Aloha Dump

In physics, wave-particle duality holds that light and matter can exhibit properties of both waves and particles. But how can this be? This is one of the most mind boggling videos I have watched and it interests me immensely because of the section on interference patterns. Although the video is talking aobut quantum physics, interference patterns show up in the underwater world of sonar because of the Lloydd Mirror Effect- basically, sound is reinforced or cancelled out by sound waves of inverse proportion. Light and matter makes interference patterns also in this dual slit experiment however, when the process is observed, the particles behave differently- like they know they are being watched! Enjoy.

Enron Executives- Flight of Fancy There are several distinct tipping points throughout history for people to learn from: military strategists have Vietnam, archaeologists have Lucy, and managers have Enron. Enron will forever go down in the annals of managerial and accounting practices as the single most costly scam to affect thousands of people, even the economy itself! Enron has been compared to a classic Greek tragedy of historical proportions. Some people claim the Enron scandal was born out of the constructs of good old fashioned American capitalism or from the deregulation of California’s energy policies. In reality, the whole despicable scandal can be boiled down to one thing- greed. Enron was a company that dealt less with substance than with reputation. It sold energy, a commodity it did not produce but bought and then sold. Enron actually traded in more than 800 commodities, ranging from lumber and steel to bandwidth and weather risk management. California legislature deregu...

This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. I can't help laughing everytime, and I mean everytime, I watch it.

There are many great submarine Naval heroes in our 108 years history- CDR Slade Cutter , CAPT John Cromwell , ADM Eugene Fluckey , and Commander Howard Gilmore - officers who reshaped the course of a war, held their shipmates in higher regard than themselves, and made decisions that were based on what’s best for the crew. How I wish to be surrounded by such men and not the clueless, incompetent “leaders” that are doing nothing but shaping their fitreps. While at sea, submariners are on a steady diet of shit sandwiches. Inherent to life at sea in the nuclear Navy, the stresses of keeping the water outside of the boat, preventing collisions with other vessels, and the routines of drills, maintenance, and training all contribute to the Dagwood-sized sandwich we are forced to choke down. After 4 years a sailor is supposed to be able to go to shore duty and shake off the rigors of sea duty. It is a time to relax, spend some well deserved time with family, and burn some of that leave that ha...

My mother-in-law forwarded me an email that had the following 17 pictures of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I have been to the Arizona Memorial several times but do not recognize any of the shots she sent. I am planning on priting the shots out and giving them to the Chief Historian at the Memorial. Many of the images show enemy planes still in the air, our planes and ships on fire, and unidentified structures exploding. They are very chilling for me to look at as I can easily identify specific parts of the harbor, parts that I have riden through while on a tour boat or the inbound/outbound submarines I have been attached to. The pictures represent a definitive result of what can happen if intelligence is doubted, defenses are lowered, and foreign policy is ineffective.

Hubble's Deepest View of the Universe Unveils Bewildering Galaxies across Billions of Years What did the first galaxies look like? To help answer this question, the Hubble Space Telescope has just finished taking the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light. Pictured above, the HUDF shows a sampling of the oldest galaxies ever seen, galaxies that formed just after the dark ages, 13 billion years ago, when the universe was only 5 percent of its present age. The Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS and new ACS cameras took the image. Staring nearly 3 months at the same spot, the HUDF is four times more sensitive, in some colors, than the original Hubble Deep Field (HDF). Astronomers the world over will likely study the HUDF for years to come to better understand how stars and galaxies formed in the early universe. Representing a narrow "keyhole" view stretching to the visible horizon of the universe, the Hubble Deep Field...

I sent a letter to Judge Koetle, who has just appeased terrorism in the most sickening way, admonishing him to exert the maximum allowable punishment on former lawyer and scumbag Lynn Stewart. Normally, 'lawyer' and 'scumbag' are found in the same sentence but for this woman there are different circumstances. Stewart smuggled messages from her client, a terrorist who was in jail, to his terrorist buddies. The judge said her crimes had "potentially lethal consequences" and called them "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct." He then proceeded to give her 30 months in prison, which she can appeal (while she remains a free person). Remember the old Cheech and Chong courtroom skit? "Bailiff. Whack his pee-pee!" Instead of getting 30 years in prison, which the prosecutors wanted, for betraying her country, Stewart gets a sentence that amounts to little more than a joke. But could we expect anything less from a Clinton appointed judge? Judge K...

It was quite a wake up Sunday morning as my bed was shaking like a frat house bed on homecoming night. Hawaii had experienced its hardest earthquake in 20 years and it showed. The islands experience thousands of earthquakes a year but many of them aren’t even noticeable except by seismographs. This is only the second earthquake I have felt (that I can remember, that is. As a child living in CA my mother tells me we had them all the time), the last one was when I was in Guam. The 6.6 magnitude earthquake sent our son running into our bedroom with eyes as wide as saucers. My wife grabbed him and I rolled over our 3 month old daughter who was in bed with us. The whole ordeal lasted about 25 seconds. I thought it was fun and didn’t panic; my wife, a California resident for most of her life, dismissed it as if the quarter had just run out of the vibrating bed in a cheap motel. I got up and surveyed my living room and the only proof of a shakedown was a cigar tube that had rolled onto the ...

