GMO BILL 361 Passes 9-0 Heads to Mayor for Signature

Just got word that Bill 361 Passed 9-0 and will be moving on to get the Mayor’s Signature to pass it into law.

More on the Bill here

Introducing the Marzi Blog

While I’m a staunch supporter of Angel Pilago because of friendship and loyalty to the things that he represents, and I have only put his website on my blog as he continues his quest for the Mayor of the Big Island.

Anthony Marzi recently ran an excellent campaign against a member of my Ohana and I would never endorse anyone against my ohana for personal reasons and I hope people would understand that.  Now that he is no longer a candidate for office, I feel honored to add him to my blogroll.

I think his contributions to the blogging community could benefit all of us one way or the other.

It does appear that he is going to remain active in the community and I wish him the best.

Introducing the Anthony Marzi Blog

Andrew Cooper: Future About Space Objects and Tsunamis

Andrew Cooper recently posted some nice pictures of the Surface of Mercury on his blog and I noticed all the crater impacts on the planet.

Which lead me to the question:

Makes me wonder when something will crash down on Hawaii.
Isn’t it just a matter of time that pretty much everywhere on earth will eventually get hit with some sort of space debris? I’m talking real long term like billions and billions of years.

Andrew’s Response:

It will happen! A rock a couple meters in diameter hit the atmosphere over Sudan this week. This was the first time we discovered one before impact and predicted the impact point.

I would worry about something hitting somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and generating a tsunami.

I myself don’t worry too much, because I’m not chicken little and the sky isn’t falling on us… but I do assume we all are vulnerable for anything… I would assume that sometime in the future… Millions upon Billions of years away… something could happen.  It happened to the dinosaurs some say didn’t it?

National Geographic has this well played out video of what could happen if a landslide ever hit the Kohala Coast of the Big Island:

Today’s H-130 Traffic Jam

If anyone was caught in the traffic jam at the Keaau “Squeeze” coming home from work around 4:00 – 5:00, you may have eventually came upon an accident.  Fortunately, I was heading the other way into town and didn’t have to deal with it.  It was very interesting because the Tow Truck that was there to remove the cars… was stuck in the traffic and couldn’t get to the car’s that needed to be removed.

Get That Effing Concrete Barrier Off the Shoulder of H-130

As your heading into Pahoa on H-130, across from the new fire station, there is a concrete barrier that was recently set up that comes about 2 feet from the white line that is marks the road.  This structure is poorly designed and I can see someone T-Boning into in the next few days if it’s not removed immediately.

If an accident happens, that is a lawsuit just waiting to be heard.

If they really want that concrete barrier, they could have designed it so that it didn’t start off perpendicular to the road.

If the fire station would be open… it would be well served when that accident that is waiting to happen does happen.  But the fire station is STILL not open… but that’s a whole nother story.

Lockheed and Military Looking to Tap into Ocean Thermal Energy

Finally the Military is doing something worth mentioning ;)

The world’s oceans are an energetic place, and military-industrial giant Lockheed Martin said today it has been granted $1.2 million by the Department of Energy to demonstrate that ocean thermal energy conversion is possible…

…Harnessing ocean thermal energy is likely farther out than both wave and tidal energy systems. But if scaled, it could provide consistent base-load energy and help tropical islands, like Hawaii, attain energy independence, a serious issue in a world of petropolitics.

More Here

Sugar Shane Nelson Going Crazy Inside Ultimate Fighter House

If anyone is watching The Ultimate Fighter, Hilo boy Sugar Shane Nelson is losing it on the show.

Tonights episode he’s getting just wasted, trying to pick fights and throwing furniture around the house.

I first blogged about him being on the show a few months back here.

Tonights episode, he’s making ass of himself.

Nine Ka’u Homes Evacuated… “Explosive Device” Found?

Police officers from the Ka’u district, Area II Criminal Investigations Section and the Special Response Team served a search warrant at a home on King Kamehameha Boulevard in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision on Wednesday (October 8). Officers found what appeared to be an explosive device and immediately evacuated the area. The evacuation affected approximately 10 homes and 20 individuals.

The occupants of the residence, two males and one female, were arrested and are currently in custody at the Kona Police Station.

King Kamehameha Boulevard remains closed at this time and is expected to remain closed for several hours until the Explosive Ordnance Destruction team from the U.S. Army stationed at Schofield Barracks determines that it is safe.

The American Red Cross has opened a shelter at the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Community Center for the displaced residents.

More Here

Introducing Kubehead

I’ve added former Big Island Weekly Editor Kristine Kubat’s new blog to my blogroll.

Welcome Kubehead

Kristine Kubat… “I’M OUT OF HERE”

Hunter Bishop blogged about the sudden departure of Big Island Weekly Editor Kristine Kubat.

In today’s BIW she has confirmed it here.

“…Aloha and mahalo for your interest in the Big Island Weekly. It is time for the paper to become more than a soapbox for the likes of me. See you soon at KUBEHEAD.com.

