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Hawaii Film Partners’ animated series of 38 episodes of Ape Escape for Nickelodeon’s NickToons™ will premiere on the cable network on July 5th 2009 at 3:00 pm EDT & PDT. Subsequently, Ape Escape episodes will air each Sunday during the 3:00 pm time slot. Ape Escape was animated at Hawaii Film Partners’ animation facility in Hawaii Kai on O’ahu.

Based on Sony PlayStation’s popular 1999 interactive game of the same name, Ape Escape is executive produced by Rann Watumull, Gina Watumull, David Jackson, Shauna Shapiro Jackson; Fred Seibert and Kevin Kolde of the Frederator Studios; Rick Privman, and Yumiko Miyano of SONY. Konnie Kwak is the producer and Karl Toerge (Ratzafratz) is the supervising director. Music is composed by Mike Reagan. The title music is composed by David Jackson.

“This is an historic project in that it marks the first time a television program was animated in Hawaii for a national TV network,” says Rann Watumull of Hawaii Film Partners and one of Ape Escape’s executive producers. “We wanted to create a synergy between the interactive game and the animated episode series, and bring the Ape Escape characters to life in a very humorous and fun-filled program. We’ve specifically written the episodes for an audience ages 6-13 who have never played the game. Yet we also have made it entertainment that will be appealing to any age,” he concludes.

Hawaii Film Partners has financed the production of Ape Escape and has worldwide rights across all media with NickToons™ being awarded the broadcast rights in the United States for a three-year period. Hawaii Film Partners teamed up with Showcase Entertainment to exclusively distribute Ape Escape in all international territories. The project is a co-production with Frederator Studios, one of the largest and most prolific independent animation studios. Some of their recent projects include The Fairly Odd Parents!, My Life as a Teenage Robot™ and Chalk Zone for Nickelodeon, and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! for Nick Jr.

Rann and Gina Watumull are co-founders and senior executives at Hawaii Film Partners based in Honolulu. With the goal to help build a valuable and indigenous film industry in Hawaii, Hawaii Film Partners is dedicated to producing motion pictures and television productions on the Hawaiian Islands using local location services and personnel.

David Jackson and Shauna Shapiro Jackson are president and executive vice president respectively of Showcase Entertainment, a worldwide film distribution company, and are co-owners and senior executives of Hawaii Film Partners along with Rann and Gina Watumull. Goodsill, Anderson, Quinn & Stifel, Hawaii’s largest law firm also is a minority owner of Hawaii Film Partners.

Hawaii Film Partners recently completed production on the feature film “You May Not Kiss the Bride,” starring Rob Schneider, Dave Annable, Mena Suvari, Katharine McPhee, Vinnie Jones, Tia Carrere, Ken Davitian and Kevin Dunn. Their first project was the acclaimed and award-winning international hit television series for Discovery Kids, “Flight 29 Down” that is still airing in over 100 countries. Rounding out Hawaii Film Partners ambitious slate is the original animated television series “Guardians of the Power Masks” which marked an historic international partnership with the City of Changzhou in China and the Gagwon Information Multi-Media Corporation (GIMC) in South Korea. Production of the series is on-going in Hawaii Film Partners’ animation studio in Honolulu and at its partners’ studios in South Korea and in the People’s Republic of China.

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam today announced the formation of the Ulupono Initiative, a social investment firm dedicated to improving the quality of life for Hawai‘i’s residents through sustainability. The organization will invest in local businesses and philanthropic organizations focused on renewable energy, local food production, and waste reduction.

The Ulupono Initiative seeks to energize the state’s economy and increase its self-reliance through these investments. Local business executives E. Kyle Datta and Robin Campaniano will co-lead the Ulupono Initiative as general partners.

“Pam and I are inspired by the ideas and hard work of the many people leading sustainability efforts in Hawai‘i today,” said Pierre Omidyar, founder and sponsor of the Ulupono Initiative. “We look forward to working with the local community for many years as we discover new ways to improve the quality of life for everyone who calls Hawai‘i home.”

