A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
It's time for this election cycle's edition of marching music for the Alaska, Hawaii, and North Dakota Democratic primaries. I should go from east to west to follow poll closing times, but I'm going the other direction because Hawaii has the better marching bands (sorry, no drum corps in these states), followed by Alaska, then North Dakota. Hey, it's my blog; I can do that.
Representing the state of Hawaii,
Na Koa Ali'i Hawai'i All-State Marching Band performing their musical selections at the 43rd Annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Bandfest at Pasadena City College on Friday, December 29, 2023.
Representing the state of Hawaii,
Na Koa Ali'i Hawai'i All-State Marching Band performing at the 135th Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday, January 1, 2024.
Great performances! No wonder they got invited back. Here's to seeing them marching down Colorado Boulevard in 2029!
Follow over the jump for marching bands from Alaska and North Dakota along with a cameo of a band from the Aloha State.
Thirty years ago, the world experienced the original Jurassic Park, "the beginning of something that changed movies." Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant), Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler), and Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm) return in an exclusive clip to reflect on their experiences and express their gratitude to the fandom for keeping the captivating wonders of Jurassic Park alive. After all, "there's something about dinosaurs which captures the proper imagination like nothing else."
At its core, this video is a great piece of self-promotion, but it has the best preview image, the best video description, and the best capturing of the spirit of the franchise and especially the original movie of any video I found, so in featured position it goes.
The film debuted at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., an event that was also a fundraiser for children's charities.
The clip from 30 years ago held up really well, including the interview with Gary Hoyle of the Maine State Museum. The original movie took the science seriously, both the paleontology and the biotechnology, which has led to serious proposals for de-extinction, although not of dinosaurs from amber. That's not going to happen.
It was 1993 when Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, the first one, came out and hit the screens.
On the one hand, this is local news promoting a local commercial event as a public service for locals' entertainment. This is something I see over and over again in local news coverage of holidays and I'm ambivalent about it. On the other, it really does describe the importance of the movie to Hawaii and how it has affected the intervening 30 years, including the filming of "Lost" and "Jumanji" at the ranch. Those are important not only to Hawaii, but to movies and television more broadly. That history makes this clip worth sharing.
I might have more to write about the 30th anniversary of "Jurassic Park." Stay tuned.
When debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan started washing up in North America, scientists knew they had a mystery—and a potential environmental disaster—on their hands.
In this episode of Weathered, we explore a “mass rafting event” that carried colonies of invasive species across the Pacific, revealing ominous new changes in how our oceans function.
On of my students gave a presentation on this subject years ago and showed photos of the fishing dock, motorcycle, and other debris to the class. I thought this story served as a good example of "Everything is connected to everything else," one of Commoner's Laws, as well as an unexpected consequence of the triple disaster. Radiation isn't the only threat traveling across the Pacific because of what happened 11 years ago.
Tuesday marks the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the moment that thrust a reluctant United States into World War II. Harry Smith, just back from Hawaii, looks back at the momentous event.
I agree with Dr. Satino; the U.S. would have stayed out of the war so long as none of the Axis powers attacked us. If not the Japanese, then the Germans attacking American ships supplying the U.K. through Lend-Lease might have done the trick, which would have echoed what brought the U.S. into World War I. Seen that way, Pearl Harbor was a tactical victory for Japan, but a strategic blunder. So were Germany and Italy declaring war on the U.S. It's possible that America might have only fought Japan if they hadn't done so. I'll let alternative history authors speculate on that. We'll never know.
Of the millions of Americans who fought in World War II, fewer than 2 percent are still alive. Some of them have made the trip to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii this week for solemn remembrance on the 80th anniversary of the attack. NBC’s Kerry Sanders reports from there for TODAY.
I'm glad Jack H. didn't transfer his anger at Japan to fellow veteran Ralph Matsumoto. All things considered, I feel he gave the right answer. May we all learn a lesson from that.
