Wednesday, January 30, 2008

#START FILE#Hawaii: Where Romance Meets RecreationThe lush and accommodating volcanic formed Hawaiian Islands offer an enchanting Pacific, Polynesian paradise for travelers worldwide. The main islands of Oahu, Kauai, Hawaii and Maui, steeped in history and tradition, are temperate and comfortable year-round, as would be expected from their tropical or sub-tropical locale. Travelers arrive by air and ship to celebrate the fascinating Hawaiian heritage.

The island natives have a rich culture based on an ancient Polynesian belief system. The islands are rich with legends, mythology, gods and goddesses. Long ago, island natives planned fishing, planting, harvesting and farming on moon patterns, using the Hawaiian moon calendar. Another traditional practice is the Kumulipo, or song of creation, an ancient chant recited by kahunas, or priests, at important festivals or events to explain the origin of the Hawaiian people.

While traveling, visitors can enjoy authentic Hula and Fire dancing, Tiki parties and luaus, an island tradition gathering large groups of friends and neighbors for a night of dancing, feasting and extravagant entertainment. To ensure luau accommodations, book space well in advance of your arrival on the islands as the most popular events sell out quickly.

Hawaii offers some of the most sought-after surfing conditions in the world. Whether you prefer to watch, learn or participate in the action, the islands warm, turquoise waters and massive summertime swells are sure to make a big splash.

Offshore, whale and dolphin watching bring tourists side-by-side with the natural, breathtaking underwater world. Humpback whales seasonally migrate December through April, while the nearby Pacific depths are home to many other spectacular breeds year-round. Hawaii also hosts various dolphin breeds, the bottleneck being the most popular. The Hilton Waikoloa Villages Dolphin Quest lets visitors swim alongside many well-trained, aquatic mammals. As with all events, advance booking ensures space.

Local cuisine blends the rich tastes of the Pacific Rim, classic American and European favorites for dishes from luscious seafood and fresh vegetables, to tangy fruits and select sauces. Island restaurants serve tastes from as far off as Vietnam, India and Thailand. Feast on abobo (braised pork or chicken), poi and laulau (taro leaves wrapped around pork or chicken and baked to perfection) and mochi (a sinful rice cake). Island-grown grapes flavor select wines while micro-brewed beers offer ideal complement to your meal.

Book your Hawaii vacation package today to experience all these beautiful islands have to offer.

By Clinton Douglas IV of http://www.vasrue.com/ who provides free, quality articles for your newsletter, website or publication on topics such as Hawaii: http://www.vasrue.com/ vacations. Please link to this site when using this article.

posted by lltvw at 6:31 PM 0 comments

#START FILE#Has Technolgy Actually Made Us Worse Off?I will give you time to ponder the title question as I give you two examples. Heart disease and heart related problems are one of the leading causes of death in this country. Everyday in offices, homes, planes, on the road, etc. people are suffering heart attacks and inevitably requiring someone to call 000 to organise an Ambulance. In many instances due to traffic, Ambulance shortages and system inefficiencies, paramedics are arriving at a patient’s side to late to prevent major damage or death. In fact in the US, nearly 80 percent of all sudden cardiac arrests occur at home and fewer than 5 percent of those victims survive. In the market place now is a product called a Home Heart Start Defibrillator. This amazing product allows virtually any user to restart a person’s heart that may have stopped by talking a person clearly through the process. It even checks to see whether the electrical pads are in the right place and if the person actually needs the process at all. It even coaches a person trough CPR.

On the other hand we in Australia and indeed the Western World at large is going through an obesity epidemic starting with kids as young as 3. Why are we going through such an epidemic and why is the problem getting worse? Well we drive to school and the shops instead of riding or walking. We watch TV and chat and play games on the computer or games console for entertainment instead of exercising and playing outside. We have less time to cook because of our schedules so we eat more pre-prepared, highly processed and fast food. Basically we have automated so many our tasks because of the Internet and technological devices we have created, that our daily manual labour tasks are now minimal.

In many Universities in the 70s they used to teach students that in the future they would be working less because of technology and processes that were now human operated would be automated. Unfortunately they were only half right, we have automated most of those processes but we are working more than ever.

Now given all this due you think we are better or worse off than generations previous? The easy answer would probably be that is depends what you are talking about. We have made things more efficient, we have more entertainment options, medical science is able to cure more ailments, we can travel most places easily and we are able to access and information and communicate better. However as a society we also are now fatter, less active, more depressed and lonely, communicate face to face less, in more debt and if trends continue will have a shorter average life span to our preceding generation.

The saying “you are here for a good time not a long time” would suggest we are better off now but the fact that only a generation ago, terms like stress disorder, ADD, hyper obesity and road rage were rarely used if at all. I think the problem lies in the fact that over time, we as human beings became dependent on instant gratification in all aspects of our life. Whether it is entertainment, communication, travel or even curing a disease. At some point we had to invent the machines and systems to achieve this instant gratification and that would have taken hard work and maybe even a bit of suffering to achieve that goal. This sort of human struggle to achieve something is what many believe brings a fulfilling life. Maybe if we as a society struggled to achieve something for future generations to enjoy then not only can we overcome some of the problems our society has but we can also enjoy the technology we have because of generations past without it being detrimental to our lives.

TILL NEXT TIME.....

Chris Jacob

posted by lltvw at 12:14 AM 0 comments