THE GOLDEN EVOLUTION (Part 8)

Okay, sorry, this posting is also too long. But the subject of God is too significant to break into sections. The following continues the serialization of Chapter 5 on religion from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

What is God

“Religion is an illusion, and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctful wishful impulses,” said Austrian psychiatrist and Galician Jew Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. But Jewish people don’t believe in an afterlife, or at least, don’t have to, although reincarnation is possible if you are an Orthodox Jew. Yet, there is the notion of an immortal soul, similar to Christianity.

In 1882, said German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (photo below), “God is dead.” So goes the joke, “Nietzsche is dead,” said God, in retort. For that past century and more, God has prevailed, for religion has continued to maintain a hold. What are the statistics?

Tipler in TPOI reported around a 95% average figure over the past few decades for those believing in God in the United States. Surely enough, Robert Mellert mentioned a 96% belief in God number, but, perhaps, they were referring to the same survey, which was probably the Gallup Poll which reported a 96% figure for both 1944 and 1994.

Thinkers/philosophers for millennia have been writing on the subject. French philosopher Rene Descartes in the 1600’s provided an elaborate series of proofs for the existence of God. In the 1700’s, Scottish philosopher David Hume repeated what various atheists of his day and before said: if God were so omniscient, why did he create such an imperfect world. Therefore, there is no God. Then there is the grand synthesis of French Jesuit philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, for whom God is all, not unlike the Eastern Hindu idea of pantheism. Thus, God is a range of images from a concept to a force to an anthropomorphic grandfather.

There is a Darwinian insight, where He listens to prayers, and responds accordingly. Charles Darwin, though, finally opted for agnosticism (I haven’t seen the Light, but please try to convince me). The Einsteinian view, as his equations, is a bit abstruse: divine immanence is stressed over divine transcendence.

God supposedly has no gender. Yes, there are innumerable female lesser gods, such as

Hindu warrior goddess, Durga, but try finding a popular painting of an ultimate female god. Start with Photobucket, which has more than 200,000 images of God.

Of course, God means different things to different people. Many in the Western world conceive of that white bearded guy earlier compared with Santa. This one would thus be the omnipotent creator of the Universe. This is the most popular representation, but science is eroding this metaphysical image, for a God beyond molecules and time cannot intervene in the present, so goes the physics. Or, should not, anyway.

Then too, there are many variations of that internet story about how God is seen by many:

Noah had struck out in his T-ball game and, in embarrassment and anguish, decided that he had to meet God to seek his help. The next day, as it was to be a long journey, he stuffed his backpack with a can of macadamia nuts and two bottles of deep ocean Hawaiian freshwater (reverse osmosis of seawater from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority) and started his expedition. But where could he go? After a few blocks in the hot sun, he saw a bench under a banyan tree, and thought this would be a good time to take a break. There was an old lady sitting on one end, so he sat down on the other side and cracked open his macadamia nuts. He felt obligated to offer some to the lady, and she accepted with a smile. As he had two bottles of water, he gave one to that lady. He wanted to ask her if she knew where to find God, but instead ended up talking about her granddaughter who, he learned, was wheelchair bound. It occurred to him that life was not all that bad, for he could walk, and upon departing, made a comment to her about how blessed Lani was to have such a fine guardian angel. At dinner, his mother wondered why Noah looked so happy, and he said, “I met with God this afternoon and she told me a story about how lucky I was.” Meanwhile, the old lady’s son later that day inquired as to why she showed so much joy, and she said, “I had macadamia nuts with God today, and, you know, he is much younger than I expected.”

God is different things to different people. If God can be seen in anyone at anytime, that certainly can explain why the belief rate is so high.

Is this why the United States percentage hovers around 95%? But then, why do Japan and Israel, seemingly wallowing in religious traditions, report much lower figures? There does not need to be an afterlife in the Jewish religion, so, of course, that provides a partial explanation. Japan supposedly is the country, next China, with the most number of atheists and agnostics, so what you see when you visit are artifacts of a past culture.

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After being down all day, the final half an hour saw the Dow Jones Industrials surface to plus 11 at 10,618. Gold rose $12/toz to $1126 and oil seems to be nearing $83/barrel.

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LE GUIGNOL AND ELTON

One of Pearl's favorite performances starred Elton John. Thus, when I heard he was coming, I bought a loge ticket in the middle and made reservations at Le Guignol, located across the street from the concert hall.

