Crippled Horse

Autopsy of a Beehive

2010-02-26T23:42:00.000-09:00

Honey bee colonies "die" all the time. Nobody ever tells you how to perform a proper autopsy. I'm not suggesting my methodology is proper, by any means. However, it does tell me a lot about what caused the colony to die off; more than I would know otherwise, anyway. Here we go:

Above we see the hive before and after opening. Note that I brought the hive into the garage so I could do this out of the weather. The mould on the top bars was a first give-away of the hive condition. The feeder still contained about 2 1/2 inches of syrup and not a single dead bee, indicating it had never been touched.

Here we have the top box from above and below. Pretty, pretty comb layout, even if it does cross the bars. Bees will do what bees do. Note the queen cups along the bottom of some of the combs. Is it normal to still have these around at the end of the nectar flow?

The combs of the top box, from left to right, left face to right face:

Now, even the uninitiated will see something "not quite right" just by looking at these. Those beekeepers out there will notice that two combs in the middle have never had brood raised in them while combs on either side have. Why? I don't know and that's not really the purpose of the autopsy, but it makes an interested question.

It appears the honey dome is good and a good start to a preserved pollen (pollen with honey over top) zone has been prepared for winter. At first glance, this colony looks like the limitation was just low bee numbers. That is not the case, however. Zoom into the photos and look closer.

As you zoom in on the photos, you'll notice spotty series of sealed drone brood and an emergency queen cell. This colony lost their queen, probably right about the time the nectar flow ended. They tried to raise a new queen and couldn't. It's even possible that one or more of the worker bees had become a drone layer, but that's merely a guess based on the spotty pattern of drone cells.

I have put up photos of the combs of the bottom box in my Picasa album under the title "2010 Winterkill Autopsy". Mostly, the features are more drone cells and a bunch of drones.

The hive died before winter even hit full-force. It died due to lack of a queen and the chaos within the hive caused by her loss. While it had low stores, there was a feeder with syrup above the hive from which they could have supplemented as the winter moved in (on warm days) and, indeed, that's what my other hives have done successfully to this point.

On the upside, this hive yielded my first honey in three years. I managed to harvest about 14 pounds (heft test, I don't have a scale to measure, yet) of lovely and tasty honey.

This comb honey certainly would not win any awards at a honey show, but it is beautiful all the same to this beekeeper. Perhaps only another beekeeper can fully grasp the tragic beauty of this parting photo. The life work of several tens of thousands of individual lives is represented here. Their desiccated corpses are scattered across fields and moulding on the remains of their home. Yet, here, I have a treat for myself and to share with my close friends.

Thank you, ladies, for giving your lives that I might enjoy your work. Though you will never realize the full potential your colony represented, you may rest in peace knowing it was not all for naught.

5 of 6 Colonies Survive

2010-02-24T17:12:00.000-09:00

It brings me great pleasure to announce that five out of the six beehives entering winter still have surviving bees in them.

Having seen flight activity on warm days in early January, I knew there were some surviving bees at that time. However, our recent warm weather - easily warm enough to fly in - has sparked zero flight activity in the last couple weeks. Curious, and concerned, I opened the hives to see how they were doing.

I first went to the Warre hives, since I thought them most likely to have survivors. The first hive had about an inch of syrup and some crystallized sugar still in the feeder. This actually worried me until I pulled the feeder off and, lo and behold!, a beautiful cluster of bees about six inches across occupying the top of the combs directly below the entrance to the feeder! Happy day! I promptly added a chunk of protein patty and closed up the hive.

The next hive had three inches of completely uncrystallized syrup in the feeder. Under the feeder was a dead colony, four mouldy combs and four combs still with some capped honey (or syrup - not sure which). Apparently, the colony had wandered off to the side of hive and failed to move over to the nearby stores when they started to starve. I have not done a proper autopsy, yet, but that's my initial guess.

The third hive appeared also to be a dead-out, at first. The tops of the combs were all un-capped and empty both of syrup/honey and bees. Then I noticed no mold on any combs and a single bee wandering across the top bars. Rapping on the side of hive brought an angry hum from below and a few more bees came up to investigate. The colony received a protein patty and the syrup from the dead out. I just hope the cluster moves up close to the feed before things turn cold again. March weather is usually downright nasty, here.

The fourth Warre also contained a nice, tight cluster at top dead center. It received a protein patty before being closed up.

Because I was out and doing bee tasks, anyway, I moved to the two Langstroth colonies. I was pretty sure they had been killed in the fall when I gave them too-thin (runny) fondant. I had little hope of finding anything more than mould.

Opening them found several bees actively moving around on the paper left from the fondant. Taking that as a good sign, I simply closed them up and moved along. I did not lift out the paper to expose any cluster which may more may not be present. I surmise that the paper shielded the clusters from the worst of the deluge of runny fondant and that they survived the winter largely by feeding on crystallized sugars coating combs and the bottom board after the "run" was over. I intend to get some baggy feeders on them tomorrow and will know more of the cluster condition, then.

I'm getting very optimistic about the coming season. I find myself looking forward to chasing swarms across the neighborhood to capture before they find a roost in someone's attic.

