Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
While kids in Hawaii will have to wait until next year to see “Moana” just like everyone else, some lucky students in local public schools will get to experience Pixar animation magic right in their classrooms. The Hawaii State Department of Education, working with the state Department of Business, Economic...
An award-winning documentary about a Hawaii teen athlete who chased her dream of competing nationally in both judo and wrestling will get its local premiere, four months after it debuted nationally. As reported here in May, “Winning Girl” aired on the World Channel as part of its “America ReFramed” documentary series. But no cable providers in...
Hawaiian music legend Cyril Pahinui turned to Kickstarter to fund what he called his “lifetime dream project,” and the community stepped up as his campaign to crowdfund a music video series surpassed its $65,000 goal yesterday. “We received a few texts and calls while at work today with the incredible news,”...
On Friday, about a dozen coveted parking spaces in urban Honolulu will be converted into tiny parks. The temporary takeover is part of PARK(ing) Day, designed to encourage communities to think differently about public spaces. If you were someone who worshipped at the once unassailable American temple of automobile ownership, the last few...
Honolulu is one of 28 cities around the world hosting an “insightful and intimate” series of talks offering advice on how to turn ideas into reality. The first 99U Local Honolulu event is being hosted on Thursday by design group AIGA Honolulu along with art and design collective Interisland Terminal at Kakaako Agora. 99U...
Jackie Claxton is a normal, average girl… except for the fact that she has the special ability to cross dimensions and into parallel universes to save people and battle evil. And later this month, she and her many incarnations and creators will be celebrated at “Claxtonfest,” a unique local film...
An actor, an entrepreneur, a president’s half sister, and a bank vice president turned trustee will lead an undoubtedly provocative panel discussion on Wednesday titled, “What Can Hawaii Teach America About Race?” Hawaii gave the United States its first multi-racial president. Not surprising, as it’s home to the nation’s largest share of...
After taking a brief summer vacation, Honolulu Science Cafe returns next Tuesday with a focus on oceans. The featured speaker for the casual Kaimuki dinner series is Professor Margaret McManus, who has taught at the University of Hawaii since 2003. She will be speaking on the topic of “Understanding the...
They look like giant, moss-covered Minecraft trees — cozy 250-square-foot plant-covered boxes perched atop tall pedestals. But the creators of Elevate have a much bigger vision for their eco-friendly design. Elevate is the brainchild of Nathan Toothman, who previously ran BEAR Engineering, a foundation engineering and inspection business. Originally from Colorado,...
This weekend brings the second annual Hawaii Con, a sci-fi and fantasy convention that seemed like a long shot when it was pitched on Kickstarter in August 2013. Suddenly, it’s one of the local incumbents in a crowd of other conventions staking out territory in the Aloha State. But Hawaii Con...
I hesitate to admit how many times I’ve dropped my iPhone on my head in bed, and people I know have actually sported bruises inflicted by falling iPads. Finding better ways to hold our space-age devices is a common struggle of clumsy humans everywhere. Enter the Dundabunga, an amusingly named accessory from the equally amusingly...
Every Labor Day weekend, the Yamanashi Kyoyukai Friendship Club holds its annual picnic at McCoy Pavilion in Ala Moana Beach Park. My dad Walter has been part of the club leadership for over a decade, and he and his wife Gayle have worked hard to ensure it continues and keeping it a...
The state’s most expensive transportation system can be improved a great deal by integrating simple, human-powered technology that’s nearly 200 years old. The $6 billion Honolulu rail transit project easily dominates any conversation about the evolution of transportation on Oahu. With the first four miles of the 20-mile route piercing into Waipahu...
DevLeague, Hawaii’s first and only coding bootcamp, is launching an introductory offering to help would-be students ensure that they have the basic skills needed to enter and succeed in the program. DevLeague was founded in 2013 by local entrepreneurs and friends Jason Sewell and Russel Cheng. Modeled after popular and successful programming...
Talking about the weather is usually the worst kind of small talk, and sometimes the topic is tapped for more breathless news coverage than it deserves. But life in the middle of the ocean has been especially interesting this summer, and the headlines are certainly earned. This week, for the first...
While the media fans the flames of outrage prompted by drone pilots who are certainly behaving badly, there is some encouraging news this week for UAV enthusiasts committed to doing the right thing. Drone Services Hawaii has received its coveted Section 333 Exception from the FAA, allowing it to operate commercially. Meanwhile, the...
A solar-powered charging and battery case for the iPhone 6 first announced in May re-launched its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter yesterday. “Sunny,” described as “the only solar battery case that actually works,” hopes to raise $10,000 in just one month to enter mass production. The Kickstarter reboot comes after a...
If California enacts one of the nation’s strictest regulations on drones, you can thank a quadcopter pilot in Hawaii. Both advocates and critics of drones across the country are watching a bill now sitting on the desk of California Gov. Jerry Brown, which would create a “no-fly zone” over private...
I was once an avid bicyclist. With my best friend Nate, we would regularly ride from Mililani to town and back. I wore a bicycle chain as a bracelet for years, airport security scanners be damned. We even rode the Century Ride… although we rode mountain bikes, and the 100-mile...
Last weekend our youngest son celebrated his 11th birthday at iTrampoline Hawaii in Kapolei. I was impressed, as he researched possible venues and picked the spot all on his own. And I had never heard of the place. Trampoline parks are a thing on the mainland, of course, but I wasn’t...
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