JUST ANOTHER SPLENDID WEEK IN PARADISE

I yesterday expounded on social welfare.  Let me add a final editorial, the matter of the child tax credit, which will be excised when Biden and Manchin next year agree on the Build Back Better Act that will end up being close to $1.8 trillion.  I don't want to go into the details of that child tax credit, which you can read here.  But is basically a transfer of money from the rich to the masses. 

I think we need to adjust our charitable and social welfare programs to consider family well-being.  With aid to parents should be some compelling motivational incentive.  The whole matter of entitlements is at the foundation of what has to be re-thought out.

Finally, unmentioned is that this type of government aid only further exacerbates population growth, which will more and more strain the resource limits available in the world. Compound this factor with the contribution to poverty for families who can't afford children.  In the U.S. there is no effort to limit population growth.  

On December 4 the Omicron variant represented only 0.7% of new infections, which jumped to 12.6% on December 11, while Delta was at almost 87.4%.  Over the past weekend Omicron jumped to 73.2% and Delta dropped to 26.6%.  I guess there must be a third variant at around 0.2%.  I further checked, and there are limited cases of alpha, beta and mu variants still infecting people.  There was also the first Omicron death, to a Texas man in his 50's who was not vaccinated.

My splendid week began with a TEDx talk on the Blue Revolution beamed throughout the world as the first of eight lectures Blue Revolution Hawaii hosted, where we were linked in advance to the Glasgow climate change summit.  Watch my presentation.  Should you have any special connection to an imaginative billionaire, send him this concept, which might well be the only geoengineering solution for atmospheric warming, where those participating can actually make a financial profit.

Had several great dinners in my 15 Craigside apartment.  The first set compared two types of American beef, one wagyu, accompanied by chu-toro sashimi:

The wine was a Stanford Governor's Selection Martelloto Red Blend.  Plus hot sake and cold Sapporo Beer, with hot green tea.  The wagyu at $30/pound was better than the $24/pound tenderloin.  However this American wagyu was nowhere close to the typically $100/pound wagyu from Japan, although I've seen it in stores such as Mitsukoshi in Japan at more than $250/pound.

Then pork tonkatsu fried in butter with ahi and hamachi sashimi.

Next, artichoke with roast duck/pork and salad, with a Prosecco and Johnny Walker Blue:

Golfing at the Ewa Villages Golf Course:

A double rainbow at the Ted Makalena Golf Course:

John and two cats on the 16th hole:

One sunset the horizon looked clear, so I tried to take a photo of a green flash:

Remarkably, I succeeded!!!

The post-sunset with Venus at the top left:

Yes, just another splendid week in Paradise.

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