It’s A Gray Area: Politics is sports by other means – Daily Pilot

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It’s A Gray Area: Politics is sports by other means – Daily Pilot.

I was at the FreedomFest in LasVegas a while back and met both Judge Gray and Gary Johnson. They were running for President and Vice President of the Libertarian party. I really enjoyed their speeches (unlike those of most politicians) and only wish they had the same chance to get their message out as the other parties did. I think they would have SLAMMED them both if they were only able to get the word out to the general public.

Where do you stand? Go ahead and try the  World’s Smallest Political Quiz.  at the Advocates for Self Government website. While you’re there, take a look around. I’m definitely a Libertarian 😉 Here’s the definition from the Advocates website…

Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

Wondering how many of the people who check in here or follow me love liberty like I do? Please comment… 

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis: Income Inequality Explained: Why Wages Don’t, Won’t, and Can’t Keep Up With Productivity

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Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis: Income Inequality Explained: Why Wages Don’t, Won’t, and Can’t Keep Up With Productivity.

This is an interesting article on why our wages are not going up. There’s a video in there too that explains a lot. I wonder if anyone of our ‘leaders’ is going to try to fix things or if they’re all just going to continue letting the Fed ruin the country along with the economy?

Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk

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Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk.

I LOVE Ron Paul. He was my congressman for all the years I’ve lived in Lake Jackson until he ‘retired’ recently and moved on to other projects. He has ALWAYS stood up for the Constitution on EVERY issue and I really admire him for that. After all, that is the job EVERY one of our ‘representatives’ from the President on down swore and oath to do and he is the ONLY one for decades who has actually done that. His son Rand Paul is not even close tho he at least does try on a few issues.

Since Ron was a doctor, he probably knows about health care and how Obamacare will hurt the medical profession better than the rest of our “leaders”. I know he knows finances and how the market works better than 99.99% of them. I know how the market works better than the huge majority of them, from their actions, they are almost all completely ignorant of how the free market works and how any interference with it causes problems.

People here keep saying the government has to fix the problem since the market can’t. I call BS on that! First of all, we have nothing like a free market in health care or anything else. We USED to, and then the government stepped in and started screwing things up. Now we have a corporatocracy (facism in other words). I really hate the idea of Obamacare and its ‘individual mandate’. Mandate???? In a FREE country???

The government has come to believe that they OWN us now. What else could you call it when they will be dictating the way you can take care of your own body? I guess it’s NOT your own body anymore when you can’t decide what to do with it anymore but somebody else can. This is just the last step on the road to complete totalitarianism in the once land of the free. I am doing my best to get the hell out but still stuck here trying to figure out HOW??!

Jeezum Crow That’s a Weird Lookin’ Lobstah | gCaptain

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Jeezum Crow That’s a Weird Lookin’ Lobstah | gCaptain

Yeah, this IS pretty damn weird! I’ve never seen anything like this in nature. It makes me think somebody’s playing tricks. Anybody ever seen anything like this in nature?

Falado of Rhodes Sunk Yesterday in the Vicinity of Iceland

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Iceland Review Online: Daily News from Iceland, Current Affairs, Business, Politics, Sports, Culture.

I found this on a discussion in the traditional sail professionals group on www.linkedin.com.  I am sad to see yet another tall ship go down. I love these old ships and I’m sorry to see the level of seamanship is nowhere near the traditional skill levels.

I was lucky enough to start out under sail-training with Captain Jespersen of Denmark who was a real traditional sailor. He was sail-training master of the Danish ship Danmark. He was a fantastic teacher. I’ll never forget the time I was sailing on the Ariadne (3- masted schooner- German flag) and the Phoenix (brigantine- Irish flag) as a student with the Oceanics School. I spent a total of about 8 months on those ships and those lessons have sunk into my bones. The lessons I learned then have come in handy many times over the years. Traditional sail takes a long time under “mentors” (or a good bosun!) to learn it properly. I don’t see people getting trained in any useful way today.

Yeah, the companies I work for send you to USCG/IMO (STCW) required BST (Basic Safety Training) now. You MUST go to this class now before you can go to sea on anything other than inland or under 100 GT. IMHO, that class is a total joke. They send you there and then you’re on your own. After all, you’ve been “trained” now. You already know everything you need to know. Yeah, riiiighht.

Hugs & CookiesXOXO: MILKYWAY BROWNIES….4 LAYERS OF YUM!

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Hugs & CookiesXOXO: MILKYWAY BROWNIES….4 LAYERS OF YUM!.

