One papah town?!?

So, the Star Bulletin is buying out the Advertiser and if approved would leave Honolulu with just 1 daily newspaper.

About 10 years ago, I had strong feelings against it when the Advertiser was looking to buy out the Bulletin. But now - feh.

I believe we still need good journalism and a strong Fourth Estate, but has print medias time past? We don't really telegraph anymore, but I don't think the interwebs is yet up to that task.

Does this concern you? Monopolization of a dead market? Is there already enough democratization and diversity of news sources? Does this matter?

Does this affect Odori?

Discuss.

All those Moments will be Lost...

Blade Runner - Tears in Rain (in LEGO) from Zach Macias on Vimeo.

Seen on various blongs. Lifted from the Vimeo site. Rutger FTW.

Liveblogging the Tsunami, Sort of

Fugu got a call from his dad last night, shortly following the earthquake in Chile, about some buoys between Hawaii and the quake. Tsunami, he said. Aaaaaaa! He didn't say that, really. He's a bad-ass geologist; a scientist; and not prone to panicking. At least outwardly.

We were playing Starcraft, getting our butts kicked by six Zerg armies.

Next morning, the civil defense sirens woke us the hell up. Two people I follow on the Twitter, @trulyjoannies and @thedailydish (both blongers) had been obsessively tweeting info all night, about the tsunami, civil defense responses, how to prepare, etc. Very helpful.

Then I started watching the Twitter #hitsunami tag, which started off slow and then went kind of worldwide (now, it's kind of riddled with spam and prayers). Also, TV (pictured, above). I checked our supplies, which included nicotine gum for bartering and and zip ties to restrain captives from enemy tribes. Power Bars. Filled our bathtub with water.

I can see this from my window:


Those are all boats out in the ocean. They aren't usually there. The boats are out there so they don't get smashed.

Rick Sanchez on CNN was being an amazing douchepocket, trying to get a scientist to admit that there was an extinction-level tsunami hurtling toward everyone and that we should all be fucking screaming.

The water is starting to recede from Hilo Harbor (see first image), on the island of Hawaii. Okay, and now it's going back out. And coming back in. You know, I don't really know what Hilo Harbor is like, usually. Maybe it does this all the time.

I might post any updates in the comments. Please feel free to do the same, even if you don't live in Hawaii, and want to maybe guess at what's happening.

Oh, there are experts on television saying that this isn't over yet. The water in many harbors across the state continue to drain quickly and flow back in quickly.

Drunk History

Sokeripupu just sent me Drunk history, which is funny. I especially like the one about Oney Judge.

AFOL: A Blocumentary by Jess Gibson

AFOL A Blocumentary from AFOL on Vimeo.

Represent!

A passing analogy between artificial flight and artificial intelligence

I thought this was pretty funny. There's those who say we could never create an artificial intelligence because even if we designed something that passes the ultimate Turing Test, how will we know it's not just a hollow shell that only mimics cognition? As an analogy, however, the same logic could be used by a bunch of birds talking about artificial flight:

"This is flight in the natural world, the product of millions of years of evolution, and not a phenomenon easily replicated. Current A.F. is limited to unpowered gliding; a technical marvel, but nowhere near the sophistication of a bird. Gliding simplifies our lives, and no bird (including myself) would discourage advancing this field, but it is a far cry from synthesizing the millions of cells within the wing alone to achieve Strong A.F. Strong A.F., as it is defined by researchers, is any artificial flier that is capable of passing the Tern Test (developed by A.F. pioneer Alan Tern), which involves convincing an average bird that the artificial flier is in fact a flying bird"

via boingboing

Crawler Town by DeGobbi

Crawler Town
Originally uploaded by DeGobbi

It's not Armada from China Mieville's The Scar, but it might as well be. A phenomenal addition to our busy busy plastic world.

The Na'vi People of Hometree Wisconsin are so inspiring

NSFW

While we're on the topic of health...here's a European PSA, that is probably not safe for work if you live in the continental US, Alaska, and Hawaii.

"Like Vitamin C"

"Cannabis is probably a necessary nutrient we have been depriving ourselves of, like vitamin C." -The Rev. Nancy Harris

KITV quotes the woman in its story about medical marijuana on the Big Island, where more than 3,000 people - or some 2 percent of the population - have permits.

Doctors (and non-doctors) of the blog - what do you think?

made me laugh

Is it lame to post a blog on a blog? Probably is, but I was laughing so much at this that I had put it up here.

They're like giant action figures!

This is what I woke up to in Palolo today. The rumor is that one of the giant boars (Panic's babehz) was seen carrying off a human baby up the side of the mountain. Since, as we all know, their hide is like natures body armor, they brought out the Big Guns.

The boar and the baby are still at large, however I am confident that the baby is alive and well. He/she will emerge from the rainforest in about 17 years, becoming an international sensation as Hawaii's answer to Tarzan as well as being the first person to ever speak the complex, but beautiful, boar language.

the things we lose with the advent of technology

giant brass hbo logos, for one.

Joanna Chapman-Smith

I <3 accordions.

A smarter attack

By Pink.

Ad fight

A woman fights back at a Super Bowl ad. Does it work? What do you think?



Here's the ad it's spoofing:

Logorama!

Logorama from Robby Ralston on Vimeo.

Is this important? possibly. Johnen posted it after all.

The Promise of Genetically Modified Foods

Here's a special daikon radish, the DNA of which has been spliced with porcine DNA. It grows to maturity filled with ground pork. Rinse, halve, season with shoyu and white pepper to taste, and grill. Allow radish to char slightly; the burnt skin will peel right off. Serve. Stalks and greens can be wound tightly and used to power laptops.

Disaster relief donations

From the "Is this real?" department:

There will always be a San Francisco: "This afternoon, Marina/Cow Hollow area:..."

things you learn while looking for oatmeal.

Was looking for info on the difference between Steel-Cut vs Rolled oatmeal and I came across this.

And I was too lazy to look up the page that Pony made on how to put the video straight into the post. There...I said it. ;-P

My Senator Al

Senator Franken (D-MN) confronts Comcast CEO Brian Roberts for telling him one thing ("lying" perhaps?) while his lawyers were simultaneously using the opposite position. A Comcast-NBC merger doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

If you missed it, back in October 2009, Al argued for a woman's right to seek justice, outside of arbitration, in her case against KBR - a subsidiary of Halliburton - for her treatment, sexual harassment, and rape while she was working for them in Iraq. Al's amendment would halt government payment to defense contractors who use arbitration to prevent their employees from seeking justice in court in cases such as these.

In committee he took on the KBR lawyer.


There was talk that Sen. Inouye (?!?!?!) might strip the amendment from the bill, but Al's amendment was passed - with 30 Rebubbakids against. It was summarized most nicely by none other than John Stewart - of course.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Al's amendment made it (or language very similar to the amendment made it) into Obama's 2011 defense budget proposal, but the proposal still has to be passed.

Go Al.

Wes Anderson's Spider Man

The sad part is, it would probably be better than Spider Man 3.

Art of Akira exibit

At www.artofakira.com

Those single cels are pretty slick.

via neatorama

Axe Cop!

I think Axe Cop (drawn by 29-year-old Ethan Nicolle and written by his 5-year-old brother Malachai) is my new favorite comic.

Best action scene of all time

The action never stops... from the film Alluda Majaka(1995) starring the "Megastar" Chiranjeevi

Justice

"Supreme Court Justice Scalia" shares his thoughts on Twitter.

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure

Seriously great. She doesn't get enough credit for being an exceptional person on top of everything else.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Via the TED Talk blog