dryfly

I was thinking this evening while doing dishes, so jotted a few notes. Let me know what you think rickr. Do you think that your newest ac­quisition, a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner that traces out its unpredictable paths on your living room floor, is conscious? What about that bee that hovers above your marmalade-covered breakfast toast? Or the newborn who finally fell asleep after being suckled? Nobody except a dyed-in-the-wool nerd would think of the first as being sentient; adherents of Jainism, India’s oldest religion, ­believe that bees—and indeed all living creatures, small and large—are aware; whereas most everyone would accord the magical gift of consciousness to the baby. The truth is that we really do not know which of these organisms is or is not conscious. We have strong feelings about the matter, molded by tradition, religion and law. But we have no objective, rational method, no step-by-step procedure, to determine whether a given organism has subjective states, has feelings. The reason is that we lack a coherent framework for consciousness. Although consciousness is the only way we know about the world within and around us—shades of the famous Cartesian deduction cogito, ergo sum—there is no agreement about what it is, how it relates to highly organized matter or what its role in life is. This situation is scandalous! We have a detailed and very successful framework for ­matter and for energy but not for the mind-body problem. This dismal state of ­affairs might be about to change, however. The universal lingua franca of our age is information. We are used to the idea that stock and bond prices, books, photographs, movies, music and our genetic makeup can all be turned into data streams of zeros and ones. These bits are the elemental atoms of information that are transmitted over an Ethernet cable or via wireless, that are stored, replayed, copied and assembled into gigantic repositories of knowledge. Information does not depend on the substrate. The same information can be represented as lines on paper, as electrical charges inside a PC’s memory banks or as the strength of the synaptic connections among nerve cells. Since the early days of computers, scholars have argued that the subjective, phenomenal states that make up the life of the mind are intimately linked to the information expressed at that time by the brain. Yet they have lacked the tools to turn this hunch into a concrete and predictive theory. Enter psychiatrist and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Tononi has developed and refined what he calls the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness. An integrated theory is based on two axiomatic pillars. First, conscious states are highly differentiated; they are informationally very rich. You can be conscious of an uncountable number of things: you can watch your son’s piano recital, for instance; you can see the flowers in the garden outside or the Gauguin painting on the wall. Think of all the frames from all the movies you have ever seen or that have ever been filmed or that will be filmed! Each frame, each view, is a specific conscious percept. Second, this information is highly integrated. No matter how hard you try, you cannot force yourself to see the world in black-and-white, nor can you see only the left half of your field of view and not the right. When you’re looking at your friend’s face, you can’t fail to also notice if she is crying. Whatever information you are conscious of is wholly and completely presented to your mind; it cannot be subdivided. Underlying this unity of consciousness is a multitude of causal interactions among the relevant parts of your brain. If areas of the brain start to disconnect or become fragmented and balkanized, as occurs in deep sleep or in anesthesia, consciousness fades and might cease altogether. Consider split-brain patients, whose corpus callosum—the 200 million wires linking the two cortical hemispheres—has been cut to alleviate severe epileptic seizures. The surgery literally splits the person’s consciousness in two, with one conscious mind associated with the left hemisphere and seeing the right half of the visual field and the other mind arising from the right hemisphere and seeing the left half of the visual field.

Let's see now....today is November 9th. By the Ides of March, 2010, things will be pretty be ugly around here. I think I will buy some shares in drug companies that make Prozac and Paxil. Or we could simply discuss some string theory and quantum mechanics to tide us over.

Hey Birchy. Too funny. We were in Edmonton last week and this Diesel Jetta (below) was parked outside of dad's condo for three days. Yeah yeah, I know it is not a 2009, but still. It was plugged in for three straight days. The coldest it got was about minus 4°C or some such. It was plugged in during the daytime when it was well above freezing.