The restaurant has had a storybook past, with the original owners, Beatrice and Michel, just passing on this French restaurant to one of their staff, Shane Sutton, who left for Las Vegas, leaving everything to his younger brother Ala, who did his culinary training in Brest (France) and New York City. Ala's wife, Aletha, is now in charge of the service, replacing Auntie Leilani, kumu alaka'i of Mea Hula O Ke Anuenue, mother of the two chefs. She, unfortunately, passed away last year. Pearl and I got to know Leilani well, a second reason why I chose this restaurant. Above is a photo of Ala and Aletha.

Parking is free, and you will enter the Young Street entrance, leaving the car there until after the event. Bring your own wine, with a minimal $5 corkage charge/bottle. I drank a Stanford University Governor's Selection Cabernet Sauvignon from Thomas Fogarty...the whole bottle.

I started with a vichyssoise (excellent), followed by foie gras in a tart cherry sauce (also very good) and mesclun greens, then escargots (terrific) with a blue cheese salad (not the best, for it was mostly cherry tomatoes, which I don't like), on to a French onion soup (perhaps a bit too starchy for me), ending with a vanilla creme brulee (exquisite) accompanied by a generous portion of strawberries/boysenberries. The meal started at 5:45 and I left at 7:45, just in time for Elton:

He's there to the left (I have noticed that my iPhone does not take great indoor distance shots), started slowly with five songs I never heard before, then sang on for two and a half hours, mid-way being accompanied by Ray Cooper, a fantastic percussionist.

The sound system at the arena was outstanding, with Elton's piano playing better than ever and Ray's drums spectacular.

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The Dow Jones Industrials rose 33 to 10,607, with world markets being mixed. Gold dropped $12/toz to $1124 and oil is at $82/barrel. I bought Lightbridge (formerly known as Thorium Power).

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THE GOLDEN EVOLUTION (Part 7)

The following is Section B of what started on January 4, initiated 112+ years ago by 8-year old Virginia O'Hanlon, who wrote a letter to the editor about whether there was a Santa Claus. I then hypothetically adjusted her letter to have her ask whether there is a God, instead. Here is my analysis from Chapter 5 on religion from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

While the above rendition has been significantly adjusted, in general, why would a responsible adult (Francis Church, photo above) go out of his way to fool a child, as was attempted? Well, because everybody does. Clearly, he was espousing a cause for the general public, because the language is way beyond the level of an 8-year old, plus, how many of them read editorial responses to letters, anyway. Church handled all the controversial assignments on the editorial page, especially those dealing with theology. He died in 1906, having had no children, and is best known for authoring the original version featuring Santa Claus of this most famous of editorial responses. Till the end he said that all he did was share the truth. Virginia passed away in 1971 after a fruitful career as an educator. But somewhere along the way, she eventually stopped believing in Santa Claus, I trust, and, perhaps too, God.

I sent this mischievous deed of mine on Christmas Eve of 2004 to some close friends, and there were several dozen. Not one reprimanded me for being sacrilegious and some thought I was being reverential (incredible!), although I suspect most did not bother to read and digest it. There is something about family life combined with religion, perhaps assisted by, maybe, a God gene, that obscures reality. With just the replacement of Santa Claus with God, we can somewhat understand how children grow into adults, but generally maintain a belief in God. What gives?

In December of 2007, USA Weekend provided three modern-day responses to Virginia’s letter, and all three news reporters maintained the charade, although one probably got too philosophical (perhaps he, too, forgetting that he was responding to an 8 year old) with a statement that, yes, there is a Santa Claus, but not that jolly fat man, for he is you and anyone with hope. At least this kind of makes sense.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command operates a Santa tracking web site, and he can be seen on December 24 moving at warp speed from the North Pole first to New Zealand, then eventually to Hawaii. Nearly a billion hits were received from 181 countries in 2005. The Santa Tracking Operations Center, staffed by 500 volunteers, actually received 55,000 calls that year. The number of calls has increased each year, so our youngsters are certainly not getting any smarter. But, then, even I, at that age, could not comprehend the enormity of Santa and his flying reindeers needing to move at several million miles/hour to get the job done in 34 hours (yes, think about it).

Now why would NORAD stoop to all this frivolity? Well, there is a history. It was started by a Sears-Roebuck ad in 1955, with phone number if you wished to talk to Santa. Alas, there was a typo, and the number listed was that of an earlier form of NORAD, the Continental Air Defense Command. All in good fun, and now that we don’t have to worry about missiles from the USSR or North Korea, what harm does this do? Also, the military plays Santa around the world and this gentleman is a symbol of good will and cheer. Plus, he’s a good poster man for God.

