Pictures of the Week - to October 29

Caught this lady on October 29 (yesterday afternoon) doing promotion for "The Clothes Chick" store at the corner of Keeaumoku and Kanunu Street. Clothes Chick is a "recycled fashion retail" outlet with at least 2 stores in Honolulu. Apparently the first store is in the Kapahulu area. The second store is the one on Keeaumoku St. next to LikeLike Drive-In. Clothes Chick is definitely not the kind of store I'd go to, but if you are a woman, it might be worth checking. There's plenty of parking around the LikeLike Drive-In area and cheaters have been known to park at WalMart just across the street. Heh.

Photo taken with iPod Touch camera.



This is a photo taken on Thursday, October 27 of Dick Rowland, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and Marissa Marissa Capelouto of Oahu Express, a freight shipping firm at the monthly Smart Business Hawaii "Sunrise" Networking Breakfast. Capelouto was the featured speaker for the month. She spoke about her years growing up and living in the Philippines and the many opportunities she had business after moving to Hawaii. She has an interesting story and has worked for several shipping firms. A few years ago she bought Oahu Express and has been successful at running this firm.

Photo by Mel, taken with Canon D600.





And finally from the "Beautiful Hawaii" category of blog posts, comes this weekend's best sunset. This series was taken at Ala Moana Beach Park on October 29 in clear sky conditions. I used a Sony Cybershot P50 camera to take this with some post production work afterward.

I have more than 9,700 photos posted at my Flickr.com site.

Minor Earthquakes Swarm Big Island

A swarm of minor earthquakes hit the northwestern part of Hawaii, the Big Island starting at 2:10 pm yesterday. The earthquakes started with a 4.5 tembler that was felt throughout the northern part of the island including Waimea and Honokaa along the Hamakua Coast. More than 40 earthquakes, most of them small and unfelt rocked the epicenter which is located near the area Waiki'i and Pohakuloa. See the map below for location of the earthquake swarm (in red).



While talking to my Mom yesterday afternoon, one of several aftershocks greater than 3.0 shook her home in Honokaa again. To say the least, she and I suspect many others remained jittery if not annoyed through the rest of the day.

Could this swarm trigger a bigger earthquake or even worst an eruption of long dormant Mauna Kea mountain. Scientists have stated "earthquakes in this region are most likely caused by structural adjustments within the Earth’s crust due to the heavy load of Mauna Kea". Not volcanic as they would like us to believe.

Earthquakes are not uncommon on the Big Island. They are nearly a daily occurance. Most of them are located near the active volcano of Kileauea in the Southeastern area of the island. The USGS tracks volcanic and seismic activity on the Big Island and throughout the state on a daily basis. An active map of recent earthquakes can be accessed by the public here.

Here is a mainland blogger's take on the earthquake swarm.



From the USGS Recent Hawaii earthquakes site, here is a list of all the earthquakes that have occurred in the region starting yesterday afternoon.

 MAG    DATE    LOCAL-TIME  LAT     LON    DEPTH    LOCATION
        y/m/d     h:m:s     deg     deg     km

2.2  2011/10/20 00:50:01 19.859N 155.550W 13.9    9 km ( 6 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.5  2011/10/20 00:05:28 19.881N 155.544W 17.8   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.1  2011/10/19 23:55:07 19.881N 155.542W 17.2   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 3.4  2011/10/19 23:42:06 19.860N 155.539W 15.3    8 km ( 5 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.8  2011/10/19 23:32:11 19.880N 155.542W 16.4   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.4  2011/10/19 22:08:39 19.872N 155.542W 17.3    9 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.2  2011/10/19 20:39:45 19.883N 155.542W 18.1   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.1  2011/10/19 20:15:40 19.876N 155.546W 17.4   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.6  2011/10/19 20:04:29 19.887N 155.544W 16.6   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.4  2011/10/19 18:42:08 19.884N 155.542W 17.7   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 1.9  2011/10/19 18:32:04 19.883N 155.541W 19.2   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.2  2011/10/19 18:12:08 19.875N 155.539W 16.6    9 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.5  2011/10/19 17:21:26 19.871N 155.549W 14.3   10 km ( 6 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.7  2011/10/19 17:16:08 19.881N 155.546W 19.3   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.3  2011/10/19 16:14:31 19.844N 155.546W 14.8    8 km ( 5 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.0  2011/10/19 15:48:54 19.880N 155.548W 17.6   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.2  2011/10/19 15:42:19 19.895N 155.554W 17.2   11 km ( 7 mi) ENE of Waiki`i
 2.3  2011/10/19 15:29:13 19.881N 155.547W 17.0   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.5  2011/10/19 15:24:05 19.875N 155.537W 17.9    9 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.1  2011/10/19 15:22:20 19.890N 155.545W 17.6   11 km ( 7 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.7  2011/10/19 15:11:01 19.863N 155.533W 17.0    8 km ( 5 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.1  2011/10/19 15:04:37 19.880N 155.545W 18.0   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 3.3  2011/10/19 14:59:00 19.884N 155.539W 19.5   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.4  2011/10/19 14:57:03 19.855N 155.542W 14.8    8 km ( 5 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.6  2011/10/19 14:48:01 19.881N 155.541W 16.7   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.0  2011/10/19 14:45:55 19.884N 155.533W 18.7    9 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.8  2011/10/19 14:45:17 19.879N 155.545W 15.2   10 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.1  2011/10/19 14:33:40 19.886N 155.548W 18.1   11 km ( 7 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit
 1.7  2011/10/19 14:31:52 19.858N 155.527W 16.2    7 km ( 4 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
 2.0  2011/10/19 14:30:47 19.838N 155.408W 16.7    7 km ( 4 mi) ENE of Mauna Kea Summit
 4.5  2011/10/19 14:10:04 19.883N 155.532W 18.8    9 km ( 6 mi) NW  of Mauna Kea Summit