Hey Gary, if you had known you were going to live this ling you shoulda taken better care of yourself. (I know damn well I shoulda been more careful.) Get yourself a hybrid car to get priority fishing parking and then buy one of these with the money you will save by not having to buy a license in 4 year's time. Maybe they come with cleats for better grip on river beds...someone probably makes a graphite one for FFers.

flyfishfairwx...yes, that would be absolutely great. I'd gladly do that. For close to 20 years we have floated the concept of a "East slopes" tag that would do just that. Would be great, eh? bvader...I sincerely hope you were joking ... [snip catty comment] Kids under 16 get to fish free but rememeber that they have to be accompanied by someone with a license. False. The only complaint I have with the Alberta licensing system is that the money goes in to general revenues and False. Okay people - let's quit griping about the seniors who get to fish with out a license on the two or three days of the year that they can actually withstand the local weather and concentrate on stuff that makes sense. Half the time these old farts can't even tie a hook on the line properly anyway. HA HA. I ain't 65 yet, but I bet I can tie a fly on faster than you. You just pissed of a few OFs here who have decades of experience and have forgotten more than you will ever know. :P

FYI to nebc From the ACA 08-09 annual report: Financial Highlights Summarized Financial Statements In 2008/2009, ACA received $10,344,875 in levy revenue from hunting and angling licenses purchased by our stakeholders. Our Wildlife, Fisheries, Land Management, Communications and RAP/Compensation programs had expenditures of $10,071,842. This means that 97% of the levy value collected went back into the resource. This number does not include over $500,000 in habitat purchases (Habitat Securement Fund).

"Keep it simple! if you fish in AB, you require a license! Period!" Agreed ... I just think <16 years should be free or (say) $5.

Good eye. We had noticed that as well when putting them up. We didn't make the signs ... they came from fisheries branch. Apparently, they were intended to be "first year" educational signs. We are in discussion with "parks" regarding new signs. Clive

Effective April 1, 2012 seniors will have to buy a license. Trust me. I turn 65 on April 8, 2012. I am with Terry on this one. I will consider it my privilege. This is not so much as offering seniors a small perk, as it is about keeping track of anglers. At present, a senior never has to enter a license office and therefore is not offered a new regulation booklet. Regs change. They have no way of knowing. As for those under 16. Agree with some previous comments. They should not have to "buy" a license as we want to encourage stewardship of rivers and water an anglers (generally) are good at that. So we need new recruits and need to encourage new anglers. But as already stated, they should only be allowed to kill on an adults license OR they should have their own license-- even if it is free. There needs to be some control. A father and four kids should not be allowed five limits. Numerous letters to assorted SRD ministers on this matter have drawn a blank. But at the end of the day cabinet and SRD is grossly underfunding enforcement. Ya can't win, eh? As for a "means" test. Only mean old bastards will be able to get a license then? I'm in.

Holy crap, I saw her the other day on Mayor Magrath Drive. She was driving over the median to get into Super Store. Then I saw her squeezing the tomatoes and zucchinis in "produce." (Kidding.)

As adc noted, last winter adc and I put up several of these signs (below). The signs were made by the fisheries branch. However, most were removed as they did not comply with park rules. We are seeking signage enhancement from parks and asking that the fish-cleaning station be removed ... something we were told would be done a long time ago. Will advise.

tallieho The Police regs were in the official regs in 2008 and 2009. http://www.albertaregulations.ca/fishingregs/ Police (Outpost) Lake (8-1-26-W4) Apr. 1 to Oct. 31 – Trout limit 1 over 50 cm; Pike limit 3 (no size limit); Bait Ban. Nov. 1 to Mar. 31 – CLOSED

In this morning's Lethbridge rag.... Wow! Whodathunk? __________________________

These show more detail on how the ring light was adapted for flies. Basically have to add about 1 m extra of wiring..see pictures. Really works very well for a $10 photography light. Clive That is an old lab clamp..you could also use something like this....

