Hawaii's poetry slam team made quite a splash last year at the national poetry slam competition in St. Louis. You can watch their inspiring performances in a new documentary on the subject called "Hawaii Slam: Poetry in Paradise". Not only does it help break a few ugly stereotypes about Hawaii, but it also shows cutting-edge slam poets pushing the boundaries of the art form:

Honolulu was recently ranked as the fourth most expensive place to live in the U.S. lately, behind New York, San Francisco, and San Jose, CA:

Will an environmental impact statement requirement kill Hawaii's inter-island Superferry? This article explains the issues involved, and why an EIS may not really be needed. In any case, could it not be done in parallel with the project?

I went to the last meeting of 106 Miles, a new Silicon Valley entrepreneur's group organized by Joyce Park, my colleague at CommerceNet. If you'd like to get your finger on the pulse of the Valley these days, here's Adam Rifkin's excellent recap and transcript of the first 106 Miles meeting, which featured Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, ex-co-founders of Excite:

The next meeting will be on "Fundamentals of Financing for Founders":

New groovy stuff from the DEMO 2005 conference! Here's Bubbler, an app that allows you to make your own multimedia blogs, from Five Across:

Here's the latest in digital paper prototypes:

The Intellifit system is a 360-degree body scanner that creates accurate measurements in 10 seconds. Ever seen the 1981 sci-fi movie "Looker"?

MD Robotics showed off its instant scene modeler, which creates 3D scenes from digital photos:

Scientists create the first deafness "cure" using gene therapy:

U.S. scientists have created a robot arm that can be manipulated by thought alone:

The mating scent of the German cockroach has been found - here's the clever methods scientists used:

This was deservedly popular this week - a great list of the top 100 gadgets of all time:

The first sub-$100 five-megapixel digital camera:

The 21-inch Wacom touch-screen flat-planel display:

The transparent TV, projected on holographic film:

The DJammer, HP Labs' digital music scratching tool:

GoDaddy is offering free one-year SSL certificates to open source projects:

Online creative guy zefrank made a nice movie of his Valentine's Day thoughts:

Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal ponders the state and future of blogging:

You can now order pizza directly from the online multiplayer game Everquest, which has over 400,000 global subscribers:

A review of the latest homemade flight simulators from the last few years:

It's true, the International Monetary Fund bankrupts the Third World, as noted by a former banker in this article mentioned last year:

Now Roger Ebert gives his take on two new documentaries that address the subject:

The grisly story of Manadel al-Jamadi, which just became fully known - he died in Abu Ghraib while hung from his wrists:

Iraq vets at the Walter Reed Hospital are discouraged from making the connection between military duty and post-traumatic stress disorder:

Bush and Kerry - a visual comparison:

A muralist is jailed for painting breasts in a Michelangelo reproduction on a wall outside his studio:

The Weekly Gloom and Doom

New proof of manmade global warming, thanks to a study of ocean temperature over 40 years:

If nothing's done, acid seas will kill off coral in 70 years:

The arctic is becoming a "chemical waste sump" - there's DDT in higher concentrations there than in the countries that made it:

U.S. cities are increasingly looking into tapping ocean waves for power:

Chloroflourocarbon-free expanded polystyrene housing can withstand the worst earthquakes recorded and is energy-efficient too:

A nice-looking floating homes prototype:

Central Park's Gates - here are QuickTime VR panoramas:

And here's a really big satellite photo showing the entire park. That's a lot of curtains:

The Grafik Dynamo assembles random words and images from the Web into strangely compelling and surreal comic strips:

Intricate snow sculptures from the International Snow Championships 2005:

A trippy 3D kaleidoscope:

The company behind it also made this eye candy:

Funny finger artistry. Select "GB" and then "videos":

This is not new, but I must have forgotten to mention it here last year - the elegantly designed Toro(tm) tissue ring!

Lots of retro album cover designs here at the Mod Pop Punk archives:

Jazz composer Maric Schneider is likely the first artist ever to win a Grammy for an album that was solely distributed on the Web: