What Caught My Eye Today - Aloha Edition

Fred's Note: Vacation time, my friends. For the next couple of weeks, your friendly neighborhood blogger (that would be me) will be reporting from the island paradise of Hawaii. We'll start off each posting with a brief updates on the happenings in the 50th state.

Hawaii At a Glance
Today's Headline: "City Commits $1 Billion for Sewers" Basically the one million people crammed together on the island of Oahu have agreed to kicking in about $23 a month to fix a ridiculously antiquated sewage system highlighted by a 48 million gallon sewage spill two years ago. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Things to do in Hawaii: Ultra light flying. Think of it as a three wheel go cart attached to a hang glider powered by a three blade propeller. This is my third year flying over the North Shore, and as an added bonus this year, Pearl Harbor. You quite simply cannot get a better aerial view of the island than cruising about 2,000 feet above the ground in one of these aircraft. The folks that run the outfit on Oahu (Paradise Air) run the program as a training course, meaning you get to take the wheel (or in this case the crossbar) for a fair bit of the flight. Trust me when I say this one of the most awesome experiences you can have on Hawaii or anyplace else for that matter.

And now to our regularly scheduled programming. Which natural disaster should we start off with first?

China - A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants in central China, killing nearly 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the country's worst quake in three decades. The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in midafternoon, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing and could be felt as far away as Vietnam. The quake was the deadliest since one in 1976 in the city of Tangshan near Beijing that killed 240,000 — although some reports say as many as 655,000 perished — the most devastating in modern history. A 1933 quake near where today's quake struck killed at least 9,000, according to geologists. Though slow to release information at first, the government and its state media ramped up quickly. Nearly 20,000 soldiers, police and reservists were sent to the disaster area. Given how many people live in neighboring regions, this could have been much, much worse. And when you compare the Chinese government's reaction to this crisis to the mind boggling idiocy being demonstrated by Myanmar's ruling junta, you sort of have to tip your hat to them for responding so quickly. I'm sure the fact that the Olympics start in 88 days has nothing to do with this either.

Myanmar - In its latest assessment of the scale of the disaster in Myanmar, the U.N. humanitarian agency said between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive and the number of dead could range from 60,000 to 102,000. Myanmar state television raised its official toll to 31,938 dead and 29,770 missing. The military junta has welcomed "aid from any nation" but has made it very clear it does not want an influx of foreign experts or equipment to distribute it in five declared disaster zones after Cyclone Nargis struck 11 days ago. President George W. Bush, speaking after the first U.S. military aid flight to Myanmar, condemned the junta for failing to act more quickly to accept international help, saying "either they are isolated or callous." "Stupid" also comes to mind. From what I can gather from various news reports. The government is reluctant to let in foreign aid workers, because it wants the population to think the aid is coming from them, as opposed to external organizations. Yeah, that's cool. Let your people suffer while you try to masquerade as a government that cares. And get this. Soldiers kicked refugees out of the few shelters that actually exist because they were designated as polling places for a constitutional referendum that would give the ruling junta even more power than it already has. When asked if they could delay the election in light of this disaster, the junta scoffed at the idea, saying that the date for the election was set in stone. After all, government astrologers (yes, you heard me right) ordained the day as being perfect for the election. Good idea. Create a diversion from all the suffering and dying by holding an election. Unbelievable.

2008 Presidential Race - Barack Obama's wave of superdelegate endorsements puts him within reach of the Democratic presidential nomination by the end of the primary season on June 3 — even if he loses half of the remaining six contests. Obama has picked up 26 superdelegates in the past week. At that pace, he will reach the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination — 2,025 — in the next three weeks, when delegates from the remaining primaries are included. Obama has 1,871.5 delegates, including endorsements from party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Hillary Clinton has 1,697, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. That leaves Obama just 153.5 delegates short of the number needed to win the nomination at the party's national convention this August in Denver. There are 217 delegates at stake in the six remaining primaries, in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota. Even if Clinton wins most of those delegates, Obama could reach the magic number by the time South Dakota and Montana vote on June 3. I must be drinking too many mai tais (I am on vacation, after all). Did I hear correctly that the Democratic nomination might actually be settled in this lifetime? I'm at a loss for words.

Drugs (Part I) - Absinthe, a green-colored, anise-flavored liquor once favored by Parisian artists and bohemians, was banned in the United States for decades, based on its reputation for causing wild hallucinations. Probably a good idea. After all, one wonders how much worse our government might work if they were hallucinating any more than they already are. It turns out that absinthe isn't all it's cracked up to be. Say it ain't so! A new study of both recently distilled absinthe and samples from antique bottles dating back a century found no chemicals capable of hallucinogenic effects. If absinthe drinkers suffered dementia and death, it was probably because they drank large quantities of the140-proof liquor daily, and had become alcoholics. Why do these studies have to take all the fun out of everything?

Drugs (Part II) - In the 1960s, everyone took a trip on LSD. Certainly sounds like more fun than a trip on plane these days. LSD, whose creator died last week at the age of 102, induces wondrous, sometimes terrifying visions that users claim have given them a new, and truer, view of reality. Well, heck, if that's true, I say line up Congress and give them a double dose. For several years, as artists, writers, and rock stars emerged from LSD trips with messianic fervor ("Messianic fervor? That's a little strong, don't you think?), the psychedelic counterculture was popular culture. Today, only 3.5% of college students have ever tried LSD, while nearly twice as many have tried Ecstasy. Yes, let's hear it for progress. Ecstasy offers "a one dimensional, blissfully brainless high." Coincidentally, that is the same promise offered by Prozac. Americans, it seems, no longer want to expand their minds. they'd rather by comfortably numb.

And on that encouraging note, I think it's time for another mai tai. I am on vacation, after all (not sure if I mentioned that earlier).