So Flavorful

The 19th-century "gold rush" for phosphate rock---guano used in fertilizer--has run its course. The reserves of South Sea islands like Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG) are largely depleted, and it behooves Americans to support these nations as they try to replace guano exports with agricultural products like coffee.

At Costco I picked up a couple of pounds of PNG coffee, which tasted rich and complex. I wonder what ingredient in the soil makes it so flavorful.....

A Few Moments of Reflection and Service

Yesterday 60 people showed up for lunch at the community center. We had baked enough chicken for a hundred, and St. Pius had made a like number of brown-bag lunches for people to take when they departed Sandwiches on Sunday. There were no leftovers; diners came back for seconds and thirds and took the remainder home.

As is our custom, we introduced ourselves before lunch and recited a short blessing:

O Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us together on this beautiful day. And we thank you for the men and women of our armed forces, most especially for those who sacrificed life and limb for our nation. Help us to bring comfort to their families and honor their memory through service of our own. Bless this food to our use and us to your service, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Several attendees said that they appreciated the profession of faith, and one lady asked our minister to pray with her after lunch was over.

Memorial Day weekend is filled with fun, food, family, and friends, but a few moments of reflection and service are good, too.

Privacy is Dead

....and we have ourselves to blame.

(From Barron's cartoon corner)

It's Pretty to Look at, Though

Despite health warnings Cowell Beach will probably be crowded
on Memorial Day weekend (Coastal Home and Garden image)

In contrast with Hawaii's best beach in America (see yesterday's post), nearby Cowell Beach is one of the worst:

Even wading in ankle-deep is frowned upon. That’s because, for the third straight year, Cowell has been crowned the worst beach in California for water quality, due in large part to animal excrement.

At Cowell, excrement largely from seagulls and sea lions, coupled with relatively calm waters, may be giving the beach its place at the top of the list, experts say. Since 2010, it has occupied the No. 1 or 2 ranking for worst in the state,

Cowell Beach is a few steps from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and is pretty to look at. However, its beauty should be appreciated at a distance.

Hanauma No Ka 'Oi

Florida professor Stephen Leatherman ("Dr. Beach") ranks Hanauma Bay as the number one beach in America:

"I've never seen so many fish swimming around your feet."

Hanauma Bay was the first beach in the state to ban smoking because they found that fish were eating cigarette butts.

Safety is an important factor in Leatherman's decision, noting that the water in Hanauma Bay is relatively shallow and calm and that you don't have to go very far offshore to see the marine life. The park also has lifeguards posted across the beach and many signs warning visitors of the dangers that do exist.

Hanauma Bay was special in the 1950's, too.

One Form That I am Happy to Fill Out

As I've stated before, it's the complexity of the income tax system, not the income tax itself, that I find particularly vexing. And because the tax laws are so complex and confusing, and because the Internal Revenue Service has been known to exercise its powers in a draconian manner, many taxpayers are understandably terrified. This is the milieu in which tax scammers operate, and your humble blogger, who is not an angry person, absolutely despises them.

(Image from brightscope.com)

At last some good news out of Florida, from where I've been getting recent calls:

Agents working with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration have arrested five individuals who impersonated Internal Revenue Service employees and demanded payment from taxpayers.

TIGTA agents arrested the five suspects in Miami without incident Monday for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Jennifer Valerino Nunez, Dennis Delgado Caballero, Arnoldo Perez Mirabal, Yaritza Espinosa Diaz, and Roberto Fontanella Caballero are allegedly responsible for nearly $2 million in schemes that defrauded more than 1,500 victims.

Another bit of good news: the Treasury Department has a scam reporting page. This is one form that I am happy to fill out.

Off the Reservation

The Chronicle editorial board demands that Hillary Clinton honor her promise to debate Bernie Sanders before the California primary: [bold added]

Californians deserve more than a succession of rallies, photo opportunities and fundraisers from a major presidential candidate. They deserve a chance to fully compare and contrast the two remaining candidates on everything from the federal reach on state issues such as water and high-speed rail to their differing visions of the role of a global superpower.