Pedro Pierluisi, who has been governor of #PuertoRico since January 2021, is pushing for the Caribbean archipelago to become the 51st US state. This would put an end to its current status of unincorporated territory and give more rights to its inhabitants. But while the election of Joe #Biden seems to give hope to those who want US statehood, others would prefer Puerto Rico to become completely independent. Our regional correspondents Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report.
As for Puerto Rico producing only 15% of its own food, that's definitely a colonial relationship with the mainland. However, statehood by itself may not improve the situation, as Hawaii also produced only 15% of its own food in 2016 despite being a major agricultural state. That's because most of its farms produced food for export to the mainland and elsewhere. Hawaii's Governor pledged to double local food production by 2020. As correspondent Laurence Cuvillier pointed out, a similar initiative for Puerto Rico shows potential for economic growth. Still, it could be worse; Alaska only produces 4% of its own food, a stat I should tell my students.
In the midst of economic, political and climate crises, Puerto Rico has lost nearly 12% of its population over the last decade, mostly to join the 6 million Puerto Rican diaspora now living in the 50 states. Tax incentives meant to lure investments have led some Puerto Ricans to fear that the island is turning into a fiscal paradise for wealthy outsiders, driving even more locals out. Many administrations have pushed for a more prosperous Puerto Rico, but they often blame the territorial status for falling short. Is statehood, independence, or something else the solution? And who gets to decide?
In addition to food, CBS News examined the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis and its effect on the economy. This looks a lot like Michigan's Emergency Financial Manager law and has the same effect on local government. I didn't like it here so I don't like it there.
CBS News has several videos expanding and promoting the documentary, but I'm wrapping up this section instead by repeating what I wrote yesterday: "I have a bad feeling that if the Republicans in Washington D.C. continue to block statehood, sentiment might switch over to free association or outright independence. That would be no be my preferred outcome, but if it's what Puerto Ricans want, then I'll support it, while still being upset at Republicans for making it happen."
Former Vice President Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primary in Hawaii in the party’s first mail-in presidential primary in the islands, the Democratic Party of Hawaii announced Saturday.
Biden received 63.2% of the ranked-choice votes, or 21,214 votes, while Sen. Bernie Sanders received 36.8%, or 12,337 ranked-choice votes.
The party decided last year to hold a mail-in ballot to increase participation and also because it fulfilled a Democratic National Committee request that the state move away from a caucus election and toward a primary.
Party members were supposed to have the option of voting in-person on April 4, but that was canceled because of the virus and the mail-in voting period was extended.
The Democratic Party of Hawaii released the results for the 2020 presidential primary election. Joe Biden won with 63% of the votes, while Bernie Sanders came in second with 37%.
Those were the results after voters' second and third choices were considered. In the initial round, Biden had 56.0%, Sanders 30.8%, Elizabeth Warren 4.8%, Tulsi Gabbard 3.9%, Michael Bloomberg 1.3%, and Andrew Yang 1.0% with all other candidates receiving less than one percent each. I think that was Gabbard's best showing since winning a delegate in American Samoa, not that it did her any good to come in fourth in her home state.
Enough politics — on to the marching music! Since there are no competitive drum corps in Hawaii, follow over the jump for the Hawaiian marching bands that have marched in the Rose Parade during the past five years and been recorded by Music213.
When I wrote "I'll return to reality tomorrow with some real-life DOOM," I had in mind the CDC special session about nuclear detonation that had been scheduled for today. Over the weekend, that changed, as Wochit News reported in CDC Shifts From Nuclear Strike To Influenza.
The Center for Disease Control’s January 16th special session advising Americans on what to do in the event of a nuclear war has shifted topic. It will now be about what to do in the event of flu season. As reported by the New York Times, the CDC announced the shift because the flu was particularly bad this year. The announcement read, "To date, this influenza season is notable for the sheer volume of flu that most of the United States is seeing at the same time, which can stress health systems."
To get an idea how severe this year's outbreak is, ABC News reported Flu epidemic strikes US: CDC on Friday the 12th.
