UPDATE ON FUKUSHIMA AND NUCLEAR POWER

Tomorrow is the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and protests are being plannned around the world today and tomorrow.  The United Nations, though, appears to be paralyzed, as usual.  India, for one, seems to be particularly concerned, and has denounced the World Health Organization for ignoring the children of Chernobyl and Fukushima.  Above, a German protest.  Very little squawk, actually, from Hawaii and the USA in general.  Here are some summaries and latest developments:

1.  Since 1952, there have been five earthquakes of 9.0 magnitude and worse:

  a.  May 22, 1960           Valdivia, Chile          9.5
  b.  March 27, 1964        Prince William
                                        Sound, Alaska       9.2
  c.  December 26, 2004  Sumatra, Indonesia   9.2
  d.  November 4, 1952   Kamchatka, Russia    9.0
  e.  March 11, 2011        Tokoku, Japan          9.0

2.  Tsunami waves from the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami reached a height of 124 feet.

3.  Damages are estimated to exceed $300 billion, which would make it the most expensive natural disaster ever.

4.  The confirmed deaths now have exceeded 14,000, while more than 12,000 are still missing.

5.  The Japan roadmap to recovery looks like a journey into the unknown.

6.  The World Business Academy reports:

  a.  The crippled Chernobyl nuclear reactor is still leaking radiation.  (In addition, there remain 275 years left before this site can be considered for human habitation.)  They need to re-encase the facility, and is a billion dollars short of doing it.

  a.  There are 35 nuclear operational or planned reactors in risk of a tsunami, only in Asia.

7.  In light of Fukushima, Tom Burnett sent me the most comprehensive analysis of the future of Japan.  I agree.

I have not only nailed and screwed the lid to the nuclear fission coffin, but already buried it with "Why Worry About Fukushima when Hiroshima and Nagagasaki Are Safe?"  Any comments?

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The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 26 to 12,480, with world markets mixed.  Gold remains high, up $2 to $1507, while NYMEX petroleum is at $112/barrel and the Brent Spot at $124/barrel.

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*THE TRUE STORY OF EASTER

Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (in short, either March 20 or 21, the first day of Spring).  Last year Easter fell on April 4, and you can read my posting on Resurrection, Eggs and the Bunny.  

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning, it moves around, for today is April 24.  This is where it gets really complicated, for there is a Western Easter and an Eastern Easter, the former following the Gregorian Calendar and the latter the Julian.  Last year and this year Easter occurred on the same day, but next year, the Western Easter will be on April 8 and the Eastern on the 15th.  For us, only remember Western Christianity, where Easter will always be between March 22 and April 25.  One more complication is the  Jewish Passover calendar, but let me stop here.

Year  Full Moon  Sunday  West     East     Jewish
                           after                           Passover

2010	March 30	April 4	April 4	April 4	March 30
2011	April 18	April 24	April 24	April 24	April 19
2012	April 6	April 8	April 8	April 15	April 7

Now that you are totally confused, Western Easter or Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday (the week before  Easter), when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and his followers lay down cloaks, branches and palm fronds on the riding path.  There is a celebratory dinner.  Some churches keep the palm and burn it the following year for Ash Wednesday (first day of Lent, that 40 day fasting period ending on Easter).

Nothing much (prayers, worship, etc., of course) happens until Holy or Maundy Thursday, the day of the Last Supper (da Vinci's above and Dali's to the right--there are reports that da Vinci had it all so wrong, from lunch to clothes as worn at the time of Leonardo, etc.) Jesus had with his twelve Apostles.  Terms applied are the Eucharist, Holy Communion, sharing of bread and wine, plus the matter of betrayal and Judas Iscariot.  Some have said that this dinner occurred on Wednesday, and, more specifically, 1April33, that is, on April Fool's Day of the year 33.  In determining exactly which room this meal was held, there is mention of the streets of Jerusalem then being about 10 feet lower.  Does dust accumulate at that rate over only a 2000 year period?

