Morning Concert - Sarah Jarosz

Wombat-socho is celebrating Rule Five Sunday on Monday this week.

It Figures It's a Lab

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Bucks?

Forest Service says media needs photography permit in wilderness areas

The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country's wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas.

Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation's 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone.

So, if I were wandering around in the wilderness, and spot a rare, or even just a really cool butterfly, I'm supposed to have a $1,500 permit to take a picture?  Or is it OK for a retired biologist blogger and illegal for a reporter? Does that draw a line between blogging and "reporting"? These days, anybody can be a reporter when they want to.

Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don't get a permit could face fines up to $1,000.

At least it's still cheaper to ask forgiveness than permission. I'm sure they'll try to fix that

First Amendment advocates say the rules ignore press freedoms and are so vague they'd allow the Forest Service to grant permits only to favored reporters shooting videos for positive stories.

No government agency would bend the rules for favorable coverage, right?

"It's pretty clearly unconstitutional," said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Va. "They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can't."

Liz Close, the Forest Service's acting wilderness director, says the restrictions have been in place on a temporary basis for four years and are meant to preserve the untamed character of the country's wilderness.

Why? Who wanted this?

Close didn't cite any real-life examples of why the policy is needed or what problems it's addressing. She didn't know whether any media outlets had applied for permits in the last four years.

She said the agency was implementing the Wilderness Act of 1964, which aims to protect wilderness areas from being exploited for commercial gain.

I suspect this was written with destructive exploitation in mind; mining, grazing, lumbering etc, and not from collecting and documenting photons.  But you can't trust a government bureaucrat not to interpret a law in such a way as to restrict their power. It's simultaneously outrageous, and completely predictable.

Maryland Busts Faux Fishing Charter Captains

Md. NRP Bust Illegal Boat Charters

Maryland Natural Resources Police officers last Wednesday charged a Grasonville man with operating an illegal fishing service as part of a continuing state and federal investigation into charter boats on Kent Island.

DNR said that last month, undercover officers paid Andrew Wright Jr., 76, captain of the boat, Lisa Ann, for a fishing trip originating at Kent Narrows. After an investigation, Wright was charged with operating as an unlicensed commercial fishing guide, failing to obtain federal licenses to operate a commercial vessel, failing to possess a license while charter fishing, and using a Maryland Consolidated Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Sport Boat License on a vessel used to take people fishing. Federal charges are being pursued.

Head boats, also known as party boats, charge a per-person fee compared to other types of charters that involve renting an entire boat.

Earlier this month in a joint NRP and Coast Guard operation, two Kent Narrows head boat captains - Tyrone Antone Meredith, 53, of Stevensville, and Herlen Vernon Lynch, 63, of Dover, Del. - were charged with operating passenger vessels without required safety equipment and failing to have the appropriate licenses.

A third boat, the Fishing Lady, was removed from service after it was found to have numerous safety violations and was taking on passengers despite an order earlier this year from the Coast Guard not to do so.

I suspect there are a couple of boats in our harbor that do this. In the spring trophy season there are a large number of different vehicles that come and park, and a wide variety of people come and go from the boats. Either that, or they invite a lot of friends fishing.

There has been a controversy over these regulations for quite a while. Rumor had it that if you invited someone out on your boat, and they brought a bucket of fried chicken, or far worse, even helped pay for gas, you were guilty of running an illegal charter. I was even accused of it once (by a charter guide), for offering a "free" trip for auction at a conservation association banquet.

Regardless of the legal niceties, the Coast Guard and the NRP do not seem to be enforcing the rule at the stupid level. They really seem to be focusing on actual business that appear to be operating in violation of both the letter and spirit of the law. I'm good with that.

Save the Planet - Kill a Tree?

Tree's cause global warming?  At least according to the New York Times (which means I'm already skeptical): The Science Was Settled, Except... Reforestation Raises Global Warming?

The NY Times continues to disorient their readers with a newUnsettled Science piece and a bit of a plug for Ronald Reagan; this time we hear from the Tree Deniers:

To Save the Planet, Don’t Plant Trees
By NADINE UNGERSEPT. 19, 2014

Apparently it is all about the albedo and the air pollution caused by, yes, trees.