On Movie Musicals

2010-02-10T21:56:00.001-09:00

I've spent much of the last two days watching movie musicals between fares at work. Okay, not between fares... it's been slow enough that I can watch two or three back-to-back without being interrupted. Be that as it may, this study over two days and my past history with movie musicals - which I love, by the way - has brought an interesting observation: Why are there so few movie musicals which are not also primarily romances?

I mean, really. There's so much more than romance in theater, whether stage or film. I've dragged my brain trying to think of non-romantic movie musicals. D'you want to know how many I came up with?

Six. There are exactly six movie musicals that I can think of which are not romances. They are:

Even the numerous Disney animated movies are primarily romances, though they are, ostensibly, children's movies.

Now, periodically, a movie is released with musical numbers in them. These are not actually musicals, though. Examples are Fame, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers, and Labyrinth. These are all fine films, but they just do not satisfy one's itch for a fun musical.

Judging from the popularity of musicals on stage and the variety of musical comedies, tragedies, dramas, etc., surely Hollywood could come up with more. Even adaptations of stage plays (musicals, in this case) can and have great success in the box office as well as rental and retail counters.

Perhaps my brother, Nathan, or my good friend Marc could provide some insight into this. Perhaps my fair readers would leave their comments, pointing me to any other movie musicals which are not romances.

Hollywood, are you listening? Give us some fun musicals, please. We'll reward you for it in sales.

Changing Organization Habits

2010-02-01T23:57:00.000-09:00

We all need a little organization in our lives. I certainly do. I distract easily and my memory leaks like a broken colander. I've tried pretty much everything in the past: pocket sized spiral notebooks, organizers (paper binders with pages, remember those?) and other assorted gadgets and gizmos. I skipped the PDA phase, figuring - probably correctly - that they're just expensive toys to take up space in your pocket and get broken when you bump into something.

My phone, on the other hand, has recently become indispensable. I finally took the plunge and got myself one of those fancy touch-screen do-everything-and-more cellular telephones. I got it primarily because text messaging is, oddly, an easier way to keep in touch with my girlfriend and I wanted a phone with a proper keyboard but without moving parts. I now have an LG Volt and I can definitely see myself upgrading to a fancy Android-powered HTC in the not-too-distant future.

I don't think I need to gush about the features these new phones offer. They've been around for quite a while, now, in various forms: Blackberry, iPhone, Droid, and others popping up every day.

I now find myself actually using an organizing tool. And it seems to be keeping me more or less on top of the things I need to be doing. Great! I love it. Incidentally, this post is pretty short in part because... I'm writing it on my phone. :)

Ditch the bulky organizers, scraps of paper, non-phone PDA, leaky memory. Just get one of these cool phones. You'll thank yourself for it.

Male Contraception Options

2010-01-29T04:04:00.000-09:00

At time of writing, I am a man of age 34, never married and childless. Marriage has never really much interested me and, from a practical standpoint, is pretty worthless. However, given the right circumstances and woman, I can certainly anticipate a desire to marry at some future juncture. Children, though, are out of the question. Some men are ambivalent or even uncaring about the prospect of producing children. Other men want children for a variety of reasons. I have a strong desire to remain childless.

Since I have not been, and do not intend to be, celibate I decided to take child prevention into my own hands. I have been remarkably disappointed. Traditionally, contraception has been in the control largely of the male partner. It hasn't really been until the introduction of the female contraceptive pill that women seriously entered into the contraceptive world. To be sure, various herbal concoctions have been used, some with remarkable effects, but they have been mostly limited to certain geographical areas where they grow naturally and were not necessarily widely known or used even in those areas.

Since the introduction of the female contraceptive pill, the decision to produce a child has lain firmly in the control of women. More and more research and new and innovative devices have been introduced into the market to assist women in bettering their ability to control their own reproductive capabilities. And, of course, men have been largely ignored during this period of time.

For most of the last 50 years contraception has been a women's topic or concern. While there has certainly been a small level of research and development into male contraception methods, little has come of it. We men are basically left with vasectomy or condoms.

In my searching for additional information and upcoming development, I discovered several sites with plenty of good information on the subject. Almost all of them point to this site:
http://www.malecontraceptives.org/

Briefly, it describes about a dozen different methods - how they work, side effects, effectiveness and reversibility outcomes. It quotes clinical trials. Unfortunately... all the non-vasectomy / condom stuff is still in pure research or clinical trials. Or, China currently has implants uncommonly available.

So, the short answer to my quest is: condoms or vasectomy. I could participate in clinical trials of other methods if I were close enough to a participating university or research hospital. I'm not willing to move just to try the stuff, though. Nor am I willing to move to China to get a proven implant.

In the relatively near future (5-10 years) a liquid implant called RISUG, testosterone (seriously?) injections, and a few others hold promise, but are not currently available.

But, for now, condoms, withdrawal and vasectomy.

Condoms are cheap, fairly effective (typical use: 85%), totally and immediately "reversible", immediately effective and without side effects.
Withdrawal is financially free, about as effective as condoms, immediately effective, fully and immediately reversible (just stay in) and without side-effects. (interesting article on withdrawal effectiveness - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Economy/story?id=7688558&page=1)
Vasectomy is ... not cheap but not horribly expensive (about $1,000), takes 3-6 months for full effect, very effective (98%), mostly reversible (very expensive, 3-6 months for full recovery IF procedure successful at all) and has lots of potential side-effects.