Someone posted this on my facebook page tonight. I haven’t had time to try them but the pictures make them look fantastic. Someone make them and let me know if they taste as good as they look 😉

Owl Shit :-)

Image

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Area 51: Black Helicopters Or Little Green Men? : Personal Liberty™

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Area 51: Black Helicopters Or Little Green Men? : Personal Liberty™.

So they FINALLY fess up??? No, not really, they redacted almost all of the information. We just don’t “need to know” what they’re doing with OUR money, in OUR name, to use against US??? I’m so sick and tired of being lied to by ‘our’ government. 🙁

Sexual Jihad And Spreading Crabs In The Name Of Muhammad : Personal Liberty™

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Sexual Jihad And Spreading Crabs In The Name Of Muhammad : Personal Liberty™.

WOW! And you thought the Jihadists were crazy before? I just read this article and now just trying to digest these new interpretations of the Islamic religion. I never liked it, I never liked ANY religion, but I especially don’t like Islam because of the way they treat women. OK, they always explained their despicable treatment of women as “respect” of women, protection of their dignity and chastity (I always thought “why punish the women when it’s the MEN who can’t control themselves and are doing wrong,NOT the women”)… So now, they are asking women to prostitute themselves and give up those very things, all in the name of promoting Islam. WTF???!! They’re also into protecting head lice (that live in their beards), and frogs, so who’s to say which is the more crazy idiot that came up with this stuff? How the hell can anybody justify this crap???

Weapons Of Mass Repetition : Personal Liberty™

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Weapons Of Mass Repetition : Personal Liberty™.

Good article on Obamas latest war. I am totally against this war, as I was totally against every other “war” we have been involved in since probably the War of 1812! I say “war” with quotes since according to the Constitution, only Congress can declare war and they have not done so since WWII! History has shown that we were manipulated into both WWI and WWII, the Spanish American War and the Korean War and the Vietnam War. What is it going to take for the American people to stop listening to our so-called leaders? They have been telling us nothing but lies and manipulating us for decades now (if they EVER told us the truth). All I can do is HOPE we don’t get into yet one more stupid “war” where we will LOSE once again, since we really have no business there. The only other thing I can do is to pass on these articles in hopes that other people will also think about whats really going on and get riled up enough to get involved. Any comments???

Cargo Ships on Beaches…Really? | gCaptain

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Cargo Ships on Beaches…Really? | gCaptain

I always thought it would be so cool to drive one of these big ships up on the beach! I mean really, the whole point of shipping is NOT to run your ship aground.

I do understand that there are some horrendous working conditions there for these people. I also understand that the people who take these jobs are desperate for ANY kind of job to support themselves and their families. I know when you’re desperate, you might not want to be too picky about what you will and won’t put up with. Maybe people might want to figure out what is the reason why they are so desperate in the first place- someone mentioned that there were too many people (comments below article). Yeah, that is the bottom line really. These ship breaking jobs are actually good paying jobs for over there. Yes, I’m sure it could be made safer and would save some lives, but look at what we have done here as far as safety goes- we are regulated to death! I would love to see the comparison statistics on safety between those ship breakers and the ones here (IF we have any left). I don’t think it would really make ALL that much difference. I notice the people working all over Asia on bamboo scaffolding, no shoes, no safety belts, no hard hats, no nothing except the knowledge that if they get hurt, no one is going to help them. They seem to do just as good as we do on their accident rates. All without putting everybody in the “safety” straightjackets like they did here. We can’t do anything anymore without filling out reams of paperwork and dressing up like we’re going to outerspace or something 🙁

Armed Lifeboat: Government’s Response to Natural Disaster – Politics – Utne Reader

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Armed Lifeboat: Government’s Response to Natural Disaster – Politics – Utne Reader.

This is an interesting article about opposing reactions to disasters. They are mostly talking about global warming but I think they can mean any kind of disaster. The opposite sides seem to be top down – government- or bottom up- community. Of course, being Utne Reader, they want government to be involved in BOTH. I think things should be done if at all possible (and most everything IS) through bottom up approach. I think most people here (USA) have come to depend on the government approach and many are already very dependent on all sorts of government aid. How will we be able to stop the militarization/dystopian governmental approach they refer to in the article if we do not get some independence back again? I think we are finally starting to wake up to the reality of what “our” government is doing (mostly behind our backs) and some are even starting to fight back and demand whats right. I only hope we’re not too late.

‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives – The Washington Post

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‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives – The Washington Post.

