SEA ASPARAGUS and DEATH

First of all, there is no connection between Sea Asparagus and Death.  These are two different subjects.  The first has to do with an alert about one of my postings that failed to be published, but is now available. 

Secondly, maybe President Donald Trump's various threats are working.  From the New York Times this morning:

Since taking office, Trump has told several nations he would tax imports from their countries if they didn’t do what he wants. He said he would put a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on products from China unless those countries stopped flows of drugs and migrants into the United States.

He has also said he would put tariffs on Russia for waging war in Ukraine and on Denmark if it refused to cede the territory of Greenland. Colombia’s quick capitulation (about accepting back illegal migrants) this weekend may embolden Trump, raising questions for the rest of the world about how far he will take the strategy.

Oh, one more victory for Trump:

The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” (which is TRUE!) launched his own cryptocurrency. By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”

For some reason, this Google blog site, Blogger.com,  refused to publish my Sea Asparagus posting on January 19.  I appealed, they re-looked at the presentation, and agreed to approve it.  But it took a whole week.  First time in my 15 years with this blog site that anything I submitted was not initially published.  So if you wondered why you saw nothing 9 days ago on that Sunday, this is why.  So click on Sea Asparagus if you want to read it.  I really enjoyed all the cuisine I ate for that article, plus renewing personal relationships.  

The long term implication goes far beyond sea asparagus, as such, for this individual I featured, Wenhao Sun, has a concept he is advancing that someday could lead to land plants being grown in the ocean, for there is no cost attached to using the sea (to start a new crop on land, you would need to purchase or lease that plot), while irrigation would be free.  To quote from that posting:

More than a quarter century ago I assisted a young PhD graduate from the University of Hawaii, Wenhao Sun, who was interested in genetically engineering land plants to grow in the ocean.  My thought was wow, what if this can be accomplished, for expensive farm lands can be replaced with the ocean around us, where the space is largely free, with it's own source of water.  If the process can be patented, we would control the future of agriculture, for there is a lot more available space in certain oceans than anywhere on land where things can be grown.  We would also reduce global warming.  This would be a key application of the Blue Revolution.  The thought still excites me.

On this nostalgic Tuesday, I reach back to my posting of 13June2009, another experience I had in my past, when The Huffington Post declined to publish my two-part series on A Simple Solution for Crime.  On 12July2009 they did publish part 1, Background.  But the next day, my effort was rejected for being too controversial.  But this Google blog site accepted it:  SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR CRIME:  THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE DEAD.  Maybe it was the photo I used of Hitler.  Nope, it couldn't have been that because HuffPo does not use graphics.

More likely it was the substitution of Three Strikes and You're Out with Three Strikes and You're Dead.  

• In our society today, it's fine to sentence convicts to life in prison, where we taxpayers pay to house, feed and guard them, than to outright terminate their life, and save a lot of money.  

• 
  Then again, I keep reading that it costs a lot more to seek a death sentence, than not.  Our expensive legal system apparently overwhelms the simple cost of keeping a person in jail for the rest of its life.
• Let's see now, it costs an average of $43,000/year to maintain a person in jail.  So if incarcerated for thirty years, that would be $1, 290,000.  I can't imagine additional court costs being anywhere close to that figure, so something is wrong with that analysis.

• 
  I suspect the controversy has to do with death itself.  We are in a country which prides itself in keeping people alive.  Has something to do with morality from religion, and the 80% who believe there is a God.  This virtually same 80% also thinks there is an afterlife.  Maybe sending these criminals to Hell is also a dissuading factor.

So why did the Huffington Post decline my Three Strikes and You're Dead article, but Google accept it?

• Huffington Post is careful about anything controversial....sexual, social and more.  I had more than a hundred articles published in HuffPo, and was turned down only once.

• 
  Google keeps updating its policy on sexually explicit content, but I guess is less restrictive on matters of social controversy.  There is also a wide range of non-sexual guidelines explained here.   I guess the following explains what happened.

