Tag Archives: Bushboys Last on the Card

I’m not that popular

A sudden spike in my blog views

This weekend, when I logged into my WordPress account, I was startled to see that my blog views had skyrocketed overnight. My usual numbers are anywhere from 50 to 150. On Saturday I logged 27, 768.

This wasn’t due to the fantastic post that day because, despite all those views, the number of likes and comments was distinctly average. The number of visitors was only marginally higher. Since this post is number 3,538, that meant a few people had looked at every single post on this site at least six times, on the same day!

There is a simple answer of course. My blog has not been visited by people, suddenly interested in life on the Big Island. It’s been scoured by AI scrapers, which harvest information, copyrighted or not, for training the various AI models. This is nothing new. Tech companies have been gathering data from everyone on the web for years. AI training is just a boost in the scale of this behavior. But rest assured, it’s all for our benefit. It’s so that those AI models will be able to help us out even better than they do now. And because it’s for our benefit, we shouldn’t even think about asking the tech companies to pay for our work harvested in this way.

Now, like most of us, I haven’t read the multi-page terms of use of these companies. However, I strongly suspect that if I was to use any tech company’s copyrighted material for my use, without paying for it, I would soon be visited by their legal department, and treated the way a lame chicken is treated by a pack of hungry wolves.

Food for thought.

Posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card. See more here.

View of Honokohau Harbor from the top road

A View of Honokohau Harbor from the top road in Hawaii

On the Big Island, Mamalahoa Highway is known as the top road. It’s part of the original road around the island. In the 1970s, the stretch between Kaiwaihae and Kailua Kona was supplemented with a new highway along the coast, known as Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway or Queen K Highway.

Mamalahoa Highway travels father inland, up on the slopes of Hualalai Volcano. When it get towards Kailua Kona, those slopes are steep. It’s a big residential area with spectacular views out towards Maui and the sunset. The downside of the location is that anyone living there needs to make sure the brakes on their vehicles are always in tiptop condition.

Posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card. See more responses here.

Children’s Day

Children's Day celebrated at Hawi Jodo Mission in Hawii
Windsock flown at Hawi Jodo Mission in Hawii

The Jodo Mission in Hawi is getting ready to celebrate Children’s Day. This traditional Japanese holiday was known as Boy’s Days, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month, while Girl’s Day was celebrated on March 3, the third day of the third month. These days, there’s a push to celebrate both as Children’s Day on May 5th. One of the features is the flying of carp-shaped windsocks. There will also be gifts and special treats.

The windsock photo is posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card challenge. See more responses here.