Based in Honolulu, the Ulupono Initiative will make investments in organizations and companies with creative ideas and business models that provide pathways toward sustainability.

“I am honored to be part of this team and look forward to putting my business background to work in a way that will help strengthen Hawai‘i’s economy,” said Campaniano, general partner, Ulupono Initiative. “Our investment strategy is dependent upon finding and supporting innovative sustainability ideas and business models that have the potential to make a significant difference for Hawai‘i.

“To achieve this, the Ulupono Initiative will provide capital and strategic assistance to a variety of organizations, including small and large businesses and philanthropies, on O‘ahu and neighbor islands,” Campaniano said.

Ulupono – meaning to prosper through the right, or pono, path – is a concept already familiar to Hawai‘i’s residents. Across the islands, people are already pioneering ways to change how they power their homes, feed their families, and how much they throw away.

“A truly sustainable island society must be able to consistently and affordably provide its residents with basic necessities like food and energy while also finding ways to effectively manage waste,” said Datta, general partner, Ulupono Initiative. “The Ulupono Initiative will support and help scale local ideas that can help bring about Hawai‘i’s transformation to sustainability and that might also provide a demonstration effect for others.”

The tastes and talents of Hawaii will take center stage in the national spotlight on Thursday as President Barack Obama, the first president from the Aloha State, hosts the first-ever White House luau.

The South Lawn luau is a twist on the annual Congressional picnic for members of Congress and their families and will feature the best in contemporary Hawaiian cuisine with a menu created by award-winning chef Alan Wong, whose Honolulu restaurant has been recognized as one of the best in America and the Pacific Rim.

Along with Hawaii’s finest delicacies, the evening will feature Hawaii’s largest entertainment company, Tihati Productions. The program will include 20 dancers and musicians from Hawaii showcasing the historical and cultural stories of the islands through traditional song and dance, known as hula.

“President Obama is bringing the Hawaii family spirit of ‘ohana’ to the White House and to all Americans through the first White House luau,” stated John Monahan, president and CEO of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.

“We hope our mainland compatriots take this opportunity to learn about the culture and cuisine of our islands, and we welcome all Americans to come share in the Aloha spirit that makes Hawaii such a wonderful place for both vacation and business,” Monahan stated. “Hawaii offers vacationers and business travelers the chance to experience one-of-a-kind cultural, culinary and recreational offers in a very convenient, affordable and beautiful setting.”

Thursday’s luau will spotlight Hawaii’s contemporary cuisine, which is based upon the freshest ingredients from the land and sea and which combines all of the ethnic influences that have contributed so much to Hawaii.

“This event gives us a chance to showcase to all Americans the Hawaiian contemporary cuisine that is based on fresh local ingredients and which blends all of the island’s many ethnic influences,” stated Alan Wong, whose Honolulu restaurant was rated No. 8 in the United States by Gourmet magazine.

Bishop Museum is reducing its admission price tomorrow to $5 per adult and $3 for children ages four and under. The museum says the discount is being offered because it has temporarily closed its Hawaiian Hall Complex for maintenance work, but notes that these reduced prices can not be combined with discount coupons or other promotions.

Regular admission rates will resume on Thursday, June 25, 2009. The Museum is still closed on Tuesdays.

Exhibits that are available include:

• Backyard Monsters: The World of Insects (Castle Memorial Building)
  This exhibit features six robotic insects that are between 10 and 12 feet in length, including a twelve-foot tarantula, a giant paper wasp, a Monarch butterfly, fighting beetles, and a tomato caterpillar. Backyard Monsters also includes nine insect display cases and interactive exhibits that allow visitors to explore bug sounds, insect vision, and discover the worldwide insect population. The exhibition has seven display cases of exotic insects such as longhorn beetles, butterflies, moths and arachnids.
• Pauahi: A Legacy for Hawaii (Castle Memorial Building)
  This exhibit features items from many of the early collections at Bishop Museum, valued treasures associated with Hawaiian ali‘i, and striking examples of Hawaiian mastery.
• Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center
  This three-floor gallery centers on Hawai‘i’s unique natural environment and offers a number of hands-on exhibits, a lava demonstration, and more.

