Name: Norman Anthony Aguero Currently a student at FIU. My major is chemistry and my minor is physics. My goal is to hopefully earn a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry.
The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that’s fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wired.com Tuesday. Earlier reports called it a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains.
The findings may resolve some uncertainty about the nature of the virus, but much is still unknown about its origins and effects.
“This is what we call a reassortment between two currently circulating pig flu viruses,” said Andrew Rambaut, a University of Edinburgh viral geneticist. “Why it’s emerged in humans is anyone’s guess. It hasn’t been seen before in pigs as far as I know.”
Rambaut analyzed the gene sequences of viral samples taken from two infected California children. The samples were collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and made available to researchers through an international database of flu genomes.
His conclusions were echoed by Eddie Holmes, a virus evolution specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Steven Salzberg, a University of Maryland bioinformaticist. Both have looked at the CDC-provided sequences. The CDC could not be reached for comment, but a document released to scientists and obtained by Wired.com affirms their analysis.
The samples from California are the same viral strain as one that’s believed to have killed as many as 150 of an estimated 1,600 hospitalized Mexicans, and caused hundreds more infections worldwide, including at least 64 in the United States.
The two strains whose genes are found in the hybrid belong to influenza families known generally as North American and Eurasian pig flu. The former was first described in the 1930s, and the latter in 1979. The Eurasian strain is generally found in Europe and Asia, rather than North America.
Neither of the strains have ever proven contagious in humans. One of the genes inherited from the Eurasian strain has reportedly never been seen in humans. It codes for the neuraminidase enzyme — the N1 in H1N1 — which controls the expansion of the virus from infected cells.
“The new neuraminidase gene that came in from Eurasian swine is one we’ve never before seen circulating in humans,” said Rambaut. “That’s one of the reasons it’s spreading rapidly. Very few people will have any immunity to this particular combination, which is what gives the concern that this will be a pandemic rather than just a normal seasonal flu outbreak. It remains to be seen how much and to what extent there is existing immunity.”
In medical terms, the genetic origins of the virus may not matter. Whether it come solely from pigs rather than a mix of pigs, birds and humans doesn’t change its immunological novelty.
However, understanding the origins could eventually help scientists determine how the virus evolved and where it originally emerged.
The earliest cases occurred in the town of La Gloria in the Mexican state of Veracruz, not far from a large and notoriously unsanitary hog farm operated by Granjas Carroll, a subsidiary of giant American food company Smithfield Foods.
The World Health Organization has sent inspectors to the Granjas Carroll farm. The results of the investigation have not been announced. Smithfield issued a press release on Saturday stating that “it has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in the company’s swine herd or its employees at its joint ventures in Mexico.” The company declined further comment, though CEO Larry Pope told USA Today that “(The term) swine flu is a misnomer.”
Rambaut, Holmes and Salzberg declined to speculate on whether the new H1N1 virus evolved on a hog farm or specifically in the Granjas Carroll facility.
However, it seems likely that pigs were the original host.
“That’s a logical conclusion,” said Salzberg. “It was probably two different pigs, or one who got co-infected from others. The two strains mixed, and now you have a brand-new strain.”
“Presumably somewhere there was a pig infected with both forms. We don’t know where or when. It could have been circulating in this form for a while,” said Rambaut.
What comes next is anyone’s guess.
“Influenza virus mutates remarkably rapidly so there is no doubt that the virus will mutate and evolve in humans,” said Holmes. “Quite what this evolution will result in is difficult to tell.”
