That's my blog posting of a few days ago.
Finally, the CDC effectively said so yesterday. Well, not exactly, for they only said N95 and KN95 masks offer the best protection. They stopped short of saying wear those masks, or else. I just bought those N95 masks from Amazon for a little more than a dollar each. However, I checked today, and they are out of stock.
Me? I use a combination of N95 and face shield. You? What about a full-face reusable respirator, which costs $45, with replaceable filters, 3 pairs for $24.50?
Donald Trump appeared at campaign rally in Phoenix earlier this week. To further reinforce his BIG LIE, he again kept lying. 
You will now be able to order free COVID-19 test kits from Wednesday. How? Read this. Only four kits/household, to be mailed to your home. You'll need to wait one to three weeks to receive them. Local sites will also be established where cases are the worst.
An underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga triggered non-destructive tsunamis throughout the Pacific. As of the few hours ago, the country, with 100,000 people was isolated because of a major power failure, and there is no official knowledge of what happened there.
The confounding "truth" is that Republicans apparently actually believe him:
Events of the past couple of days, which I'll go into later in the week, sent me on a nostalgic journey into my past to seek clues about how I got to where I am today. First, 60 years ago in January I was finishing my senior year at Stanford and planning for my first real job. President John F. Kennedy had the previous year announced the formation of the Peace Corps, and the first full class was being recruited to help developing countries.
Many of my close classmates were inspired to do just that for $90/month. That I did not want to do, but I felt compelled to help save something, so I picked the Hawaiian sugar industry, and ended up at the Hutchinson Sugar Company for $500/month, with free housing, and in time, a jeep. I also met my wife in Kau on the Big Island of Hawaii, and we got married as 1962 ended. In the photo to the left is Bill Baldwin, plantation manager, who I worked with in Senator Spark Matsunaga's office almost two decades later.
Half a century ago, I was finishing up my dissertation at LSU on Tunable Organic Dye Laser Irradiation of Escherichia coli. I was fortunate enough to come back home in 1972 to join the University of Hawaii College of Engineering, where I today still have an office on the Manoa Campus, from where I presented my TEDx talk last month to the World.
1982 was another memorable year, for, after spending three years in the U.S. Senate drafting original legislation for hydrogen and ocean thermal energy conversion, which are two essential elements of the Blue Revolution, I again returned home to the University Hawaii. The new dean of engineering Paul Yuen and I set out to develop the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research to bridge the gap between academia and industry. At around the same time I became director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.
1992 was a key year for drawing together the various part of the Blue Revolution. PICHTR began setting up their open cycle OTEC experiment at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (that concrete cylindrical facility to the left). At 103 kW net power, this remains as the largest ever built. Various workshops and gatherings culminated that year for items like the EEZ, artificial upwelling, next generation fisheries, and so forth.
2002 was a relatively peaceful year for me. I had retired at the end of 1999 and maintained an office on the Manoa Campus, and still do. I can't remember what I did and not. I do know that I'd rather be retired than not. There is something to freedom and freewill that is difficult to trade back for work.
In 2012 at a conference spearheaded by the Seasteading Institute, made a presentation on the Pacific International Ocean Station. You can watch my talk on this $150 million initiative. Also, there is a 2019 podcast of the Blue Revolution. But it is 40 minutes long.
So what can I look forward to in 2022? It's already been memorable in many ways. For example, it was only a year ago that I succeeded in filming a green flash. As this flash comes and goes in a second or so, I found it difficult. Then I finally succeeded this year, on January 7.
But more than eleven months to go.
- Will this pandemic prevent me from getting to Dubai for the World Expo, which ends in March?
- As cruises which stop in Hawaii need to be in 99% compliance of completed vaccinations (and boosters?), that sounds like herd immunity to me. Other sites (but not boosted):
- UAE 92%
- Portugal 90%
- Cuba 86%
- China 85%
- Japan 79%
- USA 62%
- Egypt 23%
- Africa 10%
- Nigeria 2%
- Guinea-Bissau 1%
- We are talking about a plane-cruise around the world journey to incorporate:
- The Uchinanchu Festival in Okinawa from October 30 to November 3.
- Two weeks in November on Japan Rail Pass to visit the fall colors.
- Diamond Princess from Yokohama on November 21 to Singapore on December 11.
- 21 days with a price if purchased today of $4119 for a suite.
- This ship is specially serviced for people from Japan, and has Japanese restaurants, karaoke and the like.
- We spent ten days on the Diamond Princess two years ago. That's our room above.
- Just before that passenger brought COVID-19 on board and essentially started this pandemic.
- Maybe this is why it is so cheap. But this ship's first cruise is in April, so...
- Maybe stop by Dubai anyway.
- Looking at a Crystal River Christmas Cruise. The prices are almost half what they were last year.
- There was a mini-Expo planned for Argentina from January of 2023 themed Science, Innovation, Art and Creativity for Human Development. Creative Industries in Digital Convergence. But that has been delayed, I think.
- We would have 15 stops on the Star Alliance World ticket, so much more to come.
I'll end this Sunday with
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