An Electoral Catastrophe

Posted Thu, 01/21/2010 - 14:02 by Anonymous

Today’s Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case is a disaster for the American people. It will unleash unprecedented amounts of corporate “influence-seeking” money on our elections and create unprecedented opportunities for corporate “influence-buying” corruption.

GM is the Big Loser in Tiger's Accident

Posted Wed, 12/02/2009 - 10:12 by Michael Day

So Tiger Woods has a little fender bender, crunching a fire hydrant and a tree in his Cadillac Escalade. Big deal.

Well, actually it is. You see, the airbags in Tiger's big Caddy failed to deploy properly, causing Tiger to suffer a serious concussion. And did GM's OnStar system call for help? Apparently not! It was a neighbor who called 911. So not only does GM sell faulty airbags, but all those ads encouraging buyers to rely on their OnStar system turn out to be fiction as well.

Tiger will suffer a serious loss of income while he recovers from his injuries, but he will heal and come back strong. GM? Not so much. The vehicle which carried their most popular pitch man turned out to be a rolling death trap. They should be thankful he wasn't going fast enough to be killed in the crash!

Now That's a Big Brown

Posted Mon, 11/23/2009 - 19:23 by Michael Day
Missouri's State Record Brown Trout

Fall is always a good time to catch record setting fish, but Scott Sandusky never thought he would be catching a record this day. His modest goal was to catch a couple of trout for dinner. He was drifting some rainbow-colored Berkley Powerbait paste along the bottom when his line just stopped. He grabbed his rod, gave it a yank, and the fight was on. What he first thought was a good size catfish turned out to be a really big brown trout -- the biggest ever caught in Missouri. It didn't even fit in his net; his buddy had to reach down and haul it in their boat by hand.

Grouper for Dinner

Posted Mon, 11/02/2009 - 09:42 by Michael Day
Louisiana State Record Grouper

No, this is not an exercise in using Photoshop. That's a picture of medical student JJ Tabor (he's the guy in sunglasses) standing beside his Louisiana state record grouper with a couple of his buddies. The fish weighed in at over 359 pounds, and will feed a family of four for a very long time. Click on the title of this post to see the larger picture.

Another State Record Fish

Posted Thu, 10/29/2009 - 07:39 by Michael Day
The Orangespotted Sunfish

Dustin Noble, who already owns around three dozen state records in Nebraska, has set yet another. While snorkeling with his spear gun in a privately owned sand pit, Dustin set his sights on an orangespotted sunfish. Now, don't laugh. You try spearing a sunfish some time! Anyway, he nailed it, and when he hauled it up to the surface, his three and a half inch fish weighed in at 0.45 ounces. Enough for the new Nebraska state record.

Fishing Contest Rule No. 27: Thaw Your Fish Before Entering

Posted Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:26 by Michael Day

On Martha's Vineyard they hold a fishing contest every year called The Derby. For a month, fishermen from all over converge on the island in pursuit of striped bass and bluefish, with some bonito and albacore thrown in for good measure. Thousands of fish are caught and entered in the contest, and winning is a very big deal. Win it all and you get a 24-foot boat and a Chevy Silverado to tow it home. Win your category and you pocket $500 and a lot of other goodies. So as you can imagine, the incentive to cheat a bit is sometimes difficult to resist.

A week too late?

Posted Tue, 10/13/2009 - 19:36 by Michael Day

I saw that Maryland's DNR stocked 500 one-pound trout in Antietam Creek on Wednesday, so I trucked on down there this afternoon. My share of those 500 trout? One sunny and a 10-inch smallmouth bass. Maybe there are some left in Rainbow Lake. They only got 400 trout, but it is more remote, and not as many anglers hit that place. Check back tomorrow.

