Funny how without the euSSR to tell us how, we managed to make things work for 10,000 years or so .
And now they're forcing us to do as they say ... nothing works, not even words.

I just don't understand it.


Thank you for posting, Dr. N!!! Glad you're well enough. (Oh, and tell those nurses to watch out for foreign cleaners who wield besoms and stir up clouds of infected dust. They'll need stopping).

Edited by user 13 November 2012 04:09:41(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

If we were able to halt incursions by the Spanish and French trawlers into our precious home fishing grounds and only allowed our own boats to trawl the waters but then, in order for us to save the whole marine ecological system and therefore the fishing grounds, we will have to get out of the EU.


A bit of investigative research and the kid could have saved himself a lot of time.

Not entirely --- the Spanish (and French) have grandfather rights which predate the CFP - and it is commercially sensible to allow the Spanish in to our waters when they fish for Hake - there is very little market for that fish in the UK. What matters is the fisheries legislative structure .. we cannot charge the Spanish license fees which would fund effective enforcement. Yet, in the Falklands fishery, where license fees are used - in part - to ensure tight (but fair) enforcement, the Spanish have a reputation for being well-behaved.



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Edited by user 13 November 2012 09:30:51(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

This is a very interesting post on at least three levels, actually four since you are feeling well enough to write an article for us. We hope you continue to feel better wish you a full recovery.

Firstly, fish is my favorite food and nothing could catch my attention more readily: tuna, salmon and flounder! Tuna is best cut into thick steaks and seared 45 seconds on each side (keep it nice and deep red on the inside); flounder is best dredged in a mixture of starch and spices and browned in hot butter for a minute or two on each side and eaten hot. When we have flounder, we tend to eat it straight out of the skillet: almost none of it makes it to the platter. As for the salmon, my Dad has knack for slicing nova lox into thin slices fit for holiday fare. It is interesting that there are species-specific nets and trawling strategies. I am concerned about the overharvesting of fish, destructive fishing methods and the concentration of mercury in the larger predatory fish.

Secondly, there is the ontological aspects of the post. I actually have very little personal knowledge of fishing pracrtices outside casting a bated hook into the water and waiting for something to happen. The question is whether it is better to be uninformed or misinformed. I prefer to be informed and to regard the information as just that: information. It is, of course, better to have carefully vetted and verified information but that is a rare luxury. Usually one needs to accept information as it comes and to judge it by its source and how it stacks up against other information.

Thirdly, as an inventor holding patents on several continents, I find your scoffing at inventions entirely justified. Patents are awarded on the basis of novelty and non-obviousness, not on the basis of effectiveness. The majority of patented inventions are failures in practice: even ones that receive awards and recognition. So is there any benefit in patenting these failures? Well, yes, there is. In the first place, determining whether a new idea has real merit can be difficult and usually requires validation in actual use requiring time and investment. Investors will want the assurance that, if the invention pans out, they will have a legitimate title to the invention, thus a patent is an early step towards commercialization. In the second place, a patent application requires that inventors set forth, to the best of their belief, their understanding of the invention and the best mode of practicing their invention. Thus a patent is a source of information. The patent office is not in the business of determining the correctness or usefulness of such information, just whether the claimed features of the invention are novel, unobvious and adequately enabled by the inventor's specifications which means that, in the opinion of the patent office, the inventor's specification is sufficiently clear and detailed so that others who are skilled in the area of the invention, can practice the invention without undue experimentation. Surprisingly, the issuance of patents is provided for in the US Constitution. I believe that Abraham Lincoln said that patent law "added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius." Perhaps that is true. It also provides a forum for teachers to teach, and for students to study. It's kind of a buyer-beware setting, but I don't know how that differs from other forums.

Edited by user 13 November 2012 09:52:28(UTC)  | Reason: To correct typographical errors, alas.

Wouldn't small-fish sized holes in nets become useless when a big fish gets in the way?

I expect offshore windfarms will be used as no-go areas for fishermen as a species conservation issue. But if that did happen it's a bloody expensive way of doing it.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that people tend to look after things they have paid folding money for. There is no incentive to care for free things.

Rolls-Royce minds, eh!

So is it that the UK establishment/'government' is particularly incompetent, or are outcomes such as this - and all the other tales of woe, in myriad other fields - the result of deliberate malfeasance (if that isn't too strong a word)? Surely it has to be by design. If nothing else, it's way more depressing to think that we are being bled dry paying for serial incompetence.