Weirdest fish ever, sort of...

I have been busy with summer internship, I went fishing regularly though. Mostly near my apartment complex, short trip. BTW, in May I passed candidacy exam, which is a milestone of Ph.D. program.

Yesterday evening, I went out carping at Hudson river. I used pre-made Premium Carp Bait strawberry. I have never caught carp with this bait. But keep trying. As an insurance, I cast catfish bait as well. Oh, boy, catfish are really active nowadays.

Anyway, after one hour of waiting, suddenly there was strong nibbling at carp rig. I did not rush giving enough time for carp to suck up the treble hook. Then, I set hook. To my disappointment, I could not feel the carp at the end of my tackle. But I could clearly tell that I had caught something. Tiny fish maybe?

When the small fish surfaced, I could see yellow color with black dots. It was ugly looking fish. I thought it might be Goby or some kind of invasive species. To my vast surprise, it was foul-hooked fish like swimbait!!! "Are you kidding me? How can I hook a swimbait with carp rig? Not even with other lure. Are there someone at the bottom of the river and meesing with me?" I could not stop questioning. Here is a picture of my catch.


You can see the treble hook is set on the belly of the swimbait. Foul hook!


Close shot. Black dots look like fungi. Kinda gross.


I have been fishing at the same spot with swimbaits. So, at first I suspected that it might be mine, but it turned out to be not. Considering the condition of the swimbait, it might be under water at least for one year. It has been de-colorlized, and hooks are rusty. But it still seems to be usable. :) What a productive catch! Just kidding, I will not use it.

After catching this tropy, I came back home without any success. Next time, I willl write some success stories.

First bass of this season!

I have been busy with school works and internship. This afternoon, I decided to make a brief fishing trip to the Hudson river, where I can walk in 5 minutes, and I caught my first bass of this season.



It isn't that bad as a season opener, is it? It was a 3 pounder. I used Powerbait's 3 inch Realstick. Yep, I am a big fan of swimbait.


Here is another shot of the fish, which shows whole body.



I wish it will be a good season for all!

DMZ in My Mind

Today I finished one short essay which I have been thinking about for 9 years. Yes, 9 years. It is about an incident that happened while I way staying in Vancouver, Canada. When you read it, you will know why it took so long. I put a link to the essay at Misc. Article section at this blog.

Dissertation Boot Camp

There was an dissertation boot camp at RPI during the last weekend. I participated in it in desperate hope. It was the best training session ever. The camp was informative and also motivational. I learned timed writing, writing skills and how to use writing support tools. Four faculties instructed 14 students for two whole days during weekend. I should have taken this program earlier; They just started it this year.

Useful Tools:

• Free Mind: It is a mind mapping tool. It has diverse functions. You should use it instead squible on a piece of paper.
  
• Zotero: It is a reference management software. There are bunch more functions, such as note taking. It works with Firefox or Netscape as a plug-in. At MS Word, you can cite while you type if you install plug-in for Word. If you hav not known it, you should give it a shot. I strongly recommend it. Plug-in for Open Office is here.
  
• Evernote: It is a note collecting tool. I found that Zotero also takes note as it does. Personally I prefer to use Zotero. But it has a nice function to save user's data on-line.
• OpenOffice: I was not a big fan of Open Office V.2. But version 3 is totally different. I found V.3 is very powerful in typing formula in document. Open Office can generate PDF file and even LaTeX file with. I can convert its document to MS word format, too. I think I will not go back to MS Word.
  
• LaTeX: I need this for math presentations and dissertation formating. Equation editor at MS words is too bad... What I will do is that first I do my word processing at Open Office, then convert Open document to LaTeX file. I can do final touch with LaTeX. If you are a RPI student, you can get LaTeX at RPI help desk.
  

