Monday, February 23, 2015

2/23/15 Report - New Wreck On Corrigan's Beach. "Open Access" Movement. FCC To Vote On Internet Regulation.


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.


Wreck At Corrigan's
Photos by Captain Jonah Martinez
I received these photos via email just yesterday. This nice boat was left high and dry on the beach.

Notice the cut in the background of the second photo.  You might remember that the beach accesses around there were closed a few weeks ago for dune renourishment.  Well, as usual, the renourishment sand is being moved already.  We haven't had big waves lately but the tides have been bigger than normal.

Thanks for the photos Captain!

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The most read posts of January, actually there was a tie, were the 1/3/15 Report - 2/3/14 Report - Beach Renourishment Projects. NDBC Buoy Data. Pirate Superstitions. Six Foot Surf Predicted Friday., and the 1/2/15 Report - 2015 Beach Renourishment Projects. Dredging And Dredged Sand Around the Treasure Coast.

The most "Google Plused" post of January was the

Don't forget that you can always go back to review old posts.  You can also do a key word search using the search box on the main page of the blog.

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If you've been reading this blog very long you know that I've complained about how archaeology claims to be saving history FOR the public yet does not provide easy access to the artifacts or information.  Most scholarly articles are published in high-priced academic journals.

The public pays for much of the archaeology that is conducted in the state.  Much of it is paid for by grants that come out of our tax dollars.  Much of it is conducted by faculty, staff and students of state universities.  Salaries, resources and other equipment are provide by the tax payers, yet the public does not have easy access to the results of the research.

I've conducted polls that show how few people have viewed the state collections.  If you've actually seen any of the coins collected by the treasure salvors off of our coast, you probably did not see them at the state museum.  It is much more likely that you saw them at a Mel Fisher Museum or for sale online.  Few of us have ever seen the "Florida Collection," and much of it can only be viewed by appointment for research purposes.

If the pubic pays the salaries and provides the equipment and opportunities for archaeological research, including that done by faculty and graduate students in our State universities, why shouldn't the results be easily available to the tax paying public that pays for it?  Well, it seems that some progress is being made.  There is an "open access" movement.

 In Feb. of 2014 ... AAAS (publisher of ScienceInsider) announced that it will launch the organization’s first online, fully open-access journal early next year...

The move marks a shift for AAAS, which has long been a target of complaints from some advocates of open-access publishing. They argue that the nonprofit organization, best known as the publisher of the high-profile subscription journal Science, has been slow to embrace open access, and over the past decade opposed certain proposals to require journals to make government-funded research papers immediately available for free. AAAS and other publishers have generally argued that such policies would imperil a business model that has served the scientific community well for more than a century.

In recent years, however, the conflict has reached something of a resolution. Science and many other subscription journals have adopted a policy of making research papers freely available after 12 months; at the same time, many publishers have launched scores of new open-access journals, which charge authors a fee...

That is all long over due. 

Here is the link for the entire article.

http://news.sciencemag.org/people-events/2014/02/aaas-launches-open-access-journal

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On Feb. 26 the Federal Communications Commission will vote on regulating the internet.  According to what I read that means taxes, higher prices and loss of freedom.  Once they start, where will they stop?  Look into it.

Here is one web site where you can add your name to a petition.  Also you might want to contact your representative.

https://radiosong94.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/petition-the-fcc-vote-on-internet-regulations/

It is my opinion that if research is paid for or supported by the tax paying public, the results should be provided online free for easy public access, including good pictures and descriptions of any and all collected artifacts.

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If you didn't see yesterday's post on the Pelican-in-Piety artifact from the 1715 Fleet, you might want to take a look.

Not much has changed on the beach.  We still have the small surf, but also some negative tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net