There is some suggestion that a man can contract the PC muscle to prevent ejaculate from escaping the penis, but this is not proven and how many men actually have the self-control? I think I do, but am pretty sure I don't like this method as I have to focus fully on holding the muscle contracted, thus preventing me from paying any attention to her during this time. Further, the level of concentration required would pretty much remove any enjoyment of sex, making the whole thing pretty pointless.

Middle of Life ... or Later?

2010-01-18T17:53:00.000-09:00

It rather suddenly occurred to me, today, that my 34th birthday was a few months ago. I suppose that's not really a big deal. The fact it was my 34th holds no inherent meaning and is nothing special; people reach the milestone all the time and have done so throughout history and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

My family history suggests that I'm unlikely to be around much past age 70. Combined with lifestyle choices now and in my past, probably a lot less. Even this is not such a big deal. Fear of my own mortality has never been an issue for me.

No, what bothers me - a little - is my lack of accomplishment. I have spent, essentially, two decades treading water and doing basically nothing. Most of my friends, family and acquaintances have children or businesses or defeat of illness or ... something else in which they can take some measure of pride.

I have my taxi company. Except... I didn't start it. I haven't improved it any, really. The insurance company can take it from me at a moment's notice by dropping coverage. No, that's nothing. I could have children? I am not compelled to reproduce; in fact, just the opposite. Lives I've impacted on a noteworthy level? None I can think of, offhand, barring family who don't count in this case.

Have I been playing it too safe? Me? The risk-taker of the family? Hmm...

It all started so well...

2010-01-14T22:55:00.001-09:00

I did my due diligence. I did my research. I waited to see if they would ever catch on. And then I pounced. I just bought a Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863 10.1-Inch Obsidian Black Netbook (the link is Amazon.com, but I bought mine direct through Dell and that's where this story comes from. Trust me. Buy from Amazon. You'll be happier.)

It all started well. I spent a month reading reviews and chose to buy the Dell Mini. I went straight to the source: Dell's website. The product was highlighted on the front page, so I clicked and it took me to the start of a horrible purchase experience.

First, I was given a choice of two models, which could then be further customized. The only customization I was interested in was getting Linux (in this case, Ubuntu Linux) preinstalled so I could avoid paying The Microsoft Tax. Also, I didn't feel the need to introduce Windows to my secure network, but that's another topic. Anyway...

The dumb store would not let me choose a different OS. Off to Dell's support chat! There, the sales rep - Jodes - was very helpful and provided a link where I could buy the Mini preinstalled with Ubuntu Linux 8.04, which is a little outdated but not so much to discourage the sale; I can always upgrade to the latest and greatest when I get it. So, I go through the customization process, selecting the big battery and the car charger and hit Buy Now - or whatever the button label was.

Instantly, I was greeted with a page listing the computer and car charger, totals - all the usual stuff you find when buying online. The shipping line was blank, but had a link to generate it on the fly. I click the link, a modal window pops up, enter address, choose the default 5-7 business day delivery for $12.95 (other options: 3-5 business days, next-day and a couple I forget). Close the modal window and rescan the page to see ... Shipping $90.99.

WHAT????

Back to support! A different rep, this time - Anthony - quickly fixed the issue and surmised the problem probably had something to do with my IP address. Seriously? Why should that matter in the least? Anyway, I follow HIS link, fill in a few more lines including credit card data, yada yada and BAM, my order was completed. More than an hour after I started. Grr...

So. The story ends well inasmuch as I'm getting my netbook. The process pissed me off severe, though. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of crap at their store. I should have been able to make my choices, choose my shipping and pay without having to bother Dell's sales staff at two different points in the process. No wonder they cost more than similar machines - the sales process is cumbersome even for them.

Watch this space for a review after I've had the Mini and played around with it for a while...

And. Buy from Amazon. Go ahead and pay The Microsoft Tax (you can get a refund). You'll be happier in the end.

Bees flying in January!

2010-01-07T14:51:00.000-09:00

I stepped outside for a cigarette today and saw a couple bees take off from my Warre hives. Curious I went and peeked at the landing boards. Judging by the existence of dead/frozen bees on landing boards and in the snow in front of the hives, I have currently have three of four colonies in Warre hives which still survive.

I have not checked my Langstroth hives. I am afraid I may have drowned the colonies in too-thin fondant when providing them with supplementary feed this fall. I'll wait to check on them more closely when I look in on everything in March to provide protein patties. Fingers are crossed, though.

Overall, this is good news. This is the first year I've had the bees survive through the summer and if they can make it through the rest of Winter, I'll not need to buy packages for spring - which I don't have money for, anyway. I can then use these as breeder colonies and, over the next few years, develop a locally adapted strain. I'll need to supplement with some outside genes, though, or risk in-breeding. Maybe I should buy a package or two this year, after all. These are Carniolan (apis mellifera carnica) honey bees. Perhaps the best way to broaden the gene pool is to bring in some Italian (apis mellifera ligustica) or Primorsky Russian (apis mellifera ???) stock. I'd like to get some german Black (apis mellifera rustica) but all indications point to their virtual extinction in the US and import laws prevent it. :(

[break]

I wonder what they're flying for. There really aren't enough to look a whole lot like mass defecation flights. They leave the hive in ones and twos and fly straight for ... something. Nothing blooming in may area that I'm aware of, so I doubt they're getting pollen. Water? If water, why fly farther than the nearest puddle? Perhaps these flyers are undertaker bees, moving some of the winter-killed bees away from home?

