Kung-Fu: Yellow Sash!

T tested today at his Kung-Fu school and passed up to the next level.  The picture above from earlier is the last time you will see him in his white sash.  Now he will wear a yellow sash. 

His Sifu took him aside today and told him that he hoped he would continue with Kung-Fu because not many non-Chinese kids are interested in Kung-Fu (in fact it used to only be taught to people with Chinese ancestry until recently, beginning here in Hawai'i) and that T had improved a lot since he started in March and he wanted to see him continue. 

DNA Extraction

In another project, we tried extracting DNA from strawberries using household materials.  We had to work quickly because the strawberries were fast disappearing!

First we blended the strawberries in a blender.

Then we added some dishwashing soap to disrupt the cell membranes. 

Then some meat tenderizer to break down the proteins.  In the picture below I was describing the cell membranes, the proteins that chop up DNA, and proteins that are attached to the DNA, on the whiteboard to explain to T and M why we were doing this. 

Then we poured the slurry through a strainer.  

Then we mixed rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol in the solution and white clumps of DNA appeared as it came out of solution between the alcohol and the water layer. 

We tried spooling the DNA out but it was a gross mess. 

In retrospect I think I shouldn't have used the blender on the strawberries.  It probably sheared the DNA molecules too much so they wouldn't string together well--we should have been gentler.  A single DNA molecule can be over an inch long!  The average spacing between "letters" in a strand of DNA is 3.4 ångstrom, which is 10^(-10) meter.  There are 6.6 billion of these ATCG basepair letters in the human genome, which works out to a combined length of 2.2 meters of DNA per cell (how does it all fit?).  Dividing this by 46 chromosomes gives an average of 1.9 inches (4.8 cm) per single DNA molecule. 

An even more amazing number comes from considering how much DNA is packed into your body.  Humans are made up of 10 trillion cells.  Which works out to a total of 22 billion kilometers of DNA per person if it was stretched out end to end.  This is more than twice the diameter of the orbit of Neptune around the sun! 

To carry this a step further, there are 7 billion humans on the planet right now.  The combined existing human DNA is a length of 1.54 x 10^(20) kilometers, or 154 quintillion kilometers, or 100 million light years (if my math is not off--a light year is about a trillion kilometers).  This is about twice the distance to the Virgo Galaxy Cluster! 

Funny Things F Does

Here are some notes about F over the last few weeks to couple months.

She loves getting out of the house.  Sometimes I take her out with me early in the mornings before leaving to work to water the plants.  When she wants to go out she will bring our sandals over to us and fuss at us to put them on (we don't wear shoes in the house). 

We went into a target and F wanted to get down and walk around.  I set her down and she walked over to a row of clothes.  Then she studiously went down the row stopping at each one, finding the tag and pulling it out and looking at it before moving to the next one.  She can't read and has not idea what the tags are for, but she was doing what she saw other people do.

At the same store she made a beeline for a purse with bright polka dots that are all different colors.  She hung it over her shoulders so it hung down in front of her body.  It went all the way to the floor with her feet sticking out below it.  Then she walked around with her purse.

Every since the ipad she thinks that anything glass with lights behind it is, or might be, a touch screen.  I was holding her looking at a restaurant menu through the glass.  It had a neon sign up behind the glass and she tried enlarging and moving it.  Then later when we went into a store with large TVs all along one wall.  (We don't have TV at home so this was new for her.)  At first they were all blank with a white screen, then colors and a dog appeared all at once along the entire wall.  She was so excited she jumped in place for a moment waving her arms, before getting into forward gear.  Then she ran and pulled herself up on a shelf and was whapping the screen trying to interact with it. 

This last week I was working taking apart and cleaning some equipment.  She was beside me « helping » by touching the end of a wrench to things (but in random positions and without trying to twist it, like the wrench is a magic wand that works by touch). 

She tags along a lot when T goes to his Kung-Fu class.  The school has nick named her "smiley" because she is so happy all the time. 

Also, she's been crawling up into the couch and waving bye to me when I drive to work in the mornings.  And she is happy and excited when she sees me come home, which makes me feel good.

What happens when T watches F for us.  Check out those leg tats!

