WHY MEMORIAL DAY?

Last night the Public Broadcasting Service televised the Memorial Day Concert on the Mall.  Having lived in DC forty years ago, I well remember those memorable performances.  Parking was not a problem because we used the Metro.  Going to the bathroom though, was challenging.  Jessica Sanchez, #2 American Idol this year, was the star, and so were those presidential structures:

Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln himself.  I used to just marvel at the architecture.  Evocative and inspirational.  Here today, President Barack Obama at Arlington:

Click on my 2009 and 2011 postings of Memorial Day to learn almost everything you want to know about this day.  For too many, MD is mostly a nice day off, as for example, according to the Pew Research Center, 84% of recent veterans felt that the public had no understanding of the problems they and their families face.  There will be parades, ceremonies at cemeteries, and, for Hawaii and also the Nation, lantern floating has become the final event of the day.  KGMB will broadcast the services beginning at 6PM tonight.

A little more than 2 million Americans have served in the two Middle East wars, with 6,330 not returning.  In comparison, World War II, which went on for less than four years (Afghanistan is closing in on 11 years, while the Vietnam and American Revolutionary Wars each lasted 8.4 years) involved 16 million Americans in uniform, with 417,000 deaths (around 60 million in total died).  Keep in mind that our current population is 314 million, while in 1945, it was only 132 million, so the percentage personally experiencing war now is only 0.6%, whereas it was 12% in WWII.  Another comparison has to do with the Civil War.  We suffered the most deaths in this war, 625,000, but the population was only a little more than 31 million.  Thus, while military the DEATHS/capita ratio for the Middle East wars stand for our country at 0.02%, the Civil War was a stunning 100 times higher at 2%.

As we pull out of of Afghanistan and Iraq, memories will further fade.  But, being supreme does not necessarily mean we need to continue to spend as much as we have in the past on war.  Looking at the above spending, the WAR budget keeps increasing.  Yes, after the Cold War ended, there was an actual drop...until 9/11, and we went haywire.  This is nuts when Peak Oil and Global Warming are far greater threats than a thousand really bad terrorists.  In a recent posting I showed that we have no mortal enemy anymore, save for the fear posed by the Military Industrial Complex about China.

Appreciate freedom and the sacrifices made by our military, but there is no draft, so those who joined did so voluntarily, knowing about the potential risks.  Yet, America is #1, and will be so for a long time to come because of our armed forces.  Now, we need to strike the right spending balance in time of relative peace.  Our infrastructure is decaying, education needs to be upgraded and we should begin to do something about the deficit (but not get carried away doing this--written almost exactly a year ago in the Huffington Post).  Winslow and Carmen said it far better than me:

Almost-hurricane Beryl, at 70 MPH, stormed over Jacksonville beach from the Atlantic last night, and will make a curious move north then east back into the Atlantic, spoiling the beach plans of those in North Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas today through Wednesday:

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LIFE IS A JOURNEY

I've completed perhaps a dozen global adventures, that is, around the world trips.  From the first on Pan Am a third of a century ago to my recent Tokyo-Amsterdam-Las Vegas-Denver "quickie," they were all different and experienceful.  Coming home safely could have been the best part of all, but the journey each time was memorable.  Says something about life itself, as, if you don't believe in an afterlife, you can't wait till the end.

On this note, Prickly City (a political comic strip, mostly featuring Carmen, a conservative grade school Hispanic girl, and Winslow, a liberal coyote pup) was particularly appropriate to this theme today:

The same might be said for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), my Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTION for Humanity.  Sure, I've been critical of our military budget and those expensive NASA missions, but that does not mean we shouldn't continue to explore for the limits of knowledge.  So what if Enrico Fermi's Paradox questions this effort or Steven Hawking is worried that searching poses risks to Humanity.  A small fraction of tax funds should be invested in SETI, for what if the solution to Peace or answer to Fusion is beaming in from an advanced civilization?  Thus, the $2 billion Square Kilometre Array, to become the world's largest telescope in 2024, spearheaded by South Africa and Australia, I think can be justified.   Remember Contact?