Thoughts to ponder.

Here's looking forward to an awesome season of beekeeping!

The Games People Play

2009-12-20T21:19:00.000-09:00

So, I've been flirting off-n-on with a semi-regular passenger in my taxi and in the last couple weeks have taken to visiting her during slow periods of my shifts. Tonight, I pick her up walking home from work and she lays this story on me about a dream she had of an ex-borefiend coming back and then waking to find him not there. Wow. Heavy stuff to lay down on a prospective suitor, eh?

Here's the deal, I know she has a long and sordid history with other men. I know she's a bit of an emotional wreck. I know she has kids from previous relationships. All this pretty much means that I know I'm going to have to hear some things about the men in her life, some of which I'm not going to like and some of which is going to seem like a comparison. All fine-n-dandy.

Up until tonight, she seemed to be pretty into me; encouraging my attentions through the occasional "forward" - usually very forward - comment. Now, I get this crap. I won't be a shoulder to cry on for women who are both a) available, and b) I want to be intimate with; and I can't very well compete with an idealized memory-dream.

Ladies, is this some sort of "test" or is she deliberately trying to drive me away? If the latter, it's working. If the former, see previous sentence.

New Rifle

2009-07-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

Last year, I bought a Traditions DeerHunter .50 cal flintlock rifle. It's a nice rifle, but has its flaws. I'll post a review of it later, this post is not about this rifle.

Anyway... I decided I want to go on a moose hunt this fall and I want to use the flintlock to take the animal. This is no small chore, considering the rifle's flaws. It is especially no small chore considering my basic marksmaship skills are highly atrophied. A few brief forays to the range pretty well showed me that I really need to improve these before I even consider shooting at a living animal. Also, it was decided that using the flintlock as my shooting platform for redeveloping the skill is pretty inefficient both in terms of financial cost and time input. A .22 is a much better option.

Well, I knew Dad had a .22 somewhere in the house, so I called him and found out he has two: one actually belongs to his brother, who wants it back, and the other is old and has had the sear pin filed down because it was suffering from an issue with gas blow-back -- into the shooter's face! That issue could probably be solved with a $100 trip to the gunsmith, but I chose to just go and buy a .22.

What I wound up with is probably the best-selling .22LR rifle on the market: the Sturm/Ruger 10/22 Carbine. Again, it has its flaws. The stock has a clear separation of almost 1/16" from the receiver all around, the sights are horrible and it looks and feels like a toy. Frankly, if it weren't for the brand name, I would have passed it up. Ruger has a very long tradition of producing high quality rifles that I sprang for it despite all the clear and obvious limitations. Besides... it's just a plinking/target gun. It likely will never see use on anything other than paper or soda cans while I own it. I didn't need anything fancy.

It's readily and easily "upgradeable" any time in the future if I want to. A pretty quick internet search turned up huge numbers of mods for it, including conversion kits for other calibers. Wow, it would be SO easy to spend $1,000 or more on this gun. Still, the only things I'm ever likely to do to it are a fix of the magazine ejection system, a better bolt-lock mechanism and new sights. I can do it all for under $200. There is some small possibility that I'll replace the stock for something will a more snug fit around the receiver and maybe even a bedding system, but that's pretty unlikely.

While I have yet to fire this particular example, I have fired this model before. When I worked in Umiat, years ago, this was the rifle we used to shoot bunnies to ensure a strong fox population. The action on that particular example was smooth and it fired straight at the ranges we were using it. It operated flawlessly in all temperatures and required little maintenance.

So... clearly, I chose the right tool for the job of retraining my marksmaship skills. Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. See you at the range!

July Hive Inspection

2009-07-15T19:29:00.001-08:00

While waiting for the freight company to come and take some transmission cores to the transmission shop in Anchorage, I took the opportunity to inspect the beehives. I admit to being a little lazy on my bee-related blog updates this year, so let's do a bit of a season recap, first.

I received ten packages of four-pounds each this year and hived them in late April. I populated six Warre-type hives and four Langstroth type. The Warres were started with small sections of old comb rubber-banded to the top bars and each Langstroth received four frames of fully drawn comb and four frames of partially drawn comb.

By mid-May, each hive had comsumed three baggie-feeders of 1:1 syrup and had at least made a healthy start into the 1/2-pound protein patties they were given. By the end of May, I had lost one of the Warres due, apparently, to queen-failure, also another Warre was underperforming and so I chose to combine it with another. Two of the Langstroth hives were underperforming and I chose to combine them with the two stronger Langstroth colonies also. This brings me to four Warres and two Langstroth hives at this time.

The weather, this year, has been warm and mostly dry. The bees have been using it to their advantage. All but one of the hives have a strong population. One oddity, though... I saw exactly zero drones until the second week of June. They require 24 days to develop from egg to adult. Six weeks from hiving seems a very, very long time. Oh well, bees are bees and I have to trust that they know what they need when they need it.

