Hawaii Audubon disavows peacock kill
The board of directors of Hawaii Audubon Society acknowledges and supports the concerns of both our members and the general public regarding the sudden culling in July of peacocks at the Waimea Valley Audubon Center (Star-Bulletin, Aug. 3).However, we wish to clarify that the Waimea Valley Audubon Center is managed and funded by the National Audubon Society, now known as the Audubon Society, on land leased from the City and County of Honolulu.
The Hawaii Audubon Society was founded in 1939 as an independent, nonprofit membership association. It became a certified chapter of the National Audubon Society in 1978, but continues to function independently in all fiscal, policy and programmatic matters. Hawaii Audubon Society board members and employees had no advance knowledge of the culling or further information beyond that printed in the local newspapers at the time of the event.
President
Hawaii Audubon Society
Town meetings' goal is to inform residents
In response to the story "State forum criticized as unduly political" (Star-Bulletin, Aug. 17): I wanted to share some background on our Waipahu Town Meetings.Last Tuesday, state Sens. Cal Kawamoto, Brian Kanno and Willie Espero; and Reps. Alex Sonson, Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo and I sponsored our sixth Waipahu Town Meeting. The topic I chose as the coordinator was "Reforming Education," with invitations sent out on June 16 to Superintendent of Education Patricia Hamamoto, House Education Chairman Rep. Roy Takumi, Complex Area Superintendent Karen Moriyama and all principals from the Waipahu Complex Schools.
Our intention was to inform the community about the Reinventing Education Act of 2004.
Further, we wanted to have the principals share their goals and needs for their schools. Our town meetings are just part of our coordinated effort to inform our community on legislative issues.
D, Waikele-Royal Kunia-Village Park-Waipahu
Teleconferees got taste of island humor
As a science and distance learning teacher at the Education Laboratory School, I was recently asked by a school in Japan to take part in an international multimedia teleconference on humor and jokes for some Japanese English teachers. My task was to cover the topic English, Hawaiian and political jokes. I thought they were kidding and -- jokingly -- said they needed someone like Star-Bulletin humor columnist Charles Memminger.Memminger agreed to take part and join me even though it involved the use of some communications technologies new to him. I most appreciated his advice, suggestions of sites, and his agreement to write an introductory welcome and statement about his work as a humorist.
As the July 25 session began, I knew there would be challenges due to the English-as-a-second-language situation for most of the participants. It was confirmed as I played back Memminger's opening comments and someone typed on the screen, "What's satire?" after he mentioned the word. Well, hopefully they gained a better idea of satire after two hours of jokes and even a couple cartoons -- thanks to the Star-Bulletin's archives of Corky's Hawaii.
There were some pretty long periods of silence while the teleconferencing participants viewed the Web site-posted jokes or cartoons trying to figure out the humor. It did take some further information of terms, concepts or cultural traditions to elicit posting of "yes, I get it" from the participants.
I very much appreciate Memminger's patience, understanding and help to get this novice in humor through a challenging, but exciting, new experience.
Distance Learning Enrichment Programming
Education Laboratory School
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Beware protesters defending ugly streets
Kalakaua Avenue was ugly and in great need of beautification. It offered tourists little and locals less. The mayor and others drew up plans to beautify that area, but cries of anguished residents rose to the heavens. "Our neighborhood will be ruined, our streets will be forever congested, our traffic will slow down and our parking will be disrupted," they cried. The mayor persisted, and Kalakaua Avenue became beautiful. Now tourists and locals enjoy the green trees, wide sidewalks, the hula performances on the shore, and the beach brunches and the fun movies. Shoulder to shoulder, locals and tourists enjoy the improvements.Now Kuhio Avenue is ugly and in great need of beautification. The mayor and others have drawn up plans to beautify that street and again cries of anguished residents arise. Fortunately, the mayor has persisted and Kuhio Avenue will soon be more beautiful. Tourists and locals will enjoy the large shade trees along the street, the wider sidewalks and the other improvements.
Today, parts of the Ala Wai Boulevard are very ugly. Once again the mayor and others have made plans to beautify this street, and the cries of anguished residents have begun to arise again. I hope the mayor will persist and we will soon see enhanced beauty along Ala Wai Boulevard, fewer mice and rats, and better bike paths. Then the critics can move inland one more street and begin protecting a truly ugly street (Young Street) from those fearful beautification terrorists.
Honolulu
Columnists too hard on unproven mineral
The March 29 "Health Options" column by Joanie Dobbs and Alan Titchenal failed to disclose the mineral indium's position in the Periodic Table near crucial elements zinc, gallium, germanium and others I believe indium improves the low-absorption of, with its position next to cadmium displacing its toxic effects.There has never been a case of industrial poisoning from indium, and animal studies mentioned in the column that used indium in toxic megadoses by I.V. injections helped determine its toxicity levels. The article neglects disclosing anti-cancer effects on thousands of mice and three U.S. patents of nutritional indium discoverer Bonadio without toxic effect, or reports from thousands of satisfied indium consumers over 30 years without toxicity. Great inventions are first thought of as being impossible before slow acceptance over time.
I believe proper indium use feeds back health and age-retarding experiences from real people in real-life situations, preferred to skewed studies by incompetent egoists or lack thereof by disinterested scientists.
This article is a disservice to your intelligent readership interested in, and deserving, new concepts and nutritional advances.
Owner Sunrise Trading Company
Malibu, Calif.
Editor's note: Sunrise Trading Company markets and sells an indium-based product as a nutritional supplement. Dobbs and Titchenal are professional nutritionists who stand by their comments in the "Health Options" column.
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