Make a Friend Day Day 42 of 2008 324 days left in this year

PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY—

HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY

WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Project Gutenberg
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Squirrel ala Huckabee
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — TWiT.TV
UPCOMING EVENTS — Feb. 22: “Give Peace a Dance”

February 11th, 2007: Lauren Cabell of the New York Times reports that Maui has turned into Bakersfield, California, with over development, traffic, ugly box stores, etc. She muses that she is beginning to wonder why people spend so much money to come to a place which has homogenized itself for the sake of aggrandizing its properties to rich people. Seemingly unrelated, Conde-Nast publications the following year do NOT put Maui in the top five world islands to visit.

NOTE: The Nene (Branta sandwicensis) is the Hawaii State Bird and currently on the Federal List of Endangered Species. There are currently only about 800 wild Nene remaining in Hawaii.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — February 11th

• 1531: Henry VIII is recognized as the supreme head of the Church in England
  
• 1573: Francis Drake views the Pacific for the first time
  
• 1794: The first session of the U.S. Senate opens to the public
  
• 1809: Robert Fulton is granted a patent for the steamboat
  
• 1861: President-elect Lincoln departs Springfield Illinois to travel to Washington DC
  
• 1878: The first U.S. bicycle club forms (Boston Bicycle Club)
  
• 1878: The first weekly weather report is published
  
• 1945: Yalta Agreement signed during World War II
  
• 1963: The CIA Domestic Operations Division is created
  
• 1979: Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seize power in Iran,
• 1988: Anthony M Kennedy is appointed to the Supreme Court
  
• 1989: Barbara C Harris becomes the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church
• 1990: Nelson Mandela is freed after serving 27 years in prison
  
• 1993: President Clinton announces his choice of Miami prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation’s first female attorney general
  
• 2006: Madman and Vice President Dick Cheney shot and wounded a quail-hunting buddy. (The companion later apologized for being shot.)

BORN ON THIS DAY — February 11th

• 1833: Melville Weston Fuller, 8th chief justice
• 1847: Thomas Alva Edison, inventor
• 1909: Max Baer, heavyweight boxing champ
• 1912: Roy Fuller, poet/novelist
• 1921: Eva Gabor, actress
• 1921: Lloyd Bentsen, (Sen-D-Tx)
• 1922: Leslie Nielsen, actor
• 1925: Kim Stanley, actress
• 1925: Virginia E Johnson, physician/sex researcher
• 1934: Tina Louise (Tina Blacker), actress
• 1935: Gene Vincent, rock guitarist/vocalist
• 1936: Burt Reynolds, actor
• 1941: Sergio Mendes, jazz/pop musician
• 1953: Jeb Bush, Florida governor
• 1962: Sheryl Crow, singer/songwriter
• 1969: Jennifer Aniston, actress
• 1979: Brandy (Brandy Norwood), singer
• 1980: Matthew Lawrence, actor
• 1980: Natasha Bobo, actress

Nat’l Seed Swap Day Day 26 of 2008 340 days left in this year

PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Komputa: Computer
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY

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TODAY - January 26th, 2008: The 15th E-Cycling event is held in Maui County, in the War Memorial Stadium Parking Lot, on Kanaloa Ave., in Wailuku, for individuals, between 9 am and 1 pm. More than 100 tons of used computer equipment will be processes in two days during the event. The Friday materials come from businesses, Saturday is the day open to the public.

Individuals may pick up as much free computer parts as they can use at the salvage area.  People may also arrive by 9 am and receive a number. At noon, free computer systems are given out in numerical order, as long as supplies last.Several businesses will also have tables of merchandise for sale, including OfficeMax, Clearwire, Cartridgeworld, and others.

Technical materials with electronic circuit boards - televisions, computers, audio equipment, etc. - cannot go to the landfill. People may bring in equipment, used or not, for recycling and reuse. The service is free of charge.

For more information, call the E-Cycling hotline at 573-4018.

 HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — January 26th

• 1531: An earthquake in Lisbon kills 30,000 people 
• 1784: Ben Franklin expresses unhappiness over the eagle as America’s symbol 
• 1787: Daniel Shays & followers attack arsenal at Springfield, Mass 
• 1788: Capt Arthur Phillip lands in Sydney Aust to start a penal colony 
• 1838: Tennessee becomes first state to prohibit alcohol 
• 1841: Hong Kong proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain 
• 1871: American income tax repealed. Would that it had lasted! 
• 1926: Television first demonstrated (J.L. Baird, London) 
• 1954: Ground breaking begins on Disneyland 
• 1989: AT&T reports first loss in 103 years; $1.67 B in 1988 
• 1989: Madison Sq Garden announces 2-year $100 M renovation plan 
• 1989: U.S. computer security expert warns of catastrophic virus 

