Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
In Hawaii, we’re surrounded by clean energy projects. We’ve got solar farms, wind farms, biofuel producers, geothermal and wave energy experiments… researchers are branching out, venture capitalists are moving in, and federal funds are flowing. And it seems as if every hot new electric car hits our streets early. While...
Less than a week before Hawaii social worker and social media stalwart Ryan Suenaga lost his life, he posted to Twitter: “One of my life goals is to leave 10 percent of my estate to a scholarship for Buddhists from Hawaii studying social work.” Ryan’s devotion to his job, and...
Lovers of Okinawan drums won’t want to miss the first Eisa Drum Festival next Saturday at Kapiolani Community College. This special, evening event is bringing together several groups that practice and perform a variety of dances and drumming styles unique to Okinawa… plus a touch of Japanese taiko. Participating eisa...
When I’m not blogging, I’m browsing. Here are sites and pages that I bookmarked recently: Lawmakers will decide whether startups can keep present space: The office spaces of 23 technology companies residing at the Manoa Innovation Center hang in the balance as the state Legislature debates whether to extend the...
Last updated 12:32 p.m. HST on May 2, 2011. See end of post. Ryan Suenaga, “Hawai’i’s best known Apple II Geek and social worker.” A Blogger. A Twitter user and Facebook friend to many. He’s shared hundreds of personal stories, from his job as a social worker to his love...
If there’s anything Apple fans like more than Apple products, it’s Apple accessories. And a local company is hoping to harness the global hunger for stylish stuff to manufacture Juicies, a colorful line of cables for iPods, iPhones, and iPads. To make Juicies a reality, creator Laurens Laudowicz and partner Michael...
It took nearly three years longer than planned, but Lowe’s Home Improvement finally opened its newest store in Iwilei. Lowe’s arrival further concentrates competition in the area for home improvement and big box retailers, as it’s situated right next door to a Home Depot, and half a block away from...
Longtime surfer and surf designer Bill Hamilton, father of pro surfer Laird Hamilton, has thrived in the water for half a century. And not surprisingly, he has shared his love of surfing with “Sava,” his yellow Labrador Retriever, for over a decade. Both Bill and Sava are now featured in...
Cory Lum is one of the most talented photojournalists I know. Now, he is on the ground in Sendai, Japan, volunteering in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that’s still making world headlines. You can follow his story, and see his spectacular pictures, at Corylum’s Photo Blog. He...
A video is making the rounds on YouTube, Facebook, message boards and blogs, said to depict five unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, hovering over the Makua military reservation on the island of Oahu. It spread like wildfire through online communities focused on everything from aliens to government conspiracies, then started...
When I’m not blogging, I’m browsing. Here are sites and pages that I bookmarked on April 13th: DeconGel Provides Radiological Decontamination Technology to Japan: CBI Polymers LLC, the Honolulu-based innovator of DeconGel nuclear decontaminant, is making a donation of $250,000 in radiological decontamination products and technical services at the request...
It’s not the world’s largest manapua, but it sure looks like it could be. A group of local media makers documented the construction of a massive, 13,300-calorie manapua in a video titled,“Epic Kaukau Time: Manpua Man Manapua.” (Rated PG-13, per Cynthia Hoskins, so click with care.) The “Epic Kaukau Time”...
The Travel Channel’s “Bert the Conqueror” will air its Hawaii episode this Sunday, April 17. Host Bert Kreischer is described as “a big kid on a mission to uncover fun and adventure wherever he goes.” The synopsis for the Hawaii episode reads: “Bert heads to the sunny shores of Oahu...
The third annual Honolulu Twestival has come and gone, and once again, I completely failed to blog about it throughout the whirlwind of activity before and after the event. Fortunately, this year’s Twestival brought a local cause into the limelight, and Honolulu’s social media community once again stepped up to...
“Master photographer” Peter Lik has over a dozen fine art galleries across the country, including in Waikiki and Lahaina, plus one in Australia. And starting tomorrow night, he hosts a new original series on The Weather Channel: “From the Edge with Peter Lik.” The show follows Lik as he takes...
History may repeat itself. Last year, Hawaii bloggers, webmasters, and other online businesspeople rallied to fight a state plan to tax retailers like Amazon.com for business generated by local affiliates. The state was looking for extra cash, but opponents of the tax bill argued that Amazon.com would just drop its...
This morning, Twitter was awash with messages reading: “I just reserved my Dabble.in username. Gets yours here.” My friend Burt Lum posted the first tweet I saw, and as an obsessive signer-upper, I raced over to register. My post sparked another half a dozen of my friends to sign up...
The story of Hawaii’s annexation deserves a wider audience. I’ve often thought the drama and conflict was tailor made for a Hollywood blockbuster, but I also know Hollywood well enough to bet such an “adaptation” could easily be the worst thing to happen to Hawaii’s history, instead. The reception for...
Once again, social media played a key role in reporting and distributing information during a crisis. In the wake of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan, communities around the Pacific Rim braced themselves for the inevitable tsunami waves. In Hawaii, the “#hitsunami” hashtag aggregated thousands of posts from news media,...
As an advocate for free access to government data, I was glad to hear about the City and County of Honolulu’s newly launched online transparency initiative, “Citizens Analyzing Numbers Discover Opportunity” (or CAN-DO). Indeed, based on the “About” and “FAQ” pages, the CAN-DO site seems to demonstrate a clear understanding...
What I’m Reading Hawaii Wire
