Random

• Greetings from Palau! I'm staying with Rob Watt our PIBC site coordinator in Palau and last night after I arrived we ran to the store to buy water. The store was filled with Taiwanese tourists and apparently some of them must have recognized me from my blog and they wanted to take our picture in the grocery store -- pretty insistent, too.

I don't know who they thought we were.

• Internet on Palau seems to be exclusively dial-up -- and even that is poor because the phone connections are weak. But I was able to get a streaming Air1 connection. They offer a 5 kps connection for people on mobile phones or in remote sites. Cool.

• Palau is great -- beautiful -- clean compared to Guam and Chuuk. Prices aren't as high as I expected for such a small isolated place. Total population of Palau is 20,000.

• The French young people are rebelling again -- singing rock 'n roll -- in English ~ Link

• Chrysler has a deal to allow customers to hedge on the price of gas -- lock in at $2.99/gallon for three years. ~ Link

• No surprise. The Guam Democratic caucus in which Obama beat out Hilary by 7 votes is being contested. Another chance to get Guam back in the national spotlight -- but not in such a positive light. ~ Link

• On our island many of the tax-rebates under President Bush's plan to stimulate the economy will be garnished by GovGuam. I suppose those dollars eventually work their way back into the economy -- if Guam ends up being able to repay the many vendors to whom they owe money. ~ Link