Also included in the admission rate are the planetarium shows and the Science on a Sphere exhibit that take place in the Jhamandas Watamull Planetarium. The popular Music and Dance of Hawai‘i hula program will take place in the Atherton Hālau.

For more information please call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.

Rep. Gene Ward today announced formation of a shark task force. “The purpose of the task force is to engage the community in the two important issues of enforcement and legislation,” Ward said. “State law forbids the practice of chumming or the feeding of sharks from the shoreline to three miles offshore, and federal law prohibits the practice beyond 3 miles up to 200 miles, but there is really no enforcement of these laws.”

Ward’s legislative office is now drafting legislation to vet with Hawaii Kai/East Honolulu community that will create a ban on the commercial practice of shark feeding tours but will exempt educational and scientific research while at the same time allowing for traditional Hawaii cultural practices.

Formation of the task force follows a town hall meeting co-sponsored by Ward’s office last April that attracted over 400 angry members of the Hawaii Kai community, as well as a legislative information briefing that was later held at the Hawaii State Legislature in May of 2009.

“Legislation will be discussed in future town hall meetings in Hawaii Kai starting around the middle of July, and we hope all members of the community will weigh in, including the shark tour operators.” Ward concluded.

Charcoal (lower right), found under a lava flow, provides valuable clues to the past eruptive history of a volcano.

The key to unlocking the geologic secrets of a volcano’s future is its past. The further back we can peer into the past and delve into Pele’s secrets, the better we can understand eruptive behaviors of Hawai`i’s volcanoes. Examining data from long spans of time paints a clearer picture of a volcano’s eruptive history which, in turn, allows us to better appraise future volcanic activity.

But how can we be sure of a Hawaiian volcano’s eruptive history when written records began only 170 years ago? In terms of geologic time, 170 years is a mere blink of an eye, so we must use unwritten stories—those recorded by volcanoes themselves—to delve deeper into the past.

In 1980, geologists Jack Lockwood and Peter Lipman discovered that dating charcoal collected from beneath lava flows is a viable way to determine the ages of past eruptions. The technique, radiocarbon dating, was also used by archeologists to date cultural sites.

So, what’s unique about charcoal and how is it used to date volcanic events? Charcoal can be created when lava flows incinerate a forest. As lava buries vegetation, some of the plant material is reduced to ashes like those produced in your fireplace. Vegetation that is not completely burned up is preserved in the form of charcoal.

Carbon is commonplace in nature. In the atmosphere, the ratio of radioactive carbon-14 (C-14) to nonradioactive carbon-13 (C-13) and carbon-12 (C-12) is constant. During photosynthesis, a plant assimilates carbon (this particular ratio of C-14, C-13, and C-12) into the basic building blocks for leaves, branches, stem, and roots. As soon as the plant dies, however, the ratio begins to change as C-14 decays to C-13 or C-12.

The rate at which C-14 decays is well known, which enables scientists to use the ratio of radioactive to nonradioactive carbon to determine how much time has passed since the charcoal was created-a radiocarbon age. These ages are reported as years before present where “present” is 1950, the year when hydrogen bomb tests artificially produced C-14 and altered atmospheric carbon ratios.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal can help determine the ages of lava flows up to about 50,000 years ago, which is the upper limit of this technique. Even with this limit, 50,000 years of eruptive history provides a much better indication of a volcano’s future behavior than 170 years of written records. The ages of older lava flows, like those on Kohala and most of Mauna Kea, must be determined using methods other than radiocarbon dating.

Collecting charcoal requires skill—and some luck—so we would like to solicit the help of Hawai`i island residents. We ask that you watch for charcoal, usually in the form of a dark black, sooty layer beneath lava flows, anytime you dig a septic system, excavate for cesspool, or grade a foundation.

If you find charcoal, the first thing to do is call HVO (808-967-7328) and let us collect a sample. If that’s not possible, you can collect it yourself. For the charcoal to be useful in revealing a volcano’s past, we need the following additional information with each sample.

