First, the usual news summary: Israel-Hamas war. Rockets are about all there is today, including to Tel Aviv. Israel army readied to invade Gaza Strip and reinforce the north.  While there is a war unity alliance, Netanyahu's position is weakening within the country. Misinformation.  Both sides are using the virtual media to exaggerate their claims to gain international understanding.  This is leading to a  lot of misinformation  and doubt about what really is going on. More online fake news. U.S. House of Representatives. Jim Jordan will come up for a floor vote next week to become speaker.  Exact date?  His position is too weak to do this yet.   Lots of luck James. Bipartisan unity? Well, on to the topic of the day, which is travel.  Why?  We are exactly two weeks away from our trip to Japan.  Nine-days on the Diamond Princess around Japan, with a stop in Busan, South Korea, plus three separate 7-day green car Japan Rail Passes to follow the fall colors from Hokkaido down to Kago

Religion was not a particularly important part of my youth into adulthood, and remains so today.  My parents were Buddhists, but nothing too spiritual.  It was mostly cultural. As our home in Kakaako was only a block or so from a large park owned by a Christian church, I spent a lot time there, and sort of became a Christian. In any case, my knowledge of religion was minimal.  So when I began to write  Simple Solutions for Humanity , I had to  begin educating myself by reading books  like: B. Toropov and L. Buckles ,   The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the World’s Religions [IDIOT] , Alpha Books, New York, 1997. This could well have been my first and favorite book on religion. I was brought up a Buddhist, attended a neighborhood Christian church because it had a fun summer school program, went through a few months of Catechism in high school, joined a Nisei Methodist Church because that was socially convenient, participated in Presbyterian rituals at Stanford University, went back to Buddh

  The   New York Times   summarized where we are in controlling global warming: Before 2015, the world was expected to warm by about four degrees Celsius by 2100. Today, the world is on track for three degrees Celsius. And if the world’s leaders meet their current commitments, the planet would warm by   around two degrees Celsius . That is not enough to declare victory. The standard goal world leaders have embraced to avoid the worst consequences of climate change is to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. Unfortunately, that does look increasingly unreachable, experts said . Gas prices and Republican resistance   have diminished   Biden’s climate agenda. The war in Ukraine has   consumed attention   previously focused on climate issues. As the World Turns  ( watch the evolution of the opening, and shifting commercials--did you know that Lux Soap was taken off the shelves in the 1990's, but you can buy it again today ) is an American television soap opera that played fro

The Ukraine War has stimulated a rise in democracy.  For one, European countries are now united for the first time in a long time.  Combined, their defense ( meaning also offense ) budgets will rise over the next few years to box Russia.  This will lead the USA to somewhat disengage from that continent to focus on Asia and the Pacific.  Hawaii will return to be strategically important. My outing this week was to the 130th anniversary celebration of the Ewa Sugar Plantation.  Brought back memories, for my professional life began as a factory engineer at the Hutchinson Sugar Company in the southernmost community in the U.S., Naalehu. Interestingly enough, this industry has been here for almost 200 years, for the first recorded planting of sugar cane was Manoa Valley in 1825, where I've had an office at  the University of Hawaii for 50 years.  While that effort failed, the first actual sugar plantation was started in 1835 in Koloa, Kauai, where my father lived. Of course,  sugar culti