After supper, things moved quickly, in the period into Good Friday, known as the Passion:  Judas kisses Jesus, who is arrested, immediately put on trial, condemned to death, sent to Governor Pontius Pilate, re-condemned by Jewish leaders and the orchestrated crowd on Friday to death, leading to His carrying the cross to His crucifixion.  In the turmoil, Judas realizes what he has done and commits suicide.  Mel Gibson went downhill from his Passion of Christ.

Crucifixion, where the execution involved nailing (a spike six inches long and 3/8 inches each side, or tying) the victim to a cross until death, is a particularly gruesome and humiliating sentence to terrorize and teach a lesson, and was abolished by Emperor Constantine I three centuries later.  In Japan, twenty six christians were nailed to the cross (below) in Nagasaki, Japan in 1597, and this practice continued into the Meiji Period.  Interestingly enough, crucifixion is still being used today in Saudi Arabia, Africa and Europe (Romania).

Back to the Passion, Jesus, was too worn down by whippings that he had to be helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry this crossbeam (weighing about 125 pounds--but all paintings show the full cross, as the one by Bosch to the left) anywhere from much less than a mile to two, from the alleyways of Jerusalem to Golgotha, where the Crucifixion took place.  Two other criminals were also similarly executed with Jesus.  It is surmised that his mother, Mary, and his girlfriend (?) Mary Magdalene, witnessed the event at the cross.  He was on the cross from 9AM to 3PM (or  maybe only for three hours), where at the end a guard speared him to further insure for death.  The sky darkened (maybe an eclipse) at one point and there might have been an earthquake.  Yes, there is drama, but this might be too much.

The main event to this all is the Resurrection.  Crucifixion is not like a hanging, which brings immediate death.  In Iran, for example, if you live for three days, you are released.  While it is possible that Jesus was still alive when placed in, the reality is that this was hardly likely, for he was probably already dead before being crucified, and the protocols of the day made survival impossible.  Yet, as Pontius Pilate was supposedly surprised to hear that Jesus was dead when a disciple Joseph asked for the body, maybe there might be a lot more to this than reported, as the process was all accomplished in haste.

In any case, the body of Jesus was placed in a new tomb sealed with a boulder on Friday night, guarded by Roman soldiers.  Nothing significant on Saturday, termed Black Saturday.  In those days, if you had lunch on Friday, it is three days later when you have lunch on Sunday.  Clearly, the period is 48 hours, but in biblical times, Friday to Sunday is considered to be three days.  When Mary Magdalene (plus, perhaps other women) opened the tomb way less than 48 hours later, there was no body.  THIS WAS THE RESURRECTION.  Easter is celebrated because Jesus escaped, and more, from being dead to becoming alive.  Further, He allegedly talked to his disciples and hung around for 40 days, until He ascended to Heaven.

On 12January2010 I reported on the Antioch Jesus Movement, and how Christianity might have been formed.  To start a religion, you need a God and the timing was right to suggest a Son of God, as, for example, Jesus.  He can't just be crucified, so why not resurrect him and have him ascend.  Much of what is in the Bible was not composed at the time of Christ, this came decades later.  What is real and what is myth is not important.  Like the Big Bang, just the development of Christianity, Mormonism and any religion from almost nothing, was a "miracle."

So we have Easter, which had Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peters Square, Vatican, but is today mostly noted for colored eggs and parades.  Remember the movie with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire?  Fifth Avenue New York City still has an Easter parade.  The festivities are morphing, as gay activists protested outside the Roman Catholic Church.  The White House will have their egg roll tomorrow.

