Peter Egan's Weblog

I Love Atlas Shrugged and You Should Too

2022-04-10T00:05:00.002-07:00

Ayn Rand a Prophet? Atlas Shrugged a Prophecy?

By: Peter Egan Jr.

God has a sense of humor, choosing a Jewish atheist woman to serve as one of the 20th century's premiere prophets

This blog will be short and sweet because if you've already read Atlas Shrugged, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you have not, all I can say is I wouldn't consider my life to have been lived to the fullest had I not stumbled across what once upon a time was the second-best selling book in the English-speaking world to only the Bible.

As the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy and KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov tried to warn us, perhaps not so coincidentally in 1984 for the latter, American society was being infiltrated at all levels: the government, the media and the education system. This was dismissed as conspiracy theory. Well, that turned out to only be half-true. The half-false part is that it's no theory.

Here is the full-length interview with Bezmenov from 1984:

Besides the obvious in George Orwell whose works needn't be mentioned in this post because they're so self-explanatory that virtually anyone who has made it this far knows that Orwell was a prophet.

It's another 20th century prophet that I'd like to discuss for a moment. I'm sure some orthodox religious believers would call it utter blasphemy to suggest that God would make into a great prophet, a woman Jew who was Jewish in blood only as she is widely reported to have been an atheist (although this contention has been challenged, I am not interested in discussing that).

Atlas Shrugged was the most influential book I've ever read aside from the Bible, and I suggest anyone and everyone who hasn't read it yet do so and do so with an open mind. Think critically, and don't allow opinions other people manipulated you into thinking were your own fool you any longer. Start from scratch and see where you wind up. I'm betting it'll be somewhere near where most everyone else who has studied Rand has with respect to her work (agreement to one degree or another).

There are some affiliate links in this post to some of Rand's works for anyone new to her or anyone who is familiar but just hasn't developed the muster to tackle a book that long in either Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead. I recommend readers new to Rand start with Anthem. It's short, sweet, can be read in its entirety in just a couple of hours, and provides a simplified but nonetheless profound glimpse into Rand's philosophy, expounded upon in her later works.

If you're new to Rand, perhaps view check out the above links in this post and introduce yourself. Your mind will thank you later.

For a little sampling of what you can expect from Atlas Shrugged, here's an excerpt from Francisco's Money Speech, which to me ranks among the most profound, thought provoking soliloquies ever written, a mic drop moment hidden within one of the most profound works of philosophical literature ever written.

The following excerpt from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is borrowed from Capitalism Magazine. The full speech can be seen here: Francisco's Money Speech.

“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’
“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are."

For anyone who hasn't yet introduced themselves to this work of art by Rand, consider this your formal introduction and please waste no time in becoming more acquainted.

Peter Egan Jr. is the founder and proprietor of Egan Store, a US-based purveyor of fine and exotic numismatic collectibles.

TwitterCensorship.com For Sale Amid Scandal of Twitter's Censorship of the President, Most Americans

2020-11-04T02:29:00.006-08:00

TwitterCensorship.com and Twitter-Censorship.com Web Domain Names Listed For Sale Amid Twitter Censorship Scandal

In lieu of Twitter's totalitarian crackdown on free speech and free thought, CEO Jack Dorsey has only seen his resolve strengthen as he awaits trial from a cell at Guantanamo Bay. Twitter, Facebook, Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, the entire leftist media and many smaller platforms and publications have attempted to disenfranchise the American electorate by censoring any and all truth, spreading lies and punishing with a fury anyone who dares question their monopoly of information. Twitter censorship and Google censorship have been at the forefront of internet censorship for more than a decade.

They determine what you're allowed to see, hear, read and think. You're not smart enough to do those things for yourself. At least that's what they actually believe.

At 10:03 PM on 11/03/2020, Twitter, in a profound embodiment of hypocrisy, censored a tweet by the President of the United States that isn't even controversial or debatable. It was a factual statement. Nothing about it was speculative, hyperbolic or controversial. And everyone who saw what he tweeted knows this to be true.

At the same time, a tweet by Joe Biden saying the same exact thing, albeit with slightly different wording, was of course left untouched. No disclaimer, no shadowban. No reply deboosting. Joe Biden's comment completely validated the President's Twitter-Censored remark yet one was censored and one was not.

It is because of this type of hypocrisy and Orwellian crackdowns on free speech and free thought that have brought the premium domain names TwitterCensorship.com and Twitter-Censorship.com to the forefront of the world of premium online real estate.

The domains have been made available for purchase by internet real estate mogul and social media savant Peter Egan (me). I've been censored for more than a decade, and watching what was done to me in 2009 be done to the entirety of the American population, I couldn't sit back and fail to take action any longer.

I am open to selling the properties to someone fully committed to developing them into a historical reference that will ensure future generations never forget that in 2020, America nearly entered a time machine back to 1984. I am also open to partnering in development, and/or even donating the domains to the right individual or organization. Please email me at peter.egan.81@gmail.com if you or someone you know may be interested in one or more of these propositions.

A few other semi-related domains are also being made available in lieu of the unprecedented corruption by the American political left, the great evil of our time. They are listed below.

Premium Anti-Orwellian Fascism Domain Names For Sale:

TwitterCensorship.com
Twitter-Censorship.com
TwitterVictims.com
TheClinton.Foundation
Reform.College

*Inquiries: Please email peter.egan.81@gmail.com to discuss the transfer of rights of one or more of the above web properties, and/or to discuss partnering in development of one or more of the aforementioned.

One that is not for sale is Egan.News. There is no website there at present, but that domain will be the starting point for the media organization which through objective, unbiased reporting, will replace CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, WaPo, USA Today, LA Times, ABC, NBC, etc. Unlike the others mentioned, my news organization will not answer to anyone, be beholden to anyone or do anyone's bidding. It won't merge with a political party or become invovled in politics at all beyond objective reporting. It will not attempt to censor certain viewpoints, even if I personally disagree with them. It will help to preserve free speech, return integrity to journalism, and return journalism to "news."

[The above paragraph is dedicated to @EntheosShines (he knows why)]

If you're not familiar with me, I'm Peter Egan. I am one of the world's foremost experts in news media, social media and search engine censorship. I will elaborate upon this statement in a follow-up post. For now, you'll have to take my word for it. I will replace the previous sentence and this one with a link to that subsequent post when I finish writing it.

Suffice it to say, I was among the first (maybe the first) to experience such draconian, targeted censorship online. I've been censored online since at least 2007, with Google going so far as to remove political blogs and news websites from search results in 2009 when my reporting became inconvenient to the Obama-Clinton domestic and foreign policy. Entire platforms were purchased to silence me when their founders refused to.

If Chris McGill had been willing to sell his soul the way Jack Dorsey did, Twitter never emerges as the global, non-localized, non-niche social platform. McGill and I disagree about politics. But I would fight to defend his right to speak his mind, and I'm more than sure he's fought many fights defending mine. More on that in the follow-up post to come sometime later this week or next.

Even today, I'm shadowbanned by Twitter (and every other form of censored besides account termination), no longer use Facebook and Google censors not only anything I publish online, but also my search results! It doesn't matter what I search for Google returns a set or arbitrary results completely unrelated to the search query. I've been compiling a slideshow of screenshots as I reckon I'll probably have to testify in court at some point so I'm trying to get a head start on preparation.

I will post a few when I update this post later this morning. If you come across this post on social media or email, please share with everyone you know as no Big Tech search engine is going to allow my dangerous thoughts to be found by the feeble-minded general public (their opinions of you, not mine).

To purchase TwitterCensorship.com or Twitter-Censorship.com outright without direct negotiations and at an inflated price, please see the below link, and please pardon the layout and design. The store is under construction.

http://ebay.com/str/Buy-Iraqi-Dinar-VND-and-Zim-Bonds

World Currency and Coin: Ebay's Officially Endorsed Scammer & Fraudster of Choice

2020-10-28T12:12:00.009-07:00

World Currency and Coin: Ebay's Officially Endorsed Scammer & Fraudster of Choice

I'm a primarily a buyer on eBay. I'm not a high-volume seller. A high-volume seller - and the only reason I'm naming them is that there are two Singapore-based sellers of banknotes with similar names and I don't want the other one to be mistaken for the one I suspect is causing these problems - but a high-volume seller with 30,000+ feedback and 60+ negative feedback whitewashed from their profile each month such that no matter how many they receive, their feedback profile never shows more than one or two, defrauded me out of $160, and eBay has bent over backward to harass and punish me for having the audacity to expect fair and equitable treatment as outlined by eBay rules and policies.

Singapore-based seller "WorldCurrencyandCoin" sent me an empty envelope with a tracking number for $160. Ebay's money-back guarantee is a farce, they removed my feedback after I inquired about the whereabouts of the shipment, he said he would really send it this time, then sent me an empty envelope with a tracking number. And eBay not only looked the other way, they actively encourage that kind of fraudulent, criminal behavior.

If you're on eBay buying currency or coins and the seller is in Singapore, buy from the other major seller. If you buy from Singapore-based eBay seller WorldCurrencyandCoin he will steal your money.

I've dealt with WorldCurrencyandCoin on three occasions. Being in Singapore amid the scamdemic, I was extremely patient as I awaited my 2,000,000 VND (4 x 500,000) Vietnamese Dong polymer banknotes.

While I don't sell a ton of different banknotes, if you need to buy Iraqi Dinar or a 2008 Zimbabwe 100 Trillion dollar bill please come and stop by my store instead. If you can't find what you're looking for there, you'd be better off going with literally any other eBay seller offering the products you're looking for than dealing with that thief. He averages 60+ negative feedback each and every month, and eBay takes great care to delete them all so it appears as though he's running a clean operation to anyone whom he and eBay haven't victimized already.

