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My Archives: January 2009

Monday, January 12, 2009

Let me make myself clear. If you are a creationist you have issues. You missed out on a proper education and bought into the crap propaganda proliferated by religious institutions. I am not here to say there is no God. I believe in God. But don't sit there and try and tell me that the Earth is under 10,000 years old. It just makes me want to smack some sense into you. If you think believing in God means denying the facts then I don't want any part of your God. Because my God is better than your God or at least smarter than yours. Does this seem inflammatory? Offensive perhaps? Good it should. Because every time I hear about the states wanting to pass legislation that redefines science I am offended.

And let's make something clear. Creationists are wrong. They may also be misguided. I may believe in God but you are not going to convince me that I am eternally damned because I believe the Earth is billions of years old. My salvation is not based on your interpretation of the Bible.

The courts have also said creationism in public schools is a no-no. Dover v Kitzmiller was a recent example of the complete thrashing of the creationist movement. Yet despite this and many more examples of courts spanking the moronic creationist movement, state governments are still considering legislation that would redefine science.The fact that they are even considering means that the average I.Q. of a politician is below that of someone who would ride the short bus to school.

And yes my own state the limp dick of the nation has this moron speaking after seeing a play. Lincoln Diaz-Balart(FL-21st District), after seeing Divine Performing Arts said this:

“I was very moved by the song that talked about the damage that atheism has caused and is causing. It was very moving, but all of the performances were moving, uplifting; they teach us about the eternal nature of mankind and of how we have to be humble.

“The songs carry the sense that evil will not prevail, and so the message is that the truth ultimately prevails. It is extraordinarily uplifting and I am so happy to be here.”

The damage atheism has caused?! I am not even an atheist and I see that comment as moronic and wrong. remind me when i see him to point out all the evil things done in the name of religion. But wait the moron is still speaking:

The fact is, some things are eternal, and no matter what the difficulties in this life the truth will prevail, and mankind cannot be destroyed.

Yeah nothing could ever make man extinct. Just keep altering the atmosphere with carbon you ditz. You keep believing in divine intervention when science has saved your ass more than God has.

I can't believe people are voting for these Mensa rejects. And here is a nice article on the states and their elected morons at work. State legislators try again with antievolution efforts

You wonder why the US has fallen so far behind in education of it's youth. Here is one thing you can't point your finger at with conviction. Let your congress person know we don't reelect stupid.

Posted by understudy @ 08:20 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]

I have some people who know I am a beekeeper. They have places out in the middle of the swamp. Since these places are about the only suitable places for miles they very often get beehives in them. I have removed hives from these places before. But this one was one of the most remote. Usually I go to remove them during the dry season since I can usually walk out there. This one wasn't going to be one of those.

The lodge was a 20 minute airboat ride from the ramp. So even walking there was out of the question. A swamp buggy might have worked but there are some very deep areas out there and it could swallow the buggy. I brought some help for me on this one. Cara (not my sister) came with me on this cut out. Jerry was the person who asked me to come and do the cut out. Jerry works as a fireman in SoFla. It was also Jerry's airboat that was taking us to the location. The boat ramp is off of the Alligator Alley highway.

Now getting to the boat ramp means on a Sunday I had to get up at 6:00am in morning. On a Sunday that is a crime. So I reluctantly woke up and just to be mean woke my wife up also. Hey, if I have to suffer so should she, right? Janel was a good sport about it and made lunch. I picked up Cara and drove out to the boat ramp. We met Jerry and unloaded the equipment on to the airboat. This was a very cool looking airboat lots of anodized purple on the metal and a nice set of art work on the fins. Since we loaded up the boat we couldn't run out there are a full speed. but it was really nice to be able to just sit back and enjoy the landscape, sort of. When you are on an airboat you usually wear headset for protection against the noise of the engine. You will also wear sun glasses not because of the sun, but because of the bugs. Which means if you open your mouth you will get plenty of protein.

On the ride out there you will see tons of birds and other wildlife. Even in the swamp this is considered winter and most of the gators are off taking it easy. We still saw one on the ride out there. When ever you ride an airboat try to make sure it has a grass rake on it. The reason for that is the tall grass bends over the bow and whips you mercilessly. The grass rake causes the grass to bend long before it can reach you. A grass rake is nice but it does nothing about the grass that comes over the side.

When we reached the lodge we had seen that they had taken most of the shingles off the side. I started to asses how big the hive was. So I drilled a hole near what I guessed to be the top. Which in this case was just below a window sill. And I guessed right. When I drilled I hit comb. And now I have bees telling me they don't like my ideas on redecorating.

Jerry got suited up in his fireman gear and used one of my extra veils. Cara wore her protection. I went in with the veil and gloves. The bees took advantage of my exposed forearms and I received a few stings there. Hives in walls like this are difficult to cut out properly. If you expose the whole hive you risk it collapsing on itself under it's own weight. When you remove the side panel The comb tends to have attachment points to it. Removal of those all at once removes structural support. So what we dis was working form the bottom toward the top we removed it sections. This helped to prevent total collapse. It was a good thing to do.

The hive had about 100lbs/45.35kg of honey. The hive was also getting at the early stages of swarm mode. The drone comb was massive and the brood comb was minimal. I didn't even fill up five frames with brood. A little longer and the queen cells when have been there.

It took about 5-6 hours to do the cutout. Near the end I decided to check the next chamber on the wall just to be sure the bees had not built in two sections. They had not but there was a mass of bees there. So they were getting ready to. We moved most of the bees into the box. Loaded up the airboat and prepared to head back.

The trip on the way back was very nice because in the morning it was cold (cold for SoFla). The afternoon was nice and warm (like it should be in SoFla). We saw a river otter bounce around in the grasses as we headed back. It was really nice to see a river otter in the wild.

The hive is at the bee farm and I will probably requeen it. But I will want to see how they are doing.

You can see the pictures here:
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=178

You can also see a short video I shot here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHe8fQWiids

Enjoy.

Posted by understudy @ 12:14 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]

Thursday, January 8, 2009

After my "When employees fail" post I thought maybe it's just that location maybe other corporations aren't that daft. I was wrong.

I had a couple of packages that I needed to ship Fed Ex Ground. I printed up the labels all I had to do was drop them off and be done with it. Pretty simple right? Wrong. There is a Fed Ex Authorized shipping place on Summit & Military. In the Publix shopping center. Big sign hangs in the door that says Fed Ex Authorized shipping center. This is a postal center like Mailboxes ETC. So it isn't a factory Fed Ex location. I brought in my boxes I set them down and asked if Fed Ex had been by yet. He responded no. I was heading toward the door when we called to me. I responded. He then went on to explain that he could not ship these packages because they don't do Fed Ex ground.

I point at the big Fed Ex authorized shipping center sign. He says that doesn't cover Fed Ex Ground. I ask where the Fed Ex Ground shipping place is. He mentions a location in a shopping center at Forest Hill & Jog. Yeah I have been to that one before but it is not as close to the house as these guys are. So if I want to ship Fed Ex Ground the Fed Ex authorized locations are not Fed Ex authorized if it is ground.

Friggen brilliant.

Posted by understudy @ 06:38 PM EST [Link] [1 Comment]

Friday, January 2, 2009

I have been following thunderf00t and some of the other scientific minded individuals for a while now. This has basically been the evolutionist vs the creationist. And the evolutionists have been doing a great job of informing people and passing along educational situations. The creationists responded by filing false DMCA complaints. It in some cases took drawn out legal battles. The evolutionist have gotten together and fought back. This video is one of the results. Enjoy and support.

Posted by understudy @ 02:04 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]

Thursday, January 1, 2009

If IFC and Sundance aired nothing but documentaries 24/7 I might never leave my house. While they do air a very good number of them. They are also air a few films that don't always interest me. However I was reading a thread on Fark and someone had thrown in a comment thread some little blurb about a film called Word Wars.

Now to run off on a tangent. A good documentary besides being informative tends to be able to pull you in and absorb your attention to something you would probably would not otherwise show any interest in. Word War does just that.

Word War is about the tournament level playing of Scrabble. Now I like Scrabble but I haven't played in ten years just because I have other things that take up my time and have more interest for me. However I respect those who play it and play it well. One thing I note about documentaries is that in certain cases you are looking at people or persons who have almost a sole purpose. And the passion they have toward that sole purpose. As a general rule if you do one thing you can probably do it pretty well. Thus the reason I am not some person of standing in a specific niche. I like to do to many things sometimes at once.

Word War follows four individuals of which most have no life or close to no life outside of playing scrabble and the lead up to a national tournament. The film draws you in to mental behaviors these people exude on a regular basis that most of us do not. And while it makes them good at Scrabble it also means most of them would be condemned to living in their mother's basement for the rest of their lives. While that is derogatory understand their skill levels when it comes to playing Scrabble could leave you broke. Because in some cases these guys play for money. And while none are millionaires. Some are close to homeless. Usually because their winnings go to buying new reference material. You will end broke and embarrassed because they will beat you senseless in if you play them in Scrabble. You are on the Lion's turf and you are the gazelle with a limp.

This ability for them to excel in this arena allows you to overlook their flaws and cheer them on as the movie progresses. However with any real documentary you don't get shielded from disappointment. When playing games like this there are people who lose. You don't get Hollywood fluff. If you enjoy crossword puzzles, anagrams, or perhaps even Scrabble. You may want to give this film a look. Pick up a copy of the DVD if you can find one.

And yes I know this is a way older documentary that took place a few years ago. However it is such a good film you really won't care.

Posted by understudy @ 01:44 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]

Well 2008 was a good year for me. I believe that 2009 can be a great year. I hope everyone has a great year.

Posted by understudy @ 09:24 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]

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