HYDROGEN, HAWAII, MALALA, ELEPHANTS AND TUNA

In case anyone was wondering what happened to my renewable energy review series, it will continue next week.  Today, I will provide insights into recent news, starting with the future of aviation, Hawaii's greatest  need:

1.  A 20-ton lifting capacity Aeroscraft rigid airship was tested, with funds primarily from the Department of Defense.  The ultimate 500-ton ship lifted by helium should fly at speeds up to 140 MPH.  My Huffington Post article on The Future of Sustainable Aviation touched on this form of transport.  Unfortunately, the fuel for this craft will continue to be fossil liquids.

However, there is also Rinaldo Brutoco's (right) H2 Clipper (I like to think the H2 also stands for Hawaii Hydrogen, as shown below), capable someday for bringing tourists to Hawaii from the West Coast.  Here are some details.  Peter Hoffmann of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter reported on the H2 Clipper in October of this year.  Because this craft will fly up to 350 MPH, the flight would only take eight hours.  You say, isn't hydrogen dangerous?  Well, there was the Hindenburg.  On the other hand, recent studies have shown that, not hydrogen, but certain design features which can be overcome, were responsible.  Further, this gas would power the fast dirigible and also transport hydrogen produced by our geothermal energy fields, wind energy farms and ocean thermal energy conversion plantships to the mainland.  Thus, someday we might become an energy exporting state.

As Hawaii is so dependent on tourism, we absolutely need to find a replacement for the jetliner because when oil prices shoot past $150/barrel someday, we will be screwed, and enter into a prolonged economic depression.  Brutoco's concept (left) is our best hope for long-term progress.  Now that Senator Dan Inouye is no longer around, though, I fear Hawaii becoming a bit player in this development, at best.

2.  The Honolulu Star Advertiser featured headline on the front page today said:

Senators placed on key committees

I got news for you.  No one is on the Appropriations Committee in either house.  That's terrible.  Energy, Commerce, Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Indian Affairs are all authorization committees.  They are close to useless.  You need to be on the Appropriations Committee to insure that your chairman inserts your pork into the final report.  Not only has Hawaii lost seniority, we are on the wrong committees.  The most disappointing of all is Brian Schatz, our senior senator, not replacing Senator Dan Inouye on that committee.  In a word, Hawaii could well be double-screwed.

3.  Malala Yousufzai was released from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.  She miraculously survived that assassination attempt by the Pakistan Taliban, and at the age of 15, could well gain the Novel Prize later this year.  She needs to return for, get this, cranial reconstruction, so all is not yet well.  While she was in the hospital, the only request she had of her father was to bring to the hospital her textbooks.  The Pakistanian government gave him a job as an attaché in their United Kingdom embassy, so she should be safer there than at home.

4.  Was this a landslide?  The final Electoral College tally showed an Obama victory over Romney of  332-206.  I suspect our tax money is being used to pay for this useless formality, and should be discarded.  I'll have a posting soon on a proposed National Constitutional Convention, so we can fashion a mid-course correction for our government.  Items like the second amendment and term limits on Congress should also be re-addressed.  A lot has changed in more than two centuries.  Oh, by the way, the 2008 Obama's campaign just got fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for irregularities.  Why did it take so long>  Recall??  I wonder how much the hit will be in 2012?  That's our President in home state Hawaii this week with his obligatory Hawaii shave ice.

5.  Remember my October posting on Ivory Hunters?  Hong Kong just seized 2,900 pounds of ivory, said to come from 800 dead elephants.  40 tons were re-captured in 2011 alone, representing 22,000 dead elephants.  Just think about those tusks that passed through the system, and the elephants that had to be massacred.  And, no, these assassins cannot tranquilize and just cut off the tusks like Florida stone crabs (where the claws are taken off and the crustacean tossed back into sea because there is limb regrowth), for they are needed for survival.  There are now around half a million elephants in Africa and a tenth that in Asia.

6.  Kiyoshi Kimura (in photo with the whole fish) paid $1.76 million for a 489 pound blue fin  tuna.  That's $3600/pound.  I thought I was extravagant when I bought a pound of chu-toro (same fish, which, arghh, is a threatened species) for all of $32, less than one-hundredth that of Kimura's.  Here are a couple more shots of this vulgarism:

It takes an ounce of flesh to make one sushi.  Thus, just these two must be sold for more than $450 for him to make a profit.  My whole Jiro lunch "only" cost $350...for twenty sushi and sake, with half a musk melon at the end.

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RAINBOWS, KILAUEA VOLCANO AND GOLF

When I taught Technology and Society at the University of Hawaii, one of my essay questions on the final exam was a kind of trick question.  I asked the students to relate three terms (which I provided) from the course that had no apparent connection to each other, and spend no more than five minutes.  To my astonishment, virtually every person came up with amazing and incredible relationships that were far beyond my initial thoughts.  This showed me that everyone can be creative.