NEW HAVEN — AS international leaders gather in New York next week for a United Nations climate summit, they will be preoccupied with how to tackle the rising rate of carbon emissions. To mitigate the crisis, one measure they are likely to promote is reducing deforestation and planting trees.
...
Deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide. The assumption is that planting trees and avoiding further deforestation provides a convenient carbon capture and storage facility on the land.
That is the conventional wisdom. But the conventional wisdom is wrong.
In reality, the cycling of carbon, energy and water between the land and the atmosphere is much more complex. Considering all the interactions, large-scale increases in forest cover can actually make global warming worse.
This is counterintuitive...

I'll say. As trees grow they act as a carbon sink but:

Besides the amount of greenhouse gases in the air, another important switch on the planetary thermostat is how much of the sun’s energy is taken up by the earth’s surface, compared to how much is reflected back to space. The dark color of trees means that they absorb more of the sun’s energy and raise the planet’s surface temperature.
Climate scientists have calculated the effect of increasing forest cover on surface temperature. Their conclusion is that planting trees in the tropics would lead to cooling, but in colder regions, it would cause warming.
In order to grow food, humans have changed about 50 percent of the earth’s surface area from native forests and grasslands to crops, pasture and wood harvest. Unfortunately, there is no scientific consensus on whether this land use has caused overall global warming or cooling. Since we don’t know that, we can’t reliably predict whether large-scale forestation would help to control the earth’s rising temperatures.

So, did the deforestation of most of the world with the growth of mankind's population contribute to the Little Ice Age? An interesting thought.

It also sort of depends on how you take the temperature.  Under a tree canopy, the temperature can be several degrees cooler than outside on bare ground, or on top of the canopy during the day, but warmer at night. Trees also provide a cooling influence by transporting water to the canopy and evaporating it through their leaves; a primitive "swamp cooler" refrigerator.

So shit was more complicated than scientists originally thought? How could that ever happen?  Maybe they should look at the numbers again. It's almost always way more complicated than your first or second thought about it.

And...

Worse, trees emit reactive volatile gases that contribute to air pollution and are hazardous to human health. These emissions are crucial to trees — to protect themselves from environmental stresses like sweltering heat and bug infestations. In summer, the eastern United States is the world’s major hot spot for volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.s) from trees.

Trees cause air pollution? Wait for it...

As these compounds mix with fossil-fuel pollution from cars and industry, an even more harmful cocktail of airborne toxic chemicals is created. President Ronald Reagan was widely ridiculed in 1981 when he said, “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” He was wrong on the science — but less wrong than many assumed.

OK, I had, and have a hard time believing trees can outdo cars, but still - two plugs for Reagan in one Saturday? OK, polluting trees shouldn't be news (2003, 2004) but I try to learn something new every day . . .

Since 1981, forests, at least in the US, have expanded, while air pollution, particularly nitrogen oxides have been declining due to catalytic converters etc.  So maybe trees are a more important source than cars. (But the data don't show it).

I'd still rather have the haze from the Blue Ridge Mountains than the smog from Los Angeles.
. .

Curses, Fooled Again!

Angela Basset as a 3 breasted woman in "American Horror Story"

Remember the three breasted woman from Wednesday's 6 AM wake up call?  It seems highly likely that was faked (I'm sure you're shocked):

The Tampa, Fla. woman who claimed to have had plastic surgery to add a third breast apparently made the entire thing up.

The woman, who goes by the name Jasmine Tridevil, was reportedly discovered to have faked the plastic surgery after TMZ obtained a police report filed by Tridevil after her bag was stolen at Tampa International Airport.

TMZ reports that the bag was stolen off of an American Airlines conveyor belt and a "3 breast prosthesis" was found inside by police after they recovered the bag.

Pretty amazing coincidence that her bag was stolen off the conveyor belt after she came forward as the amazing three breasted boob, don't you think?

Three Breasted Woman from "Total Recall", rated PG 13.

Ace hinted this might be true yesterday:

You can watch WTSP's video here. She briefly lifts up her shirt to show the guy the same "trikini" (as Anna Puma calls it) we see her in a lot.

