July 31 - La Hae Hawaii

  Posted on July 31, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on July 31, 2011:




Today is Hawaiian Flag Day. The flag is unexpected, at least to me—it doesn't seem to catch the island flavor or the Pacific/Asian ancestry of many Hawaiians—and it features a British “Union Jack” in one corner!

But in 1816 this flag was commissioned by King Kamehameha the Great to show Hawaii's close ties with Great Britain. The eight red-white-and-blue stripes stand for Hawaii's eight major islands.

This flag represented Hawaii as the flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom, as the Republic of Hawaii, and as the territory of Hawaii. Now it represents the State of Hawaii.



Celebrate Hawaii!


Eight major islands? 

I bet most folks cannot name more than four to six Hawaiian islands! Without looking it up, I can think of six:

Oahu - The capital city of Honolulu is located on this island



Diamond Head mountain

Maui - Famous for the dormant volcano Haleakala and the road to Hana


Above, clouds fill Haleakala's crater.
Below, the road to Hana is dotted with falls and pools.



Kawai - Famous for the Napali Coast with its dramatic cliffs 


The Big Island - Famous for the active volcanos and destructive/constructive lava flows 


Lava is destructive when it covers and burns
existing forests, homes, and roads.
Lava is also constructive, too; the Hawaiian
islands are, after all, entirely made up of 
cooled lava, and fresh new lava makes
them larger. A new island is being created,
even as we speak, about 18 miles away
from the Big Island. It is still a long time
in the making; the top of that newest
island is still about 3,000 feed underwater,
and scientists think it will take around 50,000
years for the island to arise from the sea!




Lanai - also known as Pineapple Island


I read that Lanai used to provide about 75% of the
world's pineapples!

Molokai - of the six largest islands, this one may be the least developed and therefore most pristine and secluded



Here are the two lesser-known main islands:

Kahoolawe—“The Target Isle” - this island was used as target practice for U.S. military!


This was the drop site for around 500 tons of TNT!

Niihau—“The Forbidden Isle” - basically,  forbidden to outsiders in oder to keep it Hawaiian


This is THE least developed and most secluded of the
eight main islands, because the owners keep it that way!

And what about the minor islands? Turns out, there are 137 islands (including atolls) in Hawaii!!


These are the eight major island...
And here are some others:




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July 30 - Happy Birthday, Vladimir Zworykin

  Posted on July 30, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on July 30, 2011:


He is sometimes called the Father of Television!

Vladimir Zworykin was born in Russia in 1889. He studied science and engineering and worked on early television at St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. He came to the U.S. in 1918, during the Russian Civil War, by joining a scientific expedition in Siberia and continuing on to Alaska. Once in the U.S., Zworykin worked at the Westinghouse laboratories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued to work on improvements for television and earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (the university that features that wonderful Cathedral of Learning I mentioned in yesterday's post!).


Zworykin helped develop cathode ray tubes, infrared image tubes, and the electron microscope.




  

Also on this date:


 (Last Saturday in July)









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July 29 - A First in "The West" - by which I mean Pittsburgh!!!

   Posted on July 29, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on July 29, 2011:




The first U.S. newspaper west of the Alleghenies was published on this date in 1786.

Back then, it was called the Pittsburgh Gazette - but now it's called the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

Nowadays Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, doesn't seem very far west, but back then it marked the western edge of publishing in North America!

I just went to Pittsburgh for the first time. My favorite sight there was the 42-story Cathedral of Learning, which is a wonderful gothic building where Pitt students can study in cozy medieval-looking nooks or in grand halls with lofty arched ceilings. Two floors of classrooms have been decorated by people from particular countries—everything from Israel to Japan, from Wales to Italy, from Africa to Ukraine—to represent and teach about that country. I spent several happy hours exploring all the “nation” rooms open to the public.



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