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20080605

Follow up: Honeybees sighted in St. Louis!

It is with cautious elation that I report that honeybees have been sighted in my neighborhood for the second day in a row in North St. Louis County, Missouri. Though their numbers are not as numerious at they should be, it is a postive sign that Colony Collapse Disorder has not stopped the honeybee from doing her work!

I would like to find out where her (surprizingly, all the worker bees are female) hive is so that I can check--from a safe distance obviously--that her hive is healthy and in good spirits.

Maybe her sudden appearance is the result of something that the local beekeeping group did. But their group picnic isn't until this weekend.

Maybe this is a small group of wildbees. About two weeks ago, a swarm of wild honeybees invaded an elementary school. No one was hurt, and the school turned turned their unexpected strife into an educational learning experience. If only my highschool did that every year in biology class when part of our school was infested with ladybugs!

The honeybees that I saw were docile enough (though it is probably never a good idea to pick them up, especially when they are working) that I could examine them for Varroa. Though the mites are very small, their brown bodies would stand out from the bees black and gold. The few bees that I observed had no varroa on them. Despite the varroa's devistating effects on bee colonies, locally they could have an alibi, at least from my limited observations.

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posted by Bushido Hacks 6/05/2008 09:54:00 AM (0) comments top

20080411

Late April Watch - Click!

Sometime in late April, it always seems to happen. Something terrible that the media will spin their "Lets remember what happen last year" just in time for more "An Heroism".

Hopefully that will not not happen this year. Next year on the other hand will be something different being the 10 year anniversary of The Media's Kneejerk Reaction.

But since alot of bad things often occur around this time of year, I predict that this year it won't be some student with a chip on his shoulder.

Fifteen years ago, the flood of 1993 flooded out much of the St. Louis Area, including my grandparents' farm. But the City of St. Charles, Missouri could likely learn a hard lesson in the part of St. Charles County that is built on a floodplan called New Town.

St. Charles clames that they have build levees to prevent flooding like in 1993 or even 1995. But this is a lie. And with river gagues in Grafton, Illinois, Alton, Illinois, and St. Charles, Missouri set to crest next week above flood stage, is St. Charles willing to bet the house on it?

The Meramec River in South St. Louis County has swallowed Interstate 44 atleast once this year. Given the amount of preciptation that may be in store for us, this is a flood year for the St. Louis Area.

I don't know if it was the construction workers or nature, but the Discovery Bridge (the Highway 370 bridge in North St. Louis County) has moved atleast a foot downstream the Missouri River over those many years. (It may have been the construction workers who made a mistake, but reguardless, the Missouri river has a strong current.) If the rivers flow over their banks there will be nothing lefter but the concrete foundation. It is like a slow moving explosion. There once was a house next to the bridge and the '93 flood swept it away.

Let this be a warning to the people of New Town. You are in danger. Even if it does not flood, flood insurance should be a must have.

Turn around! Don't Drown!

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posted by Bushido Hacks 4/11/2008 11:33:00 PM (0) comments top

20080204

Good Riddance to MyFox! - Click!

After nearly a year, I have decided to terminate my relationship with KTVI.

A conflict of interest has boiled over. What I can't believe is how one person said the phrase "these bloggers who delete comments". "These bloggers?" Pardon my naivety, but wouldn't this person count themself as one of "these bloggers". Gee, I woun't have to exercise that button if people didn't use l33t sp3ak, leave little comments less than 25 words long, and especially prejudice. (We've all been guilty of that last one in one way or another.)

But what really pissed them off is when I showed them this picture.

It is no lie that the people at the Fox Network and their affiliates have been instructed NOT to treat people equally. How would the station or the network's shareholders react if they did not treat everyone equally?

I find it shocking to believe that suddenly a network that has supported the status quo says that they support a candidate who runs under the democractic ticket but she is as republican as a Tipper Sticker.

I've had enough!

Not to metion all the news stories that were ignored so that they could sell American Idol during the newscast and suppress any real news.

As of today any post related to news events will be posted under the news tag.

News sites and blogs that I would recommend:



I'll work on a links page in the near future.