There, the reporter says that a plastic surgeon told him you couldn't do this operation, even if you wanted to-- there's just no "flesh envelope" on the sternum which can serve as a pocket for an implant.

I think he's saying it's like trying to put a breast implant on your knee.

But let's hold out hope that the "3 breast prosthesis" that was found in her luggage was merely for practice. Wombat-socho is celebrating Rule Five Sunday on Monday this week.

Let Me Think About the 6 AM Wake Up

OK, I thought about it:



Wombat-socho is celebrating Rule Five Sunday on Monday this week.

Shish Kabob!

Fast and easy:

Bear Attack Claims New Jersey Student

NJ student may have died in state’s first fatal bear attack in 150 years

New Jersey wildlife officials believe that a black bear in search of fo
od killed a Rutgers University senior who was hiking with four friends over the weekend.

The body of Darsh Patel, 22, of Edison, N.J., was found Sunday in the Apshawa Preserve in West Milford. Police Chief Timothy Storbeck said the male bear was walking in a circle about 30 yards from the victim's body and wouldn't leave even after officers tried to scare it away by making loud noises and throwing sticks and stones.

According to Storbeck, the five friends noticed the bear beginning to follow them and ran, splitting up as they did. When the other four couldn't find Patel, they called police, who found his body about two hours later.

Maybe there is something to that old joke "I don't need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you" after all.

The 300-pound animal was killed with two rifle shots and is and is being examined at a state lab for more clues as to why it may have pursued the group of five hikers. If it is confirmed that the bear caused Patel's death, it would be only the second fatal bear attack recorded in the state's history. The other occurred in 1852.

Making Black Bears in New Jersey even less dangerous than toxic waste.

Hey, have you heard why New Jersey has all the toxic waste dumps and California has all the lawyers?  . . . New Jersey got first pick. Ba Dum!

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese told reporters Monday that the bear had not been tagged by researchers, so there is no documented history of interaction with other humans.

Must be a right-wing survivalist, anti-government Tea Party bear. Quick, notify the media!

Kelcey Burguess, principal biologist and leader of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife's black bear project, said the bear could have been predisposed to attack but more likely was looking for food, particularly since wildlife officials believe there is a current shortage of the acorns and berries that bears eat. The hikers had granola bars and water with them, Storbeck said.

Officials don't believe the hikers provoked the bear but they may have showed their inexperience when they decided to run. The safest way to handle a bear encounter is to move slowly and not look the bear in the eye, Ragonese said.

Pretty much treat it like a Kardashian sister.

Ah, The Good Old Days

Joe Biden 2012: Can you believe Mitt Romney wants to hit Syria?

. . . an amazing clip — even more amazing than when it first made the rounds a year ago, when Obama announced that he wanted to bomb the opposite side of the conflict in Syria from the one we began bombing last night. In the year since, literally every Romney 2012 position mocked by Biden in the clip below has turned out to be prescient. Romney said it was a mistake to bring everyone home from Iraq. Verdict: Yep, pretty much. Romney said we should be more confrontational and less cooperative with Russia. Verdict: You tell me. Romney implied he’d intervene in Syria to keep chemical weapons out of the hands of jihadis. Verdict: President “Red Lines” adopted the same position less than a year later. Romney claimed it was a mistake to set a date for total withdrawal from Afghanistan. Verdict: The jury’s out but I know which way I’m betting. The only detail here that hasn’t come to pass and likely won’t is what Biden says about Romney allegedly wanting war with Iran, but in reality Romney’s policy during the campaign wasn’t appreciably different from Obama’s. Funny though it may seem now, Obama took a hawkish line on Iranian nuclear weapons in both of his presidential campaigns, not unlike how he opposed gay marriage in 2008: No one believed he was sincere in either case but the pretense shielded him from a lot of political heat.

There are no good parody acts of Crazy Uncle Joe, because no one can match him.

Fall Starts at the Beach

Our first "fall" beach walk, since we didn't make it yesterday. 59 F and breezy, 10-15 mph from the northeast, but mostly sunny, it was the first day I since June that I felt I wanted long sleeves.