Unbelievable how much money we spend on ‘intelligence’ (spying). The Washington Post is reporting it’s 52.6 BILLION dollars!!!!! Since Edward Snowden did us all a favor and finally got someone to pay attention to this story of the illegal, unconstitutional spying on EVERYTHING we’ve ever done, now we know and it seems that most of that money is spent spying on US. YOU and ME! I have been keeping my eyes open for years and so I already knew about a lot of what he said. Things like CARNIVORE, TIPS(?), FACTA and others. I have been telling people about it for years and people seem to think there’s something wrong with me for being concerned about the loss of privacy (and so liberty). The constant comment is: “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about”, yeah, riiiiigggghhtt…

First of all, privacy is a natural HUMAN RIGHT! It is necessary if people are going to live together in a peaceful society. It is a basic component of freedom! The concern about being spied on constantly has NOTHING to do with if someone is doing something “wrong” or not! On that issue, who the hell is deciding what is right and wrong any more? “Our” government????? Yeah, riiiiigghhttt… those same ones that can’t exist without stealing every dollar they spend from the people who actually produce it? Those same ones who do everything they do through FORCE and force ONLY, they do not convince, they do not persuade, they FORCE. Those are the ones we think should be deciding right and wrong????? Well, I do NOT give up my RIGHT to decide how to live my life to anyone else. They do NOT have the authority to decide right and wrong and they do NOT have the right to spy on me or anybody else. They do NOT have the right to pass “laws” that go against the constitution (which promises to PROTECT those rights we already had), and so I expect that out of those 52.6 BILLION dollars they are spending (stealing from productive society), they could eliminate about 99% of it and we would all be just fine. Probably a hell of a lot better off since all that spying is just pissing off everybody around the world!

Thanks to the Washington Post for reporting on this, I hope it gets some good play.

Freestyle Fruit Tart Recipe – Kraft Recipes

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Freestyle Fruit Tart Recipe – Kraft Recipes.

This looks easy to make and probably pretty yummy 🙂

They even have a ‘diet’ version (yeah)

Watch This Sinkhole Swallow a Chunk of Louisiana Bayou Whole | Smart News

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Watch This Sinkhole Swallow a Chunk of Louisiana Bayou Whole | Smart News.

This article has a pretty cool video in it where you can watch the trees going down the sinkhole. I’ve tried it a few times and it will never play all the way through. I don’t know if its something with my computer or the video itself. Even with that, the first part is worth watching.

 

funny little dog :-)

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http://www.lubopiten.com/uploads/posts/2012-08/1344197819_funny-gifs-5.gif

watch this sneaky big crow scare the shit out of this funny little dog 🙂

Fast-Food Strike Means Time to Buy Gold – Sovereign Investor

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Fast-Food Strike Means Time to Buy Gold – Sovereign Investor

Another good article showed up in my email today. I really have a hard time keeping up with all the interesting newsletters I get. Some are free, some I pay for, I enjoy reading all of them (when I have the time). This one today is on the fast food workers strike. Funny, cause I was at a hotel in Galveston this morning after visiting a friend up there last night. I had to get up early for a job interview and get home by 0800 when it was supposed to start. So anyway, I don’t usually watch TV and especially not the news since it either gets me pissed off or depressed. This morning, they were interviewing one of the leaders of the fast food workers strike. He said they were actually ALREADY OFFERED $14/hour! They turned it down???!! This is for flipping burgers! Basically a low skilled, entry level job. The TV interviewer also mentioned that they wanted to interview more people for the show but they could only find 2 (!) that spoke English and so they had a major issue with communication. The strikers reasoning was that “they can afford it”. Well, yeah, they probably can afford it (especially if they are not going to pay their CEO and other bigwigs multi-million dollar salaries), but what else goes into the cost of labor at these places other than just salary? Do they get ANY benefits?? Training? Uniforms? Discounts? I don’t know, I’ve never worked in a fast food place. I did work in a small family owned restaurant as a dishwasher when I was a kid, I worked at a place in the mall that sold hot dogs when I first moved to Texas, I worked occasionally as a bartender when I couldn’t get offshore for whatever reason. That is my entire experience with that kind of work. I also worked as a head housekeeper at a big resort which didn’t pay much either even tho it was a supervisory position. I was able to survive on those low wages. I accepted the fact that my skills were not worth much to my employer and that when I learned to be more useful, I would be able to work my way up and earn more money (which I did). So, can somebody please explain to me why the people who work that kind of job should be able to demand that kind of money? Why don’t they just go find another job that pays better, has more benefits, whatever? Remember, this was HOUSTON where they were doing the TV interview I saw. Houston is in another of its periodic booms at the moment. There are all kinds of places crying for workers, especially offshore, where they DO pay good money, even for relatively unskilled labor. I just don’t get it, what do they think they’re going to accomplish? They get more pay and everybody else will too, and EVERYTHING will go up in price as well, its called inflation! The laws of unintended consequences are bound to strike here and the strikers will be worse off than they are now (along with the rest of us).