So today, I ask you to relate the words in the title above.  Well, you will have difficulty.  But I can.  It was exactly 30 years yesterday that I was golfing on the Volcano Golf and Country Club on the Big Island of Hawaii when on the tenth hole we felt the ground shudder.  Soon thereafter, we saw fountains of lava a couple of hundred yards high only a few hundred yards from where we stood.  This was the beginning of the current Kilauea eruption, which has now continuously gone on for three decades.

Mind you,  the fountain height record is 1900 feet set by Kilauea Iki 63 years ago.  Kilauea itself is on the slope of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Planet Earth, measuring 13,659 feet high, but the peak is almost eleven miles (56,000 feet) above the base at the bottom of the ocean.  Mount Everest is only 29,029 feet tall.

There are pluses and minuses.  Certainly, the Big Island tourism rate has been helped.  There is something awesome about being on a helicopter, buffeted by the currents and being splattered by the the rock particles and steam.  A photo I took is on my campus office wall.  This was a National Guard helicopter and not advised.  At night, the orange of the flow is spectacular.  The sound and fury of lava flowing into the sea can be mesmerizing:

There are some negatives.  Flowing lava wiped out the communities of Kalapana, Royal Gardens and Kapaahu.  All the homes are gone.  Worse, the volcanic fumes will cause serious pulmonary problems over large areas of the island.  Perhaps Pahala, where I once lived, is most affected.  During Kona wind days, the haze over Honolulu can be worse than the smog of Los Angeles in the 1950's.  Sunsets, though, are terrific.

So where does a rainbow come into this discussion?  Well, yesterday, I golfed at the Ala Wai Golf Course, and there were rainbows all day:

Then, of course, I see rainbows all the time from my apartment.

Normally, rainbows appear only for a few seconds or minutes, if you're fortunate, but never for several hours, continuously.  This must be a good omen for 2013.  The matter of luck, of course, has to do with culture and mythology.  In the Judeo-Christian world, a rainbow appeared after Noah saved the animals from the Great Flood (Genesis):

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OVERWEIGHT...NOW OKAY --- FRUCTOSE...NOKAY

Here, for years, I've been warning you about obesity.  Then, George Blackburn of the Harvard Medical School comes out and says that your risk of death is increased if you're NOT overweight!!!  What???

A hundred studies were analyzed, and the bottom line is that you should be slightly overweight than not.  Mind you, morbid obesity is still very bad.  But, apparently, these extra pounds serve as a reservoir in case you get seriously sick.  Actually, I've been saying and practicing this, too.  My Body-Mass Index is just in the okay range when I'm hungry, but slips into the overweight category after a particularly huge meal.  Now, I can feel reassured about this condition.

If I avoid any strenuous exercise for a week, I gain several pounds.  I now only have a third of an apple for breakfast, plus two meals daily, with perhaps one on the order of Rainbow Drive Inn lethality.  One of my favorites is perfect for carbo loading if you're running the marathon, their spaghetti with rice, macaroni salad and a hot dog.  Unfortunately, I don't do the marathon.

Going back to being somewhat chubby, what is more important than BMI, according to Samuel Klein of Washington University, are body conditions such as lower blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.  Get this.  Being too thin is not recommended.  You can now begin to feel sorry for those model types.  Ah, I can now have just one more snack tonight.

While I'm at this, on the same page of the previous report was a note that there is something good about glucose and bad about fructose.  What happens is that a soft drink with more fructose than glucose (sucrose, or sugar, is half of each) does not provide a signal to your brain that you are satisfied or full.  Thus, you tend to eat more.  Glucose does warn your body.

Worse, fructose becomes visceral fat, which induces diseases.  And fructose seems to increase Low Density Lipoprotein, which is bad cholesterol.   A report indicates fructose wrinkles your skin.  Finally, fructose, seems to bypass the gastrointestinal path and go straight to your liver, which overworks this key organ and makes it fatty.

Corn syrup has a higher fructose ratio, while cane sugar, or sucrose, has half and half of each.  This conversion from sugar cane sweetener to corn sweetener happened because the latter was cheaper.  This is about when children began to get obese.

So what should you drink?  Water.  Or wine.  Coke and Pepsi use corn sweeteners,  Not good.  Sierra Mist is good, Sprite is bad.  All the common ginger ales use fructose, while Whole Foods and Trader Joe's sell this drink with sugar from cane, which, is okay, relatively.

Grains contain some glucose, but no fructose.  Dairy products have glucose, but chocolate milk and flavored yogurts add fructose.  Honey has a higher fructose ratio than sugar cane.