There was only one other person on the beach with us today on the entire stretch up past the cottages (about 2 miles), this woman, who was also hunting sharks teeth.  Is that dirt on her legs and feet?

 Nope, it's a veritable constellation of stars. Are they tattoos or just pen and ink?  From the smearing, I'm wondering.

The usual feathered crowd was out and about, though, the Ospreys. . .

The scruffy looking juvenile eagle (this one is worth looking at full size).

And, maybe, Mom or Dad standing by watching.

And a trio of peeps (Semipalmated Sandpipers) who were so busy eating they let us walk right up on them several times.

Just passing by on their way to South America or the Caribbean.

Back at the dunes, I found this Gray Hairstreak trying to sun itself, and I got this relatively rare full on top shot of it.

After it spooked to a new leaf, I got the more traditional side on shot.

Climate Totalitarianism

The Climate March on Wall Street (why not Beijing?) I reported on yesterday provide ample evidence that the true goal of the global cooling nuclear winter global warming climate change climate instability climate stability protest movement is not so much to control the climate as to control the government, in a leftist regime.  Robert Kennedy Jr. let the mask slip (again) in an interview with Climate Depot:

Blissfully unaware of how hot the irony burned, Robert Kennedy Jr. yesterday took to a public protest to rail avidly in favor of censorship. The United States government, Kennedy lamented in an interview with Climate Depot, is not permitted by law to “punish” or to imprison those who disagree with him — and this, he proposed, is a problem of existential proportions. Were he to have his way, Kennedy admitted, he would cheer the prosecution of a host of “treasonous” figures — among them a number of unspecified “politicians”; those bêtes noires of the global Left, Kansas’s own Koch Brothers; “the oil industry and the Republican echo chamber”; and, for good measure, anybody else whose estimation of the threat posed by fossil fuels has provoked them into “selling out the public trust.” Those who contend that global warming “does not exist,” Kennedy claimed, are guilty of “a criminal offense — and they ought to be serving time for it.”

Thus did a scion of one of America’s great political dynasties put himself on the same lowly moral, legal, and intellectual plane as the titillation website Gawker.

Actually Gawker is on a much higher moral, legal and intellectual plane, just trying to make a buck off the foibles of humanity and the political class.  Kennedy squarely placed himself on the same moral etc. plane with Marx and Lenin, and I doubt that deep in the middle of the night even Bobby Jr. would bother to deny it. Lenin, at least, got what he wanted.

Of course, Bobby is not the first leftist to call for what is effectively the selective repeal of the First Amendment (at least, it might be selective initially, but camel's nose and all).  A quick google shows that professor Lawrence Torcello, University of Buffalo, and Adam Weinstein (Mother Jones and Gawker) have previously called for jailing global warming skeptics for having the temerity to disagree with their personal convictions. But Kennedy may be the closest to the actual power center of the United States as a scion of a politically powerful family, (duh) and former flunky at the New York City District Attorney's Office, and a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the NGO which is the left's shadow version of the EPA.

What is it about climate whatever you want to call it that drives lefties to become wanna be tyrants.  I ran into this essay on Neil deGrass Tyson, and his propensity to fabricate quotes into the mouths of his opponents, and found this wonderful explanatory passage:

Given the size, breadth, and intensity of the global warming vogue and the pro-science pose of its supporters, it must answer some profound need, some crisis of the soul.

It is needed because the left is fundamentally reactionary.

The modern left formed as a reaction against capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. I think this reaction was driven by a deeply ingrained attitude toward morality. Practically every moral philosophy has warned against the evils of greed and self-interest—and here was an economic system that encourages and rewards those motives. You could look at this and decide that it’s necessary to re-evaluate the moral issues and come to terms with self-interest in some way. Most factions of the modern right have done so, whether they accept self-interest as a necessary evil or to make a virtue of selfishness.

But if you’re not willing to make such an accommodation, you’re going to look around, see all this heedless profit-seeking, and conclude that it must be evil in some way and it must be leading to evil consequences. So you will lend an eager ear to anyone who claims to validate your moral suspicions about capitalism.

