Category: Core Dumps

All Shook Up: Earthquake Strikes Hawai‘i

Hawai‘i experienced its largest earthquake in 23 years today, it was centered a few miles off-shore along the Kona coast of our island. No tsunami was generated, and thankfully this was determined quickly. According to news reports it would take an earthquake of over 7 to generate one; this was was reported as something between 6.3 and 6.5. There has been some infrastructure damage, some roads on our island or closed or cut down to single lane traffic. No fatalities have been reported, though there were some unverified injury reports. The North Kohala Hospital has been evacuated. Electricity was out…

Hawai‘i Primary Election Coverage

My wife and I watched the coverage of Hawai‘i’s primary election last night, and it did not start well. We began by watching KHON (the FOX affilate) with Joe Moore. I used to like Joe a lot, however, in recent years it reminded me of watching the old Monday Night Football broadcasts with Howard Cosell. ABC wasn’t as much covering the football game as they were about covering Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford talking about the game. So, it seems, KHON is covering Joe Moore talking about the news, with his “all-knowing” smirks at the camera. Within the first…

What ever happened to…

Annie Moore, from Cork, Ireland, has been immortalized in bronze and in song as the first immigrant to arrive in America via Ellis Island. This feature from the New York Times helps clarify what happened to her after that famous day. [ Free registration required ]

New Look Team USA?

I’m a hoops fan, and keep hearing about this “new-look, team-oriented, defensive focused” Team USA basketball squad. I finally got to see them play Italy today, and to be honest I don’t see the difference between them and the team that got dumped on at the 2004 Olympics. The offense is still about one guy playing one-on-one while the other four guys watch. I guess their idea of team offense is to take turns playing one-on-five. No perimeter ball movement at all. More often than not they drive the lane, get the ball stripped and off Italy goes in the…

The Utter Stupidity Of It

O‘ahu’s Hau‘ula community grieves over the senseless deaths of 4 teenagers in two separate accidents at the same exact spot this weekend. The second two deaths occurred as two teens stood at the spot of the first accident and were run over by another speeding vehicle. I spent three years as a police officer on the island of Maui, and witnessed first-hand several unbelievable acts of stupidity that lead to deaths. They probably should have been classified as suicide as it was inconceivable that the victims didn’t realize that they were probably going to die. One example was an individual…

The debate over debating, or not

The most interesting aspect of this year’s elections seems to be the debate over debate, or lack of debate, between Sen. Daniel Akaka and Rep. Ed Case. I’m really of two minds over this debate issue. Akaka does come off as a hypocrite talking about and having others talk about his “courage” in standing up to Bush while at the same time coming up with really lame excuses as to why he won’t debate Case, but what does the public really learn by that format? How important is the ability to debate on the senate floor? Do senators actively engage…

Language Bigotry in Action

“The mayor of a small Bergen County town is calling for a McDonald’s boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard advertising iced coffee. Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said the advertisement is “offensive” and “divisive” because it sends a message that Hispanic im migrants do not need to learn English.” [ From NJ.com via Language Log ] Update: Mayor Lonegan has been awarded Language Log’s Jackass of the Week award. Well deserved!

FUD in the Senate debate over the “Akaka Bill”

I watched the Senate debate via C-SPAN2 to for a while. Senator Akaka presented his case clearly and respectfully, but I had to turn it off after a few minutes of listening to Senator Lamar Alexander building a wall of FUD over the issue. Senator, you simply can’t compare immigrants who arrived and the U.S. willfully and the indigenous peoples who had no say in their government being overthrow and land annexed against their will. Alexander harped on the term “sovereignty” so many times and in such a way as to suggest that that the bill would result in complete…

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