it was bigit was loud
his guitars shot lazers
bolt of lightning out the end
he had big hair
leather and v shaped guitars
he was an inspiration
he still lives
Thursday, August 28, 2008
He
it was bigit was loud
his guitars shot lazers
bolt of lightning out the end
he had big hair
leather and v shaped guitars
he was an inspiration
he still lives
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Mantas
Here is an example (taken from Bloodydecks.com) of people raping and pillaging the sea, and not thinking of the consequences of such actions:
La Paz Manta Ray Slaughter
La Paz Manta Ray Slaughter
"Just returned from a week of fishing/diving/filming in La Paz... We pulled a couple of boats down and stayed at Baja Joe's (nice place).
I fell in love with La Paz 20 years ago because it was the only place on earth where you could dive with schooling hammerhead sharks, whale sharks and giant manta rays (usually all in the same dive!) La Paz is known worldwide for its magnificent diving. The chance to encounter some "really big" ocean creatures has lured scuba divers to Baja for many, many years.
This time the fishing was slow..... and the dive became something I will never forget...
On our second day of fishing, we were south of La Paz and began to see Large areas of something white on the ocean floor. At first I thought we were over a large sunken ship! We stopped to investigate.
I jumped in with dive gear and video camera to examine what we were seeing from the surface. To my horror, I found dozens of piles of giant manta rays rotting on the ocean floor! The same manta rays that dive operators put pictures of in their brochures to attract divers to La Paz... lay on the bottom dead!
How can this be?
The flesh was stripped from their gigantic wings (some measured over 12' across)
When did Giant Manta Ray become a targeted species to this extent?
It made me sick to my stomach! I spent the better part of the afternoon documenting these piles on film. Close to 1000 of these magnificent creatures lie on the bottom in various stages of decomposition....
Several piles were spread out over a 1/4 mile radius and all were within a a large set of gill nets that stretched for almost a mile...
The nets stretched from the sand bottom to the surface of the ocean. Anything that can't fit through the 12" openings in the net is doomed... sea turtles, sharks, rays, mantas, large game fish etc. etc. etc.
Will Mexico ever stop destroying their marine ecosystem in the Sea of Cortez?
Who can I contact to stop this?
Does anyone even care?"
From another site:
"Some mantas are hunted outright; others wind up as by-catch in nets. In Mexico, their dead value is about 40-cents a pound compared to the $10 to $20 that shark fins command (another sad story.) The slaughter of manta rays is senseless especially in light of their relative economic value. Andrea Tomba of the Cortez Club in La Paz, Mexico considers mantas a primary attraction drawing divers from around the world. He estimates that mantas contribute to an average daily income of $3,300-per-day for the 10 local diving tour operators. Sherry, Scott and anyone else who has ever swam with these gentle giants knows that the value of a manta experience cannot be calculated in dollars. For many of us, swimming with the majestic manta ray accounts for an experience of a lifetime."
Hmmm...
Live mantas contribute to an income of over 3,000 dlls a day for 10 diving tour operators, while a dead one is worth 40 cents a pound to one commercial fisherman, with a great portion of the total body mass ending up rotting on the ocean floor...
I think the numbers speak for themselves.
Someday I will get into and explain in detail my thoughts on commercial fishing and the current state of our worlds oceans, but for now I will just leave you with the above photographs, which I feel are fairly self explanatory...
If you would like to learn more, and try to make a difference, please go to: www.seawatch.org
I fell in love with La Paz 20 years ago because it was the only place on earth where you could dive with schooling hammerhead sharks, whale sharks and giant manta rays (usually all in the same dive!) La Paz is known worldwide for its magnificent diving. The chance to encounter some "really big" ocean creatures has lured scuba divers to Baja for many, many years.
This time the fishing was slow..... and the dive became something I will never forget...
On our second day of fishing, we were south of La Paz and began to see Large areas of something white on the ocean floor. At first I thought we were over a large sunken ship! We stopped to investigate.
I jumped in with dive gear and video camera to examine what we were seeing from the surface. To my horror, I found dozens of piles of giant manta rays rotting on the ocean floor! The same manta rays that dive operators put pictures of in their brochures to attract divers to La Paz... lay on the bottom dead!
