A Darker Twitterer

I just noticed that Andrew Cooper up over there at A Darker View has joined Twitter!

Now if I can just get the rest of the Island to join up I can quit blogging!

If you haven’t signed up for Twitter… don’t be like the government here on the island and be the last one to do so:

Twitter

You can find Mr. Cooper here @darkerview although he just joined twitter and has yet to figure it out.  :razz:

That’s ok… some people have been on it for almost a month now… and think they have figured it out… but they haven’t just yet. :roll:

Mayor Kenoi to Join in Community Service at Panaewa Zoo

Media Release

WHO: East Hawaii Kiwanis Club, Mayor Billy Kenoi, and Key Club, Kiwins, and Builders Club members from Hilo High, Hilo Intermediate, Waiakea High and Waiakea Intermediate schools.

WHAT: Community Service Project

WHEN: 9:30 a.m. to noon, Monday, February 16 (Presidents Day)

WHERE: Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens (http://www.hilozoo.com/Z_home.htm)

Mayor Billy Kenoi will celebrate Presidents Day on Monday with the East Hawaii Kiwanis Club and more than one hundred members of the club’s sponsored youth programs in a volunteer community service landscaping project at the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens.

The Kiwanis Club and its sponsored youth clubs have helped the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo since 2001 when club volunteers erected the building that houses the petting zoo, a project that won the Governor’s Kilohana Award for volunteerism in 2001. Since then the club has returned three to four times a year to help landscape and maintain the zoo’s grounds.

Kiwanis Club members and the sponsored youth volunteers will be digging, planting, fertilizing, weeding and doing other chores on zoo grounds from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Monday, February 16, 2009, which is Presidents Day, a federal holiday. A luncheon in the Zoo pavilion will follow. Mayor Kenoi is a member of the Kiwanis Club, an international organization of community volunteers that emphasizes service to children and youth.

Also participating in Monday’s community service project will be Dan Connolly of Santa Clara, California, Kiwanis International’s District Governor representing California, Nevada and Hawaii.

The County’s Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens is the only tropical rainforest zoo in the United States, located on a 12-acre, site located just off Highway 11 between Hilo and Keaau.

Twitter Being Used on Oahu for Real Time Traffic and Accident Reports

I sure wish more people on the Big Island would start using Twitter. I just noticed that even the Police over on Oahu are using Twitter to warn drivers of updates along the roads:

# traffic nuisance or parking violation 59x farrington hwy chilis kapolei kapolei 7 minutes ago from web

# motor vehicle collision 45062x kam hwy aloha gas kaneohe kaneohe 35 minutes ago from web

# traffic incident – no collision 85080x farrington hwy island mini mart waianae about 1 hour ago from web

# hazardous driver 19x e moanalua fwy mfe red hill off honolulu about 1 hour ago from web

# hazardous driver 990x kalanianaole hwy makapuu lighthouse honolulu about 2 hours ago from web

# stalled/hazardous vehicle 364x likelike hwy burmeister op n honolulu about 2 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision 9x w h1 fwy h1w waipahu off pearl city about 3 hours ago from web

# hazardous driver kahekili hwy about 3 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision 155x bertram st about 3 hours ago from web

# traffic nuisance or parking violation likelike hwy about 3 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision aala st about 4 hours ago from web

# hazardous driver 71x kailua rd chevron kailua kailua about 4 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision 112x nehoa st roosevelt hs honolulu about 4 hours ago from web

# stalled/hazardous vehicle 2x n h2 fwy h2n ka uka off waipahu about 4 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision mokulele dr about 5 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision 1x e h1 fwy h1e makakilo on kapolei about 5 hours ago from web

# stalled/hazardous vehicle 2x n h2 fwy h2n ka uka off waipahu about 5 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision farrington hwy about 5 hours ago from web

# motor vehicle collision kam hwy about 6 hours ago from web

# hazardous driver halemaumau st about 6 hours ago from web

Puna Resident and Actor Jason Scott Lee Starring in Hawaii Opera Theater This Weekend… Video

