FANTASY, POLITICAL AND HUNGER GAMES

This has been a weekend of games for me, and today being Kuhio Day, the holiday continues in Hawaii.   I walked 18 holes at the Ala Wai Golf Course, completed drafting four ESPN and CBS Sports fantasy teams, and went to see Hunger Games.

There was a time a few years ago when I had as many as 15 teams (I won't try to explain how this works, but click on that link for a Wikipedia treatment), just for baseball.  I took a sabbatical from this competition to write three books, more than a hundred articles for the Huffington Post and started a daily blog (what you are here reading).  I am leaving aside the novels I have started and future HuffPo's, as participation in these fantasy games is all absorbing, requiring you to watch as many Major League Baseball (MLB) games as possible, catching Baseball Tonight on ESPN and spending a lot of time on the MLB TV channel.

Isn't this a horrible waste of time...and what could I possibly get out of it?  Almost no money and a lot of frustration and grief, actually not much different from trying to save Planet Earth and Humanity.  Am I giving up on the future?  I don't seem to be getting anywhere with my efforts, so, for now, I will only continue this blog site.  I might be back someday if circumstances change.

Continuing my White Rat experiment, I monitored my blood press and pulse rate just before the first draft, and was horrified by a reading of 180/103/73 (the third is my pulse).  I was totally frustrated trying to understand how to proceed (nine others from who knows where participated) on my computer link.  In all I took four readings, and as late as three hours after the ordeal was over (lasted two hours), the readings were still in the 160/90 range.

All in all, things went relatively well.  First, I survived and the experience was exciting, but I ended up picking up a host of players who were on the dreaded day-to-day injury list.  This is what happens when you jump in to something new without much planning, at least in that the last major league baseball I saw (including TV) over the past three years was a live one at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

However, the next day, I drafted three teams, where the readings were in the 135/85 range, and, at the end of the third draft, dropped to 125/80, about normal.  Frustration caused that scary jump yesterday, and it is gratifying to know that my body was able to adjust to the anxiety and stress.

Hunger Games got an audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 95%, and over this three-day weekend, will approach or exceed box office revenues of $150 million.  It was made for $80 million.  Two other movies I was considering, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Jeff, Who Lives at Home, will earn, maybe $1 million, combined.

The film is based on a teenage trilogy set written by Suzanne Collins of a dystopian future.  Will this be the next Harry Potter? All the reviews are praiseworthy, but I found the film uneven, discordant and a mish-mash of The Truman Show, Republican Primary (and various TV) Survival series, The Bachelorette and America's Got Talent.  The movie runs for 142 minutes, and I further found myself dosing off a couple of times.  In many ways, the movie sort of reflected my life. 

There was no real suspense, for the sequels have already been announced and you know that Katniss Everdeen will not get killed.  The main character is played by 21 year old Jennifer Lawrence, who last year got nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in Winter's Bone.  She is already being compared to Meryl Streep, who won Best Actress this year, again.

Returning to Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, most don't realize that he worked with industrialists to overththrow the Hawaiian monarchy.  He was elected ten times to the office of the territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress and is given credit for building up Pearl Harbor.

And speaking of pork barrel, do you think the $125 million to build a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Ewa is something the nation truly needs today?  This comes courtesy of our Congress and Department of Veterans Affairs primarily because Senator Daniel Akaka (left) is the chairman of the Senate Committee over this office, and Senator Daniel Inouye is chairman of the Appropriations Committee.  The game of politics rewarded Akaka, for he leaves office in December.  One guess what this center will be called?  Senator Inouye reaches 88 this year, so if you think the Hawaiian economy is now suffering, consider the prospects of his imminent passage.

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One of the intended cuts will be to this section of my blog.  In the future, I will comment if there is something newsworthy.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average and WTI price of oil can be found on the right.  For today, Ben Bernanke essentially said that the Fed will keep the prime rate at 0% into 2014, jerking up the Dow by 161 to 13,242.  All my stocks were up, except for Sirius XM Radio, which dropped 0.02 to 2.25.  However, I bought in May of 2009 for 19 cents/share, so I"m still ahead.  A couple of months earlier it was at 10 cents.

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60'S POP, ROCK AND SOUL

The 60's was my most memorable era.  One identifies with certain songs when your life is in transition, and this was the decade when I moved around the most.  It began when I was a sophomore at Stanford, and ended when I was in my PhD program at LSU (here is a photo of the Baton Rouge campus sent to me by Dan Bent, who was also there at that time, just around the  period when Pearl and I arrived to live just left of where the scene ends).  In between, I got married, spent some time in the U.S. Army and had, without knowing it, begun my roots search, to become, perhaps, Book #4.  

Thus, the PBS My Song series on:

Entertainment started with Davy Jones (above left), who, as you know, passed away on 29February2012.  He sang "Daydream Believer," and here he is in his prime (the really young guy singing) with the Monkees.   Paul Revere followed with "Kicks."