Fastening Freestanding Shelves to the Wall

This is something of a boring post.  We mostly stayed home and cleaned today.  However, F is walking around now and pulling herself up on things.  The stand that we have M & V's reptile and cricket rearing aquariums on has been bothering me.  So I picked up some hooks to fasten in the wall and drilled holes for them.  Then tied the stand to the wall with some jute cordage so she can't pull it over. 

Also, last weekend, or was it the weekend before, we went out for a drive around the island, for the first time.  It had been very windy and there were some impressive waves crashing into shore.  Unfortunately I left my camera at home.  We also saw a monk seal for the first time floating nonchalantly out in the waves.   You can't actually drive around the entire island, the NW point doesn't have a road connecting around it, but we made the biggest loop possible.

V and grad school

OK, this is a little awkward after my recent rant about the problems with higher education; so forget about all of that for a moment. 

V applied to grad school and received the letter in the mail a few days ago.  She was accepted!

We are not sure if she will be able to go or not, but I am hoping we can work it out.

F is growing.

When F arrived here in Hawai'i six months ago she was just beginning to sit up on her own.  She also made cute "b,b,b,b,b,b" trill sounds.

Since then she has started and mastered crawling.  She can crawl casually in one direction, then when she thinks the coast is clear turn and make a speed crawl burst toward an open door where she is not supposed to be, like into T's or M's room. 

She has also learned to use her pacifier as a distraction tool of plausibility.  If there is something she wants to look at or a place she wants to be she will casually drop her pacifier on/toward it, then get closer while retrieving it. 

She also has teeth now.  The bottom teeth came in first and now she has a full set of buck teeth to chew with.  She also likes crunchy crackers. 

She likes balloons.  She shrieks and gestures toward them and holds on to them at the grocery store.  I bought her a "hugging bear" balloon at the store and clipped the weight to the bottom so it stood up on the floor.  She had a lot of fun wrestling with it and throwing it around.  (By the time I was going to take a picture of her playing with it it had already been compromised from heavy use.) 

She loves for me to carry her around in the yard in the mornings while I water the plants.  She will fuss at the door unless I pick her up (or V or T picks her up and carries her out with me). 

She is at the very beginning of walking.  She can stand on her own now and has taken a few tentative steps. 

Also, she is saying a lot more, but it is often hard to figure out what she is saying.  She has some pajamas with a monkey print and V heard her refer to it as "unki."  She has also said "geh" for geckos.  At the doctors office a couple weeks ago she said "ah wub u" (I love you).  Also, over the weekend while I was holding her and T was talking to me she said "ah wub u da."  (However, she has used both "da" and "ma" to sometimes also refer to T...?)

Barber's Point Beach Park

About once a year I take the kids (or one of the kids) with me to work.  For various reasons today, March 1, turned out to be a good time for this.  Last night I asked M and T if they would like to come with me today and they were eager to come along.  It was going to be a long day so I decided to first take them by a new (to us) park in the morning for a bit.  We went to Barber's Point Beach Park.  It happens to be in a very industrial part of Oahu, with oil refineries, etc.  There is also a lighthouse there that I think it is named after.

Here is the lighthouse (white) in the background with some radio towers off to the right.

When we pulled into the parking lot a steel recycling plant was visible right next to the park.  There was a huge pile of metal and a "claw" picking up pieces and putting them on a belt.  I thought it was a interesting juxtaposition, an industrial plant with twisted rusted metal next to a park with picnic tables and the beach.  So I took a picture of the kids with the plant in the background and talked to them about how they were recycling metal to use again. 

M has her ears plugged because it was noisy (and both the kids complained that it smelled funny). This is not the best picture in the world, and normally I probably would not have posted it. 

Then we started walking toward the beach.