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is now a nearly a year into its extended mission, called Cassini Equinox (after its initial 4-year mission ended in June, 2008). The spacecraft continues to operate in good health, returning amazing images of Saturn, its ring system and moons, and providing new information and science on a regular basis. The mission's name, "Equinox" comes from the upcoming Saturnian equinox in August, 2009, when its equator (and rings) will point directly toward the Sun. The Equinox mission runs through September of 2010, with the possibility of further extensions beyond that. Collected here are 24 more intriguing images from our ringed neighbor. (previously: 1, 2) (24 photos total)
This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of Saturn's rings. Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective surface of Saturn (120,536 km/74,898 mi across). The view combines 45 images taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system. The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Pan, a small ring-embedded moon (28 km/17 mi wide) coasts into view from behind Saturn. The view of the rings is distorted near Saturn by the planet's upper atmosphere. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million km (1.1 million mi) from Pan. Image scale is 11 km (7 mi) per pixel on Pan. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Rhea (1,528 km/949 mi wide) drifts in front of Saturn. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 576,000 km (358,000 mi) from Rhea. Image scale is 3 km (2 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Cassini peers through Saturn's delicate, translucent inner C ring to see the diffuse yellow-blue limb of Saturn's atmosphere. The image was taken on April 25, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million km (913,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 8 km (5 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
This mosaic of two Cassini images shows Pan and Prometheus creating features in nearby rings. Pan (28 km/17 mi wide), in the Encke Gap at left, is trailed by a series of edge waves in the outer boundary of the gap. Prometheus (86 km/53 mi wide) just touches the inner edge of Saturn's F ring at right, and is followed by a series of dark channels in the ring. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.2 million km (746,000 mi) from Pan and Prometheus. Image scale is 7 km (5 mi) per pixel on both moons. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
This image was taken during Cassini's close approach to the moon Iapetus in Sept. 2007. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007 with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 3,870 km (2,400 mi) from Iapetus. Image scale is 230 meters (755 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Cassini tracks the shepherd moon Prometheus as it orbits Saturn. Prometheus is just about to pass behind the planet, and a faint streamer of ring material lies below and to the right of Prometheus (86 km/53 mi wide), in the faint, inner strand of the F ring. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.3 million km (804,000 mi) from Prometheus. Image scale is 8 km (5 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Saturn's high north is a seething cauldron of activity filled with roiling cloud bands and swirling vortices. A corner of the north polar hexagon is seen at upper left. The image was taken on Aug. 25, 2008 at a distance of approximately 541,000 km (336,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 29 km (18 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Numerous stars provide a serene background in this view of Enceladus captured by the Cassini spacecraft while the moon was in eclipse, within Saturn's shadow. The view looks up at Enceladus' south pole. The image was taken on Oct. 9, 2008 at a distance of approximately 83,000 km (52,000 mi) from Enceladus. Image scale is 5 km (3 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
In this image of the F ring, taken shortly after its ring particles encountered the shepherd moon Prometheus, the disruption to the ring caused by the moon is evident. The bright core of the ring and its neighboring faint strands show kinks where the moon's gravity has altered the orbits of the ring particles. The image was taken on Oct. 23, 2008 at a distance of approximately 444,000 km (276,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 2 km (1 mile) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Dark irregular patterns dot the bright outer B ring just left of the large Huygens Gap in the center of this image from Cassini. Cassini scientists speculate that these features are likely the result of transient gravitational clumping. The outer edge of the B ring is anchored and sculpted by a powerful gravitational resonance with the moon, Mimas (396 km/246 mi wide). The mutual gravity between particles may pull them into clumps as they are periodically forced closely together by the action of Mimas. The image was taken on Dec. 8, 2008 at a distance of approximately 710,000 km (441,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 4 km (2 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