Post on 2nd hand smoke from the Smokers Club

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http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5416

I saw this earlier today and just had to post it here with comments. I have been saying for years, (ever since I read the report- the META study- that supposedly links secondhand smoke to all kinds of increased dangers), that all the foofoorah over secondhand smoke was a bunch of BS! That meta study was used to convince everybody that they found some kind of new evidence that secondhand smoke was oooohhhh soooo dangerous, well, fact is, that they did NOT find any new evidence, they could not have since they did NOT do any new experiments! They manipulated the old data which came from decades worth of studies, all of which showed very slight, if any, increased risk from second hand smoke. Most (not all) showed NO, ZERO, NONE, NIL, NADA, increased risks even when exposed to very large amounts of second hand smoke. Say, something like a person living for decades with  a 3 pack a day smoker. NO increased risk was found! OK, so now, all the sudden, we paste all these studies together and find a huge increased risk??? HOW exactly would someone come up with that??? Simple, they manipulate the data! I posted the link above to show there ARE actually people who agree with me on this issue, I am NOT just another smoker who is intent on killing you off 😉 But I DO want to get back some sense into the whole smoking thing, I want to be able to fly on a smokers airline! I would even pay MORE to be able to smoke in the air again. And why can’t I? Because the federal government has outlawed that 🙁 I want to be able to smoke in a bar again! Damn, it just plain SUCKS to have to go outside in the cold, rain, heat, etc when you WERE in the middle of a good conversation, listening to some good music, etc. Why the hell can’t a businessman decide for himself what kind of atmosphere he wants in HIS business? Why can’t his customers be the ones to decide if they want to go there or not??? Put a sign on the door saying “Smokers welcome” and be done with it! If the non-smokers don’t want to deal with the smoke, fine, THEY can feel free to go somewhere else. It should NOT be a LAW.

PS- ALL of the posts on this page (link) are great, read them all 😉

From Gunpowder to Teeth Whitener: The Science Behind Historic Uses of Urine | Surprising Science

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From Gunpowder to Teeth Whitener: The Science Behind Historic Uses of Urine | Surprising Science.

Another interesting article from Smithsonian, this one’s about the possibilities of pee 😉 I knew they used to use it for all kinds of things like cleaning fabrics, softening leather, making gunpowder… but brushing your teeth with it???!! I don’t think I would want to go there. They also mention people drinking (?!?!) it for the health benefits (urotherapy- in the comments). It can power a cell phone! I love this magazine, I learn something new from it every time I get it:-)

These Patterns Move, But It’s All an Illusion | Collage of Arts and Sciences

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These Patterns Move, But It’s All an Illusion | Collage of Arts and Sciences.

These are really cool. It makes me happy to look at things like this. I love this kind of art. I especially liked the one here with the little bubbly things and the one with the circles on the blue background. I just like the designs of these things and the fact that they appear to be moving is an extra perk 🙂

The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life | Surprising Science

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The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life | Surprising Science.

I knew honey lasted a long time, I have some around the house that’s probably a couple of years old 😉 I didn’t know they found it in tombs in Egypt, thousands of years old and still edible. WOW! That’s some shelf life.

I knew honey was good for helping heal wounds. I didn’t know it made hydrogen peroxide!?! Amazing stuff. We need to make sure the bees can keep making it. Bees are enormously important to the entire ecologic system. The loss of the bee colonies is going to be a huge problem if it’s not already. Colony Collapse Disorder is becoming more and more common. Very scary 🙁 Other than making honey, they pollinate most of our food crops.What are we going to do? Pollinate everything ourselves???

This 1,600-Year-Old Goblet Shows that the Romans Were Nanotechnology Pioneers | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

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This 1,600-Year-Old Goblet Shows that the Romans Were Nanotechnology Pioneers | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine.

Interesting article in Smithsonian…

pretty cool! amazing how much progress those guys made back then and then we lost all that knowledge for hundreds of years 🙁

 

Song Premiere: David Bromberg – Keep on Drinkin’

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Song Premiere: David Bromberg – Keep on Drinkin’.

This just came in on an email from Utne Reader. Good song.  I liked it 😉

Voting by Exodus Part 2

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Voting by Exodus Part 2.

I was just in an interesting facebook discussion this morning that touched on some of this. I like the point they made in this article that the relationship between a business and its employees is supposed to be SYMBIOTIC.