Part way there (seconds after the walk to the beach picture above) a truck pulled up quickly in the parking lot, parked diagonally across two spaces, and a man jumped out and came toward us.  He shouted "stop" half way to us as we were walking to the beach.  I stopped, looked at him, and said "yes?"  The kids sensed he was being aggressive and moved behind me.  He was wearing jeans and a fluorescent shirt that looked like it could be a work outfit.  He walked right up in front of us, blocking the direction we were going (the beach) and said we were not allowed to take pictures of "the plant."  I said OK, don't worry, we're going over to the beach.  He said he needed me to delete the pictures.  I asked why and he repeated we were not allowed to take pictures.  I said this is a public park and he said he needed to see me delete the pictures while glancing down at my camera.  I wrapped up my camera, put it in my bag, clipped it shut and told him I was not deleting my pictures.  All this time he is inching closer to me with an aggressive stance and is right in my face.  He said "who are you with?"  "What" I ask perplexed and he says "tell me who you're with." I say "I am with my kids."  He says, you have to delete those pictures and I need to see you do it.  (He keeps cutting me off and saying things before I complete my sentences.)  I try to diffuse the situation by telling him to calm down; we're not doing anything wrong; I am at a public park with my kids.  He is a very big guy that is obviously trying to intimidate me.  He doesn't back down and it is getting worse so I tell the kids, "go to the car" and turn to walk quickly behind them back to our van.  He follows on my heels saying something but I don't stop to turn around.  To the kids credit they do exactly as I say immediately without argument.  They are in the van buckled to go as I get in.  The crazy employee jumps back in his truck and pulls to the end of the drive to the park and pauses there, just out in the road, watching us.  (I wonder if he is going to try to block us in.)  He waits until I back the van up to turn around; then he pulls away back toward the recycling plant.  Then we leave.  (Perhaps he was waiting to harass us more if we didn't leave--from a public park that we had every right to be in.)  This is essentially the first real negative interaction I have had with anyone in Hawai'i. 

(Before this the worst was overhearing "Haole" (Hawaiian derogatory term for white/European people) as I walked by, but I had no idea if it was directed at me and it is easy to shrug off since I have put up with that kind of thing before in other places.  Also, I've only heard this a couple times over six months.)

By the way, there is a lot of information available about the legal rights of photographers in public places with references to exactly this type of situation.  Here is a link, and here. 

After this incident I look them up.  Below is a map of the park from a google earth screenshot.  

On the far left you can see the white lighthouse.  In the middle is the park.  To the right is the steel recycling plant.  It is Schnitzer Steel Hawaii Corp.  They have a website (http://www.hawaiimetalrecycling.com/).  This is a local branch owned by Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. (http://www.schnitzersteel.com/).  They have public outreach plans for Earth Day 2012 (link) and local company history (link).  On the main website there is info for investors and even a list of "values" of the company.  I wonder if the executives know that their employees are harassing families at the park next door? 

It might be fun if a flash mob of people showed up to take pictures of the plant from the park.  Any suggestions on a date and time?

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Update: If anyone is interested there are much better pictures of the plant taken by other people and available online.  Here are a few:

 By Jimmy Havok at Panoramio. 

By Amy at her blog. 

At the state Department of Enviromental Services. 

Also at the state DES. 

Also, I came across this article.  It turns out that this Schnitzer Steel scrap yard get a yearly $1.9 million dollar subsidy from the city of Honolulu and that it is using the subsidy to undercut competitors like Paragon Metals and maintain a monopoly on the island.  (Also see here for unfair advantages given to this company over competitors.)  In reading more about this company, it is clear they are working hard to improve their public image by doing recycling outreach to the community, cutting up discarded fishing nets, recycling tires, etc.  And recycling is vitally important in general (I was trying to talk to my kids about recycling using the steel scrap piles as an example when this all started).  However, I found out they have also been taken to court for allegedly dumping recyclables into the city landfill.  And here is an article where a court injunction is being sought to stop them from dumping mercury into an Oahu landfill to save money (and their competitors who do not do this are being penalized, link).  Despite this unfair advantage, stock rating companies have noted that Schnizter Steel (SCHN) has low cash flow and dividends, which makes it unattractive from an investment perspective compared to rivals.  It appears that there is quite a bit of intrigue going on with this company.  It is also ironic that their actions to avoid attention (harassing us in the park) has led to me being more curious about what is going on over there.  If they repeat this with enough people and other organizations Schnitzer Steel may come to understand what Oogway meant in Kung Fu Panda, "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."

Mattresses!

