I was this week walking to the dining room at 15 Craigside, when one of the residents walked up to me and said something to the effect:   Crichton and Patterson stole your idea about an eruption on the Big Island .  So the next day I went to my computer and found that  Eruption , by Crichton and Patterson, was #1 on the  New York Times  fiction book list. How did their book come together? Michael Crichton  was a Harvard-trained doctor who went straight into writing, creating  Jurassic Park  and other adventures. His first book under his name was  The Andromeda Strain .  All told, his books sold over 200 million copies, with a dozen adapted into films. He is the only writer to have a number one book, movie and TV show in the same year. Born in 1942 and passed away in 2008 at the age of 66.   His wife Sherri found parts of an unfinished novel centered around a huge volcanic eruption in Hawaii, and thought this should be comp...

Today, I bring you up to date on what is happening around our world.  First, did you know that  our world population reached 8 billion  on November 15?  Historically and into the future: Population Milestone Year Reached 1 Billion 1804 2 Billion 1927 3 Billion 1960 4 Billion 1974 5 Billion 1987 6 Billion 1998 7 Billion 2010 8 Billion 2022 9 Billion 2037 10 Billion 2058 Other facts: Notice that it took 12 years from 2010 to reach 8 billion. However, growth is slowing, and the expectation is 15 years to get to 9 billion and another 19 years to attain 10 billion.  Certainly too many people for the available resources and the threat of global warming. Worrisomely, 96% of the global population growth since 2010 has occurred in less developed countries. Our exponential growth could, though, before 2100 begin declining; The World Cup begins tonight at 7PM in Doha, Qatar, and we board the Regent Seven Seas Explorer in Dubai for Qatar tomorrow.  Well, no, because th...

Although I am on a Hawaii inter island cruise, I have continued to keep track of this COVID pandemic.   For example : The CDC reported that people 12 years and older who are  unvaccinated were 17 times more likely to die of COVID-19  than those who were up to date. There are pockets of high concern (orange color) in the U.S. Hawaii is among the orange states,  The nearly 6000 new cases/day peak of January 2022 dropped to around 100/day at the end of March, but has increased to around 1000 new cases today. Since March, the deaths/day figure has increased by 20%. 20% of residents have been infected. Around 1 in a 1000 residents have died. The prediction is that  Hawaii could reach 4000 cases/day and peak in June . For the U.S. The positivity rate was 3% on April 20, and has increased to 10% today.  On 25 January 2022 the positivity was 25.7%. Chances are all positivity rates should be much lower today because many these days just take the at-home version...

      From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):            DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571   ...