Exit polls throughout the primary season have shown that questions about Clinton’s “honesty” and “trustworthiness” remain her biggest challenges as she prepares for a general election against a billionaire saddled with daunting negatives of his own. Her broken promise to debate in California is not going to assuage those concerns among skeptical voters who just might be tempted to send a message to Clinton on her final glide path to the nomination.

But the Chronicle doesn't stop there. With statements like the following, it might have its press credential revoked in Washington and Sacramento:

The Chronicle had been prepared to partner on the California debate with Fox News, which proved superior to other networks in instilling substance and control into primary debates.

Praise for Fox? Criticism of Hillary? Nice little paper we have in San Francisco. I'd hate to see anything happen to it.

Listenable

PVRIS (scanned from tour program)

The youngster had signed up for "meet and greet" tickets for the PVRIS (pronounced "paris") concert at the Regency Ballroom. PVRIS' music is post-hardcore punk, an unfamiliar style to these wizened ears.

We stood in line two hours before the concert to pick up T-shirts and other tchotchkes. The band signed programs and took pictures with fans. I commented that I was old enough to be their dad. They smiled. Nice kids.

The line stretched down the block.

One girl with bright red-painted hair said that she couldn't miss the event despite staying up all night studying for a morning exam; she wished she were older so that she could marry Lyndsey, the lead singer. The fellow behind us said that he had been looking forward to this for months. He drove in from Sacramento this morning and will return late tonight. Youthful enthusiasm, I had it once.

PVRIS is listenable---yes, it's praise akin to judging a restaurant's food edible--and appears to be experimenting with different genres. Older generations always decry the music choices of the younger, but in PVRIS' case one could certainly do worse.

Beach Weather was the warm-up act.

Remember the Old Ways

The 1½-year-old iPhone 6 froze repeatedly, that is, the touchscreen was totally non-responsive. The sleep button did work, but the iPhone could not be shut down the normal way because the final step--swiping the power-off slide--was on the touchscreen.

Pressing the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons simultaneously forced the iPhone to restart, but having to perform this step four times an hour was quite inconvenient. Perhaps the cause was an iOS bug, but the problem persisted through two system updates.

It felt like a software issue, so before taking the phone to the local Genius bar I deleted all apps installed this year (none of them are indispensable) and even some older ones that were little used. Still no luck.

Finally I pulled out the big gun--Erase All Content and Settings---and it took a few hours to restore useful data and applications. The freezing stopped.

Wiping the hard disk and re-installing the operating system was a last resort that often worked with Windows machines without knowing exactly why.

Remember the old ways, grasshopper, they may serve you well.

There is No Rake

Zen rock gardening:

The rocks resemble mountains, and the sand, water. As you rake the sand around the rocks, you can choose patters and designs reflecting swirling pools or swift streams.

Do not consider what you create or how you do it, what matters is the act of creation.

Silicon Valley is learning that the faster we go, the less we accomplish.

a growing number of tech executives who believe the answer is slowing down — and are leading the way with meditation, a 2,500-year-old practice that quiets the mind of its scattered thoughts and patterns of thinking. Medical proof of its benefits — studies show it literally changes the brain and body — is moving meditation from the margins into the mainstream.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google co-founder Sergey Brin meditate — and provide opportunities for employees to do the same.

Or, if you want to be old school, on Sundays you could go to church early and pray for a few minutes.

Battery Power is Power

Uber, which matches drivers with passengers using a mobile app, implements surge pricing during peak periods. Price changes are communicated to drivers and passengers in real-time, allowing both to make rapid decisions about providing or using the service.

Uber's analysis of passenger behavior has revealed [bold added]

when you are more likely to pay double or triple the cost of your ride: when your phone battery is low.

...people are willing to accept up to 9.9 times surge pricing (ouch) if their phones are about to go dead. Data about user batteries is collected because the app uses that information to know when to switch into low-power mode. The idea being: If you really need to get where you’re going, you’ll pay just about anything (or at least 9.9 times anything) to ensure you’re getting a ride home and won’t be stranded. A person with a more fully charged device has time to wait and see if the surge pricing goes down.

In the 21st century the smartphone has become many individuals' principal conduit to information. When buyers lack information, they may pay a lot more than they need to. Knowledge is power, or in this case battery power is power.