What I found at the boot camp homepage. I found this funny:

WHEN TO CALL A FACULTY COACH

Junior professors, midcareer faculty members, and even the most seasoned of academics sometimes need help with managing at least one aspect of their careers. Here are a few signs of when you might need to give a faculty coach a call:

* You're mired in a departmental battle.
* You can only work under deadline pressure.
* You've allowed teaching and service work to take up all of your time.
* You're a chronic procrastinator.
* You start papers but never finish them.
* You're baffled by putting together a promotion and tenure portfolio.
* You can't find time to do research.
* You avoid writing at all costs.
* You're not clear on the expectations for tenure.
* You need help maintaining momentum.

SOURCE: Successful Academic, The Academic Ladder, Success in Academe
--------------------------------
How many of them describe you? In my case, um... 6 out of 10. Rest 4 are the cases of assistant professors. Deadline pressure, that's what I like...

Pelamis: Movable wave energy converter

Oil price went way down, but competition to find alternative energy sources is still under way. I heard about Pelamis project which uses wave power to generate. I found this one quite promising. Pelamis Wave Energy Converter (WEC)is a snake-like generator (See the picture (source: Pelamis Wave Power Ltd.). Pelamis means Snake). It was developed by a British power company named Pelamis Wave Power, website http://www.pelamiswave.com/ (Its website is well organized). I thought that this wave power generator is more promising than other alternative generation because of two big reasons:

1. Wave power is relatively constant: In case of solar and wind power generation, they require other power plants, such as coal or nuclear power plants, for backup during calm or cloudy period.

2. This generator is movable: Tidal, solar, wind power plants are fixed. When conditions change, they could be not usable. This machine can be built once on site and be moved where conditions are ideal.

Pilot project of Pelamis was completed in northern Protugal. The result was successful, and they are seeking to expand the project. Pelamis seems one of solutions for future energy deficiency.

Here is a video of Pelamis WEC I found at Youtube (there were bunch more of them).

Know everything?

I am at a Ph.D. program which is supposed to be the highest level of education. Many people around me seem to expect me to know everything after earning degree. Actually, I can see some faculties and friends who seem to know everything. Brilliant folk. But I confess that as I study through, there comes up more things that I do not know. Even I am overwhelemed by the large amount of ignorance that I find. Let me be clear; Ph.D. is not a journey to learn everything but a journey to realize our ignorance in a field . At the end, I can confidently judge what I really know and do not know. I think that is all about Ph.D. education.

JP Morgan goes into Carbon Finance

I found one interesting article about JP Morgan's new business at Fortune magazine (Aug 12, 2008): JP Morgan started selling stoves in Africa! Did they decide to change their business model? Not really. They are going to carbon finance. How does it work?

JP Morgan subsidizes fuel efficien stove (picture at left) selling in Africa. Then, Morgan can claim carbon credits for the finance. It can sell the credits at the international carbon market. It seems small business, but it is potentially huge. According to the Fortune article, each stove can reduce two to three tons of carbon dioxide a year, and each ton of carbon worths $10 to $15 a year. Imagine that they sell millons of stoves!

I had a chance to discuss this stove project with my colleagues. Their immediate reaction was negative: "how could such a big company take advantage of poor countries to make profits? It may give some tiny benefits to the poor in developing countries, but possibly worsen the environmental quality in developed countries by selling cheap carbon credits." 

I didn't fully agree with them. My question to them was then who are losers in this project? There is possibility of emission increase in developed countries, but that seems not the case, considered strong emission regulations in the countries. The poor receive benefits from the project: improved health and fuel saving. At global level, we can expect less carbon emission.

This project is related to my research interst. Input-output structural decomposition analysis can help varify whether and how much the project contributed in cardon reduction. The article mentioned that the fuel efficient stove can reduce 2 to 3 tons of carbon dioxide a year, but it is just direct reduction. With systems approach, we need varify total reduction generated by the project. It means that the stove may reduce fuel usage, but also it requires carbon emissions to build and transport the stove. So, the total effect of the stove will be less or greater than the direct effect. The project seems very interesting, and may have some good opportunities there.