reevesr1

Happy birthday you fish hugger you.

I thought cutbow as well. But whatever, gorgeous fish.

Not silly at all. Economy of scale is the reason. Way, way more barbed hooks are made lowering the cost per unit. Another interesting aspect in all this is if you do some research, it is easy to find that many of the studies conducted show no change in mortality of barbed vs. barbless. In fact, some studies show an increase in mortality of barbless treble hooks vs barbed-though the study stated the difference (3% vs 4%) was statistically meaningless in the sample size. The most curious was that dual treble hook Rapala's showed 0 mortality. The studies stated that even with the increased handling time, there was no change in mortality for any hook type -single or treble barbed vs barbed. The only big (huge actually) change was when bait was studied. Very high mortality rates when the hook was swallowed. The conclusion of the study I read (actually a compilation of studies) said issue of barbed vs barbless is more a social issue than a mortality issue. Even though the barb does not seem to increase mortality, I would think in a catch a release river it probably does increase non-mortal hook damage. But as far as I know there is no study to support that. Hence the term social issue.

Better to call them all morons and question their breeding. Barely any fish left in the Bow due to this infestation of barbed chucking morons. I only hooked 15 or so in two hours yesterday. The river has been lost I tell you.

I believe that reports of water overuse are overblown. I refuse to be Suzikiized. Or is it Gored?

Happy Birthday. Hope you get to dance with some fish.

Logo sucks. My theorem is the next one should involve a triangle. Or is that a bit square(d)?

Just like every other team's fans everywhere.

Keep your emoticons to yourself evil neo-con moderator.

Booo. Welcome back Ryan.

neo-con.

Nah, that was just metaphorical. I think myopic was the last straw!

Bump. Don't let those pesky moderators stop us!!

WTF is 3 hours from Lafayette? New Orleans? Texas? The Gulf? Did you guys travel by pirogue? If so, did everyone speak bad French, cuz they would have been true Bayou folk.

So the earth has cooled the last 11 years (or maybe the mean surface temp has cooled while the "earth-including atmosphere, land, water, et al has warmed, depending on the study). And if you believe one of the mind numbing number of articles linked here, this cooling was caused by the Pacific something or other. My question would be is this cooling in line with a typical Pacific thingy? Has it been somewhat mitigated by the amount of CO2? Probably tough to answer because of variances in the strength of the Pacific whatchamacallit. But my strong suspicion is that to say "look, the earth has cooled the last 11 yrs" and tout that as proof GW has been discredited is a bit of a stretch. A couple of other things that I always question. The statement that "the vast amount of money spent on GW could have been spent on world hunger." Really? Explain the logic of this to me please. Is there a history of the world spending vast sums of money on Global Hunger (or insert other worthy cause here) which has stopped recently? The thought that money that goes to GW mitigation would have otherwise gone to (insert worthy cause) is a more than a bit suspect. To me, this is like when people use questionable safety concerns to stop whatever project they want stopped. The concerns are not real, but are convenient devices to sway opinion. There is also a tendency to use short term variations to refute models which are, I think, constructed to estimate long term changes. "It was cold this year" in no way lessens my belief in a model that says temps will tend up for the next 50 (or whatever) years. There will always be variability. It's the trend the is the concern. Now, I will say that an 11 yr cooling is more than a short term variation. If the model is constructed to predict temps on a decade like scale and is shown invalid over a decade, that is cause for questions. But it does not mean the entire model, or it's long term conclusions, are suddenly invalid. And PLEASE do not explain to me how if we can't predict the weather tomorrow we can't predict it years from now. I can't tell you how many people will die today in Calgary with any amount of accuracy. But I bet with a little research I can make a fairly sound guess on how many will die in the next 10 years. My inability to predict short term in no way impacts my ability to predict long term. This is a very simple illustration of a much more complex system, but the underlying premise is the same. This probably seems as if I'm coming down on the GW side. Not really. I don't have the intelligence, or maybe expertise is a better word, to decide one way or the other. But I don't buy the idea that this is being crammed down my throat by ruthless individuals only interested in personal gain. I think most of them are well meaning, dedicated people doing what they think is right. Same could be said of most of the deniers. I'm still at the same place I was before. If the models truly are wrong and GW does not exist, they will be discredited and the scientific community will eventually accept that. Might be a naive view on my part, but I'm ok with that. In the meantime, figuring out ways to limit production and increase storage of CO2 don't sound like a bad thing to me. Finally, to the view that this topic is tired, well maybe. But this is page 3 and 50 some odd posts. A lot of posturing by both sides, but a lot of interest too. Not a bad thing either, probably.

As I lived in Southern Louisiana > the required 7 yrs, I guess I'm a coonass. I can confidently say things like "I ain't gunna do dat, no" and "you wanna come ovah home fo' a little while?" I'm not sure if it is a lifetime designation or the statute of limitations runs out after some period of time. I moved from just outside of NO about 33 yrs ago.

Now that we seem to be getting into the "my scientist is better than your scientist" season, I'd like to help everyone with some definition of terms: Fair and reasoned scientific research: Research that confirms the views of the poster Junk or vodoo science: Research that does not confirm the views of the poster Reasonable warnings to general public Warnings from scientific community or informed spokeperson warning the general public of dangers of some possible upcoming event...confirming the views of the poster Fear mongering Warnings from scientific community or informed spokeperson warning the general public of dangers of some possible upcoming event...refuting the views of the poster Reasonable and impartial debate Debating with people who believe the same thing you do Arguing with morons Shouting your views at people who do not believe the same as you I suppose rational debate is theoretically possible, but statistically unlikely.

Some cynicism is certainly healthy (pun intended), and doing all the things you mentioned in your last sentence are great guides to good health. But it would be wise to remember that while the human body may have been designed to heal, medical advances,including flu vaccines) have raised our life expectancy toi levels far beyond just a few generations ago. Periodically people die because they are wearing a seat belt. But it would be foolish to not wear a sea belt for that reason. Far, far more lives are saved. Same thing for flu vaccines. Taco-how was that for serious? No sarcasm anywhere!

Yeah, it's just a big conspiracy. The media overblows everything. Nothing is ever as bad as they say it is going to be. Except when it's worse. Who the eff knows? Not me. My hope is it is totally overblown. But I'm taking my shot. Downside it the government can track me now when they inject me with the damn chip. I bet it is made by RIM and they will get rich. And Snuffy, please don't confuse us with those pesky "facts". They get in the way of our conjecture.

In 35 yrs of driving I've never gotten a ticket <10 mph or < 15 kph over that I can remember. I've also never not had them drop it to 10 over, again as far as I can remember.

Fishermen are weird. It dont always have to be a challenge! I'd go in a second!

Wow. Just finished your copy of "How to Win Friends and Influence People?"

Here is the weather report from this morning: Awesome! I really wanted to take my buddy today, but I just can't get the motivation up for -5. Stupid global cooling.

We should have had this discussion walking up (and up, and up) that long road in BC. Would have been interesting!!

He's made a bunch of right wing Texans mad. That's always a good thing! Basically he's given the world hope just by not being Bush. Gives you some idea of how scary Bush was to the rest of the world (and I'm speaking as an American here). And on the war thing, I personally believe that keeping the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan is a worthwhile goal.