I recorded this on the weekend.

The “Video Fireplace” of nature.

This is a hive at the Strathcona Community Gardens in Vancouver, BC.

Look closely and you will see pollen on the legs of the bees as they walk from their landing area into the hive.

Aside from the wind, the sounds in the background are an industrial area [see map link above] across the street from the gardens. I’ve been here in the summer where four hives are active and I still can’t hear the bees buzzing because of that noise unless I get really close.

This clip was filmed using a Samsung Digimax D53 camera and the 3x optical zoom. I am sitting about 3 feet away from the hive. Windows Moviemaker used to add the Titles and brighten the image 1x.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Since yesterday afternoon, I am getting an error message that says I need to complete all fields even though the Tags *are* filled in. I keep getting the same error message when I retry, even after I’ve cleared my cache and restarted my computer.

Anyone else have this issue and know of a solution? YouTube support has been contacted.
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Technorati Tags: YouTube, problems, upload, help, advice, video

I share information about bokashi composting to remove the confusion and mystery about it. You have your own buckets to collect the compost? No problem. You can buy only the bokashi. If you want to be adventurous, you can make your own bokashi, but I’m just as happy selling it too.

Same thing with the buckets. There are commercial systems available but home made solutions ones work too.

Jay Summet shows how he made a bokashi bucket with

[a cat litter container], a $5 Coleman igloo spout, and some laser cut 1/8 inch acrylic left over from a picture frame.

Important note: Not all buckets come with “pre-existing plastic strengthening tabs in the bottom of the cat litter container” so you will need another method of raising the acrylic above the bottom of the bucket.

The other One solution is to have two nesting buckets, with holes drilled into the top [inside] bucket, so the liquid drains into the second, as mine do.
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Technorati Tags: bokashi, composting, compost, bucket, diy, fermentation, lactic acid cultures

I bicycle around Vancouver a lot and this is the fastest traffic light change I know of. Know of another in Vancouver? Post a video response at YouTube. Enjoy!

Bonus points if you can tell me where it is.
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Technorati Tags: pedestrian, light, crossing, Vancouver, bc, street, traffic, fastest, intersection

I found this on Vancouver Craigslist

Earth Day coming up on Saturday…. Boy are they in for a surprise with the amount of stuff that will show up.

Metropolis at Metrotown

Got Old Electronics? Anyone with old computers, printers and electronics is encouraged to drop by Metropolis at Metrotown’s Atrium Court between April 16 -22. Metropolis at Metrotown will recycle all electronics for free!

Bonus: “What’s more? Get a free herb planter in exchange for electronics and help lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions while quantities last!”

ACCEPTABLE - Electronics

• Telecommunications equipment
• Telephone systems
• All Television types
• VCR’s
• 3M Players
• Electronic games
• Sony Play Stations 1 – 2 – 3
• Radios
• CD Players
• Cellular phones
• PC (personal computer)
• Monitors CRT’s
• Mainframe computers
• Scanners
• Printers
• Fax Machines
• Photocopiers
• Scientific equipment
• Toner cartridges
• Photographic sound & visual recording equipment
• Cameras
• Car stereos
• Electric ballasts
• Electronic wiring
• Power cables
• Irons
• Watches

Time: 10:00 am - 9:00 pm Mon - Fri

9:30 am - 9:00 pm Sat

11:00 am - 6:00 pm Sun

Location: Atrium Court. Ground Level

Other resources for e-waste recycling:

Alternative Disposal & Recycling Locations

http://freegeekvancouver.org/

RCBC:
e-waste end of life electronic equipment

Starting in 2008 all e-waste in the GVRD will be banned from landfill sites:
http://www.encorpinc.com/electronics/

Cross-posted at changeeverything.ca

Technorati Tags: e-waste, computer, electronics, recycling, GVRD, Lower Mainland, Vancouver, Burnaby, Metropolis at Metrotown, Earth Day, event

I joined the Co-operative Auto Network* in July of 2006 and it was one of the best decisions that I have made in recent years. I paid my refundable $500 share and received a four hour orientation. Knowing that I have access to a vehicle if I need one is liberating.

There are buckets available for reuse in Langley once a month that I pickup in a small truck, which makes my business more sustainable and keeps my costs down. During Vancouver’s last major deluge - 11 March 07 - I decided that a 40 minute bike ride to a friend’s party was not worth getting soaked to the bone so I booked a C.A.N. car instead.

Now Zipcar an American car-sharing company has come to Vancouver and they are going after the same market that C.A.N. is. And they have a $25 initiation fee compared to C.A.N’s $500 share purchase requirement.

However, when it comes to the actual use of the vehicles, there is big difference in the pricing as Jen - who compared her C.A.N. invoices with Zipcar’s pricing - writes:

The Zip car would cost nearly double. Actually more than that, because the only cars available in my neighbourhood are “cool” cars - so I would mostly be paying the $11.75 rate, rather than the $9.75. Though Zipcar does offer discounts (around 10%) for pre-paying at least $50 every month, the $50 doesn’t roll-over if you don’t use it. Also, my average trip length is about 25kms. To use the included 150kms/day, you’d have to be driving to Abbotsford and back on each trip.

