Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
Would-be shared bike riders in Honolulu now have a good idea of what their two-wheeled rides will look like. Bikeshare Hawaii today announced that it had selected Canadian company PBSC Urban Solutions as the provider of its core offering: a 1,600-bike, 183-station bike-sharing system expected to launch next summer. Bikeshare Hawaii is backed by...
One of the nation’s leading contemporary science writers will be the featured guest at a book talk hosted by Hawaii Pacific University on Friday. Sam Kean is perhaps best known for his 2010 bestselling novel The Disappearing Spoon, which led readers on an insightful and entertaining tour of the periodic table of the...
A new group for current and would-be startup founders on Hawaii Island has formed, with an inaugural pau hana meetup set for Friday. The Big Island Startups was launched only four days ago, and has already drawn more than 100 members in its first three days. To kick things off, the first Startup...
The need and demand for computer science education continues ttto grow, with more programs reaching students earlier in life, including pre-school and kindergarten kids. One such local program, Computational Thinkers, is now graduating into its own, independent space in Kahala, after running classes at a few local schools since 2013....
The world’s largest computer science education campaign kicks off again this week around the world, with hundreds of Hawaii schools counted among the more than 190,000 locations hosting an “Hour of Code.” The pitch is to provide students an accessible 60-minute introduction to show that anybody can learn the basics of computer programming. Organized in...
KTUH, the college radio station based at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is shifting frequencies and doubling its signal strength next month. Currently broadcasting at 90.3FM in urban Honolulu and 91.1FM on the North Shore, KTUH will then be heard island-wide at 90.1FM. The student-run radio station first hit the...
Hawaii was the first state to legalize medical marijuana. But unless you were willing and able to grow cannabis on your own, it was a largely useless privilege for more than fifteen years. A practical path to medical marijuana cultivation and distribution only took root in July, with Gov. David...
It was a standing-room crowd last night at the YWCA of ‘Oahu for the “double-threat pitch-off,” a joint event organized by Sultan Ventures and Blue Startups. The former brought the Small Business Administration’s “InnovateHER” competition to Hawaii for the first time, and the latter hosted the regional finals of the international Mobile...
The Hollywood press has proudly declared a “golden age of funny women,” with the mainstream breakout success of female comedians like Amy Schumer prompting think pieces about “the last gasps of mainstream sexism.” But whether it’s a golden age or a “cubic zirconium age,” it’s actually nothing new. Funny women...
The last Nerd Nite of the year will take attendees under water, into volcanoes, and up to the moon. The usually monthly local gathering, featuring presentations from all disciplines and gently facilitated by alcohol, is part of a global network of events held in more than 90 cities. Tomorrow, the three featured...
A renown photographer of modern architecture is returning to his hometown of Honolulu this week to share some of his work, and help local residents better appreciate the buildings they live and work in every day. Darren Bradley was born on Oahu, and spent his early years surrounded by the city’s...
Looking for a way to socialize, network, and collaborate with other local professional and academic women? There’s probably an app for that. AAUW Honolulu, the local chapter of a national women’s advocacy group that has been around for more than 130 years, is hosting its first “Appy Hour” pau hana...
This morning, in a special Black Friday segment of the “Geek Beat” on the Hawaii News Now morning show, Burt Lum and I joined half of the Sunrise crew at Pearlridge (the other half was at Ala Moana Center) to share some tech-flavored gift shopping suggestions. Since many of the biggest...
Local teams vying for two different business innovation competitions, one national and the other international, will come together on the same stage on Tuesday for a “double-threat pitch off.” The winning teams from each will then have a chance to cross the sea to compete at an even higher level. Firstly, the...
As solar systems go, the one we live in is pretty boring. In the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” by the great Douglas Adams, our neighborhood was described as being “far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy.” (Our planet was deemed “mostly harmless.”) But planets...
Some Hawaii’s newest full-stack software developers have unveiled a new website designed to take a mountain of government data and turn it into a visual, browsable, useful resource for Hawaii’s largest and most vital industry. HiViz makes it easy to explore visitor market data that’s currently published only in spreadsheet form by the Hawaii...
If you’re looking to get a little more creative than gift cards this holiday season, this weekend’s annual print sale for Honolulu Printmakers is a great way to find unique and often one-of-a-kind creations of local artists. “Impressions15” features fine art, notecards, frames, apparel, and other items crated by local printmakers, allowing discerning shoppers...
More than a year in the making, the inaugural Anime Matsuri Hawaii convention kicks off on Friday. One of the nation’s largest Japanese animation conventions arrives at the Hawaii Convention Center on the same day Black Friday bargain hunters will descend on Ala Moana Center a couple of blocks away. Anime...
On Tuesday, the elder of the twin telescopes of the W.M. Keck Observatory will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its “first light” operations perched atop Mauna Kea on Hawaii Island. The milestone comes as the planned construction of the world’s largest optical telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope, was delayed once again....
Good science is important, but it’s notoriously hard to explain. Even though scientists may be doing groundbreaking research, they sometimes struggle to capture the attention — let alone the comprehension — of the average person. One effective strategy, then, is to skip a thousand words, and go with a picture instead....
What I’m Reading Hawaii Wire