My iPhone won't run out of juice--and I can wait for the surge pricing to pass--
with backup power. (Disadvantage: this one weighs 10 oz. and lists for $69.99.)

The Wisdom of Byron

Barron's profiles Byron Wien, 83, master strategist of Blackstone Group ($340 billion under management). A sampling: [bold added]

Byron Wien (Barron's photo)

his approach to philanthropy is “to try to relieve pain rather than spread joy. Music, theater, and art museums have many affluent supporters, give the best parties, and can add to your social luster in the community. They don’t need you. Social service, hospital, and educational institutions can make the world a better place and help the disadvantaged make their way toward the American dream.”

On politics, his prediction of an election victory by Hillary Clinton and Democratic control of the Senate looks good now, but he forecast the wrong Republican insurgent to win the nomination: Ted Cruz. With the possibility now of a Trump presidency, he says, “I’m hopeful that the checks and balances in the American political system will restrain Trump from implementing some of his more extreme ideas.”

When speaking before audiences of wealthy individuals, he has fielded questions about how to avoid overindulging their children. He warns them about flying their kids in private jets: “It changes them, and not for the better.”

I like listening to the wisdom of elderly, successful people. They're usually past puffing themselves up, being defensive about past failures, or trying to enrich themselves by lying or leaving out crucial information. We may certainly disagree with their opinions, but they are very likely to be speaking the truth as they see it.

Some of Byron Wien's "life lessons":

Without Swiping

Twitter-compliant summaries by John Atkinson

Before everything written before 1950 was declared irrelevant, we had to read the Great Books. My adolescent mind couldn't fathom why they were Great in the first place. Why, for example, did I have to plow through nearly a thousand pages to get to the climactic battle with the whale? Or to suffer through a like number of pages that chronicled the descent of an unlikeable loser in An American Tragedy?

I often snuck peeks at Cliff's Notes or even a Classics Illustrated comic, not to escape reading the masterworks, but just to find out what was going on in plain English, without all the fancy accoutrements, adornments, and allusions. These venerable study aids, which were once regarded as superficial, are now "in depth" because they are too lengthy for a blog post.

Cartoonist John Atkinson has the right idea with his two- or three-line summaries, all of which can be read on a smartphone without swiping. He still has too many complete sentences, though. Gotta fix that, John.

plus ça change

20th Century Technology:

"rescue device" from Paris circa 1924; according to the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, the "kind of shovel on a car" was meant for "reducing the number of casualties among pedestrians."

21st Century Technology:

Google has patented a new “sticky” technology to protect pedestrians if – or when – they get struck by the company’s self-driving cars. The patent, which was granted on 17 May, is for a sticky adhesive layer on the front end of a vehicle, which would aim to reduce the damage caused when a pedestrian hit by a car is flung into other vehicles or scenery.

Life: No One Gets Out Alive

(Image from Daily Beast)

Game of Thrones author George R. Martin, on why he kills off so many main characters:

"the truth is, as we say in Game of Thrones, all men must die,” he said. “You can’t write about war and violence without having death. If you want to be honest it should affect your main characters.

We’ve all read this story a million times when a bunch of heroes set out on adventure and it’s the hero and his best friend and his girlfriend and they go through amazing hair-raising adventures and none of them die. The only ones who die are extras. That’s such a cheat. It doesn’t happen that way."

"you should be honest about death and indicate it can strike down anybody at any time,” Martin said. “You don’t get to live forever just because you are a cute kid or the hero’s best friend or the hero. Sometimes the hero dies, at least in my books."

It's okay for a fictional world to be utterly fantastical, yet it must be "realistic" in that it remain true to its own rules. If this dichotomy were easy to navigate, there would be many more bestselling authors.

Not So Fast

(Image from computerweekly.com)

When we're introduced to the Internet of Things ("the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data"), it's hard to restrain our imagination: [bold added]

Let’s look at one example. In 2007, a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, killing many people, because of steel plates that were inadequate to handle the bridge’s load. When we rebuild bridges, we can use smart cement: cement equipped with sensors to monitor stresses, cracks, and warpages. This is cement that alerts us to fix problems before they cause a catastrophe. And these technologies aren’t limited to the bridge’s structure.

