1.
Kauai
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For the Childish Gambino EP see STN MTN / Kauai Kauaʻi or Kauai is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of 562.3 square miles, it is the fourth largest of these islands, known also as the Jurassic Isle, Kauaʻi lies 105 miles across the Kauaʻi Channel, northwest of Oʻahu. This island is the site of Waimea Canyon State Park, the United States Census Bureau defines Kauaʻi as census tracts 401 through 409 of Kauaʻi County, Hawaiʻi, which comprises all of the county except for the islands of Kaʻula, Lehua and Niʻihau. The 2010 United States Census population of the island was 67,091, the most populous town was Kapaʻa. Hawaiian narrative locates the origin in the legend of Hawaiʻiloa. The story relates how he named the island of Kauaʻi after a favorite son, another possible translation is food season. Kauaʻi was known for its dialect of the Hawaiian language. While the standard language today adopts the dialect of Hawaiʻi island, which has the sound, in effect, Kauaʻi dialect retained the old pan-Polynesian /t/, while standard Hawaiʻi dialect has changed it to the. Therefore, the name for Kauaʻi was said as Tauaʻi. Kauaʻis origins are volcanic, the island having been formed by the passage of the Pacific Plate over the Hawaii hotspot, at approximately six million years old, it is the oldest of the main islands. The highest peak on this island is Kawaikini at 5,243 feet. The second highest peak is Mount Waiʻaleʻale near the center of the island,5,148 feet above sea level, one of the wettest spots on earth, with an annual average rainfall of 1,170 centimetres, is located on the east side of Mount Waiʻaleʻale. The high annual rainfall has eroded deep valleys in the central mountains, at 3,000 feet deep, Waimea Canyon is often referred to as The Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Kokeo Point lies on the side of the island. The Na Pali Coast is a center for recreation in a setting, including kayaking past the beaches. The headland, Kuahonu Point, is on the south-east of the island, Kauaʻi’s climate is tropical, with generally humid and stable conditions year round, although weather phenomena and infrequent storms have caused instances of extreme weather. At the lower elevations the annual precipitation varies from an average of about 50 inches on the windward shore, average temperature in Lihue, the county seat, ranges from 78 °F in February to 85 °F in August and September. Kauaʻi’s mountainous regions offer cooler temperatures and provide a pleasant contrast to the coastal areas
2.
Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
3.
Conch shell
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Conch is a common name that is applied to a number of different medium to large-sized sea snails or their shells. The term generally applies to large snails whose shell has a high spire, in North America, a conch is often identified as a queen conch, found off the coast of Florida. Queen conches are valued for fish bait, and are known as seafood. The group of conchs that are referred to as true conchs are marine gastropod molluscs in the family Strombidae, specifically in the genus Strombus. For example, see Lobatus gigas, the conch, and Laevistrombus canarium. Many other species are often called conch, but are not at all closely related to the family Strombidae, including Melongena species. Species commonly referred to as conchs also include the sacred chank or more correctly shankha shell, the English word conch is attested in Middle English, coming from Latin concha, which in turn comes from Greek konchē ultimately from PIE root *konkho-, cognate with Sanskrit śaṅkha. The meat of conchs is eaten raw in salads, or cooked, as in burgers, chowders, fritters, all parts of the conch meat are edible. In The Bahamas, conch is served in fritter form, or as a raw. In the West Indies, local people eat conch in soups, stews, restaurants all over the islands serve this particular meat. In the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Haiti, conch is commonly eaten in curries or in a spicy soup and it is locally referred to as lambi. In The Turks and Caicos Islands, the Annual Conch Festival is held in November each year, local restaurateurs compete for the best and most original conch dishes, that are then judged by international chefs. Free sampling of the dishes follows the judging, along with those festivities, other competitions, events, and music performances occur well into the evening. In Puerto Rico, conch is served as a ceviche, often called ensalada de carrucho, consisting of raw conch marinated in lime juice, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, green peppers and it is also used to fill empanadas. In East Asian cuisines, this seafood is often cut into thin slices, Conch shells can be used as wind instruments. They are prepared by cutting a hole in the spire of the shell near the apex, sometimes a mouthpiece is used, but some shell trumpets are blown without one. Many different kinds of mollusks can produce pearls, pearls from the queen conch, L. gigas, are rare and have been collectors items since Victorian times. In some gemological texts, non-nacreous gastropod pearls used to be referred to as calcareous concretions because they were porcellaneous, rather than nacreous, although non-nacreous, the surface of fine conch pearls has a unique and attractive appearance of its own
4.
Heiau
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A heiau is a Hawaiian temple. Only the luakini was dedicated through human sacrifice, there are two types of luakini. They were called the ʻohiʻa ko and hakuʻohiʻa, Heiau were made in different architectural styles depending upon their purpose and location. At the official end of Hawaiian religion in 1819 under pressure from Christian missionaries, many were deliberately destroyed, Heiau are still considered sacred by many of the inhabitants of Hawaii, and some are not open to the public. In ancient times, only chiefs and priests were allowed some of these heiau. Some heiau structures have been fully restored physically and are operated in the 21st century as public attractions, Heiau were made in different shapes depending upon their purpose, varying from simple stone markers to large stone platforms, which were both parts of human sacrificial temples. Their shapes could be rectangular, square, or rounded, some consisted of simple earth terraces, while others were elaborately constructed stone platforms. They could be placed on hills, cliffs, level earth, valleys, some koʻa or fishing shrines were built underwater. Heiaus of the people varied in size, large heiaus were built by prominent people while small heiaus were built by the humble. US missionary Hiram Bingham described a heiau he saw on route hiking between the summits of Mauna Kea and Hualalai, made of piled lava rock, it was a square of 100 feet, with walls eight feet high and four feet thick. A doorway led through the middle of the north wall, eight pyramids surrounded the outside of the temple. Made also of piled lava rock, they were 12 feet in diameter and 12 to 15 feet high, the luakini poʻokanaka were large heiaus. Only the Aliʻi nui of an island or moku could use type of heiau. Other chiefs or the makaʻainana that built this type of heiau were considered rebels and this type of heiau was usually built alongside coastlines, in the interior of the land, or on mountain sides. The largest heiau on Oahu is Puʻu O Mahuka, which covers almost two acres of land, the heiau most commonly preserved are war temples of the later period of history. They are composed of stone platforms with various structures built upon them. The structures were used to house priests, sacred ceremonial drums, sacred items, there were also altars on which to offer sacrifices. The heiau were sacred places, only the kahuna and certain sacred alii were allowed to enter, the largest heiau known to exist, Hale O Piilani Heiau, is a massive, three-acre platform with fifty-foot retaining walls, located in Hāna on Maui
5.
Guava
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Guavas are common tropical fruits cultivated and enjoyed in many tropical and subtropical regions. Psidium guajava is a tree in the Myrtle family, native to Mexico, Central America. Although related species may also be called guavas, they belong to species or genera. The most frequently eaten species, and the one often referred to as the guava, is the apple guava. Guavas are typical Myrtoideae, with tough dark leaves that are opposite, simple, elliptic to ovate, the flowers are white, with five petals and numerous stamens. The genera Accara and Acca were formerly included in Psidium, the term guava appears to derive from Arawak guayabo guava tree, via the Spanish guayaba. It has been adapted in many European and Asian languages, having a similar form, another term for guavas is peru, derived from pear. It is common in countries bordering the western Indian Ocean and probably derives from Spanish or Portuguese, in parts of the Indian subcontinent and Middle-East, guava is called amrood, possibly a variant of armoot meaning pear in the Arabic and Turkish languages. Guavas originated from a thought to extend from Mexico or Central America and was distributed throughout tropical America. They were adopted as a crop in subtropical and tropical Asia, the southern United States, guavas are now cultivated in many tropical and subtropical countries. Several species are grown commercially, apple guava and its cultivars are those most commonly traded internationally, mature trees of most species are fairly cold-hardy and can survive temperatures slightly colder than 25 °F for short periods of time, but younger plants will likely freeze to the ground. Guavas were introduced to Florida in the 19th century and are now grown in Florida as far north as Sarasota, Chipley, Waldo and Fort Pierce. However, they are a primary host of the Caribbean fruit fly, guavas are of interest to home growers in subtropical areas as one of the few tropical fruits that can grow to fruiting size in pots indoors. When grown from seed, guavas bear fruit as soon as two years and as long as 40 years, Psidium species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, mainly moths like the Ello Sphinx, Eupseudosoma aberrans, E. involutum, and Hypercompe icasia. Mites, like Pronematus pruni and Tydeus munsteri, are known to be pests of the apple guava. The bacterium Erwinia psidii causes rot diseases of the apple guava, by contrast, several guava species have become rare due to habitat destruction and at least one, is already extinct. Guava wood is used for smoking in Hawaii and is used at barbecue competitions across the United States. In Cuba and Mexico, the leaves are used in barbecues, Guava fruits, usually 4 to 12 centimetres long, are round or oval depending on the species
6.
