Essays
Amidst several years of controversy and contention, the summit of Mauna Kea has indeed stood alone in the calm. Now as a community we must stand together and begin the difficult task of developing a harmonious and balanced stewardship of our use of Mauna Kea. To do that successfully, all of us are forced to turn towards the mountain for guidance. M...
I remember my first visit into a world-class museum. It was the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. I cannot recall what works of art I saw, nor even the artists. Nevertheless, I remember the great sense of anticipation I felt. I remember the immaculate polished floors, the immense scale of some of the pieces....
I visited a splendid place today. My companions were a small group of plant lovers from the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden and Clyde Imada from Bishop Museum as chief identifier. Our destination was a remote coastal area in Kau. It wasn’t an easy journey. The path took us through dry, weed infested, and eroded habitat. At times the dust ...
In 1963 a pre-med undergraduate student at UH Manoa got a summer job washing test tubes. The student was Ken Kaneshiro and the job was for the new Hawaii Drosophila Project. Today, Dr. Ken Kaneshiro is an eminent evolutionary biologist. He built his world-renown scientific reputation by studying the sex lives of flies. Of course, these flies are no...
Mauna Loa is massive. Geologists call it the largest volcano on earth. It covers half of the surface area of the Big Island. Besides it size, Mauna Loa is one of the best-studied mountains on earth. It is also one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. While Kilauea continues to pump out the magma and capture the headlines, the giant Mauna Loa...
Yesterday in the kitchen I snatched a kiss from my wife. At that moment I felt like kissing her. Not wanting to lose the moment, I came up behind her, put my arms around her waist, leaned over and as she turned I kissed her gently. It was a beautiful spontaneous moment between the rice and the salad. The other day, I watched a Yellow-Fronted Canary...
Hawaii is one of the best known places on earth. People everywhere dream of a once-in-a-lifetime vacation to our Islands. I suspect most perceptions of Hawaii are similar to what mine was before moving here-white sand beaches, coconut trees swaying in the breeze, and aqua-blue, bath-tub warm ocean. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau is now s...
