Community, Web/Tech

Check Out Honolulu’s Civil Beat

Do you know about Pierre Omidyar’s new online news organization out of Honolulu? It’s called Civil Beat, and it just went online this week.

It’s a whole different approach to news, and it’s really interesting. From Editor John Temple’s introductory remarks:

A New Approach to Journalism

By John Temple

 (photo: Randy Ching & Mark Quezada/Civil Beat)

Welcome to Civil Beat. We’re glad you decided to join us.

I’d like to tell you about the journalism you can expect to find here
from our team of reporter-hosts. It’s different. And I’m excited to
begin talking with you about it before we start
publishing articles on May 4.

We start this news service with the belief that we’re here to serve
you. That means our daily work is to ask the important questions
citizens might have in the face of the complex issues facing our
community. And to answer them in a way that helps members reach an
informed opinion, based on our reporting and the discussion that will
take place as we together create the new civic
square.

You’ll find that our initial coverage is centered around five
fundamental beats: Hawaii, Honolulu, Education, Land and Money. For each
of these coverage areas, we have identified critical issues – and now
that you’re here we hope you’ll help us sharpen our focus.

…

How will we do this to best serve you? First, you’ll be part of the
process. You might have noticed that we’ve opened the doors to this new civic square without putting up any news articles. That’s different – a news service without news, at least initially. It’s intentional. We want to begin by talking with you about what we’re doing, to hear what you want from us and what you think we should be asking. We believe
conversation and civil debate with our reporter-hosts and with other
members is central to what will make Civil Beat valuable. And we want
you to see that the core of our service isn’t the article itself. Of
course, incisive news reporting soon will be an important part of what
we offer. But at the heart of our service are pages dedicated to
providing you context and understanding about the issues you need to
know about. These “topic pages” are living pages. They’ll grow over
time, with your help. We know you’re busy and that our job is to help
make it easy for you to learn about and truly understand what’s going
on, and what you might be able to do about it. With our approach, you
should be able to find the background you need when you want it, without having to surf thousands of pages of documents or make numerous phone calls to unearth what should be readily available to you. (Read more)

I love that they are thinking differently, and providing “topic pages” that lay out background and context about the issues they then report about, and that there will be conversation.

How will they make money? It’s by membership. Anyone can roam around the site, but to delve more deeply into the content you’ll need to be a member. Right now they are offering a discount on the first month’s membership. Normally it’s $19.99/month, but if you sign up now you get the first month for $4.99. I’m going to join.

Community, Eating Locally

Big Island Farmers Markets, CSAs & Community Gardens

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Sonia Martinez, of Sonia Tastes Hawai‘i, has put together a great resource over at the Hawaii Homegrown Food Network — it’s a list of the 30 or so farmers markets on the Big Island as well as CSAs and community gardens.

CSAs are Community Supported Agriculture, a way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Her very thorough list of Farmers Markets and CSAs is here.

Geothermal, Government

Supporting the Geothermal Resolution Through the Political Process

I don’t see myself as a political person; rather, I try to concentrate on specific issues that can be fixed. So it was very unusual for me to be attending the Democratic party’s pre-County convention meeting.

I went to support my friends’ resolution on geothermal, in hopes it will be accepted into the Democratic party platform at the State convention.

The meeting was held Saturday at Waimea Middle School, and 54 people were present from all over the island. I knew a handful of people there.

There was a procedure and format to follow in order to get a resolution before the group, and now I understand why that was necessary. Many resolutions were submitted and they all had to be in a certain format so the group could evaluate each in an efficient manner. The resolutions were submitted by email, one page maximum. At the meeting, each resolution was projected on a screen for discussion and approval/disapproval.

Before the meeting started, a person submitting a smart grid resolution asked if we could combine the smart grid and the geothermal resolution.  He was very passionate and forceful about the smart grid, and we tried to explain that maybe the objectives were not the same. Finally, we agreed to disagree.

There were resolutions to do with early childhood education, sustainable agriculture, medical marijuana, Democratic candidates needing to be party members, etc.

As I understand it, there will be a County Democratic party meeting, where we will go and support the resolutions that are forwarded. Then they go to the State convention, where the County resolutions are submitted to the State Democratic party organization for approval.

Very interesting!

Tomatoes

Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus

The dangerous Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus has been discovered in tomatoes on the Kona side of the Big Island. This is a very destructive virus that can destroy whole crops of tomatoes.

Picture 1

Fortunately, there are resistant varieties of tomatoes.We’ve been planting resistant varieties since the virus was first discovered in Hawai‘i.

Here is a College of Tropical Ag and Human Resources (CTAHR) publication about Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus. (The above photos are by CTAHR.)

I was copied in on this email from Mike Melzer to Brian Bushe at CTAHR:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Michael John Melzer
Date: Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 3:32 PM
Subject: tylcv
Hi Brian,

I was able to test the two tomato samples from Kailua-Kona using the tissue-blot hybridization assay.  Both samples were positive for tomato yellow leaf curl virus.  I will do PCR on the samples as a confirmation, as well as to see how similar this virus is to the strains found on Maui and Oahu.  However, I think today’s results, combined with the observed symptoms, are strong evidence TYLCV is on the Big Island.

Could you please give notice to the appropriate extension personnel over there?

Take care,
Mike.

And then this one:

Gentlemen,

More bad news, see Mike Melzer’s comments below (thanks Mike).  The tomato sample was collected from a home-gardener in Kona at 800′ elevation (kudos to her for recognizing the symptoms).  Please relay to your clients and help them learn to recognize symptoms.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/PD-70.pdf

Resistant/tolerant cultivars appear to be available.

Mahalo, Brian

Brian C. Bushe
University of Hawaii at Manoa
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center – Hawaii County

Renewable Energy Sources

Europe’s Waste-To-Energy Plants

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Have a look at this New York Times article:

Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: April 12, 2010

HORSHOLM, Denmark — The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock.

Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago.… Read more

It talks about a new generation of waste-to-energy plant, where metals, plastics and other recyclables are removed before combustibles are burned. The resulting dioxin emissions are less than what comes from backyard barbeques. People live really close to these plants.

Here is a video of one of these waste-to-energy plants that are now popping up all over Europe.

Reggie Castanares, Business Manager of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Union, told us about visiting one of these plants in Germany. He said he stood right next to a truck dumping municipal garbage and could not even smell it because of the suction that pulled the air into the system.

More about this to follow.

Community

Seussical the Musical

June and I went to yesterday’s matinee of the musical
Seussical at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. It was packed with small kids and their parents and grandmas and grandpas.

From the Hawaii Tribune-Herald:

Itching to see a funny musical? Then what you need is an evening of ‘Seussical.’

“Who doesn’t like Seuss?” That rhetorical observation by drama professor Jackie Pualani Johnson sums up the appeal of “Seussical,” the spring musical at University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Performing Arts Center.

The play, which hit Broadway in 2000, features music by Stephen Flaherty (“Ragtime”), lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and book by Flaherty and Ahrens. Based on the characters and stories of Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, “Seussical” was co-conceived by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame.

“It’s a delightful pastiche. It’s a little of everything of what Seuss is about,” said Johnson, who directs the mostly-student cast….

If you want to have a happy afternoon, go see it. You can catch it on the 16th and 17th at 7:30 p.m. and on the 18th at 2 p.m.

The acting and singing were just great. UH Hilo’s theatre has
great acoustics; as good as the theaters on Broadway. Our grandson Kapono designed some of the costumes.

As we left the UH Hilo theatre, I looked back and saw that everyone had a big smile on their face.

Go see it. You’ll leave in a great mood.

Eating Locally, Food and Drink, Tomatoes

Foodland Farms & Hamakua Tomato Salsa

Several weeks ago June and I went to O‘ahu to see the new Foodland Farms store in Aina Haina.

Tony the tiger

Tony the Tiger was in the house. Kids ran up to get hugs.

It’s a beautiful store. We were so impressed that they put the local produce front and center! And that they had photos of local farmers all around.

Beautiful local produce

A couple of months earlier, June and I had lunch with Jenai Walls, President of Foodland; Abel Porter, Foodland’s CEO, and Simon Cutts, who is the produce buyer. Jenai asked us if we had tried the Hamakua Tomato Salsa and we had to admit that we didn’t know there was such a thing. Foodland produces it in their corporate kitchens and distributes it through its stores statewide.

Hamakua tomato salsa

Containers of Hamakua Tomato salsa in the foreground. In the background, photo of me and Chef Alan Wong.

We had to try it. It is really good! Way better than any tomato salsa I have ever had; I think because it is fresh, and made from vine-ripened tomatoes.

June & jon kawamura

June with our friend, Jon Kawamura from Armstrong Produce. We enjoyed his company

We decided to demo the Hamakua Tomato Salsa with Tostido Scoops to demonstrate our tomatoes, and it went over really well. Many people bought the Hamakua Salsa as well as the fresh Hamakua Springs tomatoes.

Tomato display
The display was full of our beef tomatoes as well as our award winning cocktail tomatoes

A group of seven firefighters came by and tried the salsa. We all know that firefighters are all gourmet cooks, and we were happy to see one of the firefighters pick up a container.

For us, that was the ultimate validation of Hamakua Tomato Salsa.

Biofuel, Government, Renewable Energy Sources

Dept. of Ag & Dept. of Navy on Biofuels

I attended a U.S. Department of Agriculture/Department of
Navy forum yesterday called the Hawaii Renewable Energy and BioEnergy Industry Forum.

Goal of the sessions are to provide information to the public on the development of a biofuels industry in Hawaii, potentially utilizing the purchasing power of the USN as a “pull” for production.

This hearing was held at the Officers Club of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Kane‘ohe. It was a high-level meeting, where
speaker after high-level speaker emphasized how committed they are to supporting biofuel production in Hawai‘i.

The Navy folks emphasized that they would commit to
converting most of their fossil fuel J8 and J5 jetfuel and their ship fuel to biofuels because it is a national security issue.  Someone said that by the time a gallon of fuel gets to the front lines in Iraq or Afganhistan, the gallon cost $40. And that gallon sometimes comes from people who do not even like us. They emphasized how serious this situation was. They said that they would commit to buying from local sources – big numbers in the millions of gallons.

Speaker after speaker talked about the commitment to make
things happen. From 9 a.m. to noon, everyone talked about how they were committed to cellulosic ethanol as well as biomass to liquid. The objective was to get the kind of biofuel that could fuel fighter jets and war ships. The USDA talked about programs that would help farmers get financing, etc.

Toward the end of the day, someone asked about the price a refiner could expect to get and the speaker said about $1.95 per gallon. I thought: $1.95 times 42 gallons in a barrel equals $82 per barrel. That is pretty near what it costs in the market today. This sounded to me like oil prices need to go much higher to get this industry up and running. Right now, there isn’t any stage 2 or 3 biofuel on the market that I know of.

There were just two small and three large farmers in the audience. None of us farmers are going to run out to see how we start growing biofuels. In total, there were nearly 300 people present. It was larger than I had expected. But no one had an answer as to how much the farmer could expect to get paid.

It feels like something is going to happen, though. The government wants biofuels to be the solution. So it seems to me that they need
to figure out what it will take to get farmers to produce feed stock for the biofuels.

Tim O’Connell, Assistant to the State Director of Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helped organize this forum. In closing remarks, he said he detected a tension in the room between the desire to produce biofuels and the price at which this would happen.

I’ve said before: If the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm. It is not easy to see just how farmers will make money in this scenario.

Biofuel, Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

HECO: Don’t Let Us Get Flattened By The Wild Bull

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When I was growing up we lived in Waiakea Uka, close to the end of a gravel road that was maybe a mile long. Most of the parcels were fairly large – 40 acres in size – and four other families lived there on Alaloa Road, too.

We kids used to go exploring a lot. The land was mostly abandoned sugarcane, tall California/guinea grass with guava trees, waiawi and an occasional ‘ohi‘a or African tulip tree.

One day when I was in the 6th grade, my younger brothers and I overheard someone say there was a river in the pasture at the end of the road. And in that river, he said, there were gold fish red, black and whites, and combination of colors up to 12 inches long. It really got our attention—gold fish. Wow!

The four of us decided to go explore one day and see if we could find that river. We got a bucket, several fishing poles and some
earthworms, and we were off. We never thought to tell Mom and Dad that we were going.

We walked to the end of the road and came to a barbed wire fence. We could tell by the tracks alongside the fence that there were cattle inside. We assumed there was at least one WILD BULL in there, too.

From where we stood, we could see that this was a very large pasture and the far end, maybe two miles ahead, ran into the Waiakea forest reserve. By the description we’d heard, we guessed that the river was straight ahead, somewhere in the middle.

The grass was shorter in the pasture than it was outside, and there was a lot of fountain grass. The visibility for us small kids might have been 50 feet at best. So we had to figure out how we were going to find the gold fish and not get hooked or flattened by the WILD BULL.

 We could tell there was a series of rock piles on the left, where we could run from one to the other as we made our way to the river. Or we could go straight ahead to a rock pile that was quite a ways in the distance.

Nobody needed to tell us that we did not want to get caught out in the open by the WILD BULL. We didn’t see him, but we knew that when he got mad, he would paw the dirt and dust would fly. Steam would come out of his nostrils and his eyes would be red. Then he would charge and hook all of us on one horn, and then stamp us flat. We imagined the worst.

So we walked along the inside of the fence line to the left, until we came to the shortest distance from the first rock pile and we headed for it. We were very clear – if the bull came, we would either run back to the fence or forward to the rock pile, whichever was closest and safest.

So far so good. No shaking of bushes, snorting of steam or thundering of hooves. We climbed up the rock pile, which was maybe 6 feet higher than the surroundings. We looked all around, listened intently, checked for cow flies and even tried to see if we could smell him. No sign.

We continued on to the second rock pile, which was not straight ahead but took us diagonally closer to the river. From there, we
headed for the third rock pile, which had us going cross country, closer to the river but back to the center.

Someone thought he heard a noise, and we all froze and strained our ears. If the bushes shook, if we heard or felt hooves or even
smelled anything we would have been gone to the safety of the nearest rock pile.

Nothing, so we quickened our pace and scrambled up the rock
pile. We stayed there for a little bit, trying to get up the nerve to make it to the last rock pile. In a short time, we were on top of that rock pile looking back from where we came.

We decided we were doing the right thing. Had the WILD BULL
caught us out in the open, we were sure we would have been flattened.

On top of that last rock pile, we could see the river’s outlines. Once we were sure nothing was moving, we climbed down and headed for the stream. When we got there, we started to walk alongside and peer into the water.

One of us yelled, “Eh look, gold fish!” We all put our lines in. We had earthworm for bait and hooks we made from Mom’s pins.

Some excitement. As I recall, we caught about nine fish. Then we headed back with our live catch in the bucket.

That is the story of how the pond at the end of one of our chicken houses came to be stocked with gold fish.

And it comes with a simple lesson: Better to be safe than sorry. Don’t get caught in the open by the WILD BULL!

Do not take the dangerous, biofuel path to expensive electricity on the Big Island. We need to hedge our bets and use geothermal as one of our “rock pile-safe harbors.” If we do not hedge our bets, there is a good chance that we will be flattened by the WILD BULL.

Even small kids understand that.

Company News

The Hamakua Springs Perpetual Motion Machine 2010

Ha Ha Ha! April Fool!

Did we get you yesterday? Richard’s post about his project “PMM 2010” referred to a mythical “perpetual motion machine.”

The history of perpetual motion machines dates back to the Middle Ages. For millennia, it was not clear whether perpetual motion devices were possible or not, but the
development of modern thermodynamics has indicated that they are impossible. Despite this, many attempts have been made to construct a perpetual motion machine. Modern designers and proponents often use other terms, such as over unity, to describe their inventions.

Wikipedia explains the history of perpetual motion machines, and wow, I didn’t know a lot of that.

The photo above is an engraving of Robert Fludd’s 1618 “water screw” perpetual motion machine.

  • The earliest designs of a perpetual motion machine dates back to
    1150, by an Indian mathematician–astronomer, Bhaskara
    II    . He described a wheel that he claimed would run forever.[1]
  • In medieval Bavaria, the magic wheel or magnet wheel, was basically a wagon wheel that spun by itself. Magnets with lead plates on their backs were affixed to the wheel, like the seats on a Ferris wheel. Each magnet was attracted to a magnet affixed to the base on the ground. The lead allegedly blocked attraction as each magnet passes by it, so the wheel would keep moving for a time before friction stopped it.[citation needed]
  • In the 13th century, Villard de Honnecourt had a drawing of one in his sketchbook. Honnecourt was a French master mason and architect. The sketchbook is made up of mechanics and architecture.
  • Leonardo da Vinci made a number of drawings of things he hoped would make energy free.[2][3] Da Vinci examined a few overbalance wheels.[4] He also designed a centrifugal pump and the “chimney jack“. The chimney jack was used to turn a roasting skewer (a reaction-type turbine).[5
  • In 1900, Nikola Tesla claimed to have discovered an abstract method on which to base a perpetual motion machine of the
    second kind. No prototype was produced. The Serbian American Physicist Inventor wrote:
“ A departure from known
methods – possibility of a “self-acting” engine or machine, inanimate,
yet capable, like a living being, of deriving energy from the medium –
the ideal way of obtaining motive power.

 

That Wikipedia article goes over who has claimed to invent what perpetual motion machine throughout the centuries and all the way up to the present day. It is fascinating!

I keep wanting to copy parts of it over to show you here, but I had to stop because it just goes on and on about people claiming to have built a perpetual motion machine that worked who: received a patent/were flat out proved to be frauds/built something inspired by a series of recurring dreams and currently the subject of commercial research and investigation/built such a machine after an (alien?) abduction/left notes upon their death in 1958 that are still being studied today, and much, much more.

Richard’s PMM 2010 is not listed there in Wikipedia, so he must have been — HA HA HA! — pulling a fast one.

Happy April Fool’s Day, everybody.