by Larry Geller That insurgents have figured out how to download video feeds from US drones does not surprise me. Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones (WSJ, 12/17/2009) describes how cheap software was used to intercept video taken by US Predator drones. The video was found on captured laptops. The video data [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller An argument is raging over whether Mufi’s train is “green” or will reduce the number of cars on the roads. City Managing Director Kirk Caldwell jumps into the fray and asserts otherwise, but he doesn’t have me convinced. Actually, I think rail will increase the number of [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller One thing that is very well tested in Hawaii is drinking water. And the numbers, as assembled in a New York Times database accompanying their series, Toxic Waters, show that Hawaii is in very good shape compared to some parts of the country. The database is handy. [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller This sounds like a very positive response—provided vendor participation can somehow be made mandatory. The Advertiser breaking news reports Chinese chamber, health department create task force to tackle rat problem. "We need to take the time to re-educate Chinatown's merchants of the sanitary standards the state has" [...]
Number of comments: 0 The website It’s Getting Hot in Hear is live-blogging demonstrations from the Copenhagen summit. Tune in by clicking LIVE BLOG: Youth activists sit-in, refuse to leave until negotiators listen to 11 million voices calling for a fair, ambitious, and binding deal. Most recent post: 1:51 Security ready to crack down. [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller KITV and Keoki Kerr have stuck to the rat problem tenaciously. Last night they reported seeing fewer rats in Kekaulike Market, and that there will be classes, with translations into Chinese and Vietnamese, for the tenant vendors of that market. They also report that the Department of [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller A letter written by Rep. Karl Rhoads to Governor Linda Lingle asking her to immediately release the funds to end Furlough Fridays has earned the signatures of one senator and five other House members so far: Sen. Carol Fukunaga, Reps. Joe Bertram, Gil Keith-Agaran, Sylvia Luke, Mark [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller Since Hawaii has been selected to host the APEC Summit in 2011, we might begin to pay attention to how these international conferences are held. Copenhagen is different, of course, in importance, in scale, and in the international attention it is drawing, but nevertheless should be an [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller This is last week’s hot news, but in case you have not seen it, here are links to the leaked “Danish Text” and a summary from The Guardian (12/8/2009). The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Avaaz.org is shooting for the world’s largest petition, to be delivered to world leaders arriving in Copenhagen starting tomorrow. Here’s the sound bite on it: Copenhagen's last-ditch summit to stop catastrophic global warming is failing; only massive public pressure can save it. Currently, their website shows over [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller This from Honolulu Advertiser’s breaking news on the web: The "solo-bike" officers pulled over the offending drivers and handed out 45 tickets for failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian, 15 for drivers caught using cell phones, 14 for failing to buckle up, 12 [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Another parody today. This one is about Joe Lieberman and is both clever and scary: Friends, Beltwayans, countrymen: I come to bury health care, not to praise it. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. So let it [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller According to recently discovered journals, the 14th century's rat-feces-smeared men of science were at a total loss to explain how the Black Death was able to spread so quickly across Europe. Thus begins what could be a parody of the Hawaii Department of Health reaction to the [...]
Number of comments: 7 by Larry Geller Both the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin carried stories this morning questioning the state’s readiness to hold a special election to fill the seat of Representative Neil Abercrombie after he steps down. While both noted that the elections office is strapped for funds, neither story attributed the shortfall [...]
Number of comments: 2 by Larry Geller As seen on TV. Those rats you may have seen on TV news in Hawaii are still there. Concerned that our state Department of Health was doing little if anything to control the Chinatown rat population, I asked the FDA if the feds had any jurisdiction. My [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Contrast these two stories: The first sounds the alarm that a strain of swine flu may be emerging that can’t be cured by Tamiflu: Drug-resistant swine flu cluster on Vietnam train (AP, 12/9/2009) The second demonstrates that Tamiflu is not proven effective in treating flu: The Truth [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller Ugh. I thought the rat/Chinatown thing was winding down. Tonight KHON News reporter Andrew Pereira has added to Chinatown’s disgrace by following an ogo picker and his harvest from a filthy canal to a Chinatown shop in Maunakea Marketplace where a vendor purchased a bag of the [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller [Johan Galtung founded the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, was visiting professor at UH Manoa, and is director of the international Transcend network. He is considered to be the father of peace research.] In a possible attempt to avoid questions about the Afghan war, the White House [...]
