More Things I Wonder About (My Trip to Lake St. Clair Edition)

Why does buying out of state fishing licenses seem like a means of discouraging tourism?

Why do people, who aren't interested in cars, buy cars other than Honda Civics?

Does anyone, other than the new owners, call the Sears Tower the Willis Tower?

Is commuting into a city like Milwaukee or Chicago worth the commute?

How does one get the job of designing the highway configurations?

Is their a city with fatter uglier people than those in Michigan City, Indiana?

The WI speed limit is 65 and everyone goes 74.  The MI speed limit is 70 and everyone goes 70.  Since we know that WI cops love giving tickets and MI cops don't, why is this the case?

Why are WI highways surrounded with farm fields and MI highways surrounded by trees?

Why do so many large companies stay in MI?

Why are the roads so big in the northerly Detroit suburbs?

How much would you need to pay me to live in such a suburb? (Quadruple whatever figure you came up with.)

How can so many people afford $50,000 fishing boats?

Why does the lake with more muskies than any other (Lake St. Clair) get so much less fishing pressure than so many other places?

How is a pounder Bulldawg better than a Suick?

If the weight was removed or reduced from such a dawg would it be to buoyant?

Why did the hooks come out, of the four footer I had, right next to the net?

What causes fish to become active at a particular time?

What would we do if muskies didn't try to eat large hunks of plastic, wood, and metal?

What caused my right index finger to swell up?

When was my last tetnis shot?

How do you spell tetenis?

If i was outside every day would I get a lot tanner or just more sunburned?

Is it worth the drive for a lost four footer and a 43 incher?

 

***

11.5 inch yellow perch last week:

 

Paid Speaking

I just read that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair got paid $600,000 to give a speech in the Philippines. 

Dear Whoever paid him that,

Give me $600,000 to visit you in the Philippines and give a speech and (less my expenses for getting there and back) I'll invest every dollar into the small businesses that exist in your country.  And I'll give all of the speeches you want.

Then we can wait a year and see who has improves the lives of the Philippines more, Tony Blair with his no doubt wonderful, inspiring, and uplifting speech or my evil capitalistic investing.

Is it a deal?

Sincerely,
 

Tim
eltim164 at gmail.com

For Fukui's Sake

For Fukui's Sake by Sam Baldwin is an account of an English guy's two years as an English teacher in Japan.

Its what you'd expect from a first time author. 

He was sent to a small city in Japan, Fukui, but traveled around the country a bit.  His account of climbing Mt. Fuji is interesting.  Apparently you just walk to the top.  And apparently its tiring and you'll never want to do it again.  Its the same story with climbing Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro, according to Michael Crichton's Travels.

The author's comments on living in Japan and about the Japanese people are interesting too.

I'd say, however, that if you want to read a book about traveling somewhere, then I'd recommend a book from Roosh, Naughty Nomad, or Neil Skywalker instead.

Off to Be the Wizard

Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer is a novel about...

Amazon description:

It's a simple story. Boy finds proof that reality is a computer program. Boy uses program to manipulate time and space. Boy gets in trouble. Boy flees back in time to Medieval England to live as a wizard while he tries to think of a way to fix things. Boy gets in more trouble.
Oh, and boy meets girl at some point.

Off to Be the Wizard is a fun, comedic novel about computers, time travel, and human stupidity, written by Scott Meyer, the creator of the internationally known comic strip Basic Instructions.

Magic will be made! Legends will be created! Stew will be eaten!

I'll point out at first that I don't really care for science fiction and the reason that I bought this book s becasue it was $4 and becasue its author is the creator of the occasionally amusing cartoon Basic Instructions.



The Amazon description laid out the story quite well.  I'll add that I suspect that its the author's first book attempt, becasue, while its very readable and interesting, no one will confuse it with Lord of the Rings.  (I wasn't impressed with LOTR either.)

Its a fine and acceptable book.  But like I said in my last post, non-fiction is just better.

Its worth a read for some simple entertainment, and I'll recommend it as such.