We have been living on a shoestring since all the expenses with moving a family around the world and starting in a new place (the electric company and everyone else wants deposits of many $100s of dollars to open a new account, buying a van, ...).  Plus normally we barely make it from paycheck to paycheck anyway.  Also, it amazes me how expensive mattresses and beds are, so we have made do without them for the last six months, but this week we have new mattresses!  The kids love theirs and I almost forgot what it felt like to sleep on one.  Thank you!

Kealia Trail

We went for a hike last weekend on Kealia Trail.  The trail is behind an airport so it is imposing to get to.  First we had to drive in on an access road at the end of the runway, with signs that say no entry all over the place.  Then park next to the runway, with no fence separating us or anything from the planes.  Then the first part of the hike has "restricted area" signs all over the place.  Anyway, once you get past all of that it is a nice little hike. 

M found a large ant nest.  There are no native ants, bees or wasps in Hawai'i, but now they are everywhere.  We even had a nest of ants in our printer for a while, little smashed ants would be on some of the pages we printed out, but now they have moved elsewhere. 

The trail is very rocky.  Below M is "lifting up" a boulder to see what is under it.

We just went for a short hike, partway up.  I hiked the entire trail before the rest of the family moved here, it keeps climbing all the way to the end.  I didn't want to push the kids too much; I wanted them to enjoy it so it is easier to go for more hikes in the future.  Plus V was carrying F the whole way.

iPad

I was given an iPad at my job.  I never would have bought one on my own.  I am not a fan of apple and I don't have the money to buy one.  However, now that I have one I must say it is handy to have my calendar, email and a web browser to carry around in a light, thin, wifi connected, touchscreen, package.  For reading the text in books a kindle is still much better, but for color PDFs the ipad is better.  I brought it home and the kids disappeared with it and played lots of games.  I like eufloria, osmos, and world of goo.  However, the most amazing thing is star walk.

In star walk you hold the iPad up to the sky at night and look through it.  The stars that appear behind it are connected together into contellations and labeled.  You can click on a star or planet to bring up more information about it or search for a visible satellite like the ISS.  Arrows show you where to point it to and the display updates in real time.  It is like you are looking at the sky through an information window.  We were all standing out in the yard at night searching for new southern constellations that we haven't seen before (this is the furthest south we have ever lived).  The neighbors probably thought we were crazy.  Also, you don't have to only use it at night or outdoors.  You can use it to find where sky objects are inside and/or during the day.

I remember reading about augmented reality years ago in science fiction books like "halting state."  With applications like star walk on an ipad it feels more like we are living in the future.  I am keeping an eye on new applications like "Google Goggles" where you can take a picture of an object and it identifies it for you, tells you where you are, brings up info from barcodes, etc.  You can even take a picture of a sudoku puzzle and it solves it for you. 

After using the ipad for a while I find myself trying to touch the screen to move windows around and activate buttons on my laptop, and briefly wondering why it is not working, instead of using the keyboard. 

Even F got in on the act.  She quickly learned to use the touch screen to scroll and look through pictures.  Here are some pictures of her playing with the iPad.  She had just woke up so her hair is still a bit fuzzy. 

A close look at the screen. 

Cheerios

F sitting in the kitchen floor snacking on some cheerios.

Drive to Hawai'i Kai

This weekend we took a drive to a new part of the island.  We loaded up in the van and went to the eastward point called Hawai'i Kai. 

A shot back into the van, for fun T decided to wear his sheriff outfit. 

M with her hair braided. 

Here are some random (non-postcard quality) pictures through Honolulu and along the way to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Diamond Head in the background. 

Then on to the Hawai'i Kai.  It is a very rocky coast with lava cliffs. 

At this point we started having car trouble.  (The next thing to replace is the radiator.  It has a slow leak, but we keep water stocked in the car because of this and I topped it off before leaving.)  I didn't expect this and I thought we had the radiator under control.  We coasted into a scenic overlook parking lot; we gave some time for everything to cool off and settle so I could check on the water and oil, so I snapped some pictures while we were waiting. 

You can also see some other islands from here.  Here is a picture towards Maui and Moloka'i; they are faint in the distance. 

