MY WAIKIKI MINI-VACATION: Sheraton and La Mer

From the Royal Hawaii I walked over to the Waikiki Sheraton and, after some discussion, was finally provided a suite.  Nice persistence manytimes works.  The reason why I had difficulty is that the suite upgrade was only a request, and I later saw an email indication that my request failed.  This will also be the case for the Moana Surfrider tomorrow.  Wonder if I should again play that nice persistency ploy.The Waikiki Sheraton,...

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MY WAIKIKI VACATION: Royal Hawaiian Hotel

On the spur of the moment yesterday, I thought, why not spend a weekend in Waikiki.  Play tourist without having to fly to Hawaii.  So I called the Waikiki Sheraton about what a Kamaaina (local) rate would cost on Saturday night.  The best price I could get was something close to $850/night because they were just about booked.This shock inspired me to contact the Starwood Executive Club, to further inquire.  They were very accommodating,...

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GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL, BUT WE SEEM TO BE DITHERING

Let me close the week by concluding my reportage on  global warming:1.  Mauna Loa Observatory on 4May13 measured 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.  This is the highest reading in 3,000,000 years.  In the sequence of human evolution, Australopithecus began appearing 3 million years ago.  On the top graphic, that is the human-like form nine images left of modern man:No, that individual did not actually...

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IT WAS HOT IN THE USA TODAY, AND WILL GET HOTTER YET!

Let me continue my treatment of global warming with a map of the highs in the USA today:(CLICK on the map to actually read the numbers.)  Not all that bad, actually, for:the all time high for Death Valley (elevation -282 feet) was 134 F  (which is now considered to be the high for Planet Earth) on 10 July1913, just about a century ago, and it only went up to 122 F today, highest in the Nation.  Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming got...

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FINALLY, SOME MOVEMENT ON ADDRESSING GLOBAL CLIMATE WARMING...MAYBE

There is a tug of war between industry and government on the matter of global warming.  Barons of the private sector require virtually immediate results, or profits, whereas federal bureaucracies do have the luxury of acting for the longer term, as long as the next pivotal election is not compromised.Five years ago, my Huffington Post article on:Why Do Republicans Like Fossil Fuels and Not Care That Much for the Environment?pretty much explained...

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OUR RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD

1.  I bought a SONY camera which is rated at 20.5 megapixels.  The memory card is a standard 8 GB.  I can take approximately 1250 shots.  Technology is whizzing past me.  Lexar now sells a 256 GB memory card, which is good for 40,000 photos.  It costs $900.  The Defense Advanced Projects Agency is using a 1,800 megapixels camera to peer down on us from space.2.  How sober are designated drivers?  The latest...

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MONSTERS, SUPERMAN, ZOMBIES AND THE DOME

I generally avoid films featuring animation (thus skipping Monsters University, which was #1 for the weekend), vampires, zombies and comic book supernatural abilities.  Well, I went to two  of them anyway this weekend, but more for the technology:                                Rotten Tomatoes                 ...

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