Pa Konane

Recently while fiddling with my iPhone I discovered a cool feature: region formats.

Sure, the iPhone supports dozens of languages, and if you set a language then the whole iPhone OS as well as any localized third-party apps will display in the specified language. But if you're not fluent in that language, you'll be lost on your own phone.

Region formats are different; they specify the preferred format for day, date, time, and phone numbers based on a specific region. But what's cool is that format isn't just the order of month and day or the use of dashes or brackets in a number, but the language of the days and months as well.

Even cooler, there's a region format for Hawai'i that uses the Hawaiian terms for the days (actually nights) of the week and the months of the year. Selecting that region format means that all the iPhone applications — even third-party ones that are correctly engineered — display dates in Hawaiian! In Weather, in Calendar, in Mail, in Stocks — everywhere there's a date, it's in Hawaiian.

Setting the iPhone couldn't be easier: tap Settings, tap General, scroll down and tap International, then tap Region Format. There are many regions listed, with some grouped under a language, such as Spanish, spoken in many different regions.

Not knowing Hawaiian myself, this has given me an opportunity to learn some interesting things about the language. For instance, as shown in the image above, all the days of the week start with pō except one: Lā pule, or Sunday. I guessed that Lā pule might mean "holy day" and some research revealed I was close. It actually means "prayer day" and reflects the influence Christian missionaries had on the islands.

But if lā means day then why do all the other names start with pō? Well, as I learned at UniLang, the Hawaiians traditionally started the 24-hour cycle at night, much the way we actually start a day at Midnight, and pō means night. The second part of the word specifies numerical order, first through sixth. So Monday is Pō'akahi or first night. Tuesday is Pō'alua or second night and on down the line to Saturday, Pō'aono. (Makes far more sense than a mix of celestial objects and Norse, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon gods, like in English.)

The iPhone OS even nails the little details: in Calendar on month view, Pō'akahi through Pō'aono are abbreviated P1 to P6, just as their names denote.

As for the post title, "Pa Konane" is a traditional Hawaiian song about the "bright touch" of the Moon.

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Pa Konane	Folk song performed by Manualua (and many others)

The Evil That Men Do

That jackass Phil Gramm is at it again. He gutted the regulations that kept economic disasters like our current predicament from happening, but that wasn't enough. Now he's responsible for Swiss bank UBS becoming a haven for tax evaders.

Daily Kos contributor Devilstower has the full scoop, complete with references and citations. It's not pretty, but it's an important read. Check it out.

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The Evil That Men Do	Song by Yo La Tengo

Riders on the Storm

For the first time I can recall, a professional bicycle race came through Santa Cruz. Specifically, Stage Two of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California race ended here in Downtown Santa Cruz, after starting in Sausalito this morning.

Even more exciting, not only did the race come through Downtown, it went right down my street! That's right, I hung out in my front yard today and watched bike racing luminaries such as Lance Armstrong fly by not more than 10 feet in front of me. To chronicle such a momentous event, I took pictures and pulled together a photo page.

Aside from the fun of seeing the racers speed down my street, it was interesting to watch the weather seemingly cooperate with my fair city's debut as a staging ground for the Tour of California. While cycling through the mountains, the racers were reportedly deluged with rain. And even here in Santa Cruz, the rain was steady until about 10:30.

But as can be seen in my pictures, the rain stopped mid-morning and by Noon the streets were dry. A couple of quick showers made things interesting — I had Neighbor Nicole taking refuge on my porch for a few minutes — but they stopped by 13:30.

When the first riders came by at 13:56, not only were the streets dry, but the sun had just broke through the clouds. And Downtown stayed partly cloudy the whole time the racers were streaming through. By 15:00, all the riders had gone by, and the grey was back. By 16:00, dark storm clouds filled the sky. And by 16:30, hail was falling. It was almost like the collective will of Santa Cruz had managed to push back the storm just long enough so the riders could cross the line. After that it came rushing back in with a vengeance.

I only hope the tour organizers remember our meteorological manipulation when they plan next year's route.

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Riders on the Storm	Song by The Doors