They are now trying to confirm the version with the Japanese authorities. The blue-and-white 6-meter boat was discovered on the Long Beach Peninsula.Officials from the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission have asked that the public stay clear of the boat so the state Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) can take precautionary actions, including steam cleaning the vessel and removing potential invasive plant and animal species, Washington’s Department of Ecology reported online.The Washington Marine Debris Taskforce, a unit which collects data on items washed up from Japan, indicated they had found no hazardous waste on board of the vessel.It’s not the first time that vessels and other objects have washed up on US shores. The taskforce indicated a spike in tsunami debris on Washington’s coastal beaches between April and June last year.In June, a fiberglass boat was discovered at Cape Disappointment State Park, with the specialists having found no oil spill or hazardous material threats to the environment inside the vessel. The boat was also checked for radiation, though didn’t test positive.Two months ago, debris was washed up on Hawaiian sands, with objects including refrigerator parts, oyster buoys, housing insulation, storage bins, soda bottles, toys, fishing nets, plastic trash cans and even Japanese net boats.The disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 killed nearly 16,000 people and left around 6,000 injured. … Read More
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo House Linked To Manti Te’o Girlfriend Hoax
CARSON, Calif. — When Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o ordered two dozen white roses delivered to 21503 Water Street, he says he thought they were headed to the home of his dead girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. In fact, the man implicated as the ringleader of a false-identity hoax and many of his relatives have lived in the single-story, stucco bungalow, according to publicly available records and interviews with neighbors.Water Street, in a working-class community 13 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, adds another element to the Te’o-Lennay Kekua hoax: the house six doors down, at 21403 Water, belongs to a family named Kekua – an uncommon Hawaiian name but the same one as the fictitious girlfriend at the center of the ruse.Read More…
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Fukushima debris hits Hawaii
Debris set adrift by the 2011 Japanese tsunami has made its way to Hawaii, triggering concerns over the unknown effects of the radiation it ma
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y carry from the meltdown of the Fukushima reactor.Debris has washed ashore the islands of Oahu and Kauai and the state’s Department of Health has been asked to test some of the incoming material for radiation levels. Refrigerator parts, oyster buoys, housing insulation, storage bins, soda bottles, toys, fishing nets, plastic trash cans and even Japanese net boats have all washed up on Hawaiian sands in the past few weeks, triggering serious environmental concerns over both water pollution and radiation exposure.Long-term exposure to radiation can cause cancer, gene mutations, premature aging and in severe cases, death. The consequences of the influx of debris are unknown, causing local agencies to advocate precaution in picking up the Japanese debris.After a Kona fisherman discovered a 24-foot Japanese net boat floating along the Hawaiian coast early this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began an investigation to trace where some of the items have come in from and possibly find its owners.“On behalf of NOAA and the State of Hawaii, we ask that anyone who finds personal items, which may have come from the tsunami, to please report them to county, state and/or federal officials,” William J. Aila, Jr., Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) chairperson, told Hawaii 24/7 News.Depending on an object’s weight, density and other physical characteristics, it can take months or years to travel from Japan to Hawaii, which explains why many of the same type of items are floating ashore at the same time. Although an estimated 70 percent of the tsunami debris sank offshore, millions of tons of wreckage are still adrift and slowly making landfall, reports LiveScience.Aside from the unknown radiation risks, some of the debris is bringing invasive species to Hawaii, thereby threatening the island chain’s ecosystem and introducing the possibility of consuming contaminated seafood. The 24-foot boat found by the fisherman was covered in blue mussels, which are native to Japan and harmful to Hawaii’s marine life – especially the corals.“If it does take hold, the concern is that they will just be able to populate at a fast rate and out compete some of our native species,” Jono Blodgett, the aquatic species program leader at DLNR, told the Honolulu Civil Beat. And even if Hawaiians attempt to kill the invasive mussels, their attempts might be fruitless.“When species are stressed out and about to die, they might release their eggs or sperm,” he said. The fisherman who discovered the abandoned Japanese boat saw the mussels as an opportunity for a tasty meal, raising additional concerns about Hawaiian locals’ exposure to radiation found in seafood. Blodgett believes the boat likely drifted to sea before the Fukushima reactors had a meltdown, making the attached mussels safe to consume – but the possibility of contamination remains, especially if the creatures are found on some of the other debris.Even though Hawaiian officials have minimized panic by assuring residents that radiation risks are low, their investigations and detection programs indicate that the concern is still there. The state of Hawaii purchased a $15,000 portable radiation detection device in September, while the Hawaii Department of Health has conducted quarterly shoreline surveillance since the tsunami hit in 2011. This monitoring has increased since the debris began to wash upon the Hawaiian shoreline.But some of the debris is so small that it becomes quickly buried in the sand on the beach, making it impossible to clean up or even detect.“Many places on the beach, it’s hard to differentiate the sand from the plastics on the surface,” Nicholas Mallos of the Ocean Conserv
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ancy group told LiveScience.And as long as the radiation risks are unknown, Hawaii residents should avoid collecting floating refrigerator parts or consuming Japanese mussels they might find on washed up debris. … Read More
30 Days Of Holiday LGBT Giving: Kulia Na Mamo Transgender Organization
Note: This holiday season, in lieu of a traditional holiday gift guide, we’ll be featuring a different LGBT organization each day for our “30 Days Of LGBT Giving.” Check back tomorrow for a look at another incredible group that’s working tirelessly on behalf of the LGBT community.Kulia Na Mamo, in Honolulu, was founded in 2003, first as Ke Ola Mamo, which served disenfranchised Native Hawaiians. But due to the many transgender people on the island, the organization’s executive director Ashliana Hawelu suggested they begin targeting those individuals. Now, Kulia “strives to improve the quality of life for ‘mahuwahine,” and other transgender people living in the Hawaiian islands, with a special emphasis on those who are people of color, through providing services in the areas of health, education, cultural and other assistance.”Read More…
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Hawaii Mourns The Loss Of U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye
A memorial service was held in honor of the late Senator at the Hawaii State Capital on Saturday and a farewell service was held at the Punchbowl National Cemetery of the Pacific on Sunday.
The blowing of the Pū — the Native Hawaiian term for a conch shell — signalled the start of Senator Inouye's memorial service and the procession began marching into the Hawaii State Capitol.
Source: neilabercrombie / via: http://Governor%20Abercrombie
The procession led by the Royal Order of Kamehameha, who are wearing traditional feather cloaks — called ʻahuʻula by the Native Hawaiians — marches on a red carpet into the Hawaii State Capitol.
Source: samayoukodomo / via: http://samayou%20kodomo
Governor Neil Abercrombie, who later spoke at the event, enters the Hawaii State Capitol.
Source: neilabercrombie / via: http://Governor%20Abercrombie
Ladies wearing ʻahuʻula await the casket of Senator Inouye at the Hawaii State Capitol.
Image by Oskar Garcia / AP
Shiver Me Timbers! Could Larry Ellison’s Sailing Team Be Gaining an Edge Through Villainy?
Come on, that’s practically a pirate flag! (Photo: flickr.com/portofsandiego)
When last we heard from maritime enthusiast Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder had just bought himself the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Now the San Jose Mercury News reports that his sailing franchise, Oracle Racing, is accused of attempting to gain an edge by espionage.
Mr. Ellison took home the America’s Cup back in 2010, which means he basically owns the franchise. If another team nabs the trophy next year, into the drink goes his attempt to turn it into a television event. Even if there wasn’t money at stake, we get the sense Mr. Ellison doesn’t like to lose.
Now, the team from Italy claims that Oracle Team USA! USA! USA! “sent a spy in an inflatable boat to take pictures of its 72-foot catamaran during training runs last month on the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand.” That’s verboten: As per the competition’s rules, you’re supposed to stay 200 meters away. (We thought this was the America’s Cup. Why are they using the metric system?)
However, it seems that sailing is a more exciting sport than we thought, and cloak-and-dagger manuvering is actually all just part of the competitive process. The Mercury News says:
“It’s part of the nature of this competition,” said Dyer Jones, an America’s Cup historian and CEO of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. “You get in the other guy’s head.”
Or, as even the spokesperson for the America’s Cup Event Authority put it: ”All is fair in love and war. That is what it boils down to.”
A sport practically built on covert ops? We shocked, shocked such a thing would appeal to a tech billionaire. … Read More
John McAfee’s Latest, Greatest Disguise Involves Tampons Up His Nose
This guy, but with shoe polish on his face. (Photo: Long Island Press)
Just when you thought the story of antivirus king John McAfee–who’s wanted for questioning by Belizean police for the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull–couldn’t get any stranger, dude goes and starts a blog about how he’s managed to evade police by posing as a dolphin carving peddler who sticks tampons up his nose.
In a blog called Who is McAfee?, which suspiciously resembles a marketing ploy for the upcoming graphic novel about his life The Hinterland, Mr. McAfee spares no details in describing exactly what it’s like to be on the run from authorities in Central America.
He writes of how he altered his appearance to avoid arrest by dying his hair and beard, darkening his skin with shoe polish and stuffing a “shaved down tampon deep into my right nostril and [dying] the tip dark brown – giving my nose an awkward, lopsided, disgusting appearance.” Whatever works?
And instead of going into hiding in some underground bunker like a normal fugitive, Mr. McAfee has adopted some not-exactly-subtle personalities, perhaps as a “screw you” to police forces that are pulling out all the stops to track him down:
On subsequent days using different disguises, I did the same general thing, one day selling tamales and burritos that I had purchased wholesale from a real vendor, on another pretending to be a drunk German tourist with a partially bandaged face and wearing speedo swimming trunks and a distasteful, oversized Hawaiian shirt and yelling loudly at anyone who would listen – “Leck mich um ausch!”. At 67 years of age it was quite a spectacle.
For the uninitiated, Google translates “Leck mich um ausch” to “Lick me to Auschwitz.”
Mr. McAfee has also put the spotlight on a 20-year-old woman named Samantha, who in addition to keeping him clothed and fed, has also used her womanly wiles to keep him out of jail:
She has also helped me evade detection by grabbing me and kissing me, in public, in a fashion that causes passerby’s to feel embarrassment at the thought of staring and by creating emotional scenes that cause the curious to momentarily forget what they were looking for. She is acutely aware of her surroundings and is as street smart as a sober hobo.
We suppose galavanting around Central America in costume with a 20-year-old who adores you is preferable to choking on your own vomit in a Belize jail. But blogging about your escapades is inadvisable when wanting to stay hidden: Now Belizean police know that if they want to find Mr. McAfee, they needn’t look any further than the dude in blackface with a tampon up his nose. … Read More
