Surfers from around the world converged on Oahu’s north shore for an elite invitation-only event to the top competitors in the sport. As reported in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the event has been held only seven times in the past 20 years, the event features a purse over $50,000, and only takes place when waves are generally over 30 feet. 
The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational honors the life of former Waimea Bay lifeguard and surfer Eddie Aikau, who was never found after he paddled off for help when the Hokulea capsized in rough seas in 1978. Someday, I’d like to get back to Hawaii during the winter to see these waves and to watch the whales come through in their seasonal migration, but I did get to photograph the windsurfers on Maui’s north shore during our honeymoon in 2003.
All posts by jetrotz
MCE Envy
It’s Italian. It has a built-in touchscreen. It’s freaking gorgeous. It’s the most lust-inducing Windows Media Center Edition PC I’ve seen to date. The specs – 7” 1280×720 VGA touchscreen, dual layer DVD burner and 500gbHD, dual SD tuners, plus FM and integrated Wi-Fi. I don’t speak Italian, but their web site is worth a look. Meanwhile, it’s been like six weeks since I ordered an Alienware DHS – and no sign of it yet.LINK to Oncinema web site (Italian).
AP Complicit? Let’s not jump to any conclusions
Salon.com has a roundup on the recent hullaballoo (pay subscription or brief commercial viewing required for access) around the AP photographer who captured that brazen daylight execution of several Iraqi poll workers last week. Conservative bloggers (e.g. “Wretchard” of the Belmont Blog Club, whatever that is) have suggested AP’s complicity in these events. Perhaps, they say, the photographer knew what was going to happen. Huh? How do they jump to this conclusion. Unlike my earlier post surrounding Kevin Sites catching the apparent execution of a wounded combatant, this case could be more questionable – but the facts don’t really support this speculation. Rather than point a finger at the old leftist media, this case shows how unstable Iraq remains. Cold blooded daylight assasination in the middle of public streets – looks like we have a ways to go with this whole ‘democracy’ thing over there.
Fable Does NOT Suck
So I’m pissed at Gamespot. In their annual wrap-up of the year in gaming, they have chosen Fable as the winner of the dubious ‘Most Disappointing’ category. Yeah, yeah – I know someone has to win, but Peter Molyneux’s outstanding game really didn’t deserve it. Sure, Molyneux has a big mouth – and led the gaming public on to expect all sorts of subtelty which wasn’t eventually in the game, leading to his public apology, but gimme a break. The game was *extremely* open-ended, and the way you could influence your character’s appearance via morality was unprecedented. And a hell of a lot of fun to play. Gamespot did get one thing right – Silent Storm is the best game of 2004 that nobody played.