Fishing Journal: 20080728, Colorado River (up from Lake Granby)

Colleague invites me up to his place, from which we can fish. Beautiful drive to his place, beautiful water to fish, but not as much time on the water as I would have liked. First day fishing on the new line (Gold something or other, 5 weight) and the casting is good. I identify a likely pool on the broad and shallow Colorado and get going. First pool, maybe 2nd or 3rd cast, get a nice strike on the nymph and have a real fighter online for about 45-60 seconds. I am feeling really confident. Then my knot comes undone and fishy (fat-looking underwater from a few feet) earns his freedom and a nice $2 lip piercing. D'oh! When tying the knot I knew it probably wasn't good enough, but I got impatient. Never. Get. Impatient. When. Flyfishing. I guess this was something other than what I am used to (not a brookie, I guess) because the fish was really fighting. Oh well.

Had another good size fish almost in-hand, when it flopped off the hook at the last minute. Keep the tip up, man!

Caught a smallish one (8-10"). Succesfully spliced two pieces of line after a good, patient 20 minutes or so. Around 3:45 the fish start rising, around 3:50 it starts to rain, and just as I am tying on a dry fly to see how hungrily they're rising Colleague and wife and young adult son catch up with me and signal that they're done. Sigh. So not enough time on the water, and I really wanted to try up top for a bit.

Apparently a moose was spotted in the area, and Colleague says they saw an eagle up-close. All-in-all, a nice day and a spot worth revisiting.


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Fishing Journal: 20080709, So. Fork Stanislaus River (Strawberry, CA)

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Fishing Journal: 200806xx

So, Old Colleague asks if I want to fish. Is the Pope Catholic?

Ends up being 2.5 hour drive to small, blown out creek on private water (paying $60 for the privilege). I catch the same fish twice, I think, in the very first pool, though I made two passes on the mile or so heading upstream (south on the map).

Generalization: fly-fisherman tend to overcomplicate things. Just fish!


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Fishing Journal: Summer 2007, South Boulder Creek "headwaters" (from Gross Reservoir)

Not a lot happening.


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Fishing Journal: Introduction

I am going to try to post some recollections of my too-infrequent fly-fishing excursions. I am rapidly becoming obsessed with this incredible pastime and want to remember where I fish and how it goes.

I am a novice fly-fisherman and frankly don't have 5% of the knowledge I'd really need to do things right. Hell, I can't even identify what kind of trout I catch, less still what kind of fly I use to do so. But the bottom line is that I have been out and at it, loving it, and want to remember as I can.

I do know that I am using an ancient 5-weight Orvis rod and an Orvis reel on-loan from a colleague. I am mostly grabbing flies and such catch-as-catch-can, though trying as often as possible to shop at Rocky Mountain Anglers in Boulder.

I want to remind myself to check flow reports from DWR.

More to add.

America's Surveillance Society

WTF are we doing?

H/T: LGM

Waterboarding is Torture

Let AFJ be crystal clear on a subject where these men are opaque: Waterboarding is a torture technique that has its history rooted in the Spanish Inquisition. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese military officer for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II.

Waterboarding inflicts on its victims the terror of imminent death. And as with all torture techniques, it is, therefore, an inherently flawed method for gaining reliable information. In short, it doesn’t work. That blunt truth means all U.S. leaders, present and future, should be clear on the issue.

From the Armed Forces Journal.

HT: Sully.

NAU

People keep asking me about the North American Union (NAU). As one of its architects, I am sworn to secrecy. Blast these Boston Globe reporters!

h/t Drezner.

Cool

h/t: Drum.

Who is the Real Turkey?

Juan Cole on "Who Lost Turkey?"

via Drum.

Note to self

Use this when talking about states and communications.

Kid Fishing

With friends from Germany, at Brainard Lake near Ward. Great place to take kids fishing because the brookies are hungry! This was in July 2007.

"Belgium"

Always struck me as a fictional place, especially after having lived in Brussels for a year.

Ingrid Robeyns has a great analysis.

About freaking time.

In an interview with the BBC, Professor John Marburger, Bush’s chief science adviser, said it was an “unequivocal” fact that climate change is man-made and that greenhouse gases emitted by human activity are to blame.

h/t: Think Progress.

An American Hero ...

... who shall remain nameless. And a few buddies.

The Shadow Warrior says this: "it is very bad here on all levels from the highest policy levels to the guys with boots on the ground".

Come back safe and soon, my friend. Godspeed.

CU as "public authority"

From the Colorado Daily:

CU may take yet another step to free itself from controls imposed by the state of Colorado. The university may file to become a “public authority,” a public corporation contracted by the state to fulfill a public benefit or service. CU is currently an “enterprise,” a governmental organization that executes state power and responsibility. Moving from an enterprise to a public authority would loosen CU from limits imposed by the state.

Also found this little tidbit interesting:

"Colorado is ranked 48th in the nation for higher-education funding as a share of personal income, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities."

Delicious Beer Alert

West Coast IPA from Green Flash Brewing Co. in San Diego is deliciously hoppy. That is all.

Summer Surge Data

Nice job, Kevin Drum.

Violence Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Iraqi Military and Police Killed	349	429	Up 23%
Multiple Fatality Bombings	110	82	Down 25%
# Killed in Mult. Fatality Bombings	885	1,053	Up 19%
Iraqi Civilians Killed (All violent causes)	6,739	5,300	Hard to say1
U.S. Troop Fatalities	104	187	Up 80%
U.S. Troops Wounded	983	1,423	Up 45%
Size of Insurgency	20,000+	~70,0002	Up ~250%
Attacks on Oil and Gas Pipelines	8	143	Up 75%

¹Methodology changed dramatically between 2006 and 2007, so numbers are highly suspect.
²Number is for March 2007.
³Numbers are for June only. No July numbers are available.

Infrastructure Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Diesel Fuel Available	26.7 Ml	20.7 Ml	Down 22%
Kerosene Available	7.08 Ml	6.3 Ml	Down 11%
Gasoline Available	29.4 Ml	22.2 Ml	Down 24%
LPG Available	4,936 tons	4,932 tons	Down 0.1%
Electricity Generated	8,800 Mwatts	8,420 Mwatts	Down 4%
Hours Electricity Per Day	11.7	10.14	Down ~14%

⁴No numbers available for June/July. Figure is extrapolated from May and August numbers.

h/t Yglesias, who adds that

the surge is working if your definition of "working" doesn't require a decrease in violence or an increase in the viability of Iraq's basic infrastructure.

Nicely done.

This is just nuts

Man, shit is totally out of control. I am actually frightened. Just a tidbit from Glenn Greenwald:

McConnell clearly described that in 1978, we enacted a law prohibiting warrantless eavesdropping; the Bush administration broke that law repeatedly; and the telecommunications companies actively participated in that lawbreaking. And now -- as a matter of national security -- the Bush administration is demanding that Congress pass a new law declaring that telecom companies are immune from any and all consequences -- both civil and criminal -- in the event they are found to have violated the law. It is hard to imagine open contempt for the rule of law being expressed more explicitly than this.

Sometimes I am of two minds ...

Legal wiretaps on rise in Colorado

The number of phones secretly wiretapped by Colorado law enforcement hit a 10-year high last year, leading to large drug busts statewide while raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.
The increase in the court-authorized wiretaps was led by the U.S. Attorney's Office, which used 108 wiretaps in its first year under U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid. That's four times the number used in the 12 months prior to Eid's August 2006 arrival, according to data from his office.
State prosecutors, meanwhile, got permission to use 43 wiretaps in 2006 - more than in the previous nine years combined, according to an annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

... but actually, I think I'd rather err on the side of civil rights, thank you very much.