No one should get paid more than they are worth to the business, neither regular employees nor big wigs and CEOs. I find it really hard to believe than any CEO can bring over 500 TIMES the worth of any other employee to any company. I’m sure there are exceptions, like when the CEO is the inventor of a product, or they founded the company, but most of them look like they just do the job anyone with a business background could do. Just like the people ‘we’ elect as president of the country don’t really do it all, they depend on their advisers and all the people who work under them to make them look good (if possible). We don’t insist they have experience as president or a track record since we innately KNOW that is the truth.

Fish on Drugs – Environment – Utne Reader

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Fish on Drugs – Environment – Utne Reader.

Fish on drugs? WOW! The law of unintended consequences at work again. As they said in the article, there is not enough evidence yet to blame this ALL on our drug use, but my money’s on that idea. We keep on doing things where we THINK we know what we’re doing and how it’ll all work out to our benefit, but time is showing us that we do NOT know what we’re doing, we’re just flailing around trying to figure things out and testing things in the REAL world that we should be testing much more in the ‘lab’ first. GMO food is just one more example of this and the more I learn about it, the more I don’t like it!

Invasive Asian Carp Hooked in Lake Erie

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Invasive Asian Carp Hooked in Lake Erie.

Just 2 questions…

1. How do you sterilize a fish?

2. Aren’t any of these things edible? If so, why are they considered such a problem??

Greenpeace Protest Ship Threatened, Leaves Kara

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Greenpeace Protest Ship Threatened, Leaves Kara.

I think Greenpeace does some good but they go overboard (literally) sometimes. I don’t think the Russians were justified to deny their entry into their waters. There is the principle of freedom of the high seas and we have always been allowed the right to sail freely from one place to another without interference. Apparently the USA has stopped standing up for any kind of freedom to travel, they prove this every day but forcing people to submit to a strip search just to fly somewhere (anywhere)! Since the US has so obviously given up defending freedom, I guess the Russians figure they can do it some more too. They probably just figure Greenpeace is going to cause a mess and they don’t want to deal with it so they stop it before it happens (prior restraint- we are doing a lot of that here too, although that is ALSO against all our principles).

Costa Concordia Salvage Makes Progress | gCaptain

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Costa Concordia Salvage Makes Progress | gCaptain

I have been following the story of the Costa Concordia but not really paying THAT much attention. I get the best news on it from www.gcaptain.com they have been following it from the very beginning and doing a GREAT job of it. The forums where the mariners have been discussing it are a fantastic resource! If you’re at all interested in this incident or the salvage operations, you should take a look at their coverage. I just thought this post of theirs had some really good photos and explanations of the salvage operation. I’m wondering if they’re still hoping to be able to put the ship back into service and how in the world they can ever make it economically feasible given the costs of all this.

Can Technology End Pirate Fishing? | gCaptain

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Can Technology End Pirate Fishing? | gCaptain

I’m not sure where I sit on this one. On the one hand, I HATE how “they” are constantly spying on us, everywhere we go (NOT talking about just the fishermen- we are ALL spyed on continuously here in the supposed land of the free). On the other hand, I do agree that pirate fishing IS a problem and needs to be dealt with. I remember when I was sailing as captain of a tuna purse seiner in the South Pacific and we caught another boat we thought was fishing illegally. Against the objections of my crew, the 1st time we caught them, we gave them the benefit of the doubt. It was ‘possible’ (not very likely) that he was not cheating, so we didn’t report him. The 2nd time, we caught him doing the same thing, illegal fishing on a FAD (fish attracting device), I reported him to our (USA) fisheries dept, (after checking in with our port captain). They asked for and I sent in photos of the other fishing vessel. They never contacted me or anyone on my vessel again so although they SAID they were going to investigate, I don’t think they ever did. My fishmaster was furious the other guy was allowed to get away with it (illegal fishing operation) and I would not allow HIM to. So, the cheating goes on since no one is caught and punished even when there is evidence. The fish keep getting caught without any chance of replacing themselves and sooner or later they are going to run out in the Atlantic and Pacific, just like they did (bottom fish) here in the Gulf of Mexico years ago.

NOAA: Shipwreck Confirmed as Lost 19th Century U.S. Coast Survey Steamer, Robert J. Walker | gCaptain

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NOAA: Shipwreck Confirmed as Lost 19th Century U.S. Coast Survey Steamer, Robert J. Walker | gCaptain

Interesting article if you like shipwrecks, maritime history, etc. They found this wreck back in the 1970s but only recently identified it.