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The Dow Jones Industrials edged up 2 to 10,574, with world markets also mostly up. Gold jumped $17/toz to $1137 and crude oil is now at $83, barrel.

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Background

The September 1993 Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements provided for a transitional period of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under a series of agreements signed between May 1994 and September 1999, Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza. Negotiations to determine the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza stalled following the outbreak of an intifada in September 2000, as Israeli forces reoccupied most Palestinian-controlled areas. In April 2003, the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) presented a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005 based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent status agreement was postponed indefinitely due to violence and accusations that both sides had not followed through on their commitments. Following Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT's death in late 2004, Mahmud ABBAS was elected PA president in January 2005. A month later, Israel and the PA agreed to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments in an effort to move the peace process forward. In September 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip and withdrew settlers and redeployed soldiers from four small northern West Bank settlements. Nonetheless, Israel controls maritime, airspace, and most access to the Gaza Strip. A November 2005 PA-Israeli agreement authorized the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under joint PA and Egyptian control. In January 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, won control of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). The international community refused to accept the HAMAS-led government because it did not recognize Israel, would not renounce violence, and refused to honor previous peace agreements between Israel and the PA. HAMAS took control of the PA government in March 2006, but President ABBAS had little success negotiating with HAMAS to present a political platform acceptable to the international community so as to lift economic sanctions on Palestinians. The PLC was unable to convene throughout most of 2006 as a result of Israel's detention of many HAMAS PLC members and Israeli-imposed travel restrictions on other PLC members. Violent clashes took place between Fatah and HAMAS supporters in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and early 2007, resulting in numerous Palestinian deaths and injuries. ABBAS and HAMAS Political Bureau Chief MISHAL in February 2007 signed the Mecca Agreement in Saudi Arabia that resulted in the formation of a Palestinian National Unity Government (NUG) headed by HAMAS member Ismail HANIYA. However, fighting continued in the Gaza Strip, and in June, HAMAS militants succeeded in a violent takeover of all military and governmental institutions in the Gaza Strip. ABBAS dismissed the NUG and through a series of Presidential decrees formed a PA government in the West Bank led by independent Salam FAYYAD. HAMAS rejected the NUG's dismissal and has called for resuming talks with Fatah, but ABBAS has ruled out negotiations until HAMAS agrees to a return of PA control over the Gaza Strip and recognizes the FAYYAD-led government. FAYYAD and his PA government initiated a series of security and economic reforms to improve conditions in the West Bank. ABBAS participated in talks with Israel's Prime Minister OLMERT and secured the release of some Palestinian prisoners and previously withheld customs revenue. During a November 2007 international meeting in Annapolis Maryland, ABBAS and OLMERT agreed to resume peace negotiations with the goal of reaching a final peace settlement.

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Geography

My two latest countries being from the birthplace of Western religion, the timing is perfect. Your life remains tormented today, so please read my Chapter 5 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity to help me initiate THE GOLDEN EVOLUTION.

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PARTIAL STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE BEGINNING OF 2010

Part B of "Santa Claus versus God" will appear later this week...maybe even tomorrow. For today, I felt like providing a few interesting facts and developments in the spirit of my books. But first, I should mention that The Huffington Post today published an updated version of my January 2 posting on "There is Something About Thorium."

1. China Requires Utilities to Buy All the Electricity Generated By Renewable Energy Companies. That drawing of a blue dragon came from the article. I'm a dragon and I collect blue dragons. Anyway, wouldn't it be something if the USA passes this type of legislation?

2. The above from The Economist shows that Europe is not working, an apt pun (the right side gets cut off, so, to be more complete: Hungary--10.5%, Britain--10%, Italy--9.4%, Netherlands--6.2%). The U.S. unemployment rate is at 10%, but is still expected to edge up until mid-year. Yet, we're not doing too badly compared to the Continent.

3. On the other hand, our stock market (+19% for the Dow Jones Industrials) did not increase as much in 2009 as many others around the world. In 2008, the DJI fell 49%.

4.Why is President Obama and the U.S. Congress plunging into an flawed health plan hated by a majority of Americans? Well, the above comparative bar graph from The Economist shows one big reason. All the countries above, save for the USA, have a national health plan. The bill the President will sign is imperfect, but will hopefully improve over time. Both Social Security and Medicare were not particularly popular when enacted, were improved over time, and now, we can't live without them.

5. To the right is a box for gasoline prices. When you click on the line following "Enter a State," you find that the U.S. average today is $2.95/gallon for premium gas.