BORN ON THIS DAY — January 26th

• 1880: Douglas MacArthur, general
• 1884: Roy Chapman Andrews, scientist/explorer
• 1912: Cora Baird, puppeteer (Kukla, Fran & Ollie) 
• 1925: Paul Newman, racer/actor
• 1928: Eartha Kitt, singer/actress
• 1929: Jules Feiffer, cartoonist
• 1935: Bob Ueker, actor/sportsdcaster
• 1942: Scott Glenn, actor
• 1946: Gene Siskel, movie critic
• 1949: David Straitham, actor
• 1957: Eddie Van Halen, rock guitarist
• 1958: Anita Baker, singer
• 1958: Ellen  DeGeneress, actress
• 1961: Wayne Gretzky, hockey hall-of-famer

National Pie Day Day 23 of 2008 343 days left in this year

Hana kuli: Noise, sound
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Nois: Noise
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “They are the fish of loud shouting.”

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Janurary 23rd, 2007:  The U.S. Navy is granted exemption to use Sonar in protected Hawaiian waters.

Maui marine conservationists are critical of a decision to grant the Navy a two-year exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.  Read more …

Many marine biologists believe this technology disorients and interferes with marine mammal communications, which can result in mass beach strandings of whales and dolphins.  Learn more at the Natural Resources Defense Council...

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — January 23rd

Nat’l Games Day 354 of 2007 11 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “He is a tobacco-eating bug.”

December 20th, 1848: Officially, 18 species of roaches now call Maui home, including the largest breed, the Madeira roach, growing two inches or more. The first roach was from Surinam (pictured), the multicolored roach arrived in 1822.

Bugs have a great and noble history on our island. Mosquitoes arrived in 1826 on a ship from Mexico which bore water casks. It just beat the residence of the centipede, which can grow more than six inches in length and arrived in 1829, though exactly how is not known.

Maui’s four breeds of termites arrived between 1869 and 1907. The most damaging is the dry-wood termite.

Though fruit flies first came from the orient as early as 1885, the most damaging of the breed, the Mediterranean fruit fly, arrived in 1907 on a ship from Australia.

This is not to give short shrift to the estimated 10,000 indigenous Hawaiian insect species, few of which have been lost over time. Insects are a hardy lot, and that is what makes them noble.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – December 20th

•  1669: The first jury trial is held in Delaware
• 1699: Peter the Great orders the Russian New Year changed from September 1st to January 1st 
• 1803: the Louisiana Purchase is completed for $27 million 
• 1812: Sacagawea, the Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark, dies 
• 1820: Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men 
•  1835: The Cherokee tribe of Native americans are compelled to cede their ancestral lands (eventually the tribe is forced to move west of the Mississippi River, travelling on what is called the “Trail of Tears”)  
• 1879: Thomas Edison demonstrates the incandescent light 
• 1892: The pneumatic automobile tire is patented (Syracuse NY)
• 1977: The world’s first “space walk” is made by cosmonaut G Grechko from Salyut
• 1984: Thirty-three unknown Bach keyboard works are discovered in the Yale library  
• 1989: U.S. troops invade Panama and oust Manuel Noriega 
• 1990: Robert F.X. Sillerman purchases the WAFL NY-NJ Knights for $11 million  
• 1999: The Vermont Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex 

BORN ON THIS DAY – December 20th

• 1579: John Fletcher, Elizabethan dramatist
• 1805: Thomas Graham, father of colloid chemistry      
• 1868: Harvey S Firestone, Industrialist
• 1875: T.F. Powys, writer
• 1911: Hortense Calisher, novelist 
• 1944: Robert Colomby, rocker 
• 1945: Peter Criss, rock musician 
• 1946: John Spencer, actor 
• 1947: Peter Criss, Brooklyn, singer
• 1958: Billy Bragg, British rocker 
• 1970: Nicole de Boer, actress

Recycle: to use again – a simple definition for a process that has grown in importance as we continue to overflow landfills and deplete natural resources, especially on an island like Maui.

Finally, more people are turning to recycling and making it a part of their everyday lives and there are more programs to help with the effort. Expanding from the modest aluminum can, glass and newspaper collections of past years, there are now programs for appliances, electronics, ink cartridges and scrap metal. Plastic shopping bags are now accepted–just put them all in one bag and deposit in the proper bin. Even the family Christmas tree is now turned into garden mulch.

It only takes a few minutes a day to keep your recyclables separate from the garbage, pack them up and drop them off at the nearest collection center. Contribute to keeping Maui clean, reduce landfill trash and save precious natural resources from overuse and depletion. Every ounce counts. Every person counts–we can all make a difference.

Recently, a weekly radio program, “Talking Trash” with Hannah Steele, has debuted on Wednesday mornings at 11:00 on 1110 AM radio devoted entirely to recycling issues. Check it out, call in with questions and keep interest about recycling growing.

