Tidbits are small, until they grow up

• Roubini on bank losses: “If people were not spending their rebate checks in June, what will happen when there are no more checks?” Yep…retail is next.
• Trout are unwelcome in South Africa. Check for whirling disease, and then send ‘em on over?
• You mean subprime lending wasn’t the only problem? No, “Subprime was the tip of the iceberg.”
• Caricatures having sex in purportedly sexless virtual world. Nature finds a way?
• Apple will soon release yet another phone without a keyboard. Or a keypad.

and

• Big social networks are failing in Japan. Maybe it’s just because everyone is already too close together.

UPDATE (8/13/08): A week later Roubini is right.

Does technology create disaster? No, but why don’t climate statisticians have heartburn?

Paul Kedrosky crunches the numbers and finds that there were less than 3,000 seismographs deployed in 1932, and more than 23,000 in 2007. His conclusion:

Combine the preceding with the fact that the number of seismographs worldwide grew from under 350 to over 4,000 during the same period — an 11-fold increase — and you have all the proof any sober-minded person could need: Seismographs cause earthquakes.

Of course, there’s some humor in that. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as funny when it comes to surface stations and temperature warming.

I recently read a study on western rivers and trout (.pdf) stating in no uncertain terms that regional temperatures over the last decade were significantly higher that 20th century averages. I love western rivers and I love trout - plainly and simply, if they didn’t exist I probably wouldn’t live where I live. But I’ve just got to ask…

How does the number of surface temperature stations deployed by or on behalf of the United States Historical Climatology Network over the same period effect that data? And, how does the apparently woeful condition and sometimes absurd positioning of those stations play into the mix? According to an independent, volunteer organized survey of those stations (which, by the way, has covered roughly 44% of all existing stations so far), the data could be “toast”.

LIke I said - not a laughing matter.

My neighbors’ four year old daughter made cookies today. The family knows I fish.

Rainbow trout and Bluefish

A couple of Stegasauruses too, although I don’t think anyone makes tippet for those.

I’ll note I’ve never see fish disappear so fast - they must have known I was coming.

Love the gold, hate the trout

From the Chattanoogan:

Catch and Release fishing will be banned in Switzerland from next year, it was revealed this week.

And anglers in the country will have to demonstrate their expertise by taking a course on humane methods of catching fish, under new legislation outlined by the Bundesrat - the Swiss Federal Parliament.

“Humane methods of catching fish” will mean knocking trout over the head with a blunt instrument (thereby causing instant death to our fine finned friends).

Unless Swiss anglers are downright insane, they should petition the government to trade them a one-ounce gold ingot for every fish they kill, which the angler can then donate to the local preservation board!

(h/t to The Trout Underground)