 
This post will be updated if we get more quakes of an increased magnitude. Historically most large earthquakes are followed by smaller aftershocks over a period of hours, days and sometimes weeks.

Top Photo: Mauna Kea mountain is a long dormant volcano and is the highest peak in the State of Hawaii towering near 14,000 ft. Astronomy is the major industry atop Mauna Kea mountain as the topmost peaks are dotted with optical and other types of astronomical observatories.

The earthquake swarm occurred several miles downslope on the northwestern side of the peak.

Stupid in America - How to Fix Education

I highly recommend everyone who is interested in how the education system could do better to watch John Stossel's latest update of his program "Stupid in America". The program highlights some of the major problems that the education system is having throughout the United States and the alternate and better solutions that are available to get students to learn and improve their test scores. One of the major obstacles from allowing this to happen are the teacher unions which dominate most public (government) schools.

Give education to the private sector or allow more charter schools to operate, free of centralized government control and union meddling, and you get a better system where students love going to school to learn and improve test scores. It is all about student achievement first, not about protecting the teachers with mechanisms such as "tenure".

This is a good watch. Check it out.

Hulu.com: Stupid in America - John Stossel (Fox Business Channel)
YouTube: Stupid in America - John Stossel (original show as aired on ABC's 20/20 - 2007)

Hawaii Political Platter - U.S. Senate Race

The U.S. Senate Race - Former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle threw her hat into the U.S. Senate race to succeed Daniel Akaka in 2012. She made her announcement on Tuesday, October 11. Ms. Lingle will have a primary race against perennial GOP challenger John Carroll, a former airline pilot and state senator.

Hawaii's primary election will occur in August 2012. Linda Lingle is expected to win the GOP primary and more than likely face U.S. Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, who has been endorsed by Hawaii's senior U.S. Senator, Daniel Inouye. Ms. Hirono will be challenged in the Democratic Primary by former U.S. Congressman Ed Case.

The 2012 U.S. Senate race will be an expensive race for all candidates involved with millions of dollars pumped into the campaign war chests of the front runners. Linda Lingle is expected to raise up to $10 million this season.

While I have voted for Linda Lingle in the past, I officially remain non-committed in this race. I have some serious problems with the things Linda Lingle supports like the pesky Akaka Bill, clean energy, rail, and maybe too much "bi-partisanship". I have never forgiven her for allowing the general excise tax increase to fund rail to pass in 2005. Every purchase made in Honolulu funds the expensive and ugly $7 billion rail project as a result of her 2005 decision.

Despite my serious concerns for these issues, the alternate candidate(s) [Democrats] have nothing better to offer. This will be a hard choice.



The headline is yesterday's newspaper.

Recent Sightings at Honolulu Harbor

I seem to have been spending a lot of time lately at or near Honolulu Harbor. My photos reflect that fact. In the past week I've spotted and taken pictures of three cruise ships and a rocket launcher vessel that all came into Honolulu Harbor over the past week.

Latest arrival is the Celebrity Century, an 815 ft. long cruise liner belonging to Celebrity Cruises. The vessel came into Honolulu Harbor after sailing in from Hilo. Its next stop is Lahaina, Maui. The ship is our lead photo for this blog post.



The Celebrity Century arrives in Honolulu Harbor October 9.



This past weekend Sea Launch Odyssey, a large, private, towering seagoing vessel built on top of a former oil rig was in town for a few days. The ship dwarfed nearby Aloha Tower and as others have reported, caused a distraction along Nimitz Highway.

Ryan Ozawa of the Hawaii Blog has some good photos of Sea Launch there and on Flickr. Below is one of his photos of Sea Launch Odyssey taken from up high.





Two other cruise ships visited Honolulu this past week. They were the Golden Princess (above) from Princess Cruises and the MS Westerdam (below) from Holland America Line. Both were in port on October 4.





