Hawaii

Hawaii and Florida of course snagged spots, but No. 1 went to East Hampton in New York.

Let’s play a game: You wake up. You’re outside, laying on hard ground. The sky above is blue, with fast moving clouds. You have no memory of falling asleep anywhere but in your own bed, and you have no idea where you are. You look for hints. The road is dark gray asphalt. The lines running along its center are white and broken into long strips. The dirt off the shoulder is a reddish brown. A car passes. The model looks familiar but the license plate is blurred, offering no clues. You stand and find yourself uninjured. Where the hell are you? You walk east, keeping the sun out of your eyes as the shadows lengthen, and eventually you spot a road sign. It’s in Spanish. That narrows it down to around 22 countries where Spanish is used. So begins Geoguessr, a browser-based game which uses Google Street View and a map of the world to challenge you. It’s not strictly iOS-only, but if you try it on the desktop and then on the iPad, you’ll see that it really shines on the tablet. I’d recommend the Retina iPad though, as you can’t zoom in Mobile Safari and sometimes being able to read a distant sign is the difference between Brazil and Portugal. Geoguessr works like this: You are dropped into an unknown location, and you get the usual street-view arrows to move yourself around, letting you swipe and tap your way down the road. To guess, you click the small map in the top right corner of the screen. The closer you get to the right spot, the more points you get. The game lasts five rounds, and you can share the score via your social networks when you’re done. I’m addicted. There’s something about working out where you are on the planet without all the usual aids, using just your eyes and your general knowledge. Red earth makes Australia likely. Cars driving on the left means Britain, Japan, Australia, New Zealand or Hong Kong, but it also means at least one previously unknown-to-me island off China. Sometimes you’re dumped on a road with seemingly no clues. Other times you’re dropped in a city, or you see (like I did today) a van marked “Polynesian Adventure Tours” or something similar, and click on Hawaii (I “won” that round – just 200km off). Yes, you could cheat by looking up the place names you see on signs, but that kind of defeats the whole point of the game. So go grab your iPad and get guessing. I just wish there was an actual iOS version so I could challenge you all to a game. Source: Geoguessr The post Geoguessr Asks The Question ‘Where The Hell Am I?” appeared first on Cult of Mac.Related StoriesUrbanEars Boom: The All-Day, All-Directional Speaker For Your Summer AdventuresXistera iPhone 5 Multitool Does Everything. EVERYTHINGiPhone Case Stores Headphones In Giant PocketReal-Life Instagram Filters Now (Almost) Available [Kickstarter]These Days, Even iPhone Backup Batteries Are Fashion Accessories

TweetIt’s only hour 4 of 24 hours of Webcomics and already I’m cheating a bit by spotlighting the work of a single cartoonist more than a single webcomic. But heck, it’s all about reading comic on the web. Sam Alden is a young Portland cartoonist who is rapidly developing with comics on his own website and Study Group, and even a few in print. Like many young, prolific cartoonists, it’s hard to find a well organized archive of his stuff—he has several tumblrs and blogs and twitters and so on. The main outlet seems to be his site Gingerland. Fortunately he just posted a guide to everything he has online. HIs work covers a lot of territory—his art starts out in the Craig Thompson school, but he’s getting more and more experimental as he goes on. His work has everything from heavy duty autobiography to weird fantasy. I think what interested me the most about his work is that he’s very young and very talented and taking full advantage of the freedom to tell all kinds of stories that today’s younger cartoonists have at their disposal. It isn’t about drawing one thing or for one style any more. To start out I’ll recommend Farmer’s Dilemma—it’s short and if you don’t like it don’t go on. But I think you will like it. The less I say about it, the better, but it’s an anthropomorphic story of family, belonging, and survival starring a young fox who was adopted by chickens. There is a single panel in here that is perhaps the most horrific thing I have seen in a comic this year. It’s a beautiful, haunting piece of work. If you like that try Hawaii 1997. Like a lot of Alden’s work it’s autobiographical, but it’s also mostly a wordless storyboard about a magic moment on a nighttime beach: a miserable young boy meets a girl on the beach and they run around together. Yeah it’s a little Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but I think it transcends the cliche. If we’re lucky, we’ve all had one of these moments, when life becomes magical and full of possibilities…but the last panel reveals the price for such a moment. Alden draws it in pencil on yellow paper and still manages to captures the sparkling sky and water of the enchanted moment. It’s a technically very accomplished piece of work. Haunter is a full color story of adventure and dread being serialized on the excellent Study Group webcomic portal. It’s another wordless fantasy, this one about a treasure seeking hunter who runs into an ancient spirit that is also a hunter. You shouldn’t try to steal stuff from ancient spirits. Told in almost animatic format, it’s a tense, exciting chase that’s still going on. Finally, Alden’s longest piece to date is the still ongoing “Eighth Grade” which is about the most terrifying thing in life: middle school. Simon and Tom are smart kids about brutal survival mechanisms and about making witty but cruel jokes about other kids, but completely ignorant about everything real in life, and smart enough to know they’re ignorant. Emma is a classmate they torment, and torment is another word for craving the approval of. Throw in parents who have pretty much the same problems except they also are caretakers and you have everyone’s eighth grade. Well not mine, since I was home schooled…whenever I read a painfully accurate depiction of what I missed out on, like this, I think I’m kind of lucky. “Eighth Grade” starts out a little rocky art-wise, but Alden’s use of black and white and lettering improve dramatically as the six chapters go along. It’s a soap opera, but one that rings true. Alden has several comics mentioned in Buzzfeed’s big webcomics roundup and work in several magazines and comic anthologies coming up. He’s only 24, and I suspect we’ll hear his name a lot more in the next few years. #call_to_action h4{padd

