How Sweet It Is!

December 2, 2007 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastNational Fritters Day
Day 336 of 2007
29 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Momona: Sweet
 HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Be neat, sweet and clever.”
Yesterday: UH Warriors Sugar Bowl Bound? The University of Hawaii rallied from a 21-0 deficit to defeat the Washington Huskies 35-28 and remain the only unbeaten team in major college football. Heisman contender Colt Brennan passed for 5 touchdowns and 442 yards. Read more in the Star-Bulletin …

Sugar mill circa Civial War timesDecember 2, 1802: The first sugar mill, made of a stone mill and a boiler, is brought to Maui by John White, a man who had spent most of his life in China. White originally came to Maui to trade sandlewood, and built the mill as an after thought.In the 1700s, native Hawaiians planted sugar cane on the banks of taro patches as a part of their food supply.The Hawaiian, Historical Society reports that as an itinerant sugar maker, the sugar miller set up his works, ground cane, made sugar from the juice, and divided the products, sugar and molasses, equally with the suppliers of cane.The Hawaiian sugar industry expanded to become the dominant segment of the Hawaiian economy by the time of the Civil War in the United States, and was number one industry until supplanted by the tourist industry in the 1960s.

Pictured: A sugar mill circa the Civil War times.

 HISTORICAL EVENTS — December 2nd
1804: Napoleon becomes the first French emperor
1823: President James Monroe declares his “Monroe Doctrine”
1859: Militant abolitionist John Brown is hanged for his raid on Harper’s Ferry
1887: Charles Dickens’ makes his first public reading in U.S. (NYC) 
1899: U.S. & Germany agree to divide Samoa between them 
1901: Gillette is granted a patent for the first disposable razor 
1927: The first Model A Ford automobile is sold (for $385) 
1934: The 200” Mt Palomar Observatory mirror is cast 
1942: Manhattan Project scientists demonstrate 1st controlled nuclear chain reaction
1954: The U.S. Senate censures Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin)
1957: The first full-scale atomic electric generating station in the U.S. begins operation
1961: Fidel Castro declares he is a Marxist-Leninist
1964: Ringo Starr’s tonsils are removed 
1970: The Environmental Protection Agency begins operations 
1971: The United Arab Emirates is formed
1980: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is created
1980: Four American Maryknoll nuns murdered by death squads in El Salvador 
1982: First permanent artificial heart is successfully implanted
1998: Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates donates $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries

BORN ON THIS DAY – December 2nd
1859: Georges Seurat, French painter
1885: George Minot,  Nobel physician,
1885: Nikos Kazantazakis, Greek writer 
1923: Maria Callas, soprano
1925: Julie Harris, actress
1931: Edwin Meese III, U.S. attorney general
1944: Cathy Lee Crosby, actress
1960: Rick Savage, bass player 
1962: Tracy Austin, tennis pro
1968: Lucy Liu, actress
1968: Nate Mendel, rock musician
1968: Rena Sofer, actress  
1973: Monica Seles, tennis pro
1981: Britney Spears, singer

MRI (Might Ruin Imagery)

December 2, 2007 Raphael O'Suna No Comments

The first MRI machines subjected a human patient to a static magnetic field in excess of 20,000 times the earth’s background radiation. The newer machines have almost tripled this level.

Doctors and scientists will tell you that these machines are perfectly harmless, because unlike X-Rays, they use non-ionizing radiation. However, neither the doctors nor the scientists really know the long-term effects of this procedure. For example, has anyone determined what percentage of Alzheimer’s patients have received MRIs?

About 20% of people undergoing MRIs demonstrate or report terrifying panic attacks. Doctors will tell you that these attacks are the result of claustrophobia. But many of these patients never before experienced such symptoms. And it’s questionable that 20% of the general population suffers from claustrophobia. Many patients lose consciousness and suffer memory loss. No one can actually tell you what effect this radiation will have on your brain, heart, nervous system, blood composition and endocrine glands

Powerfully interfering with the electro-magnetic field of a human being in several different ways for almost an hour obviously affects one. What we do not know is how seriously and permanently these adverse effects are, and over what period of time they will manifest. As is the case with pharmaceuticals, we seem to be overusing this technology, which we know, at the very least, greatly disturbs the brain, the mind, the memory and consciousness.

– Raphael O’Suna,  Haiku