I took my first-ever college courses at George Washington University (GWU) in the summer session after my seventh year in elementary school. During this time my family was moving to California, but they stayed with Mom’s family in Chicago most of the summer. I stayed with the family of my best friend and neighbor in … Continue reading FORUM: Daytime Pier Fishing
Category: Paul “Plan-it” Yarnold
FORUM: Dogs and Cats
My parent’s family, and my family, supported numerous types of domestic and working animals over the course of our lives. Some creatures were hardly memorable because they had limited personality or intelligence, lacked affinity for family members, or lived a short time. However, some of our animal companions were unforgettable because of their uniqueness. Useless … Continue reading FORUM: Dogs and Cats
FORUM: Siberia
I owe my existence to the onset of World War II. When Germany attacked Poland from the west, Russia attacked Poland from the east to keep the German army away from the Russian border. My grandfather was an estate owner and Cavalry officer, so he and his family were sent by train in cattle cars … Continue reading FORUM: Siberia
FORUM: Casting Overhand
Emigrating from Virginia, I was an eighth-grade student in Huntington Beach (HB), California—home of the US Open of Surfing. Whenever the opportunity arose I fished for Bonito at HB pier in the morning bite. When I arrived at the pier I saw surfers most mornings—wearing wetsuits, sitting on their boards in water not far from … Continue reading FORUM: Casting Overhand
FORUM: Accelerating Climate Change and Associated Disasters
Forecasts based on legacy statistical methods have radically underestimated the pace and extent of global warming. Associated silique such as storm intensity and frequency, greenhouse gas emissions, infrastructure failures, famines, epidemics, and organic extinctions will accelerate and exacerbate. May 20, 2021: Unparalleled Arctic Climate: https://earther.gizmodo.com/its-sundress-weather-in-the-arctic-1846928838?fbclid=IwAR07wbEGz0ugA6dopukRusSz0KH7ejy3t6hp_St2xHOt44nbm0JGLOHM4fk May 24, 2021: "Economic forecasts predicting the potential impact of … Continue reading FORUM: Accelerating Climate Change and Associated Disasters
FORUM: Making a Planet
As an aide in developing ideas for Blog Posts I examined photos taken across my life (thus far) to help me recall my past. In this process it occurred to me that I never worried about “getting older” because I was too busy searching for interesting ways to fill time—increasing my aptitude in an area … Continue reading FORUM: Making a Planet
FORUM: Surface Iron
I was heading home from my morning walk to see friends working at the sport-fishing docks and stores in America’s Cup Harbor. As I approached the local nautical map and gift specialty store the renowned Captain Brian and his Crew (all now Captains) emerged from its front door. He’d purchased a map of the waters … Continue reading FORUM: Surface Iron
FORUM: Electric Wahoo
Ross and I were going tile fishing in Atlantic canyons off New York. It was my first time. Reaching these fish requires sending bait 800 to 1,000 feet deep using between two and five pounds of lead weight, depending on the current. We arrived at the canyon and I made my first drop using three … Continue reading FORUM: Electric Wahoo
FORUM: My Big Wahoo
The first pelagic fish which I ever caught was a 49-pound wahoo—one pound shy of a trophy for this species. I caught it by casting a sardine pinned in the nose using a circle hook tied directly to a fluorocarbon (monofilament) leader. The fish was landed in a few seconds after ramming the side of … Continue reading FORUM: My Big Wahoo
FORUM: Heaven on Earth
Dad was a PhD candidate and instructor in Mathematical Statistics at the University of Chicago: Kruskal and Wallis were his advisors. Mom was a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago: she worked with Bettelheim. Always impatient—even before birth, I was born a month prematurely at the University of Chicago … Continue reading FORUM: Heaven on Earth
FORUM: Cardiac Arrest
I was a Research Professor at Northwestern University Medical School in the Department of Emergency Medicine, with multiple affiliations in the Department of Medicine, and an Adjunct Professor of Academic Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. One of my primary areas of expertise (including the focus of my PhD) was antecedents of heart … Continue reading FORUM: Cardiac Arrest
FORUM: Level-1
I first flew model rockets when I was in elementary school, but didn’t have opportunity to advance to more powerful machines until much later in life. When I joined the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA) thirty years later I was surprised and excited to learn how hobby rocketry had advanced during my hiatus. I began building … Continue reading FORUM: Level-1
FORUM: My First Wahoo
I was living my dream to be an angler aboard a long-range, stand-up, ten-day, deep-sea fishing trip departing in October from America’s Cup Harbor in San Diego. I’d been preparing for two years for this trip while recuperating from a cardiac arrest, reading everything I could find and mail-ordering equipment I’d need on the trip. … Continue reading FORUM: My First Wahoo
FORUM: Friends and Enemies
A second-year graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), I was working on completing most of my remaining mandatory coursework, and compiling the literature needed to write my proposal for a Master of Arts degree in academic health psychology. At that time literature reviews were conducted manually in the library—there was no … Continue reading FORUM: Friends and Enemies
FORUM: Joyful Surprise
I was born in the dawn of the space race, 15 months before the USSR launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, into an elliptical low Earth orbit. The excitement of the ensuing space race—what it required of and discovered for humanity, influenced the course of my life until today. My parents said, though … Continue reading FORUM: Joyful Surprise
FORUM: Monkey Island
Ross and I were on our second trip to Panama for another week of in-shore angling. The weather was calm so we did a bit of exploring in-between fishing stops. A guide spoke of a near-by place called “Monkey Island.” He said he could take us on a short skiff ride to a small island … Continue reading FORUM: Monkey Island
FORUM: Interviewing
Assessing the Authenticity of an Interviewee In a 2014 Auto Bild interview, Elon Musk revealed he assesses the authenticity of an interviewee’s claimed experience by asking for a detailed description of the most difficult problem(s) the interviewee previously worked on and solved. According to Musk, “The people who really solved the problem know exactly how they solved … Continue reading FORUM: Interviewing
FORUM: My First Cow
I was on my first 11-day trip. Leaving from San Diego in December, we were heading for traditional “big-tuna” water in which large yellowfin tuna (YFT) were caught in the past. Mature YFT are among the most powerful, fastest-swimming fish species that stand-up anglers can realistically hope to catch using a traditional “under the arm” … Continue reading FORUM: My First Cow
FORUM: Predicting Sea-Level Rise
An accumulation of current research hypothesizes that if global warming continues at the current pace then sea-level rise will probably surpass the most extreme projections. Consideration of two incontrovertible observations magnifies the veracity of this proclamation. First, the assumption that the increase in future global warming will continue at the current pace is invalid. Warming … Continue reading FORUM: Predicting Sea-Level Rise
FORUM: Exercise on Deck
Half a century of learning and practicing transformed me into an excellent big-game fisherman. Well-trained and equipped, and highly-experienced, my hand and foot reflexes were fast, my technique was classic, and I was strong and flexible. I had good endurance, hiking seven miles daily in Point Loma—locally called “Tunaville.” In the mornings when the overnight … Continue reading FORUM: Exercise on Deck
