Results tagged “Hawaii”

Having just gotten back from a grueling 4-leg trip to Hawaii, along with numerous air flights in-between islands, I have to say that security was less on my minds than was crashing from pilot error, mechanical failure, or flying through a thunderstorm (as almost happened out of Oahu). First on my list of concerns was the hassle of getting through security; I had nothing to hide, but I was nervous like a criminal about to be caught for smuggling a pound of blow in my rectum. And it was all about shoes, belts, laptops, SCUBA equipment, and shampoo containers in a Ziploc bag.

The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don't think this way: They are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats.

A "movie-plot threat" is an overly specific attack scenario. Whether it's terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists contaminating the milk supply, or terrorists attacking the Olympics, specific stories affect our emotions more intensely than mere data does.

Stories are what we fear. It's not just hypothetical stories -- terrorists flying planes into buildings, terrorists with explosives strapped to their legs or with bombs in their shoes, and terrorists with guns and bombs waging a co-ordinated attack against a city are even scarier movie-plot threats because they actually happened.

Is aviation security mostly for show? - CNN.com

Kava in Kona - Uploaded by Zuckervati.

Drinking the muddy waters at Kanaka Kava in Kailua-Kona on Big Island.

Sea Turtle - Uploaded by Zuckervati.

In Leleiki Beach, Hilo. Lazy lazy sea turtles.

Island Crater - Uploaded by Zuckervati.

One of the Hawaiian islands. We're flying into Oahu.

Tropical Airport - Uploaded by Zuckervati.

Guess where?

May be going here for NoXmas. Sounds awesome.

Say goodbye to the scenic drive, hello to museums and thrift shopping for hula girl lamps and Hawaiian shirts, right? Wrong. Forty minutes later, the sky was azure, the sun ferocious.

The small, old-fashioned city of Hilo is on the east coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, in a perfect position to catch the clouds that form when the warm, moist Pacific Ocean trade winds hit the long, cool slopes of Mauna Loa. The accordionlike folds and grooves of the jewel-green slopes and the uneven coastline and fluctuating ocean temperatures ensure that clouds meander around Hilo as unpredictably as ghost spirits. One day, around noon, I was walking down a sunny street in Hilo, worried because I'd left the sunscreen back in the room. Then I glanced across the street: the other side was shady and bathed in a vaporous mist.

I soon grew to love Hilo rain. It is a reason this city of around 50,000 has remained largely untouched since the days when it was the thriving center of the Big Island's plantation economy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While the Kona area, on the west coast of the Big Island, has become a major Hawaiian tourist draw, Hilo remains sleepy and mostly condo-free -- few are enticed to build in an area that typically receives measurable rain 278 days of the year.