You know what? You ("you" in the sense of "everyone out there") can use anything you want, anything you like, anything that works for you. It doesn't affect me all that much. I'll continue with Linux, LibreOffice, LaTeX, EMACS, Gimp, TaskJuggler, and all the other freeware that works just fine for me. There's symmetry here: That doesn't affect you all that much, either.

There's room in computerland for all of us. We don't need religious wars, we can all just worship in the manner of our choosing.

I would love to see science just be ... you know, science. And I would accept any conclusions drawn therefrom, whether I liked them or not. (For instance, I may not "like" the law of gravity, because it means I can't fly off tall buildings, but I have no choice but to accept it.)

Science tainted with politics or political correctness is harder to trust. By the way, I mean this from any angle. In the specific instance of climate change, there are agendas on both sides.

In fact the problem is that there shouldn't be sides, there should just be objective science, accepted as such, and acted on as such.

It's wonderful to see what happens when someone drinks the Kool Aid, so to speak. I mean, it's fun to show contempt for anyone who doesn't meet the definition of politically correct. The contempt is, after all, what's important.

I'm waiting for someone to blame this latest on global climate change, GMO crops, the evil Americans, etc., instead of realizing that species have come and gone since the earliest days of life on earth.

1) Pa`i`ai kind of literally means "slapped food" or "beaten food" which refers to the pounding process to make poi. Poi is pounded taro diluted with water. Pa`i`ai is not diluted. This is interesting, and they'll ship pa`i`ai to you.

http://www.guavarose.com/2013/...

2) Poi is great with the right foods. Mixed with lomi lomi salmon --- `ono! (delicious).

3) As to judging a protest by uninformed members, no, it doesn't invalidate it, but when a large percentage of the protesters are there because the profs told them to go or because they get 'extra credit' or the like, it does raise some questions. Do they oppose the telescope because they were told they should, or because they understand the issue and took a stand?

4) Bear with me here. Understanding Hawai`i is not so easy. It is very different from the mainland. I like to describe it this way. If you consider the cultural differences between Manhattan and say, a small town in rural Mississippi, the gap is considerable but I describe the type of differences as being along the x-axis. The differences between New York and Tokyo are great, too, but those differences are of another type, and I describe them as being on the y-axis.

People come from the mainland to Hawai`i and expect cultural differences, of course, but they think that they're all on the x-axis. But they aren't. There are definite y-axis differences, too, and a lot of people don't get that. They are the ones who have trouble getting along or understanding the issues. Perhaps I had less trouble adapting because I've been married to an Asian for over 30 years, and I've dealt with y-axis differences. But I've watched people from the mainland come and later go, saying they just couldn't get along in a place like this.

Hawai`i is a very complex place, and there are no easy answers. The postings in this thread, I think, reinforce that opinion.

Poi is, um, an acquired taste.

This whole discussion only serves to reinforce my feeling that there are no simple answers to complex issues.

But about the telescope--- I happened to be on the University of Hawai`i campus when one of the early protest demonstrations was starting up. I had to walk down Dole Street to get to where I was going and that meant traversing long lines of (very orderly and well-behaved) protesters.

Most of them were of course students. And listening to them a little, it seemed that quite a few of them weren't exactly informed on the issue. They were there because the Hawaiian Studies faculty told their students to go.

Something to be said on both sides of this issue, too.

Absolutely correct, and as I understand it military is second only to tourism in importance in Hawai`i's economy. However, the "givers and takers" chart supposedly takes that into account, although I certainly admit military money is really important. Hawai`i's economy isn't terribly diversified.

As a haole[1] living in Hawai`i, I took the time to learn the history and some of the language.

You can't possibly study the events of 1893 and conclude that anything but a monstrous wrong was committed. (I'm writing a novel called "No keia la, no keia po" and to write it I had to read extensively about those days.)

I don't know how to right that wrong. The Hawaiian sovereignty movement has its own ideas, though I don't know how practical those ideas may be. But I do know that something really, really bad was done back then, and it shouldn't be set aside or forgotten.

[1] Today this generally means 'Caucasian' and is sometimes used in a derogatory manner, but in the Hawaiian language, it actually means 'foreigner' without judgmental overtones.

I live in Hawai`i (though not a native Hawaiian), and I'd like to know what those subsidies are that other states don't also get. The chart here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/bus...

shows Hawai`i ranked 29th in the "givers and takers" calculation, in other words, right in the middle of the pack.

I was in management a good part of my career, and I learned this.

What management actually entails is the realization that it's not about you, it's about your employees.

As manager, you are there to do whatever you have to do to help them get their jobs done. Sure, at a certain level you might set direction, etc., but you work for them, not the other way around.

Managers who forget this and think it's about "being the boss" are bound to fail, sooner or later.

Yes, it doesn't apply, and that's the point. This person, like myself, avoids TV, because I simply don't want to pay for all this stuff. I might pay for/watch TV if companies offered me acceptable choices.

I *do* get updates to the "malicious software removal tool" on my stock, unbuggered XP SP3 installation. Other security updates, no, but I do get this minimal update from time to time.

It was supposed to be a joke, son.

I lived in North Dakota for a while. Just about everyone worked on their yard, their house, etc. and thought that everyone else should do and be the same. For instance, the first weekend in April everyone raked up their yards. There might still be some snow on the ground, but it was the first weekend of April and raking your yard was what you DID. Period. And so on.

I didn't do those things. I would rather read or do stuff on the computer or go for long bike rides in summer. I didn't fit the norm. But the thing was, while I was perfectly willing to understand that others could have different motivations and priorities, they wouldn't think the same way about me.

Before you assume that my yard was an eyesore and the house a wreck--- I hired out that work. Someone painted for me. Someone mowed for me. But that wasn't good enough, because I refused to be the same as everyone else.

So this is sort of the opposite of what the poster above is saying. I didn't think everyone thinks like me --- everyone else thought I should have thought like them.

They're not "undocumented," they're illegal!