If we never detect anything, ever, Winslow nevertheless, has the right attitude.  Further, for the sake of Humanity, we do need to dream, too.

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MEMORIES OF FISHING IN HAWAII

Growing up in Kakaako, a fishing village, fishing was an important of my childhood.  I can still remember the excitement and sense of achievement of those early days when I see small swarms of shoreline fishermen catching oama:

 or halalu:

during the early summer.  The baby goatfish is oama, about the size of a finger, and, while you still need to clean it, the fish is french fried, so you can eat the whole thing.  When this fish grows up, it is known as a weke, where the local record is 1 l/4 pounds:

The adult halalu is called akule or aji, and at least once a month I go to Tamashiro's and buy the largest one I can find.  Here is the local record (Titus Day, 2.03 lbs, East Maui):

Here are my top five personal experiences, most a half century ago:

1.  The type of fishing I most remember is for sayori in Kewalo Basin.  We chummed the waters with bread and two types of fish came, sayori and stickfish.  The latter was nearly useless, but a half pound sayori was valued:

Notice it has a beak, on the bottom, and thus is also known as a half-beak.  In those days, we did not even know about the type of sushi where you place the fish on top of the rice.  Today in Japan sayori is a rare and desired fish for sushi.  About that stickfish, it is called a giant needlefish (Shawn Heckler, 15 pounds 12 oz, Kaena Point, Oahu) and has two beaks:

2.  Samoan crab

That lagoon on the Ewa side of Ala Moana Park was particularly productive, as was crabbing from that bridge over the Ala Wai Canal.  No, that is not me, but Skye Manuel, who caught this local record 7 pound - 7 ounce monster on the Windward side just about three years ago:

3.  While I never succeeded in anything that large, something on the order of four pounds, maybe.  I have no photos of my catches, but I feel confident I got close to a the following aholehole (Ryan Okino, 2 lbs 1 oz, Puna) off the Hilo coastline:

4  Or, maybe a couple of pounds off this aweoweo (Christopher Kelley, 10 lbs 14 oz, Penguin Banks) from Kauai when I worked in the sugar industry:

5.  I caught a vicious barracuda once, but it was only about a foot long.  Here is the record (Dean Hayashi, 77 pounds, shorecasting off Olawalu, Maui):

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AMERICA: THE GREATEST COUNTRY, EVER

Yes, our government is broken, lobbyists pretty much control what happens in the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and local councils, there seems to be a declining sense of morals, lifestyles are dropping and the combination of global warming and peak oil could well usher in the Greatest Depression.  Yet, seven of the top places to live in my Chapter 6 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity are in the USA.  In Chapter 1, a section is titled, "The Most Powerful Nation on Earth, Ever," and another, "But, Darn It, America is the Best Country."

Frankly, we are the greatest nation ever, and stand supreme today unchallenged, militarily, economically and by any standard of measure.

Who are our competitors?  

     1.  Well, Europe is a basket case (and, will their Euro survive?), where every sneeze by Greece sinks the stock market.  Their PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) will flounder for decades.  There is a growing Muslim problem, while the general negative attitude about nuclear power and coal will suffocate their economy.  Their population is in the beginning stages of declination.  The various countries are not taking well to austerity, for the government with one of the lower unemployment rates, the Netherlands, recently fell because decisions could not be made about budget reductions.  The European Union has a larger Gross Domestic Product than the U.S., nearly $16 trillion to $15 trillion, and, furthermore, has a higher population, exceeding 500 million, whereas ours is just over 300 million.  Europe will only decline into the future.

     2.  Japan has come and gone.  Forty years ago Herman Kahn in his "Emerging Japanese Superstate," predicted that Japan would become #1.  If they had anything left to overcome the bubble economy, that disappeared with the tragedy of Fukushima.  Japan is now #4.  For the next few decades, the country will look inwards, lamenting the horror of it all.  While touting solar and wind as their future, they have little sun and meager winds.  The ocean is their simple solution, but they instead are mostly importing more fossil fuels.