Actor Jason Scott Lee is a special guest starring in Hawaii Opera Theatre’s production of Mozart’s “Abduction from the Segaglio,” playing Feb. 13, 15 and 17 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Lee plays the Turkish pasha Selim, with tenor George Dyer as Belmonte, soprano Rachelle Durkin as Konstanze, bass Ashley Howard Wilkinson as Osmin, soprano Audrey Elizabeth Luna as Blonda and tenor Jeffrey Halili as Pedrillo:

*Update* Tattoo Special in Pahoa

*Update* Valentines Day is just around the corner! Get that lovers name tattooed on you forever!

Rudedogg Tattoos in Pahoa is offering a Valentine special on Tattoos.

The shop is a great place to get a tattoo from and although I’m afraid of needles myself, I’ve heard nothing but great things about this shop. If and when I ever get a Tattoo, this will be the place I do it at.

You can locate Rudedogg Tattoos on the main strip in Pahoa on the Mauka side of the street towards the end of the town.

They are open from Tuesdays through Saturdays from 12 – 8 and if you’re lucky, you might catch them on a Monday from 12-6 (call first 965-6669).

Tell em I sent you!

Rep. Gene Ward Speaks in Opposition Against Civil Union Bill… The Video

House Approves Civil Union Bill

The House approved the Civil Union Bill 33-17

Honolulu Advertiser Reporter Derrick DePledge tweeted

Bay Clinic on Big Island Receives $349,228 in Funding From US Health and Human Services

Three health care centers in Hawaii are getting $1.14 million in federal funding.

U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, announced Thursday the funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that will go toward the operating budgets of three Hawaii federally qualified community health centers on Maui, Oahu and the Big Island…
…The Bay Clinic on the Big Island will get $349,228 to assist with salary support for the clinic’s multisite community health system…

“Butt Ugly” Grew 4 Inches on Me!

In December I blogged about an 8 inch “Butt Ugly” worm.

Well I think the Bipalium Kewense grew on me!  I just found this one outside that is almost a foot long!

Lighter added to show size

I know these buggahs are harmless… but they sure are friggin gross little worms… or in this case big!  I have to wonder what type of germs they carry with the recent Rat Lungworm problems we have been having in Puna.

Hawaii County Civil Defense Has Twitter Site (Only Used Once)… My Letter to the County

I just noticed that Hawaii County Civil Defense DOES have a Civil Defense Twitter page set up, and you can see it here:

http://twitter.com/Civil_Defense

It has only one message posted that is dated back to January 20th of this year:
“Vog Warning in Puna“

“http://twitter.com/Civil_Defense/status/1134558439”

Well “DUH” we always have VOG warnings… where was yesterdays Flood Warnings?

Why is the Twitter Account Locked so that only certain users get messages?

I just mailed the following letter off to county officials. I will wait and see what their response is.

1. I would like to know how many Hawaii County Residents have signed up for the $40,000 Phone Alert System that the County is paying for: http://www.hawaii-county.com/cd/message.htm

I understand this first year is free and subsequent years will be $40,000! This seems like a large chunk of change for something that has not been proven effective.

2. I would like to know where the Civil Defense warnings were that West Hawaii was flooding yesterday.

3. The only way I heard about the Flooding was through a Twitter Message put out by KWXX: http://twitter.com/KWXX/statuses/1201758225

4. Hawaii County Has A Civil Defense Twitter site… why is it not being used?

Tweets by Civil_Defense

Thank you for any response you may help me find out,

Sincerely,

Damon Tucker

Charles Darwin Born on This Day

Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on 12 February 1809 at his family home, the Mount. He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin, and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father’s side, and of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother’s side. Both families were largely Unitarian, though the Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism. Robert Darwin, himself quietly a freethinker, had baby Charles baptised in the Anglican Church, but Charles and his siblings attended the Unitarian chapel with their mother. The eight year old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. From September 1818, he joined his older brother Erasmus attending the nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder.

In honor of Darwins Birthday… I’m putting a video up of a 2008 “youtube” Darwin Award Winners: