January 6, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

It's windy and wet in Kaaawa this morning, with the kind of cold wind that whips through the house at high enough speeds to trigger two of our smoke alarms, which forced me to climb out of bed early and check the whole house before disabling the bleeping things. Of course, it's then hard to go right back to bed out of fear of becoming one of the fools in a news story, the "man disables smoke alarms minutes before flames claim house" variety.

The weather is not good news to the family down the street and around the corner where the tents were up and preparations were well underway last night for the big baby luau scheduled to begin late this afternoon. Ice chests full of food were piling up, some with food being iced down while others filled with bags of things being slowly thawed. I plan on stopping by with my camera for the big show, rain or shine.

|The night before

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat says he's looking forward to seeing the local small town news in the beefed up coverage to be provided by the string of nine community newspapers in the Seattle area purchased by Star-Bulletin owner David Black a couple of months ago.

Did you read about the congressional aide who tried to hire some computer hackers to retroactively improve his college grades? The communications director for the Montana congressman can now add "former" to his list of titles.

The Washington Post ran a long Big Island travel tale about Kilauea volcano last weekend. Take a peek to see what they're reading about us on the mainland.

National Public Radio took a look yesterday at the better than feared performance of the U.S. economy, and their economist cited the drop in gasoline prices as one of the factors in good results.

"It's been a year of huge fluctuations in gas prices," he says. "We did indeed hit three bucks for a while, but of course then we fell very, very sharply for the next few months. And so now we're maybe in the $2.30 range. I think it would have been a different matter if we'd gone to $3 and stayed there."

Of course, our gas prices are back near the $3 range, and its time to assess this less as a story about strained individual budgets and more about the cost to the overall economy. How much of a drag on the state's economy do these higher fuel costs create?

Now that there's a diet drug for overweigh dogs, can the feline version be far behind? Perhaps, then we'll have to face the dilemma of whether to medicalize our overeaters....

And so it goes on this cold Saturday a.m.

January 5, 2007 - Friday [ permalink ]

There was a crowd at Sandy Beach mid-day yesterday to remember and celebrate the popular activist, David Matthews. It was quite a gathering of community activists with ties to the Save Sandy Beach and Save Ka Iwi organizing that successfully blocked development of the wind swept coast.

Here's another reader's long tale of shipping woes from an online retailer, this time involving Costco.

Thought you might be interested in another account of shipping problems, this one with Costco’s Photo Center. I apologize if this is too lengthy or convoluted but I have been following your running accounts of Amazon’s shifting policy and thought you might find this useful, considering that Costco has quite a brick-and- mortar presence in Hawai`i.

Having scanned a number of old family photos, I thought it might be an idea to create photo-calendars as several gifts this past Christmas. I created and ordered two identical calendars on December 8 which were shipped on December 11. I selected “standard shipping rate” at $5.45 each since they were said to arrive, usually, with 3-5 business days. At the charge of $5.45 I assumed (wrongly, as it turned out) that the items would be shipped at least by First Class.  I might also add that this order was placed before Costco’s recommended order deadline which, as I recall, was December 11. Upon receipt of these calendars (assuming their arrival ca December 15 – 18), I planned to include them in Christmas packages. Shortly after this, I placed two additional orders for photo-calendars, each processed and shipped on December 18; I requested standard shipping for these orders, too, since I did not yet have reason to be concerned. In this latter case, I intended for these calendars to be given in person, so the receipt date could be more flexible.

None of these orders has arrived to date. When I corresponded by email, asking explicitly what “standard” shipping meant (first class? Priority mail? Third class? Media mail) I didn’t get an answer. By December 23, when no calendars had arrived, I began to suspect the worst which was that “standard” shipping actually meant parcel post or media mail. Sure enough, that turned out to be the case, as seen in the (finally) honest email I received today (January 5):

"Thank you for your email. Standard shipping is usually by 3rd Class Mail. Per our website, if the standard shipping option was chosen for your order, we are unable to guarantee delivery by a certain date. We are only able to guarantee delivery times on 2-day or overnighted orders. Most orders shipped within the Continental US are received within 10 business days; additional time may be needed for shipments to Hawaii, especially during the holidays. We apologize for the delay and any inconvenience it may have caused."  

Of course, if you go to that link (at least as of this morning, there is nothing said about what class of postage is used. Given that I have asked repeatedly about this, I find Costco’s shipping policy to be uninformative at best, and deceptive at worst. Furthermore, when I called the PhotoCenter on or about December 29th and asked what shipping method was used, I was told that items shipped via “standard” shipping were sent via First Class mail.

To Costco’s credit, they replaced the first order (allegedly sent December 11) with two new calendars at no charge to me. These items were shipped by UPS on December 29th, and arrived January 3rd. They told me in one email that it was their policy to replace items at no cost if more than 10 business days since shipping had elapsed without delivery.

FYI, when I mailed the two calendars (received here via UPS) to their intended recipients, they each cost $2.55 to send at First Class postage, and they probably will arrive within a week at their mainland destinations, if not sooner.. So, adding insult to injury, why should Costco have charged me $5.45 for a much slower mail service?

Thanks for letting me vent, and here’s to Congressional investigation of shipping policies for Hawai`i and Alaska.

I use Costco's photo center as well, but I order online for local pickup at one of Costco's stores. Works great, photos usually done in an hour. I recommend their service when used in this way.

Animal rights activist Cathy Goeggel responded regarding the question of butchered dog ears:

it's called "cropping"- often done to Doberman Pinchers, Great Danes and Pit Bulls- It makes them look fiercer- and is, along with tail docking, barbaric. The practice is outlawed in the UK and also I believe, down under. Sadly, the AKC (American Kennel Club) requires ear cropping for certain breeds if they are to be "shown"

Another reader added:

For certain breeds of dogs the ears are clipped so there's less to grab in a fight. Otherwise, it's the same reason that certain breeds of dogs get their tails clipped. It's a "look".

January 4, 2007 - Thursday [ permalink ]

Richard Borreca reports today on an interview with Ed Case on his return from Washington. Case again conveys what comes across as a smug assumption of being annointed to fill one of the state's highest public offices, an assumption that apparently wasn't shared by the majority of voters.

As one reader commented here a couple of days ago, "What made the MSNBC writer think that Ed Case as an independent would be more appealing than Ed Case as a Democrat?"

In a recent MidWeek column, Bob Jones offered the opinion that Case lost "because so many Democrats were uncomfortable with a young fellow’s arrogance in trying to take the seat away from nice-old-guy Dan Akaka."

Score one for spin in the wide accepteance of the casual label "young" for the 50-something Case.

I would restate Jones' formulation slightly for the truer answer: Case lost "because so many voters were uncomfortable with this fellow’s arrogance."

It's true that the media focused on the perceived arrogance of challenging Akaka, but it also was a central piece of the electoral persona that Case adopted. He oozed arrogance, not just in regards to the unexpected challenge to Akaka but more generally. It was a defining impression Case conveyed to local voters rather than other possibilities such as humility, friendliness, approachability, etc.

Perhaps not a fair or accurate impression, but in my view that's what came across through a combination of attitude, body language, choice of words, etc.

And, as Borecca reports, it is likely to all be replayed again in the not too distant future.

News coverage of the leadership shakeup at the Honolulu City Council seems to reflect the reduced day-to-day reporting at Honolulu Hale. Stories on the new chair reviewed Barbara Marshall's public positions but reported little of the inside dynamic of the change and how and why it came about now. A brief item by Malia Zimmerman at HawaiiReporter.com and an earlier story by the Star-Bulletin's Crystal Kua described some background dynamics, but even these were sketchy at best and lacked detail. With so many front page issues being decided at city hall, isn't it time to restore those full time city beats?

A former Hawaii resident now living in New Zealand sent this note: Just catching up w/your dailies. And, checked out your year-end pooch pix. It's none of my business, but have Mr. Duke's been butchered back to these "things" called ears? How barbaric, if that's so. Poor dawgie.

Duke

Perhaps a dog person can comment on this practice?

January 3, 2007 - Wednesday [ permalink ]

Here are the last photos of Monday's cats, or duets between pairs of cats. Leo appeared to be checking out Romeo and suddenly it turned into claws and fur flying. Luckily, other interactions were more mellow. Click on the photo for more.

Work at the capitol started slowly yesterday with throwing out piles of paper accumulated during the last two sessions to make room for the deluge of paper that will start soon.

Meanwhile, legislative computers are getting a "big" software upgrade to Microsoft Office 2003, a jump from the ten year old version that's been powering the flow of lawmaking for years. Not real exciting unless you've been stuck working on the somewhat obsolete version after being used to the features of newer versions. So I'm celebrating the change.

From Beth-Ann Kozlovich at Hawaii Public Radio: Town Square this week focuses on PEG access/DCCA RFP/recent FCC decision to side with Verizon & AT&T, strip communities of cable franchise control. In studio Keali'i Lopez, Ruth Hsu/Larry Geller, Lance Collins, Carol Bain calling from Kauai, Sean McLaughlin will be calling from California. That's Thursday from 5-6 p.m. on KIPO (89.3 FM). Also available online via streaming audio.

Of course, no one in legislative offices will be taking advantage of the streaming audio--that would violate the legislature's computer rules, at least in the House. The computer rules, distributed to all staff, explain that streaming audio or video eats too much bandwidth to be allowed.

I ran into this interesting diatribe against aspects of "citizen journalism" as practiced by corporate media, "How the anti-copyright lobby makes big business richer".

And here's a sobering new year assessment of the losses suffered by newspaper companies over the past couple of years.

The sell-off has been prompted by declining readership, falling revenues and rising concern over the industry’s ability to respond effectively to competition from the new media. As Goldman Sachs recently noted, 2006 likely was the first “non-recession year” in history in which newspaper revenues declined.

Finally, here is a detailed account of the demands made by Iraqi insurgents during secret talks with the U.S.

And so it goes.

January 2, 2007 - Tuesday [ permalink ]

Poor Duke. He spent much of yesterday hiding in the "cave" under one of our vintage five strand rattan chairs in the living room, apparently scared by the occasional remnant firecrackers going off somewhere nearby. I had to reach around behind the chair to get a couple of photos of him in his hiding place. And, as promised, he's part of a gallery of new year cats. Just click for more.

Duke in hiding

I'm heading back to the State Capitol today for another session as a legislative staffer in Rep. Lyla Berg's office. I'll be feeling my way as far as blogging about the session. We'll just have to see how it works out.

Advertiser writer Zenaida Serrano reported yesterday on the broadcast of the first Antiques Roadshow island episode. But I doubt she did any reporting on site when the roadshow was here. She writes:

"Roadshow" came to Honolulu in August. The show taped appraisals at the Hawai'i Convention Center, where people waited in line for up to two hours to have their lamps, coins, Asian ceramics — and a lot of other stuff — scrutinized.

Up to two hours? Just two hours was nothing. If people left after two hours, few would have gotten appraisals. Meda was in line for about 4-1/2 hours. I'm sure others were there for even longer. The two-hour estimate must have been from a roadshow press release.

I ran into a concise overview of David Black's Black Press empire, which includes the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek.

A year in review item in a longer National Journal story distributed by MSNBC offered this opinion:

Imagine if outgoing Rep. Ed Case (D) had run for the Senate as an independent? Hawaii general election voters probably would have sent Daniel Akaka (D) into retirement.

Lawmaker travel to Hawaii at the expense of special interests hit the news again, this time in Alaska.