In the first go-around, these anti-capitalists tried to capture the science of economics, forming theories about how capitalism is a system of exploitation that will impoverish the common man, while scientific central planning would provide abundance for all.

Let’s just say that this didn’t work out. When it turned out that central planning impoverishes the common man and capitalism provides abundance for all, they had to switch to a fallback position. Which is: to heck with prosperity—too many material goods are the problem. Our greed for more is destroying the planet by causing environmental catastrophes. This shift became official some time in the 1960s with the rise of the New Left.

Some of the catastrophes didn’t pan out (overpopulation, global cooling) and others proved too small to be anything more than a speed bump in the path of capitalism (banning CFCs and DDT). But then along comes global warming—and it’s just too good not to be true. It tells us that capitalism is not just exploiting the workers or causing inequality or deadening our souls with crass materialism. It’s destroying the very planet itself.

The global warming theory tells us that the free market is a doomsday machine bringing about the end of the world. It turns capitalism into a metaphysical evil.

And there is no halfway solution to the problem, no practical fix or technological patch. Carbon dioxide emissions are an unavoidable byproduct of the burning of fossil fuels, and the entire system of industrial capitalism runs on fossil fuels. So the only way to avoid catastrophe is to shut it all down.

You can see how this brings order and balance back to the left’s universe. Their visceral reaction against capitalism is validated on the deepest, most profound level.

You can see how this would be almost like a drug or like an article of religious faith. How can you allow people to question and undermine the very thing that gives meaning to your life? Hence the visceral reaction to global warming skeptics.

Women In the News

It is, it seems, the year of the woman, and so women are making news all over. Unfortunately it's often Hillary Clinton, Sandra Fluke or Liz "Fauxcahontas" Warren. Usually, women seem to me to more pragmatic than men, and less prone to, as Obama calls it, "stupid shit" except for shoe selection. However, there are some exceptions:

‘F*** It, I Quit’: Reporter’s On-Air Resignation and the Shocked Anchor Left to Pick up the Pieces

Charlo Greene was a reporter for KTVA-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. That is until Sunday night when she quit on live TV by uttering an obscenity and walking off camera.

Greene was just wrapping up a report on a marijuana group and its legalization initiative when she admitted she was actually the head of a pro-pot group she had covered in the video package.

“Now everything you heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska,” she said.

“And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, f**k it, I quit.”

After she walked off, the camera cut to a tongue-tied anchor who immediately apologized .

I just love the way she plays this straight until the very end. It starts off as kind of ordinary, boring news segment, but hang with it: Yes, she says it, so NSFW language:



And now for something different, really different: Fake or freak? Woman, 21, claims to have paid $20,000 to surgically add third breast in desperate bid to become a reality TV star

A 21-year-old woman claims to have paid $20,000 to surgically add a third breast in a desperate bid to become a reality TV star.

Jasmine Tridevil insists she was rejected by more than 50 doctors who feared violating ethical codes before she found a willing surgeon who would perform the procedure.

Now, she has hired a camera crew to follow her around Tampa, Florida, documenting the 'struggles' she faces as a three-breasted woman.

'My whole dream is to get this show on MTV,' she told Real Radio 104.1. 'I'm dumping every penny I have into this. If this doesn't work, I'm through.'

Despite scheduling interviews, creating a fan page, and hiring a film crew, Tridevil insists her apparent surgery was not an attempt become famous.

'I got it because I wanted to make myself unattractive to men,' she claims. 'Because I don't want to date anymore.'

You could just say "no," you know.  Anyway, I call bullshit on that statement based on her clothing, carefully designed to display the third hooter, and after looking at her video of her attempting to sway seductively. You'll have to go to the original link, and wait through an extended ad.

While there are probably many who would welcome the challenge, we all know that more than two handfuls is wasted.

Ann Althouse comments now everyone will have 22.5 minutes of fame.

Wombat-socho is celebrating Rule Five Sunday on Monday this week.

Seems Fair to Me

Petition Demands Obama Allow The Fence Jumper To Stay In White House

What's good for the goose...