Kristine Kubat is the outgoing editor of Big Island Weekly.”

Publisher Geoff Schumaker made a very cryptic comment:

“For readers of this blog post, I urge you not to confuse wild guesses with actual journalism.”

I then confirmed Hunters suspision by emailing Schumaker regarding the opening of a possible position, and he returned the email  mentioning that he was seeking resumes, however, he made no meniton of Kubat’s departure.

AKIMEKA, The Military, Adaptive Optics and the TMT

Yep… still grasping for straws:

Looking at some of the Partners involved with Adaptive Optic in this Center of Apdaptive Optics  Year 9 Annual Report (page 148) dated August 1, 2008.  We see #7 Akimeka, LLC. followed behind among other things, #2 Air Force Maui Optical and Super-Computing Site (AMOS)

And from page 11 of that same report:

…The funding issues raised in the Year 4 Site Visit were mostly put to rest the following year in
which the CfAO reported “The ELT landscape in the U.S. has changed dramatically. The Caltech
CELT project, the AURA GSMT project, and the Canadian VLOT merged into a new Thirty
Meter Telescope (TMT) project. The TMT now has sufficient funding to begin design work.…

The TMT will be using Adaptive Optics Technology I do believe?  I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.

It’s very interesting that Akimeka, LLC just received a $95 Million Dollar Contract:

Akimeka Technologies has been awarded two federal contracts worth almost $95 million for information technology support services.

The Honolulu I.T. company was awarded a five-year, $80 million contract to service the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in Maryland. Akimeka Technologies will work Clinical Research Management Inc., a Maryland company, on the contract…

…Akimeka Technologies is classified as a Native Hawaiian Organization, as defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration. This designation, which the company received in fall 2005, gives it an advantage in competing for military and other government contracts because there is no dollar limit to the contracts it can receive…

…The company is majority-owned by the Honolulu nonprofit Alakaina Foundation.

More Here

I also found some other tidbits on Akimeka:

Defense Works Helps Akimeka Technologies to Soar

I’m still probably grasping for straws. ;)

And I’ll categorize it as a “rumor” for now ;)

Today’s KO: RoadRunner Difficulties

I first noticed that I wasn’t able to access my blog and then wasn’t able to access alot of other sites I visit, however I could access some sites which seemed very strange.

I finally got frustrated and called oceanic and they let me know through their automated messages that RoadRunner was having difficulties across the state.

IF YOU SENT EMAIL TO A HAWAII.RR Account you might want to check to see if it bounced back to you.  Mine did.

Pork Alert… Extra $13 Million for What?

In 2006 Sen. Inouye requested $17 million for an access road at Pohakuloa Training Area.

Well he’s getting $30 Million for this project.

Wonder why the extra $13 million was allocated?  Me too.

More Here

The Madigan Tramps on the Way to Hawaii

The Madigan family is a family that likes to bounce together… Literally:

…They have bounced around the globe the past few years, making headlines with their wins in competitive circuits and this Friday they head to Rotorua, New Zealand to participate in the Indo Pacific Trampoline and Tumbling Championships…

…He and his sisters along with parents Kathy and Kevin — they wear custom-made shirts when travelling — will spend the next five weeks travelling from New Zealand to Hawaii…

More Here

Oceanic Time Warner Launches More Interactive Services

A week ago I mentioned how you could play games on channel 433.

Oceanic has now introduced even more features:

…The interactive content deployed in Hawaii includes games such as Tetris and Sudoku from the provider TAG Networks, home shopping from HSN, and news, sports and children’s versions from P:Mosaic, which operates as a personalized video navigation system, ActiveVideo said. Time Warner can also create channels specific to the Hawaii market with the technology…

More Here

Experiment on Water Vapor to Begin on Mauna Loa

Scientists will begin collecting the first near-real-time measurements of the isotopes in water vapour on Hawaii’s Mauna Loa this week, trialling what could prove to be a new way to study climate and weather systems.

The month-long experiment will deploy a trio of laser-based instruments to measure the isotopic composition of water vapor at least once every few minutes…

…He says that Mauna Loa was the obvious place to conduct the experiment because of its sheer elevation and its location in the subtropics, which is influenced by both tropical and northerly atmospheric currents…

More Here

Hawaii County Council to Decide on GMO Bill Today

The Hawaii County Council will be deciding whether to pass Angel Pilago’s Bill 361 today in Hilo.

The Bill can be seen here and if it passes today’s meeting, it will await the Mayors signature to become law.

More on the Manu Kai Navy Contract

Yesterday, I blogged about the $52 Million contract that Manu Kai received.  I was a bit zealous in assuming that the company only employed one person, however, I didn’t really have much to go on with the company.

Today’s Advertiser reports:

…Manu Kai will employ 550 people to run range support operations, with a “mixture” of former ITT employees and others, Murray said. The transition has begun and will run until January, he said…

More Here