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Total Visitors:             90,349

Visitors this week:        1,868

Number of countries:      175

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SIMPLE SOLUTIONS: FINAL EPILOGUE (Part 5)

This posting completes Book 2, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

Live Earth and Global Warming

In 2007, Al Gore borrowed Bob Geldorf’s concept to stimulate the remediation of Global Climate Warming with Live Earth, which some reported as the biggest benefit concert ever, as the kick-off point for a three year campaign for Planet Earth. TV (in Hawaii on wide-screen high definition HDUNI) and the 

internet carried over a 22-hour period 150 acts from twelve locations, including, after beating off the Republicans, Washington, D.C., and from all seven continents (six, if you’re from Europe, for they combine North and South into one America), even Antarctica. This was an incredible carbon light rock spectacle, interspersed with Green messages from 60 short films. Geldorf, himself, labeled this as a “hollow spectacle,” Roger Daltrey of The Who (above left) said, “the last thing the planet needs is a rock concert,” and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals demanded that hot dogs and hamburgers not be served. Oh well, you can’t please everyone all the time. But this act helped gain Gore a Nobel Prize, and more importantly, provided a well needed galvanizing spark.

While Tipper has long served to censor music, Al, since the days of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind (this is the Bruce Springsteen version--can't find the original on You Tube, but Dylan's photo is to the right), has felt that music was an agent of change. But it was Kevin Wall (left), an American concert promoter, who really invented Live Earth. He was involved with Live 8 in 2005, the effort by Geldorf and Bono to pressure the G8 about African poverty. Wall saw that millions viewed Inconvenient Truth, so why not billions? But, maybe it was Wall’s secretary, or her son, who planted the idea. In any case, this is all good for Planet Earth. Listen to the critics, but move on from here. In the long term, the repercussions will be significantly positive.

Do You Believe in Miracles: The End of the Cold War

But the war on poverty has just begun and interest in the environment is only a budding concept. Many have called the end of the Cold War as the one most significant attainment to preserve civilization. Who was responsible for affecting this magnificent accomplishment? 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (founded by a group of Manhattan Project scientists in 1945) created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to draw attention to the potential for nuclear Armageddon. In the 60 years, the time has only been reset on 17 occasions. In 1947 it was initially placed at 7 minutes to midnight, clearly meaning that in the 

span of 24 hours, or 1440 minutes, we were then close to the end of civilization. Today it is at 6 minutes to midnight, so the situation is supposedly worse. However, I might mention that the clock advanced to 3 minutes after the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949, then to 2 minutes in 1953 when both the U.S. and S.U. tested hydrogen bombs. The time jumped to 12 minutes in 1972 when the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) was 

signed and to 17 minutes in 1991 when the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed. The time did not change when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. One would think, anyhow, that the world is now a far, far safer place, for Pakistan, India, the Middle East and North Korea do not evoke terminal fear or threat of MAD, mutually assured destruction.  Yes, there are still sufficient nuclear weapons potentially ready to be reactivated to end civilization, but the politics of the times are such that I think the clock should be reversed, to at least 15 minutes.

The clock was at 9 minutes in the Fall of 1979, which was not a good time for the American Nation. I arrived in the U.S. Senate. Well, that was the best part. Earlier in the year, China had invaded Vietnam, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster occurred not that far from the national capitol, the YMCA sued the Village People over their song of the same name and the second oil crisis with those interminable gasoline lines made life tedious. Just around the time the USA hockey team was being selected by their coach, 

Herb Brooks, the Iranian crisis happened (President Carter suffering, left), with 66 Americans held hostage in Teheran, followed the next month by the Soviets occupying Afghanistan. National pride was at an all time low and we felt powerless, when a miracle came to pass.

Early in 1980, the USA ice hockey Olympic victory accomplished by a bunch of college students over the supremely dominant Soviet team triggered a return of will to the American people, embarrassed by the Vietnam War and weakened by the Iranian 

hostage crisis.  This indelible moment in all of U.S. sports history, it is said, inspired President Ronald Reagan to, two years later, confront the Evil Empire (Ronald Reagan, to the British House of Commons, June 8, 1982).  Actually, the real Evil Empire Speech was given on March 8, 1983, to the Annual Convention of National Association of Evangelicals (YIKES!!!) near Disney World in Florida.  Anyway, Coach Herb Brooks (left), who was the last cut on the 1960 American ice hockey team (which went on to win the gold medal in Squaw Valley that year), had this vision, delivered, and, perhaps, aided in ending the Cold War.  In my mind, this was the most crucial triumph for humanity, ever.

