A friend on the mainland who has been tracking news of the Superferry via earlier links on this site sent this brief bit of gossip yesterday:
had breakfast this morning with a long time friend, president of a local good sized bank–after small talk he said he had been keeping up on the superferry story and what did I know–told him my short history of it—found it interesting that he referred to it as the wal-mart of ferries–be the only one after awhile and lots of folks out of work–interesting—- from Wentzville Mo to Hawaii—–Regards…
I can’t vouch for the validity of the Wal-Mart comment, but it’s a bit of interesting data.
In other Superferry news, a comment on Joan Conrow’s blog (KauaiEclectic) yesterday notes that Kauila Clark, appointed by House Speaker Calvin Say to a spot on the Superferry Task Force, traveled to Alabama in 2004 to bless the beginning of construction of the first Superferry. The Star-Bulletin published this photo of Clark (far left) at the ceremony. The company that build the ferry’s engines reported about 50 people attended the event.
Clark returned to the Alabama shipyard earlier this year to take part in the christening and naming of the new vessel.
Clark, whose legislative testimony in favor of the Superferry bill this year was noted in at least one committee report, was identified simply as a native Hawaiian practitioner. Speaker Say, in announcing Clark’s appointment to the task force, described him the same way.
Neither noted that Clark must have been retained by the Superferry or the shipbuilder and paid for his services, along with travel and hospitality. Should he also have been described as a consultant to the company, as at least a gesture to transparency? I would think so.
I don’t know Clark and can’t predict how he will carry out his responsibilities as a task force member. But when legislators specified the task force had to include two members “active or knowledgeable in native Hawaiian cultural practices,” I doubt those most concerned about the Superferry impacts anticipated one the cultural practitioners would be so tightly associated with the Superferry and, at least at certain points in time, on the company’s payroll.
Another reader offered up this quite interesting observation on a very different topic.
I’d been meaning to mention this to you for some time, but today it looks like the Advertiser’s online obsession with the word “Hawaii” may have finally boiled over.
I’m sure I’m not the first to notice that the online edition shoves the word “Hawaii” into almost every header. It has to be an attempt to ping news filter keywords and thereby drive ad revenues, but it’s awfully annoying if you’re just trying to read the local news. Hey, maybe I’m being a stickler.
But lately, it’s crossed some sort of new threshold. The other day there was a story about “Hawaii mayor” making a friendly wager with an official from Georgia. Well, there is a Hawaii mayor, but his name isn’t Hannemann.
Then today, we see this: “Hawaii will fight EPA’s Sand Island ruling”
I don’t see a single Hawaii official quoted in that story. In fact, I don’t even see any evidence that anyone in Hawaii is going to fight the EPA ruling, but even leaving that aside, all I can surmise is that Honolulu is going to be doing the fighting. That’s a very different story.
Can we get some pushback on what appears to be a business-side decision that’s now compromising the editorial?
Hmmmm. True, there aren’t any state officials quoted in the story, but the companion story on the EPA denial of the Sand Island plant waiver does briefly quote the city’s environmental services director and chair of the city council (while again using a headline referring to a “Hawaii sewage plant” instead of a Honolulu plant).
But is it fair to say the Advertiser is overusing the word “Hawaii” manipulate keyword filters and increase ad revenue? I don’t know. Any more tech savvy folks out there have an opinion on this?
Meanwhile, we’re more than half-way through the forced evacuation. For those unfamiliar with this kind of fumigation, here’s a picture of our house under wraps. The tent is scheduled to come off early this morning, and we will be cleared to re-enter after the air tests clean, which should be by 5 p.m.
We went with Xtermco, a local company recommended by a contractor friend. We’ve used them before and would recommend them for this kind of service. Kolin, their sales rep, said they specialize in this kind of work where long term relationships with local families are a key asset. He said they do not chase the one-time “tent on sale” business via realtors, and believe their focus provides more stability.
Oh, did I mention the cats? Two, Leo and Silverman, went to spend a couple of nights at the vet. I thought it would make logistics a bit easier. I could have been wrong. Leo peed himself on the 25 minute drive, and a very pathetic cat was he.
As reported yesterday, Harry was the only one of our females to act half-way normally. Wally has stayed in her carrier except for occasional trips to the litter box. Annie didn’t come out until it was dark, but then returned to her hiding place. Kili, as far as I know, has remained hidden, although she moved into a spot where I could reach under the chair and pet her.
Right now, Wally is growling from under the chair I’m sitting in. I was able to check on her with my handy flashlight. She appears to be fine. Ditto Kili, under the next chair.
The photo? That’s Ms. Annie in her hiding place. Click on her picture for yesterday afternoon’s visual progress report.
I’ve noticed the ‘Hawaii’ thing for a while, too, and I guess since my day job involves similar strategies, I didn’t think too much of it.
And I also thought maybe it was because they were writing both for the national wire and their own pages (as the Bloom Picayune would probably go with ‘Hawaii mayor’ too).
But now that your reader pointed it out, I’ve also noticed that they’ve started inserting ‘hawaii’ into the URL of every local news story. For example, hawaii712110364.html, hawaii712110363.html, and so on. All that ‘Hawaii’ keyword chumming is classic SEO, and no doubt helps with Google News and other indexes.
I agree that going overboard with the headlines to the articles themselves, though, is a bit troubling. Who are they writing for? Local readers? Or robots?