If your content or account was actioned against, you will receive a notification about the type of enforcement and the reasoning for the enforcement action. The notification will also contain information about steps you can take to appeal our decision if you believe it was a mistake. You can submit an appeal by clicking "appeal" or "request review." If your appeal is approved, we'll notify you and take appropriate action to reverse our prior decision.

My professional career was heavily influenced by a publish or perish mantra.  University professorial and research staff are promoted and tenured by their ability to publish what you do.  I further served on the other side of this business by being editor of the Journal Energy Engineering.  I noticed I'm still listed as an honorary editor of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.  As such, I am quite sensitive to the approval process for publications.  I was never once rejected for submitting a research paper for publication.

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THE BLUE REVOLUTION TAKES A TINY STEP FORWARD

I woke up particularly elated this morning, and, as I began composing this posting, realized why.  If you've been keeping up with my life, I'm now in a period of Euphoria 3, all phases galvanized by some health issue.  

Yesterday I had another free lunch at Orchids (click on this for the one last week).  This second meal  session was particularly rewarding, for, while through most of my professional life I've initiated and supported programs and projects that have yielded few concrete benefits, just maybe the effects of my efforts will come later.  While in the U.S. Senate I drafted the original legislation on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) and hydrogen, both becoming official laws forty years ago, neither sustainable resource option has made any kind of impact on energy use today.  

My very first indigenous energy attempt when I first joined the University of Hawaii was as a reservoir engineer for the Hawaii Geothermal Project.  The Kilauea eruption last year wiped out any potential for  large-scale utilization.

Similarly, I was involved with an early NASA attempt to bring some resolution to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and spent time at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion, both in the 70's.  Neither has progressed much.

However, my life has not been a total failure, for I took a leadership role to head the initial Hawaii effort to develop our wind resources at the outset of the First Energy Crisis in 1973, chairing the Wind Energy Division of the American Solar Energy Society in the 70's, and going on to help pass the U.S. Congress' first wind power legislation in 1980.  However, it is getting more and more difficult to install wind farms anywhere because of a that NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude.  Yet, wind- and geo- are today, with natural gas, the three cheapest generation sources of electricity:

I thus had lunch with Dr. Wenhao Sun yesterday at Orchids, and, in addition to recapping his life story, he indicated that what kept him going in difficult times was my vision for the Blue Revolution.  While his first degree was in mechanical engineering, followed by an M.S. in horticulture, and I'm a chemical engineer, our degree foci and personal interests are similar.  I got my PhD in biochemical engineering, while he focused on the genetics of plants.

For lunch he had a hamburger, while I consumed a Penne Bolognaise. On the left he is showing his latest patent approval.  

Sun comes from Shanghai, and when he graduated from high school, there were no universities in China, for this was when Mao had his cultural revolution.  So he went to work, first in industry, then a farm.

When colleges returned, he eventually got a master's in the biotechnology of agricultural.  He had this dream of growing land plants in the ocean.  He found his way to the University of Hawaii, where he earned a PhD from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.  This was when I noticed him.  Soon thereafter he formed a company, and the UH helped him get a patent to grow land plants in saltwater.  To me this was monumental, for he could control the farming of the ocean.  I was asked to join his board.

In the development of the Blue Revolution, a wide-range of applications need to come together:

• ocean farms
• next generation ocean ranches
• renewable energy 
• freshwater production
• marine pharmaceuticals
• global climate change remediation
• hurricane prevention
• and much more

He provides one of the key pathways.  His first task was growing akulikuli at the Ala Wai Golf Course.  Something interesting happens.  First, most plants send out toxins to kill the competition.  Akulikuli is salt tolerant and gets rid of algae.  You must know how filthy the Ala Wai Canal looks.  The waters around his growth were crystal clear.  Photoremediation was a new concept, and funding was difficult.