And enjoy this list of top 10 video moments in 2006.

January 1, 2007 - Monday (New Year's Day) [ permalink ]

Groan. This was the first time in years that we've attempted, and succeeded, in staying up to actually greet the new year. But that made for quite a short night. There are just not enough hours between the midnight fireworks and the rapidly approaching dawn. So don't expect anything serious this morning.

New Year's Eve started with freshly squeezed tangerine juice, courtesy of our overnight guests. This photo reminds me of Diego Rivera's famous watermelon painting--the fruit, the juice, and the empty glass. The cycle of life.

The day ended on a neighbor's deck watching the fireworks as 2006 faded away and we moved into 2007. Ready or not....

Before the festivities, though, I did manage this batch of year-end dogs, and I've got the images but didn't quite finish the final 2006 gallery of cats. Just click on the other Duke's handsome face to see the last Kaaawa dogs of the year.

Now we're off to see the first sunrise of 2007. Then I think it's breakfast and back to bed for a bit. Either that or a very early afternoon nap.

December 31, 2006 - Sunday (New Year's Eve) [ permalink ]

Thanks to Larry Geller (DisappearedNews.com) for providing a succinct description of the political crisis facing public access television in Hawaii. It's a knock-down fight because there are significant dollars and powerful corporate interests involved and, the crucial part, few people and almost no reporters are paying attention.

On the other hand, doesn't it seem that there's a way in which technology has leapfrogged the underlying "free expression" rationale for the access system? The arrival of video-capable phones and digital cameras, web-based video sharing, coupled with podcasting and high-speed search engines have delivered the type of free access envisioned but never really delivered by access television. Public access held out the promise of being able to create content and deliver it to an audience, but it has necessarily been filtered through a relatively unfriendly bureaucracy with substantial hurdles for those seeking to gain entry. Now anyone with a camera phone can deliver video to a global audience in minutes.

Where does public access television fit in this new world? Hopefully Larry, Sean McLaughlin and Jeff Garland can get me up to speed on the new mandate for public access.

Recommended: BRB's Public Record Blog, snippets of public records issues and the research industry by one of the big publishers.

It's the last day of the year, and the last sunrise of 2006 will be at 7:09 a.m. here in Kaaawa. We'll be down at the beach to welcome the sun. It's a bit windy, but dry so far this morning.

The following information is provided for Kaaawa, Honolulu County, Hawaii (longitude W157.8, latitude N21.6):
Sunday
31 December 2006
Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 6:45 a.m.
Sunrise 7:09 a.m.
Sun transit 12:35 p.m.
Sunset 6:00 p.m.
End civil twilight 6:24 p.m.

The cats are active, with lots of movement in an out. I've got the door to the front deck cracked open while I'm sitting with newly repaired laptop at the dining table, given the cats free access. Already one small rodent has been deposited under the table at my feet, accounced with one of those funny muffled cries cats can make while carrying prey in their teeth. I interrupted and set the critter free in the front of the yard. At least it got a running start.

We had friends over last night for dinner and they're spending the night in Silverman's guest room downstairs. Despite the unexpected human company, Silverman wanted in. But in deference to our guest's allergies, we wet up Mr. Silverman in the adjoining laundry room, and he quickly adjusted. When I peeked in a little after five, he was asleep on the pillow that we set on top of the the washing machine. Somehow this cat who has spent most of his life outdoors has decided that being warm and dry at night may trump being free.

Just one more photo and I'll have completed my first year as a participant in the "Picture a Week" project (PAW). Week 51, the second to the last entry of the year, catches a brief interaction while students at Kaaawa School were waiting for their appearance in the school's annual holiday program earlier this month. I'm not sure why this appeals to me, but the girl's expression and her friend's strong hand anchor the image. I'll be carrying my camera today looking for the last PAW of 2006 and a few year end cats and dogs.

Picture a week 2006 Click for larger photo

So have a happy and safe new year's eve and come back next year.