Punahou Class of 1984

I read this and thought of our mainland alumni:

From the NY Times

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

When I read: “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?”, I thought that maybe he showed up in a t-shirt and slippers or something. 

[edit]  Alright, alright – maybe my standard for “cold” is all wrong:

From the Honolulu Advertiser:  Baby, it’s cold outside — by Hawaii standards

It was another cool night across the state — at least by Hawaii standards — with overnight temperatures in many communities hovering in the low 60s.

The coldest-spot award goes to Lihue, Kauai, where the mercury dipped to 59 degrees.

For the record, as I write this, it is 34 F in Washington DC. 

Boys: No. 1 ‘Iolani boys hold on for 41-40 victory

A near-capacity home crowd of about 950 watched the Raiders, ranked No. 1 in The Advertiser’s statewide Top 10 poll of coaches and media, improve to 6-0 in the ILH. The defending state champion Buffanblu, ranked No. 4, fell to 2-2.

Girls: No. 2 Punahou races past No. 5 ‘Iolani

Punahou started strong and never looked back last night en route to blowing past ‘Iolani, 58-29, in Interscholastic League of Honolulu girls basketball action.

Celebrating Chinese New Year

From HVO

Video is here: http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/13356/215/

from NASA Earth Observatory:

large image here (4 MB jpeg)

For the mainlanders, a couple of posts on the local coverage of the last couple of days

associated press

A big day for Punahou as well

Punahou pride flying high today

Although, as a past president of the Punahou Alumni Association, I do have a slight problem with this headline, seeing that Mark Kam ‘80 is our current alumni president: Hail to alumnus-in-chief

Punahou band perseveres in cold

President Obama’s Inaugural Address (text)

video (YouTube, of course)

For all you mainlanders, you might not be aware that there are some pretty strong winds on Oahu today (January 15). 

Oahu prepares for possible 60 mph winds

Warning says winds could gust to 60 mph

High wind hits Kaneohe, surf closes Kaena Point

Strong, gusty winds made for a blustery night in the Kane’ohe area, but no serious problems had been reported to police or the fire department as of this morning.

Even without injuries or major damages, authorities were urging caution.

The National Weather Service has said wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph could hit the Islands later today and early tomorrow morning. Hazardous surf conditions also remained in the forecast.

Strong southwesterly winds, with steady gusts upwards of 40 mph, are expected to stick around on O’ahu through tomorrow afternoon, the Weather Service said.

A high-wind watch remains in effect for Kaua’i and O’ahu, which saw gusts upwards of 35 mph overnight. Forecasters say the winds will continue to pick up today through mid-day tomorrow on O’ahu, and then start to die down.

Anyway, there were some photos showing the damage, but science geek that I am, I ran across this on NASA’s Earth Observatory site today and thought it ironic.