There was a separate occasion while I was patiently awaiting the arrival of my VND when I purchased a listing he had stated was for 20 million VND in the title, however the fine print contradicted that and stated that it was only ten million. I assumed it was an innocent mistake until I noticed he refused to edit the listing so that prospective buyers wouldn't be duped into paying for twice what they'd be receiving when I saw the same listing worded in identical fashion to the order I refused to pay for because of World Currency and Coin's duplicitous and misleading sales tactics.

This is a person with no ethics or morals who would pickpocket a starving cancer patient if he thought he could get away with it. Arguably the worst part of this entire story is that eBay fully endorses and condones this criminal behavior, which for the purchase I made on June 25 has risen to the level of fraud.

Buy Iraqi Dinar, Vietnamese Dong and Zimbabwe Dollars

My store for anyone wondering is entitled, "Buy Iraqi Dinar, Vietnam Dong & Zim Bonds."

Why is eBay Helping Scam Artist WorldCurrencyandCoin Commit Wire Fraud?

2020-10-26T22:40:00.005-07:00

Why is eBay protecting scam artist WorldCurrencyandCoin?

He didn't ship the first time. I have a screenshot proving it. He asked buyers to wait 90 days because of covid and he's in Singapore.

When in late September I finally asked him to review tracking from his account with Singapore Post, he went on an abusive and incoherent tirade and even referenced another incident in which I had to cancel an order because his deceptively written title misled buyers into believing the listing was for twice the quantity that he actually intended to ship.

As an experienced eBay seller, he knew about the insanely stupid 21 day policy so he posted a tracking number and claimed to have actually shipped the order this time. It naturally took more than 21 days to arrive. When it arrived, I opened it to find nothing but half of a page torn from a magazine advertising women's underwear. That's not what I paid $160 for. I paid $160 for $2,000,000 Vietnamese Dong for sale, Vietnam's currency (money).

I never received anything, eBay has bent over backwards to protect him and I'd like to know why. What dirt does he have on eBay as an organization or on individual employees? Is he bribing employees? There has to be some criminal activity of some form or fashion for eBay to lie and make an exception to their money back guarantee (which isn't real for anyone reading this), but were willing to collude with a criminal in committing fraud by way of lying and buying time using proximity to his advantage to get the resolution center case closed.

Since then, eBay has made excuse after excuse for him. "We can't." That's F^ck|ng b%llsh|t.

Why does eBay remove on average 60 negative feedback per month from his profile including mine? Why was mine removed? Nothing I said was inaccurate or in any way inappropriate.

I have screenshots of everything and friends in high places. You're picking a fight with the wrong guy. All I want is fair treatment. I was scammed by an eBay seller. Ebay has deflected and defended him in ways that will not look good when forced to defend these criminal acts under oath.

This is not civil suit material. An actual crime was committed here. Several actually. At best, eBay is an enabler, but eBay has had ample opportunity to correct its mistakes and redeem itself, but instead has chosen to double down on crime and wire fraud, not to mention false advertising.

I have proof of everything I've stated here including the entire resolution center conversation. I've tried going about this in a professional manner and eBay is adamant about defending a known criminal who evidently has committed scores of crimes against hundreds if not thousands of people per year based on how many negative feedback eBay whitewashes every month.

I want my $160 back. It's about the principle much more than the money. Did he split the $160 with the eBay employee overseeing the case so that eBay would make it go away? if not, prove it and prove that eBay is no actively colluding with him. Because by the amount of bad feedback removed from his profile every day it certainly appears as though eBay's role is more of a co-conspirator rather than an organization run by incompetent buffoons who are just too stupid to know any better.

You've got until the end of the month. Then I start to fight back.

I've waited long enough for eBay to do the right thing and eBay has demonstrated that it will not honor its money back guarantee nor enforce rules such as sellers being required to actually ship the items they list when those items are purchased. Or how about not write deliberately misleading titles to entice buyers into paying before reading the fine print and discovering that the title is simply a lie.

How dare you people place a hold on $1,000 of MY MONEY at any given time because I bring my own customers here to make purchases for the sake of convenience and most of them are in Canada?!? I've never received one complaint or negative feedback as a buyer or seller. WorldCurrencyandCoin receives 60+ every month that eBay makes disappear. Why does eBay hide the truthful buyer horror stories for this horrible seller? Yet you collect interest on my money while helping him steal it, with absolutely no repercussions for his crimes, including but in no way limited to either forcing him to ship the actual item purchased or taking my money back from him and returning it to its rightful owner.

It was 62 the last time I looked at it, mine was removed without explanation. How many other negative feedback is eBay covering up for this seller?

I'm willing to spend as much as I have to in order to win this fight. I will spend $100,000 if I have to. This won't end until I win. Ebay choosing to continue siding with the criminal instead of with the model buyer and seller would be an extremely bad decision, which is what I expect because that's all I've seen from eBay when it comes to enforcing policies as a buyer or seller.

On the one hand, you've got a seller about whom customers all write customized feedback and talk about the kind of person I am, and how they appreciate me for so much more than just the products I sell. Most of them are MY CUSTOMERS who only created an account because I wanted to expand my selling methods and am temporarily short on time. I'm bringing in new accounts every day. WorldCurrencyandCoin defrauds people every day.

You have no idea how tenacious I am when you pick a fight with me, but I an give a list of companies who made the mistake as references. Unfortunately, most are bankrupt and no longer in business. Not small companies either. At one point Volusion was among the world's leading e-commerce software platforms. I ended them over a very similar situation. You're playing with fire in a paper castle with cans of gasoline piled floor-to-ceiling by picking a fight with me.

I'd much rather this be resolved peacefully (figuratively speaking, I'm not threatening physical harm). I'd rather eBay do what's right. I don't like conflict, but when someone chooses to become my adversary and forces me to retaliate for crimes committed against me I won't stop until I utterly destroy them. At this point, if I'm not refunded by November 01, eBay will have stated in writing for all I'm concerned that it enjoys stealing my money and will be every bit as guilty as the crooked seller.

This was an item purchased June 25 **bleep**! Quit being criminals and do the right thing. It's either that or pay the price. Every executive within the organization and every employee who colluded with that criminal to defraud me will be looking for new jobs if eBay refuses to do what is right and just.

I have proof of it all. Every single detail. I even still have the empty envelop and underwear ads. And I have screenshots of everything else. Let me be perfectly clear, this is eBay's final chance to make this right before I retaliate. The fact that eBay has stolen almost $1,000 of my money to collect interest on for months before releasing it doesn't help. It's a very, very bad look. I'll engage in an unprecedented campaign to bring you down and will succeed. You'd be wise to stop stealing from me. I won't steal because I'm an honest and decent person, but I am willing to cost your company untold millions of dollars in other ways.

Choose wisely.

For anyone reading this who is actively looking to purchase exotic foreign currencies such as the Vietnamese Dong (VND), Iraqi Dinar (IQD), Nigerian Naira (NGN) or Zimbabwe Dollars ("Zim Bonds"), whatever you do avoid buying from World Currency and Coin. They are corrupt thieves who are either bribing or blackmailing eBay employees in turn for eBay enabling them to prey upon buyers who don't know eBay is removing over 60 customer complaints every month. Instad, buy from a trusted seller. Please visit my own eBay store: Buy Iraqi Dinar, Vietnam Dong & Zim. Or, alternatively you can buy Iraqi Dinar at Iraq-Dinar.com.

Looking to Buy Iraqi Dinar & Vietnamese Dong? Market Prices Continue to Skyrocket as Demand Dwarfs Supply

2020-09-03T15:15:00.010-07:00

Market rates continue to grow farther apart from exchange rates for IQD & VND (Iraqi Dinar & Vietnamese Dong currencies)

By: Peter Egan

The prices for people in the United States and across the globe seeking to purchase Iraqi Dinar and Vietnamese Dong continue to soar as we enter the fifth month since the entire marketplace of money services businesses (like currency exchanges), banks and other financial institutions have all stopped selling IQD (Iraqi Dinar), with most either discontinuing to offer VND (Vietnamese Dong) altogether or essentially engaging in arbitrage using private sellers on third-party marketplaces as the gauge for their price points, and potentially even for their supply.

The few still offering VND have prices set to 400%-500% above the exchange rate, consistent with the mid-tier pricing of sellers on third-party marketplaces like eBay and Bonanza. In other words, even if you buy through an exchange you won't be saving any money over just buying it on eBay or elsewhere.

As someone who has been captivated by the movement of the marketplace with regard to these two currencies since it began in late April or early May, I've observed as the exchanges first began raising prices, then stopped selling altogether. Yet one detail sticks out as peculiar: NOT ONE of these entities has stopped buying either of the two currencies. In fact, one such business (Safe Dinar) has been advertising on eBay and Google - not that they're selling Dinar & Dong, but to announce that they're buying at a higher rate than that which they were selling for just a few short months ago.

Having bought in just before the prices began to surge, I've amassed a fair amount of both for someone very new to the two currencies on which I've been and am still extremely bullish.

As such, I've decided to make available some of my holdings for prices that are fair and reasonable, but only to new buyers who either do not hold any of either currency or own very little.

Below you'll find my sales offerings as of this time:

50,000 Iraqi Dinar Banknote - $215.00

Buy 50,000 Iraq Dinar Now

Denominations:

Quantity:

Shipping Information

USPS Priority Mail (insured) - $4.95*
*Shipping to US only.

