I finally got around to changing the photo in the header of this blog to reflect the season, when the sun when viewed from Waialae Beach Park appears to rise over Molokai and, eventually, Maui.
Sometime around January 22, the sunrise will begin to slowly move back to the left of the photo, over Koko Head, then Koko Crater, and on until in mid-year it is rising over parts of the Koolau Mountains, off to the left of this photo.
When I choose photos for my annual Kahala at Dawn calendars, I try to catch the movement of the sun over the course of the year. I don’t succeeed 100%, as some photos are so good that I make a place for them, even if it’s not consistent with the position of the sun during that month. And I try to do the same by changing the header here over the course of the year.
In any case, I just wanted to explain the switch.
Here’s what I haven’t figured out. The chosen header photo is incorporated into the overall “theme” used for the blog, and appears the same way on all past entries until it is changed again.
I would like to find a way to display different headers depending on the time of year of a particular post, but just don’t know how to do that.
Maybe some more knowledgeable about the ways of the digital world can school me on this.
• A week ago, I posted Part 2 of something I entitled, “It could have been a simple traffic ticket.” At that time, I wrote that a motion filed by Miske’s attorneys seeking to suppress evidence drawn from his cell phone during an arrest on December 4, 2015, was “pending.”
The judge’s order denying the motion was filed that same day, and I haven’t gotten around to updating that entry. But for now, here’s what Judge Watson had to say.
In an order filed on November 15, Judge Derrick Watson denied the motion to suppress, concluding the search and arrest of Miske were not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
Miske’s attorneys produced “not one shred of evidence” that there was any “ruse or otherwise nefarious conduct with regard to the search and arrest of Miske on December 4, 2015,” Watson wrote. Without evidence, allegations in the motion amounted to mere speculation, according to the order.
Finally, Watson rejected the argument that the federal search warrant was constitutionally flawed because it didn’t comply with state law.
“Miske does not cite to any case supporting the notion that such an alleged failure or violation of State law alone refers an otherwise valid search unreasonable,” the order concluded.
• Back when Amazon first offered their Prime membership with unlimited file storage, I jumped on the service. When we moved from Kaaawa into town a little over eight years ago, I scanned a whole lot of old financial records, tax returns, bank and investment statements, etc. Then I uploaded a copy to Amazon Drive, and shredded the originals. I also uploaded thousands of photos, which ended up being moved over to Amazon Photos.
Fast forward to earlier this year, when Amazon announced it was discontinuing Amazon Drive at the end of December. Ouch!
There have been mixed messages from Amazon about whether non-photo files would continue to be accessible through Amazon Photos, or whether we need to rescue them by downloading to safe storage before the end of the year.
I’m paranoid enough that I’m preparing to do the download. The Amazon Photo app just made that easier by providing an easy way to download all non-photo or video files at once.
I’ll be trying it in the next day or two, but if anyone else has already made the move, please share your experience.
• The Honolulu Police Department is slowly moving to provide more public data. I’ve been checking the daily Honolulu Police Department arrest logs for a while. You get a quick view of what’s happening around the island crime-wise from the arrest logs.
I’ll report on other parts of their new data system as I try them out.
• Jan Kagehiro, Communications & Community Relations Director for the State Judiciary, let me know that the eCourt Kokua online data system allows searching for upcoming court hearings either by case, or by court.
In August we added a new tab in eCourt Kokua called “Upcoming Court Hearings Search.”
Upcoming Court Hearings Search: You can see at-a-glance a two-week view of upcoming hearings by searching by case identification (ID) number or by court/location. If you use search by case ID number, you can see all upcoming hearings associated with that specific case number. If you search by court/location, you can see all upcoming hearings in all cases for that specific courtroom. The information on the site is updated in real time as hearing dates are entered into the system.
So when you get into eCourt Kokua and go to view documents, you have choices for searching, by name, vehicle (license plate), case search (starting with case #), and the new selection, “upcoming court hearings search.”