If there’s ice on the bridge, the same sensors in the concrete will detect it and communicate the information via the wireless internet to your car. Once your car knows there’s a hazard ahead, it will instruct the driver to slow down, and if the driver doesn’t, then the car will slow down for him.

Formerly-inanimate objects communicating and acting independently will likely lead to great benefits--and risks--but something more mundane than the loss of human control is impeding the march of progress: tech companies' desire to keep their technologies and customers to themselves.

The IoT, as it’s called—made up of a gaggle of gadgets such as the Nest home thermostat from Alphabet, Apple ’s Apple Watch, and the humble Fitbit step trackers—doesn’t really constitute an Internet, not in the sense any dictionary would frame the term.

The Internet is a means to connect lots of disparate computer networks so that they can communicate. It brings things together, which is its great power. The IoT, in its present form, is a jumble of electronic devices that don’t really connect anything. They’re just dead ends.

Someday the tenders of separate gardens will break down their walls, but that time isn't now. (Hooray?)

Whit Red Sunday

On Pentecost Sunday most people remembered to wear red, which symbolizes the fire of the Holy Spirit.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. [Acts 2]

"Violent wind", "tongues of fire", and the Crucifixion itself are just a few examples of the savage images that permeate the New Testament. Jesus' message is one of Peace, but both the world in which we live and the inner world of our mind are anything but peaceful.

Image from today's Rangers-Blue Jays game (Guardian photo)

Virtue Signaling

A smattering of Bernie signs have begun to appear on the Peninsula. After the Democratic convention in late July, we'll see a lot of Hillary + [running mate] bumper stickers.

This is a phenomenon known as virtue signalling ("the expression or promotion of viewpoints that are especially valued within a social group").

When one signals agreement with the dominant ideology, e.g.,Hillary or Bernie in the SF Bay Area or a fish symbol or NRA sticker in the Bible belt, it's really a sign of weakness. Without the need to persuade even more people to the majority viewpoint, the motive stands revealed: look at how virtuous I am.

Your humble blogger usually supports candidates who do not subscribe to the local dominant ideology but freely admits he is too chicken to announce it. I don't want to have my car keyed.

Good for a Chuckle

It's time for my monthly phone call from tax scammers in Florida. The April 15th call was from (305) 587-2971. Today's was by "Steve Martin"(!) at (754) 999-3188.

Hi, this message is intended to contact you. My name is Steve Martin, and I’m calling regarding an enforcement action instituted by U.S. Treasury intending your urgent attention. Ignoring this message will be an intentional second attempt to avoid initial appearance before a magistrate judge or a grand jury for a Federal criminal offense. My number is (754) 999-3188. I repeat, (754) 999-3188. I advise you to cooperate with us and help us to help you. Thank you."

Like the earlier call, the voice is male with a slight accent (this one sounds Indian).

Also, the syntax has errors that would never be made by a college-educated person whose first language was English. For example, "instituted by U.S. Treasury" would normally be read in an official notice as "instituted by the United States Treasury Department," and "to avoid initial appearance" should have the article an before initial.

The famous Steve Martin is a lot funnier.

A New Form of Language

The first set of emoji---there are hundreds to choose from---on the iPhone keyboard

Sure, emoji 😀 are cute when used sparingly, but when I see them all the time in a correspondent's text messages, I begin to wonder about her writing skills. ("Use your words," we remind children whose emotions leave them tongue-tied).

But not so fast, old guy. You may be too quick to dismiss a birth of a new form of language, suited to online communicating:

Emoji assist in a peculiarly modern task: conveying emotional nuance in short, online utterances. “They’re trying to solve one of the big problems of writing online, which is that you have the words but you don’t have the tone of voice,”....Gretchen McCulloch, a linguist and author, says....In an age of rapid chatter, emoji prevent miscommunication by adding an emotional tenor to cold copy.

As with any language, there are rules:

when we use face emoji, we tend to put them before other objects. If you text about a late flight, you’ll put an unhappy face followed by a plane, not the reverse. In linguistic terms, this is called conveying “stance.” Just as with in-person talk, the expression illustrates our stance before we’ve spoken a word.