How can this be?
The flesh was stripped from their gigantic wings (some measured over 12' across)
When did Giant Manta Ray become a targeted species to this extent?
It made me sick to my stomach! I spent the better part of the afternoon documenting these piles on film. Close to 1000 of these magnificent creatures lie on the bottom in various stages of decomposition....
Several piles were spread out over a 1/4 mile radius and all were within a a large set of gill nets that stretched for almost a mile...
The nets stretched from the sand bottom to the surface of the ocean. Anything that can't fit through the 12" openings in the net is doomed... sea turtles, sharks, rays, mantas, large game fish etc. etc. etc.
Will Mexico ever stop destroying their marine ecosystem in the Sea of Cortez?
Who can I contact to stop this?
Does anyone even care?"
From another site:
"Some mantas are hunted outright; others wind up as by-catch in nets. In Mexico, their dead value is about 40-cents a pound compared to the $10 to $20 that shark fins command (another sad story.) The slaughter of manta rays is senseless especially in light of their relative economic value. Andrea Tomba of the Cortez Club in La Paz, Mexico considers mantas a primary attraction drawing divers from around the world. He estimates that mantas contribute to an average daily income of $3,300-per-day for the 10 local diving tour operators. Sherry, Scott and anyone else who has ever swam with these gentle giants knows that the value of a manta experience cannot be calculated in dollars. For many of us, swimming with the majestic manta ray accounts for an experience of a lifetime."
Hmmm...
Live mantas contribute to an income of over 3,000 dlls a day for 10 diving tour operators, while a dead one is worth 40 cents a pound to one commercial fisherman, with a great portion of the total body mass ending up rotting on the ocean floor...
I think the numbers speak for themselves.
Someday I will get into and explain in detail my thoughts on commercial fishing and the current state of our worlds oceans, but for now I will just leave you with the above photographs, which I feel are fairly self explanatory...
If you would like to learn more, and try to make a difference, please go to: www.seawatch.org
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Best Bubble for your Buck!
This summer a few key members of the Palomilla, myself included, set out to find the best Mineral Water that Mexico has to offer. After many weeks of arduous taste testing, we came to the conclusion that there is only one true agua mineral: Topo Chico.According to legend, high in the mountains surrounding what is today the city of Monterrey there was some chick and a Topo (mole), who happened to be Chico (small) or something along those lines.
Id love to tell the whole story here, but to tell you the truth I went to the official website - www.topochico.com.mx - and found the story to be about 4 or 5 pages long and I was too lazy to read all of it. I will say that it seemed pretty cool and you should probably check it out if you are into chicks with small moles.
I am in no way affiliated with Topo Chico, but it is one damn good Mineral Water, and I would highly recommend it over other inferior brands such as SierrAzul and Bonafont.
But remember: "De dos litros NO!"
We Sit...
We sit and we talk about the good and the bad, the political and the apolitical, girls and women and the good times we have had. We don't necessarily have any intentions of coming to a conclusion, but we sit and converse anyway.
It seems to be all we ever do anymore, this sitting. The setting may change, but the goal is always the same. We try to understand the finer things in life, even though we almost always fail.
Sometime during the conversation someone mentions an adventure we all had. We laugh as the memory comes back to us. "Those were the days..." somebody mumbles between a long swig or a puff. The feeling is bittersweet.
They say that the past is no longer, that the future is ahead of us. Why then, we wonder, do the times now long gone seem so much more vivid and joyous than the lives we currently live?
CJ
It seems to be all we ever do anymore, this sitting. The setting may change, but the goal is always the same. We try to understand the finer things in life, even though we almost always fail.
Sometime during the conversation someone mentions an adventure we all had. We laugh as the memory comes back to us. "Those were the days..." somebody mumbles between a long swig or a puff. The feeling is bittersweet.
They say that the past is no longer, that the future is ahead of us. Why then, we wonder, do the times now long gone seem so much more vivid and joyous than the lives we currently live?
CJ
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