We must know where you found the charcoal as accurately as possible. Note the location with GPS, mark it on a map, or include an address. In addition, take a photo or make a sketch of the charcoal in place, including the overlying lava flow. Put the charcoal in a sealed plastic bag, and collect a fist-sized piece of the overlying rock. Finally, call HVO for mailing or drop-off instructions or to arrange for pick-up.

The more we know about your charcoal sample, the more valuable it is and the greater help it provides. Proper documentation is the only difference between a valuable radiocarbon age and hibachi fuel.

By sleuthing out the eruptive history of Hawai`i’s active volcanoes, HVO can better understand and forecast future volcanic activity. Lend us hand by looking for charcoal to date our volcanoes.

Kilauea Activity Update

The breakout within the Royal Gardens subdivision remained active as of Thursday, June 11, but had diminished greatly compared to the previous week. A small breakout on the coastal plain active late last week was stagnant by early this week. No other active surface flows have been reported. The Waikupanaha and Kupapa`u ocean entries continue to produce prominent plumes as lava spills into the ocean.

At Kilauea’s summit, the vent within Halema`uma`u Crater continues to emit elevated amounts of volcanic gas, resulting in high concentrations of sulfur dioxide downwind. Bright glow from the vent was visible at night through the past week. Visits to the vent by HVO geologists have verified that lava remains at a fairly constant level about 100 meters (yards) below the floor of Halema`uma`u crater.

One earthquake beneath Hawai`i Island was reported felt this past week. A magnitude-2.2 earthquake occurred at 4:14 p.m., H.s.t, on Sunday, June 7, 2009, and was located 13 km (8 miles) west of Kawaihae at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).

Visit the HVO Web site for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea activity summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov. Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Lava in Kîlauea’s summit vent creates a nighttime glow that can be safely observed from the Jaggar Museum overlook in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park or on the HVO Webcam. Inset image shows the lava surface, which was moving from top center to lower left at the time it was taken.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website was recently revamped to make access to our increasing number of Webcams easier for viewers and the HVO staff who post Webcam images. All HVO Webcams are now linked through a single menu.

The menu lists our five Webcams showing Moku`aweoweo, Mauna Loa summit caldera, the TEB vent and lava tube system on Kilauea’s east rift zone, Pu`u `O`o crater, and two views of the Halema`uma`u vent – one from HVO and another from the rim of Halema`uma`u crater immediately above the new vent.

Webcams allow us to make critical measurements with relatively little risk. The Webcams can work in rain, wind, very high concentrations of sulfur dioxide, and even moderate amounts of ash blasted from the vent. They can be in areas where access is restricted for safety reasons. Webcams can be where people should not.

Two of our Webcams have shown active lava in recent days. On Tuesday night, the TEB Webcam caught active flows near the top of the abandoned Royal Gardens subdivision. As an added treat, the Webcam also caught lights from a cruise ship passing the Kalapana shoreline in the late evening getting good views of the active flows and the Waikupanaha ocean entry.

The Webcams that chronicle developments below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater have recorded lots of glow since early May. In fact, the recent glow has been the brightest since October 2008. The brightness of the glow is due to molten lava circulating in a narrow conduit about 100 m below the crater floor and about 180 m below the crater rim.

The Webcam located on the rim of Halema`uma`u was recently repositioned to look directly into the vent for views of the circulating lava when clear enough. The wispiness of the gas plume and the relative shallowness of the molten lava have allowed some good views recently. The vent is masked by sunlit fume during the day and is overexposed at night so the best times to look at Webcam views of lava are at dusk and dawn.

The unwavering Webcam views will allow us to better monitor the rise and fall of the lava within the vent. HVO geologists have also recorded video of the lava surface that shows some fascinating movements. The lava emerges from the right side of the Webcam view and flows left across the opening. The flowing lava surface looks chaotic with lots of splashing and bursting bubbles —activity that produces the tephra that is carried aloft by the hot, rising gas and deposited on the rim.

Two recent Volcano Watches have discussed reasons for lava circulation using a lava lamp analogy. Magma must be convecting with the conduit, like the “goo” in a lava lamp, bringing hot, bubble-rich lava to the surface while allowing cooler, bubble-poor lava to sink.