Maybe one other person set the stage for the end of the Cold War: Charlie Wilson. Charles Nesbitt Wilson went to Annapolis and graduated 8^th from the bottom, going on to an assignment in the Pentagon analyzing the Soviet Union. A state legislator at the age of 27, he later served in the U.S. 

House of Representatives for 12 terms, and was known as “Good Time Charlie” for being an alcoholic womanizer. However, as a member of the subcommittee overseeing the Central Intelligence Agency, he single-handedly influenced the diversion of largely black (covert, secret) military funds to help the local patriots fight the Russians in Afghanistan, resulting in their ignominious retreat in 1981, the year Ronald Reagan first became president. You might have seen the movie: Charlie Wilson’s War, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Mike Nichols. Houston socialite Joanne Herring played by Julia Roberts, and Gust Avrakotos, the rogue CIA agent, by Philip Seymour Hoffman, might share some of the credit.

American actor Ronald Reagan played the most important role of his life as the 40^th president of the USA, and is sometimes credited for ending the Cold War, as his purposeful confrontational defense budget beginning in 1981, particularly Star Wars, fundamentally terrified the Soviet Union into overspending on defense, leading to ultimate bankruptcy. But, should Edward Teller (right), who convinced Reagan about this strategy, be the hero? Or one of his staff members I earlier talked about at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory? It had to start somewhere, and inevitably this would be at some primary, if not lower, staff level. Remember, presidents, governors and legislators almost never have the time to think out simple solutions. You have to do it for them. Charlie, though, might have done it himself.

When Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in 1985, his response to Reagan was glasnost (openness to public debate) and perestroika (restructuring) policies, followed by summit offers to reduce their nuclear arms stockpile. This initiative set the mechanism in motion for arms reduction, and also to the disestablishment of the Soviet Union. Cowed, inspired, whatever, Gorbachev in 1990 won the Nobel Peace Prize. Who in Russia had the ear and mind of Gorbachev?

It is an exceptionally rare situation when the individual who gets credit actually came up with the idea. It is the leader’s position and prevailing circumstances that were essential, but someone else out there started it all. I credit Ronald and Mikhail for making the critical decisions regarding the Cold War, but nominate Herb, Charlie, the guys at LLNL, Claire and Kevin as my heroes for finding and delivering on these simple solutions for peace, poverty and Planet Earth.

There are, of course, innumerable ways to undertake your personal mission.  Former president Bill Clinton wrote Giving in 2007. The book goes into vivid detail about how each of us can change the world. He wrote that six year old McKenzie Steiner (below) organized a beach cleanup club in San Diego. Yes, 6 years old. Who knows who she will be affecting or what she will do when she turns 7.

Now, go to the various web pages. Learn a little more about the ultimate matter of your greatest interest and begin to make a difference by coming up with just one simple solution. How best to get started? Reread this appendix. Or e-mail me at PTakahas@Hotmail.com. Together, with some dedicated others, we can save Planet Earth and Humanity! Aloha, and have a great rest of your life.


Next, I serialize SIMPLE SOLUTION ESSAYS.

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SiMPLE SOLUTIONS: FINAL EPILOGUE (Part 4)

I am finalizing SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

How One Person Made a Difference: The End of Poverty

       The simple solution is for each person to try to make a positive difference. It is as simple as that. Can one individual, for example, do anything about poverty?

In 2005, The Lancet reported on a study showing that $5.1 billion could save 6 million kids. That sum is 6% of the expenditures for tobacco products. The average smoker does a pack a day.  If these individuals can smoke only one less cigarette a day, and a way is found to effectively apply that savings, poof, we solve that poverty problem, and, maybe start the process of saving your life (if you smoke or are in poverty), too. How simple can it get?