Today's inspection showed me all six hives with some capped honey. This is good considering both fireweed and white-clover have been in bloom for nearly two weeks. Unfortunately, they all also showed a remarkable lack of built up comb. None of them occupied significantly more than one box though all had three boxes to work with. I tried to encourage the framed hives to move down into the lower boxes by moving some of the filled frames down and replacing them with the undrawn frames whose places they took. Unfortunately, I could do no such thing with the Warres as they are not framed hives and all such manipulations required moving entire boxes. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to peek in on them again.

With our winter dearth of August through May, I imagine the Warres will need close to 50 pounds of stored honey (nearly two full boxes) and the Langstroths will probably need 60 to 70 pounds (again, nearly two full boxes) in order to come through winter healthy enough to give me honey next year. I estimate that the rate of progress - honey stores and comb construction - will probably be insufficient to see them through the winter. I'll check again as the fireweed finishes its bloom in a couple weeks. Still, I'm going to start building feeders right away. I think if each hive can put up 20-30 pounds of 2:1 syrup plus a protein patty, they should all be fine if they have a good population level.

These are italians, though, and so are likely to continue rearing brood right into September, gobbling valuable stores and try to enter winter with their customarily enormous cluster sizes. I could wish they were the more frugal carniolan or russian strain, but I have what I have and other Alaskan and Canadian beekeepers have had success wintering italians so my hopes are high, as of now.

To be continued when the fireweed bloom ends...

update: upon review of my records, these are carniolans, so there is some hope they'll cut back brood rearing as the nectar flow slows/stops. Yay!!!

Building the Chapparal Recon Bike

2009-04-30T02:11:00.000-08:00

Today, another model build. This time, the Chapparal Recon Bike from Ebbles Miniatures 2007 lineup. If building this model, take heed: There are some seriously small parts and several of the glue tabs are placed in such a way as to interfere with other glue tabs.

This first shot is, of course, a shot of the parts after trimming. Here's a tip for you novice paper model builders: score your fold lines before you trim the part from the page. Also trim the parts out instead of cutting away the surrounding paper. You will place much less stress on the part and have less trouble with tearing.

This next pic contains each component part assembled. I had to remove several glue tabs to get some parts together properly only to find out afterward that I removed the wrong glue tab or that I should have merely trimmed the tab to a different size. If at all possible, test fit before you glue and don't just hack the tabs off complete. Trim them to make everything fit without overlaps or large gaps.

Finally completed and being shown by our lovely cheerleader (from Shadowforge Miniatures) who is still in need of a paint job.

Build Time: approx three hours
Complexity: 3.5 of 5, mostly owing to small parts and glue-tab placement issues
Next model: Who knows? As my regular readers can probably tell, I really like Ebbles products, but it's time to highlight a few other excellent model makers. I have several to choose from and am leaning towards something Star Wars or Aliens. Keep checking to find out what I finally settle on.

Building the C6 Cassowary

2009-04-29T07:19:00.002-08:00

Yet another successful build. The C6 Cassowary Light UGCV comes from Ebbles Miniatures' 2005 line. This is, so far, the easiest build I've written up on these pages. Very few parts, little complex geometries come together for an entirely pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

As you can see, very few parts. In fact, only one page of parts, here.

I'd say it turned out okay, though. The other figures: VU-22 Percheron (Ebbles paper model; left rear), C6 Cassowary (right year) a Bunny cheerleader from Shadow Forge Miniatures (front left) and a 15mm Gray Alien from http://www.15mm.co.uk.

Junk Faxes - I hate 'em! Do you?

2009-03-07T14:09:00.001-09:00

I've been on the receiving end of a veritable flood of junk faxes over the last couple of weeks. There seems to be no pattern to the increase. They come from all across the spectrum of business and non-profit entities so I can't pin it on some upcoming event. It really, really pisses me off that I'm paying for these bozos to print their ads on MY EQUIPMENT! They should be paying ME to do that.

There are laws regarding junk faxing, specifically the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. section 227) and the Junk Fax Prevention Act (47 C.F.R. section 64.1200). The FCC has a web site for submitting complaints but I bet complaints get acted on faster if sent via the mail because the paper lands on someone's desk and nobody wants a desk piled full of paper. :)

I thought up a better way to deal with it, though. I filed for another business license with the state. I am now doing business as "Anger Management Ad Consultant Group". I can now assume that [nearly] every advertisement printed by my fax machine is a binding commercial contract for my services of review and commentary. I can safely make this assumption because very, very few of the advertisements I receive via fax come from entities with whom I already have an establish business relationship (as defined in 47 CFR 64.1200). Therefore, I can essentially force them to pay for my consultation service or face the legal consequences of violating the Acts and dealing with my potential civil lawsuit(s).

All I have to do is send a reply fax thanking them for initiating a business relationship with me (legally establishing that such relationship did not previously exist) and informing them that I will send my written review and bill in some sort of reasonable amount of time, like 30 days. Of course, I also have to follow through. I need to send them - within the time I specified - a written review of their advertisement and an invoice for my services.

No problem! I can whip up a review template in a matter of minutes and then it's just fill-in-the-blanks for every review I perform. Then I can create an invoice for any amount I choose - $500 is the federal "minimum" for considering it a felony to steal another's property or services - and send the whole thing to the offending advertiser via US First Class Mail, Registered, Return Receipt (this establishes that the party did, in fact, receive the service rendered AND the bill, should it ever come up in court).

