Category: Miscellaneous

Within hours of the attacks on America — when I was at work but thinking only of being back at home with my family — I knew we’d soon be hearing predictions of a...

Probably an old link, but I stumbled across the story at The Smoking Gun, and a quick search for the name of the suspect — Celinda D. Barge — turned up a more local...

Woo! Check it out! After half a dozen submissions, one of my amateur airport digicam shots finally made it past the tough quality-control moderators at Airliners.net. I had no idea they were going to...

Some odd local news to report… First, in the “Duh!” department, local stores are pulling those fun little jelly candies off shelves after two kids in California choked to death on them. On one...

The Honolulu Advertiser again takes glee in shining its bright lights (?) into the dark musty corners of our local television news market. An article in Sunday’s paper features some familiar insights (KHON tops,...

Now some of these anecdotes are funny — strange things announced on commercial airplanes, courtesy the discussion forums at Airliners.Net. US Airways? “After takeoff, we’ll be dimming the cabin lights to make our flight...

The WorldPoint empire continues to quietly unravel. Though the auction house is kind enough to not name any names, the location of the selloff is indeed that of the former “world headquarters” of WorldPoint...

I’m getting more of this SirCam Worm virus than I ever did of that old classic, ILOVEYOU. Thank god most of my mail comes in through UNIX systems… and even the ITS team at...

I’m not sure what it means, but although I enjoy a train wreck as much as the next guy, in some cases, I still side with the old-school idealsists. The whole Chandra Levy case,...

What a difference a year makes. Witness the tale of WorldPoint, a locally-grown “high-tech” firm specializing in translation that was once the darling of Hawaii’s “growing tech sector.” In March of last year, the...

Well, the rumors were true. Liberty House will become Macy’s, with the new owners taking control next month, and the new name to be installed sometime later. Looks like, fortunately, all employees will be...

Ah, so now I don’t need to feel bad that my daughter Katie picked up the Homerism exclamation of disappointment, “D’oh!” It’s in the OED now, as is “bad hair day,” “full monty” and...

The total cost of raising a kid born this year is up $5,000, according to the USDA. Personally, though, I think their estimate of $165,630 is still very conservative. In any case, that number’s...

Newsweek this week introduced us to The Reviewer Who Wasn’t There, David Manning of the Ridgefield Press. The thing is, I don’t know how all that many people can be surprised. The only surprising...

This town’s pretty schizophrenic about its interpretation of its own laws. So now there’s a 20-foot-high cross towering over Makakilo they’ve deemed a ‘structure,’ not a ‘sign.’ What’s an activist to do? Build an...

Douglas Adams is gone. It’s been a week and I still can’t believe it. He was too young. And too wonderful a writer. I have to read the “trilogy” again — probably my tenth...

Now’s a good a time as any to mention the building crecendo of buzz and press over the Bay/Bruckheimer blockbuster (usually not declared until the opening weekend take is tallied, but I think this...

Well, I guess we were overdue for a test of the other side of the Horowitz controversy. It’s fun to point at supposed liberals when they argue against free speech, but that’s because it’s...

Filed for future reference (because I’m frequently asked to explain it), a fairly comprehensive history of the “all your base are belong to us” geek meme (link courtesy MJW), a once quaint example of...

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s 40 tons of space debris! Yep, they’re bringing the Mir down this week, a historic, fiery descent that’ll land it – “hopefully,” say the scientists with a...