Speaking of the weather … wow!

Did last week’s rain downpour, the 13,387 lightning strikes and the summer snow on Mauna Loa have anything to do with global climate change?

"The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events is increasing, and this trend is only set to continue," says Elisabeth Rasmusson, the secretary general of the Norwegian Council.

About 42 million people were forced to flee their homes last year because of natural disasters in the world, more than double the number in 2009.

Of course, Hawaii’s outbursts pale in comparison with Japan’s tsunami and earthquake, the tornados from Alabama to Massachusetts and flooding the length of the Missouri River. But one cannot rule out the connection.

Camera film was snapshot in time

It’s not dead yet. Lots of pharmacies still process film — those throwaway cameras are still around, for starters.

But people can reasonably argue that in an era of smart phones and digital cameras, film processing is on its last legs. Top-selling Kodachrome went extinct two years ago, and its last processing plant finished up the backlog in January.

In Hawaii, it’s hard to say who suffered most from the loss of film processing business from shutterbug tourists. Likely it was the corner drug store back home. People usually just threw the rolls into their luggage for developing after the vacation, right?