All the You Tube versions from this program were deleted, so you will get the originals, save for Jefferson Starship below.

Came the Vogues with "Turn Around, Look at Me."
The Jefferson Starship is hardly the same group, but their current lead singer, Cathy Richardson, is fabulous, and at least as good as Grace Slick was.  Richardson sang "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit."

Roger McGuinn, one of the five Byrds performed "Mr. Tambourine Man."  Here is the 1965 original.    The next was the quintessential college party raunch song of the Kingsmen, "Louie, Louie."

Percy Sledge sang "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Chad and Jeremy did "A Summer Song:"

Mitch Ryder did "Devil with a Blue Dress, and The Ventures played the "Theme from Hawaii Five-O:"

Here is the new Hawaii Five-O theme.
The Miracles with Smokey Robinson did "Ooo Baby Baby" and Eddie Floyd sang "Knock on Wood:"

Then Peter Noone, lead singer of Herman's Hermits, who co-moderated with Davy Jones, sang:  "I'm into Something Good," "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" and "There's a Kind of Hush."  It's a long story as to the name of the group, but it had to do with a close resemblance between Noone and Sherman of Rocky and Bullwinkle, they took out the S and....  The question as to which is more important, the music or the lyrics, is answered in "Henry the 8th." who was not a king of France, but the singer, who was the eighth husband of a widow who married only Henries.  The words are inane and come from a 1910 tune.

"This Diamond Ring" came from Gary Lewis and The Playboys, followed by "96 Tears" — ? Mark  and The Mysterians:

Gary is the son of Jerry Lewis and ? Mark is Rudy Martinez.  The group got their name from the Japanese film, The Mysterians.  In 1966 they might have been the first punk rock group.

"Hey There Lonely Girl" by Eddie Holman and  "Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Goodbye" by Gary DeCarlo:

"Classical Gas" by Mason Williams ended the show.  Williams was also a stand-up comic and wrote for The Smothers Brothers and Saturday Night Live.

The show was okay, but keep in mind that one list has the following as the top ten of the 60's, and none of the above is represented:

1. Will You Love Me Tomorrow - Shirelles
2. Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles
3. Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison
4. Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters
5. Stay - Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs
6. Chain Gang - Sam Cooke
7. Save The Last Dance For Me - Drifters
8. Shop Around - Miracles
9. The Twist - Chubby Checker
10. Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers

While another has:

1.  Hey Jude  by The Beatles
2.  The Theme From "A Summer Place" by Percy Faith
3.  Tossin' And Turnin' by Bobby Lewis
4.  I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles
5.  I'm A Believer by The Monkees
6.  I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
7.  Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) by The 5th Dimension
8.  Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Elvis Presley
9.  In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) by Zager & Evans
10. It's Now Or Never by Elvis Presley

And only one made it.  Many of my favorites are not anywhere above.  Perhaps someday I'll post my top ten.  In any case, this was a most memorable decade for me.

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ARE GASOLINE PRICES TOO HIGH?

It was exactly a month ago when this blog site asked:

IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF PEAK OIL?

My answer was sort of wishy washy, although the Peak Oil Center graphically shows that Peak Oil occurred in 2008:

So, are gasoline prices too high?  Well, not really, on a relative basis.  The morning paper indicates that Hawaii is #1 at $4.52/gallon, while California is at $4.34/gallon.  The column to the right (How Much Does Gasoline Cost?--you'll need to follow directions and extrapolate) indicates that the U.S. average is about $4/gallon, so the 50th State is 13% higher.  Considering our location and economy of scale, this is not bad at all for two reasons:

  1.  Our electricity rates are 300% higher than the Nation.  Hawaii pays 33 cents/kWh, while the USA is at $11 cents/kWh.  

  2.  The gasoline cost in the United Kingdom is $7.70/gallon.  Here is a world comparison using the United States at 1.0  (that is, multiply each ratio by $4/gallon to arrive at the actual price):