Those lines are hard to decipher, but the average for Europe is about $7/gallon. HOWEVER, TIME MAGAZINE ON 7DECEMBER09 REPORTED THAT, COUNTING CURRENT WAR COSTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, THE PRICE OF A GALLON OF GAS SHOULD REALLY BE $45/GALLON.

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The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 15 to 10,569, while world markets were mostly up. Gold fell $2/toz to $1120 and crude oil is just under $82/barrel.

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THE GOLDEN EVOLUTION (Part 6)

The following analogy is from Chapter 5 on religion from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity, and though Christmas is now in the past, compares Santa Claus to God. My attempt at a tongue in cheek analysis a couple of years ago was further described in a recent Huffington Post article. This is section A, for my readers have complained that my blog is usually too long. Section B will follow later. You might wonder about the symbolic meaning of the following.

Santa Claus Versus God

Santa Claus and God are almost eerily similar. In my mind, they are both Anglo-Saxon males who promise gifts or a reward if you are good. Christmas celebrates the birthday of God’s only son, Jesus, and the eve is when Santa operates. Many, men in particular, once believed in Santa Claus, then, reached a maturity that told them better, but, not long after that, became Santa Claus, and later in life, looked like him. So goes the joke, anyway.

To recover from that, let me advance the logic one step higher by taking minimal liberties with the response to the following customized exchange in 1893 initiated by Virginia O’Hanlon:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Say, in my exercise, I had Virginia asking, instead, whether there is a God. The adjusted (for God) reply from Francis Church, editorial writer for The New York Sun, could well have been:

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except that they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a God.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no God! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in God! You might as well not believe in Santa Claus. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees God, but that is no sign that there is no God. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.”

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No God? Thank Santa Claus he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Amen!!!!

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The Dow Jones Industrials started the year with a major bang, up 156 to 10,584, with world markets also almost all increasing. Gold jumped $26/toz to $1122 and crude oil reached a 14-month high just below $82/barrel.

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MY BLOG STOCK CHALLENGE*

I initiated my blog stock challenge on November 3 of 2008 (day Zero) when the market looked low. Of course, the Dow Jones Industrials dipped even further, so I did not jump in at the bottom. Anyway, my performance now shows a ratio of 2.14:

	28643.85	1		61204.3	2.136734412
	Zero			3-Jan-09
	ORIGINAL VALUES
MSFT	20.25	195		30.48
GE	16.67	300		15.13
LMT	77.13	60		75.35
BA	44.17	90		54.13
UYM	13.37	300		32.23
F	1.9	3000		10
GM	1.38	1000		1.66

This means that from the original purchase price, cranking in the shares bought, the amount I invested has more than doubled. Of course, this was almost all because of Ford (F), and, as expected, the military industrial complex (General Electric, Lockheed Martin and Boeing) did not do so well. I show General Motors even though I sold that stock in June and bought Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sirius. If I include these three stocks, the results are even better.

In any case, I initiated this effort to support companies involved with green energy technologies. I have been rewarded not because of my humanitarian instincts but only because I bought low. Common sense would argue that I should sell most of them now until the market dips again, as it will sometime this year. However, I'll keep them all and check every few months just for the fun of it all.

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THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THORIUM

There are two types of nuclear energy powerplants: fission, like the Atomic Bomb, where a special isotope of uranium and/or plutonium is used as the fuel, and fusion, the Hydrogen Bomb, where two isotopes of hydrogen are combined to produce energy. Our Sun and all stars fuse hydrogen to produce heat. The former results in radioactive wastes that can remain dangerous for many hundreds of thousands of years, while the latter still has to be stored, but only for several tens of years. Uranium/plutonium fission materials can be used by terrorists for dirty bombs, and, depending on who you ask, there is such a thing as Peak Uranium. France, for example, now only imports its nuclear fuel. There is also the fickle price of uranium, which for decades dawdled at $20/pound, only to zoom up close to $140/pound in 2007, settling more recently to $45/pound.

Remembering Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Chernobyl/Three Mile Island, in consideration of nuclear terrorism, plus the sticky problem of where to store those nuclear wastes, I have long been an opponent of fission. Until now. Cosmos in 2006 and the latest issue of Wired both cover thorium as an option for nuclear electricity. Named after the Norse God Thor, this element shows exciting potential as fuel for a next generation fission reactor.