The Temple Tiger

The Temple Tiger by Jim Corbett is a book by, and about, several stories of Jim Corbett killing several man-eating tigers and leopards in India.

His Wikipedia page comments on several of the man-eaters that he killed:

Between 1907 and 1938, Corbett tracked and shot a total of 33 man-eaters, though only about a dozen were actually well documented. It is claimed that these big cats had killed more than 1,200 men, women and children. The first tiger he killed, the Champawat Tiger in Champawat, was responsible for 436 documented deaths. Though most of his kills were tigers, Corbett successfully killed at least two man-eating leopards. The first was the Panar Leopard in 1910, which allegedly killed 400 people. The second was the man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag in 1926, which terrorized the pilgrims on the holy Hindu shrines Kedarnath and Badrinath for more than eight years, claiming responsibility for more than 126 deaths.

Other notable man-eaters he killed were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan man-eater, the Thak man-eater, the Mukteshwar man-eater and the Chowgarh tigress.

The Temple Tiger tells the stories of hunting several man-eaters, including the above mentioned Panar Leopard.  This is actually the second book of his on this subject.  His book Jungle Lore was first and is apparently similar.

The stories are short(ish), fun, and easy to read.

I decided in 2011 to spend more time reading exclusively non-fiction books and stop watching tv.  Those have been two good decisions. 

"They" say, "truth is stranger than fiction." 

I don't know about stranger, but The Temple Tiger is another non-fiction book that just happens to be better than any book of fiction that I try to read.  The Wikipedia page lists several books by Jim Corbett and points out Kenneth Anderson who also wrote about killing man-eaters in India.

So long as there are non-fiction books like this, I'll not run out of interesting reading materiel.  (And I was behind on my reading already.

The Hitchhiking Crash Course: How to Travel the World and Meet Cool People

Matt Forney's new book, The Hitchhiking Crash Course: How to Travel the World and Meet Cool People, is a short introduction to the world of hitchhiking.

The book is useful for potential hitchhikers becasue of things like the recommended items to bring and information on how to go about hitchhiking.

Like anything else, there is a learning curve to being successful.  This book's recommendations on how to look, act, and where the best places to be to get a ride, or a shower would no doubt shorten the learning curve for someone following in his footsteps. 

I read the book hoping to read a bit about the country and Matt's experiences along.  But this book is a practical guide to hitchhiking, not a collection of the interesting things that he did.

This book is recommended for practical advice on hitchhiking, but not for entertainment purposes.

A Link and A Book

The Free Northerner has written the best summary of our current "dating" situation that I have read.

An excerpt:

That little mind game aside, she wants to feel chemistry; she desires you to sexually and emotionally excite her. To be sexually and emotionally excited, your romance has to feel “natural” to her. Deliberate romance feels “artificial”, and artificial love can’t be “true love”. If you have to work at it or verbalize, it kills the “chemistry”. You need to “just get it”.

Essentially, the modern women wants spontaneity, to be “swept off her feet”. She wants it to “just happen.” As soon as you start verbalizing things, then it is no longer just happening, it is planned; it has become artificial. Verbalized romance is no longer “true love” (under this warped definition of love) because it is no longer “natural”.

As per one of the original examples from smoothreentry, by calling a date, “a date”, you are robbing the date of all sponteneity. It has become planned and no longer feels natural.

I’m going to guess the same with the example of sleeping over at her house. The times you slept over at her place, it probably “just happened”. It felt natural. When you assumed you were sleeping over, you killed the spontaneity of the sleeping over at her house. It became planned, and was no longer romantic. She didn’t feel excited about it.

Also, Matt Forney's new book is out, "The Hitchhiking Crash Course."  Matt, if you don't know, hitchhiked his way from New York to Oregon last year, and he had several interesting experiences along the way.

Expect my review of it later in the week.

Technology vs. Employment

Many people think that automation and new technology will replace lots of workers and increase unemployment.

This is the way a bad economist* thinks about it.