     3.  Russia was a real threat when part of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War was the one most key achievement of Humanity to insure for our future.  However, the country is decaying, growing old and getting sick and tired of Vladimir Putin.  Their military is embarrassingly weak.  The population dropped by a couple million over the past two decades and this decline will only accelerate.  By 2050 Vietnam will have more people than Russia:

However, if Russia ever goes to war, it will against....

4.  China, which is running out of gas, figuratively, at least as headlined by the Star-Advertiser this morning.  From declining consumer confidence, a real estate downturn, stalling exports and increasing unemployment, the country is on the verge of a crisis.  Maybe the worst part of all this is that 25% of university graduates failed to find a job!  

Remember the Arab Spring?  The younger generation is web savvy and, if desperate, has the smarts to undermine a regime.  Yes, Google is prohibited and social networks are closely watched, but there are ways to get around the censorship.  I've seen it.  The central government seems pre-occupied with the quasi-religious Falung Gong, artists like Ai Weiwei (left) and blind dissident Chen Guangcheng.  The overriding concern should be jobs for colleges graduates.  The Bo Xilai (with wife, Gu Kailai to the right) scandal only revealed the general corruption up the ranks.  I don't think the nation will fracture like the Soviet Union, but from unrest out West, where the Uiger Rebellion continues, to metastability in their stock market, horrific environmental problems and assorted humanitarian issues,  I am uneasy about the stability of the country.  Is the protest to the left above part of the Occupy Movement worldwide?  Nope, this is China:

Well, let me end with just another view of Diamond Head.  I've not truly returned until I've had lunch lounging in my recliner under a coconut tree at Magic Island.  Today, I had a bento of kalua cabbage, chicken umani and rice...with a beer.

Isn't this a great country?

There remain three ocean storms, while the one in the middle, Bud, is now a hurricane at 75 MPH, and expected to make landfall as a tropical storm between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo.  To the East, Typhoon Sanvu is at 85 MPH and tracking the east coast of Japan, but far, far away (1000 miles south of Tokyo) and heading for Iwo To, which is also known as Iwo Jima, where our flag was flown in victory towards the end of World War II (there were nearly 30,000 deaths just during this battle):

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WE ARE DOING EVERYTHING WRONG ABOUT SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

Sure, sometimes I play the role of a contrarian to stimulate discussion on an issue.  However, I don't think I'm particularly oppugnant in many of my longstanding views on the future of sustainable transport, mostly ignored by just about everyone:

1.  For a third of century now I have advocated biomethanol (methanol from the gasification and catalysis of biomass) over ethanol (not only is fermentation from corn terrible, but the biological process from cellulose makes no sense in comparison to methanol):

Carbon hydrate is any biomass.  I don't think there is even one project today in Hawaii dealing with methanol from biomass.  I got a sense from the World Renewable Energy Forum last week, though, that attitudes are improving.  The Biomethanol Economy should be the transitional pathway for ground transport.

2.  For the record, there was a plug-in car in 1912, as shown to the right.  So further on ground transport, Hawaii is plunging headlong into the plug-in electric vehicle because people here think this is clean and best for the environment.  Even the Honolulu Star Advertiser yesterday endorsed this pathway.  First, the electricity to charge the batteries comes from oil in the 50th State and mostly coal in the rest of the world.  This condition will remain for decades to come.  Second, plug-in EVs are having problems competing with gasoline even in Europe (where gas prices are twice that of the U.S.--remember to multiply by five when you convert Euro/liter to $/gallon).  Treehugger, an environmentally sensitive blog site, admits that EVs may not be competitive until 2030.  And they are talking about the continental USA, which has an average electricity price one-third that of Hawaii!  I have close friends who bought into the plug-in EV.  I'm mystified about my ability to convince even them. 