This plant is scientifically called Sesuvium portulacastrum, and also known as portulaca.  No actual gene engineering yet.  Just land plants that are salt-tolerant.  The kiawe tree, incidentally, is also in this class.  Thus, you see it along the coastline.  So anyway, he let his UH patent expire, mostly because he could get no personal advantage out of it. 

He founded Marine Agrifuture at one of those Kahuku ponds, and was able to convert a land plant, gasswort (Salicornia) into sea asparagus (he so-named), a super food.  Read a 2008 article:

• good for stomach and skin, while detoxifying your liver and improve muscle formation
• loaded with vitamin A, B2, B9, folic acid and trimethylglycine (TMG)
• quinoa and spinach has more TMG than anything else you consume, except that sea asparagus has three or so times more
• TMG improves your mood and lowers blood pressure
• He sent me a particularly interesting article on sea asparagus which I urge you to read
• Sea Asparagus Powder seems like an intriguing additive I should try

A 2011 article reports that naturally growing below the floating sea asparagus was ogo (seaweed), which became a second crop.  Further, the water is brackish, so no herbicides are necessary.  These sold under his Olakai Hawaii brand in most supermarkets.

However, in 2016 he ran into a salmonella problem.  They found a solution, but he lost 40% of his expected revenues.  He has since recovered and now is the largest producer of both both ogo and sea aparagus in Hawaii.

He had considerable difficulty re-gaining the standard governmental approvals.  Hawaii is noted as being particularly difficult to conduct business.  Sure, they try to protect the consumer, but in the process, much of the red tape has more to do with covering their rears.  There is a bureaucratic mentality in this state that sometimes  reminds me of India.  I experienced something similar in my years at the University of Hawaii, hastening my early retirement.

I will put him in contact with the Seasteading Institute (SI-- I spoke at one of their summits, where I mentioned Sun's work), for they lean in the Libertarian direction to minimize governmental tampering.  While the Blue Revolution is much longer term, and I recently made the challenge ridiculous by suggesting a refined budget of $150 billion, both Sun and Seasteading seek immediate profits.  He also thought that the benefactor, Peter Thiel, might be interested in financing him.  But life on the open ocean is a difficult prospect.  Read about SI's latest setback. 

Turns out that one common link to the people involved has to do with Stanford connections.  Wenhao's son, Hongzhe, was a world-class swimmer, graduated from Iolani, going on to Stanford.  Amazingly enough, around this same period, three of my staff members I recruited around 1990 to join the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, also had sons at Stanford.  Peter Thiel graduated from Stanford.  We both agree that the key to progress is to find that right billionaire who is seeking a nautical legacy.

Hongzhe entered the financial field in the East Coast, and with a lawyer contact, helped Wenhao get a second patent, the one you saw in the above photo.  This version features polyculture, and might well be more flexible for business applications.  He tried expanding to China, but he doesn't trust the people and system there, for they stole his ideas.  

In addition to his new patent, he has trademarked his products, just Blue Revolution Hawaii did, and we now own the term, Blue Revolution.  He favors Blue-Green Revolution, and will next be into franchising the concept.  The next stage will occur on an atoll in the Marshalls.  Anyone got $5 million to invest?

Four hours into lunch, at 4:30PM, I suggested we leave because my Thursday night 15 Craigside dining tablemates convene at 5.  So E3 is now at a particularly high state, particularly as I further won at poker last night.

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SEA ASPARAGUS

Well, that Gaza Strip ceasefire deal began at 8:30AM local time, and three hours later the Hamas delivered the first three hostages.

• They were in captivity for 471 days.
• By now Israel should have released 90 Palestinian prisoners.

TikTok went dark Saturday night.  

• However this afternoon, TikTok announced that it would begin restoring service to U.S. users.  They thanked President-elect Trump for his save.  
• There are three with more than a hundred million followers.
• #1 is Khabane  Lame (right), an influencer from Italy and Senegal.  He has 162.4 million following him.

