Hawaii

Gregg Hammer has been missing from the 98.5 Wake Up Crew for a long, long time. I thought he was on a break, but it’s been way too long so something must have happened. What, I don’t know, but I do know I hardly tune in without Hammer. Slick Vic ain’t bad, but he’s just not Hammer and doesn’t have that chemistry with Rory. While you didn’t want Gregg Hammer as the lead DJ, you needed him for his comedic genius and fast wit mixed with local style. The morning drive just isn’t the same without Hammer. Two Voice Tuesdays, no more? Good thing I have some memories. Chris Rock and Martin Yan “Can Cook”. Will we hear Tufi Claus any more? You remember Hammer’s rendition of his Kumu Hula singing I Like the Dongs. Then there’s former UH football coach Greg McMackin’s apology which Rory and Gregg absolutely ripped into. Admit it. You laughed at this painful intrepretation. Wow, I’ve been following the Wake Up Crew for a long time. Their move from Hot I-94 to Island 98.5 and the rough times that ensued but got better and better. Where ever Gregg is, I sincerely hope all is well and more so, hope to hear him on the air waves once again.Similar Posts: The Wake Up Crew Still at It Gregg Hammer* I Lost the Dongs

First we’ll look at the latest tech news and happenings in Hawaii and beyond. Then joining us today is Leigh-Ann Miyasato from the Entrepreneur Foundation to tell us about the upcoming Pupus and Pitches. Finally, right off the plane from San Francisco’s Maker Faire we’ve invited Marion Ano from Hi Capacity and Ross Mukai from Oahu Makerspace to find out about the Maker movement and plans for organizing a mini Maker Faire in Hawaii. We also had Don Kosak from Nalukai and Hawaii Tech Works, Neil Scott from the Makery and Jerry Isdale from Maui Makers call in. If you are interested in the mini Maker Faire you can fill out the survey here. Download MP3 | Subscribe in iTunes

By Rob Kay and RN Price What old is new again--kits from Bill Rogers Bore Squeeg-E™ Cleaning System and Otis Technology both employ cables instead of cleaning rods If you purchase an AR (or any other gun for that matter) it stands to reason that at some point, you'll have to clean it to keep it serviceable. Cleaning a gun is not the sexiest thing in the world but it needs to be done on a regular basis. While some people look at it as some onerous task, others rather enjoy it. I look at it like cleaning your car.  Sooner or later, you must attend to it. We were lucky enough to look at kits from Otis Technology, a household name when it comes to cleaning systems and Bill Roger’s, the iconic competitor and inveterate inventor. Both the Otis and Roger’s technologies take slightly different tacks when it comes to cleaning methodology. However both have at least one thing in common—they employ cables instead of cleaning rods. This is a classic example of what’s old is new again. Pull-through barrel cleaning systems go back to the mid-19th century where they were made from thong, rope, cord or links. Early American gun cleaning supplies included brick dust, mercurial ointment and whale oil. Talk about toxic mixes...using mercury and whale oil to remove lead to remove lead and who knows what other foul substances from guns. Things are a bit different nowadays. In this day and age, thong(s) aren't the first thing to come to mind when it comes to gun cleaning, and whale oil (thankfully) went out with buggy whips. Modern pull-through cleaning gear from Rogers and Otis is made with thin, precision cables, which have advantages over rods. When you clean the bore of a gun, the cleaning rod can rub against the crown or the bore, at the point where it enters the barrel. You could even inadvertently nick or gouge your barrel with a rod. With a cable you’re less likely to do damage. The Otis Technology cleaning kit is akin to a jewel box Otis Technology AR/MSR Rifle Cleaning System ($50.46 on Amazon) With tens of millions a year in sales, Otis Technology is the largest manufacturer of gun-cleaning systems in the US.  Founded in 1985, clients include the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Army. Not a bad customer list.  It shows you that an  entrepreneur with some creativity and marketing savvy can find a niche, even in an area as picked over and timeworn as gun cleaning products. What's more exceptional, is that Otis was founded by a woman. It's not that women are not great entrepreneurs. I can think of many right here in Hawaii. It's just that you don't find many female CEOs in the testosterone addled world of firearms. Otis' founder, Doreen Williams Garrett, comes from a long lime of hunters and she grew up around guns. On the Otis website she writes about a childhood incident that was the genesis of her gun cleaning empire.   As a 16 year old on a family hunting trip she dropped her grandfather's prized rifle in the mud, in effect, obstructing the barrel. What became indelibly implanted in her was the need, in her words, for a "cleaning and clearing kit combined" that would allow individuals to clean their guns in the field. She started her research at age 16 and she said, "after much testing, failures and working with many people I finally had a product I was satisfied with."  Based on the success of her company, her customers are also satisfied. She named the company "Otis" after her father who provided engineering expertise gun-knowledge and I suspect, inspiration. On first glance, the Otis Technology kit looks like a wedding ring case or a jewel box. You open it up with an industrial strengh zipper and the jewel box analogy is even more apropos. Inside, embedded in a black, plastic receptacle is a gleaming collection of bronze fittings, picks, scrapers, brushes and cables. There are also specialty items such as a tool for cleaning a bolt carrier assembly and a small container of