Race week is really, really close. It excites me sometimes to the point of not being able to enjoy it. I've tried everything from embracing it, being part of all the activities and group training sessions, and pretending it's party week. I've also hid out, stayed completely off my feet, and only read books. Both approaches have landed their fair share of good results and belly flops...The best things I've learned and try to remember...1. Enjoy every training session since they are fewer now (I love training)2. Have fun with the triathlete friends from other locations3. Trust. Trust the plan you have & the work you have done 4. Do chill out a little bit5. Think about the race, but not over think itWe are trying to maximize sunsets, as usual. It always helps me to sit with friends and family that I've had before I ever got into triathlon, somehow we never end up talking about triathlon. I really love the escape from protein powder flavors, new gels to try, and what I will wear race day. Admittedly, I do love to talk about those things too though, and mile splits, how far I rode bike, and what time I should go to bed. Just not during sunset, or at the beach for that matter... Last night was the moment where the athlete in me was full on living right through all the other roles of my life. We had 2 of the fastest high school girls from Hawaii, Kiwi pro Julia, and one of the strongest masters guy swimmers all throwing punches of trash talk like kids do. It got as competitive as swimming 3 of us at a time down the lane. I loved it. It felt like being a kid again where you have no intimidation or fear. You just go hard and talk smack as if you might just be heading to the Olympics. Of course we are not anytime soon, but our lane had that vibe and somehow, for the first time at masters, from a push, I finally broke a minute in the 100 free. The high school girls and Chandler do it all the time, every practice as if it was as easy as taking a bath, not me. They pushed me tonight and finally, it happened... I'm pretty sure it was a 58, for sure a 59, and without a doubt less than 60 seconds. I'm not sure its repeatable without all the fun we made our lane last night. Somehow it did in deed show me that an overabundance of fun in something you love can actually be good for you...My yogi sister has really been helping me a lot with the "just breathe" philosophy. It has never been easy for a girl like me who runs around life with a handful of dreams to just chill out, to patiently wait for some of them to come true. She challenges me mentally more than some of my workouts do! But, it has helped. I can run far now without an IPOD, be on my bike and actually "be on the bike", not looking at lava while wondering about dinner. She is teaching me things about myself and lack of limitations that baffle me. Today's practice (and sincere laughter in attempt) was about the most fun I ever imagined yoga/focus stuff could ever be! Notice though, she can put her hand in the rocks and not feel them, I on the other hand needed a mat, not quite there yet...With race week so close, I am really embracing my butterflies, they are filling me with pride. Pride because I'm about to do something I love and something I have put a lot of heart and sweat into. They are also reminding me to keep humble, to know that sport has a way of teaching us lessons that matter in so many areas of life. Alright little butterflies, let's calm down a tiny bit so I can sleep...Night!!Bree

Teahupoo mega-swell filters northward to Central America, Hawaii and California

The owners of Da Kitchen are considering opening a new location on Oahu after the planned closure of their Moiliili location this Saturday. Da Kitchen is a popular local and Hawaiian food restaurant that got its start on Maui before expanding to Oahu in June 2010. Co-owners Mariah Brown and Les Tomita decided to close Da Kitchen’s only Oahu restaurant after failed lease negotiations with the landlord, the St. Louis Alumni Association. Da Kitchen will continue to operate its two locations on Maui,…

Even the president of the United States can’t keep his prom photos a secret. Not that he’d want to – a white jacket and a blue tie is a good look for President Obama. But still, come on, right? The photos come from a former classmate, Kelli Allman, who attended Punahou School in Hawaii with the President back in 1979. TIME Magazine originally obtained the photos. Allman’s yearbook also contains a note from Obama (then Barry Obama), which reads: Kelli, It has been so nice getting to know you this year. You are extremely sweet and foxy. I don’t know why Greg would want to spend any time with me at all! You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes! I hope we can keep in touch this summer, even though Greg will be gone. Call me up, and I’ll buy you lunch sometimes. Anyway, good luck in everything you do and stay happy. Your Friend, Barry Obama “Greg” refers to Greg Orme, a basketball player and Obama’s close friend at the time. As to what happened at the prom: “It was a really fun, happy time. We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling,” said Allman. “It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.”

Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s 12-megawatt Anahola Solar photovoltaic project on Kauai’s East side is one step closer to becoming a reality following the release Thursday of a draft environmental assessment that showed an “anticipated finding of no significant impact.” The $55 million project includes a substation and a baseyard/customer service center on more than 60 acres of state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Through its subsidiary, KIUC Renewables One LLC, the cooperative is…

From the redevelopment of the Neal S. Blaisdell Center into a residential project to a full service grocery store and a limited amount of hotels for travelers and business professionals, the Hawaii Community Development Authority’s Kakaako transit oriented development overlay plan is aimed at utilizing TOD to improve the existing quality of the area as a whole. The public will get its first look at the plan, which includes about 600 acres, on Thursday evening. After the plan is reviewed, the…

The Lanai Community Plan Advisory Committee has approved plans for a new ultra-luxury hotel and to set aside 200 acres for industrial development, committee member Alberta de Jetley told PBN. The plan approved Wednesday night calls for setting aside 100 acres for light industrial development and 100 acres for heavy industrial development on Lanai, she said. The committee also approved adding the third hotel that billionaire Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) who bought most of…