The man who jumped the White House railing Sept. 19 deserves the right to live in President Barack Obama's home, just as the president is allowing hundreds of thousands of border-jumping Central Americans to live in Americans' homeland, says a new tongue-in-cheek petition posted at the White House website.
"We urge President Obama to immediately and publicly recognize that Mr. Omar J. Gonzalez, an oppressed migrant, was merely looking for a better life when he entered the White House after going over the classist, divisive and needless fence," says the petition, which was authored by D.A. King, founder of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for actual enforcement of immigration law. (Source)

Read and sign the petition HERE.

Something Fishy About Striped Bass in Chesapeake Bay

I normally deride the Bay Journal as the house organ of the EPA Chesapeake Bay program, but Karl Blankenship has actually published a thoughtful article on the spat between recreational and commercial fisherman over Stripped Bass management on the Atlantic Coast:

For years, striped bass were a textbook example of successful fishery management.

After a dramatic population crash in the early 1980s, a painful harvest moratorium was put in place. As hoped, the population rebounded. By 1995, it was declared “recovered” — and even then the population continued to climb.

By the early 2000s, commercial fishermen and recreational anglers were seeing more large striped bass than at any time in recent memory.

Fast forward another decade, to 2014, and the picture is starkly different. The spawning population is at about the same level it was in 1995, when it was declared recovered, but instead of trending upward, it’s been declining for a decade.

It is expected to drop below the “recovered” threshold level next year.

As a result the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is looking at harvest reductions of about 25%. Recreational groups tend to favor immediate, and strong enforcement of the reductions, hoping to get the population rebound soon, while the commercial sector favors an incremental approach to protect the industry while the restrictions take place.  Recreational fishermen perceive (I certainly have perceived) a substantial loss in Striped Bass numbers in my fishing area:

Recreational fishermen do best when fish are very abundant. The fish are more easily found, and the commercial quota typically takes a smaller portion of the available population. As the population declines, recreational anglers with fishing lines are less efficient than watermen with nets, and have a harder time finding fish — even if the stock is still considered to be at a sustainable level.

“When abundance is down, the recreational anglers are the ones whose catch is going to go down the most,” said Bill Goldsborough, director of fisheries for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “By the same token, when abundance is up, their catch goes up the most. The recreational catch is tied very closely to abundance.”

That’s reflected in ASMFC figures which show spikes in recreational harvests when the striped bass population hit its peak in the early 2000s. In fact, the estimated dead discards from the recreational fishery along the coast — those fish that are caught and released, but die anyway (about 9 percent of the released fish) — exceeded the entire commercial catch as recently as 2006.

Think of it this way. Striped Bass are very much a schooling fish, using the power of their own numbers to enable them to feed. When they are very abundant, large dense schools of striped bass are found all over the Bay.  When they become less abundant, those schools don't become less dense, they become fewer, smaller, and with more space in between them.  Much harder for recreational fisherman to find on the spur of the moment. On the other hand:

Commercial fishermen, equipped with large boats, nets and often decades of individual and community knowledge, are efficient. They typically can catch their given quota despite competition from recreational anglers, as long as the stock is at a healthy level.

My concern is that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation appears to be going into a cold phase, which not only means lousier weather (if colder is lousier) for us on the East Coast, but is also worse for the recruitment of Striped Bass.

If the situation is down, and promises to be getting worse due to the AMO, I would think that we should be looking for sharp changes to protect the stock more.  Now how about some more Dr. Julie Ball?

Sorry, no bikini.  Striper season is cold down in Virginia.

New Boring Fish Fossil Found Nearby

New Tunneling Prehistoric Fish Found at Calvert Cliffs.

A new species of extinct tilefish was recently discovered at Calvert Cliffs along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This new tilefish is named “ereborensis” after “Erebor”: the elvish name for the Lonely Mountain in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legend The Hobbit. Calvert Cliffs like the Lonely Mountain, holds a treasure trove of fossils into which the extinct fish tunneled – like the Dwarves in the Kingdom under Erebor.

OK, that was pretty nerdy. Neat, but nerdy.

Like some of their living relatives, these prehistoric tilefish tunneled into the sea floor where they made homes in which to take refuge. As the cliffs erode, these once ocean-bottom sediments are exposed and the fossil burrows become visible exposing fossilized skeletons of some of these extinct fish.

