google walk

we need google walking maps:
(1) avoid hills -- the "alternative route" option which prioritizes topography by overlaying topo map data (readily available) with google mapping functionality;
(2) plan exercise route -- pull route out as google calculates distance and find some hills as google also calculates topography delta;
(3) drag and drop route changes -- like the new google maps feature, but without the car right of way requirements
(4) google algorithm that can suggest alternative routes based on popular routes chosen by others on google walk, allow you to find nearby hills, alternative route avoiding busy streets, increase hills, cut or add to distance, you get the idea.

benefits:
a. walking is green.
b. google walk = google bike = google run
c. exercise is good for human health and wellbeing.
d. walking gets people out into their community on a regular basis.

nara (june 2007)

we visited Nara on a daytrip from Kyoto

the kofukuji temple, with its five story pagoda, is a world heritage site

check the cartoon version


Nara is famous for the "semi-wild" or "tame" deer that roam about the park (the guidebook says there are 1000s).

they were originally regarded as divine messengers of one of the shinto gods and now are a tourist attraction.


the deer were not wary of humans (in part because we feed them deer biscuits sold by local vendors).
one result is you see fantastic deer cleaning tricks



in june, Nara also has lots of school kids


including some who pestered, and petted, the deer



ignoring the angry deer warnings


the juxtaposition was interesting



the todaiji temple, "the largest wooden building in the world," is another world heritage site

it houses a huge buddha

and a model of the temple which shows how it looks on the two days each year when they open the top windows to reveal the buddha


inside they had this politely worded sign


Pindola sits outfront

the explanation is interesting


kasuga taisha shrine, yet another world heritage site, is famous for its lanterns


there is a 1000 year old japanese cedar tree in the courtyard of the shrine

with a chinese juniper tree growing out of its roots and through the roof of one of the buildings

i love that they commemorate this with a sign rather than cutting it down


nearby, i found this torii


and this sign and tree



vendors sold cutsie deer products all over the site




and deer were featured in ads


and on stone lanterns

a new federal government

we (the "united states of america") need a new federal system. one body (“the fedreps”) instead of the president, senate, and house of representatives. 100 officials elected in a nationwide election (one vote per citizen). the top 100 form the government. the majority rules on regular governmental decisions, super majority for changes to basic rules and other more important issues. like a single-bodied parliment, hopefully without the crutch of party politics.

census.gov (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/elections/votingage_population_and_voter_participation/) reports that there were 142 million registered voters in 2004 (72 percent of the 197 million citizens of voting age), and 125 million voted (63.8%). it was a presidential election so the numbers were high. one percent of registered voters would be around 1,420,000 (one percent of voters might be as low as 1,250,000). any group that could find that many voters, nationally, would be represented in the government. get one vote. with 100 representatives, the majority would hopefully balance into an effective representative government.

you would see a lot more women (67 million women voted in 2004, 58 million men). national-issue candidates (ralph nader, the greens, the aclu, the nra, aarp) would have a shot at proportional representation. as would local and regional candidates. we might get some television personalities. film stars. religious leaders. academics. authors. queers. republicans. democrats. independents? libertarians?

we might see voting blocks. the 2004 census data shows that we had 14 million black voters that year. and, voter drives might empower the 9 million additional black citizens of voting age. or the 13 million immigrants who were naturalized citizens eligible to vote but did not (7 million did vote; another 19 million are not u.s. citizens). 17 million voting veterans. 108 million voting non-veterans. we might see more mothers. maybe some school teachers?

urban areas would get proportional representation. big cities like ny (manhattan, brooklyn, queens and the bronx) and los angeles - with over 2 million voters each - would have significant voting power. as would the bay area (alameda, contra costa, san francisco, san mateo, santa clara) with 1,703,000 voters in 2004. washington d.c.’s 204,000 voters would finally get representation. (statistics by county: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/PresidentialByCounty.aspx?oi=P&rti=G&sp=Ca&tf=l).

we could increase the number of representatives (with 150 representatives, it would take 1 million voters to elect a representative; with 300 representatives, it would take 500,000 voters to elect a representative). try to find a workable balance.

the current system clearly isn’t working. people distrust politicians. a number of people are not represented because the group they belong to has insufficient local numbers (but sufficient national numbers): greens; libertarians?; librarians?; goths?; major religions; geologists?; minor religions (depending on size); pagans who vote?; atheists?; welfare recipients?; vegetarians? small states currently have disproportionate power. urban areas are underrepresented. density is discriminated against.

hawaii part 4

day 8 we went scuba diving with south kona scuba. our dives were off the shore near puuhonua o honaunau (aka city of refuge). this was our 3d and 4th dives, and so we are still getting used to the whole elvin-magic breathing under water trick. i must say, though, it is an amazing experience. worth trying at some point in your life. i saw an eel poke its head out of a coral reef. and, we saw a sea turtle down deeper. and coral. and fish.

we mostly chilled the rest of the day. and visited a beach near sunset. from the beach, we saw what looked like a whale tail - it flipped up 10+ times in a row. so we tried to book a whale watching tour for day 9. the only time we could get, however, was early morning the day we were leaving.

day 9 we visited puuhonua o honaunau national historical park (aka city of refuge).

the guidebook says these are modern carved effigies of gods

i found some interesting details that the brady bunch failed to highlight



the guidebook says this spot held the royal palace and a puuhonau sanctuary. my understanding is that certain things were kapu - forbidden - by hawaiian law/custom. for which, the punishment was death. if you made it to a sanctuary, you would be absolved. however, you had to get past the armed warriors (of the royal palace) and/or make it by sea (the guidebook mentions shark infested waters).

we saw more basking sea turtles. and a nice place to chill with the ocean.

and look for fish


we then went to mauna kea - a dormant volcano with a peak of 13,796 feet above sea level (plus 19,678 feet below sea level, since it starts on the ocean floor).

with a 4wd, you can drive to the top, where they have a bunch of observatories.


we learned that the big island is perfect for the observatories because: (1) hawaii is isolated from other land masses, so the wind is more calm; (2) light pollution is minimized due to distance to cities, special street lamps the cities use, and the fact that clouds often box in the city light; (3) hawaii is close to the equator, which is better for seeing more of the sky; and (4) the atmosphere is thinner at the top.

and you can see a bunch of cone shaped peaks (some laced with snow) for the volcano.



it is cold, and you cannot go into the observatories there, but it is nice to see.

down the road a bit, the ellison onizuka visitor center has telescopes set up for star gazing and a volunteer points out some interesting bits in the sky. check the weather - we visited our first night and it was cloudy. on this night, it was cloudy until we got to the visitor center and we had a sparkly clear sky to see. it was beautiful. and, we learned that the visitor center is a better place for people to star gaze because the lower atmosphere up top makes people dizzy.

day 10 we left our house early (6am) to go whale watching. humpback whales retreat to hawaii in the winter and kona is a good place for whale watching.


we saw a few whales breach.

as did this person in the small boat

we saw a bunch of whales not breaching


and learned that you can identify hunchbacks by their tails


we also saw some dolphins

(view the whole whale watching slideshow)

then, after lunch on the beach, we caught an early afternoon flight back to sf.