After hearing iTunes stream of Daft Punk’s new Random Access Memories, I was sold and bought their latest. Have you? And I hope you didn’t steal the stream. Similar Posts: iTunes U at UH Someone Must Have Unlimited iTunes Access Airplay for Lupe

Since Google announced the sunset of its RSS Reader service, I’m giving NewsBlur a try. Granted RSS has become my distant third option for discovering content and reading news with Facebook and Twitter tied for my online news top spots. But I do miss the wide capture of my RSS feeds over the year so since RSS is buzzing again, I want to see what I’m missing. NewsBlur adopts the freemium model where you pay annually for advanced features. The free version is good but limited to 64 feeds/sites. I’ve been using the web site so far and it’s very usable. I’m going to test the iOS app next. So far, I’m impressed but I still have a lot to learn. Maybe NewsBlur will be getting another paid customer… What’s this NewsBlur blog each user gets?Similar Posts: Went with NetNewsWire RSS Newsreading Is a Game Changer Honolulu Advertiser Blogs Have RSS Feeds

By Martin Khor, Executive Director of the South Centre, Geneva. Cross-posted from Triple Crisis. A key threshold measuring the march of global warming was crossed recently, when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million. On 10 May scientists announced that 400.03ppm had been measured at a climate-observing station in Hawaii that is often used as a benchmark. The global average is expected to cross the 400ppm mark in the next year. This means that there in for every one million molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere, there are 400 molecules of carbon dioxide. CO2 concentration in the air is linked to the Earth’s temperature. The widely believed relationship is that the 450ppm level should not be crossed if global warming is to be below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial revolution level of around 1750. In fact more recently, some prominent scientists like James Hansen have found that crossing 350ppm is already dangerous. In line with this, the existing CO2 in the atmosphere should be reduced – though how this can be done is really unclear. Already the impacts of climate change are being felt in dramatic ways in the increase in extreme weather events, ranging from higher rainfall and extensive flooding in Pakistan, China, Southeast Asia and United Kingdom, drought in parts of Africa and the United States, raging fires in Australia and Russia, and big storms or hurricanes in the Philippines, Central America and the United States. How far worse will the situation be when more climate change is induced when the CO2 concentration increases from 400ppm to 450ppm and beyond? The increase in concentration has been dramatic. In 1958, it was 315ppm, and this rose to about 375ppm in 2000 before jumping to 400ppm now. At this rate, we are on track not for a 2 degree but for a 3 to 5 degree increase in temperature by the end of the century – a catastrophe. The present temperature is 0.8 degrees above the pre-industrial level and we are already seeing the major adverse effects. Imagine a 2 degree and worse a 4 degree world that our children and grandchildren will inherit. What needs to be done? Most importantly, the level of emissions has to be cut significantly. The UN Environment Programme’s 2012 report on “emissions gap”, written by 55 scientists, shows that the total global emission in 2011 was 50 billion or giga tonnes (gton) of CO2 equivalent (meaning CO2 plus other greenhouse gases like methane but expressed in terms of CO2). The CO2 equivalent emission level has been rising rapidly; it was 40gton in 2000 before climbing to 50.1gton in 2011. This means that the annual global emission has risen by10gton or by 25% in just a decade. The UNEP report estimates that if we are to keep the world’s temperature to 2 degrees below the pre-industrial level, the annual global emissions must be brought down to 44gton by 2020 and then continue to decrease. However, if there are no policy changes (a business as usual scenario), the emissions are projected to rise to 58gton in 2020. The good news is that governments of many countries have pledged to take actions to cut their emissions. The bad news is that these pledges are not enough. In the best scenario (if governments succeed in keeping their best pledges and in the best conditions), the 2020 emission level will be 52gton. That is way higher than the 44gton limit required to keep temperatures below the 2 degree level, though lower than business-as-usual. And in the worst scenario (governments take actions but in the lower end of the range in their pledge, and with bad conditions), the 2020 emission level will be 57gton, which is almost the same as the business-as-usual level of 58gton. In any case, the projected emissions in 2020 will miss the 2 degree boat. They are in line with boats going towards 3 to 5 degrees, in other words towards a climate disaster. How to bring the emissions by 2020 down to 44gton? The technical solutions are not tha