There is, of course, the other side of the coin, for most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa, where living is torture. What is the rationale for keeping a child alive for another week when the rest of his life could well be agony? If you make the decision that any life saved for however short timeframe is justified, then, read on. If you think that curing poverty will only cause more anguish for the rescued, you miss the point, for you need to attain step one to reach the ultimate.

Jeffrey D. Sachs wrote, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Time. It’s a New York Times bestseller. Says Business Week, “Sensible, often brilliant analysis of poverty’s root causes and potential solutions…leaves you with hope that this crisis is more curable than it seems.” Is Jeffrey Sachs that individual that should be crediting to ending poverty? Nope, although it takes a village, and he is an important part of the ultimate solution.

Well, consider Live 8, which occurred on July 2, 2005, as one of the most momentous concerts ever and one of the greatest political lobby ever formed, all for the cause of poverty in Africa. It was timed a week before the G8 summit in Scotland (that's a group photo from the back) to resolve the African matter. The message was received, as these world leaders agreed on double the aid to Africa, although some quibble that this would have happened anyway.

But Live 8 was preceded by Live Aid on July 13, 1985—yes, that is Madonna above, a quarter century ago--60 artists in London and Philadelphia, 1.5 billion television viewers in 120 countries to raise $140 million for famine relief in Africa--which derived from the Band Aid Trust organized by Bob Geldorf (to left, in 1985) to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” which inspired USA for Africa’s “We are the World.” Is Geldorf that spark? Known for starring on screen in The Wall, Sir Bob raised three children after his wife, Paula Yates, ran off with INXS singer Michael Hutchence (below with Yates and their daughter, Tiger Lily, later in life, right), but become the guardian of their (Paula/Michael’s) daughter after their "accidental" deaths. Real hero, right? Most definitely, I guess! Ah, but he did salvage some revenge.  The story is a lot more complicated than this.

However, Sir Geldorf did not really start all this. It might have been an aid worker in Ethiopia, Claire Bertschinger. Claire, a nurse for the Red Cross, making life and death decisions on who to feed, was filmed by Michael Buerk and his BBC crew. Her clearest memory of that momentous recording day was taking an anemic baby to the hospital for a blood transfusion. “They had no blood, so I gave him one unit of mine and my diary entry was that ‘today I have done something.’.” This clip was seen by Geldorf, who was moved to also do something. Bertschinger’s story can be read in Moving Mountains.

For most, just donating blood is beyond duty to humanity. But to have done both without any thought to inspiring Live 8 or later receiving the Florence Nightingale Medal, is what each individual can do. A key point here is that, if you care, don’t stop at one good deed. Do what you can, but some element of perseverance is also necessary. Over time, someone will notice. If no one ever notices, well…anything is connected to everything else, and something you do can affect the future, what is called the butterfly effect. Every step you take, every move you make, if done with good will, will only benefit humanity over time.

This can happen in the negative too, as in Ray Bradbury’s Sound of Thunder. In this short story and movie, a tour guide some time in the future takes a couple of hunters in a time machine to shoot a dinosaur just at the moment it was supposed to die anyway. Unfortunately, one of them steps on a butterfly, and when they return home, they find a world significantly changed for the worse, a wrong kind of butterfly effect.

Has Claire Bertschinger cured poverty? Hardly, but what she started sparked the beginning of the solution, even if she originally had no clue as to what she was doing, except with good conscience helping humanity. You do have a clue, so you should be able to be more effective.

So, if Claire and the heavy footed hunter so monumentally can change the future without even knowing what they had done, why bother? Think about that. If you do something terrible, the future will  probably be negatively influenced. But, if you do anything purposeful and good, and keep at it, the odds are that you can, and will, change the future for the better. Claire Bertschinger’s act of sacrifice brought early (book) and continuing personal dividends (she was made a Dame--female version of knighthood, where males are called sir--by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010). Yours might take a millennium or more, but Planet Earth is good for another a billion years, and probably longer.