The terminator engulfs Penelope (foreground), one of the largest craters on Saturn's moon, Tethys. The image was taken on Nov. 24, 2008 at a distance of approximately 62,000 km (38,000 mi) from Tethys. Image scale is 366 meters (1,202 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Against a background of muted atmospheric bands in Saturn's northern hemisphere, Mimas forges onward in its orbit around the Ringed Planet. Aside from the large crater Herschel, all features on Mimas are named after people and places in Arthurian legend or the legends of the Titans. In fact, the largest crater near the terminator in this view is named Arthur (64 km, 40 mi across). The image was taken on Nov. 26, 2008 at a distance of approximately 915,000 km (569,000 mi) from Mimas. Image scale is 5 km (3 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Small, battered Epimetheus before Saturn's A and F rings, and and smog-enshrouded Titan (5,150 km/3,200 mi wide) beyond. The color information in the colorized view is artificial: it is derived from red, green and blue images taken at nearly the same time and phase angle as the clear filter image. This color information was overlaid onto a previously released clear filter view in order to approximate the scene as it might appear to human eyes. The view was acquired on April 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 667,000 km (415,000 mi) from Epimetheus and 1.8 million km (1.1 million mi) from Titan. The image scale is 4 km (2 mi) per pixel on Epimetheus and 11 km (7 mi) per pixel on Titan. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Half an hour after Prometheus tore into Saturn's F ring, Cassini snapped this image just as the moon was creating a new streamer in the ring. The dark pattern shaped like an upside down check mark in the lower left of the image is Prometheus and its shadow. The potato shaped moon can just be seen coming back out of the ring. The moon's handiwork also is apparent in two previous streamer-channel formations on the right of the image. The darkest streamer-channel stretching from the top right to the center of the image shows Prometheus' previous apoapse passage about 15 hours earlier. Prometheus (86 km/53 mi across) dips into the inner edge of the F ring when it reaches apoapse, its farthest point from Saturn. At apoapse, the moon's gravity pulls out particles of the ring into a streamer. As Prometheus moves back toward periapse - its orbit's closest point to the planet - the streamer gets longer. Then, as Prometheus moves back toward apoapse, the streamer breaks apart which results in a dark channel. This streamer-channel cycle repeats once every orbit. The image was taken on Jan. 14, 2009 at a distance of approximately 555,000 km (345,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 3 km (2 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
This bizarre scene shows the cloud-streaked limb of Saturn in front of the planet's B ring. The ring's image is warped near the limb by the diffuse gas in Saturn's upper atmosphere. The image was taken on June 24, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light, at a distance of approximately 657,000 km (408,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 4 km (2 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Cassini looks toward Rhea's cratered, icy landscape with the dark line of Saturn's ringplane and the planet's murky atmosphere as a background. Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 km (949 mi) across. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired on July 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million km (770,000 mi) from Rhea. Image scale is 7 km (5 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
This image of Saturn's rings and the shadow of nearby Mimas was taken on April 08, 2009. The rings are now oriented nearly edge-on toward the Sun, and very long moon shadows frequently drape across them. Interesting to note in this image are the various jagged shadows along the outer edge of the B ring. Scientists are closely studying this phenomenon now, and a preliminary hypothesis suggests that the shadows are of clumpy, disturbed ring material, stretching up to 3 km above the ring plane - contrasted with an estimated normal ring thickness of only 10 meters or so. (The ring-shaped mark at right is a camera artifact) (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Cassini peers through the fine, smoke-sized ice particles of Saturn's F ring toward the cratered face of Mimas (396 km/246 mi wide). The F ring's core is dense enough to completely block the light from Mimas. The image was taken on Nov. 18, 2007 at a distance of approximately 772,000 km (480,000 mi) from Mimas. Image scale is 5 km (3 mi) per pixel on the moon. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Gray Mimas appears to hover above the colorful rings. The large crater seen on the right side of the moon is named for William Herschel, who discovered Mimas in 1789. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired on Sept. 9, 2007 at a distance of approximately 3.151 million km (1.958 million mi) from Mimas. Image scale is 19 km (12 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Saturn is seen through the thick smoggy haze of Titan's upper atmosphere in this December, 2005 image. The image was taken at a distance of approximately 25,404 kilometers (15,785 mi) from Titan. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
The shadow of Tethys drifts across the face of Saturn. Nearby, shadows of the planet's rings form a darkened band above the equator. The image was taken on Oct. 1, 2008 at a distance of approximately 615,000 km (382,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 37 km (23 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Saturn's northern hemisphere is seen here against its nested rings. The rings have been brightened relative to the planet to enhance visibility. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 24, 2009 at a distance of approximately 866,000 km (538,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 38 km (24 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
Love is a strange thing. It can be the most amazing feeling in the world, or it can really hurt, but in the end love is something most, if not all of us, will face. While there are many different ways to define love and there are many different ways to love someone (even yourself), here is a general guide to loving.
Say it. When you say the words "I Love You", they should carry with them the desire to show someone that you love them, not what you simply want to feel. When you say it make sure you really mean it and are willing to do anything for that special person.
