Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
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...
The eclectic mix of topics and presenters continues with Nerd Nite Honolulu, reconvening on Tuesday with talk of bees, poop, and analytical chemistry. As always, the conversation will be facilitated by live music and alcohol. Honolulu is one of more than 90 cities with Nerd Nite events, which revolve around...
For Honolulu foodies, Eat the Street food truck rallies are already an island institution. Husband and wife entrepreneurs Poni and Brandon Askew launched them five years ago under the Street Grindz banner, but this week their business is graduating into a permanent resident of Kakaako. Following a preview event tonight, a...
The state’s biggest celebration of food and drink, mixing local specialties with internationally adored dishes and flavors, is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees across twenty one events over nine days this year. The fifth annual Hawaii Food and Wine Festival, co-founded by renown island chefs Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong, is expected...
The Energy Excelerator announced this morning that it has secured a new corporate sponsor: GE Ventures, the investment arm of General Electric, a leading global player in the energy industry. The Energy Excelerator is a dual-track accelerator program focused on startups that want to “solve the world’s energy challenges, starting in...
Civic hackers in Honolulu will have a chance to talk with and learn from a fellow open government advocate in California. Steve “Spike” Spiker, founder and executive director of Open Oakland, will share his story with Code for Hawaii on Wednesday and talk about his organization’s work as an official “Brigade” for Code for...
On the surface, Hawaii’s energy sector seems poised for growth. But a Thursday panel discussion will dig deeper, assessing the state’s true prospects in industries that are innovating and growing quickly. This year alone, the state set an ambitious goal to run entirely on renewable energy within 30 years, Henk Rogers made international headlines with...
HiCapacity, one of Hawaii’s first makerspaces, is hosting its first social mixer for women with “Ladies in Tech Night.” The Tuesday night meetup is being organized by HiCapacity intern and UH engineering student Jessica Grazziotin, who was featured earlier this month for her presentation at the ‘IKE Student Symposium. “It’s just...
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