Kayak Trip to Cedar Key and Hall Creek

My colleague Carlos and I took a quick overnight trip to Cedar Key and the primitive campsite at Hall Creek. [Gallery] We put in at “Bridge #4” at low tide and paddled through some very shallow water for the first hour or so. Once out in the Gulf I had a chance to try out my new sail.

   

Carlos is an experienced fisherman and he did catch fish… At one little eddy pool (which we named “Trout City”) he reeled in seven or eight Sea Trout in less than thirty minutes! Four of these were keepers and we dined well when we got back.

   

The Hall Creek Campsite is an isolated group of trees on slightly higher ground next to a very narrow branch of the creek. It was overgrown by prickly pear cactus and appears to be seldom used. There are what I think are limestone outcroppings in the creek (watch out!) and this may in part explain why there is higher ground at this location. Carlos took two amazing panoramas with is phone camera (iPhone 5) and I took a few HDR sets of the setting sun.

As we paddled we noticed many butterflies fighting the wind and heading out to sea. At the campsite we saw one of their refueling stations. Butterflies were everywhere in the warm afternoon sunlight. Monarch Butterflies make a four thousand mile journey to and from Mexico every year. Apparently those that make a left turn and wind up in Florida rather than Texas are doomed. But you can help admiring their perseverance! It is within the realm of possibility that some of them make the five hundred mile crossing. No one knows…

  

Finally there were the birds… lots of them. The second day started out foggy and remained mostly foggy for the rest of the day. At one point we could see what appeared to be a large white boat on the horizon, but this turned out to be a small flock of White Pelicans resting on a sand bar. They are magnificent birds! I drifted along in front of them and got a few good digital zoom photos before they took off. Most impressive were about a dozen American Avocet in winter plumage feeding in the flats. They never got close enough for a photo.

  

Link to Carlos’ Blog Entry for This Trip

Link to Carlos’ Blog Entry for 2009 Trip

Idiot America by Charles Pierce

Idiot America

How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

Charles Pierce (2009)

This short confection of a book has a serious message… When “cranks” become mainstream and large segments of the population take them seriously, our entire society is at risk! He’s not against people with unconventional ideas, in fact he considers them to be an asset… a sort of check on the status quo. But an increasing number of cranks have won mainstream acceptance, and this is very alarming! Politics and religion are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

The narrative begins at a “young earth” theme park depicting a time when dinosaurs and humans lived side by side. Silly on the face of it, but considered a real possibility by many in the US. He then proceeds to tell the story of Ignatius Donnelly (1831 – 1901), the man responsible for several persistent modern myths including Atlantis. Fascinating!

Pierce returns time and again to the Three Great Premises:

  1. Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units.
  2. Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough. Fact is that which enough people believe.
  3. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.

To premise #2 I would add the old standby: “Tell any lie often enough and it will be accepted as truth.” The “birther” and anti-vaccine movements come to mind, as does the statement made by John Kyl on the floor of the Senate that was “not intended to be a factual.” Too bad senators can’t be impeached for lying!

Number 3 is particularly disturbing because of what it implies for intellectual discourse. Individuals have no obligation to be skeptical or make reasoned arguments, they only need to believe something strongly enough until it “must be true.” Not a very good basis for informed discussion! No wonder we live in a world of information free voters.

And then there’s Bullshit, a topic laid bare in a delightful little book by Harry G. Frankfurt—On Bullshit (2005). He deftly explains the difference between BS and lying. When someone lies, they are making a conscious choice to deceive. They know the truth but wish to conceal it. The bullshitter on the other hand doesn’t know the truth and more importantly doesn’t care!

October 2013 Update: From Gail Collins at the NY Times, “Representative Ted Yoho was one of the very first members of Congress to verbalize the what-the-hey theory of global finance.” Putting the good faith and credit of the United States at risk? The very definition of a crank!