Empathize. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. Rather than impose your own expectations or attempt to control them, try to understand how they feel, where they come from, and who they are. Realize how they could also love you back just as well.
Love unconditionally. If you cannot love another person without attaching stipulations, then it is not love at all, but deep-seated opportunism (one who makes the most of an advantage, often unmindful of others). If your interest is not in the other person as such, but rather in how that person can enhance your experience of life, then it is not unconditional. If you have no intention of improving that person’s life, or allowing that person to be themselves and accepting them as they are, and not who you want them to be, then you are not striving to love them unconditionally.
Expect nothing in return. That doesn't mean you should allow someone to mistreat or undervalue you. It means that giving love does not guarantee receiving love. Try loving just for the sake of love. Realize that someone may have a different way of showing his or her love for you, do not expect to be loved back in exactly the same way.
Realize it can be lost. If you realize that you can lose the one you love, then you have a greater appreciation of what you have. Think how lucky you are to have someone to love. Don't make an idol of the person you love. This will place them under undue pressure and will likely result in you losing them.
AS AMERICA prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing, attention is set to focus on a little-known speech drafted in case of a much different outcome that historic day.
While Neil Armstrong’s immortal lines “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” have entered history, 233 other words, written for a tragedy that everyone hoped would never happen, were consigned to an archive and forgotten until now.
They are contained in a typed memo from President Richard Nixon’s speechwriter, Bill Safire, to White House chief of staff Harry Haldeman, dated July 18, 1969 – two days before the landing was due.
Chillingly entitled “In the event of Moon disaster”, the stark message brings home just how dangerous the mission was.
If Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin had been stranded on the Moon, unable to return to Michael Collins’s orbiting Apollo 11 command ship, Nixon would have called their widows then addressed a horror-struck nation.
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace,” he would have told the watching millions.
These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.”
The President would have added: “In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied but these men were the first and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.”
And in an allusion to Rupert Brooke’s First World War poem The Soldier, his concluding lines were to be: “For every human being who looks up at the Moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.”
Once the speech had been delivered, Mission Control would have closed communications and a clergyman would have conducted a burial service like the one used at sea.
The memo lay dormant for decades in Nixon’s private papers in America’s national archives, laid aside once the astronauts had completed their perilous mission.
It's Easter weekend and Britain is stocking up on chocolate eggs and hot cross buns, but elsewhere in the world there are some extremely wacky traditions going on...
1. Surely the strangest Easter custom takes places in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, where there is a tradition of spanking or whipping women on Easter Monday. Males throw water at females and spank them with handmade whips made of willow and decorated with ribbons at the end. The spanking is supposed to be symbolic and according to legend, females should be spanked in order to keep their health and beauty during the next year. It doesn’t sound too fun for the women!
2. In Finland, children dress up and go begging in the streets with sooty faces, carrying broomsticks. Sounds a bit like Halloween? In some parts of Western Finland they even burn bonfires on Easter Sunday. But there is no sign of Guy Fawkes. This tradition takes place to ward off witches flying around between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
3. On Maundy Thursday in Verges, in Spain, a traditional “death dance” is performed which involves a parade down the streets of the medieval town. Everyone involved is dressed in costumes and the procession ends with frightening skeletons carrying boxes of ashes. The scary dance begins at midnight and continues for three hours into the early morning.
4. If the man of the house in Poland takes part in preparing the traditional Easter bread, custom has it that his moustache will turn grey and the dough will fail. So the lucky man of the house is banned from helping out.
5. More than 4,500 eggs are used to cook up a giant omelette on the streets of Haux in France. The meal must feed up to 1,000 people and is prepared in the main square in time for lunch.
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6. In Switzerland, villages turn their fountains into Easter Wells, using paper streamers, flowers and painted eggs to decorate them. The tradition takes place to celebrate the symbol of water, and its importance to the dry areas of the Alps.
7. In Germany the tradition is to create an Easter fire out of used Christmas trees from the winter. The fire is seen as a symbol of the victory for the beautiful and sunny spring over the cold days of winter. Perhaps we should start this tradition in freezing Britain!
