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Note: This is the second of a series of posts that I wrote while on the Big Island last weekend. Due to a lack of internet access, they were not posted at that time.
We arrived at Volcano House right after sunset tonight. The best word I can come up with to describe this place right now is “quaint.” It’s a small hotel. The bedrooms aren’t very large, and lack pretty much every modern convenience - to be honest, I was almost surprised that the phone is touch-tone. There wasn’t much of an attempt made to match the furnishings in the bedroom, but the rocking chair that I’m sitting in right now more than compensates for all of that. It’s large, very solid, and made of koa wood. There are no pads or cushions, but it’s one of the most comfortable chairs I’ve sat in for a very long time.
Downstairs, there’s a very nice lounge with a lot more koa furniture and a fireplace where the fire is never put out. I’m heading down there in a few minutes to read and relax. The real treasure here isn’t what’s inside the hotel, though. It’s what’s outside. About 50 feet from the back wall of the hotel is a low stone wall. About ten feet on the other side of that is the caldera. I just walked out there and took a quick look around. It’s really something to see at night.
You stand there at the edge of the caldera at night, and look out, and you see almost nothing. There are a few shrubs between you and the edge, but beyond that it’s like looking off the edge of the world. There are stars above you, the light from the hotel behind you, but in front of you there is nothing at all. No lights, and all you can see are faint hints of the caldera below - subtle differences in the shades of darkness, but no distinguishable shapes.
I’d love to be able to show you, but it’s hard to take a picture of nothing at all - even if an image could capture it.
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Did you hear that the man who was infected with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is an affluent marital and personal-injury attorney? It turns out that this selfish, idiotic dope who should know better, went on his honeymoon through Europe, knowing he had TB. While overseas, the infected man, Andrew Speaker (pictured right; image source), exposed hundreds of people to his very dangerous strain of TB before finally returning to the United States — against federal health officials’ warnings — by driving across the Canadian border because he was on this nation’s “no fly” list. Upon reaching NY, he was placed in quarantine and moved to Denver’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center. Even more amazing, Speaker’s new father-in-law is a microbiologist at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) who specializes in studying the epidemiology of TB. 
Do men buy porn because of Hot or Not? Is that even what the study examined? The Neurocritic has much to criticize in a recent article suggesting Hot or Not leads to buying Playboy.