Number of comments: 0 Read the details over at FreeRange Gourmet. Technorati Tags: Hawaii, Honolulu, KCC Saturday Farmers Market, red veal, veal del.icio.us Tags: Hawaii, Honolulu, KCC Saturday Farmers Market, red veal, veal [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller Does the proposed inter-island power cable make economic sense for Hawaii? (see: Pacific Business News, 9 undersea routes mapped for power grid, 12/9/2009) CNN reported today that General Electric just signed a contract to build what will be the world’s largest wind farm in California. The wind [...]
Number of comments: 0 “Pledges are words, deeds should count more. We all know what that means: substantial reduction of carbon emissions today, yesterday, the day before yesterday.” Global warming in Copenhagen By Johan Galtung - 7 Dec 2009 Of course we all wish the Copenhagen conference the best of luck. It is [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Henry Curtis The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) and the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) have just released their Final Report on the Interisland Cable Ocean Floor Survey. The report analyzed different routes for laying a high voltage [...]
Number of comments: 3 by Larry Geller I turns out that the owner of the Kekaulike Market is the City and County of Honolulu. So the rats in the video are the city’s problem. But that’s only one of several large indoor markets surrounding Kekaulike Street, roughly the center of Honolulu’s Chinatown shopping area. [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller I visited the Kekaulike Market this evening along with KITV. They stayed on after dark and of course verified that the rats are still there. The report should be on their web page tomorrow. They revealed on their 10 p.m. news, as I learned earlier, that the [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller I don’t want to steal their scoop. Good work on the part of KITV in following up on the rat infestation in Chinatown. I went over there this evening and … well, more later. Tune in to KITV 10 p.m. news tonight.. [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller I thought I’d check on the ownership of the building housing the Chinatown market where the rat video was taken. One of the media reports mentioned it was owned by the City. It turns out to be very easy to check. There’s a Google mashup that lets [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller I’m not sure I wanted to know that… but it emphasizes that inspections and vermin control should be important aspects of public health. Burl Burlingame posted an article last week simply titled Rats!, recapping his January 24, 1990, four-part chronicle of the Great Chinatown Fire. From last [...]
Number of comments: 5 It’s here, in case that’s what you came for. Heading towards 25,000 views and still going… There are some recent articles below for rat fans, please scroll down. [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Sam Smith of the Progressive Review has posted what he calls a beta version of a chart of sex and crime scandals that fuel our nation’s capital. Leave yourself some time, though. Sam is very thorough with his backup material. What you’ll find on your screen could [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Robbie Dingeman’s research on ways to save money shipping to Hawaii in her article in Sunday’s Advertiser was a bit incomplete. I can add two more resources to it, anyway (I have no interest in any of them, and have personally used each). These services are useful [...]
Number of comments: 4 by Larry Geller It’s hard to believe, but overnight the Chinatown rat video racked up thousands of views and now approaches 17,000. CNN asked for a copy but hasn’t used it yet. KHON in particular has done a fine job of following this story. Their coverage will help raise awareness [...]
Number of comments: 5 by Larry Geller How long should a shocking video stay posted, assuming the problem it documents is solved? The YouTube video of rats frolicking in Honolulu Chinatown should cross 10,000 views some time today. It’s having its effect. There was TV coverage of the rat infestation on both KHON and [...]
Number of comments: 3 by Larry Geller First, let me give credit for discovering the rat circus in the Chinatown window to George Fox. In the struggle to process the video and get it out there while my computer fought hard against me, I neglected to ask him whether I might mention that he [...]
