E!!

Laugh-’til-you-can’t-catch-your-breath-and-have-to-pee Alert on this one.  It’s on the Cambridge/Harvard Gates arrest thing. 

Why doesn’t Iowahawk have some sort of fat media gig by now?  How long must he go on being the sharpest, funniest, killingest political satirist on the Internet before they give him a multi-gazillion dollar site sponsorship, a sick crib, and a lifetime supply of beer?

Ernest Istook @ Heritage’s Foundry blog has a good post stating concerns about Obama’s new Census Czar and his methods.  Seems that Robert Groves supports “statistical sampling” even though the administration (officially, at least) does not.  This practice attempts to make “adjustments” for under-counted people by creating fictitious profiles and assigning them a zip code, gender, race, and so on.  And then it counts them, just as if they were being counted by a census worker.

The argument in favor of the method is that poor minorities and illegal immigrants are usually under-counted so census results are skewed.  The argument against is that assumptions and formulas can be wrong.  And that data can be manipulated.

Though I think this needs watching, it is good to note that the Supreme Court ruled (in 1999) that the census has to be an actual count, so there is current protection under the law on this issue.  Any attempt to incorporate statistical sampling into the census could be legally challenged.  And I assume would be.

Istook’s closing lines are winners:

As Joseph Stalin said, “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.”

And so could those who count the voters.

I occasionally blog on more obscure things because I am naturally curious and like to learn.  So:

From The Corner today:

Your Tax Dollars at Work   [Veronique de Rugy]

According to FoxNews.com:

Commercial fishermen struggling from catch restrictions and high fuel prices are getting $700,000 in federal stimulus money to retrieve lost crab pots now littering the ocean bottom, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

The money will be used to hire 48 people — including 31 fishermen — and to charter 10 vessels to retrieve an estimated 4,000 derelict crab pots, which pose a hazard to whales, seal lions and fishing boats, Jane Lubchenco said.

 

That’s $14,583 per person/job or $175 per retrieved crab pot.  Hard to gauge those numbers not knowing if this is a salary or commision job, or how long it will take to gather them all up.

I was curious to know if this ”hazard” is BS, so I searched out this article on the environmental impact of derelict gill nets and crab pots.  The crab pot problem is described thusly:

Commercial and sport crabbers are required to use a biodegradable cotton rot cord (also known as escape cord) on their pots so that if pots are lost, the cord will degrade and crabs can escape. Our research shows that only about a third of crab pots are properly equipped with escape cord and many derelict pots are found to continue fishing for months and even years. On average, a derelict crab pot will catch about 72 crabs a year. Primarily, crab pots become derelict when their buoy line is clipped by a passing vessel. Pots are frequently found in vessel traffic lanes and boaters out after dark have a challenging time seeing crab pot buoys.

So, 72 crabs times an estimated 4,000 derelict cord-lacking crab pots is 288,000 crabs that are caught and die, uneaten and unenjoyed, each year.  That, in itself, does seem like a terrible thing.  And at $1.60 per pound on average (that’s off the boat, not wholesale or retail), assuming a per crab weight of 1 pound, it’s also $460,800 goes uncollected by fishermen.  Or, at retail prices of $10 per pound, $2.88 million.

Anyhoo, apparently there is not much data on the hazard to whales, sea lions, and fishing boats due to derelict crab pots.  I assume this means not a lot of whales and boats are being taken out by stray crab cages, despite all the hullabaloo.  There was some data on the danger of the stray gill nets, though:

In 2008, the Northwest Straits Initiative removed a gill net with 162 seabirds, 14 salmon, 42 dogfish, 1,400 Dungeness crab and 1 harbor seal. Factoring in decomposition rates, it is estimated that this single net in 23 weeks time killed 1,800 birds, 450 salmon, 1,300 spiny dogfish, 16,900 crab, and 11 harbor seals. In an ecologically rich area like Port Susan bay, derelict gear can be a tremendous stress on the ecosystem and source of mortality.

That does seem bad.  This organization seems to have done their homework and to be doing decent work, and I was interested to read about their “no fault” non-legislative approach to the problem of reporting stray gear:

Central to the success of the derelict gear program has been its grassroots nature and partnerships with commercial and recreational fishermen to locate and remove gear. The Commission takes a no-fault approach to derelict gear removal. Rather than assigning blame for the derelict gear in the marine environment, the Commission focuses on removing existing gear and preventing new gear from entering the water through non-regulatory means. This approach is based on the following assumptions:

•    That the majority of the derelict fishing gear in Washington state waters is local or regional in origin;
•    That the majority of fishermen are operating legally in Washington state waters;
•    That fishermen do not want to lose expensive gear;
•    That if they do lose gear it is for reasons outside of their control;
•    That fishermen have a stake in recovery of lost gear that might otherwise impact the sustainability of their industry.

[Conclusion]:  The no-fault approach encourages fishermen to report lost nets so that they can be removed quickly.

I wonder what improvement could be made to crab pot and gill net technology to reduce the loss ratio?  Ideas?

In closing, here’s some trivia for all you crab pot geeks:

Derelict pots remove an estimated 74 Dungeness crab from Puget Sound each year. Dungeness crab larvae are a critical component of juvenile salmon diets.

Smart alecky goodness from Derb @ NRO:

Legislative Onomastics   [John Derbyshire]

This has nothing to do with politics, but I’m justifying it because it’s desert-related and I live in southern Nevada (not all that far from Death Valley).  You must check out this article.  I’m filing under “Unsolved Geological Mysteries” because I’m not sure I buy the favored theory.

Hat Tip:  This + That

K-Lo @ The Corner just posted a fun email I sent her.  My day is now complete… 

(And I think I’ll stop waiting for Obama’s announcement; it’s obviously not happening today.)

BUT WAIT:  An emailer on The Corner thinks they were avoiding announcing while Rush was on the air and are now waiting for Hannity to go off air.  Which is 5 minutes from now so we’ll see…

OR MAYBE (another Corner e-mail):

Since Obama’s doing the texting thing…he’s going to release in the next two hours, as all the 20/30 somethings start going out with their friends on the East Coast—that way it will dominate their evening festivities, as each member gets a text at various times. Probably stupid if true, but that’s how they think—that everybody is a metrosexual hanging out like its an episode of Sex and the City or Friends, or going to wine-tasting parties….

If you’re a reader or writer of conservative books, an aspiring author or publisher, or a left-wing bookhound with an open mind, don’t miss Harry Stein’s piece The Future of Conservative Books.

It’s a look at how mainstream publishers have gotten on (and may soon be getting off) the bandwagon of conservative publishing, and how smaller publishing houses are stepping in to fill the gap.  The article also remembers those who forged the way for today’s conservative bestsellers and offers thought-food to conservative writers thinking about their next (or first) book.

Stein is an editor for City Journal and the author of How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace).

 I don’t follow NASCAR much and I know it has nothing to do with politics, but this story about cheating on Joe Gibbs’ NASCAR team is notable.  Everyone involved was suspended and fined, and Tony Stewart and Joey Logano were stripped of their points.