Anonymous’ Mission is Misinformation Designed to Hurt President Trump

2020-06-28T02:21:00.001-07:00

Anonymous: Known Facts Mixed With Anti-Trump Misinformation

Anonymous YouTube channel is a misinformation factory designed to mislead people as to the direction of the country and the performance of President Donald J. Trump.

I don’t want to link their channel or videos because I don’t want to see anyone else fooled by them. They are anti-Trump, anti-Q and anti-American sovereignty.

I made the comment below into a misinformation video and sleight-of-hand trick to stop people from learning about NESARA and trick people that the investment that may very well depreciate the most of any currency is the one people should be buying.

NESARA is the end of money “as we know it,” not Bitcoin.

Bitcoin seems to have all the characteristics for the mark of the beast. One world currency. You cannot trade without it. 🤔

I don’t know how comfortable I’d be dependent on a digital-only system that one can’t buy, sell nor trade without.

This is all misinformation anyway. NESARA will be announced in a few weeks and the US will return to a gold-backed currency. Anonymous is not the Anonymous of a decade ago. The new Anonymous releases nonstop videos with 3/4 truth, and 1/4 big lies that are very convincing.

If you haven’t heard of NESARA, I’d suggest reading up on it from a right-leaning source. Trump is going through with it and the world is following suit. Go see if you can find Iraqi Dinar for sale anywhere. Ebay and Amazon are the only places left that you can get it. The prices are 5 times the exchange rate. Same with Vietnamese Dong. Now ask yourself why.

Iraqi Dinar Exchanges Scamming Customers & Hoarding Dinar Reserves

XChange of America

SafeDinar.com

Treasury Vault

NESARA: National Economic Securities & Reformation Act

Trump and America are leading a global revolution over the banking canal, bankrupting the central & global banks, returning to gold & silver backed currencies and allocating the wealth seized from the cabal, human traffickers, child molesters & the Satanic cult that the Bushes, Clintons and Obamas all belong to with many, many others to all countries willing to invest properly so that every child born has enough to eat, clothes to wear, an opportunity to receive an education while their parents can find gainful employment. Iraq & Vietnam are expected to see the biggest fried in value, and right now, there’s not an exchange or dealer in the world that is fulfilling orders. They say they’re out of stock, but the truth is they know what’s about to happen and that the foreign currencies will soon see an unprecedented appreciation leading to 1000-to-1 ROI (or above).

Don’t take my word. Try going to a business — any business — that exists primarily to sell Iraqi Dinar, and trying to buy Dinar. You won’t be able.

Anonymous is a misinformation agent, probably from the central agency. Their videos all start out educational and factual, but the endings and the point of Anonymous’ videos is to try to damage President Trump’s reelection chances. Disregard the main points. The facts in the beginning are okay, but Anonymous is neither credible nor trustworthy.

How Long Should You Be Chumming Before Actually Fishing?

2020-05-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Catfish Chum: How Many Days in Advance Should You Chum Before Fishing?

By: Peter Egan

How long before fishing should catfish chum be deposited into the water in and around the desired fishing hole?

Catfish chum is a wonderful enhancement to any catfish fishing experience for many reasons, most notably because it will help the fisherman catch more and bigger catfish, and depending on the location possibly other species as well.

How to Make Catfish Chum from Dog Food

As many readers of this blog are probably already aware, much time and effort is devoted to the topic of fishing over at the Peter Egan YouTube Channel, and in particular fishing for freshwater catfish. While reading and replying to comments on one of these videos recently, I came across a comment by a gentleman named Robert Chillcott, who shared with viewers that his preference is to wait a week and a half to two weeks after planting scent in the water before returning to actually go fishing in the waters where the chum was deployed.

"I always waited about a week in a half to two weeks to fish an area that I baited." ~ Robert Chillcott

A week and a half to two weeks may seem like a rather lengthy wait for most fishermen, many o whom probably plan their fishing trips on far less notice than that. Paul Atkinson was one such fisherman.

Asked Mr. Atkinson:

Really? You hang the chum and let it soak that long before fishing it?

I decided to jump in here since the discussion was taking place on my YouTube channel in response to a video teaching viewers to learn to use dog food as catfish chum*, a technique in which the fisherman takes one or more cans of large dog food, pokes plenty of holes in each can with a pocket knife, then ties the cans to a metal wire before suspending them in the water at or around the desired fishing location.

Back to the question of how long must one start the chumming process before baiting that first hook, let me make clear that it is not necessary to start chumming efforts 1.5 to 2 weeks in advance if traveling to and from your fishing spot is overly burdensome. Notice that greater portion the previous sentence is underlined, with the latter half of the statement in bold. This is deliberate.

While one can have plenty of success beginning chumming efforts only a few days before the planned fishing trip, and will likely still experience better results waiting until the day of the fishing to chum the water than if no chum had been used at all, there's a science to why those of us with ease-of-access to water (or opportunity to venture out to the fishing hole a week or more in advance) prefer to do so whenever possible.

I can't really speak for still bodies of water, such as lakes or ponds. The lack of movement of the water makes the patterns of movement by the fish far more difficult to predict. However with regard to rivers, streams, canals, bayous or any other bodies of moving water, regardless of pace, that movement of the water carries the scent downstream (or in whichever direction the water is traveling).

Catfish Feeding Frenzy

The objective is to use a chum that is soluble enough to get immediate effects, with scent being released immediately serving as an attractant that lures fish into the area, appetite inducer that makes the fish hungry, and ideally also a drug of sorts that causes the fish to part with their rational judgment in favor of "feeding frenzy" type behavior. However, the ideal catfish chum will also be insoluble/dense enough that it doesn't all dissolve at once, but rather over the course of a week or two. This retains the scent in the area in which you plan to fish, while also steadily disseminating a scent trail downstream, covering as much aquatic linear and cubic distance as possible. Ideally, a chum that meets these criteria and smells good to the fish will consolidate all of the catfish that encounter the scent trail over the course of the week right in the very spot you'll be fishing.

With rivers like the Tchefuncte (the river which the bayou my home is located on connects to) where water levels can vary widely based on local and regional rainfall, as well as tidal movements in the Tchefuncte's case, you'll typically observe the best results from your chumming efforts when the water level recedes due to whatever the reason. As the water drains out, the scent is spread far and wife. When the water eventually subsides to mean levels, with the water come fish - lots of them.

The exception to this rule would be in a very large, fast-moving river such as the Mississippi, where there is to much water traveling at too great a speed for chum to produce the same effects that it does in most moving freshwater bodies, rivers, creeks and streams.

*Of the many different techniques I've tried while chumming for catfish, using dog food has yielded some of the best results if done properly.

The first embedded video within this post teaches viewers to use canned dog food as catfish (and other fish) chum. The subsequent videos consist of catfish eating dry dog food off of the surface of the water inside of a boat slip located along a bayou which drains into the Tchefuncte River in Covington, Louisiana.

Catfish Eating Dog Food

Reader questions and comments are welcome both at this blog and on the respective YouTube pages for each fishing video featured within this post.

Target Practice

2018-01-29T19:44:00.000-08:00

Target Practice

Below are some photos of Peter Egan's cousins Brooke and Bailey Gonzales taking target practice.

The final image is a target that Peter fired 8 rounds at from 75 yards with a .243 hunting rifle. All eight shots hit the target (two hit the same spot), including one bull's-eye.

Brooke Gonzales taking target practice.

Brooke did very well, hitting the target more often than not.

Bailey Gonzales taking target practice.

Bailey took a little while to get the hang of it, but once she did she was deadly from 150 feet.

Peter Egan hit the target with all 8 rounds he fired, including one bull's-eye.

Above is the target that I (Peter) used at 75 yards (225 feet), firing eight rounds with a .243 hunting rifle. All eight shots hit the target, with two rounds going through the hole bottom-right. I hit the bull's-eye once, and was inside the inner circle with all 8 rounds.

I would say that's decent marksmanship for a guy who hadn't fired a gun in over a year prior to this.

While not the actual gun used in these photos, below is photograph of a .243 hunting rifle, which is the gun we were all using when these pictures were taken.

I don't hunt because I don't like the cold. I'd much rather be fishing, especially fishing for catfish.

I have to go to my parents' house to take target practice as the area in which I reside is too suburban to fire a gun.

Trichinella Worm Spreads Through Undercooked Bear Meat

2018-01-29T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Trichinella Roundworm: Diarrhea So Bad It's Scarier Than Being Attacked By A Bear

By: Peter Egan

A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia dubunked a long-standing and common myth regarding roundworm infections and their respective sources.

Most people have never even heard of a parasite (a roundword, to be specific) called Trichinella. The Trichinella worm, once it makes its way inside the digestive tract of humans, attaches itself to the intestinal walls resulting in a parasitic infection known as Trichinosis.

Trichinella is most commonly spread by way of undercooked bear meat. Luckily, bear meat is not commonly eaten, but enough people eat it for it to be the leading cause of Trichinosis.

What would possess someone to go out of their way to eat undercooked bear meat is beyond me. In fact, until I first got word of the CDC report, I had never even heard of people consuming meat from bears.

The most common side effects of the Trichinella worm and subsequent Trichinosis infections are intense pain and cramping in the abdominal region, as well as severe, intense and often explosive diarrhea.

One final note on Trichinella, here is what the Wikipedia page had to say on the matter:

"Trichinella is the genus of parasitic roundworms of the phylum Nematoda that cause trichinosis. Members of this genus are often called trichinella or trichina worms. A characteristic of nematoda are one-way digestive tract, and a pseudoceolom (body cavity made up of only an ectoderm and endoderm)."