While it is true that some jobs will be lost in the short term as technology improves, it is also true that our wealth will increase.

At one time it took all day, every day, for a person to get food, shelter, and clothing.  Because, in part, of technology all of those things are cheaper.  Cheaper goods and services mean that we can acquire more goods, services, and free time.

The role of humans will never be completely replaced by technology.  Someone still has to build it.  Someone still needs to fix it.  And someone still needs to direct it.

Consider this: In which scenario are people wealthier?

A) A dozen people work at a factory making widgets**.  They make 100 per day.
B) A dozen people manage their own factories, which each make 100 per day.

Clearly in case "B" fewer people have boring, repetitive manual labor jobs.  They all have more interesting and higher paying jobs.  And more widgets, and wealth, are produced.  Who get's paid more: someone who creates 10 widgets per day, or someone who creates 100 widgets per day?

Admittedly this example is very much simplified.  But is is unnerving how few people understand economic ideas, that are even more basic than this.

An example:

In 1881, Dakota Territory had never sold a bushel of wheat to anybody outside of
Dakota. Six years later, it sold 62 million bushels. 
 
What happened?

I recently read Garet Garrett’s The American Story, which came out in 1955. It is a well-written history of America, unusual because of its emphasis on the powerful economics that drove the country to great heights. Garrett tells the Dakota story in this book, which is a useful reminder about how economies grow and prosper.

What happened in Dakota was that farmers invested in machinery. The riding plow, the reaper and the combine harvester made the farms far more productive than they had been. Suddenly, the labors of one man could produce 5,000 bushels of wheat. A single miller could turn that wheat into 1,000 pounds of flour.

But that was not all. New railroads connected the farmer to the mill and the mill with markets and ports in the East. The energies released were enormous. Garrett writes:

“So the labor of four men — one a farmer in Dakota, one a miller in Minneapolis and two on the railroad — plus a very low rate for ocean carriage — could put into Europe enough flour to feed 1,000 people for a year.”

Four people to provide food for 1,000.  Instead having 996 more people need to spend their time making food, they became free to invent new things, and explore new places.  The world became wealthier because people did not need to spend their lives finding enough to eat.

This is how progress is made.  While they don't admit it, or even know it, what people who oppose automation are opposing is actually progress and wealth.

I have not yet read The American Story, but the three books that I have read by Garet Garrett have all been superb.   Read it for free here.

In places like Mongolia or Myanmar, for example, you find today’s Dakota Territory. Not that Mongolians are as free as those American pioneers, but there is so much frozen potential to unlock by applying technology and know-how and capital to their situations. It’s these mind-bending changes — and the lure of profiting by them — that attract me to explore the world beyond the developed West.

-The American Story...Abroad

*A bad economist is someone who only looks at the seen and not the unseen.
** "Widgets" is the economic term to mean, "goods or services."  It just means "a thing."  It is easier to say "widgets" rather than pick an example, like cars, or shoes, or customer service calls.

How to Survive Living Abroad

by English Teacher X  (currently free for kindles on Amazon)

Its a book written by a guy who has spent many years living and working abroad.  Its a lot different than the other three travel books that I have read.  If you read Roosh, Naughty Nomad, or Neil Skywalker you will think that traveling is mostly a blast and the downsides are not all that terrible.  (Well maybe Roosh says some bad things about food poisoning, etc.)  But if you read How to Survive Living Abroad, you'll be much less enthusiastic about traveling the world.

Its probably quite worth a read for the knowledge that the world isn't terribly different in many places and in many ways.  If you want good stuff, then you need to pay lots for it.  He says the girls are thinner, but not necessarily better.

I wonder how much of his pessimism about traveling comes from the fact that he is working abroad as well as just traveling.

Its an interesting book and it would be good to remember that there are lots of downsides to traveling, food poisoning, being a target of theft, etc.

Where will be the best place to live?

