Big Buddha

Aloha & Thanks for Visiting Today!

First Hawaiian Bank Headquarters, Honolulu

There are many kinds of idols

On Saturday

 I went to visit what some might call an idol.

"Better than a thousand hollow words,

 is one word that brings peace."

Buddha 

The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace & Happiness

 was visiting Honolulu for two days this past weekend.

 The giant bodhisattva (Sanskrit: बोधिसत्त्व)

 stands at almost 9 feet tall and weighs around 4 tons.

  It was carved from the world's largest jade gemstone known as the "Polar Jade" and  is valued at $5 million.

"Just as treasures are uncovered

 from the earth,

 so virtue appears from good deeds,

 and wisdom appears

 from a pure and peaceful mind."

Buddha

I felt very polite and respectful.

 This was a religious experience for some, after all.

"The way is not in the sky.

 The way is in the heart."
Buddha 

But it was far from solemn.

  It was more like a family reunion, said to bring

 spiritual riches

for believer and non-believer alike

 who came into the presence.

"Thousands of candles can be lit

from a single candle,

and the life of the candle will not be shortened.

Happiness never decreases by being shared."

Buddha

I came to see the Buddha,

but found myself EXPERIENCING something

on an energetic level.

These photos don't convey

 the amazing scale of the object.

I felt very touched and uplifted.

A female Buddhist monk

came up to me and gave me the photo

I have reproduced above.

The orbs appearing around the statue

are said to be angels and such

celebrating

Universal Peace & Happiness!

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       Wishing you all the best, cloudia

The China Clipper

STAR-ADVERTISER FILE PHOTO / NOV. 22, 1955

The 75th anniversary of the first commercial flight across the Pacific Ocean was commemorated last week. Last Monday the Alameda Naval Air Museum re-enacted radio broadcasts for the send-off of Pan American Airways' China Clipper.

Courtesy: Honolulu Star Advertiser. Nov.26 2010

"ALAMEDA, Calif. » Historians and aviation enthusiasts commemorated this week the 75th anniversary of the first commercial flight across the Pacific Ocean.

The China Clipper seaplane took off on Nov. 22, 1935, from San Francisco. (Honolulu was on the route.)

Fifty-nine hours and four stops later, the Pan American Airways aircraft landed in Manila, carrying 1,800 pounds of mail -- a delivery that would have taken 15 to 16 days by steamship.

The Alameda Naval Air Museum re-enacted Monday radio broadcasts for the flight's bon voyage, which drew more than 25,000 spectators to Alameda at the time. San Francisco International Airport also is hosting an exhibit on the famed China Clipper, and the Alameda post office provided a special postmark for its mail.

"It was an audacious gamble and a great leap forward," said John Hill, an assistant director at SFO and curator of the exhibit there. "Every airplane that crosses the ocean even now is flying in the wake of the China Clipper."

The four-engine Martin M-130 narrowly got off the ground. The aircraft was so heavily loaded that Capt. Edwin Musick could not clear the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was still under construction.

With thousands watching, Musick flew under the span's cables -- dodging some construction material -- then gained altitude over the Golden Gate. The plane had overnight stops in Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam before reaching its final destination.

The successful voyage sparked public excitement over the China Clipper, inspiring postage stamps, toys, souvenirs, a beer brand and a Hollywood film starring Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart. Musick also made the cover of Time magazine.

"This event occurred right in the heart of the Great Depression," said Ed Schneider, of the Alameda museum, who directed Monday's radio re-enactment based on the old transcripts. "To watch this big silver seaplane lift itself out of the bay and fly off to these exotic places must have been a thrill."

A year later Pan Am began offering passenger service on its trans-Pacific planes, and it was not until 1939 that the airline would offer commercial service across the Atlantic.

The Martin seaplanes were later replaced with the Boeing B319, which could carry more passengers, and aviation advances eventually ended the era of flying boats after World War II.

Coffee Down Please

ALOHA 

Sunday Loungers, Lazers,

and Sippers of Coffee!

What's your choice:

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee?

  Brazil?

  Sumatra?

Kona?

Don't Be A "Danny Thomas." 

