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Brief asides


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POSTED: Friday, May 14, 2010

HEALTHY SERVING

Wal-Mart takes lead in fight against hunger

Maybe it was just part of a shrewd ploy to deflect attention from the fact that it had just agreed to pay up to $86 million to settle a lawsuit regarding alleged failure to pay certain wages to 232,000 former workers in California. Or maybe it was just a really wonderful thing to do, ramping up a policy it started in 2005 to help desperate Americans put food on their tables. Either way, Wal-Mart Corp. deserves praise for ramping up its charitable food-distribution efforts to the tune of $2 billion over the next five years — one of the largest corporate gifts on record, according to The New York Times. Almost one-third of the food Wal-Mart is donating this year will be fresh, the paper reported, “;and one of the first cash gifts out of the new grant will go to increasing the number of refrigerated trucks delivering food to food banks.”;

Margaret McKenna, Wal-Mart Foundation president, said, “;Hunger is just a huge problem, and as the largest grocer in the country, we need to be at the head of the pack in doing something about it.”;

 

GET ROLLING

It's all happening at the zoo

Take a hike — no, wait, make that bike.

Sunday is Bike to the Zoo Day, so anyone who rides a bicycle to the Honolulu Zoo on that day will get in free, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It's a great incentive to get a bit of exercise, and to spend quality time with the kids and/or critters. Bicyclists are advised to use the Monsarrat Avenue gate.

 

FACING FACTS

Social networks sometimes not so friendly

Could personal privacy be making a comeback in the Internet age? Oversharing became a lucrative habit for savvy self-promoters who turned an endless variety of once-taboo subjects into online hits. But there are signs that the ardor for such a “;warts and all”; approach is cooling. The latest evidence: Facebook, under pressure from users of the popular social network, is rolling out new security features designed to thwart malicious cyberattacks and fix the glitch that some users exploited to get supposedly private information about their “;friends.”;