There is a blog site on this subject. You can read all those links to gain in-depth knowledge, but let me give you my top ten reasons for advocating thorium, at least to promote a thorough public discussion:

1. There are up to six times more thorium than uranium, with India having about a third of the supply in one report and Australia as #1 and the USA as #2 in resource potential in another. Some go so far as to say that there is thorium to supply all our needs for a thousand years. Clearly, the field is just beginning to be understood.
2. The very first commercial nuclear powerplant, in 1962, was powered by thorium late in its life cycle until decommissioning, so we know the concept works.
3. However, America at the beginning turned to uranium/plutonium because our “war” advisors wanted this fuel for nuclear weapons.
4. For a typical 1000 MW uranium powerplant, you start with 250 tons of uranium ore. A 1000 MW thorium system uses only one ton of thorium, but it is of interest that a 1000 MW coal plant, on average, ends up with 13 tons of thorium in the remaining ashes.
5. The fuel cost for a conventional nuclear powerplant is $50-$60 million, while the equivalent thorium reactor will only use $10,000 of thorium.
6. Uranium/plutonium wastes need to be safely stored for hundreds of thousands of years, while thorium is not fissile, and the reactor wastes would require, perhaps, caring for several hundred years.
7. There is no terrorism potential for the thorium cycle.
8. There can be no nuclear meltdown for a thorium reactor.
9. Uranium fission, thorium fission and fusion produce very little carbon dioxide (not from the process itself, but the materials and construction).
10. Regarding the size of land required, a 1000 MW nuclear power site needs about a quarter million square feet, surrounded by a lot of nothing. A thorium 1000 MW facility would only need 2500 square feet, with no buffer zone. Am I reading this correctly? You can’t legally build a house on a lot of this size.

My book well covers nuclear power and I worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion. I don’t previously remember the thorium option being even discussed. Yes, it’s not perfect because you still need to mingle thorium with some rare uranium and there are assorted warts, but if global warming is real, we will immediately need viable options to replace coal, and the thorium fission reactor should as soon as possible undergo comprehensive due diligence and airing out in the public, and as soon as possible replace uranium in as many existing nuclear power facilities (yes, the retrofitting option is another bonus) as possible.

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A SIMPLE NEW YEAR'S BRUNCH IN HONOLULU

The first meal of the year is always symbolically significant. Growing up in Hawaii, it was a special Japanese feast featuring ozoni (annual breakfast soup), kuromame (boiled black soybeans), kazunoko (salted herring egg on seaweed), sashimi (raw yellowfin or bluefin tuna), sushi and another dozen or so other dishes, mostly of vegetables, with chicken and pork.

My mother, and, later, Pearl, did all the preparations and I merely enjoyed the meal. Sometimes, a visit to a Buddhist temple for burning incense and small prayer ending with a bit of sake. Usually, this was a day when friends and relatives came by, where liberal amounts of alcohol were served.

I thought about this tradition, but decided to make certain adjustments. First, breakfast is too early, so for me, it was brunch. Mind you, this is similar to my first roast turkey, in that I am preparing everything. I thought of inviting people, but, decided to first experiment alone.

I looked at various ozoni recipes and simplified it to a can of hokkigai

clams (the red color is important this day, as you will see in the sashimi and assorted other items), can of button mushrooms, mochi (pounded rice), mustard cabbage (something called mizuna is mostly used, but you needed to buy a rather large quantity, and I don't like it anyway), green onions, a dash of shoyu and some sake.

The kazunoko could only be purchased for around $26 in a large chunk, and I merely wanted a postage stamp amount, so I used ikura (salted salmon eggs, again, red) instead. I splurged on a $28/pound otoro, a premium portion from the belly of blue-fin tuna.

I tried to find the smallest onaga (a kind of red snapper), and for a fortune bought one, which added to the sashimi and a small amount for frying, with the rest frozen for future use:

I also saw a container of something called chikuzenni (gobo or burdock, hasu or lotus root, carrots, bamboo sprouts, shiitake mushrooms and konnyaku or a potato gel), which I tossed into a pan with slices of rib eye in butter.

I had the #1 rice in the world from Niigata, but felt that the mochi in the soup was sufficient. Or, maybe, I was a bit lazy to actually cook it.

The obligatory liquids included Saporro (as Kenjiro was born in Otaru, lived in Sapporo and went on to Utashinai, before journeying to the USA) beer, Kiku-Masamune taruzake (because you can buy this in a small bottle, with a taste of cedar) and Yoichi 20 year old scotch, which, amazingly enough, was recently selected as the best scotch in the world. The ozoni was fabulous and this simple epicurean delight resulted in a three hour brunch gazing off at a tranquil Honolulu and sparkling Pacific Ocean.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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