It seems to me that America is on the decline.  We have a massive budget deficit (even while not having a budget signed into law).  We have a massive amount of debt.  Large numbers of men are avoiding marriage (for good reason).  Our foreign policy is still making us enemies.  Our schools, while still expensive, aren't getting any better.  We've allowed  many immigrants who are changing the country rather than their lifestyles and language.  We are about to take the next step towards socialized healthcare.  We have rules and regulations that cover every aspect of life. Etc.

Where then is, or will be, the best place for an average middle, or lower class, "western" guy to live?

(I'd like to note that this post has not had any research done for it specifically but instead comes from my interest in geography, culture, and my extensive reading, including Roosh and Naughty Nomad. FYI, my personal travel experience has, so far, consisted of the United States, Canada, China, and England.)

Most countries have something to recommend them, even those not listed here.   Ireland and Scotland have many good points, but I wonder about the leftist governments so common to Europe.  India's economy is expanding at a similar rate as China's, and I doubt that it would get boring there, but it doesn't seem to be the most welcoming place for outsiders, like Japan, and it doesn't appeal to me at all.  Israel would be an interesting place to live but I wouldn't care for the temperatures or the constant struggle for the country's survival.  Roosh has written very fondly of the girls in Poland, but I don't know what else it has to recommend it. Etc.

The following places are the ones that I think have an argument for being a good place for a western guy to live. 

The Contenders:

-The United States:  For much of its history America has been the greatest country in the world.  It has also been the most favored destination for immigrants.  Its problems are large and will be difficult to fix them.

But it is arguably still the best place to live.  We are moving away from it, but you can still become a self-made success here.  There isn't much, compared to the rest of the world, class warfare or class envy.  America's culture is the culture that is most copied around the world.  There are still many Americans who want America to be great.  We could still list many of the same reasons for living here that our ancestors had when they decided to move here.

-New Zealand: From everything that I've heard about it, New Zealand seems to have a similar mode of life as America, and with much dramatic scenery.  I've heard that gun rights aren't as limited as they are in the rest of the world (that's one reason Australia isn't on my list).  It also has a lot of the hunting and fishing opportunities that I would be interested in.

My biggest concern with deciding to move there would be that, while it is interesting, it is not as different from America as the other countries on this list are.  Why would I want to move to a country that is similar to the one I'd be leaving?  Neil Skywalker didn't seem too fond of the country in his book: Around the World in 80 Girls.

-Italy: Italy is an interesting country.  It has lots of history, natural beauty, and manufactured beauty.  From what I hear it seems a bit more colorful and crazy than America is.  I think that I once heard Jeremy Clarkson, from the world's most popular car show, Top Gear, say that the best thing to be would be to be born an Italian male.  It’s got good fashion, fast cars, and great food.  Its all manner of interesting, and not too far from a whole lot of other countries.

But Italy is still a European country with modern European problems, like the EU and immigration.  It seems like a country that is more different than exotic.  I also hear that the women are tough to pull.

 -China: For all of the problems that America has, China had them and seems to be moving away from them.  Their economy is improving, many people, including foreigners, are becoming rich, and life is cheap.  It has more history and culture than any other country.  Its culture is different and more exotic than anywhere else on the list.  It has all of the variety of nature that you'd care to see. Hong Kong was once one of the greatest places to make money (maybe it still is).  After spending a considerable amount of time with Google Maps' Street view Hong Kong seems to me to be the most interesting city in the world.  (I had my first legal drink there too.)  The food is different and interesting.  I quite like Chinese culture.  China was often a forgotten subject while in school; I wonder if that's a reason why I like it.  Its poor and improving, but if you get tired of living in the third world there are a few cities that do not differ much in quality from the cities of the west.

(If you want to be entertained with China as the background, then I recommend Jian by Eric van Lustbader and any movie directed by Johnny To.)

But its still a communist country with limited rights, limited speech, and many rules and regulations.  You still need a lot of government approval to do things.  And it is really different from what most westerners are used to.

-The Philippines: The Philippines gets a ringing endorsement from Naughty Nomad, for its fun culture and style of life.  Many of the locals also speak English.