Looking at lava within the Halema`uma`u vent conduit is like watching a lava lamp from above through a hole in the top, all the goo colored orange, and blobs being gas bubbles that burst when they get to the top.

Views from the Halema`uma`u Webcam should allow us to test our ideas about what precedes brown plumes and explosive eruptions. Do rocks fall from vent walls into the molten circulating lava trigger a vigorous gas release which could carry even more spatter and rock dust out of the vent. Or are the brown plumes and more energetic explosive eruptions initiated by a big slug of gas coming up the conduit.

For safety reasons, Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park restricts access to the entire caldera including Crater Rim Drive from Jaggar Museum south to the Chain of Craters Road intersection. Thanks to the HVO Webcams, we can all see what’s happening from much safer vantage points.

Kilauea Activity Update

A deflation/inflation (DI) event at the summit of Kilauea last weekend disrupted the supply of lava through the tube system and caused the Waikupanaha and Kupapa`u ocean entries to shut down. Both entries had resumed by mid-week, accompanied by breakouts near the top of Royal Gardens subdivision and just inland from Kupapa`u.

At Kilauea’s summit, the vent within Halema`uma`u Crater continues to emit elevated amounts of sulfur dioxide gas, resulting in high concentrations of sulfur dioxide downwind. Vigorously upwelling lava within the vent below the crater floor produced bright glow at night, loud gas-rushing noises, and the emission of juvenile ash during the past week.

One earthquake beneath Hawai`i Island was reported felt this past week. A magnitude-3.4 earthquake occurred at 3:55 p.m., H.s.t, on Saturday, May 30, 2009, and was located 9 km (6 miles) southwest of Kilauea Summit at a depth of 26 km (16 miles).

Visit the HVO website for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea activity summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov. Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Two Maui public libraries will kick off their 2009 HSPLS Children’s Summer Reading Programs in June by hosting “Crossroads,” an original play for children. Admission is free.

“Crossroads,” written by Tom Althouse, and presented by Heart Tours, is a tale of two bumbling pirates and a talking parrot. The three set out on a quest with only a treasure map, enduring slippery jungles and mysterious mountains that lead to crossroads, where decisions must be made.

The Friends of the Library of Hawaii is sponsoring the 45-minute performances: suitable for children ages 3 and older, accompanied by a
parent or caregiver:

• June 15 (Monday), 10:30 a.m. – Wailuku Public Library (251 High St.; ph. 243-5766)
• June 19 (Friday), 10:30 a.m. – Kihei Public Library (35 Waimahaihai St.; ph. 875-6833)

Heart Tours is a local Maui full production children’s touring company. It provides original musicals with thought-provoking themes, and original songs created to inspire children.

Contact the hosting library as soon as possible if a sign language interpreter or other special accommodation is needed. For more information, please call the hosting library.

The Hawaii Department of Health will receive $30,352,300 through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which provides low interest loans to local communities to build wastewater treatment facilities and other water pollution abatement projects. The federal fund was created in 1987, and was reauthorized by Congress in March to invest $13.8 billion in water quality projects over the next five years.

The funding was announced today by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

“The Clean Water State Revolving Fund has been major source of funds to help Hawaii develop water and wastewater capacity.” Abercrombie said. “Right now, Kauai County needs to expand the Waimea Wastewater Plant, which can only take in 300,000 gallons. This is causing them to refuse some new sewer hookups because they’re at 90% capacity. Clean Water grants could help them expand that capacity.”

Another $19,500,000 is targeted to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for drinking water system improvements. This program also emphasizes funding for small and disadvantaged communities and to programs that encourage pollution prevention as a tool for ensuring safe drinking water.

“These grants address a public health issue across the country, but nowhere more urgent than in Honolulu. We’ve seen firsthand what happens when aging water and waster systems system can’t keep up with demand,” Abercrombie said.

As uncertainty over the H1N1 ‘swine flu’ virus spreads around the world, a Hawaii-based project is resorting to an innovative strategy to engage people in protecting themselves and their communities: online gaming.