Agave (right) is 90-97% fructose.  Blue agave is used for tequila.  I might add that artificial sweeteners are considered to be worse than frutose.

THUS, WHILE FRUCTOSE IS A NATURAL SUGAR, IT IS MORE AND MORE BEING PROVEN TO BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH!!!

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THE ULTIMATE WORLD JOURNEY

A few of you indicated you would be interested in joining me for at least for a portion of my Spring Around the World Trip.  You can link with me from the following itinerary on Star Alliance.  For those viewing this posting, I look forward to having lunch with you during any of my quick stops in your city.

WORLD JOURNEY (Spring 2013)

Wednesday     March 27        1249    Lv        Honolulu      United 724 A 

                                            2045    Ar        San Francisco             

                                            22:35   Lv        San Francisco United 863 A 

Friday             March 29        0710    Ar        Sydney

                                                                           Westin 

Monday          April  1           1655    Lv        Sydney          Thai 472 A     

                                           2215   Ar         Bangkok         

                                                                         Sheraton Sukhamvit  

Friday             April  5           0735    Lv        Bangkok         Thai 676 A

                                           1545    Ar         Narita               Airbus 380

                                                                         Tokyo Westin 

(Shinkansen Green Car times will be determined later)

Monday          April 8                       Lv      Tokyo Station

                                                      Ar       Osaka

                                                                        Regis 

Tuesday          April 9                      Ar       Miyazaki

                                                                        Sheraton

Wednesday     April 10                    Ar       Hiroshima 

                                                                        Sheraton 

Thursday        April 11                    Ar        Sendai 

                                                                        Westin 

Friday             April 12                    Ar        Sapporo 

                                                                         Sheraton

Saturday          April 13                   Ar        Tokyo 

                                                                          Westin 

             

Sunday            April 14        1230    Lv       Narita              Asiana 101 A

                                          1510    Ar       Incheon                      

                                                                      Westin Chosun 

  

Wednesday     April 17          1410    Lv      Incheon           Asiana 365 C

                                           1510   Ar      Shanghai

                                                                       Westin on the Bund 

Saturday          April 20        1155    Lv        Shanghai        AirChina1502 F

                                          1410    Ar        Beijing Capital           

                                                                         St. Regis 

Tuesday          April 23          1030    Lv       Beijing           Lufthansa 721 A

                                            1445    Ar       Frankfurt           Airbus 380

                                                                        Sheraton Airport

Thursday        April 25          1300    Lv        Frankfurt**    Lufthansa 418 A

                                          1545    Ar         Dulles               Airbus 747-8

                                                                        St. Regis 

  

Sunday            April 28         1220    Lv        Dulles            United 735 F

                                           1418    Ar        Denver

                                                                         Olsons

Tuesday          April 30          1535    Lv        Denver           United 735 A

                                            1714    Ar        San Francisco

                                                                         4 Points Sheraton Airport

Thursday        May  2             0900              Pickup by Kenji’s group

                                                                           Golf safari in Napa Valley

Tuesday          May 8                                    Napa Valley

Wednesday     May   9                                  San Francisco

                                                                         4 Points Sheraton Airport

  

Friday             May 10            1040   Lv        San Francisco   United 201 F

                                            1310   Ar         Honolulu

Why is this an ultimate world journey?  Well, it could well be my final grand trip, as I'm getting old and running out of money.  I have scheduled flights on the Airbus 380 and new Boeing 747-8.  I tend to stay in Starwood hotels because as a Platinum member, the internet and breakfast are free, they upgrade me and I can freely use any of their executive clubs.  But what will make this trip memorable will be lunches and dinners at Michelin 3-Star and Pellagrino Top 100 restaurants.  For example, I'll be having dinner at Narisawa, the best restaurant in Japan.  A little disconcerting is that it dropped twelve places to #27 in the World, and that it is not even in the Michelin 3-Star list.  Interesting that Japan has more of these temples of cuisine than France, and that Tokyo has more than Paris.  California has only two Michelin 3-Stars, and they are both in the Napa Valley region:  French Laundry in Yountville and The Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena.  Maybe I'll get to experience both on this trip.

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Looks like Tropical Cyclone Dumile, at 75 MPH, will skirt to the west side of St. Denis, Reunion:

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OZONI: MY FIRST MEAL OF THE YEAR

I awoke to a rainbow this morning and took the following photo:

If you've been to my roof, you should be shocked.  Everything is gone, save for a few plants and the water lillies, which will be adopted by Debbie and Dan Bent:

No, I'm not leaving.  My condo is in the process of re-painting and re-lining my roof, and, it was a heart wrenching decision to dispose of everything.  I got to give Matt and his company, Got Junk, kudos for taking care of everything.  In tune with my general theme, this is a new year, and I will continue on with another kind of new life this year.