420FLYFISHIN You might find this useful. The ring light can be purchased at Crappy Tire or Wally World for about $10. Test the white balance. MUST use a tripod...even with your P&S..it will have a ¼-inch threaded slot in the bottom. Can't emphasize the tripod enough no matter how bright your lighting. Allows for critical focusing and composition and reduces shake...even of the camera has anti-shake feature. Cheers Clive

Yes, guides should be licensed. All of them. Not read the posts here. Maybe this was covered. Someone mention guides from the USA. There are reported to be MT guides on rivers in SW Alberta. I am pretty sure this is fact. Harps will know this. Are they not breaking immigration and employment laws by working here in the first place without proper work permits? (Nothing to do with fishing regs.) And bet a dollar if they were investigated they'd simply say they'd come up to Canada with friends and they are not guiding. Pretty sure that would be their response. So they could still do the same thing right? i.e. not be licensed. They are not advertising up here so know one could really know if they are guiding or fishing with their Merkan friends. I see this as a big loophole. Dave Jensen and Vic would have to be licensed because we know 'em. But we don't know some Montana Bubba Guide do we? So we get nailed four times over this. 1) An American guide takes money out of the pockets of Canadian guides. 2) The money leaves Canada. 3) He pays no taxes on that income, and 4) Uses our resource free of charge to make money. Nonsense. Dave ya listening?) ) The one that really pisses me off is that a guide from BC can make money here and not even have a fishing license ... he can guide for absolutely free. (Provided he is not fishing he does not need a fishing license.) That is simply wrong. Think about it. We are subsidizing (via license fees) a guide from BC (or any other place) so he can make money here. Huh?! Cheers! Clive

Hey sun .... git yerselfs one o' these puppies ... it's a "no flush" Me an the little woman gots this one in the backyard...free fertilizer too...organic as hell...

Also an oldie... A young farm boy from Saskatchewan moved to Vancouver and went to a huge "everything under one roof department store" looking for a job. The Manager says, 'Do you have any sales experience?' The kid says , 'Yeah. I was a salesman back in Saskatchewan .' Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. 'You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did.' His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down. "How many customers bought something from you today?' The kid says 'one'. The boss says, 'Just one? Our salespeople average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?' The kid says, '$101,237.65.' The boss says, '$101,237.65! What the heck did you sell?' The kid says, 'First, I sold him a small fishhook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, So I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Ford Expedition.' The boss said, 'You mean to tell me that a guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK?' The Saskatchewan farm boy said, 'No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot ... you should go fishing!'

Old ..always good for a laff. Here is something to think about when negative people are doing their best to rain on your parade. Remember this story the next time someone who knows nothing (and cares less) tries to make your life miserable... A woman was at her hairdresser's getting her hair styled for a trip to Rome with her husband.. She mentioned the trip to the hairdresser, who responded: " Rome? Why would anyone want to go there? It's crowded and dirty.. You're crazy to go to Rome . So, how are you getting there?" "We're taking Continental," was the reply. "We got a great rate!" "Continental?" exclaimed the hairdresser. " That's a terrible airline. Their planes are old, their flight attendants are ugly, and they're always late. So, where are you staying in Rome ?" "We'll be at this exclusive little place over on Rome's Tiber River called Teste." "Don't go any further. I know that place. Everybody thinks its going be something special and exclusive, but it's really a dump." "We're going to go to see the Vatican and maybe get to see the Pope." "That's rich," laughed the hairdresser. You and a million other people trying to see him. He'll look the size of an ant. Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You're going to need it." --------------------- // ----------------- One month later, the woman again came in for a hairdo. The hairdresser asked her about her trip to Rome . "It was wonderful," explained the woman, "not only were we on time in one of Continental's brand new planes, but it was overbooked, and they bumped us up to first class. The food and wine were wonderful, and I had a handsome 28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot. And the hotel was great! They'd just finished a $5 million remodeling job, and now it's a jewel, the finest hotel in the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologized and gave us their owner's suite at no extra charge!" "Well," muttered the hairdresser, "that's all well and good, but I know you didn't get to see the Pope." "Well actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder, and explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors, and if I'd be so kind as to step into his private room and wait, the Pope would personally greet me. Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and shook my hand! I knelt down and he spoke a few words to me." "Oh, really! What'd he say ?" He said: "Who f**ked up your hair ?"