Designers at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies (HRCFS) are staging a collaborative game called Coral Cross, using game techniques to encourage participants across the islands, and beyond, to become better informed and share their views about the health crisis, including priority groups for an eventual vaccine.

“The only thing that spreads faster than a virus is information,” said project lead Stuart Candy. “Players will take concrete action trying to outpace swine flu, by spreading pandemic-preparedness knowledge faster than the disease can travel.”

Commissioned by the Hawaii Department of Health in 2008, and funded by the US federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Coral Cross was originally intended to simulate the effects of a near-future global influenza outbreak on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and to collect critical public feedback. At the time, would-be players were generations removed from the experience of a pandemic, so the designers chose to create a ‘playable scenario’ to immerse people in a hypothetical global flu pandemic.

However, in late April, just weeks before the game was scheduled to launch — and with other parts of the Hawaii Health Department’s pandemic preparedness effort already live — an astonishing coincidence occurred. The real flu crisis struck. “The day after our production team filmed a mock pandemic press conference set in 2012, we were watching a real one,” said Candy, “It made our alternate reality premise redundant, and called for an urgent change of strategy.”

HRCFS is now retrofitting Coral Cross to ‘game’ the current swine flu crisis, and although the launch date remains unchanged, the project now aims to support real-life pandemic preparedness against the backdrop of current events. In late May, the public will be able to decode pandemic-related health information, collaborate around emergency preparedness — and potentially influence policy. Although the strain of H1N1 currently circulating is less deadly than feared at first, the World Health Organization and CDC have cautioned that it is infecting people of all ages, and a mutation in the fall or winter could see a fiercer strain take hold in a subsequent pandemic ‘wave’.

The genre of so-called ‘serious games’ offers an increasingly popular way to engage and inform participants around hypothetical situations, and to prepare for alternative futures. In recent years, ‘Alternate Reality Games’ like After Shock and World Without Oil have proved effective in helping people imagine how their lives could be affected by large-scale systemic changes, such as an earthquake or oil crisis. Building on this genre, and with years of experience consulting on alternative futures, the HRCFS team spent months of research and development creating a plausible scenario, with accompanying media and artifacts from their hypothetical pandemic.

In the spotlight was the Coral Cross of Oahu, a fictional emergency preparedness and response agency, which was established in September 2011 after a category 5 hurricane hit the island. “The Coral Cross of Oahu was imagined as a grassroots network, a product of Obama-era public service and web savvy, organizing community responses ahead of large-scale government intervention,” explains designer Matthew Jensen. “It also played on current trends in social media and gameplay to encourage vigilance in the face of a long-term pandemic threat – perhaps an idea ahead of its time.”

These core principles, part of the narrative pre-design, now guide the redesign process. “Coral Cross switched from being an Alternate Reality Game to an Emergent Reality Game when the pandemic emerged as a real threat,” adds Jensen. While the design team has aimed to make this a fun, rewarding play experience, they also see it as an opportunity to provide real service to communities, families, and health authorities, spreading knowledge and responsible behavior in the midst of an actual health crisis.

“The Coral Cross suddenly went from being a future story element to a prototype for what a real, bottom-up emergency response could look like,” says project consultant Jake Dunagan. “So, as the future invaded our present, we found ourselves asking ‘What would Coral Cross do?’”

According to experience designer Nathan Verrill, the Coral Cross would motivate citizens through whatever means possible. “Even in the face of a real threat, gameplay influences behavior in a fun and engaging way,” says Verrill. “We believe that gaming principles will help keep participants focused over a longer period of time, helping spread useful knowledge, while we crowdsource ideas and feedback that can influence public policy.”

Though the H1N1 pandemic may not yet evolve into the global catastrophe that the 2012 ‘alternate reality’ narrative originally related, the designers are confident that their Emergent Reality Game will expose citizen-players to key possibilities, encouraging the kind of collaboration and skills that will help to keep them safe, whatever the future may hold.

Time will tell.

Participants can pre-register for Coral Cross at coralcross.org.