The fossilized remains of fish along Calvert Cliffs are very rare, so when fish bones are found, they are usually alone, and not as part of a skull or skeleton. However, because these extinct tilefish were tunneling into the Miocene sea floor, and sometimes died in their burrows, their home became a coffin greatly improving the odds that their intact skeleton would become fossilized.

Dr. Julie Ball (a dentist and pro sportsfisherman down in Virginia Beach) shows off a fine pair of...

. . .Tilefish caught off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Tilefish come in two varieties, the Blueline Tilefish above, and the Golden Tilefish:

Reported to be excellent eating but a bit high in mercury.  Tilefish, not Dr. Ball.

Wombat-socho is celebrating Rule Five Sunday on Monday this week.

Fall Watermelons

Watermelons are associated with summer, but one variety is an all year phenomenon. The environmental activists who may not know much about the laws of thermodynamics but are damn sure they want to destroy the capitalist system that provided their creature comforts. Green on the outside, red in the middle, watermelons:

Reason Magazine actually asked climate protesters what they want to do, and it’s hilarious

Unsurprisingly, the People’s March more resembled a throwback anti-capitalism protest than it did a climate rally. When Foster asked random protesters what they wanted to see done to address climate change, those who did not merely say they wanted to see a “coming together” and a general raising of “awareness” usually promoted familiar policies that would achieve the deindustrialization of the first world originally espoused by the Soviets and their allies.

One protester said his “movement” was preparing to mount a “resistance” and lead an “actual revolution” that would lead to a “whole new society.” … Sounds familiar. What kind of new society, Foster pressed. A “socialist” one, the protester replied.

One relatively older rally attendee – most of the protesters Foster spoke with were silver-haired – insisted that hydraulic fracturing, a process which was proven safe again at the conclusion of a study funded by National Science Foundation and Duke University study, should be criminalized.

“Capitalism destroys the planet,” one large banner promoted by representatives with RevCom.us read. “We need revolution. Nothing less!”

First Fall Obamacare Schadenfreude

I started this collection of threads back in October last year, as Obamacare enrollment was getting ready to start. Who new it would still be at a slow boil almost a year later? Well, yeah, we knew it.

Megan McArdle  (by way of Wombat-socho's "Live at Five: 09.22.14") casts a gimlet eye on the administration reports of 7.3 million paid up policies:

Apparently, Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, just told Congress that 7.3 million people have paid premiums and are currently enrolled in exchange policies. What does that mean?

It’s a little hard to tell, because according to Jason Millman of the Washington Post, she also says that this is a “snapshot” of Aug. 15, not a cumulative figure. Why does that matter? Because there’s a 90-day grace period between missing a premium payment and getting dropped from your insurance. The administration says that this figure only includes people who have “paid their premiums." But what does that mean? That they paid a premium at least once? Or that they are current on their premium payments?

Remember that out of 8 million total enrollments, almost 4 million people signed up in March and early April, most of them in those last few weeks (about 910,000 just in April). Those people didn’t have their premiums due until May, or June 1. So someone who paid a single premium in May or June and then stopped paying would still be in the grace period, and they would technically still be covered by an exchange policy, pending payment. For that matter, if you started coverage in January and stopped paying six months later, you would still show up as enrolled in Tavenner’s figure.

How much does this matter? It depends on the relative attrition rate: How many people stopped paying, and how many people never paid at all? If the latter accounts for almost all the attrition, then we can expect that 7.3 million is pretty close to the final figure for paid enrollment in 2014; I wouldn’t expect it to fall much below 7 million,1and it might be well over that figure. If the “stopped paying” group is substantial, then we can expect this number to grow substantially as policies written during the late-enrollment surge lapse.

I have complete faith in the administrations willingness to bend the numbers to fit the narrative,

GOP finds ObamaCare opening

Republicans have found a new opening against ObamaCare after struggling for months to craft a fresh strategy against a healthcare law that now covers millions of people.

Lifted by a pair of federal audits that found major flaws with the law’s implementation, Republicans see their first chance in months to launch a serious attack against the law.