Okay ... to be fair I edited out the opening barb line. Read this and be very very scared.

Mike..."OK, It's warmed up and the Nasties are on hold, I'm goin fishin. Have fun guys." Geez man, I was going to Bullshead and beed called when I was half way there. BH is frozen wall to wall this morning. Hopefully it will clear by Tuesday.

Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner is the head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is past president (1999-2003) of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, and leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project. Dr. Mörner has been studying the sea level and its effects on coastal areas for some 35 years. So while you are at it SL read this interview with Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner. ===== And SL, don't even mention the bogus Catlin Arctic Ice Survey as reported on CBC ... the one you watched. This fiasco was a grandstanding joke at best ... more like an outright fraud. But that's the CBC for ya. The ceeb never mentioned this did they? Nope. Now THAT is inconvenient wot?

SL "I mentioned earlier that there has already been people displaced in the South pacific due to rising ocean levels...." Just politics and money SL. The misconception of accelerating sea-level rise is a construct of alarmists like Gore and the media..it makes hellishly great press to tell folks they will be inundated with water. Boo. The scientific data show that sea level rise is "business as usual" and not accelerating. Sea levels have risen since we crawled out of the LIA and there is no increase in rate of rise. Sounds like someone has been suck in by the Goracle ... and the CBC. by C. R. DE FREITAS, School of Geography and Environmental Science University of Auckland, PB 92019, Auckland New Zealand In light of IPCC scenarios of rapidly rising seas, the wellbeing of the populations low lying atolls in the tropical Pacific has been the subject of much speculation. As a result, it is alleged that the government of Tuvalu was ready to sue the United States and Australia because they had not signed the Kyoto Protocol. The Tuvalu government believes that most of its country, which at its highest is only five meters above sea level, will have disappeared into the ocean within 50 years. The New Zealand government too, by all accounts, believes this. It recently improved immigration procedures for Tuvalu residents after a false claim that the ocean level is rising, presumably to cater to “environmental refugees” wishing to re-settle in New Zealand. In fact, detailed measurements at the main Tuvalu island of Funafuti have shown no dramatic rise in ocean level over the past 30 years (Fig. 23). by Dr. Madhav Khandekar Dr. Madhav Khandekar, Retired Environment Canada Scientist Dr. Madhav L. Khandekar is a former Research Scientist from Environment Canada where he worked for about 25 years. Khandekar holds M.Sc degree in Statistics from India and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Meteorology from USA. Khandekar has been in the fields of atmosphere/ ocean/climate for over 50 years and has published over 125 papers, reports, book reviews, scientific commentaries etc. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in various international Journals and authored a book on ocean surface wave analysis and modeling, published by Springer-Verlag in 1989. Khandekar is presently on the editorial board of the Journal Natural Hazards (Netherlands) and is a former editor of the journal Climate Research (Germany). He was an expert reviewer for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Climate Change Documents (AR4) published in 2007. Sea-level rise, ocean surface warming/cooling Among the most debated impacts of GW on future climate is the escalating sea-level rise (SLR) due to the melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets leading to massive flooding of coastal cities and adjacent towns. The possible disastrous impact of escalating SLR on small islands like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and the Tuwalu Island in the Pacific were highlighted in many studies and articles during the 1990s. Recent media hype about the melting of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets as depicted in the publicized movie “An Inconvenient Truth” has created an urgency about ‘halting’ the GW impact through GHG reduction. It is instructive to look at the evolution of SLR value in the last ten years or so. The 1996 IPCC Document estimated a SLR of about 50 cm over the next one hundred years. Several papers published in the 1990s obtained SLR estimates which varied from a low of 20 cm/century to a high of 1 m or more. In recently published literature, SLR values have been moderated and the problem of uneven SLR in various ocean basins is being discussed. Some of the important recent papers are: a. “New perspectives for the future of the Maldives” N-A Morner M Tooley & G Possnert Global and Planetary Change 40 (2004) p. 177- 182 b. “Estimates of the regional distribution of sea-level rise over the 1950- 2000 period” J A Church et al J of Climate 17 (2004) p. 2609-2625 c. “Low sea-level rise projections from mountain glaciers and icecaps under global warming” Sarah Raper & Roger Braithwaite Nature V. 439 (2006) p. 311-313 d. “Nonlinear trends and multiyear cycles in sea-level records” S Jevrejeva et al J of Geophysical Research V.111(2006) C09012 e. “On the decadal rates of sea level changes during the twentieth century” S J Holgate Geophysical Research Letters 34 (2007) doi:10.1029/2006GL028492 These and many other papers bring out a number of uncertainties re: SLR in the past and future. Prof. Morner and coworkers demonstrate [study(a)] that in the region of Maldives a general fall in SLR occurred some 30 years ago possibly due to increased evaporation in the central Indian Ocean and intensification of the NE Monsoon. Further, there does not appear to be any evidence of increasing SLR in the near future. Authors Church and coworkers [study, b] analyze patterns of regional SLR over the period 1950-2000 and conclude that it is not possible to detect a significant SLR over this period anywhere. These authors obtain global-averaged SLR rise of 1.8 mm +/- 0.3 mm per year over the 1950-2000 period. In study © Raper & Braithwaite obtain future projection of SLR from mountain glacier and icecaps (outside of Greenland & Antarctic Ice Sheets) as only about 5.1 cm by 2100, half of previous projections. The recent study (d) obtains global SLR trend of 2.4 mm per year for the period 1993-2000 and further document that over last 100 years the rate of 2.5 mm per year occurred from 1920-1945 and this trend is likely to be as large as the recent trend. This study further documents a nonlinear trend in various ocean regions and a 2 to 14 year variability in sea-level records which appears to be increasing in recent years. The latest study (e) [published January 2007] makes a careful analysis of nine long and continuous records of sea-level changes from 1904 through 2003 and obtains sea-level change of ~2.03 +/-.35 mm/yr from 1904-1953 while for the latter period 1954-2003, sea-level change is found to be lower ~1.45 +/-.34 mm/yr. The study further documents high decadal variability in sea-level changes with the highest decadal rate (~5.3 mm/yr) for the 1980s

