Every family in the State of Hawaii should have one member of it research the nature and effects of sulfur dioxide and toxic metals. People among themselves should stop calling these things vog. We should call these plumes of poison “Aeroperil,” or by some other name which will defy attempts to minimize the danger.Our health and our lives are threatened. Because sulfur dioxide is a gas, and because it also contains metallic particles, only a cumbersome gas mask would provide full protection. HEPA masks will only provide protection against particulate matter.

Throughout Maui, the “mine canaries” have fallen ill. The fact that the sensitive among us have already been adversely affected should not be ignored.

Although there is no safety or security in life, an educated, united and prepared community is to be preferred to one content with illusions.

Regarding the State as a whole, a court someday may find it criminally negligent for not, at the very least, warning tourists about the conditions on the Big Island.

– Raphael O’Suna, Haiku

Nat’l Macaroon Day Day 152 of 2008 214 days left in this year

EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 31st  
1057: Tax protester Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry England
1790: The U.S. copyright law is enacted
1868: Dr. James Moore (UK) wins the first recorded bicycle race
1879: The first electric railway opens at the Berlin Trades Exposition
1930: Bobby Jones wins the British Amateur Golf Tournament
1955: The U.S. Supreme Court orders “All deliberate speed” in the integration of public schools
1958: Dick Dale composses and plays the first “surf music” with his “Let’s Go Trippin”
1962: Nazi Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust
1969: John Lennon & Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance”
1994: The U.S. announces it will no longer aim long-range nuclear missiles at the former USSR
2001: Veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleads innocent to charges of spying for Moscow (he later changes his plea to guilty and is sentenced to life in prison)
2002: The World Cup soccer tournament opens for the first time in Asia (it begins with a match held in South Korea, which co-hosts the event with Japan)
2005: Former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as “Deep Throat,” the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

BORN ON THIS DAY — May 31st
1819: Walt Whitman, poet
1912: Henry M “Scoop” Jackson, U.S. senator (D-Wash)
1923: Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
1930: Clint Eastwood, actor/mayor
1938: Peter Yarrow, folk singer
1941: Johnny Paycheck, country singer
1948: John “Bonzo” Bonham, drummer (Led Zeppelin)
1948: Rhea Perlman, actress
1949: Tom Berenger, actor
1960: Chris Elliot, comedic actor/writer/director
1965: Brooke Shields, actress/model
1976: Colin Farrell, actor