorial while nobody's looking.

Catch and release

Took a break from my usual fishing spot and hiked to a place where there's a nice steep drop off to deeper water. For a change the fish were biting. The above pair of small Rockfish decided they liked the look of my lure and were promptly landed for a quick photo opportunity before release. Both gave me a reproachful look as I shook them off my hook (No barbs Mr Game Warden, I know the rules, and I was outside all the conservation areas) before returning to the sea they had come from, apparently none the worse for their quick trip up topside.

Score:
Fish caught; two
Lures lost; one
Weights lost; two
Reel broken; one

Not a bad mornings piscatorial play really. Well, by my standards at least. The Sardine lures seem to work best, so I'm off to Canadian Tire this afternoon to invest in a batch of the larger version to see if I can catch something a little bigger. I was glad I broke that particular reel, it was bulky and ungainly. I have my old one which is smaller but better with twenty five pound line set up. Who knows? I may even bag myself a Tyee (Local name for a Chinook, Spring or King Salmon of thirty pounds or more).

Any one of these will do just fine.

To do list

Mrs S is being driven to distraction by;

a) Mother in Laws erratic behavior

and

b) Immigration issues

I recognise that currently there is little or nothing I can do about either. I refuse to pander to Mother in Laws incessant and erratic filibustering, and have filled in all my immigration forms correctly (That should cat the pigeons amongst the put). We are awaiting results of Medicals and French Language tests. There is nothing to be done. Ergo I am taking the only course a rational man can; I have a new fishing rod and the tides await.

Wind

Fishing wasn't so wonderful yesterday, and I spent a couple of non productive hours clambering over rocks trying to find a stable spot where the wind wouldn't blow my lures back at me at every cast. Distinctly breezy. In the end I packed in and went home after re-organising my tackle box.

Having paid my daily visit to Guido Fawkes blog, I see that someone else is getting the wind up back in the UK now that a massive online smear campaign has been unearthed. Slanderous e-mails, dodgy domain name registration. Senior UK government advisers fired. Tsk, tsk, someone was going to be naughty weren't they? Pity it's all public domain now, eh?. Not that it ever could be anything else.

That's the thing with the Internet, if it can be read, there's an electronic paper trail that leads right to your doorstep if you don't take a few precautions. Nowadays I don't bother; even a visit from these guys (even if it's only bored tech support) doesn't concern me.

The Telegraph and Times appear to have 'banned' my current IP address so I cannot comment on their stories. Odd that. It's not as though I ever posted anything abusive, at least I can't recall doing so. Any old road up, that's purely academic now.

I've noted that a number of media commentators have been asking things like "Who controls these blogs", to which the answer is; the creators and readers, no one else. It's the politics of the market place. If people (the readership) like your stuff, they will keep coming back. Try to lecture them and they all drift away to watch the footie. Other commentators were bemoaning the lack of readership of, say a left leaning blog in comparison to top blogger Guido Fawkes. The answer is simple; left leaning politics is boring, dull, massively yawn inspiring, somnolence inducing pomposity in its studied earnestness. A few years ago I recall seeing a couple of Marxist 'comedians', and on both occasions they were so jaw crackingly awful that the audience started telling gags amongst themselves and ignored the guy on stage.

Lets face it, if Karl Marx had put a few decent jokes in Das Kapital or written it in a lighter style, maybe we'd all be Socialists, but there is nothing funny about Socialism at all, Socialists yes, but not Socialism and that area of politics. They all know what's best for the rest of us and will not shut the fuck up without having a baseball bat buried between their ears. Nasty, tedious little people with all their half baked canting hypocrisy. All they want is power without responsibility, and the smug satisfaction of having everyone else do as they say.

As far as I'm concerned, the only Marx worth anything was Groucho.