For more health articles please visit Peter's mother''s website. Dr. Pamela Egan, Peter's mother, has a wealth of health and wellness articles available for free on her website, PamelaEgan.com.

Peter is knowledgeable about health due to his entire family working in the healthcare industry. His mother and sister are doctors. His brother manages EGAN Caregivers and his father owns and is President and CEO of the premiere home care agency in southeast Louisiana.

New Research Suggest BHRT More Effective, Less Risky Than Synthetic HRT

2017-11-07T14:37:00.001-08:00

New Research Reveals Bioidentical Hormones to be At Least as Effective as Synthetic HRT, and Much Safer

By: Peter Egan (Jr.) and Dr. Pamela Egan

New research by an already highly acclaimed doctor and medical scientist has shown Bioidentical Hormones to be At Least as Effective as Synthetic HRT, while posing far fewer risks. This according to research conducted by doctor and medical scientist Dr. Pamela Egan of the EGAN Wellness and Anti-Aging Clinic and the EGAN Skin Care and Med Spa.

Dr. Egan's research has raised new questions about the way menopausal women are treated for symptoms associated with menopause. Notably, while bioidentical hormones achieved the same or better results in terms of symptom relief and restoration of overall health, patients who used synthetic hormones throughout the trial ended up with a litany of unwanted side effects, in particular excessive amounts of estradiol, a form of estrogen that is harmful to the human body and has been linked to breast, uterine and ovarian cancers (as well as other cancers) in women.[1]

It (estrone/estrodiol) prostate cancer in men who have abnormally high estradiol levels. Bodybuilders and athletes commonly experience this with age as excessive free testosterone is converted by the male body into estrone and then estradiol. Men with low testosterone but high estrogen levels are also considered to be a high-risk group.[2] Ironically, it is the men with the highest testosterone levels who have the highest probability of developing gender-specific cancer (prostate) resulting in part from the excess testosterone being converted into excessive amounts of a women's hormone with its share of negative side effects.[3]

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)

The research has been presented to the medical sciences center at Southeastern Louisiana University, and is awaiting publication in one of the major trade journals for doctors and medical science. Once an agreement with a publication has been reached and the actual research along with its various components published, this article as well as the article appearing on Dr. Egan's website will be updated to reflect that by linking to the official debut of the research documentation.

While the clinical trial focused on the outcomes as each respective type of hormone (bioidentical or synthetic) on menopausal women, there has been ample research showing that the same may be true for men as well.[4] While obviously, men aren't going to request a doctor's prescription for synthetic women's hormones (at least not for medical reasons, perhaps for cosmetic reasons, but that's not really relevant); if men's testosterone levels get to be too high the body converts it into the same toxic form of estrogen that has been and is still being used in Hormone Replacement Therapy to treat menopausal women, and often times illicit use of testosterone products (like anabolic steroids) and adaptogens (over the counter substances believed to increase testosterone in men or improve physical performance i one way or another) is what leads to excessive female hormones in men. These excessive female hormones can lead to prostate cancer, heart disease and other ailments.[5]

Index:

[1] "... numerous studies demonstrate excess estrogen can cause breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers (all of which are considered estrogen dependent cancers), cervical dysplasia (a precancerous condition characterized by abnormal changes to cervical tissues), and even contribute to menopausal symptoms." Source: Naturopathic.org

[2] "Since men lack this female anatomy, they need to produce estrogen through a process involving an enzyme called aromatase that transforms testosterone into estradiol." - Source: Life Extension

[3] "The reason you see symptoms like shrunken testicles and breast enlargement is because a lot of excess testosterone is converted to the female hormone estrogen,” Drincic says." - Source: EveryDayHealth

[4] Testosterone is a hormone produced by the testes in men and, in smaller amounts, by the ovaries in women. There can be positive effects from slightly elevated testosterone levels in men, or there can be negative effect from testosterone levels that are extremely high. Source: LiveStrong

[5] How too much testosterone can lead to prostate cancer in men. Prostate.net

Video Link: Dr. Pamela Egan on Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)

Dr. Pamela Egan is a primary care doctor in Covington, Louisiana whose specialties include being well over a decade ahead of the curve with regard to bioidentical hormones used in hormone replacement therapy compared with synthetic HRT; and closer to 20-25 years ahead of medical science when she broke the story that vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol - the form of vitamin D molecularly identical to vitamin D absorbed from sunlight) was vastly superior to what until the article was published was the standard bearer of vitamin D supplements in vitamin D2, also known as ergocalciferol. D2/ergocalciferol are synthetic and not bioavailable like vitamin D3.

Dr. Egan's was the first to address the subject (of D2 vs D3), and is now among the world's most plagiarized articles as a result. Even well known internet doctors like Dr. Oz and Dr. Mercola (along with every major health site) have regularly plagiariazed Dr. Egan's work.

Because of Dr. Egan's research and articles on vitamin D3 and the manner in which they revolutionized the supplement industry such that D3 is virtually all that's still being made, and D2 has become difficult to find in stores or online. This author expects this research involving BHRT to Synthetic HRT to have a similar impact in time. Once word spreads that someone actually researched the topic and found that the results did not match the medical consensus opinion, smart physicians will accept and embrace the science while less intelligent doctors will argue the validity of the research for any number of ulterior motives at which we can only speculate.

Robert Mann

2017-10-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

Robert Mann Given One Final Chance to Defend His Defamatory Statements or Apologize for Knowingly Lying

By: Peter Egan

Robert Mann is the type of person who would assassinate the character of people he's never met and knows very little about, then go into hiding when confronted about the intellectually dishonest libel he published in a number of places in print (shame on the editor) and on his blog.

I came upon "Bob" Mann's attacks on my father and I while researching my own name. I issued a rebuttal, decimated all of his talking points, immediately notified him when my rebuttal was published and offered to publish any response he would like to offer, either defending his knowingly false narratives or apologizing for spinning innocuous words so that with all context removed, he could mislead readers into thinking that the context-free, selectively chosen quotes represented the narrative that he was trying aggressively to push --- notably that my father and I are bad people.

He went down the entire list of liberal stereotypes of others and called one or both of us racist, sexist, homophobic, insensitive and a variety of other names, none of which had even so much as a modicum of truth to them.

I responded to inform him that his plan to libel me without me finding out had failed, and that I would afford him an opportunity to apologize or defend his words, the latter being virtually impossible after I'd demonstrated that his conclusions did not follow his premises. His logic was laughably bad, and I took no mercy in pointing that out.

The issue is that true to form, the cowardice that defines him has kept him in hiding from me. He knows he cannot defend the indefensible, he knows he can't match wits with me and he knows that he knew at the time he wrote his original hit piece that there wasn't a word of truth to it. A real man would have apologized and accepted responsibility for a childish temper tantrum against people he doesn't even know and hasn't even met. If he had any character or fortitude he'd have asked for forgiveness, and it would have been granted so long as his apology was made public.

Robert Mann: Libelous loser still too cowardly to defend his intellectually dishonest character assassination of two good men; each of whom is 1,000 times the man he is.

Maybe that's why there's an extra "n" at the end of his name... Trying to compensate for being such a sad little excuse of a man.

Unfortunately, I cannot relate to such a pathetic individual. He is so far beneath being a beta male combined with my suspicion that he's almost certainly lacking in the "manliness" department (very low-T); and the fear that he'll have his absence of academic integrity exposed. I may leave him to remain cowering in fear inside whatever to rock you've been hiding under since I first confronted him should he fail to respond to this message.

Dictionary: Coward - See "Robert Mann"

Heed this warning that if I take a hiatus so you don't die of a panic attack, it does not mean that you're off the hook.

Before the end of the year (2017) Robert Mann will either need to write a letter of apology to myself and my father, with a copy of each going to the Times Picayune/NOLA as well as both the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Advocate. An additional copy must be published on his blog where his defining trait (cowardice) is still on full display.

Mr. Mann's deadline is December 31, 2017, to send the letters to my father and I. If you wait that long, you may not submit a copy of either letter to any newspaper until they've returned to a normal news cycle. Sending them when they could be published on a day nobody is reading news (New Year's, Christmas, college football bowl games and playoffs all must be out of the each paper's content lineup when the letters are sent.

The hard deadline for sending a copy to every major newspaper in the area is January 12.

Mr. Mann is welcome to submit them early so long as it's not during Thanksgiving or any other annual event that dominates news for at least a day.

At the end of each letter Robert Mann will thank me for being so benevolent towards him, and he must sincerely ask my forgiveness. If he puts in the effort, I will accept. Should he fail to take this most generous of offers lightly and not meet my demands to my satisfaction, he will look back on it as among the worst decisions he's ever made in life.

I think I've been pretty clear about what is expected of Mr. Robert Mann. It is NOT in his best interests to fail to do as I have instructed.

He's got plenty of time, so the letters better be good. One wrong word (suppose he wrote it in a sarcastic or cynical tone, for example), and I will metaphorically castrate him in all areas of life, and there will be no second chances.

I'll see to it that each of the first ten pages of search results (a number typically in the #neighborhood of 100 web pages) for searches of the name "Robert Mann" return pages I will have created and written and they will contain whatever I deem fit. To reiterate, that is whatever I see fit --- I and I alone will determine what Mr. Mann's eternal online legacy will be. I'm quite capable of making good on these threats, so he'd have to be a complete fool to pass on this most generous of opportunities.

And defining your eternal online legacy however I so choose may not be the only consequence he will face if he fails any portion of what he's been told to do.

