May is National Bike Month — Get Out and Ride!

Back by demand and because it is the riding season, “Group Riding 101.” Now that Spring has arrived and everyone is out riding (even me), I was asked to reprint the “Group Riding 101” info that we ran last August. Hopefully this will make your group rides much more enjoyable and safe.  Mahalo to the very experienced cyclist who submitted this to me! (you know who you are). – Reprinted from  Maui Bicycle Alliance newsletter by Walter Enomoto

1.     Be Predictable—This may be the most important rule (even for solo riding) and it involves every aspect of riding from changing positions in the group to following the traffic rules. You might say that all the other rules support this one. Smooth predictable riding isn’t just a matter of style…here the word survival comes to mind! If unpredictability is the only predictable part of your riding style, you are a hazard to yourself and everyone else who has the misfortune to ride with you. Have you ever been on a ride where the group stops at an intersection and people scatter all over the lane? Some going through on the wrong side of the road and others turning left from the right side? Some running the stop sign and others doing it right? It’s confusing and irritating to drivers of vehicles as they approach a situation where cyclists are going in all different directions or just blowing through stops! Part of being predictable is riding within the rules of the road as a vehicle. Groups should maintain integrity when approaching intersections. That means staying in the correct lane, stopping together, and starting together as traffic allows. It goes without saying that if we demand the right to ride on the road, then we must be willing to ride responsibly…especially as a group.

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National Salad Month Day 131 of 2010 234 days left in this year

TODAY: Hawaii Leaders Up the Law to Protect Hawaiian Monk Seals

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by Raphael O’Suna

(Editor’s Note: The following was recently sent to West Coast, Japanese and Canadian newspapers.)

I write to you as a friend and as someone who works in the medical field in Hawaii. This letter comes from the island of Maui, and concerns a very serious health hazard.

With the opening of a new volcanic vent on the island of Hawaii, extremely large quantities of poison gas and toxic metals are spewed into the atmosphere every day. For a long time, only the island of Hawaii, and specifically the Kona Coast was seriously affected. The toxic plumes–thick and nasty–are almost always shrouding that part of the island. But now …

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THIS SATURDAY 11am. It is potluck but if you don’t have a dish, don’t let that stop you — come anyway!

Sierra Club Maui Group will hold its annual meeting Saturday, January 30 from 11am to 3 pm at Kaunoa Senior Center. The event is free and features annual Sierra Club Awards, a panel discussion on “Sharing the Water,” special guests and a picnic lunch.

Featured panelists include award winning tropical agriculture agronomist Dr. Paul Hepperly, Maui County District Health Officer Dr. Lorrin Pang and traditional farmer, researcher and educator Hokuao Pellegrino. The panel discussion will begin at noon and be followed by questions and answers.

“Sharing the Water” will be the theme of the Sierra Club’s 2010 panel discussion. “Our Constitution recognizes that water is important to traditional Hawaiian agriculture and gathering practices, public water supplies and agriculture,” stated Maui Sierra Club Chair, Lance Holter.

“The big question we have to answer is the best way we can all share our water resources.” Panelists have been chosen for their expertise in sustainable agriculture, public health and traditional cultural use of water.

2010 Award recipients include:

• Dick Mayer, Retired MCC professor
• Jonathan Starr, Past Maui Planning Commission chair
• Lei’ohu Ryder, Hawaiian cultural educator and performer

For more information email webmaster@MauiSierraClub.org or go to www.MauiSierraClub.org

By Raphael O’Suna

Maui is currently in the midst of a great disinformation campaign. When you hear someone on the radio speak of “haze,” they are actually speaking about poison gas and toxic metals blowing across our island from the Big Island.

These plumes are harmful to our health. When you hear that “there is no indication that these substances and gases pose a long-term threat to our health,” you know you are listening to the dissemination of disinformation.

Those coughs, sore throats, sinus infections, headaches and spells of fatigue that thousands of us experience, when the Vog sweeps across our island, suggest an entirely different scenario.

This situation is very similar to one that occurred in England a little over 200 years ago. The intermediate effect of these toxic plumes was the death of thousands of islanders from respiratory and cardiac dysfunction.

Volcano ‘drove up UK death toll’
By Paul Rincon – BBC News Online science staff

Volcanic eruptions in Iceland probably caused an unusual rise in deaths in England during the summer of 1783. UK experts suggest a cloud of volcanic gases and particles sweeping south from the Laki Craters event of that year may have killed more than 10,000 people.

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Nat’l Seed Swap Day Day 26 of 2010 339 days left in this year

JANUARY: Volcano Awareness Month on the Big Island of Hawaii. More >

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Eskimo Pie Day Day 24 of 2010 31 days left in this year

January 24, 1973: The Del Monte Corporation announces that it will stop pineapple production on the island of Molokai, putting more than 75 people out of work, after the company struggled for decades to acquire land for pineapple development, all the while when several agricultural experts warned that the island was not well suited for the crop. The announcement followed Castle & Cooke’s similar announcement that it would phase out pineapple production on Molokai in favor of trying to increase tourism and tourism related facilities.

January 24, 2005: Mother Marianne’s exhumation begins. The skull of a Catholic nun who helped care for leprosy patients on Molokai was exhumed Monday as part of the process of being proclaimed a saint. Read more …

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