People of a certain age are finding it difficult to keep up with these changes in language and communication, and we feel so, so....😢.

Fearfully High

A 14-year Kaiser Permanente study of 274,000 Northern California members tracked the incidence of dementia in patients who had displayed no symptoms at the age of 64.

The data were used to develop "cumulative risk" estimates for the six ethnic groups in the study; blacks had the highest risk (38%) while Pacific Islanders had the lowest (25%).

Your humble blogger's Asian ancestry projects a risk at the low end of the scale (28%), in the same ballpark as the risk of cancer (35%). Both are fearfully high.

The Wisdom of Animals

Run! Run for your lives!

Dell, Where Are You Hiding the Rocket?

"I'm back!" (Image from sport1.de)

Two weeks after he banged his knee badly in an NBA playoff game against the Houston Rockets, Stephen Curry returned to action against the Portland Trailblazers in Game 4 of the second-round playoff series. He missed his first nine three-point attempts and looked human. But he was just calibrating his shot.

Curry...came super-alive. He scored the Warriors’ first 12 points in overtime in their win, on two three-pointers, a bank shot, a rebound and putback, and a fastbreak layup.

Steph Curry wound up scoring 17 points in overtime---the most by a player in any overtime game, regular season or playoffs---and 40 points total for the evening.

78 weeks after my injury the leg still hurts a little, while Steph's leg is "153%" after two weeks, according to the Chronicle writer. His return to action proves what I've long suspected: the NBA's most "down to earth" superstar wasn't born on this planet.

Mother's Day, 2016

On Mother's Day we called the mothers in our lives to wish them well. They were busy hosting visitors and didn't have much time to converse. We'll talk to them later in the week when it's quieter.

This morning the church ushers presented each mother with a single rose. We had a light luncheon, but most people left shortly to go to other events.

Yesterday the male residents of the household cleaned the house. The lady of the household was appreciative.

The LOTH said she wanted to have dinner at home. No problem--a quick trip to the local supermarkets, et voila: steak with mushrooms and onions, roasted asparagus, and wine. The meal ended with a Just Desserts chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream.

Simple needs, simple pleasures.

Happy Mother's Day!

A Website for Old Financial Analysts

 Apple (AAPL) has hundreds of listings on sec.gov; for example, 2015 showed 53 documents.

For investment and industry analyses I like to read companies' actual financial statements, not filtered summaries.

One comprehensive source is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website, sec.gov. However, the site is far from user-friendly; it "function[s] like it was designed in the Pong era."

Zeroing in on documents seems especially nettlesome when researching ETFs and Mutual Funds.

The reason is that the earliest ETFs were structured as unit investment trusts, not open-end funds like the newer ETFs. So the SEC puts [older ETFs] in a different search engine. It does the same for closed-end funds, which it considers investment companies, not mutual funds.

SEC.gov's search bar will answer simple requests. For example, "Chevron executive compensation" will pull up hundreds of documents that contain those three words, most having very little to do with Chevron. One must be willing to read thousands of pages, just like in the old days.

Though this is a vast improvement over plowing through reports in the business section of the public library, I doubt there are too many under-30's who appreciate SEC.gov. They probably didn't see the fascination with Pong, either.

For the Children

Shoppers may be taken aback by the prominent overhead ads now displayed in Costco warehouses, but have no fear, folks, Costco isn't selling out. Every business is a sponsor of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, toward which Costco shoppers are asked to contribute during May.

For the record your humble blogger earmarks this category of his charity dollars to the Shriners Hospital for Children. Both are worthy.

Not So Innocuous

Donald Trump wishes everyone a happy Cinco De Mayo, digs into a taco bowl, causes millions to have indigestion.

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016

I don't like the guy's style or much of his politics, but I do love the way he knows how to provoke a reaction--he drives his opponents barking mad--in people who are already angry all the time. Deep breathing, folks. If you're Hispanic and reject his "love," think how unhappy he must be that you don't return his affection!

Already the deconstruction has begun on this supposedly innocuous Tweet.

The taco bowl is round and the dishes are square. Symbolism? Of what?