Also,  further out and a little more to the south you can see the big island of Hawai'i!  In the shot below I zoomed in.  I know it is faint but it is there on the horizon.  The peak is Mauna Kea, 13,796 ft, the 15th highest peak on earth.  However, it appear to be lower than Maui because it is farther away, 175 miles or 0.7% of the earth circumference.  I suspect this is why this area on Oahu is called Hawai'i Kai.  In my beginning understanding of Hawaiian, kai means salt water, sea, ocean.  So this is the Hawai'i (big island) Sea of Oahu. 

Also, T got out of the van with his outfit and hammed it up a bit. 

That is "sting" written on the side of the shotgun.  It is a reference to a sword named sting in "The Hobbit".  By the way, he sawed off the nerf gun himself, which resulted in the foam darts shooting much further than before. 

When I looked under the hood I realized I had made a mistake.  I was distracted when adding water before we left (I was holding F in one arm, talking to T, adding the water with the other) and forgot to fasten the cap to the radiator securely, so the water had boiled and vented out.  No more holding the baby and carrying on unrelated conversations while working on the car.  By now the engine had cooled and we added water, so we went back part of the way but it started making a strange sound it hadn't made before.  So we pulled off the road to let it cool and check it again.  We took the opportunity to grab some Chinese fast food for lunch.  We hadn't eaten out as a family in a long time and it doesn't help fix the van if we get upset and don't enjoy ourselves a little whenever possible.  (Like living in the moment in Ivan Franko's A Parable of Life, see also The Mahabharata 11:5, which the poem is based on.)

Then our luck started turning a little more for the worse.  The first sign was our fortune cookies.  They were both empty.  V took the kids window shopping while I checked the oil, it was fine but a little low, so I walked to a gas station and bought some oil to bring it up a bit.  I messed with the connection hoses on the radiator.  There was a place where the connection was loose and corroded, and that steam vented out of slowly when the engine is hot.  Usually I keep duct tape in the car but we had taken it out to use in one of our projects and left it at home...  I fastened everything as well as possible.

Then, while going to get V and the kids my camera fell out of its case onto the ground.  This has never happened with me before, and a camera should not be dropped like that.  I checked it and it seemed fine with just a scuff on the outside of the lens body.  Apparently the clip that holds the camera in the case wasn't secured all the way.

We walked around a costco a bit "window" shopping then it was time to head back.  I got back out on the road and we went for a few miles then the engine started making noise again and heating up.  I pulled off to the side of the road and checked again.  It was venting steam and the water reservoir was down again.

At this point a police truck pulls up behind us with lights going.  I tell him we are having radiator trouble and ask if he has any duct tape.  He doesn't but firmly tells us to get off the interstate.  I explained that we don't know the area around here and he says to pull off at the next exit and U-turn.  I top it off with more of our water and he escorts us with lights going.  We pull off and he pulls across the opposing lane to block traffic while we turn.  There is a shell station and a chevron ahead.  I get in the lane for the chevron but then he pulls up beside us and says to go to the shell station because it is a service station and the chevron is just a filling station.  This is a problem because I have boycotted shell for 16 years since the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa.  (There are only a few companies I boycott and/or do not buy stock in, Shell, Caterpillar (see here and here), Dell (here), and the country of Israel (here)--some people make fun of me for this, but I decide where I spend and invest my money.)  However, I have a cop with lights going telling me to go to the Shell station, so I resolve not to spend any money.  I pull in and the police go away.

It happens that there is a free water dispenser so V gets started filling up.  I go to the service guys and ask for some duct tape.  At first they seem to ignore me, so I go back to the van, but then a few minutes later one of the guys brings me some duct tape.  We have the water topped off again, double check all the caps and connections, and head off, without spending a penny at shell!  We made it back home this time without having to stop again.

As soon as I have enough money, I'm going to get the corroded connections to the radiator fixed up.

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Update:  I am a bit confused over place names.  Now it seems that Hawai'i Kai is a development to the west of the easternmost coast area.  I have heard this point referred to as "Lanai Lookout."

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Update:  I was really confused; actually my source was wrong.  The islands visible in the distance are from left to right; Molokai, Maui (behind Molokai) and Lanai (separated off to the right, now it makes sense this is "Lanai Lookout").  The Big Island is not visible.