Grapefruit
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The grapefruit is a subtropical citrus tree known for its sour to semi-sweet fruit. When found, it was named the “forbidden fruit”, and it has also been misidentified with the pomelo, the grapefruits name alludes to clusters of the fruit on the tree, which often appear similar to grapes. The evergreen grapefruit trees grow to around 5–6 meters tall. The leaves are dark green, long and thin. It produces 5 cm white four-petaled flowers, the fruit is yellow-orange skinned and generally an oblate spheroid in shape, it ranges in diameter from 10–15 cm. The flesh is segmented and acidic, varying in color depending on the cultivars, the 1929 US Ruby Red has the first grapefruit patent. One ancestor of the grapefruit was the Jamaican sweet orange, itself an ancient hybrid of Asian origin, one story of the fruits origins is that a certain Captain Shaddock brought pomelo seeds to Jamaica and bred the first fruit. However, it originated as a naturally occurring hybrid between the two plants some time after they had been introduced. The hybrid fruit, then called the fruit, was first documented in 1750 by a Welshman, Rev. Griffith Hughes. Currently, the grapefruit is said to be one of the Seven Wonders of Barbados, the grapefruit was brought to Florida by Count Odet Philippe in 1823 in what is now known as Safety Harbor. Further crosses have produced the tangelo, the Minneola tangelo, the grapefruit was known as the shaddock or shattuck until the 19th century. Its current name alludes to clusters of the fruit on the tree, botanically, it was not distinguished from the pomelo until the 1830s, when it was given the name Citrus paradisi. Its true origins were not determined until the 1940s and this led to the official name being altered to Citrus × paradisi, the × identifying its hybrid origin. An early pioneer in the American citrus industry was Kimball Chase Atwood, the Atwood Grove became the largest grapefruit grove in the world, with a yearly output of 80,000 boxes of fruit. It was there that pink grapefruit was first discovered in 1906, the 1929 Ruby Red patent was associated with real commercial success, which came after the discovery of a red grapefruit growing on a pink variety. The Red grapefruit, starting with the Ruby Red, has become a symbolic fruit of Texas. Using radiation to trigger mutations, new varieties were developed to retain the red tones which typically faded to pink, the Rio Red variety is the current Texas grapefruit with registered trademarks Rio Star and Ruby-Sweet, also sometimes promoted as Reddest and Texas Choice. The Rio Red is a mutation bred variety which was developed by treatment of bud sticks with thermal neutrons and its improved attributes of mutant variety are fruit and juice color, deeper red, and wide adaptation
7.
Menehune
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Their favorite food is the maiʻa, and they also like fish. The Menehune were said to be superb craftspeople, legends say that the Menehune built temples, fishponds, roads, canoes, and houses. Some of these structures that Hawaiian folklore attributed to the Menehune still exist and they are said to have lived in Hawaiʻi before settlers arrived from Polynesia many centuries ago. In Beckwiths Hawaiian Mythology, there are references to other forest dwelling races, the Nawao, who were large-sized wild hunters descended from Lua-nuʻu, the mu people. Some early scholars theorized that there was a first settlement of Hawaiʻi, by settlers from the Marquesas Islands, the Tahitian settlers oppressed the commoners, the manahune in the Tahitian language, who fled to the mountains and were called Menahune. Proponents of this point to an 1820 census of Kauaʻi by Kaumualiʻi, the ruling Aliʻi Aimoku of the island. Folklorist Katharine Luomala believes that the legends of the Menehune are a post-European contact mythology created by adaptation of the term manahune to European legends of brownies, No physical evidence for the existence of a historical people that fits the description of the Menehune has been discovered. Menehune Fishpond wall at Niumalu, Kauaʻi Kīkīaola ditch at Waimea, Kauaʻi Necker Island structures Pa o ka menehune, modern Ethernet was based on the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection methodology pioneered by ALOHAnet. The Menehune is the mascot of Waimea High School on Kauai and Makakilo Elementary School, Maunawili Elementary School, Moanalua High School. United Airlines used the Menehune in brand advertising for their service to Hawaii in the 1970s through the 1980s, the figurines and travel agency displays are now collectors items. Carl Barks wrote a story featuring Scrooge McDuck helped by Menehunes, the Menehune play a key role in the Rocket Power TV movie, Island of the Menehune. Honolulu, Hawaii, University of Hawaiʻi Press and Kauaʻi Museum Association, Luomala, Katharine, The Menehune of Polynesia and Other Mythical Little People of Oceania. Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, London, available online at Nordyke. Early Hawaiian Statistics, The American Statistician, Vol.35,1, pages 1–3, February,1981, Menehune Hale, Home of the Menehune Statue The Three Menehune of Ainahou
8.