That's a horribly unhealthy-looking taco bowl, with cheese, beef, and sour cream all smushed together. The kitchen could easily have lightened it with more vegetables of color. Here again Mr. Trump is thumbing his nose at the sensibilities of the East and West Coast elites.

Speaking of thumbs, his left thumb is pointed up. Does it mean agreement, Tr(i)ump(h), or something else?

That "something else" could be related to the half-hidden picture of his bikinied ex-wife Marla Maples in the bottom right of the picture.

There's a lot of serious news out there, but the Donald knows how to suck all the oxygen out of the media room.

Bob McCue (1925-2016)

I knew Bob McCue through business and in recent years visited him only around Christmastime, when I would drop off some scotch. Bob had been suffering for a long time--and I am sure booze was against doctor's orders with the medications he had been taking--but his eyes would always light up when he saw the Johnny Walker or Seagram's bottle. His nephew, Tim, said that he would always break out what Bob called the "good scotch" when Tim came over.

At his funeral Mass on Tuesday his nephews and nieces spoke about how he had looked after them after their parents died. His caregiver spoke about how Bob never treated him as an employee but as a close friend. It was good to learn, however tardily, that he was much more than the World War II veteran and owner of a construction business that he presented to outsiders. R.I.P. and cheers, my friend.

One Vaccination to Rule Them All

The mannose-PEI combination was effective against a number
of viruses without harming healthy cells (phys.org graphic)

Scientists are developing a general anti-virus serum, improving on current

vaccines [that] are a wonderful piece of ammunition. But they are like bullets that can hit one target only. Different vaccines are needed to prevent specific viral infections.

James Hedrick (IBM), Naoki Yamamoto (National University of Singapore), and Yi Yan Yang [blogger's note: - great name!] (Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore) are experimenting with polyethylenimine:

Previous work has shown this polymer can thwart a viral invasion, but it has groups of amines, derivatives of ammonia, on the ends of its molecular branches and these can kill healthy cells.

The researchers found that adding mannose, a form of sugar, to the polyethylenimine (PEI) neutralized the bad effects:

Cell cultures exposed to the mannose-decorated polyethylenimine molecules proved invulnerable to every virus that they studied. More important, they found that the newly created material is not toxic at the concentrations that were needed to meddle with the surface charges on viruses.

A general antiviral would be a breakthrough development: not only could it slow the spread of pandemic diseases like the Zika virus, it could also protect against mutations. Faster, please.

Note: polyethylenimine can also be used in carbon-capture technology, one of the solutions to global warming. Is there anything it can't do?

Hans Eide (1934-2016)

Hans came to our church frequently to talk about the school.

On trips to Southeast Asia Hans Eide had witnessed the plight of children who were too poor even to attend public school in rural Cambodia. After soliciting donations from the Rotary Club in San Mateo and working tirelessly to set up the facilities, Hans opened the Cambodia Academy of Mongkol Borei in 2004.

Free of charge to its students, the Academy provides food, transportation, books, uniforms, and English-language teaching. There is a long waiting list for open slots, and its graduates are equipped to find jobs in the cities that are visited by international tourists and business people.

At his memorial service last night, friends and relatives spoke of the hard-nosed entrepreneur who bought and sold businesses and the traveler who would negotiate for an hour to pay a lower price on a $40 shirt. But I only knew Hans Eide as the driven advocate, the then-70-year-old Foster City resident who gave the rest of his life to improving the lives of hundreds of some of the poorest children in the world. R.I.P.

Hawaii No Ka Oi

(Honolulu Star Advertiser/AP photo)

May Day on the Mainland:

Seattle police used pepper spray this evening to disperse black-clad anti-capitalist protesters authorities say threw rocks, flares, bricks and Molotov cocktails at officers during a rowdy May Day gathering.

(Honolulu Star Advertiser photo)

May Day in Hawaii:

Three-year-olds Keana Pegg, left, Elle Keifer, and Lily Kawashima dance hula at Holy Nativity School at the longest running May Day pageant in Hawaii. King Justin Hazel and Queen Taihere Thompson watch from behind.

Frankly, if I may say so, I prefer Hawaii’s version of May Day to the other ones.