Last but not least is the Japanese resarch vessel Riasu Maru tied up at Pier 9 for several days.

More photos of ships and vessels in Honolulu Harbor
A photo set by Melvin Ah Ching on Flickr.com.

New Website for Hawaii State Legislature

The Hawaii State Legislature's website got a major revamp this week, moving all of the most commonly used links and functions to the front page. The design is a bit cluttered and not very artistic, but it is functional. Gone is the abstract picture of the capitol and the menu choices that were to the right of the graphic.

Now it's all menu that allows users to create an account to login. That is useful if you become or are a regular user of the site. A login I.D. gives users access to several features such as personalized bill tracking, not having to enter personal  information such as name, address, email and phone number over and over again every time you send in testimony, and the ability to receive emailed hearing notices (something that was already a regular feature of the site).

The front page menus have links to bill status, order of the day, keyword search,  archive, legislator directories and bios, committee hearing notices, special reports, citizen's guide, Hawaii Revised Statutes, broadcasts, RSS feeds and more.

I only wish that there would be a little more color and photos to the site, but again, it is functional and will be useful once the session starts again in 2012.

Check it out at
capitol.hawaii.gov/

Steve Jobs: 1955 - 2011

Forever Steve, Forever Apple. Thank You.



Apple Store Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, HI. The light is off. Photo by Ryan Ozawa.

http://www.apple.com

More on Mel's Macintosh Universe Blog

Sunset at Honolulu Harbor

There were some great sunset shots at Honolulu Harbor today. Two cruise ships made port calls into the harbor. The Princess Cruise ship Golden Princess spent most of the day tied up at Pier 10 near Nimitz highway. The picture featured above is shot from across Nimitz near the end of the sunset sky which presented these brilliant, waning colors. The other ship, MS Westerdam belonging to Holland America Line was tied up at Pier 2.



A couple shares a moment of the setting sun at Pier 9, Honolulu Harbor. The sun sets behind Sand
Island during the fall season.



A keiki hula troupe practices at Aloha Tower Marketplace in Honolulu Harbor.

MS Zaandam in Honolulu

Holland America Cruise Line's MS Zaandam paid Honolulu a port call early yesterday morning. She is one of the frequent cruise ships that sail in and out of the islands during the fall and winter seasons. She was last spotted by this photographer in Honolulu on January 30, 2011.

MS Zaandam is 777 ft. long, weighs more than 61,300 tons, has 10 decks and can carry up to 1,432 passengers. She has a crew contingent of 615. Top cruising speed is 23 knots or 26 mph.

She leaves Honolulu at 2300 hours tonight. Her next stop is Nawiliwili, Kauai.

Previous photos of MS Zaandam in Hawaii:




Honolulu, January 30, 2011.




Spotted in Hilo, October 2010.

Ross in Waikiki Nearly Complete

Workers are putting the finishing touches on this brand new Ross Dress for Less Store located on the Seaside Ave in Waikiki. The store occupies the site of the former Waikiki #1 and #2 theaters. The new store will have 40,000 sq. feet of retail space. It will be the latest discount store in Honolulu to offer both tourists and residents an affordable alternative from what is currently available in Waikiki.

These photographs were taken early evening on October 1. The store looks very close to finished as workers were hanging fixtures and stocking merchandise. Reports state that Ross will have a grand opening for the new Waikiki Store later this month. I would not be surprised if they have a "soft opening" in the next few days if they haven't done so already.

Old time residents and visitors may fondly remember this building as the location of the aforementioned Waikiki #1 and #2 twin theaters. The building was constructed in the early 1970 and remained in operation until 2003. I went to many movies at this theater complex including blockbusters such as "E.T.", "Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade" and "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" to name a few.

The property now begins a new life as a welcomed discount retail outlet. Hopefully Ross will be successful here.





Top 2 frames: Entry way to the new Ross Dress for Less store in Waikiki. Below: The boarded up Waikiki #1 & #2 theaters before the transformation of the building into retail.

Video: Should Rail Be Built or Not

Malia Zimmerman of HawaiiReporter.com interviews Professors Randy Roth and Panos Prevedouros, both of the University of Hawaii on the latest update to Honolulu's heavy rail project and the status of the impending lawsuit against the city. The premise: "Should rail be built?"

My short answer: NO!

Rail costs way too much money, will be disruptive, ugly, not reduce traffic congestion and is a scheme to line the pockets of the politicians, unions and developers with taxpayer dollars. The cost that is thrown around for this project is about $5.3 billion but in reality will cost a whole lot more to build and to maintain.

Hawaii's taxpayers cannot afford to fund this expensive, ugly train.

Watch the video. Visit the linked sites below.

HawaiiReporter's YouTube Channel
HonoluluTraffic.com