Now, I can just wait for the check! :) Should the check fail to arrive within the time period stated on the invoice (probably 30 days), I can then send a follow-up statement (invoice) with an additional late fee. I can continue to do this ad infinitum, but it eventually will get expensive with all those Registered mailings. When a bill is 120 days past due, I can then send the whole thing to a collections agency and report the offending advertiser to the credit bureaus. Hah!

Start of a wonderful mead: Blueberry!

2009-02-09T20:45:00.035-09:00

Today, I underestimated the messiness of using my Champion Juicer to get juice from ten pounds of blueberries. My hands will undoubted be blue for days. Such is life.

Recipe

Juice of ten pounds blueberries
12 pounds mild-flavored honey, in today's case it is clover
enough water to top up to six gallons
two tablespoons of a combination of urea and ammonium phosphate, labelled "yeast nutrient"
one packet of Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast

All ingredients were combined as per common practices in the art. Specific gravity of this mixture: 1.068, a little lower than I was aiming for, but it'll do. Yeast was pitched at approximately 20:38 Alaska Daylight Time.

25 days from now, I get the pleasure of racking into the secondary fermentation stage which will consist of:

siphon liquid off top of carboy1 into carboy2, leaving the solids in the bottom of the carboy1
add six pounds honey
top up with water to six gallons
clean yeast-smelly muck out of carboy1

25 days following that, I get to:

siphon liquid from top of carboy2 into carboy3, leaving the solids in the bottom of carboy2
clean yeast-smelly muck out of carboy2

Another 20 days shall pass before I:

siphon liquid from top of carboy3 into carboy4, leaving the solids in the bottom of carboy3
clean less-yeast-smelly flocculent out of carboy3

Then I get to let it age in the carboy for ... however long I like before I bottle this sweet nectar. I'm looking forward to this time, when I will sample my first portion.

Mmmm.... blueberry.

An open Letter to the President of the United States of America

2009-02-03T22:48:00.005-09:00

B. Charles Reynolds

c/o General Delivery

Seward 99664

Alaska, USA

2009 February 03

President Barack Obama

c/o The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington 20500

District of Columbia, USA

President Obama:

The sovereignty of the several states have been called to question numerous times in the federal court system. Most of those cases revolve around linguistic ambiguities in the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution for the United States of America. The Supreme Court of Utah, in the case of Dyett v. Turner [439 P.2d 266, 270 (1968)], documented several anomalies in the process of ratifying the 14^th Amendment. These irregularities were also read into the Congressional Record [House - June 13, 1967 at pages 15641-15646] and were never acted upon. The question remains whether the 14^th Amendment was ever properly ratified. The Supreme Court of the United States of America has refused to rule on the matter, calling it a “political matter.”

The 14^th Amendment arguably removes the sovereignty of the several states with regard to citizenship (and, by extension, legislative authority) and places all citizenship status firmly under the sovereignty of the United States in its role as a corporate ruler of its own territories such as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, etc. If the several states cannot be allowed their own citizens, then to whom or what do their laws apply? Prior to the 14^th Amendment, the Constitution for the United States of America was very clear that all citizenship status belonged firmly in the hands of the several states. This removes, also, the suffrage rights of the citizens of the several states because there are none (State citizens)! Since our right to vote is central to our republican form of government, it is essential that this question of sovereignty be put to rest for once and ever.

I need not remind you that the 14^th Amendment also ended aparthied in this country. However, it did so in such a devious and underhanded way as to make it unacceptable. An alternative, more acceptable Amendment, would be, substantially, “The several States may neither refuse nor deny the natural rights of citizens based on race, creed or religion.” Such a simple statement is all that was required for the 14^th Amendment to end aparthied and insure that no citizen whether black, mexican, chinese, hindu, wiccan, jewish, democrat, republican, libertarian or other could be denied their natural-born rights as protected by (not granted by) the Constitution for the United States of America.

To finally put to rest the question, would you please either 1) propose a Constitutional Amendment in repeal of the questionably-ratified 14^th Amendment or, 2) propose a Demand that the U.S. Supreme Court render a ruling? Support can probably be found from Utah, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, Louisiana, Delaware, Maryland, Mississippi and Ohio. Most of those southern states listed reversed their Rejection of the proposed amendment under military occupation (see Reconstruction Act) and also were denied representation in both the House and Senate during the initial proposal of the Amendment.

Consider: Did the founding fathers indend for there to be several sovereign states, united? Or... Did they intend for there to be one national government with sovereignty over the population of the several states, as exists now if the 14^th Amendment has been properly ratified? Have you looked at a voter registration application? I mean really looked and studied the implications of the following question, which appears on every voter registration application in every state in the Union: “Are you a citizen of the United States?” If that question is answered in the positive, then the individual who signs that form is, effectively, volunteering to become a federal subject. It would be better for the question to be: “Are you a citizen of one of the United States?”

A state citizen receives all the benefits and protections of both his/her state constitution and the Constitution for the United States of America. A state citizen gets the best of both worlds. A federal subject, on the other hand, get no protections of any constitution because the federal Congress can make any legislation, even legislation in blatant violation of the protections in the Constitution for the United States of America, within the territories it has sovereignty over. The Constitution for the United States of America places no restrictions on the power of the federal government - whether legislative, judicial or executive - within its own demesne, nor protections of the natural-born rights of its subjects.