Put down your cup before scrolling to see

the monster that is

T  E  R  R  O  R  I  Z  I  N  G

Kona Coffee Country

  Coffee borer beetle

"El barrenador del café"

Discovered in Kona last September!

From West Hawaii Today 

 Kona coffee quarantined

Processors approve, farmers upset

by Erin Miller
West Hawaii Today
emiller@westhawaiitoday.com
Thursday, November 25, 2010 7:09 AM HST

New, interim quarantine rules approved by the Hawaii Board of Agriculture Tuesday are getting a thumbs up from some of the state's largest coffee processors, but some Big Island farmers are upset about the process and are hoping the state's new governor will intervene.

The long-term impacts of the quarantine, which requires all green coffee beans leaving infested areas on the Big Island to be fumigated or be subjected to a six-step protocol, is still uncertain, growers and processors said.

Bruce Corker, of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, said he plans to ask Gov.-elect Neil Abercrombie and Abercrombie's new Agriculture Department chairman to reconsider or even rescind the rules.

"If an association develops between Kona coffee and pesticide fumigant, we run a risk of losing (the gourmet) market," Corker said.


Tom Greenwell, of Greenwell Farms, was wary of the fumigant-free procedures for other reasons. He said he doesn't think the double-bagging procedure of infected coffee beans is enough of a safeguard.

"Within Kona, infested is infested," Greenwell said. "What's the difference? We need to be assured that coffee berry borer does not get to the other islands."

The impact of the borer may cause the price of coffee to go up slightly, Greenwell said, but strong markets will bear that.

"The demand, when times are good, is extremely high," he said.

He said he isn't paying farmers less for infected cherry, and he is working with farmers with higher infestation levels to pick coffee from unaffected areas now to sell.

Jim Wayman, who buys coffee from about 400 farmers on the Big Island, isn't paying any less for the infected cherry, either, he said. His workers are routinely collecting samples, from each bag of cherry they purchase, and testing for the berry borer. So far, about 25 percent of farms show signs of the beetle, with about one-third of those showing heavy infestation of 80 percent or more of the crop having the beetle. Another one-third has a light infestation and the final third of infected farms has moderate infestation, he said.

Wayman, president of Oahu-based Hawaii Coffee Co., said the protocol represents a good process for organic farmers, and it's a procedure he intends to follow with coffee beans he buys on the Big Island.



Once the pest is established in a coffee-growing region, it can't be eradicated, Wayman said. But farmers do have options to prevent the spread, he added. He pointed to Colombia, where farmers report about 2 percent of crop is affected by the beetle annually.

University of Hawaii professor emeritus Norman Bezona recently returned from Haiti, where coffee farmers have been battling the beetle for about eight years. Farmers there are limiting the beetle's spread, he said, by consistently implementing sanitation measures that include picking all the coffee from the tree each season, boiling beans that show signs of the beetle, to kill the bug and its larvae inside, and cleaning up fallen fruit.

"They're very careful about cleaning, so they don't reinfest their farms," Bezona said.

---

Copyright © 2010 West Hawaii Today

Smile

Aloha Friend!

The Lovely Voice of Robert Cazimero

Go ahead: Click on the song, the pictures - all for you :)

 

"But what is happiness

except the simple harmony

between a man

and the life he leads?"

Albert Camus

 

“Life is like a mirror, 

we get the best results 

when we smile at it.”

 

Unknown

“If I could reach up and hold a star

for every time you've made me smile,

the entire evening sky

would be in the palm of my hand.”

 

Unknown 

 

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Thank you for visiting today. . .

 

              . . . .Leave a comment!   cloudia

Honolulu Landing

Aloha!

Today We Have a Guest Poetess-

My Science Report, by Shay Caroline

Her Site Here

Clouds do not have bones,
And so live in the sky.

If they fall,
They will not break anything,
And when they fall we call it
Rain.

After The Rain,
They cannot find their bodies again,
And so they
Disappear.

Blue skies do not have clouds.
Clouds do not have bones.
That is all I have to say.

Now place your tray tables in closed and upright position. We will be landing in Honolulu momentarily.

  (Around 57 seconds in, you can see the harbor where I am writing this. Wave!)