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posted by Bushido Hacks 2/04/2008 05:52:00 PM (0) comments top

20070509

The Forums are closed Indefinitely again

Until further notice, Forums.BushidoHacks.com is closed indefintely. The fourms suffered a major spam attack last month from a long list of IP addresses that are now banned. Secondly, despite my many efforts to bring sentient traffic to my fourms, nothing has helped bring the forums to life. I really wanted to start a community of Midwestern computer programmers and college students, but seening as how I am no longer in college, and with sites such as Craigslist, MySpace, Slashdot, and Fark, it is time for me to admit that a small website such as BushidoHacks.com is not big enough to run with the big dogs.

I can still dream.

Sometimes dreams can become too out of reach. When that happens, you should put them on a shelf for a little while until you have the resources to fulfill them again.

For now, this blog and my wiki, Neko.BushidoHacks.com will have to suffice.

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posted by Bushido Hacks 5/09/2007 12:25:00 PM (1) comments top

20070420

Respect your teachers

I'm not sure if I should keep yesterday's entry online or not. Even though I added a watermark stating that the photo I hacked was meant for satire and should not be used as canon, I'm having second thoughts about posting the photo, in a general context. I mean, I don't want their to be any mix up or belief that I support such random acts of violence, because I certainly do not condone it.

My intent of that photo was to point out how stupid school shooters try to make themselves look. His behavior was NOT because people picked on him or because of some mental disability. People like the VT killer are nothing but copy cats and frauds.

Since Monday, nearly every large school or school district community in the country reported some sort of threat. The ones I find most concerning are the ones made by people against teachers.

When I was young, I understood that there were certain people you should respect no matter what. Your parents or guardians obviously. Some kids who show no respect for their authority are kicked out of their house because they didn't respect their authority.

Another group of people that deserve some respect are teachers. Yeah, you may think that "science class is boaring" or "math who needs it". But eventually, you come across atleast one instructor who inspires you to learn about a subject you felt would have no purpose in your life.

Recently, I learned that one of those kind of teachers who I liked passed away much too soon. He was a professor with a doctorial degree in Astrophysics and Cosmology who taught College Physics and Astronomy at my school.

On Monday of last week, I wrote him a letter saying how much I appreciated his class and how I liked listening to his lectures about physics. Last fall I hung out after school and listend to him give a lecture with a few other science professors about cosmology and theories about the universe. I wish I could have stayed for the entire lecture, but I understood most of his theory. The only reason I could not stay to hear the rest of it was because the ride to take me home that I was waiting for had arrived.

I never took a cosmology course, but I did understand astronomy from what I had learned in the Boy Scouts.

I was shocked and saddened that just a few days after I wrote my letter of appreciation that he had passed away over the weekend. He was a chain smoker, but never appeared to be in grave health. While everyone was mourning the tragedy in Virginia, I was somber about the death that happened in our school's community. Proximity won over casuality. What happened at VT was terrible. They lost several professors. I was busy grieving for the one who passed away a couple days before that terrible incident.

What really upset me was that several Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Nursing students found out about the somber news before I did and in a email between their own group of people. Most of them who recieved the email had no respect for him in the first place, as they would talk amongst themselves, obnoxiously pop bubble gum loudly, and pay no attention to him while he lectured in class. I mean, here they are just a week before he past away showing no sign of respect for this man who has a degree in one of the many fields of physical science and saying things like "he doesn't know what he's talking about", and a few days later passes away but they are the first to know about it. What the heck?! They get an email a couple days before the University sends everyone this somber anouncement, and now they say things like "I liked him".

Why should people only be liked after they are dead? Why can't we show appreciation for the people who try to teach us to be better people after they died? Why must death or tragedy unite us when we can do these things while people are still around to return their gratitude?

The recently late former Senator Thomas F. Eagleton of whom the Eagleton Federal Courthouse is named after and erected while he was still alive, once commented to fellow former Senator Dick Gephardt durring the courthouse's dedication cerimony "Buildings are named in honor of dead people. I'm not dead yet." Though this was Eagleton's sharp sense of humor, it does bring up a good observation.