Fall Fishing

Posted Thu, 10/01/2009 - 19:03 by Michael Day
Michigan's State Record Muskie

I've always thought it odd the way fishing season begins in the spring, fades in the summer, and then virtually disappears in the fall. But if you've been fishing a while, you know that the biggest fish are caught in the fall, after they fattened up a bit during the summer, and when they are busy bulking up voraciously for the long winter. Witness this couple of fish caught in the past two weeks.

Dearest Mark and Maria: The Sanford Emails

Posted Thu, 06/25/2009 - 09:52 by Michael Day

From: Mark Sanford

To: Maria

Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:09:44 +0000

Dearest,

You are glorious and I hope you really understand that. You do not need a therapist to help you figure your place in the world. You are special and unique and fabulous in a whole host of ways that are worth a much longer conversation. To be continued ...

Have been having a few email problems as I am getting email through an aircard at the farm, where access to computer world is more than tough. Please let me know if you have gotten my last two eamils (sic) so I know it is working in getting to your part of the world ...

Another glorious day outside. Hope you are doing well, and am anxious to hear about your week. Know that I miss you. Unbeleivably (sic) hard to imagine it has been a week. Please also send your mailing address as I want to send you an insignificant something next week when I am back in civilization that I think you might find interesting given our conversation.

Want to write an indepth note with some thoughts on our visit when I know you are getting these emails. Hugs and much love. M

----------------------------------------------

From: Maria

Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 4:26 PM

To: Mark Sanford

Subject: RE:

My beloved, (hope you also change the dearest ...)

I’am (sic) reading your last two mails sitting outside with a great seaview here in Ilhabela, a beautiful island near Sao Paulo. Have been thinking of you while watching the beautiful blue sea (a) great part of my day and remembering with a great smile on my face, the time we had spent together. As I told you before, you brought happiness and love to my life and (I) will take you forever in my heart. I wasn’t aware till we met last week, the strong feelings I had for you, and believe me, I haven’t felt this since I was in my teen ages, when afterwards I got married. I do love you, I can feel it in my heart, and although I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to meet again this has been the best that has happened to me in a long time You made me realized (sic) how you feel when you realy (sic) love somebody and how much you want to be beside the beloved. Last Friday I would had stayed embrassing (sic) and kissing you forever.

Don’t know why you think you bore me with the description of your farm. I am an urban girl but that doesn’t inhibit me from loving other things, specially if they are the ones you love. I was able to imagine the place with every single detail you wrote and had trassmitted (sic) me the love you have for your farm. It sounds to be a great and peaceful place and loved you had shared it with me.

Thanks for your beautiful words, I don’t know if I do need or not therapy but I have to find my new place in this new stage of my life. Life has been very generous with me and I want to return at least a little bit of what I have been given. I have time and think helping others who haven’t been as lucky as me will do me fine.

My address is (deleted by The State). It will be great finding at home once I am back, whatever you send me, I’ll keep it near my bed so as to feel you nearer.

Miss you so much... love you from the deepest of my heart. Sweet kisses.

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But wait! There's more to read here!

How to End the Great Depression in July

Posted Fri, 03/20/2009 - 18:36 by Michael Day

You may have heard of the Google flu project. Google found that it could track flu outbreaks by tracking Google searches for flu. It seems Google tracking of the flu was as accurate as CDC tracking, but came 1-2 weeks earlier. I tried the same analysis with fishing. Tracking searches for trout showed spikes in trout season. Walleye searches correspond to the weeks in late spring, early summer when walleyes are biting. But what would a trend analysis of searches for "Great Depression" show? You might think it would be a flat line until recently, and in fact, there have been significant spikes lately, but look at this chart:

Look at the incredibly regular and seasonal patterns! Concern about the Great Depression regularly diminishes in the summer, increases in the fall, drops briefly after Christmas, then returns in the winter and spring. This might mean that if Obama is looking for the right time to convince people that the worst is over, and that they should try spending again, he should wait until late June, and then hope for the best over the next two months. Concerns will return, of course, but perhaps by then the real crisis will have passed.

For the complete Google trend analysis, click here.

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