Khaby Lame is incredibly popular on TikTok because he creates silent, comedic reaction videos that mock overly complicated "life hacks" by showing simple, obvious solutions with exaggerated facial expressions, making his content universally relatable and funny without needing to speak any language; essentially, he pokes fun at people overthinking basic tasks, which resonates with a wide audience across the globe. 

• 
  #10 is The Rock with 76.2, M #12 actor Smith 74.9 M, #13 is the BTS band with 71.2 M, followed by  Billie Eilish at #14 with 69.6 M, #17 Selena Gomez 58.1 M, #32 ESPN 50 M, #33 Blackpink 49.3 M, #35 Netflix 46.4M, etc.
• About TikTok's future, Trump said he would give ByteDance of China more time to find an approved buyer.  He said, Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, and went further by crediting TikTok for helping him win support from young voters.
• There are 170 million American TikTok users.

Okay, now on to the topic of the day, something new for most of you, SEA ASPARAGUS.

•  Is a popular name for Salicornia, a succulent which is salt tolerant, growing in marshes, beaches and mangroves.
• 
  Green, but in some locales, turns red in autumn.
• Has many names:  glasswort, pickleweed, picklegrass, sea beans and marsh samphire.
• Can be dehydrated, pulverized and sold as Green Salt, a salt substitute that is salt, but with less sodium.
• ... loaded with minerals, calcium, iron, Vitamin B and C and is exceptionally high in Vitamin A.

• 
  In South Korea, Phyto Corporation extracts the low-sodium salt from S. europaea to treat high blood pressure and fatty liver disease.  Also sells Salicornia powder containing an antioxidative and antithrombus polyphenyls to reduce obesity and arteriosclerosis.

• 
  Where to find.
• In the wild, in addition to what is mentioned above, where rivers meet the ocean.
• Gardens and farms.
• Markets.
• Restaurants, in garnishes and salads.
• Plant is used in phytoextraction, as for example, removing selenium from soil.
• The ashes of salicornia (which is mostly sodium carbonate) are used for making glass and soap.
• Plant can be produced for animal feed.
• Plant can be grown in saline soils for biofuel feedstock.
• Cleanses water in shrimp farming.

More than a quarter century ago I assisted a young PhD graduate from the University of Hawaii, Wenhao Sun, who was interested in genetically engineering land plants to grow in the ocean.  My thought was wow, what if this can be accomplished, for expensive farm lands can be replaced with the ocean around us, where the space is largely free, with it's own source of water.  If the process can be patented, we would control the future of agriculture, for there is a lot more available space in certain oceans than anywhere on land where things can be grown.  We would also reduce global warming.  This would be a key application of the Blue Revolution.  The thought still excites me.

So anyway, the University of Hawaii helped him get a patent to grow land plants in seawater, and they each have half a share of this investment.  Sun formed a company to test out his plan and I joined his board. 

His first task was growing akulikuli (photo below) at the Ala Wai Golf Course.  Something interesting happens.  First, most plants send out toxins to kill the competition.  Akulikuli is salt tolerant and gets rid of algae.  You must know how filthy the Ala Wai Canal looks.  The waters around his growth were crystal clear.  Photoremediation was a new concept, but was funding was difficult.

This plant is scientifically called Sesuvium portulacastrum, and also known as portulaca.  No actual gene engineering yet.  Just land plants that are salt-tolerant.  The kiawe tree, incidentally, is also in this class.  Thus, you see it along the coastline.  So anyway, he let his UH patent expire, mostly because he could get no personal advantage out of it.   He recently told me, though that he is attempting to resurrect the patent.