With 13 weeks of flu season left, some hospitals face an IV fluid shortage as they treat the sick.
I'll get back to the IV shortage after I share How to protect yourself when someone in your family has the flu from ABC News, posted yesterday. It probably won't be much different from what the CDC says along with the admonition to get vaccinated (I got my shot in October during my first doctor visit after being diagnosedas a Type I diabetic; there are advantages to being under close medical supervision).
Dr. Jennifer Ashton shares tips on how to keep the rest of the household healthy when one family member at home comes down with the flu.
It was September when Hurricane Maria, the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, slammed into Puerto Rico. It claimed lives, destroyed buildings and knocked out power to the entire island. Now the U.S. territory, which happens to be home to dozens of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, is still struggling to recover. More than 600,000 customers remain without power. It is impacting hospitals across the country and right here in metro-Detroit.
Welcome to an example of "everything is connected to everything else." Who'd have thought a hurricane in Puerto Rico would affect flu treatment in the rest of the U.S. months later? Well, it is. Maybe power should be restored more quickly in Puerto Rico in order to improve health care on the mainland.
One of the ironies in changing the subject of the CDC briefing and the map associated with the declaration of the the flu epidemic is that the state least affected by flu right now is Hawaii and the 50th state was the one most affected by the threat of nuclear war. Follow over the jump for that news.
This week it has been declared that the rusty patched bumblebee is endangered in the United States. It is the first bee species to ever be put on the endangered list. The rusty patched bumblebee has seen it’s population diminish significantly over the past 20 years. Tom Melius, the regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, stated, “Pollinators are small but might parts of the natural mechanism that sustains us and our world. Without them, our forests, parks, meadows, and scrublands, and the abundant, vibrant life they support, cannot survive, and our crops require laborious, costly pollination by hand.” Environmentalists are ready to fight for the lives of rusty patched bumblebees.
While these are both the first bumblebees and mainland bees to be placed on the endangered species list, they aren't the first U.S. bees on the list. Last September, several species of Hawaiian bees earned that dubious distinction. KHON reports in Native bee species now protected under Endangered Species Act.
Seven yellow-faced bee species are now under protection, a first for any bees in the nation.
While these are not honeybees, this is still bad news.
A Swiss man attempting to circumnavigate the globe with an aircraft powered only by the sun's energy landed in Hawaii on Friday. Pilot Andre Borschberg made a record-breaking five-day nonstop solo flight across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. The Solar Impulse 2 is the first aircraft to fly day and night without any fuel. Borschberg's 120-hour voyage shattered the 76-hour record for nonstop flight by late American adventurer Steve Fossett in 2006 on the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.
Today is a primary election day in Hawaii, so it's one of the states I'm covering in tonight's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday on Daily Kos. At the same time, the big island of Hawaii has suffered its first landfall of a named storm since statehood. That's enough to make the event tonight's top story both here and at Daily Kos. I'm giving my readers a special sneak preview of the stories from commercial sources, beginning with this video from KHON: State to release primary results ahead of 2 polling places.
The primary election will go on as scheduled Saturday, except for two polling places on the Big Island where Iselle caused enough damage to postpone voting for thousands of people.
Amid cleanup from Tropical Storm Iselle and more wind and rain expected from Hurricane Julio on Sunday, Hawaiian election officials scrambled Saturday morning for the state’s primary election to go forth as planned.
All but two polling stations in the state will open as planned.
The two closed stations are in precincts where "there are miles of roads that are obstructed" and power outages, Atty. Gen. David Louie told reporters Friday. The roughly 8,000 affected voters will be able to cast absentee ballots later. ... Hurricane Julio, which was downgraded to a Category 2 storm on Friday, is expected to veer north of Hawaii on Sunday, bringing rain and winds to the Big Island, according to the National Weather Service. As of early Saturday morning Julio had sustained maximum winds of 100 mph. It is 495 miles east of Hilo, moving at 16 mph.