Many municipalities provide for home pickup of many items–something for our county to aspire to. Maui has many collection centers stationed across the island. For a complete listing of Maui recycling locations, hours for accepting recyclables, what is accepted and how to prepare it and other sources for specialty items, go to the Maui County Web site at www.mauicounty.gov/recycle.

Contribute to keeping Maui clean, reduce landfill trash and save precious natural resources from overuse and depletion. Every ounce counts. Every person counts–we can all make a difference.

Keep it clean. Keep it green. Keep it Maui.

– Haole Anna, Paia

Text and Photos by Lance Holter

The use of  Depleted Uranium is nuclear warfare.  It should be forbidden under all international treaties and laws and by plain common human decency.

At the Waikaloa Community Church on Friday Nov. 16, I attended the first of a series of joint U.S. Army and Hawaii Health Department informational hearings on Depleted Uranium (DU) held at Kona,  Hawaii. The hearings were the result of Big Island citizens monitoring high background levels of radiation downwind from the Pohakuloa gunnery range during Army Stryker  maneuvers at the range, April 22. Normal background levels are in the area of 10 to 20 counts per minute (CPM) but on April 22nd the citizens’ measurements went as high as 93 CPM.

Public outcry and concerns over dangers from radiation prompted two front page stories in the Honolulu Advertiser May 11 and May 14.  The military only then admitted the possibility that DU had been used at Pohakuloa. Earlier on Oahu in 2005, the American Friends Service Committee obtained a U.S. Army email through the Freedom of Information Act.  The email referred to an ordinance clean up at Schofield Barracks Oahu.  It read as follows:We have found much that we did not expect, including the recent find of Depleted Uranium. The disclosure culminated in the release of the discovery of 15 M-101 rounds containing DU to the Honolulu media.

Read the rest…

Electronic Greetings Day Day 334 of 2007 31 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY —
“It is wasted time and effort getting food for the horse.”

November, 1834: The whaling ship Helvetius, named for French philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvetius, encounters terrible seas while attempting to harbor at Lahaina. The ship, carrying an enormous load of more than 1,400 barrels of whale oil, cannot find safe anchor anywhere near Maui, and so turns to Oahu, not the last time someone was dissuaded from Maui for Oahu and met disaster.

More than 170 years ago, no lighthouses guided ships around the islands. Strong Kona winds, powerful waves and driving rain drove the Helvetius onto the reef off Diamond Head. No one was hurt, and the ship was not in immediate danger of sinking. At this point, the cargo was worth more than the ship anyway. Fearing a fight for the salvage, the crew remained on board.

Read the rest…

Make Your Own Head Day 332 of 2007 33 days left in this year

November 28, 2004:

The Po’o-uli was a Mauian honeycreeper bird, a rare and fragile species which was not even caught alive until September, 1998. Scientists had little opportunity to study it’s habits. In fact, it was rare enough that it had its own genus.

The bird was not discovered until 1973, and was not properly identified until sometime around 1986. It was known for its bandit’s mask around the eyes, a quiet nature, and its voracious appetite for native tree snails. Overdevelopment - cutting of trees - severely reduced its food source, and numbers dwindled. Finishing the bird off were feral cats, the numbers of which exploded in the 1990s on Maui.

The male was never named, but his cells have been frozen. It is hoped that the bird may one day be cloned. (The longer we live, the more this earth resembles the culture of Blade Runner.)

By the way, Hawaii has more species of animal and plant life than any other state, and has the dubious distinction of killing species off faster - mostly through overdevelopment -  than any other state as well. According to Nature Reserve, Hawaii has seen 434 species fall to extinction since records have been kept. The runner up state is Alabama, with 160 species.

National Parfait Day Day 329 of 2007 36 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The life of the land is preserved in righteousness

 November 24, 2005:
Two Honored for Efforts to Preserve Maui’s Native Species
Kula nursery manager, Nancy Snow, and caretaker of the D.T. Fleming Arboretum, Martha Vockrodt-Moran, were presented with awards this month for their contributions in protecting Maui’s environment.

ARBOR DAY Day 307of 2007 58 days left in this year

 HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY -  LA‘AU: Tree
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY - “A tall tree stands above the others.”
(Said of a person of outstanding achievement.)

 Kudos to the the D.T. Fleming Arboretum at Pu‘u Mahoe and its director, Martha Vockrodt-Moran, for outstanding  achievements in protecting, propagating and distributing native trees of Maui and Hawaii.

 Today Maui Nui Botanical Gardens distributes 1,000 free Hawaiian trees to Maui County residents each year on the first Saturday in November. There will be educational booths, free water saving devices and plant care demonstrations, as well as special awards to “tall trees.” Free parking and free admission. Saturday, November 3,  9:00 am - 12:00 noon, 150 Kanaloa Ave. Kahului.

[tags]maui,arbor day, hawaii, almanac, astrronomy, weather, tides[/tags]