ANOTHER VIEW OF THAT PEARL HARBOR GOLF BALL

Well, here is yet another view of that Pearl Harbor golf ball, also known as the billion dollar Sea-Based X Band Radar.  This ten million pound marine defense equivalent of the Dodo bird, is just hoping that the soon to be launched North Korean missile heads towards Hawaii instead of outer space.  Otherwise, SBXBR is enjoying an almost perpetual R&D assignment in Hawaii, somewhat similar to my lifestyle in Hawaii.  Oh, this is a photo I took today from the Royal Kunia Golf Course.

First, the Dodo was discovered by Portuguese sailors (which is an insult in itself, as the natives of Mauritius had lived with this bird forever) in 1507.  A dodo, or, more correctly, doudo (also doido), in Portuguese, means simpleton.  On the other hand, the Dutch also take credit, for, nearly a century later, Vice-Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck also arrived and named this island Mauritius.  But they called this nearly 50 pound bird, walgvogel, the loathsome bird, maybe in reference to the palatability (although it was more tough than inedible).  The Dutch term dodoor means sluggard, so they certainly must be given some consideration for this dubious distinction of founder.

Actually, the dodo's call sounds like "doo-doo," so the onomatopoeic approximation could well be Mauritian.  Whether it was man, or the dogs/pigs/rats/monkeys Europeans brought to this island in the Indian Ocean, by 1681, this bird became extinct.  But, aha, there is sufficient DNA in British and Danish museums that, someday, could well be used to bring the dodo back from extinction.

What has this got to do with the Pearl Harbor Golf Ball?  You can draw your own conclusions.

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The Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 281 to 6594, and so did all world markets.  Oil dropped $1.40/barrel to $43.78 and gold stayed unchanged at $928/toz.  However, T. Boone Pickens predicts oil to hit $75/barrel by the end of the year.  I wouldn't take this too seriously, for I have tracked his predictions since his wind farm bravado, and he has been consistently wrong, and embarrassingly so.  On the other hand, his reason for this price jump is the one I gave in my Huffington Post article on this subject.

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