"No CO2"

Violating their own slogan every time they exhale, Taiwanese place energy-efficient LEDs to commemorate Earth Hour, which apparently was last night.

Kiholo going South

Looking north from the [1750-1800] Ka'upulehu lava flow, Kiholo Bay, with Luahinewai, the sacred pool where Keoua, Kamehameha's rival, stopped to ritually prepare himself to be put to death in 1791 (now privately owned and zealously kept private), in the middle foreground. Click for larger.



Kalaemano, the land on the south side of the Ka'upulehu flow. 2,000 year old flow. Pohuehue, foreground, and Tree Heliotrope.



The trail over the Ka'upulehu flow.

"Wordless" Wednesday

Gold Tree, Kuakini Highway between Seaview Circle and Kam III. Scare quotes around "wordless" based on this comment to this post (which will, I predict, attract a number of visits by people expecting something quite different). Elsewhere, Andrew has a nice picture and Margaret Wille posits that the answer to limited access to the legal system by poor people is to lower the standards, i.e. more crappy attorneys.

Fess Parker has died

Like many others, I had a coonskin cap in honor of Parker's Davy Crockett when I was seven:


After Davy Crockett he portrayed Daniel Boone, the same character with a different name (Sorry, actual history!). Today he died, at the age of 85. Parker sang the Davy Crockett theme, above, and also this farewell. RIP:



"The fellers like it, too!"
The fellers include Hans Conreid and Robert Shaw!
Buddy Ebsen sings!

Wednesday is still wordless

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park

Wordless Wednesday

Men's locker room, Kukio golf clubhouse

Phrase indicating enthusiasm!

I smell a rat in the Prius sudden acceleration case

Maybe it's the suspicious timing, but I smelled a rat when I heard about the supposed Sudden Acceleration Prius case. Maybe it was because I'd read this story about how Toyota's decision to close a (union) Fremont California plant made it the target of the United Auto Workers, joined by the SEIU (service employees' union) and class action bloodsucking leeches plaintiff's attorneys. A quote from the article, from February 12. 2010:

“You are going to see an attack on Toyota that is unprecedented,” said Rome Aloise, a top Teamsters official.

And we have. Our General Motors owning, union-pandering government jumped in on the dogpile. Then, coincidentally on the same day Toyota held a news conference to refute the class-action lawyer paid "research" allegedly showing an electronic problem, this guy just happens to have his incident, followed of course by a press conference. He didn't think to put the car in neutral, and somehow the brakes, which couldn't stop the car for 24 minutes, were able to bring the car under control when the cops and news helicopters showed up. Others have pointed out the "WTF" aspects of his story.
I found some interesting comments here:

Jim Sikes?.....The name sounded familiar to me, then it clicked. He was the owner of a foreclosed home that we were trying to buy last year in Bonita, a suburb of San Diego.That in-of-itself is not enough to question someone's character, but the fact that he gutted the ENTIRE kitchen out of this 4,000 ft custom home certainly is! They stole EVERYTHING before moving out. Appliances, cabinets, granite countertops....even the lights! What made it even more pathetic at the time was we learned that he and his wife were pretty well known local realtors whom you'd think would be above such sleazy shenanigans. I'm tempted to contact Toyota corporate and have them scrutinize this joker carefully.Posted: Mar 10, 2010

and

Former Co-Worker
(Unregistered)

James Sikes and his wife Patty are former co-workers at a real estate brokerage I worked at in Bonita, CA (Realty Executives Premier now Coldwell Banker Premier). They are sleazy operators and were let go after numerous complaints and warnings due to their under handed and under cutting tactics they used on other agents in our brokerage. They have no scruples and a lousy reputation. It seems to me that James also has a prior law enforcement background. That would be very interesting to check out. As soon as I heard his name my scam radar turned on.

Posted: Mar 10, 2010

I smell an opportunist looking for a payday.


UPDATE: Uh-huh

UPDATE #2: Call me Nostradamus

Government program actually works!

Success!
The combined government/media smear of Toyota has yielded big results. Sales of crappy GM cars are up 11.5%! Who says government can't get things done?

UPDATE: GM is recalling 1.3 million (crappy) cars for a steering problem. I'm betting we won't be seeing Toyota-like headlines and congressional hearings on this.