Yesterday, the day after Bobby Jindal’s woefully inadequate “response to the Presidential Address,” we decided to go visit a volcano to see how our tax dollars are being spent in research. This is one of the things Jindal derided in his prepared remarks. HVO Kilauea Status Page Activity Summary for past 24 hours: The ongoing DI event began the inflation phase yesterday, which continues this morning. Sulfur dioxide emission rates remain elevated from the Halema`uma`u vent. Sulfur dioxide emissions continue to be elevated from the Pu`u `O`o vent. Lava from east rift zone vents appears to have resumed flow through…
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Yesterday we went on a snorkel trip from Keauhou Harbor, which is within walking distance of our condo here at Kanaloa, with an outfit called Sea Paradise. It was a really, really nice day for it, sunny and calm. Keauhou Harbor is famous as the birthplace of Kamehameha III, and there’s a heiau down there. Two roads lead in, one from each side, and we stumbled on the closer one by dumb luck, as the driving directions actually indicated the other access road. When we got there, we found the storm-battered hut that several adventure companies work out of; most…
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Trouble in paradise: Cash-strapped tourists avoid Hawaii – USATODAY.com LAHAINA, Maui — Every winter, scores of humpback whales trade the Gulf of Alaska for a few months of breeding, birthing and basking in Hawaii — a follow-the-sun migration that fuels much of the tourism industry in this former 19th-century whaling town. But while the marine giants are returning right on schedule this year, their cash-strapped human admirers are not. And the effect of that absence is, “in a four-letter word, ugly,” says Bill Seidl, a boat captain who peddles whale-watch trips on the Lahaina waterfront. We seem to have fallen…
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We went on Captain Andy’s Na Pali Adventure cruise yesterday – billed as a snorkel trip, but too rough to actually go in. But we were happy to see all the dolphins (spinner and bottlenose) and whales. I didn’t get very many good fluke shots, but I’m happy with this one. I have another one that’s more suitable for researchers who identify individual whales by the unique patterns on the undersides of their tails. The day started VERY early, but not horribly early. We just had to be about 30 minutes down the road before 7:15 am, which is not…
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We’re currently at Poipu Shoreson Kaua’i for the first week of our vacation, and when we got in last night, we’d had a long day traveling, waiting to change planes, and then waiting for luggage (which made it in on a later interisland flight). It was after hours when we got to the property, but I knew to look in the lighted cabinet for an envelope with our name on it. It took a while to suss out where our unit was and how to get to it, as the property slopes toward the rocky shoreline pretty steeply and the…
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Bill of Rights Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. – The Constitution: First Amendment (Cornell.edu) Flickr photo taken in Washington DC May 16, 2008. Detail of the facade of the Newseum.
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While putting off the task of adding a personal note to holiday cards that MUST! GO! OUT!, I decided to review My Year In Blogging. January: Today, at Holy Moly, we had some excitement too. I ended up staying for both services just because there was a rehearsal for the big day after the second service. There was lots of laughter, a little girl threw up in front of the choir, Pat Kalicki stood in for Bishop Katharine in the run-through wearing a paper bishop’s mitre, and there was lots of chaos and general anarchy. Later on in February, Presiding…
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We saw lots of Georgian buildings on our trip to Dublin in August, and many of the best-preserved must have benefited from the work of the Irish Georgian Society: Now observing its 50th year with a series of celebrations and a lavishly illustrated book, the revived Irish Georgian Society has been credited with restoring dozens of architectural gems across Ireland, from a former union hall for Dublin tailors to the country’s oldest Palladian house. (The society’s early preservation efforts focused on Georgian Dublin, but in later years it expanded its mission to cover noteworthy buildings from any period.) Perhaps more…
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These look like good places to try on our next visit to London. Clamorous pub patios line the streets of London in summer, luring those who like a side order of sunburn with their al-fresco beer. But the city’s best taverns arguably come into their own in winter, when cozy quaffers hunker over dark ales before crackling fireplaces as tempests whip at the windows outside. With many of the city’s toastiest watering holes hidden just off the beaten path, here’s a six-pack of the best for those planning their next seasonal visit. Drink in London history by the pintful —…
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These look like good places to try on our next visit to London. Clamorous pub patios line the streets of London in summer, luring those who like a side order of sunburn with their al-fresco beer. But the city’s best taverns arguably come into their own in winter, when cozy quaffers hunker over dark ales before crackling fireplaces as tempests whip at the windows outside. With many of the city’s toastiest watering holes hidden just off the beaten path, here’s a six-pack of the best for those planning their next seasonal visit. Drink in London history by the pintful —…