Polynesia
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Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including the language family, culture, and beliefs. Historically, they were experienced sailors who used stars to navigate at night, the term Polynesia was first used in 1756 by French writer Charles de Brosses, and originally applied to all the islands of the Pacific. In 1831, Jules Dumont dUrville proposed a restriction on its use during a lecture to the Geographical Society of Paris, historically, these islands have also been referred to as the South Sea Islands. Polynesia is characterized by an amount of land spread over a very large portion of the mid. Most Polynesian islands and archipelagos, including the Hawaiian Islands and Samoa, are composed of volcanic islands built by hotspots, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Ouvéa, the Polynesian outlier near New Caledonia, are the unsubmerged portions of the largely sunken continent of Zealandia. At first, the Pacific plate was subducted under the Australian plate, the Alpine Fault that traverses the South Island is currently a transform fault while the convergent plate boundary from the North Island northwards is called the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone. The volcanism associated with subduction zone is the origin of the Kermadec. Out of approximately 300,000 or 310,000 square kilometres of land, over 270,000 km2 are within New Zealand, the Zealandia continent has approximately 3,600,000 km2 of continental shelf. The oldest rocks in the region are found in New Zealand and are believed to be about 510 million years old, the oldest Polynesian rocks outside of Zealandia are to be found in the Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain, and are 80 million years old. Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island. The other main island groups located within the Polynesian Triangle are Samoa, Tonga, there are also small Polynesian settlements in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, and in Vanuatu. An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this triangle is Rotuma. The people of Rotuma have many common Polynesian traits but speak a non-Polynesian language, some of the Lau Islands to the southeast of Fiji have strong historic and cultural links with Tonga. However, in essence, Polynesia is a term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania. Some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the triangle that geographically defines the region. The Phoenix Islands and Line Islands, most of which are part of Kiribati, are geographically Polynesian islands, tracing Polynesian languages places their prehistoric origins in the Malay Archipelago, and ultimately, in Taiwan. Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages began spreading from Taiwan into Island Southeast Asia, there are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia
9.
Humpback whale
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The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger species, adults range in length from 12–16 m. The humpback has a body shape, with long pectoral fins. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers, males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. Its purpose is not clear, though it may have a role in mating, found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 km each year. Humpbacks feed in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth when they fast and their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net technique. Like other large whales, the humpback was a target for the whaling industry, once hunted to the brink of extinction, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a 1966 moratorium. While stocks have partially recovered, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, the rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene. However, it is not known when the members of these families diverged from each other, though clearly related to the giant whales of the genus Balaenoptera, the humpback is the sole member of its genus. The humpback was first identified as de la Nouvelle Angleterre by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Regnum Animale of 1756. In 1781, Georg Heinrich Borowski described the species, converting Brissons name to its Latin equivalent, in 1804, Lacépède shifted the humpback from the family Balaenidae, renaming it B. jubartes. In 1846, John Edward Gray created the genus Megaptera, classifying the humpback as Megaptera longipinna, the common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name Megaptera from the Greek mega-/μεγα- giant and ptera/πτερα wing, the specific name means New Englander and was probably given by Brisson due to regular sightings of humpbacks off the coast of New England. Some biologists believe that these should be regarded as separate subspecies, humpbacks can easily be identified by their stocky body, obvious hump, black dorsal coloring and elongated pectoral fins. The head and lower jaw are covered with knobs called tubercles, the fluked tail, which typically rises above the surface when diving, has wavy trailing edges. Humpbacks have 270 to 400 darkly colored baleen plates on each side of their mouths, the plates measure from 18 in in the front to about 3 ft in the back, behind the hinge. Ventral grooves run from the jaw to the umbilicus, about halfway along the underside of the body
