I had a gorgeous dive last night – lots of bioluminescence, some octopus, and tons of small critters out. There were only a few squid around, but apparently enough to fish for, as there were about 6 squid boats just outside the preserve. No photos from this dive as I didn’t have the batteries for my camera charged. Probably a good thing really, when diving with a camera you can forget to sit back and enjoy the dive. The night dives are great because of the amount of life to see, but not so great when you are rinsing and soaking all your gear at 10 PM.
The obligation of walking away
Secretary Paulson played the morality card two days ago when speaking about home owners that were in over their heads:
Homeowners who can afford their payments and don’t have to move, can choose to stay in their house. And let me emphasize, any homeowner who can afford his mortgage payment but chooses to walk away from an underwater property is simply a speculator – and one who is not honoring his obligations.
You have a situation where:
1) People lied on applications, or looked the other way
2) Banks and agencies made loans they knew people couldn’t pay, or lied about terms
3) Appraisers inflated values to match loan documents
4) Banks and others bought loans they knew were high risk and repackaged them as AAA rated debt
5) Rating companies rubber stamped and looked the other way
6) The Fed encouraged the unsustainable growth (bubble)
It seems to me there is plenty of blame to go around. A mortgage is a business transaction. If it is in someone’s best interest to take the hit and walk away from it all, they are within their rights to do it. Companies (including banks) do this all the time – close an office here, layoff some people there. No hard feelings, it’s business.
Game theory wiz kids
Just in case I didn’t already think Nixon and Kissinger were complete mental bastards: The Nukes of October: Richard Nixon’s Secret Plan to Bring Peace to Vietnam
Nixon decided to try something new: threaten the Soviet Union with a massive nuclear strike and make its leaders think he was crazy enough to go through with it. His hope was that the Soviets would be so frightened of events spinning out of control that they would strong-arm Hanoi, telling the North Vietnamese to start making concessions at the negotiating table or risk losing Soviet military support.
Interesting, a year before and in a political race for the presidency, Nixon intervened to persuade South Vietnam to avoid the talks. This potentially stopped an early peace deal. Nice one, dick.
Codenamed Giant Lance, Nixon’s plan was the culmination of a strategy of premeditated madness he had developed with national security adviser Henry Kissinger. The details of this episode remained secret for 35 years and have never been fully told. Now, thanks to documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, it’s clear that Giant Lance was the leading example of what historians came to call the “madman theory”: Nixon’s notion that faked, finger-on-the-button rage could bring the Soviets to heel.
That’s about the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard of.
Squid fishing in La Jolla
During a night dive last week we noticed a number of brightly lit boats off shore and guessed they were fishing for squid. That’s exactly what they are according to the UT:
700 tons. Wow. Hopefully the squid can get some mating in before they get caught. One thing we noticed was when the boats are out, there were a lot of loud explosion sounds that we could only hear at depth underwater. I’m assuming this is some sort of compressed air system to scare the sea lions off. Does anyone know?
Updated
Those explosion sounds were actually explosions. It turns out squid fishing boats use waterproof M-80’s called seal bombs to try to scare seals and sea lions out of the nets. From an article called “Squid fishermen’s seal bombs rattle nighttime scuba divers“:
Federal law allows commercial fishers and sportfishing charter boat operators to use seal bombs to ward off sea lions and harbor seals. Fishermen say the nonlethal explosives spare the animals from death or injuries that can occur if the marine mammals get entangled in their nets.
Experiences range from those who have been startled by the explosions to terrifying percussions from seal bombs detonated within a few feet of a diver, said dive master John H. Moore of San Diego.
While the seal bombs aren’t powerful enough to blow off a diver’s finger, the percussive sound waves could damage eardrums or sinuses, Moore said.
Kristine Barksy, a U.S. Fish and Game Department biologist who dives frequently, said sound waves are amplified under water and the percussion from seal bombs can be disorienting to an unsuspecting diver.
“You’re down at night. It’s all dark and then all of a sudden – BOOM!” she said. “It’s very loud even if you’re not close.”
…Studies show that pinnipeds become conditioned to the noise from seal bombs, “which end up being like a dinner bell,” said Carrie Wilson, a Fish and Game Department spokeswoman. “It may help for a few minutes, but it’s not a long term deterrent by any means.”
Brockman believes commercial fishermen probably are using more seal bombs than ever because there seem to be more sea lions and seals trying to steal the fishermen’s catch.
Scuba divers would be wise to keep their distance when the squid fleet is working because the fishermen can’t tell whether divers are in the water at night
Uh, yeah. The seal bombs were loud enough a half mile away. I can’t imagine how crazy it would be in the water near a boat.
Canon firmware hacks
Some bright folks have dumped and upgraded the firmware for the Canon A570 IS, A610, A620, A630, A640, A700, A710 IS, S2 IS, S3 IS, SD500 and G7. They unlocked raw mode, high speed shutter speeds, live histograms, highlight cropping indicators, and better battery indicators. Quite amazing. If you own one of the above and want to push its limits, check them out at http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK