September 8, 2007
Naturally, I am always interested to look at my website stats to see who came here, from what search engine, etc. This time, I was most interested to look at my website stats to find my top referrers. Among some of them were Australia, Sweden, Netherlands, Singapore, China, Japan, Norway, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Czech Republic, Seychelles, and others - I wish those people would post as it would make for a most interesting discussion.
I also found some somewhat disturbing stats. Here are a couple of other visitors: US Military (16 visits this month) & US Government (1 visit this month) and ARPANET (15 times this month). Last month, the US Military visited 2 times. Am I becoming a threat? (lol) Am I on some list of potential terrorists? It is certainly not a secret that the US Government tracks the movements of environmental and animal activists. However, I do not belong to any organized groups - so it is curious. Perhaps, because of the current administration they are tracking all known vegetarians. Ha.
At any rate, I invite the US Military and US Government visitors to post and let everyone know why they had DU on the Big Island and lied about it, why so many feral cats on Mauna Kea have leukemia from DU, why the people living in Waiakea have been breathing in DU and have had problems [respiratory, cancer, etc], why they say DU is safe but have training videos that speak to the contrary, and what they are going to do about it? Feel free to post.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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August 27, 2007
Between the Hawaii Superferry and the military Hawaii has its hands full.
The Superferry is this ridiculous boat that will take you and your car to a neighbor island. It is not your typical open-air ferry but instead is some kind of luxury boat complete with a restaurant, tvs, and a bar. Having priced a Maui to Honolulu journey it appears that it will cost about $270 for an adult for the roundtrip including your car. One of the most irresponsible aspects of this is that they have a bar where you can drink and then get in your car and drive drunk off of the boat. The boat ride between Maui and Honolulu would take about three hours. The average interisland flight costs about $39 one way (and often only $19 because of special fares). To fly from Maui to Honolulu you are in the air for less than 20 minutes. I heard that on the inaugural journey that people got seasick. Given that people got seasick during the summer I can only imagine what would happen in December when the swells are huge and often times over 20 feet. If the price, sea sickness, and long voyage were not bad enough it only makes it worse that they will be wasting a ton of fuel, dumping sewage in the ocean, disturbing marine life, and overall creating an ecological problem in Hawaii. I hope the Superferry fails.
The military located off Saddle Road on the Big Island has been found to have Depleted Uranium which they have long denied having - this same thing has occurred on Oahu as well. Many of the feral cats on Mauna Kea have a type of feline leukemia - gee, I wonder why? Fortunately, this is all coming out at the same time that the military wants to increase training exercises around all islands (read: dump more toxic materials into the ocean, frighten people and wildlife, kill endangered species, pollute the air). Fortunately, they are having a public hearing on this issue on Wednesday. I think I will go to hear what people are saying.
*Update*
I was reading on surfingthetao.com this bit about the SuperFerry - makes for interesting reading, I think:
“Most interesting is – no surprise here – the military finds them quite useful. In fact this article points out that there are far more fuel efficient and less environmentally dangerous vessels in existence, but they weren’t chosen for Hawaii. Why? They can’t carry Stryker Brigades, hummers, helicopters, and other equipment (which could even become contaminated with depleted uranium). The article goes on to point out that the Chair of the Superferry board is John Lehman, a former Navy Undersecretary during the Reagan years and member of the 9/11 Commission, and claim, “The Superferry was foisted on Hawai‘i to meet a new mission for the US military. That mission: To have civilian looking high-speed military transport, manned by subcontractors, available at short notice to deliver assault troops and equipment, anywhere in the Pacific.â€
Surprise, surprise.
Popularity: 16% [?]
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August 5, 2007
Brian’s parents just visited and we had a grand time. We went snorkeling in Hilo several times and had a great time seeing the variety of fish out and about. I saw my first snake eel and later snake eel babies. On Brian’s birthday he and his father went hiking in North Kohala and had a lot of fun exploring Polulu Valley and the neighboring valley. We also went to the Lava Tree State Park down near Pahoa. We also visited the astronomy center at UHH (Imiloa) and did star gazing on Mauna Kea. The evening on Mauna Kea was less than enjoyable for me though - I was car sick on the hour long ride to Mauna Kea which was further exacerbated by taking a 1 mile walk at 9000 feet mostly uphill on the way back at sunset when it was about 50 degrees. I felt horrible the whole night but fortunately I woke up feeling better the next day. We also visited the Kaumana Caves but I did not walk very far as my shoes proved to be inadequate for the task. I think everyone had a good time…
Brian and I also went to an rough water race while his parents were visiting. We checked it out and I am currently thinking about doing the 2 mile Kealakekua Bay rough water race. I surely will not win but I think it would be a lot of fun. Brian is now using this as yet another excuse to talk me into doing qualifying races for the Ironman. I think I will pass as I am not interested in dying before I turn thirty, thank you very much.
I was also able to bodyboard at Hapuna and was able to ride one absolutely perfect wave and a bunch of not so perfect waves. I did get a nasty burn. While in the water I was trying to remember why I had made such a big deal about wearing my board shorts but I could not recall why - it became obvious to me later when my derrière burned.
While at Kona Bay Books, Brian spotted Da Jesus Book - the Pidgin Bible. Seriously, I am speechless.
In other news, the Big Island is getting Target, Circuit City, PetSmart (I think), PF Changs, and Office Max all on the Kona side. I am not exactly excited. I like Target and would gladly trade in Walmart and Kmart for it but seriously we don’t need all of those stores.
Popularity: 24% [?]
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July 17, 2007
On Sunday, Brian and I spent the day hiking on Mauna Kea at about 10,000 feet. It was also misting, foggy, and about 55 degrees. We had a great time but were completely exhausted after we finished hiking. Altitude hiking really takes it out of you…
Brian’s parents are coming to visit next week and we should all have a lot of fun hiking, doing water activities, etc.
Also, Brian has decided to go to China for a year to work at a university there. That should be interesting.
More later - I’m too sleepy to function properly at the moment.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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