journal features

dead turtles in a harbor

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Nichinan, Miyazaki, 2022.01.07

It will surprise no-one that we went fishing today. It was just shore-fishing at Odotsu, as we're fresh out of boats to hop onto! Ken caught one small okiaji that we then used for bait. Happily, Emma took an interest and joined us for a variety of fishing styles.

In less pleasant news, we found not one but two dead sea turtles in the harbor. Mari called a wildlife branch of the government because they want to hear about such things. It was clear that both turtles had been there for some days.

rand()m quote

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

—Michael Crichton