Thank you for your time. I'm sure you will give this very serious consideration.

B. Charles Reynolds
Citizen of the Sovereign republic of Alaska

2006 mead bottled

2009-01-29T21:16:00.031-09:00

Well, what I thought was going to be a fairly sweet mead is finally in the bottle. I started this batch in October 2006. About 40 days in primary ferment, another 60 days - more or less - in secondary and then two years ageing in the carboy.

Final product? 30 bottles of a very dry mead. It's so dry, I was worried it might have gone to vinagar, which would have been okay except, what would I do with five gallons of honey-vinegar? It's drinkable and I can even think of a few dishes it would go well with.

The nose is slightly acid with floral hints of alsike, which tells me where the bees gathered nectar for the honey. I'm looking forward to drinking this over the next two or three years to see how it changes in the bottle. And I still have another carboy of mead, started immediately after this one finished its primary ferment - and using yeast-sludge from this batch to innoculate - is still waiting for bottling at the future date. I wonder how that one will turn out?

I'm ready to start another batch. Not sure how to go with it. I now have about 20 bottles of slightly-chocolate sweet methaglin, 24 bottles of sweet raspberry, and 29 bottles (I'm drinking one now) of this dry straight mead, plus the batch waiting in the carboy. Michelle thinks I should go for a blueberry, but blueberry doesn't come into season until late summer. If I start a batch of blueberry, now, I have to use store-bought frozen blueberries and I really don't want to do that. I'm not very satisfied with the chocolate. Perhaps I'll get some better ingredients and try that again. Still, blueberry sounds awful yummy...

Raising Cthulhu

2008-11-24T19:48:00.000-09:00

Oooh, scary title. For those not in the know Cthulhu is an elder god straight from the head of H.P. Lovecraft, a turn of the 20th century story writer. This model comes to me courtesy of One Monk Miniatures. It's available free in the models directory.

On with the build! Our first two shots are just the pieces cut and scored.

Spiffy. The scoring is best done before actually trimming the parts out. Watch out on the body piece. There are some slots that need to be cut so the other parts can be fitted while building. It's easiest to do that now, rather than wait until the body is already assembled.
Here are most of the parts parts ready for assembly into the sub-components.

And, here are the assembled sub-components. The body was a real pain. That shape is simply NOT easy to achieve. Kudos to the designer because I'll bet it was equally difficult to design.

Aaw... Some kind hearted soul left him a sacrifice. How nice. The sacrifice is a 28mm cheerleader figure from Shadow Forge Miniatures, shown for scale.

Build time: about seven hours, but I'm pretty meticulous with my cuts and scores. It could probably be built in about four hours by someone less anal than me.
Build Difficulty: 3/5. Most parts are pretty simple, but the fiddliness of the body boosts this diffulty by a full two points!

Next project: Another Ebbles model! The C6 "Cassowary" Light UGCV.

Building the M8a3 Kirchner MBT

2008-11-10T12:41:00.008-09:00

This one took a lot longer to build than I expected. Probably because I estimated the build time of the Murphy because I didn't keep track of it and that build sat, stalled, for about a year. I did this build over the course of two days and it took me 16 hours. If anyone reading this is interested in doing the build, do absolutely follow the suggestion of inserting some sort of support system to make the large, flat areas more rigid. I did not do this to the turret and, consequently, had some difficulty in getting all of the additional pieces to fit correctly. It wound up slightly concave on the top and bottom planes.

The M8a3 "Kirchner" Main Battle Tank is another of Ebbles Miniatures 2003 models. I think that the only thing really missing from this model is a tube for a anti-tank missile - a feature increasingly common on modern tanks. It is also a feature likely to continue to be found on tanks into the foreseeable future.

The photos:

The track pieces cut, scored and ready for assembly and the completed track sub-assemblies.

Left: Hull and turret assemblies completed and the remaining parts are cut, scored and reading to build.
Right: Hull, Turret and Track assemblies complete and all of the other individual parts are built and ready to glue into their respective sub-assemblies and/or attack to the Hull or Turret components.

All the components are attached. Just need to put the turret onto the hull. Due to my failure to add rigidifying support to the turret bottom plane, I had to add a spacer below the turret to make it fit. Silly, silly and a mistake I will not soon forget.

Here is the completed model. Shown for scale: a hovercraft from Ground Zero Games in 15mm (about 1:110 scale), a papercraft missile tank in 6mm (about 1:300 scale) by Eric Brown, and a cheerleader in 28mm (about 1:60 scale) from Shadowforge Miniatures.

Build Complexity: about 3/5, Build Time: approx 16 hours.

Next Project: Cthulhu from One Monk Miniatures.

Building the MQ-3A "Murphy" UGCV

2008-11-09T03:48:00.001-09:00

It took me a while to get around to finishing this build, but I finally buckled down and did it. One more project off my list.

This is the MQ-3A Murphy paper model from Ebbles Miniatures. It's one of his older models, originally published in 2003. MelEbbles, the creator, has often expressed the opinion that the texturing doesn't look as good as his newer models. I, on the other hand, consider his 2003-5 lines to be some of his best.

I chose to print this in the Desert/Sand color scheme. I further customized it with markings of the New Isreali faction of StarGrunt II, a wargame from Ground Zero Games. On with the photos!