I am hooped for 2 or 3 days so will not be here. (Cheers all over. ) "Unfortunately, climate change will effect food production in most of the poorer nations of the world, and it will displace an enormous amount of people; it's already happened to one island in the South pacific." Pardon?

There you go SupremeLeader. WOW! Another ad hominem attack. A guy reports the data from the main sources of temperatures used by IPCC and you slag the guy for presenting the data from these agencies. Wow! Shoot the messenger .. again. But perhaps you condone the likes of Suzuki and Gore making money off this .. a lot of money. Gore makes a reported $200,000 a speech and sells carbon offsets after scaring the beejeezus out of people (including children) with his bloody lies and fear mongering in his sci-fi movie AIT. But you slag a guy who reports some facts from accepted agencies because he is a consultant. It is okay for the "green" side to have consultants but it is not okay for the "fossil fuel" side to have consultants. YOU can argue any way you want but will not allow the other side to have experts and argue back. WOW! Can you say "Double standard"? Can you say eco fascism? So all we've had in reply so far sundancefisher are two attacks on messengers and no countervailing arguments about the science of cooling which as you noted has now been accepted by IPCC and NASA as fact. The earth has indeed been in cooling mode for about ten years...like it did in the 50s 60s and 70s. After it was warmer in the 30s..and in the Medieval Warm Period. And in the LIA. Goes around and comes around ... hotter and colder ... just like forever. Stay tuned folks.