Nothing much happening about wars in Iran and Ukraine, but as messy as the world economy might be, the U.S. stock markets are continuing to BREAK ALL-TIME RECORDS .  To the right, Peter Tuchman, the Einstein of Wall Street. The S&P 500 added 0.6% to close at 7819, hitting an intraday high of 7844.  This was its 28th record close just in 2026. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.45% to a record 27,600, with an intraday high of 27,723.  NVIDIA went up to a new high, opening at $242/share, and ended at $239.24, just below its all-time high. NVIDIA was only 185.54/share a year ago. Ten years ago?  $1.78/share. If you bought $1000 worth of NVIDIA stock at the 1999 IPO, this would  be worth $6,369,667 today!!! The Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 0.5% to 51,527.  The all-time closing high on 5August2026 is 54,340, after rising to an intraday high of 54,744. The USA is exactly four weeks away from 3November2026, the day of the mid-term elections. Can President Do...

  But first, a few news developments: Chance for peace in Iran? About that Hamas disarm matter, Israel bombed the Gaza Strip yesterday. Before you get too optimistic about that possible ceasefire development in Ukraine, here is a Wikipedia article about past efforts. Yes, there is another Heat Dome over Western North American: Las Vegas reached 115 F yesterdsay, Phoenix, Arizona will hit 116 F and El Centro, California 118 F today. Even Montana is expecting 104 F today. Parts of Mexico will get up to 120 F, and Canada will be 22 F to 43 F ABOVE NORMAL . Hot, but not as bad as the Heat Dome last month .  Now, on to Pearl's Ashes ceremonies #10 and #11, in Africa. Some background info: When Pearl grew up in Hilo, Mauna Kea could be seen from her home.  The volcano was especially awesome during the winter months when covered with snow.  If there was anywhere Pearl wanted to visit, but I did not, it was Africa, with Mount Kilimanjaro being her link to Mauna Kea. ...

On this Sunday, in my 17th year of this blog, I thought, my life is now not as exciting as in the past.  While I did last month return from a nearly two-month long trip that took us from Honolulu to Seattle ( by air ); then a very long cruise through the Panama Canal to Southhampton, UK; another flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands; a European Christmas Cruise to Budapest; flight to Zurich for a couple of days; then a 27 hour return by plane to Honolulu; certainly more than virtually every one of you reading this has accomplished the past year, relatively, my earlier experiences were more memorable. So I thought, over the next few months, I would select a few of my past postings to re-share with you, utilizing mostly my nostalgia day, Tuesday, for this purpose.  But I'll begin today with a grand summary. My first blog was published on 29April2008.  How long ago is that? Go back to your first day of kindergarten. Imagine how long it took to get you to become a senior in colleg...