3.  I thus have long thought that biomethanol fed to a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was the most sensible proposition for the world.  Why?  A comparison between lithium battery and fuel cell cars shows that the latter can go FIVE times further.  The problem is that hydrogen is too expensive.  Fortunately enough, methanol is the ONLY liquid fuel capable of being relatively efficiently directly processed by a fuel cell.  Further, one gallon of methanol has 1.4 times more accessible hydrogen than one gallon of liquid hydrogen.  But there is another problem.  The Farm Lobby effectively prevented the Department of Energy from undertaking any major efforts at developing a DMFC for vehicles.  This will take about a decade if a full court press begins today.  Mind you, Toshiba has for more than two years now marketed a DMFC for portable electronics, so you know the concept is feasible.

4.  Finally, I have since the mid-70's felt that aviation had to convert from our present jetliners to hydrogen powered aircraft or someday Hawaii's economy would crash, for when oil shoots up past $150/barrel, and stays there for a while, Hawaii would fall into a prolonged economic depression, as tourism is our only real economy.  This is primarily why I went to work for Senator Spark Matsunaga in 1979 and drafted the legislation that became the Matsunaga Hydrogen Act, stimulating the Department of Defense to spend a couple of billion dollars on the National Aerospace Plane (above), which was supposed to be fueled by hydrogen.  Amazingly enough, two decades later, there is still some military R&D ongoing, but as a Black Project.  There is no hope for a Global Hydrogen Express into the foreseeable future unless something like the Hawaiian Hydrogen Clipper, a dirigible, succeeds.   I'm meeting with Rinaldo Brutoco, who heads this effort, next week.

Finally, there is something about jet fuel from algae that seems beguiling because microorganisms can produce up to ten times more mass from sunlight than terrestrial crops.  There was even a DARPA official who expressed hope that a biofuel could be produced from algae for $2/gallon, if not down to $1.  Yet, you got to wonder why the U.S. Navy might be paying $27/gallon ($1134/barrel) for the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, something apparently now prohibited by the U.S. House, and, perhaps too, the Senate.  My latest sense is that $4/gallon ($168/barrel--petroleum today is selling for $90/barrel) jet fuel from a bio-system might be possible in 5 to 10 years with a $1/billion per year Federal program.  As this is not happening, I can only be depressed about where Hawaii will be in the Year 2020.

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COUNTRY #206: VANUATU

Welcome country #206:

VANUATU POPULATION: 224,564

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Background

Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language, migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceding European exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern accounts for the complex linguistic diversity found on the archipelago to this day. The British and French, who settled the New Hebrides in the 19th century, agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium, which administered the islands until independence in 1980, when the new name of Vanuatu was adopted.

Geography People Government Economy Communications Transportation Military

Map data ©2012 Tele Atlas - Terms of Use

The Republic of Vanuatu is about the same size as the Big Island plus Maui, with 65 of their 82 islands inhabited.  The capital is Port Vila.  Two islands are still claimed by France (New Caledonia).  The dominant religion is Christianity and the government is a parliamentary democracy.

Vanuatu is beginning to suffer from sea level rise, as water quality is being affected.  However, the islands are peaks of volcanoes, so the problem is nowhere close to Tuvalu.

The islands are on the "Ring of Fire," so there are a lot of earthquakes (2000/year).  Cyclone season is from November to April.

More recently, China has provided aid, so, of course, one of the recent scandals is the selling of visas to Chinese nationals.

The rise of coconuts should help the local economy.  Kava (left) is also a product that can show growth.  This intoxicating brew comes from the Piper methysticum plant (right).

Tourism is important (Port Vila above):  click on 2012 events.

Above, Yasur Volcano.

There are no travel advisories, but there has recently been attacks on lone foreign women.  Also, sharks should be a concern (that is a tiger shark with an idiotic SCUBA diver).  Boat travel cannot be recommended.  When hiking, you could be charged a "visiting fee" by the landowner.  All that said, crime is supposedly rare in Vanuatu, according to one report, but a 2008 newspaper article indicated that Port Vila was a hotbed of crime, and the Vanuatu Daily Post in December of 2010 indicated that crime had tripled in the capital.  The latest recommendation as of 18May2012 from the Australian government, though, is to "exercise normal safety precautions."

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