Number of comments: 4 by Larry Geller I have to reiterate an argument I’ve made before—there is no substitute for experienced journalists to bring forward critical news. Dan Nakaso (Advertiser) and Andrew Pereira (KHON) both did a fine job in amplifying my little video into impactful news stories. Because of their efforts we might [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller Update: For visitors from KHON and Advertiser websites looking for the video of the Chinatown rats: First article, including video is here Second article is here KHON story is here: Video Shows Chinatown Rats In New Light Honolulu Advertiser story is here: Internet video of rats in [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller Ian Lind is working hard on the issue of public employee health plans. He seems to be the only one chasing this down, and I felt like supporting his effort in a small way. I did that by filing a request for opinion from the OIP. It’s [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Two notable events at the troubled Office of Elections today: First, a new list of proposed precinct closings was posted, showing 97 out of 339 to be closed, a number likely to cause significant disruption. The document can’t be searched (it violates Section 508, by the way, [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller This is an Australian article warning about the high cost of serious illness should one end up in a hospital in New York. But Hawaii got honorable mention. According to this article, we have the honor of being the second most expensive place in the country if [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Sometimes a picture is the best way to understand an issue. Sam Smith included this simple bar graph in his article AF-PAK Math (Progressive Review, 11/26/2009). … and as Smith points out, the additional 30,000 troops that Obama may send don’t make that much of a difference. [...]
Number of comments: 0 Henry Curtis scored a prime spot in today’s Star-Bulletin with his op-ed, Proposed oil tax a barrel of trouble for Hawaii (11/26/2009). His message is common sense and clear. Referring to the proposed tax on oil he begins: Unfortunately, the proposed state oil tax is anti-business, anti-labor and anti-common sense, [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Obama’s teleprompter may be the butt of jokes, but Congress seems to have its own—the drug industry writes the lines they speak. Well, you knew this, of course. They say what they are paid to say. Here it is, exposed in print, something a bit rare. In [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller It’s not just newspapers or TV stations that join into (generally politically conservative) large media conglomerations. As our attention is drawn to the traditional media gobbling itself up, the same could be happening on the Web.As with the traditional media, these Web conglomerates will be controlled by [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller Something else to worry about. Check out this YouTube video of a news report on how easy it is to steal the data from these chips. You would think that someone would have thought about this. RFID readers are getting better at reading at a distance. I’ve [...]
Number of comments: 4 by Larry Geller Cute little fella, huh? I have enjoyed shopping at the Chinatown markets and didn’t think of visiting there at night with a camera, so I was intrigued when invited to come along and shoot some video. Check it out. It was worth the trip. According to regulars [...]
Number of comments: 6 by Larry Geller Please enjoy shopping in Chinatown, Honolulu. Technorati Tags: Hawaii, Chinatown, Honolulu del.icio.us Tags: Hawaii, Chinatown, Honolulu [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller According to reporter Jeremy Scahill, even Obama may not know what Blackwater is doing in Pakistan: Blackwater is also said to be involved in a previously undisclosed U.S. military drone campaign that has killed scores of people inside Pakistan. The article says the program has become so [...]
Number of comments: 1 by Larry Geller Today’s Advertiser breaking news features the story Hawaii auditor calls for removal of DBEDT Director Ted Liu which begins: The state auditor, citing "numerous and egregious acts," has recommended that Gov. Linda Lingle remove Ted Liu as director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and [...]
Number of comments: 0 by Larry Geller It’s clean, it’s green. At last, it moves. It takes two minutes to fill the tank of this futuristic prototype air-powered car. It emits zero pollution. There are no batteries to replace or recycle, no hydrogen to explode in a crash. No fuel cell. But still too [...]
Number of comments: 0 “Once upon a time 13 colonies-states on the Atlantic seaboard were peopled by Albion's Seed… USA, can you deny others what you made yourself? Why not rather help them, give institutional advice, do not leave that to the Europeans alone. Make them your friends, do not try to turn the [...]