The letters had better damn well be good and they better be sincere.

Mr. Mann made a very bad decision when he chose to libel my father and I, and now his path of least resistance involves a simple yet sincere apology. He will acknowledge that he knew he took statements out-of-context in an attempt to depict each of us in an unflattering manner. He will admit that he knew perfectly well what was said by each of us and chose to play semantics to try to discredit us, damage our names and our reputations.

Everything Mann have been instructed to do is consistent with what is known to be truthful and accurate regarding this situation. That's not even mentioning that it's the right thing to do on his behalf, and the only mature option in his possession.

This will be HIS one and only opportunity to issue an apology for his prior transgressions. Showing a modicum of humility and demonstrating that he can admit when he's wrong, and he knew at the time you wrote the initial hit piece that he were being deceptive in the way you attempted to discredit and belittle us; will save him from great suffering. I will do everything I can do that is not illegal to ensure his is the legacy of a coward, and that the eternal internet of things remembers and associates the name Robert Mann with terms like cowardly, intellectually dishonest, sinister and liar long after we're both gone from this earth.

If I were him, I would NOT reject this olive branch. I've already written the legacy of one person who crossed me, and if ever my written synopsis of Robert Mann's life and who he is as a person is how his eternal legacy is written, I will do far more damage to Mann's name than he did to mine, and it will be far worse than was the case for the last unrepentant piece of trash who behaved badly enough toward me that it merited a retaliation.

If Mr. Mann needs any more convincing that enduring a few days of feeling humbled is an extraordinarily generous offer, he should ask himself if he'd be okay with his great grandchildren learning everything they'll ever know about their grandfather from me, what I wrote about him and did what is necessary to ensure top position in organic search results for his name as the search term.

After all, "what's good for the goose is good for the gander." I can be very creative too, Mr. Mann.

Imagine the your unborn generations having to grow up knowing the founding patriarch of their family was best remembered for being a liar, a coward and all-around low-life.

This should be the single easiest decision you'll ever have to make.

All that I am asking of you is that you do what is right, acknowledge that you became carried away amid the heat of a white hot election, and knowingly lied, conveniently left out the ever-important context, spun what was said out of context to fit your narrative and attempted to convince a large group of people that my father and I said things we did not say (nor say anything remotely similar). You did this with malicious intent. Had you not libeled me I likely would have never have even heard your name.

Apologize to my father and I, or at the very least attempt to defend your remarks about us. If you do either of these (the latter has to be serious and since I already discredited every argument you made in the hit piece, you'll have to admit making a very poor case against us and one which was easily debunked.

Should you fail to do any of this, I will be left with no choice but to establish control of search results for queries involving your name, so as to ensure that the top 100 or so results are either hosted on sites I either own or control, or are social media pages that link to the pages on my sites.

I feel like I am being extremely generous by giving you an opportunity to repent. I will not be bullied by some effeminate leftist, so this is your one and only opportunity to prevent me from writing the version of your biography that will be remembered and will still be available 150 years from now.

You have until the end of the year to submit a draft to my father and I as a gesture of good faith. You have until January 12, 2018 to have published the letter to your blog and to the two newspapers which published the print version of your letter.

The fact that one of their contributors knowingly lied for the sake of character assassination is newsworthy in itself. Since I've already proven your claims false, there is no reason either publication wouldn't publish a letter from me exposing the intellectual dishonesty in the letters these entities published which you wrote, prior to my thorough debunking of them.

You have until January 12, Mr. Mann. If you were smart you'd make appeasing me and admitting your childish mistake among your top priorities until such time as I am satisfied with your efforts at repentance and show of remorse.

Should you continue hiding from me, I will male the consequences you will face far worse than if you stand by your statements and attempt to defend them. Wrong as you may e in doing so, it would at least demonstrate that you have some measure of fortitude and aren't so cowardly that your photograph belongs in the dictionary next to the word.

This is your final warning. Please do not make me destroy your reputation forever.

The original response which was shown to Mr. Mann within 10 minutes of being published can be found here: http://peteregan.net/robert-mann/.

Peter Egan's First TV Ad

2017-10-04T05:14:00.001-07:00

Peter Egan's First TV Ad

Peter Egan has long had an affinity for talk radio, especially sports talk radio. Unfortunately, Peter doesn't have the kind of voice that is needed to thrive as a professional talk show host. He does however have a face for Television, and got his first taste of being on TV during the fall of the 2015 and 2016 when the ad ran regularly on Fox 8 New Orleans, including during a number of New Orleans Saints football games.

As a result of the ads running during Saints games on the network on which all games are televised, complete strangers regularly approach Peter to ask if he's 'that guy I saw on TV?'

Peter's mind was blown at the number of people who remembered his face from seeing it in a TV ad in which his face is not even visible for the whole ad, and is only featured for six or seven seconds.

The advertisement is for EGAN Home Health and Hospice, southeast Louisiana's premiere provider of home health care, hospice and palliative care services as well as medical staffing and private-duty sitting services and related home care and other caregiving, respite and companionship services.

For what it's worth, EGAN's claim to being the premiere home health agency in the region is not an opinion. There are facts obtained by an objective third-party (Medicare via its "Home Health Compare" ratings system). This factual information for every legit agency (legit being defined as being Medicare certified) and therefore subject to their routine scrutiny and comparisons between agencies as well as how each company ranks relative to state and national average scores for a given category, nearly all of which measure the quality of care in quantifiable terms.

EGAN routinely outperforms virtually (if not) all other companies in both the state and nation in approximately 97-99% of the quality of care metrics taken into consideration.

More information about this is available on the EGAN Home Health and Hospice blog. This includes screenshots, direct quotes from Medicare.gov and other related info. There are a number of screenshots, so someone who may not be very good at navigating the web can see exactly what Medicare has said about EGAN and how EGAN towers over the competition when it comes to the actual quality of the healthcare services they provide.

While the ad directly above (click the play button to see the commercial) may have been Peter's first appearance in a television commercial, it will almost certainly not be his last. Peter is nearing completion of a website for a business he had hoped to launch in August but was delayed as the development of the interactive site was more complex than anticipated. However, the business will still launch when it's ready, and when it does, if you watch TV or listen to sports talk radio you'll be seeing and/or hearing Peter in future ads to promote the launch of the new company.

While he's been very tight-lipped about the soon-to-launch business, he has been quoted as saying that in the words of President Donald Trump, it will be "Yuge."

Re: The Best Advice May Be Right in Front of You

2017-09-20T18:52:00.002-07:00

Re: The Best Advice May Be Right in Front of You

By: Peter Egan

The following is a response to an article I came across on Medium. The article was entitled "The best advice might be right in front of you," and was written by a guest contributor named Ammar Shallel, who works for a public relations firm called Eleven Eleven PR.

The article was about obtaining knowledge, and the point the author was trying to make is that sometimes people that are easily accessible possess the knowledge one seeks, when the person seeking the knowledge may be under the impression that getting a hold of the information seems unrealistic and unreasonably difficult.

Because this post began as a comment, it is written in the first-person and directed toward Ammar and/or anyone else who happens to read his article.

My response to the article linked to above is as follows:

Mr. Shallel, I'd like to first commend you on this excellent blog. For the record I agree with the general point.

Unfortunately, sometimes this method can backfire…

I’m in the process of developing a website for a business I hope to launch within the next few weeks. I had a few questions about which direction would best meet my goals. I simply wanted to know if WordPress had any plug-ins that could do what I needed, if a similar one could be modified and what I should expect to pay for the work.

So I posted my questions on the “WP Plug-Ins” help forum. I did this deliberately. I did NOT want it going on the “Jobs” forum, where I would be inundated with emails, resumes, portfolios and offers without ever receiving a satisfactory answer to my question due to the inherent conflict of interest between myself (who is seeking to pay market value for the minimum amount of work necessary) and WordPress developers, who’s prerogative is to earn as much money as possible. This can be easy to do when the client doesn’t know the extent or difficulty of the work required.

Well, a “volunteer admin” on a power trip moved my post from its original location to the jobs section, and within 24 hours I had received no less than 1,500 emails. There were three total out of those 1,500 that even bothered to make an attempt to help me learn what I need and what I should pay for it.

I had to delete the email address, as the volume had become unmanageable as a result.

Point being is that while yes, in most cases the answers a person seeks are closer than he or she may realize. However, this is not always the case, and sometimes a task that should have taken an hour tops is drawn out for three days.

I was so frustrated with her after explaining my rationale and asking her to just delete it rather than move it to the jobs forum (she moved it anyway against my wishes) that I wrote a blog about it to vent.

The post is here: http://peteregan.net/advice-wordpress-programmer-plugin-developer/

311 Concert Rocks New Orleans (August 04, 2017)

2017-08-15T00:36:00.001-07:00

27 Years as a band from Omaha, 311 can still put on a kick-ass show

By: Peter Egan

NEW ORLEANS, LA - Hi, my name is Peter Egan. On Friday, August 04, 2017, I was privileged to experience my tenth 311 concert. Of the ten, two were 311 Day (March 11) shows in New Orleans, and the two are easily the two best concerts I've ever had the pleasure of being in attendance.

311 Performs in New Orleans

I'm a huge 311 fan, as you might have guessed by the fact that I know every lyric to every song they've ever written as a band, and have seen them in concert ten - TEN - times. To put that into perspective, the next closest bands for whom I've seen live performances, are Pearl Jam with three and No Doubt with two. I've always wanted to see an Incubus show, but the logistics have never worked out.

Peter Egan and friends at 311 show in NOLA

The concert wasn't among the best 311 shows I've been to (having seen two 311 days, albeit I've yet to make the 311 Day cruise when the band opts for that instead of a mega-concert, typically involving them performing for 4-5 hours. The set list was a mere 24 songs, nine of which were from 311's most recent album (it debuted about a month ago), "Mosaic."

I found it a bit odd that 311 did not play a single song from any of their most recent studio albums prior to Mosaic. I just hope the set list was assembled to make the most members of the audience happy, and not a reflection of the band's perception of their four albums preceding Mosaic.

311 Symbol at start of concert when the band first took the stage.

It was a good show. All things considered I'd rate it an 8/10. I've been to better 311 shows and I've been to at least one that left me unsatisfied.

Choosing Champions Square near the Superdome for the venue was a great idea. The acoustics were spectacular, and I found there to be better sound quality than any of the shows I've attended next door at the Smoothie King Center.

Nick Hexum singing at 311 concert in New Orleans - 2017 Mosaic Tour

As long as these guys keep making new music and going on tour, performing live, I'll keep buying those digital downloads and concert tickets.

Expert Advice on Fishing for Catfish

2017-07-28T02:46:00.000-07:00

Expert Advice on Fishing for Catfish

By: Peter Egan

Peter Egan is a college graduate with a degree in Public Relations, and has a career working for EGAN Home Health and EGAN Hospice in a PR and Marketing capacity (he knows enough about health, medicine and nutrition to be a healthcare professional, however he does not have the credentials). His knowledge of health and medicine gives him a great advantage with regard to the public relations and marketing work he does.

He has worked in journalism, has coached a championship football team (6th-8th grade), and has a resume that's quite impressive to say the least. He knows a lot about a lot, and has been successful in virtually every endeavor he's ever undertaken. I'm sure there are exceptions, but can't think of any at the moment.

All that said, perhaps Peter's greatest passion in life is fishing. He really enjoys inshore saltwater and brackish water fishing. However because his residence is located alongside a major river (for St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana), he finds himself fishing for freshwater catfish more than any other species. Peter likes to fish for bass, however the Tchefuncte River has been under tremendous fishing pressure in the twelve years since the area's population more than tripled in a span of a few years.

Tchefuncte Bass and Gar Populations are Suffering

The bass seem to be feeling the added pressure more than the catfish. Gar (both alligator and spotted) have seen their population decimated from being a prevalent fish to being nearly nonexistent in under a decade. What's truly intriguing about this is that gar are not good fish to eat, but their dinosaur-like appearance has made them the target of an annual fishing rodeo specifically for gar, and that rodeo has fished them to near-extinction in the past decade.

Catfish Hold Their Own Amidst Added Fishing Pressure

Catfish however, while not as prevalent as they were pre-Katrina, still have a healthy enough population to justify spending time fishing for them. They (and bluegill/bream/sunfish, etc.) are the only species one can set out to catch and provided they know what they're doing, can conclude the trip with at a minimum enough fish to make a meal for an average-sized family. On a good day, it's not outside of the realm of possibility to catch 20-50 catfish weighing over 1.5 pounds (an arbitrary number I determined was the approximate size at which a fish is worth keeping for food as opposed to releasing at letting it grow).

Admittedly, other fishermen may not have the success I routinely experience. The reason for this is that I have had two decades to experiment with chumming techniques, and after 20 years I've mastered the science of it. There is always scent appealing to catfish in the water behind my house, and I've found over the years which scents the fish prefer and which scents travel best. In other words, I'm really good at chumming the waters for catfish.

The idea behind scent traveling is that the river's water-level is constantly rising and falling, and with it the water-level in the bayou along which my house exists roughly 125-150 feet from the main river. When the water level falls, the scent from my chum buckets goes into the main river along with the water. The fish in the main river that encounter the scent then follow it back to my back porch. This has resulted in me consolidating several hundred catfish that I can catch at any time right from my back porch.

Anyway, in the article appearing at PeterEgan.net, I go into detail about the various methods of fishing for catfish, and explain which water conditions and water bodies (think pond vs lake vs river) correspond to the fishing techniques available.

I broke catfishing into six primary categories:

Weighted bottom fishing.
Bottom fishing – no weight.
Just below the surface using a bobber to keep the bait at the desired depth.
Fishing near the bottom using a bobber or sliding cork to help identify when a strike occurs.
Jugs/Noodles/Trot-Lines
Noodling

Please read the article at PeterEgan.net entitled Fishing for Catfish to learn about each different technique, and learn when each should be used to maximize the effect of the technique relative to the conditions.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to follow up. Please direct questions to the main article at PeterEgan.net in the form of comments and I will try to reply in as timely a manner as possible with the most accurate information I can obtain.

Learn to Chum for Catfish

Peter Egan Bio and Web Presence

2017-07-01T22:11:00.001-07:00

Peter Egan

Saturday, July 1, 2017
Peter Egan is a 35 year old man who resides in Covington, Louisiana. Peter is both a student and healthcare professional.

He works for EGAN Home Health and EGAN Hospice, primarily from the company's Northshore location in Covington. That office location covers all of St. Tammany Parish, including Mandeville, Slidell, Lacombe, Goodbee, Madisonville, Abita Springs, Folsom and Bush.

Peter resides on the Tchefuncte River in Covington, LA. His hobbies include web development, weight lifting, fishing, running, writing, boating and playing with his dogs. Peter has three large dogs: an American Pit Bull, a Siberian Husky and a Chow mix, the last of which was a rescue dog and we're not entirely sure what breeds she has in her aside from Chow, given away by the discolored tongue.

Since Peter lives on the water, even though he owns a boat he doesn't necessarily need to use it in order to go fishing. One of the techniques Egan has mastered is the science of chumming for catfish.

In fact, Peter has assembled a four-part video series that is available for free on YouTube on how to chum for catfish in additional to the quite detailed article he wrote about the topic.

Peter is currently (in addition to work and school) working on a business he plans to launch in late August or early September. The business relates to sports and sports handicapping but that's about all that can be said about the idea without legel forms being signed.

Below, you'll find additional photos involving Peter Egan.

Here's Peter posing with esteemed political consultant Mary Matalin:

Peter with former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and former Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (both Tulane alums):

Peter Egan with U.S. Senator David Vitter:

Peter Egan in a recent photo:

While the pictures might suggest Peter enjoys politics, quite the contrary is true. Peter does not follow politics at all, and rarely keeps up with news in general outside of sports. Peter does not presently identify with either of the two major political parties.
The following are Peter Egan's official web properties, presences and profiles. If an online profile claims to be Peter Egan but isn't on this list, there's a good chance it's an impostor.

The list is as follows:

Website: PeterEgan.net

Tulane Profile: https://tulane.instructure.com/eportfolios/37944/Home

About.me: https://about.me/peter_egan

Minds: https://www.minds.com/PeterEgan

Kinja: http://peteregan.kinja.com/

Blogspot: http://peteregan.blogspot.com/

Totally Me: http://www.totally.me/PeterEgan

Tackk: https://tackk.com/@PeterEgan

FC2: http://peteregan.blog.fc2.com/

PRLog: https://bio.prlog.org/eganhomehealth/50007961-peter-festus-egan-jr.html

Author's Den: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?AuthorID=160981

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvu0hwovNpNIe2ltykCr2Q

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/petereganjr

Twitter: https://twitter.com/petereganjr

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peteregan/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+PeterEganNOLA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petereganjr/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petereganjr/

Scoop.it: http://www.scoop.it/u/peter-egan

Tumblr: https://petereganjr.tumblr.com/

Chumming for Catfish

2017-05-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Chumming for Catfish

Fishing expert Peter Egan took the time to write a very nice article on how to effectively chum when fishing for catfish in hopes of catching more and bigger fish.

There is a lengthy article that goes into loads of detail on Egan's website. The article talks about strategies for long-term chumming for people who live on or near the water such as he does (he resides along the Tchefuncte River in Covington, Louisiana). He also details strategies for people who are just going fishing for a day and don't have the luxury of keeping scent in the water for weeks or months at a time.

Channel Catfish

The article can be found here: http://peteregan.net/how-to-chum-for-catfish/

The article is accompanied by a four-part video series entitled "How to Chum for Catfish."

The videos can be viewed below. To read the accompanying article you'll have to visit Peter's official website via the link above.

How to Chum for Catfish

Avoid the Samsung Galaxy if You Go With an Andoid OS

2017-03-17T17:43:00.001-07:00

Samsung Galaxy: The Short-Bus of Smartphones

If you're in the market for a new phone and you decide on the Android OS, for the love of God PLEASE heed this warning and go with something made by #Motorola. The Samsung Galaxy S7 has some nice features (notably an above-average camera and a traditional speaker/headset port that you can plug your existing audio gear into instead of having to shell out for Bluetooth audio (speakers, bass, headphones, etc.) that at its highest setting, isn't nearly loud enough to be useful to someone like me. I don't listen to music often, but when I do, I like it LOUD.

If the audio port isn't a big deal to you, then any new Motorola will pleasantly surprise you with its capabilities.

If you're like me and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on inferior audio equipment relative to what you already own, then an older model Motorola (2013-2015) will be better in nearly every category than a 2016 or 2017 Samsung, the lone exception being the camera.

The camera on the Galaxy S7 is vastly superior to my 2014 Motorola Android Maxx. That's it though.

The autocorrect on the Samsung Galaxy S7 is an unmitigated disaster of biblical proportions. That's not even an exaggeration. If you text, type emails, use any of the various social and messaging apps, post to websites or message boards, Samsung's semantic limitations (I would expect a fourth-grade student at an average U.S. public elementary school to have a broader and more diverse vocabulary than this self-proclaimed "smartphone"), utter disregard for proper grammar and punctuation (the phone doesn't know and is incapable of learning what an apostrophe is and how they're used) and insistence on overruling its user no matter how many times it's corrected, the Samsung Galaxy S7 will cause you more headaches than its above-average camera is worth.

Perhaps the worst part about it is that the phone's ability to learn from user behavior is limited. And that's being quite generous.

I can't even remember how many times I've clicked the little check symbol (the command to tell the phone to quit meddling) for the same words, and it still gets them wrong. My old Motorola phone usually learned after being corrected once in the rare event it made a mistake (and it was rare), twice at the very MOST.

My old Motorola after a year could often finish my sentences after just a few words. It was incredibly intuitive, the AI was outstanding, and it didn't have the air of arrogance about it the way the Galaxy dies.

For the sake of full disclosure, I've never strapped on the headset and done the whole virtual reality thing. Then again, I'm an adult.

Bottom Line

The Samsung Galaxy S7 so-called "smartphone" has the vocabulary and language skills of a 10-11 year old child. With its primary draw being a quality camera and a supposedly neat virtually reality experience, the Galaxy is a great phone for a child who writes in Twitterspeak anyway, and who takes no pride in spelling, grammar, punctuation or command of the English language.

For adults and especially professionals who use their phones for work as well as communication and recreation, I strongly advise avoiding a Samsung phone, and going with something made by Motorola; or just going the iOS route.

In my experience, iPhones are closer to the Motorola than the Samsung. I would rate them slightly below Motorola Android OS phones in terms of AI and intuitive design and programming. However, iPhones are (or at least were as of 2015) FAR more brittle than any phone I've had on the Android OS. My old Android Maxx took quite a beating, even being fully submerged underwater twice for about 20 seconds combined and never skipped a beat.

That phone survived no less than six instances of trauma that would have totally destroyed an iPhone. What ultimately did it in was the charge terminal became worn, and I couldn't rely on it to take a charge --- a problem that interestingly enough went away once I "upgraded" a step down to the Samsung Galaxy S7.

Peter Egan to Resume Posting to This Blog

2017-03-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Peter Egan to Resume Posting After Six+ Years

I was doing some regular maintenance on one of my accounts today when I came across this blog. I hadn't posted here in more than six years, so obviously a decision had to be made as to whether I resume posting, leave it be or delete it altogether.

Ultimately, the blog address (my first and last name, followed by blogspot-dot-com) was too good to just throw away.

There are a lot of folks out there who share my name. I think it's important that everyone, not just the world's other men named Peter Egan, know that I am the real, authentic Peter Egan, and everyone else is just named after me.

I'm not concerned with the fact that some were born prior to myself, and thus, have held the name longer than I have. That much is immaterial to me. What's important is that I'm the real Peter Egan, and this website/blog is just one small portion of the mountains of evidence supporting that conclusion.

Once we're all gone from this earth, mine will be the name that is remembered by future generations, who will neither know nor care that I was but one of hundreds of people on earth with the name I intend to engrave into the annals of history before all's said and done.

In any case, if I were to delete the blog it would potentially open it up for someone else to register, and to leave it in the condition it had been in would have been to leave it in a state similar to an abandoned, condemned building with broken windows, graffiti... You know, that house juvenile delinquents go to in order to engage in activities from which they should probably abstain? That's what this blog had become.

I spent a few hours tonight cleaning it up, removing the broken links, deleting posts that were topically relevant at the time they were posted but made no sense in today's context.

I intend to resume posting here regularly, if I had to guess I'd says maybe once-to-twice per month, for the foreseeable future.

I will also be posting regularly to my new site, the official website of Peter Egan.

Modern Poetry in the Age of Technology

2010-04-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

Technology and Modern Poetry

Technological advancements of the past two decades have spawned what future generations may come to view historically as a great poetic Renaissance of sorts.
The ability for a writer to instantly publish his or her work and make it instantly available at light-speed to a given or potential audience, has allowed artists world-wide a historically-unprecedented wherewithal (and incentive) to write and publish regularly.

The unprecedented volume of material out there (which grows larger every minute) does make it difficult for an artist to make a name for his or herself, as well as for those who appreciate such art forms to quickly and readily identify the best of the best of today's poets.

Time will make up for these human shortcomings, and today's greats will ultimately be found and remembered.
The following is an excerpt from the previous post, including a brief poem I wrote about technology and poetry:

A Poem about Poets, Poetry and the Age of the Internet

From the perspective of a non-poet who has become a fan of an internet-age poet, I wrote the following in dedication to Mystic Dave, who was the subject of my previous post appearing on this blog entitled: Mystical Poetry: On MysticDave and W.B. Yeats.

I certainly do not possess Dave's poetic ability, so if you're expecting to be bowled over by the following, you may want to readjust your expectations before reading.

That said, I thought it would only be appropriate if I at least made an attempt at expressing my thoughts on the matter in an artistic form before wrapping up this post. So without further adieu, I present to you the following:

On the Artists of Poetry

'Tis a shame and great many a pity
Taketh the world, often more than a century
To fully appreciate the writings so many
From the countless great linguists - the fine artists of poetry

On Poetry: Mystic Dave and William Butler Yeats

2010-04-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

On Poetry, Mystic Dave and W.B. Yeats

I had the good fortune a few months back of discovering the website and blog of a Salt Lake City, Utah-based 'mystical poet' and political commentator who goes by the name of "MysticDave". Dave's blog/website is called: Mystical Poetry, Prose, and Political Viewpoints.

In Dave's own words, his blog is about:

"Mystical poetry and prose about spirituality, dreams,death, war, peace, politics, Earth, love, art etc. Spoken word poetry, 2012, music, and political videos included. Enjoy the trip!"

I've become quite the fan of Dave's site in recent weeks, as I've spent some time going through his various writings from over the years, and find myself increasingly impressed with each new piece I read.

I find Dave's poetry is exceptional, and his political writings definitely thought-provoking and well presented. That said, his style I find even more fascinating, and eerily reminiscent of one of my favorite poets if all-time: William Butler Yeats.

About W.B. Yeats:

As an Irish citizen whose family hails from Co. Galway, where Yeats spent a good portion of his life and wrote some of his finest work, I have long had a fascination with the man and his amazing literary achievements - not to mention his ideas and viewpoints. This is particularly true of those writings pertaining to mysticism and/or spirituality, Celtic mythology, politics and its role in society and musings on life in general.

The general philosophy that manages to incorporate all of these concepts and make it work I find even more amazing.

From Yeats' Wikipedia page:

Over the years, Yeats adopted many different ideological positions, including, in the words of the critic Michael Valdez Moses, "those of radical nationalist, classical liberal, reactionary conservative and millenarian nihilist".

Any philosophy that can incorporate everything described in Moses' description of Yeats' ideological positions with any degree of credibility is worthy of a deeper look all its own.

Yeats' Tomb in Drumcliffe Cemetery

I have twice visited Yeats' tomb, which is located in Drumcliffe Cemetery, in Co. Sligo, Republic of Ireland (photo below).

Back to Mystic Dave

In his own words, Mystic Dave is a "47 year old outdoors type who loves live music, hanging out in the great outdoors, spirituality, writing and reading poetry, learning all I can from this journey called life, and meeting interesting, open minded people along the way."

For a one-line autobiography, that's not too shabby.

The man is a phenomenal writer and poet, and it would not surprise me in the least if centuries from now, the world's finer liberal arts institutions mention Mystic Dave alongside names such as Robert Frost and W.B. Yeats.

In any case, I highly recommend checking out his site and having a look through some of Dave's poems. I have been extremely impressed, and I don't think you will be disappointed either.

A Poem about Poets, Poetry and the Age of the Internet

From the perspective of a non-poet who has become a fan of an internet-age poet, I wrote the following in dedication to Mystic Dave.

I certainly do not possess Dave's poetic ability, so if you're expecting to be bowled over by the following, you may want to readjust your expectations before reading.

That said, I thought it would only be appropriate if I at least made an attempt at expressing my thoughts on the matter in an artistic form before wrapping up this post. So without further adieu, I present to you the following:

On the Artists of Poetry

'Tis a shame and great many a pity
Taketh the world, sometimes more than a century
To fully appreciate the writings, so many
Of the countless great linguists - the fine artists of poetry

It is my sincere hope that all reading this post have found the read entertaining enough to make it all the way to this sentence, and I hope you all check out Dave's site, and that you find it as enjoyable and enlightening as I have.

Regarding 311 Singer Nick Hexum's Private Island

2010-03-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

This post is effectively a personal letter that began as an email typed originally on the "contact us" at MelodyKey.com. It has been modified from its original version to be better suited to this audience.

If you weren't already aware, 311 singer Nick Hexum owns his own island. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it is my understanding that he recently put it on the market for sale or lease.

I admittedly have no clue whatsoever what his financial status looks like, and people have gotta do what they've gotta do in tough economic times. That said, if I ever were so blessed as to be so well off I could afford my own island, it would be a cold day in Hell if I ever decided to get rid of it. Then again, not everyone in the world has a stated goal of world domination...

For what it's worth, I love 311's music and have attended at least seven of the band's shows including three 311 Day events in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I too aspire to one day own a private island, although the way things are looking, I may have to resort to a forceful invasion as the funds just aren't there to buy one (don't worry, Melody Key is not on my list of targets ;-).

While there's no way I could ever at this point in my life afford to own or even rent my own island, I think the fact that you, Nicholas Hexum have done just that (bought your own island), is about the coolest thing I've ever heard of.

As if you're not cool enough being the front-man for 311 and everything, you own your own f%$#@*g island for crying out loud!

While for the most part I disagree with your political views (at least those with which I am familiar - and for the record, I did say "for the most part"), I truly and unequivocally respect and admire your work and your success.

My purchases of your CDs and concert tickets helped you reach a point of financial stability that allowed you to do what I have long dreamed of - own my own island. I am not the least bit jealous of your accomplishments, and in fact am happy for your success and proud to be a part of it. One would be a hypocrite to envy the success of others while aspiring to one day achieve a comparable degree of success, at least that's how I look at it.

Anyway, from a B-List social media "celebrity" (tongue well implanted in cheek), congratulations on your success Mr. Hexum, and the best of wishes for yourself and those close to you for the indefinite future.

Disclaimer: I don't really have any plans to forcefully takeover an island or nation-state of any sort. That paragraph and the bit about world domination constitute an attempt at satire and nothing more.

Here is a photograph of the island owned by 311 singer Nick Hexum:

Generalizations Invalidate Arguments

2010-03-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

This blog post began as a comment I made in response to a comment I encountered at Mixx, on a story about an incident involving racism at Wal-Mart.

The comments referenced throughout this post were written as a response to the following comments by a Mixxer by the name of kpreston200. The following is a sampling of the quotes being referenced throughout this article:

"Because everyone is getting tired of blacks using racism as an excuse for their woes..."

"The REAL way to end all of this is to finish school, go to college and act like a respectable member of the community willing to work with others and respecting others space."

"I was enrolling my daughter to college and this black kid walked by with his sagging pants and underwear hanging out! This is fucking COLLEGE!"

"She was mad at me for telling him to pull his pants up that he was in college ready to go out into the world and become someone. I mean WTF?"

"There is white trash also but it seems that this excuse is getting old and it's being used to get away with every anti-social behavior from calling each other the N-Word yet they are ready to kill when someone else says it."

My initial response to these remarks was the following:

FatLester

added about 2 hours ago (edited about 2 hours ago)

@kpreston200

"You do realize you're talking to a U.S. Marine, don't you? I consider him a respectable member of society, as do I all servicemen and women."

To which kpreston200 replied:

@FatLester
"So what is that supposed to mean? I'm a retired U.S. Army Major so what."

The following is my reply to that particular remark, written for the sake of explaining and further clarifying the underlying meaning and motive of my initial statement:

@kpreston200

I respect you as well. Specifically, I was referencing your quote about "black people" 'acting like respectable members of society'.

What I was saying is that the man you've been debating is just one of many, many examples of just that. He has offered to potentially (if not actually, I don't know the specifics of his military career) put his life on the line in defense of other Americans, and to the best of my knowledge, he is of African-American descent.

There are few actions people can take on their own behalf than volunteer to defend the United States that will earn more respect from me, for that given individual --- regardless of whether or not I agree with him or her politically, or regardless of whether or not I like the person. I can respect someone without liking and/or agreeing with him or her. For the record, that is not to say I dislike katmicjus --- please make no misunderstanding about that. We do occasionally disagree, but my above-point was spoken in a much broader context.

Essentially, my point was that your wording was too broad to constitute a valid argument.

Each individual is responsible for his or her own decisions in life regardless of race, religion, etc. There are good examples and bad examples no matter how you break down the demographics.

In other words, by referring to "black people", you are committing a logical fallacy in that each black person (like any other person) is an individual who must make choices in life and cannot by lumped in with other individuals who have the free will to make their own decisions. That fallacy invalidates an entire argument, and pursuing it beyond that without restructuring the framework and terms is an exercise in futility.

We were all created as equals, and each individual human being is 100% responsible and accountable for the decisions he or she makes in life. Different people male different decisions, and groups cannot be accurately lumped in together based upon arbitrary factors such as race.

Does that help clarify the original remark and help answer your question?

The Use of Conscious, Controlled Vizualization Techniques to Get the Most Out of Life

2010-03-03T03:11:00.000-08:00

I recently came across an absolutely terrific guest-post by Henri Junttila on Steve Atchinson's blog. The post had to do with the topic of controlled visualization - the harnessing of one's imagination and controlled, goal-oriented focusing thereof for the sake of long-term goal achievement and all-around life improvement.

I personally saw a few parallels between Henri's in-depth insights and what has come to be known as "The Secret", although he does not mention the phrase by name within the post, at least not to my recollection.

Junttila touches upon an array of similarly themed broader concepts while focusing on the more tangible side of the equation as opposed to the quasi-mystical approach taken at times in the movie(s) and book(s) about "The Secret". That said, the parallels that are present are too obvious to ignore. The whole concept behind "The Secret" is essentially the same exact thing, which is the use of the mind for the sake of manifesting in reality one's ideal life and life circumstances.

Junttila writes more in terms of his own experiences and from his own perspective. His writing is far more down-to-earth in nature and free from all the highly speculative claims that marred the credibility of the (nonetheless intriguing) famous movies and books related to the subject.

While I would certainly not advise against anyone reading this renting (or buying) and of the books and/or videos about the "The Secret", I would advise readers of this blog to check out Henri's post before doing so to familiarize yourself with the concept so as to be able to make an informed decision as to whether or not it is an investment of time you wish to pursue.

That blog (Steve Atchinson's blog) has got a tremendous amount of well-written, thought provoking material all throughout the archives. Don't be surprised if you pass by there to check out Henri's complete post if you end up hanging around awhile captivated by the barrage of mental stimulation (of the good variety).

As for a little bit about the author, Henri Junttila is a freelance writer and the creator of the Wake Up Cloud, a blog about self improvement ideas for conscious people.

Great post Henry, to all my readers, I highly recommend it --- and I make VERY FEW recommendations. Take that for what it's worth, adios y buenas noches.

My mother, Pamela Egan, has written a few self-improvement articles of her own. I figured that since we're already on the subject, I might as well include a few links below to articles my mother has written that fall into the same general category as the one described in detail above.

Pam Egan's Self Improvement Articles:

If after reading Henri and Pam's articles about self-improvement techniques of the mind your curiosity has been sparked to the point you crave more information, the website for "The Secret" movie can be found here.

Website Monetization: Branding Must Replace PPC for Web Publishers to Receive Just Compensation

2010-01-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

Web Publishers Must Insist on Branding-Based Internet Advertising

This post began as a lengthy comment I originally wrote in response to a story on Mixx called: Social Media Big Shots Meet in Switzerland to Discuss Monetization Strategies.

The article discusses how sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of users spending hours each day on their sites, but they still can't seem to figure out a way to make money.

This one seems really easy to me. PPC is an advertising model that was designed for the exclusive benefit of the advertiser and broker at the expense of the publisher. Web publishers must abandon PPC (yes, even AdSense), and demand branding and repetition-based advertising, which has turned television, radio and even motion-pictures into cash-cows.

There is no legitimate reason in my mind why the advertiser will pay millions for an equal amount of televised repetitions that might earn a web publisher a few thousand dollars.

Has anyone else had any thoughts on this? Why is a person's attention span of let's say, five minutes watching television less valuable than that same person watching an online video for the same time period with comparable advertising built in?

The internet is still a tremendous bargain for advertisers looking to get the biggest bang for their buck. Before social media platforms can really start to become profitable, they need to negotiate more effectively, scaling back on PPC monetization and focusing on impressions and repetition of major brands who have yet to be convinced that branding can work as a form of online marketing.

As long as website owners, publishers and the likes are willing to settle for pennies in exchange for clicks, the big-money players in the advertising game are going to allow the web publishers to continue to be grossly under-compensated until the publishers demand a bigger slice of the pie.

It also doesn't help that the advertising inventory on the web is growing at a rate far faster than the demand, resulting in lower returns for web-based publishers and dirt-cheap rates for advertisers whose demand is far exceeded by the supply.

Ultimately, those who do their business on the web must create better ways of discerning quality content from garbage, and they must negotiate advertising arrangements that are oriented around the creation and promotion of a brand, not a specific site visitor's actions while on the site.

A major flaw with PPC is that low conversion rates (while widely and falsely) are assumed to be the result of poor traffic, the fact is that it is every bit as likely that the advertiser's actual site is lacking in quality, usability, visual appeal, etc. The publisher only gets payed when the visitor clicks a link and buys something. It is not fair that advertisers with low-quality websites can pay minimal rates for targeted traffic if the problem preventing conversions lies on their end.

The only advertising model that will achieve long-term sustainability for all involved parties is one in which the advertiser is compensated according to the amount of brand repetitions that publisher is able to deliver for the advertiser.

One other benefit of a branding model over a PPC model is that the problem of click fraud is eliminated, and honest publishers whose dishonest competitors repeatedly click their AdSense links in hopes of getting them blacklisted from the program will no longer be punished while the real culprit of the click fraud is paid for his or her efforts.

The current model is stupid, and web publishers cannot expect Google to implement a fairer model on its own volition. Publishers may even have to - dare I say - enter into collective bargaining with Google in order to accomplish this, but if it results in a sustainable system that works for everyone and is susceptible to a mere fraction of the routine click fraud (by criminals clicking ads on competitors sites to get them banned), it is a model well worth implementing and well worthy of the negotiations that must precede it.

The bottom line here is that if Beavis and Butthead were left alone in a room for an hour with a monkey and two typewriters, even they could easily come up with a better system for online advertising than the one being embraced at present.