But the food is questionable, and perhaps being the "rich foreigner" thing would get tiring after a while.

-Brazil: If I were basing my opinion solely on the women, then Brazil is where I'd pick.  Brazilians seem to have a lot of fun. It is another economically improving country.  And its natural resources are something else.  I quite look forward to fishing for peacock bass.

One of Brazil's big problems is exemplified by its current President, who is a socialist.  As in she once belonged to the Brazilian Socialist party.  When countries improve economically they often add rules and regulations thinking that they are improving life.  What actually happens is that the citizens lose freedom and liberty.  If you look at any western country it has rules and rules and rules, and then many regulations dictating every aspect of your life.  The U.S. Code has 300,00 pages of rules and regulations which tell us what we can and cannot do, and how much of it.

-Dubai: This may be the place to make money.  And people from all over the world are flocking here.

I doubt that I would care to spend my life in a desert, or in a place with as many strict Muslims, or any other religion as Dubai has.  Alcohol is illegal here.  I also wonder if its boom times are coming to an end.

It seems to me to be more of a place to stay for a little while, rather than a place to live.

-Singapore: In the lists of the freest places to live Singapore always does well, along with Hong Kong.  It seems to be a place, like Hong Kong and Dubai, that was created so that people could make as much money as possible. Dubai seems to be a place that rose from obscurity quickly; I expect it to decline quickly too. Hong Hong is a part of China and we don't know what will happen when its 50 years of no change of government runs out in 2047.  Singapore is similar but we can be surer of its future.

For downsides, Singapore is just a city.  It’s a country, but it consists only a city.  This limits your options there considerably.

Deciding to move to a new country has many good and bad aspects.  It would be a dramatic change in life to move to a dramatically new country.  Personally, I like China and Brazil the best for possible destinations.  America is on a decline, we don't know if it will recover.  China is improving dramatically.  And Brazil was doing many good things before they started electing socialists.

If I've missed a good country, let me know.

Top 6 Places I Want To Visit

 
1. Hong Kong

When I first discovered Google Maps Street View I spent a lot of time looking at the streets of the cities of the world.  It seems to me that Hong Kong is easily the most interesting.  Look at the view of some of those narrow streets, lined with stores and restaurants.  Its a marvel of how the English left Hong Kong almost completely free.  You can see a bit of China, while only needing to speak English.  Its a world class city built on a small island.  Its small enough that you'd think you could cover the whole place, but dense enough that you'll never see all of it.  I like driving but I'd like to spend more time in a place where driving is limited, just for the experience.  And a city that's based on an island can't limit itself much more to only walking.

2. Inner China

http://www.shotaddict.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/pretty_china_01.jpg

I have a fascination with the far east.  (Although, I don't necessarily prefer Asian women to any other ethnicity.)  I don't know if my interest has come from reading books like: Musashi, Taiko, Jian, Shogun, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Heart of Asia, etc.  Perhaps my interest in China has come from my watching movies like: Hero, Ip Man, Fearless, Red Cliff, Little Big Solider, etc.  Or if my interest comes from the fact that while I was in school, I learned about the history of the western world, and the east was largely forgotten.  It may also be that my interest in economics has made seeing China go from communist to somewhat free an exiting place to see progress made in economics.  Its also probably one of the better places to make money.

I've already seen the major touristy sights in Beijing and Shanghai (although both cities have made great progress and new additions every year).  I'd like to see what the smaller cities in the country of China look like.  The country has dramatic scenery of every variety.  Rice terraces are one thing that I'd love to see.  And all of the culture is so totally different from our own western culture.

3. Brazil

Brazil is another country that was, at least, thought to be a great place to make money as it has moved upwards in wealth.  Other than the socialist government and increase in feminism.  I have not heard much negative news from the country.  Its jungles have always sounded interesting.  The Amazon has also long been a place for fishermen looking for exotic fish. I'd like to catch a peacock bass.

I suppose that I should point out that if I were to travel to a place just for the local girls, Brazilians sound just like the girls I'd like to meet.