“The news that we’ve seen over the last week and a half really emphasizes what conservatives and Republicans were trying to do last year, which was preventing a lot of this from happening,” said Dan Holler, a spokesman for the conservative political group Heritage Action for America.

“What I hope happens is that the Republican Party as a whole says, ‘Yes, there is a reason besides politics that we’re fighting ObamaCare: It’s hurting people,’” Holler said.

The people it hurts aren't natural Obama voters, so on the margin it's not a big factor. Although, this might wake a few of them up:

Tax refunds will be cut for ACA recipients

A significant benefit of the Affordable Care Act is the opportunity to receive money-saving tax credits up front to cut the overall cost of health insurance, but now hundreds of thousands of consumers could owe back some of that money next April.

Those affected took advance payments of the premium tax credit for health insurance. Some married couples could owe $600 or $1,500 or $2,500 or even more. It might feel like a raw deal for some who are already suffocating under the escalating costs of health insurance.
"Health insurance is confusing enough, and now they're adding the complexities of the Tax Code," said Lorena Bencsik, a member of the Michigan Association of CPAs and owner of Prime Numbers in Ferndale.

When you file that 2014 tax return next year, the Internal Revenue Service will compare your actual income for the year with the amount you estimated when applying for exchange-based health insurance under the health insurance law.

The next open enrollment period begins Nov. 15. But notices were sent this week to some consumers whose incomes don't match up to such things as 2012 tax return information.

What, you didn't think someone had to pay for all the subsidies?

Ran Radosh take on Ezekiel Emanuel over euthanasia and death panels and living past 75:

If young Zeke wants to stop living at 75, that’s fine with me. But the arguments he lays out are not really meant to be just about himself. He argues that essentially, one should stop living after he or she has led a complete life. According to him, by 75, people have passed their creative peaks. It is all downhill from there. They are being kept alive by the likes of flu and pneumonia shots, vaccines, antibiotics, and better medical care, which keeps them going instead of allowing nature to take its course. That is why, he says at one point, he does not believe people should get flu shots in their 60s: because each one taken by an elderly person is depriving a younger person who needs it to live a full life from having access to it. (He does not explain why both cannot get them.)

Yep, you first, Zeke.  Like Patrick Kennedy and Climate Change:



I'll take them more seriously when they actually walk the talk.

Fall is Fell

It's been the most amazing summer ever here as far a weather is concerned.  Everyone is fearing a winter like the last one; endless small snows. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Last night, some time, the Autumnal Equinox came and went, making it officially fall:



Shocklingly, Neil Young has a more upbeat autumn song:

Canadian Taliban Object to Lady Sports Fans

Woman in Whitecaps video baffled by sexism controversy (with video)

Emily Guedes had no intention of becoming the centre of a social-media firestorm when she attended a Vancouver Whitecaps’ soccer game with two friends earlier this season.

Footage of the three young women cheering in the stands at BC Place Stadium was used in a promo video posted on the team’s YouTube and Instagram accounts on Wednesday. The video proved popular online and Guedes, a Port Moody resident, drew comparisons to former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, who was discovered at a B.C. Lions’ game 25 years ago.

In the slow-motion video, Guedes — wearing a white tank top and holding a beer — jumps with her arms extended in the air as she follows the action on the field.

The team pulled the video within hours of it being posted after some fans complained it was sexist and misogynistic in nature.

The video in question?



Much nicer than Pam Anderson. And Emily was rather pissed that it was pulled:

Guedes, meanwhile, is incredulous to the idea that there is anything misogynistic contained in the 18-second slow-motion video of her cheering on her favourite team.

“What’s misogynistic is the fact that men are in the videos — and kids cheering for (the Whitecaps) — but not a couple of women,” Guedes said. “I am not offended by the video but (I am) adamantly offended by their removal of it.”

Guedes isn’t an actress or model. She’s a season-ticket holder who goes to every game.

Ann Althouse said she showed "tremendous restraint." Would the feminists prefer that women wear burkas to sports events?

Wombat-socho is celebrating Rule Five Sunday on Monday this week.