It is better to honor someone while they are still with us than to honor them when they can not thank you in return.

Let us remember to honor our friends while they are still with us. Let us show them respect and gratitude while they can still say "Thank you, that means alot to me."

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posted by Bushido Hacks 4/20/2007 09:32:00 AM (0) comments top

20070304

Y2K7

Thanks to your elected leaders, both current (i.e.: George W. Bush) and past (i.e. Al Gore), computer programmers have a new problem, seven years after Y2K and thirty years before Y2K37. (That's when the UNIX clock runs out. Better do something about that, Linus.)

Ever since Bush took office in 2001, politicians on both sides of the asle, especially those with something to hide, have tried to manipulate contol of the technology than is suppost to catch criminals (especially the elected ones) and make elected representatives be more honest (espeically the dishonest ones).

Ever since the tape recorder logged Richard Nixon's involvemant in the Watergate scandal, dishonest politician and lobbyists have been pushing more legislation to make Big Brother watch citizens more that their leaders.

While it is reasonable in this day and age to put security cameras in some places like inside shops, busy intersections, buses, and other places where a large number of people congregate, we never see these things inside the offices of public officials. If they can wire tap our phones and log our public internet records, why can't we spy on them?

While these questions should be addressed, it seems more suitable to ask the EFF.

Looking back since 2001, the FBI New York field office was destroyed on September 11, 2001, containing the largest collection of confescated devices created by hackers going as far back as the 1960s.

In 2002, the PATRIOT Act allowed the government to warrentlessly spy on citizens. It doesn't say anywhere to my knowledge that citizens can't sequester the government's privaciy, although common sense would excuse the part of the government that is truely defending this country. What kind of fool would brag about war stragegies that help our troops who risk there own lives to protect this country and to help opressed people in countries that do really like us but are fortunate that we are there to help them and to let them know "I didn't come here to serve the leaders of my country but to serve the people that I love just as you've struggled to serve the people you love."

Which brings us to 2003. I don't think I need to explain a whole lot about what happened that year. War was declared. As much as our country though they were doing the right thing, we actually screwed up. On one hand, we took out Saddam. On the otherhand, we created more problems than we solved. On top of that, just about everyone who had a passion or interest in history worldwide was pisted. Of course our adminstration wasn't going to be lectured by a bunch of history professors, archiologists, scholars, museum curators, or any smart people. Never mind the fact that despite all the troops we sent into Iraq, the leaflets we dropped out of the sky, and the fact that there were even generals at CENTCOM who knew that there is much more in the Middle East that sand and oil. But would it have killed someone to protect the Iraq National Museum of Natural History? Like a special ops team? A phone call? A box of locks to secure the doors? Nope, our leaders were too busy watching Saddam's 23 gold palaces. Thanks to our leaders, nearily every artifact that could tell us about the Cradle of Civilization has been lost, damaged, stolen, or destroyed. Even the Mongolians knew to protect certain places back when they invaded Baghdad in the 16th century. This was also the year gas started costing over $2 per gallon. Who needs an honorary presidential pension when you can steal money from people who have to work for theirs? Let's also not forget the lost of one of the space shuttles due to an underfunded space agency that our country likes to brag about but never supports.


In 2004, there really was no election. John Kerry never intended to win. That would betray his fellow Skull and Bone brother, George W. Bush. Kerry is no hero. When you join the armed forces, you sign a commitment to serve your country, NO EXCUSES! Bush got his daddy to write him a note. Kerry shot himself in the foot, then scraped himself twice. Kerry and Bush are no Vietnam Veterans. I don't see them in black vests, riding motorcycles, working down at the VFW hall, or going to The Wall to rub a crayon on a piece of paper over somebody's name. This was a set up. Another four years of misery. This was also the year that thanks to the Hollywood Elite, the Christian conservative-run FCC cracked down on censorship after an intentional accident during the superbowl and some F-bomb by some old-as-dirt musicians. Thanks for the mamories, you stupid rich people!