If at some point I decide that I want to leave the U.S. permanently, then I think that China and Brazil are the leading contenders.  I may be more interested in the exoticness of China, but the differences from what I'm used to may get to be too much to bear. Brazil sounds like a much more pleasant and relaxing place to live. 

4. The Philippines

I'm not the biggest fan of tropical places (too hot).  But I can't read stuff, like this, from Naughty Nomad and not want to go at least once.  If we know that the girl situation is like it is now; how could a modern man, with the means to do so, not at least check it out?

5. Uganda

http://www.neuroscientist.com/animimag/elephant.jpg

One big goal in my life is to shoot an elephant.  Probably around US$60,000 plus at least $4,000 for a rifle, and two may be necessary.  Plus some for the arrangements of shipping the tusks back (which may even be illegal).

Uganda is where many famous professional hunters shot their elephants 100 years ago.  It also allows hunting.

Not a bad review from Naughty Nomad either, well...mostly.

6. New York City

Once the greatest city in the world its probably still "The" city of America.  There aren't any particular things I'd care to see besides a New York pizza and the American Museum of Natural History.  I think that visiting NYC would be more of an obligation rather than a place that I really want to visit.

I just about made plans for a long weekend here, until I discovered that the Wisconsin deer archery season stated a week before I was expecting it to.  Maybe this spring I'll check it out.

***

I may need to add some of these places to my list; Dad always liked Singapore. And Mauritius is sounding good.

Top 10 Places of Economic Freedom

 

Economic freedom link found thanks to Right Thinking.

***

These are the places I want to visit.  Have I left any exceptional places out?

Jiuzhaigou Valley

In my research to find interesting places in China I've found the Jiuzhaigou Valley.

Some pictures from Wikipedia:



 

 


 

Where will the best place to live be?

The Neckbeard Chronicles had a post yesterday about writing for that website, so I did.

Check it out.

A Comparison of Manosphere Travel Books

There have been a number of travel books written by members of the manoshpere recently.

I think that there are two main reasons for reading a book: to acquire knowledge and to be entertained.

Let's compare three books and see how they do at providing travel knowledge and how entertaining they are.

A Dead Bat in Paraguay, by Roosh Vorek

The author of this book quit his job to travel the world.  His plan was to visit all of the countries in South America on one long trip.  He didn't get to the three little countries north of Brazil, but his experiences are interesting, his descriptions of each country are good, and his writing is excellent.

For providing travel knowledge this books is good, you can get a taste of what most south American countries are like.

For entertainment value, this book is constantly interesting, there are no boring parts, and the writing, as I've said before, is excellent.

Around the World in 80 Girls, by Neil Skywalker

The author of this book is a Dutch guy who spent three years going around the world, and visited much of Asia and South America.  This book covers a lot of countries and you can get a feel for many of them.  Before reading this book I had no interest in visiting Vladivostok, Russia or Cambodia, since reading I've reconsidered those two places. (A revisit of Naughty Nomad's Phnom Penh City Guide enhanced my desire to go to Cambodia too).  The writing in this book isn't great, and you can tell that English is not the author's first language, but it is only a minor annoyance and the book is constantly interesting.

For travel knowledge this book is great.  You get reviews of many countries from around the world from a single source.  The practical knowledge inside is less than you might like if you are going to plan a similar trip, but this book is a great start.

As entertainment, this book is constantly interesting and worth a read.

Naughty Nomad: Not your typical backpacker story

This book may blow your mind.  The author and friends, traveled to many places of the world and did things like sneak across borders, smuggled drugs, and enjoyed the company of many local girls.

For travel knowledge, this book is lacking; not many of us have balls half his size or his desire to be in places where we may get shot at.

For entertainment, there isn't really a book that compares.



In conclusion:

For travel knowledge and ideas: read Around the World in 80 Girls.

For entertainment: read Naughty Nomad.

For the best combination, and best writing, read: A Dead Bat in Paraguay.