After conferring with prosecutors, Hawai?i Island police detectives have charged a 43-year-old Puna man in connection with a fatal shooting Monday (May 20) in the N?n?wale Estates subdivision. Seon Keoni Aki of N?n?wale Estates was charged at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday (May 22) with second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, […]

Forbes Magazine says the most powerful woman in the world is Angela Merkel, 58, the chancellor of Germany and the single most powerful government leader in the Eurozone. Originally trained as a chemist and knowledgeable about quantum physics, Merkel was a spokesman for the government of East Germany before reunification. Her father was a preacher, her mother an English teacher. Merkel herself speaks fluent Russian. She has been the single most important force in pressuring debtor nations to endure some pain in return for bailouts. Forbes lists Dilma Rousseff second. Rousseff, 65, is president of Brazil, which is the fifth most populous nation 194 million, and environmentally perhaps the single most important nation because of the Amazon, the world's largest remaining rainforest and the largest single agglomeration of plants with medicinal value, and a region where Rousseff pushes more much more hydro power. The next three on the Forbes list are Melinda Gates, 48, and Michelle Obama, 49, and Hillary Clinton, 65, but I question two of these. Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates, takes an active role in charitable activities and has done a lot with a lot of money. She is indeed powerful. It's no slam against Michelle Obama to say that her power is mainly her bully pulpit, which is confined to part of America and not that big a deal compared to others on the list. As for Hillary Clinton, she used to be powerful, and she may be powerful again, but at the moment I don't know why she's on the list at all. I can see Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the list (8th) and IMF Managing Director Christine Legarde (7th) and Sonia Gandhi, president of the National Congress of India (9th) and Geun-hye Park, president of South Korea (11th). It seems reasonable to include many captains of industry on the list: CEOs of Pepsi, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Xerox, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Mondelez, DuPont, Petrobas, Yahoo. But why is Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, listed 6th, ahead of all those CEOs? The power of Facebook is in the people, and the powers behind Facebook have lately done little except mess with that. Facebook is powerful. Sandberg is not. But Oprah is only 13th, and Jill Abramson, executive editor of the New York Times Co., is only 19th, and they personally wield far more power than many of these other people. Arianna Huffington, listed as 56th, probably deserves a higher rating given the impact that Huffington Post enterprises have on shaping public opinion, especially among liberals. With its AOL connection, Huff Post reaches far more people than Slate or the New Yorker. J.K. Rowling is 93rd, with Forbes pointing out that the Harry Potter novels have now spawned theme parks, games and merchandise in addition to the films. "Far more than just an author by anyone'smeasure," Forbes says. Okay, I buy that. Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization, 65, is 33rd, and probably deserves to be higher. World leaders listen to WHO. For the same reason it makes sense to mention Margaret Hamburg, 57, head of the FDA (59th). Opinion shapers like Anna Wintour, Diane Von Furstenberg, Diane Sawyer, Lady Gaga and Beyonce are on the list, and Queen Elizabeth, and Ellen DeGeneres. Good lists always spur discussion. Discuss.

Continuing to invest in capital improvement projects (CIPs) that improve state facilities and infrastructure while strengthening Hawaii’s economic and employment environment, Gov. Neil Abercrombie today announced the release of more than $48.3 for public housing CIPs across the state. “These investments will have long-term benefits, providing homes for island families while further stimulating our economy […]

Da Kitchen, a popular local and Hawaiian food restaurant that started on Maui, will be closing its only Honolulu restaurant on Saturday, co-owner Mariah Brown told PBN on Wednesday. Da Kitchen Honolulu, located in Moiliili at 925 Isenberg St., will serve its last meal on Saturday, nearly three years since the location opened in June 2010. Da Kitchen also has two restaurants on Maui. Brown told PBN the restaurant would be closing on Saturday but did not return follow-up calls for comment. The restaurant’s…