This is certainly a step in the right direction, but right now it isn’t too user friendly. I won’t say more right now, since I’ve just started taking a look at how this works and how it can be used by reporters or others interested in the courts.
• We answered a knock on our door late Tuesday afternoon, and it was a salesman from Spectrum. He said he was going door to door, checking in with those who are not current customers. He was very nice and friendly, and took it well when I told him we’re quite happy with Hawaiian Telcom as our internet provider.
But it’s the first time this has happened to us, so it will be interesting to see if it represents an increase in competition between the two big cable companies in this market.
• No turkey for us this year. When we used to shop at Foodland more often, they made it difficult not to do a turkey. They are usually free with one of their coupons, which come after spending a certain amount. Now that we don’t get to Foodland often, no coupon, so it’s easier to be honest and say even a mid-size bird is too much for two people to eat. So we’re downsizing. We bought a chicken. Don’t laugh. We’ll see how it works out.
And we were amazed to see what people are paying to buy prepared Thanksgiving meals at restaurants around town. They’ve been sold out for some time, but prices for a meal for 4 went up over $300. Ouch! We’ll stick with the chicken at home.
And I’ll probably take tomorrow off in honor of the occasion, unless the morning dogs are so cute that I’ve got to post some of their pictures.
Anyway, gobble gobble. I didn’t include the whole scene with Steve Martin confronting the rental car agent, but you might want to search it out.
I’m talking a couple of modest changes to the presentation of this blog.
First, I moved the invitation to subscribe up to the top of the right-handn sidebar. This section has a place to enter your email address so that future blog posts will be emailed to you. That’s useful when I get buried in trying to research or write a complex piece, which results in missing blog posts here for a couple of days. With email delivery, you don’t have to wonder when something new gets posted.
So if you haven’t taken advantage of the free email subscription, you can easily do it now.
The second small change, at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar, is the addition of a link to my FB page. I post sunrise and dogs photos there almost daily, but only post them here occasionally (“Feline Friday arrives here every Friday, but dogs, well, those get posted here only occasionally). So if you’re interested in such things, check it out.
I’ll be bogged down today and probably tomorrow as well. It’s tax time, so TurboTax and I will be trying to complete our federal and state tax returns. Hopefully I won’t run into any real problems.
I happened to notice another news story this morning about useful things to do with ChatGPT, and decided to ask a couple of questions and see what this AI system would come up with. The results were interesting.
IL: describe the blog ilind.net
Ilind.net is a blog that covers a wide range of political and social issues, primarily focused on the United States. The blog is authored by Ian Lind, a journalist and commentator with a background in investigative reporting and political analysis.
The topics covered on ilind.net range from local politics and community issues in Hawaii, where Lind is based, to national and international news and events. The blog often delves into the inner workings of government and politics, analyzing policy decisions and the actions of elected officials.
In addition to political analysis, ilind.net also features commentary on a variety of social issues, including civil rights, environmentalism, and social justice. Lind’s writing is characterized by a deep knowledge of history and politics, as well as a critical and often humorous tone.
Overall, ilind.net is a thought-provoking and insightful blog that offers a unique perspective on the world of politics and social issues.
IL: how could ilind.net be improved?
As an AI language model, I do not have an opinion, but here are some general suggestions that could potentially improve ilind.net:
Increase interactivity: ilind.net could benefit from more interactive features, such as comment sections or social media integration, to encourage greater engagement and discussion among readers.
Incorporate multimedia: While ilind.net includes written articles and images, incorporating multimedia such as videos, podcasts, or infographics could make the content more engaging and accessible.
Diversify perspectives: While Ian Lind offers a unique perspective on politics and social issues, ilind.net could benefit from featuring guest writers or diverse perspectives to offer a wider range of voices and viewpoints.
Improve website design: ilind.net could improve its website design to make it more visually appealing and user-friendly, which could encourage readers to spend more time on the site.
Expand coverage: While ilind.net covers a wide range of political and social issues, expanding coverage to include more topics or regions could attract a wider audience and increase the relevance and impact of the blog.