Rank	Countries	Amount
# 1	Uruguay:	1.95
# 2	United Kingdom:	1.92
# 3	Israel:	1.87
# 4	Argentina:	1.75
= 5	Finland:	1.74
= 5	Japan:	1.74
# 7	Iceland:	1.72
# 8	Netherlands:	1.69
= 9	Burundi:	1.66
= 9	Denmark:	1.66
# 11	Zambia:	1.64
= 12	France:	1.62
= 12	Central African Republic:	1.62
# 14	Italy:	1.59
# 15	Belgium:	1.57
# 16	Sweden:	1.54
= 17	Korea, South:	1.51
= 17	Brazil:	1.51
# 19	Germany:	1.49
= 20	Rwanda:	1.46
= 20	Korea, North:	1.46
# 22	Turkey:	1.44
# 23	Uganda:	1.41
= 24	Zimbabwe:	1.39
= 24	Guinea:	1.39
= 26	Sierra Leone:	1.34
= 26	Morocco:	1.34
= 26	Austria:	1.34
# 29	Hungary:	1.33
= 30	Peru:	1.31
= 30	Bolivia:	1.31
# 32	Switzerland:	1.28
= 33	Portugal:	1.26
= 33	Czech Republic:	1.26
= 35	Madagascar:	1.25
= 35	Poland:	1.25
= 35	Croatia:	1.25
= 35	Cote d'Ivoire:	1.25
= 35	Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of:	1.25
# 40	Tanzania:	1.23
# 41	Norway:	1.21
= 42	Spain:	1.2
= 42	Senegal:	1.2
= 44	Ireland:	1.18
= 44	Paraguay:	1.18
= 44	Greece:	1.18
= 47	Dominica:	1.16
= 47	Kenya:	1.16
= 49	Mali:	1.15
= 49	Bulgaria:	1.15
= 51	Malawi:	1.13
= 51	Slovakia:	1.13
= 53	Niger:	1.11
= 53	Chad:	1.11
= 53	Burkina Faso:	1.11
= 53	Bosnia and Herzegovina:	1.11
= 57	El Salvador:	1.1
= 57	Mauritania:	1.1
= 57	Latvia:	1.1
= 60	Lithuania:	1.08
= 60	Sri Lanka:	1.08
# 62	Costa Rica:	1.07
# 63	Burma:	1.06
= 64	Haiti:	1.05
= 64	Chile:	1.05
= 64	Gambia, The:	1.05
= 64	Guinea-Bissau:	1.05
= 68	Slovenia:	1.03
= 68	Nepal:	1.03
= 70	Nicaragua:	1.02
= 70	Honduras:	1.02
= 70	Jamaica:	1.02
= 73	Mexico:	1
= 73	Cuba:	1
= 73	Cambodia:	1
# 76	Somalia:	0.99
= 77	India:	0.98
= 77	Estonia:	0.98
= 79	Bhutan:	0.95
= 79	Canada:	0.95
= 81	Albania:	0.93
= 81	Australia:	0.93
= 83	Liberia:	0.92
= 83	Azerbaijan:	0.92
= 83	Cameroon:	0.92
= 83	Mozambique:	0.92
# 87	Armenia:	0.9
= 88	Papua New Guinea:	0.87
= 88	Guatemala:	0.87
= 88	Panama:	0.87
= 88	Lebanon:	0.87
= 88	Congo, Democratic Republic of the:	0.87
= 88	Gabon:	0.87
= 88	Pakistan:	0.87
# 95	South Africa:	0.82
= 96	Colombia:	0.8
= 96	Tunisia:	0.8
= 98	Benin:	0.79
= 98	New Zealand:	0.79
= 98	Togo:	0.79
= 101	Namibia:	0.77
= 101	United States:	0.77
= 103	Romania:	0.75
= 103	Ethiopia:	0.75
= 103	Bangladesh:	0.75
= 106	Moldova:	0.74
= 106	Tajikistan:	0.74
= 106	Jordan:	0.74
= 109	Kyrgyzstan:	0.72
= 109	Syria:	0.72
# 111	Uzbekistan:	0.7
# 112	Botswana:	0.69
# 113	Belarus:	0.68
# 114	Laos:	0.67
# 115	China:	0.66
= 116	Thailand:	0.64
= 116	Trinidad and Tobago:	0.64
= 118	Mongolia:	0.62
= 118	Vietnam:	0.62
= 120	Philippines:	0.61
= 120	Ukraine:	0.61
# 122	Kazakhstan:	0.59
# 123	Russia:	0.54
= 124	Oman:	0.51
= 124	Ecuador:	0.51
# 126	Angola:	0.49
= 127	Sudan:	0.46
= 127	Malaysia:	0.46
= 129	Algeria:	0.44
= 129	Nigeria:	0.44
# 131	Egypt:	0.43
= 132	Libya:	0.41
= 132	United Arab Emirates:	0.41
# 134	Saudi Arabia:	0.39
# 135	Kuwait:	0.34
# 136	Ghana:	0.33
# 137	Indonesia:	0.28
# 138	Venezuela:	0.2
# 139	Iran:	0.08
# 140	Iraq:	0.05
# 141	Turkmenistan:	0.03
	Weighted average:	1.0

Those bar graphs get cut off to the right at the high end, but the ratios are more important.  Also, these prices have almost nothing to do with the price of oil, for many countries just overtax this commodity, and, towards the bottom, government subsidizes gasoline.  The cartoon to the right, though, is the attitude Americans have to this so-called "high" price of gas in the USA.

I'd never be elected President, but I've long advocated Congress lopping on an extra $1/gallon on any oil product, call it an investment credit (more commonly known as a tax), and apply this extra $142 billion/year towards sustainable resource development and energy conservation.  If we had done this after the second energy crisis nearly a third of a century ago, we could well today be energy independent.

By the way, Hawaii would rank at #50 with Malawi and Slovakia.  If you want really low gasoline prices, go to Turkmenistan, Iraq and Iran.  Click on the country and you will learn everything you need to know about energy for that location.

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