Random

• There is a lot of natural beauty on Guam. Joyce Owen took us hiking down to Pagat cave and an ancient Chamorro village site today. The hike was great but it wiped me out -- lots of climbing over jagged lava -- at a grade -- and it was raining so it was also slippery. Then we were in the direct sun. When we were in the jungle sections there were lots of downed branches we had to crawl under/around because of the storm last week. I should have brought my machete.

• The thing about the auto industry bail-out is that Americans are so ticked about being forced into it that there will be a backlash and many people who bought American cars before won't do it any more. (I probably won't!) We don't want to pay twice for the car -- once as taxpayers during the bail-out and once in the showroom as consumers. The companies would have been better off restructuring in bankruptcy. Consumers can identify with that problem and it would have introduced a sympathy factor into the market.

• Part of the Internet is down again because an undersea cable was cut somewhere between Egypt and Italy -- 14 countries affected. At this point it doesn't appear to be slowing Guam down -- although some of our traffic was routed that way. We are also linked with a cable into Hawaii. Right now they are laying a cable from Guam to Australia to improve service in Australia. ~ link

• A luxury hotel in Dubai is planning to build a refrigerated beach. ~ link

• We're getting a new law on Guam that will limit the amount of window tinting in cars. Being able to communicate with other drivers should make driving safer. Of course, someone will have to enforce the law and someone will have to strip the tinting from GovGuam cars -- and a lot of the police cars. ~ link