The chassis and body parts after cutting and before assembly. Doesn't look like much, does it? Some of these parts are tricky to glue, however, due to slightly funky shapes.

The chassis and body parts after glueing them into their respective parts. Note those funky shapes I was talking about!

...and here's the completed chassis and body unit. I glued the body on at this goofy angle to hopefully provide a little "life" to the completed model. There are a variety of ways to actually make it poseable, but I chose the simple expedient of glueing it all up instead of adding extra complexity. Besides, the basic kit does not provide those methods of adding mobility.

Now, on to the guns!

The parts, printed and trimmed out. Whoops! It looks like one of these actually belongs in the parts photo for the body. Oh, well. Note, again the complexity and funky-shapedness of some of these parts. This is compounded by size.

Here are the assembled weapons. I probably should have taken a photo prior to this in order to show off the fact that each of the pieces you see are made up of multiple smaller parts. Lots of these glue joints have no tabs and are pretty tricky. As you can see from the sizes relative to the tweezers in the photo, these are small parts and the glueing was not the easiest thing I've done in the last year.

The MQ-3A "Murphy" Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle completed and ready for action. Note the spare weapons on the left. Shown for scale, we have a 15mm (about 1:110 scale) grav-tank from Ground Zero Games, an M11 Multipurpose Utility Vehicle, also from Ebbles Miniatures, and a 6mm (about 1:300 scale) missile tank by Eric Brown.

As you can see, this model is a beautiful build for model enthusiasts and can be useful to wargamers of all scales. Build complexity: 3/5, Build time: about eight hours.

Next project: another Mel Ebbles model, the M8a3 "Kirchner" Main Battle Tank. Stay tuned!

Holy Cows-n-stuff! BCI.

2008-11-03T08:37:00.001-09:00

Brain Control Interfaces. They're too darn slow for me NOW, but I want one when they get more sophisticated...

Watch CBS Videos Online

Hundred Push-Ups - Must Repeat Week Five

2008-10-07T13:49:00.001-08:00

I am completely disgusted with my "performance" during Week 5 of the program, I absolutely must repeat it. Horrible, icky and really really bad. Here, see for yourself:

I could not even COMPLETE it. Yuck.

More update next week.

Pickens plan

2008-10-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

We've all seen the ads on television or heard them on the radio. T. Boone Pickens has an energy plan for weaning America off of foreign oil. I finally got curious enough to check it out and I must say ... I am not impressed. It's a good idea. The principle is sound. However, there are some questions that really need answering. I sent the following ten points to the Pickens Plan people. I intend to post their response here, IF I receive one.

1. How will the plan help HI, AK, Puerto Rico and other non-contiguous areas of the United States?

2. Will Canada and Mexico participate to make this a continent-wide change?

3. How will you encourage the change in our transportation grid to switch to CNG? LNG?

4. Will existing power plants be encouraged to seek means of upgrading their current generation capacities through new technologies such as thermocouples and chemical reactors (in the exhaust stream)?

5. What about other petro-fuel based platforms, such as marine and aviation? It takes significant fractions of a decade just to get new engines and tank designs approved for use. THEN new vehicles need to be designed around those power plants and tanks.

6. What about a national recycling MANDATE? A requirement to implement rural and municipal recycling programs?

7. Lots of talk of wind, but what about additional solar capabilities? New solar farms in CA, NV, AZ and elsewhere? Supplementary solar cells on the roofs of homes and businesses?

8. How about switching the entire electricity grid over to micro-generation? Many smaller generation facilities in/on homes and business could input their excess into the grid to be shared by all. This reduces the reliance on a small number of generation facilities and increases the overall grid reliability.

9. Most of our plastics, textiles, fertalizers, medicines, and other goods come from OIL. While transportation and power generation are just obvious uses, a stupendous amount of oil is needed to keep these things in production. How do you propose to address this?

10. How will all of this be FUNDED? An enormous amount of already in-place infrastructure will be required to change over storage, pumps, delivery, new vehicles (many cannot be easily switched to a new fuel type, particularly marine and aviation platforms) and old vehicle upgrades. Will there be grants offered for businesses to upgrade their fleets, private vehicle owners/operators to upgrade their vehicles? Where will that money COME from?

Beginning Week 5: One Hundred Push-ups

2008-09-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit, so here's a quick update on my push-ups progress.

As you can see, I really did not need to repeat Week Three that third time, but it allowed me a little more time and work to better evaluate my ability to jump into Week Four. Looking into Week Five, I have every confidence that I can do it. It's a little different from the others. The rep-count of each set is really not terribly challenging, being similar to weeks three and four, but there are more sets to do. This DOES intensify the workout, overall, quite a bit so I should see some rapid gains over the next two weeks. We'll see. I'll keep you all updated.

HundredPushups.com

Hundred Push-Ups, end Week One

2008-08-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

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Some notes: x+y means 'x' many normal push-ups and 'y' many kneeling push-ups. This done under the concept that, while I may not be able to complete the requisite number of full push-ups, I can continue to stress the muscles--encouraging strength growth--by finishing with kneeling push-ups.

I took most of a week off to allow muscular rest ( =growth! ) and am repeating Week One, since I do not feel I have the strength needed, yet, to continue on to the more rigorous Week Two.