The title above describes the reality of travel.  We're abut 5500 miles away from Hawaii, with maybe something serious about to happen there, and the location of the Azamara Journey off Greenland means that WiFi is really, really slow.  One video can take up to 24 hours to download.  Thus, I will for the next few days show that a video is there, but I probably won't be able to link it to You Tube until the ship arrives in Montreal.  Then, I can try to reload ten videos each day.  That is the limit. The biggest news of the day, for me, is the coming of Lala, now a tropical storm, but projected to increase to hurricane strength, and make landfall over the Big Island of Hawaii tomorrow. I know two hurricanes that badly damaged the island of Kauai, but don't think a hurricane has ever in recorded history made landfall over the other islands.  So I asked Google AI if the Big Island of Hawaii has ever been struck by a hurricane: That is correct. In modern recorde...

We all have ups and downs.  Take the FIFA World Cup, for example: When the USA got outclassed yesterday by Belgium, my interest in these matches dropped to nearly zero.   Then today, in a miraculous comeback, Argentina scored their winning goal in stoppage time, to beat Egypt, 3-2.  I have regained interest because 39-year Lionel Messi scored a goal, and his team has made into the quarterfinals. So what is so crucial about that game?  I have a Messi t-shirt.  Simple as that.  I watch soccer only during World Cup years, men's and women's, and now, at least have someone to root for.  Incidentally: Men's ranking:  #1 Argentina, #2 Spain and #3 France.  U.S, was ranked #17. Women's ranking:  #1 Spain, #2 USA and #3 Germany.  The next World Cup will take place in Brazil next year. This Messi t-shirt was given to me 15 years ago by the Qatar government, when they were the sponsor of the Barcelona soccer team, and their star was Messi...

Ever heard of iceberg A23a?  It calved in 1986 and is now the  largest , verified by Guinness World Records. 263 cubic miles. 40 nautical miles by 32 nautical miles space. In 2021,  iceberg A-76  broke off from the Ronne Ice Shelf off the Weddell Sea, and was larger, but soon fractured. But the absolute largest was Iceberg B-15, about the size of Jamaica.  Calved from the Ross Ice Shelf, also Antarctica, on March 2000.  There is still a small piece, B-15AB that has grounded in the western sector of Antarctica's Amery region. About A23a, it is twice the size of Greater London, UK. Detached from the  Antarctica Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. Was for a long time stuck on the sea-floor of the Weddell Sea, but in 2013 began wandering north toward the South Georgia Island of the Southern Ocean. There are, of course, other icebergs in the Atlantic off Antarctica. Here are the  icebergs just from Greenland. The town of Ilulissat on the shores of Disko Bay in...