To the Republicans, Foley is a lech and a creep, guilty of improper relationships with pages leaning towards the harsh crime of sexual harrassment. To the Democrats, Foley is guilty of being a Republican. This is has a political stench, like a dead animal you can't see, or the elsusive smell of dogshit on someone's shoe. Take advantage of this as long as you can Democrats, because the steam is going to run out and you will be left with a pathetic list of candidates vieing for the Oval Office. /hat tip Mike Lief

One of the funniest 'commercials' I've heard in a while- sure to boost those USN recruiting figures for next year!

There are only one or two days a month when the moon is in full phase and is visible from my lanai for any observable amount of time. Perhaps it is the impending retirement from the Navy that can be seen just over the horizon, thus giving me due cause to leave this island state, that now focuses my senses on my surroundings. It was my 3-year old son who first noticed the moon tonight and called attention to it as I was reading the first chapter from Compensation Management in a Knowledge-Based World , required reading for my grad class. But it wasn’t until he was asleep and my 2 month old daughter was, yet again, hanging off my wife’s breast that I went out and really looked at Earth’s oldest satellite. The moon was already 20 degrees over the horizon and illuminating the Ko’olau Mountains and the perpetual cloud canopy, that seems to tease me by only allowing a partial view of the erosion carved mountain tops, cling to the many crevasses in its nightly resting place. The mountains app...

Can we just get one thing to work right in this GWOT, please? Hundreds of millions of people each year are screened against the lists by Customs and Border Protection, the State Department and state and local law enforcement agencies. The lists include names of people suspected of terrorism or of possibly having links to terrorist activity. If you happen to have the same name as an international terrorist who has been blacklisted by TSA, or the aforementioned agencies, then you will suffer, at minimum, a rather lengthy delay or, worst case, be sent to Syria for a year and tortured for no reason. "Whoops! Our bad. Please don't sue us." It is distressing that we are still working out kinks in our complicated system of protection erected to prevent the terrorists from gaining any ground. The Debate Link provides an alternative to the recent detainee treatment bill passed last week and has at least given me pause to stop and reflect on that bill. I encourage you to read it h...

My lazy attempt at a post on this Aloha Friday. I have a sinking feeling that if the elections were to happen right now the Republicans would lose their asses, the House for sure, and be left standing there sucking their thumbs. They may still come November. But 33 days is an eternity in the political world of scandal and we are already seeing the steam gauge starting to drop on the Foley mess. I read the following article in TNMJ and it gives me hope that the Republicans can still yet salvage their elections. People are smart, they get distracted easily, but I think that come November, the best people will win. I have my hat ready with a bottle of Frank's just in case I am wrong. ----------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Democratic Party The Fifth Column Seth Swirsky October 5, 2006 It took less than a week for Nancy Pelosi – who stuck up for President Bush when Hugo Chavez used the United Nations forum to call him a “devil” and a “liar” in front of the...

An ad for a cruise company offended some people in Hawaii when they portrayed a statue of the late Hawaiian leader King Kamehameha holding a glass of wine in his outstretched hand. Evidently, some Hawaiians feel that their culture is being disrespected. They demanded a full page apology in the magazine the ad appeared in and sensitivity training for the cruise company’s staff. I say, "Go shit in a hat." This embarrasses me as a Hawaii resident and here’s why. The Honolulu Advertiser has several quotes from outraged Hawaiians and also non Hawaiians in the tourism industry. This statement by Wayne Panoke, a member of a Hawaiian culture coalition, had this to say: When I saw it, I was appalled to think that any company would have the audacity to use our culture in that fashion and especially our icon, King Kamehameha Perhaps the ad should have had the head of one of their icon’s enemies? The fall out resulting from the ad is unfortunate; I think the ad is brilliant. It i...

Very few times have I read someone elses blog and had the urgency to post a trackback. Patterico has an exlcusive interview with an Army Major stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. You know, the place where you can "... eat breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans who are trained to kill." This interview is epic because it is straight from the horses mouth, no main stream media involvement, ie. the truth. A clip from Patterico's site (posted below) says it all. Please bookmark his site and catch all 5 segments of this interview with an Army Major stationed in Gitmo. The Major goes by the pseudonym Stashiu and was very eager, however careful, to give Patterico the interview. It probably didn't go like Col. Jessup's request- I can deal with the bullets, and the bombs, and the blood. I don't want money, and I don't want medals. What I do want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform and with your Harvard mouth extend me some fucking courtesy. You gott...

As I was rooting around the top shelf in my overloaded closet I came across my Senior Year book, not the one with all the pictures of my classmates but another one that I contains fill ins for all sorts of stuff. I started feeling nostalgic as I creep up on my 20th reunion in May of 2007. Here is some eye opening data from page 24, Prices and Fads, filled out in May of 1987: Gasoline per galloon: .79 unleaded; .76 regular (241% increase) Favorite jeans: Levi’s $29.95 501’s Album/Tape: $9.95 I wonder if anyone under the age of 20 has even heard of these? Favorite snack: $1.05 Twinkie and IBC Root Beer Favorite Magazine: $3.00 Air & Space Gimmie a break, Maxim hadn’t been printed yet. Candy bar: $.45 3 Musketeers (.75 now) Favorite burger: $1.30 McD’s Quarter Pounder (Same fat content, higher price now) Concert tickets: $12.00 – 15.00 (Bon Jovi in Little Rock) $75 The Eagles in Honolulu (2005) Style haircut: $6.00 ($7.0...