I prepare my own ozoni every year.  This is the soup at breakfast in Japan on January 1 and is consumed for good luck.  There are a million recipes, and I do something different every year.  Last year my base stock was from Peking Duck.  

My ozoni usually occurs for a late brunch.  This year, my soup base included the following:

I bought some accompanying chu-toro and abalone:

To have with the following drinks:

The Sapporo beer because Kenjiro came from that city when the population was only a few thousand, the sake is some kind of Junmai Daiginjo (I think--perhaps one of my friends who reads the language can so let  me know), and the Blue Label because I dropped a jigger of it into my ozoni.  Here is my first meal of 2013:

The ozoni, sometimes known as zoni and mochi soup, also has various vegetables and mochi.  This is a traditional start of the year rice paste ceremonially made by pounding.  You need to be a bit careful with mochi, for the process can crush your hand and the glutonous product when eaten can kill.  The other items are namasu and kinpira.  This latter dish is made from burdock (right) or gobo.  No one in the USA voluntarily consumes this vegetable.  Even in Japan you don't see it in salads or at receptions where broccoli or cucumbers might be served.  Why?  It tastes odd.  I still remember at a University of Hawaii versus University of Nevada at Las Vegas football game when an old man sat by himself and waved this dark brown root.  At about halftime it finally occurred to me that that gobo also symbolized "Go Bows," which was being cheered when he gesticulated.  We are the Rainbow (or Bows) Warriors.

HAUOLI MAKAHIKI HOU!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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BEST MOVIES OF 2013

I went to around 50 movies last year.  The top three box office hits were:

• Marvel's The Avengers  $1.5 billion
• The Dark Knight Rises  $1.1 billion
• Skyfall                           $1.0 billion

My usual M.O. is to have lunch at Buca di Beppo, and the following is what I had yesterday:

A chicken limon and spaghetti/meatballs with a glass of prosecco.  Why two dishes?   I had a two for one coupon, but these "small" plates were gigantic.  I took home two-thirds of the chicken and 80% of the pasta.  I brought with me one of those metallic looking bags with a frozen chemical package, as from lunch, when I left the theater, it was almost dark.

Reinforced, I then went to see Django Unchained and Les Miserables.  Rotten Tomatoes gave DU a 93% audience like rating and LM 85%.   I loved both films.

Django Unchained:  Quentin Tarantino (and, of course, he also made a cameo, and, has gained some weight, maybe even a lot), graphically bloody, spaghetti western just before the Civil War, super actors, quirky soundtrack, 165 minutes...Hollywood ending.

Les Miserables:  Victor Hugo of "Hunchback of Notre Dame" fame (LM took all of 1200 pages), during the time of the American Civil War, but in Paris, excellent singing from unexpected stars with little actual dialogue, 158 minutes, Anne Hathaway (who at death performed a memorable I Dreamed a Dream--I also just saw her on  Saturday Night Live, and she can really sing) dies very early, kind of like Janet Leigh in Psycho, but no problem, for she returns at the end (looking a lot better than just before she sang that song), "proving" that there is a Heaven (and, oh, by the way, if you're wondering what age you'll be if you get there, go see the film).  You know, it occurred to me that a re-make of Roman Holiday with Hathaway and Jackman would be just perfect.

Wow, that was 60 years ago!

Well, that was last year.  For 2013 there will be a lot of remakes and sequels:

THE HOBBIT:  The Desolation of Smaug

A Good Day to DIE HARD

The Lone Ranger, with Johnny Depp as Tonto (left)

Man of Steel (the latest Superman)

STAR TREK Into Darkness

IRON MAN 3

OZ:  The Great and Powerful

MONSTERS University

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 5

THE FAST AND FURIOUS 6

THE HANGOVER Part III

THE WOLVERINE

DESPICABLE ME 2

JURASSIC PARK IV

TOP GUN 2

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2

Cleopatra (with Angelina Jolie and Ang Lee)

ZOMBIELAND 2

THE HUNGER GAMES:  Catching Fire

GREEN LANTERN 2

ROBOCOP

AUSTIN POWERS 4

Plus, there will be a whole lot of alien films.  People are fascinated with them.  A movie called Sinatra to be directed by Martin Scorsese and Behind the Candelabra (Liberace, with Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Rob Low, Debby Reynolds and Dan Aykroyd) are coming.  Who will play Frank?  At one time it was Leonardo DiCaprio.  Guess who is Liberace?  Tada...Michael Douglas.  Actually, this one will be made by HBO for their cable channels.

I'll probably go to another 50 this year.

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Alert to my friends in the Indian Ocean!!!  Tropical Cyclone Dumile, still only at 65 MPH, will attain hurricane category 2 and, as currently, projected, slam into Reunion around Thursday.  Mauritius will also be affected.



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