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This Good Friday.  The stock, gold and oil markets in the U.S. and Europe are closed, but Japan's Nikkei was largely unchanged, closing at 9682.

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Interestingly enough, here it is, April, and there is a disturbed area East of Florida, which shows potential of forming a tropical storm.

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SiMPLE SOLUTIONS: FINAL EPILOGUE (Part 3)

David Ichinose sent this video of the most graphic GreatTohoku tsunami clip I have yet seen:


http://mashable.com/2011/04/17/japan-tsunami-video/

Rainbow Vision Lessons

To gain rainbow vision, combine the foundational roots of Parts 1 and 2 with the following lessons:

LESSON #1: determine what you want to accomplish where you have a natural advantage, and develop a sensible strategy. You won’t be able to, with distinction, compete in traditional fields. If you’re in Kansas, and water is running out, you must figuratively learn how to tame a tornado to produce water. In Hawaii, we are in the middle of the largest ocean, are endowed with a range of natural energy sources and rest at the interface of East and West. Clearly, an international sustainable resource project puts you at a distinct advantage. It is best to start with something you can accomplish…perhaps small, like inviting a promising new political campaigner to your home to meet a few friends. They never say no. Then, who knows, she might win the election, with your assistance. You now have done some good and formed a base for something bigger in the future.

 LESSON #2: invariably, other people will have better ideas than you. Be influenced by those around you. Your mentors change over time, and now, at a relatively advanced age, have learned to better appreciate my elders. Take Edward Jurkens (he is to the right in the above photo...and is with a flying mate of the Battle Bismark, 1943), for example.  You haven't read about him.  He still picks me up for golf, we walk (well, he now rides), and has a beer, afrter which he drops me off, going home for at least a double martini, while he completes the newspaper crossword puzzle.  He is 93.  

Then there is Ken Watanabe (well, that photo on the right is the actor version).  The Ken I know, who is approaching 90, still golfs well, and his form is a lot better than mine.

 LESSON #3: optimize your social skills. Take politics, for example. The worst place to convince an elected official is in his office. You especially won’t be able to change the mind of a legislator in a public hearing. Most of the effective selling, call it, even, lobbying, you will do needs to occur in a social setting. Consider golf, surfing, wine and karaoke to break the ice. Find your forte and apply it. Research awards are not only won by pure scientific brilliance, an academic corollary to LESSON 3. You need to first get that grant.

LESSON #4: work/volunteer for someone in Congress, the National Science Foundation, your State Legislature or an environmental group of your interest. A couple of years looking from the inside out, or, even, outside in, will give you a broader perspective, special connections and a competitive edge. Using politics again, LESSON 4B: go out of your way to help get someone elected. If that person loses, keep quiet and try again. A senator, any politician, will never turn down a sincere request for help, for the effort and effectiveness might suffer if there is no compelling need for them or their staff to want to really help you. There will be a hundred times more need than ability to deliver. Yours will be important enough only if they think you deserve it. It’s amazing how important you can be if you have done something for them, even waving signs for the candidate.

LESSON #5: tolerate the small stuff, but ultimately, focus on something monumental. Why waste your time and that of others, for it only takes a little more effort to attain a higher goal than something too easy or simple. On the other hand, how can you be effective if you haven’t had some experience? #5 is on the surface not consistent with #1, but only you can resolve these apparent contradictions in life. Hint: start small and build.

LESSON #6: make your own luck. Bob Gibson, when he pitched, had incredible luck. Batters kept missing his ball. People still can’t believe how lucky Rod Carew was, for while other infielders were almost always only inches away when the ball passed them, somehow he made the play. While you accept any good fortune, many times you need to make your own luck through uncommon effort and good people relations. Gibson and Carew made their luck through talent and practice.

LESSON #7: everyone has unique skills and friends. You must find something distinctive, with future utility, where you have a clear advantage. If you eventually undertake that monumental mission, find that niche or element ideal for you and your environment.

Thus, the Seven Lessons of Rainbow Vision.  Combined with good attitude (yes, be nice to people, please), the combination should work every time.

