Question: I’ve noticed little boxes attached to utility wires that have blue and green lights that change as a car approaches. With all the surveillance things going on in the news, I’m wondering, what are they? One is at 22nd Avenue, heading mauka just before the Kilauea Avenue intersection. Recently the lights stopped flashing but the box is still there.
Question: What are the small blue lights I see on utility wires? I’ve seen them on Kilani and California avenues in Wahiawa.
Answer: The blue lights are emanating from white boxes serving as Wi-Fi access points (transceivers), said Kiman Wong, director of wireless for Oceanic Time Warner Cable.
The boxes have been seen in many other areas, including Kaneohe, Waikiki, Kailua and Makiki. But you shouldn’t be seeing any lights.
The lights should have been turned off after the boxes were installed, so Oceanic will check all the sites to make sure they are, Wong said. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
He explained that Oceanic is installing the Wi-Fi boxes across the state as part of a new system to provide Internet access to customers, as well as the general public, when they are out of their homes and workplaces.
“This system is also part of a larger national system being built by Time Warner Cable and other U.S. cable companies,” Wong said.
Although Oceanic began installing the system in April, the official service announcement will be made Friday, he said.
Question: On my travels in Hong Kong, I went to Kowloon Park, where different birds are kept in a large garden, including a Hawaiian nene goose. How did this bird get to Hong Kong?
Answer: The nene goose, the state bird, is a protected species, listed on both federal and state registers as endangered.
State law requires a permit for any kind of “take” of the bird from Hawaii, said Scott Fretz, Maui district manager for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
However, they are found in many zoos outside Hawaii because of efforts decades ago to help save the species.
“During the 1950s, when the nene recovery efforts began, there were several zoos that assisted in propagation,” Fretz explained.
Although the nene numbered 25,000 to 40,000 at one time, by the 1950s hunters and introduced animal predators (such as the mongoose) had decimated the population.
Interestingly, it was a nature reserve in England — the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge — that is credited with saving the nene from extinction in the early 1950s.
Auwe
To the inconsiderate owner of a Volkswagen bug who parked so close to my car at Windward Mall that I could not get into the driver’s seat. I had to climb through the passenger seat to get in. I’m 68 years old and not as nimble as I used to be. You need to be more considerate and check your passenger side when you park your car. — Mary
———
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