8. In Latvia, the traditional Easter game played by the children is similar to conkers – but with eggs. Players pair off and use hard-boiled coloured eggs joined together with string. Competitors bang the ends of the eggs together until one player’s egg breaks. The winner is the player with the stronger egg. It sounds a bit messy to us.
9. The Easter bunny is the most popular symbol of Easter thanks to the Americans, but over in Australia they prefer to use their native marsupial, the Bilby. This is due to the fact that the rabbit has destoyed their land, crops and vegetation. No wonder they don’t like the bunny!
10. Britain actually does have some unusual traditions of its own. At the Hocktide festival in Hungerford, the town’s new police constable blows his horn to call all the men to the Hocktide Court in the town hall. Two men are then elected and parade through the streets giving women oranges in return for kisses. We wonder how they decide which men get to do that!
The Four Cats
Four men were bragging about how smart their cats were.
The first man was an Engineer,
the second man was an Accountant,
the third man was a Chemist, and
the fourth man was a Government Employee.
To show off, the Engineer called his cat, 'T-square, do your stuff.'
T-square pranced over to the desk, took out some paper and pen and promptly drew a circle, a square, and a triangle.
Everyone agreed that was pretty smart.
But the Accountant said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said,
'Spreadsheet, do your stuff.'
Spreadsheet went out to the kitchen and returned with a dozen cookies. He divided them into 4 equal piles of 3 cookies.
Everyone agreed that was good.
But the Chemist said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said, 'Measure, do your stuff.'
Measure got up, walked to the fridge, took out a quart of milk, got a 10 ounce glass from the cupboard and poured
exactly 8 ounces without spilling a drop into the glass.
Everyone agreed that was pretty good.
Then the three men turned to the Government Employee and said, 'What can your cat do?'
The Government Employee called his cat and said, 'CoffeeBreak, do your stuff.'
CoffeeBreak jumped to his feet.......
ate the cookies........
drank the milk.......
sh*t on the paper.......
screwed the other three cats.......
claimed he injured his back while doing so.......
filed a grievance report for unsafe working conditions.......
put in for Workers Compensation...............and
went home for the rest of the day on sick leave............
AND THAT, MY FRIEND IS WHY EVERYONE WANTS TO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT!!
A Chinese pensioner can finally sit in comfort after doctors removed a broken syringe needle which had been stuck in his bottom for 31 years.
Lao Du, 55, of Zhengzhou, said the needle was left in his rear by an 'amateurish' doctor in 1978, reports the Zhongyuan Network.
"I got a cold and went to see an amateurish doctor in my hometown village, but the needle broke off once it pierced my bum," he said.
"I was sent to a provincial hospital immediately. After being hospitalised for nine days, doctors checked me but failed to find the broken needle."
Lao Du said he always believed the broken needle was still in his bottom and four or five years ago he began to feel sharp pains regularly in his rear.
"Even walking has become a suffering to me," he said.
"I sought help from too many hospitals but none of them dared to do the surgery for me as they are not quite sure if they can find a tiny broken needle from 31 years ago."
Du tried his luck one last time at the Zhengzhou People's Hospital where doctors agreed to try to find the broken needle.
Chief surgeon Fu Konglong, who finally found the needle tip after three hours of surgery, said: "It was very detailed work. We had to look for it in every muscle fibre."
They have a separate circuit breaker for their rice cooker.
Only NOW they know that cilantro is the same as Chinese parsley.
They measure the water for the rice by the knuckle of their index finger.
They know which market sells poi on which days.
They know that Char Sung Hut is closed on Tuesday.
They can handle shoyu with green mango, li hing mui gummy bears, raw egg on hot rice, and pearl tea (carnation milk in hot water with sugar) with creme crackers.
Their refrigerator has half-empty jar of mango chutney from the '95 Punahou Carnival.
The condiments at the table are shoyu, ketchup, chili peppah watah, and kimchee. Also, takuwan, Hawaiian salt, slice onion, and pickle onion.
They go to Maui and their luggage home includes potato chips, manju, cream puffs, and guri guri for omiyage.