Connectivity

Aloha Friend!

  Click on Today's Silly Song!

"Simplicity

is the ultimate

sophistication."

Da Vinci

"Don't ever get so big or important

that you can not hear

and listen to

every other person."

John Coltrane

"If you want to see the rainbow

  you gotta put up with the rain."

Dolly Parton

 

Let's just sit and stare out at the sunshine for a while,

Shall we?

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The holidays are supposed to be times to connect,

but they often lead us to think about the disconnections

in our lives.

These are times when we travel far distances,

sometimes looking for things that can never be found again.

But we hope.

We make plans, and we look forward.

We WILL  be home for Christmas.

Next year in Jerusalem.

We will make it home to the countryside

for Lunar New Year.

But wanna know a secret?

There is in each of us

a hearth

a heart

and we share it

with all the HEART

everywhere.

What we seek is

really within.

Everyone

from age one

to ninety two

feels the same sparkle-

It's new and shiny in young eyes,

 a smoldering glow

in the heart of age. 

During the holidays

we rush about

becoming dizzy like children 

who spin,

mouths open,

catching snow flakes.

Snow flakes blizzard-ing like blog posts

like bloggers:

All the same

yet each one truly unique!

Thank YOU for making time to visit here.   cloudia

Look Up Look Down

Aloha!

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, Kaneohe

Look Up!

"I place a high moral value on the way people behave.

 I find it repellent to have a lot,

 and to behave with anything other than courtesy

 in the old sense of the word - 

politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit."

Fran Lebowitz 

Scooter Gal

Look Down!

"A human being

 is only breath and shadow."

Sophocles 

Look all around!

"If you are a dog 

and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater

 suggest that he wear a tail."

Fran Lebowitz 

When you get here, pause and reflect!




"Nature is by and large to be found out of doors,
 a location where, it cannot be argued,
 there are never enough comfortable chairs."

Fran Lebowitz 


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Thanks for visiting :)
Please leave a "hello"
    in comments.  cloudia

If I Could Be the Rain

Any Child Can Grow Up to Be

Aloha!

"Each week, from a different point of view, 

you get another look at God,

 and that's exciting to me."

Della Reese 

Do you recognize the couple from the 1960's?

"You know that being an American

 is more than a matter of where your parents came from.

 It is a belief that all men are created free and equal

 and that everyone deserves an even break."

US President Harry S. Truman 

Here is the same woman with their son.

"I remember my mother's prayers

 and they have always followed me. 

 They have clung to me all my life. "

Abraham Lincoln

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Middle Photo: Stanley Anne Dunham,
 and Barack Obama Senior.

Bottom Photo:
Stanley Anne and her son Barack

The University of Hawaii Foundation is forming an endowment fund that would honor the late Stanley Ann Dunham, President Barack Obama's mother. The fund uses the name Ann Dunham Soetoro, which she adopted after marrying her second husband, Lolo Soetoro. She also used the name professionally during years of anthropology studies. Obama was Dunham's first child, born in Hawaii to her and Barack Obama Sr., a UH student from Kenya.  Dunham died in 1995. Her second child and Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said in an interview Tuesday that her mother would have been moved to know that her work in the field of applied anthropology was being honored. Dunham received a bachelor's degree in math, and a master's and doctorate in anthropology from UH. During her travels to Indonesia and other parts of Asia, she worked with nongovernmental groups focused on women and poverty, and established microcredit programs in Indonesia and Pakistan. Dunham concluded after years of studies in Indonesia that the roots of poverty there did not lay with the poor, and that cultural differences were responsible for the gap between less-developed countries and the industrialized West. Her book, "Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia," centers on the metalworking industries in the Javanese village of Kajar and contends that rice cultivation was not the only viable economic activity in rural Southeast Asia, according to a description by its publisher, Duke University Press. The endowment will support a professorship in the UH Anthropology Department that will focus on research and teaching on Southeast Asia.  It also will finance one or more graduate fellowships for students studying anthropology or other social sciences.  Courtesy: Honolulu Star Advertiser 19 NOV '10

Every parent touches the world through their children. . .

 Thanks for visiting today.

        Please leave a comment!   cloudia