In 2005, Hollywood and the media (now known on this website as "the virus") continued to show signs of foot-in-mouth syndrome espeically in the midst of a myriad of disasters. A tsunami in the Indian Ocean in late 2004. A destructive hurricane season that lasted well into the beginning of 2006. The piss-poor response by our government to provide help to a city that was destroyed. While fear-mongers shouted "global warming" and racism, the government once again turned a blind eye. Starting that year, many cities and states began to develop new programs for disaster response, especially greater support for people in low income areas. It was this year, that we learned that the adminstration would leave us to die if the unthinkable happened. We made a statement that if they wanted to preach about how life was sacred yet start wars and let people drown then we weren't going to go down without a fight.

In 2006, elections occured. Stem-cell research (SCR) was approved despite the kicking-and-screeming response of the uberconservative and the hypocritical federal government. When the results came in and SCR got the go ahead, opponents claimed that we didn't know what we were doing or that we were confused. It is bad enough they call the scientist who work on this stuff murderers, but to call the people who know that life begins when sperm meets egg not when boy meets girl stupid should anger anyone who is religious. I'd gladly go back to church if it wasn't for the people who forced their believes upon me or violated their own canon laws. When I go to church, I want don't want to look at some protestor waving their framed fetus-in-a-womb posters. Meanwhile in 2006, Al Gore's head continued expand rivial that of nimrod conservative talk show host Bill O'Rielly. While their egos continue to throw off the Earth's axis, the St. Louis area was hit with three separate storms that knocked out the power in most of the area for over a week. If you want to know what life is like in a post-apocalyptic world, try going without power for nearly a week while the mercury is over 100 degrees or below freezing. Gas topped $3 per gallon, but there were no pumps to fetch it. This was also the year we learned the Internet was not a big truck, but a series of tubes. The inbred intelegence of the telecom industry does not see technology in terms of zeros and ones but a check with a lot of zeros.

So far this year, the egos of the "global warming" campaign continued to get stuck under overpasses as Gore got an Oscar, gas continues to hover near $3, the PS3 and Microsoft Vista suck, and thanks to the federal government's inability to conserve energy, use Abrams tanks that get less than one mile per gallon, and because they've punished California for using more clean renewable energy, we now have to spring forward two weeks earily and fall back two weeks later.

"That doesn't sound like a big deal. You made me read all that to tell me about changing my clocks?"

Wrong! This has much more to do than just clocks. Computers now have to update their timekeeping software because of a bill passed by the federal government extending daylight savings time by four weeks.

That 400 point drop in the stock market last week wasn't because of Far East financial problems. It was stock investors covering their ass because they haven't downloaded any software patches to be Y2K7 compliant. There have been several upgrades to Linux and UNIX time zone data, but no announcements by Microsoft or Apple about their software. Not to metion, no major corporations who home brew their operating system have made any announcements. So what are banks going to be doing way earily on Sunday morning around 2AM? Probably not paying attention to the cyber-prowlers taking advantage of the earily shift in time. I suppose we will find out next week.

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posted by Bushido Hacks 3/04/2007 10:57:00 AM (2) comments top

20070302

CompUSA Crashes! - Click!

If there is anything true it is that nothing complementary is truely free or as good as they say. Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted on the front page of the business section that all three St. Louis Area CompUSA stores are shutting down. Nationwide, 50% of all their stores are closing their doors.

"Yeah, so why not go to Circuit City or Best Buy?" Because firedog and geek squad are posers! On top of that, a trip to Circuit City this afternoon offered none of the products that I need to continuing to build my own computer. What's the point of selling CPU cooling fans if you don't have any CPUs to sell?

It also doesn't help that places like Circuit City and Best Buy put their computer department next to the car audio or home theatre section where the base is turned up and making items sensitive to shock vibrate.

I have come to realize that geeks in this country are being forced into exile. Money makers see the computer nerd as a niche group sort of like they associate goths with Hot Topic or women to the Lifetime TV network. Unless you are part of the herd, they seek to exterminate strays and individual thought.

I will not stand for it! I've worked too hard to save up to build my own machine just so that one of the few resources that can actually help me can die.

This is a sad day.

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posted by Bushido Hacks 3/02/2007 08:16:00 PM (0) comments top

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