As one of my personal case studies, take the field of hydrogen. The details are provided in Chapter 3 of Book 1, but appreciate that Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific and runs mostly on oil. We have a wide variety of natural energy resources, but there was something about hydrogen that made long term sense, especially as 40% of the energy used here went towards aviation, and this gas was ideal as a future jet fuel. Why not, then, make Hawaii a leader in this field, as no one was yet doing anything of any importance. Choosing the U.S. Senate as the launching pad for action, using all the lessons above, Hawaii eventually became the U.S. National Center for Hydrogen Research. This is only a very preliminary first step, but others, hopefully, will continue the effort.

Case two: Hawaii is surrounded by salt water, so what about tapping the riches of the seas? Again, we would have no competition if we could have our congressional representatives place funds to help build credibility. We had to take this step because the University of Hawaii had no national respect in ocean resource technology. In the Senate, I helped write the ocean thermal energy conversion bill. Also, I shepherded the Hard Minerals Act for strategic seabed minerals, so why not establish a center on these subjects in Hawaii?  Finally, marine biotechnology: Hawaii as the biological equivalent of Silicon Valley would be as high tech as they come, and no university at that time had any engineering capability in this field. My PhD involved using a tunable laser to stimulate the DNA/RNA of E. coli. Thus came the Department of Interior Marine Minerals Technology Center and National Science Foundation Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center. I did not play superman to gain these leading research units, I hired the people to do it, and helped them. It is relatively easy to find unique themes in whatever makes sense from your experiences.

Combining all this ocean stuff, we could then have a Blue Revolution (Chapter 4 of Book 1), the marine equivalent of the terrestrial Green Revolution, where the only product was better grains. The Blue Revolution had the promise of providing next generation seafood, sustainable energy, new habitats, and natural materials, while enhancing the environment, plus, perhaps preventing hurricanes and remediating global climate warming.

Now, there is a danger in floating a mega project, no matter how terrific it sounds, for funding and staff people are inherently afraid of ten year, $10 million/year initiatives that could lead to a billion dollar requirement. You need to start reasonably, and build up to the worthwhile adventures. Thus, while you must conceive of the total program, begin by suggesting an element of the system. This is a way to reconcile LESSONS ONE and FIVE.

Initial thoughts were imagined in the 1970’s, and matured in the 1980’s, for basic research at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii and technology transfer at the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research on hydrogen and ocean resources. A third of a century later, we are yet, only a third of the way there. But the seeds have been planted. That was the best I could do. But there will be others.

What if none of the above had turned out positive? Suppose nothing useful happened. That’s okay, too, because I would have felt good trying to do well, and, in addition, improved my health, as indicated in the following books:

o      Why Good Things Happen to Good People, reports that, by being good, mortality is delayed, depression is reduced and well-being and good fortune are increased. Thus, the act of giving results in better health, enhanced happiness and longer life.

o      The Power of Nice, shows that nice people can be very successful, as well as healthier and happier, same as the other book.

Oh, yes, there is also the No Asshole Rule, which rather effectively informs you that assholes—also known as jerks, hotshots who alienate and dickheads—not only don’t get hired nor promoted, but are the first to be fired. It should be clear which one you should be, I hope.

These lessons for Rainbow Vision, however, are mere personal strategies. You still need to get out there and do something, and the next sections should provide some confidence, as it sometimes takes only a spark to galvanize monumental deeds.

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The Dow Jones Industrials rose 52 to 12,506, while world markets were mostly up.  Gold was up $2/toz to $1508, while the NYMEX is at $112/barrel, with the Brent Spot at $124/barrel.  Gasoline reached an all-time high of $4.51/gallon in Hawaii yesterday, and broke it today at $4.53/gallon.  The USA average is $4.09/gallon.  Our price is only around 10% higher than the national average.  Our electricity is 300% higher than the national average.  Interesting that we complain about gasoline, but the price of electricity is just accepted. 

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