They think the four food groups are starch (rice), Spam, fried food, and fruit punch.
A balanced meal has three starches: rice, macaroni, and bread.
They know 101 ways to fix their rubber slippers -- 50 using tape, 50 using glue, and one using a stick to poke the strap back in.
They sometimes use their open car door for a dressing room.
They wear two different color slippers together and they don't mind.
Nice clothes means a T-shirt without puka.
They are barefoot in most of their elementary school pictures.
They have a slipper tan.
Their only suit is a bathing suit.
They drive barefoot.
They have at least five Hawaiian bracelets.
They never ever, under any circumstances, wear socks with slippers, or an aloha shirt that matches their wife's muumuu.
They still call the Blaisedell Center the HIC and it's Sandy's, not Sandy Beach.
They say "I going go for lawnmower da grass" when they mean "I'm going to mow the lawn."
They can understand every word Bu Lai'a says and they know what his name means.
They have a sister, cousin, auntie, or mom named "Honey Girl" or.....
Someone in the family named Boy, Tita, Bruddah, Sonny, Bachan, Taitai, Popo, or Vovo.
They still chant "Hanaokolele" when a friend or co-worker goofs up.
They say "Shtraight," "Shtreet," and "Shtress."
They say "Da Kine" and the other person says "Da Kine" and they both know what is "Da Kine."
The "Shaka" and the "Stink Eye" are worth a thousand words.
They're shopping at Epcot Center at Disneyworld and they may say something to their sister and a complete stranger says, "You're from Hawai'i, aren't you?"
They feel guilty leaving a get-together without helping clean up.
The idea of taking something from a heiau is unthinkable.
They call everyone older than themselves "Aunty" or "Uncle" and they kiss everyone in greeting and farewell.
They let other cars ahead of them on the freeway and they give shaka to everyone who lets them in. (And get mad if someone they let in doesn't say thanks.)
Their philosophy is "Bumbai."
They would rather drag out the compressor and fill that leaking tire every single morning than have it fixed.
The only time they honk their horn is once a year during the safety check.
If a child needs a home, they give him one. She/He becomes "Hanai."
They can live and let live with a smile in their heart.
Their male best friend's name is either Wade, Max, Nathan, or Melvin.
Owns two types of slippers: da "good slippas" and da "buss-up/stay home slippas."
Does not understand the concept of North, South, East, and West, but instead gives directions as Mauka, Makai, Diamond Head, Ewa, and uses landmarks instead of street names.
The first thing they look for in the Sunday paper is the Long's ad.
They take off their slippahs before going into the house.
You ask what year they grad and where they grad from, and then you say "eh you know so and so..."
He Charted the Moon Before Galileo, But You've Probably Never Heard of Him
Did Thomas Harriot keep his great discovery a secret to avoid decapitation?
by Eliza Strickland
On a clear night in July of 1609, English polymath Thomas Harriot pointed his “Dutch perspective glass” toward the crescent moon. The crude lunar map he sketched from his observations dates him as the earliest person known to have used a telescope to study a celestial object, beating Galileo Galilei by nearly four months. Over subsequent years Harriot produced remarkable drawings showing the locations of the moon’s craters and what he believed to be its oceans and coastlines. His cartography was not bettered for decades. So why does Galileo enjoy lasting fame while Harriot has been all but forgotten?
“The unfortunate thing is that Harriot never got around to publishing his maps,” says Stephen Pumfrey, a professor of history at Lancaster University in England, “and it was definitely a publish-or-perish situation.” Since Harriot never publicly claimed to have been the first to observe the moon’s surface in detail, Galileo got the credit.
Historians debate what made Harriot so reticent. In a paper published in February [pdf], Oxford professor Allan Chapman argues that Harriot was well-off and “was not an agenda- or career-driven individual,” whereas Galileo was determined to rise in station through his science. But Pumfrey also notes that both of Harriot’s wealthy patrons ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London, which may have discouraged him from crowing about his controversial discoveries. “Harriot had no one to protect him, because his patrons were worried about having their heads chopped off,” Pumfrey says. An exhibition of Harriot’s maps opens on July 23 at the Science Museum in London.