He founded Marine Agrifuture at one of those Kahuku (on Oahu) ponds, and was able to find a land plant, gasswort (Salicornia) or  sea asparagus, as a super food.  Read a 2008 article:

• good for stomach and skin, while detoxifying your liver and improve muscle formation
• loaded with vitamin A, B2, B9, folic acid and trimethylglycine (TMG)
• quinoa and spinach has more TMG than anything else you consume, except that sea asparagus has three or so times more
• TMG improves your mood and lowers blood pressure
• He sent me a particularly interesting article on sea asparaguswhich I urge you to read
• Sea Asparagus Powder seems like an intriguing additive I should try

A 2011 article reports that naturally growing below the floating sea asparagus was ogo (seaweed), which became a second crop.  Further, the water is brackish, so no herbicides are necessary.  These sold under his Olakai Hawaii brand in most supermarkets.  However, in 2016 he ran into a salmonella problem.  They found a solution, but he lost 40% of his expected revenues.  He has since recovered and now is the largest producer of both both ogo and sea aparagus in Hawaii.

So here we were, more than a decade ago, seeking funding to support our marine goals.  I put him in contact with the Seasteading Institute, for both his company and the strategy of the Institute sought immediate profits.  My Blue Revolution is a long-term dream to help save Planet Earth and Humanity.

Turns out that one common link to the people involved has to do with Stanford connections, where I got a degree.  Wenhao's son, Hongzhe, was a world-class swimmer, graduated from Iolani, going on to Stanford.  Amazingly enough, around this same period, three of my staff members I recruited around 1990 to join the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, also had sons at Stanford.  Peter Thiel graduated from Stanford.  We both (Wenhao and I) agree that the key to progress is to find that right billionaire who is seeking a nautical legacy.

Hongzhe entered the financial field in the East Coast, and with a lawyer contact, helped Wenhao get a second patent.  This version features polyculture, and might well be more flexible for business applications.  He tried expanding to China, but he doesn't trust the people and system there, for they stole his ideas.  

In addition to his new patent, he has trademarked his products, just  as Blue Revolution Hawaii did, and we now own the term, Blue Revolution.  He favors Blue-Green Revolution, and will next be into franchising the concept.  The next stage will occur on an atoll in the Marshalls.  Anyone got $5 million to invest in this initiative?

Six years ago we had lunch to discuss all the above.  In the meantime, my Blue Revolution initiative is being passed on to the University of Hawaii for their pursuit, and I almost every two weeks purchase his Olakai sea asparagus and ogo.  

To keep up with the latest on his efforts, Wenhao this weekend hosted a dinner in Waikiki, which included his fundraising contacts.  We went to Duke's because they use his sea asparagus in fish dishes.

Wenhao with wife Jane.

The table.  The three males are super successful in their businesses, and one is truly rich. Interesting that three of these families below had children going to Stanford.

My meal started with a salad.

I then had their seafood specialty, and note the sea asparagus.

Also.

I won't say who, but one of them owns a Bordeaux (France) mansion with more than a thousand acres in grapes, and invited us to his home, plus, his family is building a museum of their industries just outside of Tokyo, Japan.  I should finally add that if you want to converse with your dinner mates, DON'T go to Duke's.  The noise level is so high that I couldn't hear myself.

Finally, SEA ASPARAGUS is an ideal ingredient for the Hawaii poké.  It is crunchy and salty. 15 Craigside had a Hawaiian night, with lau lau, lomi lomi salmon and haupia.  So I just had to make my very special poké.  I went to Tamashiro's to get some ahi (yellow-fin tuna), kukui nuts, lomi kohe, ogo, Olakai sea asparagus and kazunoko.  Added some onions, cucumbers and hot sauce.  There is my optimal combination for poké.  Good grade ahi (yellow-fin tuna) from Tamashiro.  Better than aku or albacore, for the maguro flesh is firmer.

Standard ingredients for poke are limu kohu and kukui inamona.  The latter is the seed of the kukui nut.  The outer shell is polished and made into a lei.

Kukui inamona.

Ahi with kazunoko, which nobody else I know uses.

With cucumber and onions added.

The final Takahashi poké.

We had this poké with lau lau, poi, chicken long rice, lomi lomi salmon, rice and a bottle of Petit Syrah.

I'll close with Donald Trump's rally at the Capital One Arena, which just ended with the Village People and YMCA .  You got to click on that, for I've never seen The Donald so delighted.  Watch him dance.

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