Read it all….

Jen’s post blogged about on
www.darrenbarefoot.com which I read at http://planet.northernvoice.ca

Edit: “So Zipcar…” changed to “Now….”

*Use this code: M4199 when you join. - Added 06 May 2007

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Technorati Tags: C.A.N., zipcar, vancouver, bc, car, sharing, co-op

Within hours of writing my Sourcing Splog post, the incoming links disappeared from both technorati and my WP Dashboard page. Nice.

Jessica, I noticed that the number comment spams I received went down a lot when I added Spam Karma as a plugin in addition to Askimet.

Here are the anti-spam/splog Wordpress plugins I am using on this blog:

Akismet
AntiLeech for my RSS feed.
HoneyPot for use with Project Honey Pot which requires a bit of setup.
Simple Trackback Validation - I changed the settings on this today to make it harder for sites to link here without being moderated first.
Spam Karma 2

This last one is not a WP plugin. You can see it in the “Extras” section of the left column.
Spam Poison

[Spam Poison] will redirect email harvesting bots to trap sites that will feed it with an almost infinite loop of dynamically generated fake email addresses, mostly on known spammer owned domains! This will render their harvested lists pratically useless and of no commercial value.

[Added 08Apr07 0527] Again, this is not a plugin: I use gmail to filter my own domain emails.

email@mydomain.com is forwarded to email@gmail.com then sent by gmail to a second mydomain email address. Gmail deletes all spam after thirty days so I have time to check for mistakes. Since I use more than one email address for this purpose, gmail is protecting me from receiving 500 - 700 spam emails a month.

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Technorati Tags: splog, splogiverse, wp, wordpress, plugins, anti-spam, anti-splog, tools, spam

Incoming links boost my Technorati ranking but I prefer them from people I know or have communicated with directly. It took me a few days to figure this one out, but when I did I decided to share it.

A technorati search of bokashiman shows that these splogs

zarko.multimediaserwis.com.pl

springy-madness.multimediaserwis.com.pl

woodworks-connections.multimediaserwis.com.pl

stock-updater.multimediaserwis.com.pl

have a link to some of my content.

Mark Brewer attacking ZR cameras, but since the free bandwidth exists, and the YouTube community now represents a viewing market unto itself, … YouTube & Google merger on track My YouTube adventures the other day gave me the kind of belly laugh that I have not had for a long time.

When I went to the website listed, I could not find the content anywhere until I looked in the RSS feeds: http://zarko.multimediaserwis.com.pl/rss.xml

It is in all of them.

The RSS feed contains any mention of YouTube, so they are using a keyword splicer that puts that content into their feed.

[Correction: The content comes from this splog:
http://tinyurl.com/3x5bp8 and it is already Trackbacked on my blog.]

At the bottom of every splog: “Quadruple your income with Blogs”
http://www.gomore.ws/blogsolution/

What their product offers is splog creation:

BlogSolution creates thousands of blogs on each of your domains.
Blogs are created based on YOUR keywords. Named - titled - subtitled.
Your blogs are created on a custom blogging platform.
All blog interlinking is done for you - spiders move freely between your blogs.
We give full video tutorials guiding you through your projects.
NO outside software is needed.
Your blogs are fully customizable. Unlimited potential here.
You can post links to one, some, or all of your blogs.
Post as many links as you want, whenever and to wherever you want.
The Smartjobs system. Blog creation even when you’re not around!
Automatic updates and pings.
Randomization. Everything in BlogSolution can be randomized - posts, pings everything.
Everything is managed from one simple interface.
24/7 support. We’re always here for your questions.
Built in help articles that will guide you through the process.
Completely plug and play. Effective for both beginner and expert.
Flexibility. This system bends to what YOU want.
An advanced cloaking system.

Matt Cutts of Google has something to say about search engine cloaking

HOW IT PAYS…

Adsense income.
Affiliate income.
Tens of thousands of indexed blogs.
Search engine spiders like you have NEVER seen (it’s our secret ingredient).
Tens of thousands of one way back links to and sites you want.
Your new sites indexed FAST.
Simplicity.
A system that flies under search engine radar, but profits from them.
Time to make more money. Or play.

No thanks!

Whois Record

DOMAIN OBJECT:
domain: multimediaserwis.com.pl
registrant’s handle: nta5754 (CORPORATE)
nservers: ns3.of.pl.[91.121.1.226]
ns1.of.pl.[87.204.60.2]
ns2.of.pl.[81.210.25.74]
created: 2007.02.22
last modified: 2007.02.27

REGISTRAR: NetArt
Zabawa 118
32-020 Wieliczka
Polska/Poland
+48.801 800 700
+48.12 4244010

SUBSCRIBERS CONTACT OBJECT:
company: Osemka Internet Media
street: ul. Lubelska 43A
city: 10-410 Olsztyn
location: pl
handle: nta5754
last modified: 2005.09.20

Anyone know a Word Press plugin I can use to stop it from happening again?

Please note: Everyone has a right to make a living and I hold no ill will towards any of the companies, persons or blogs mentioned in the posting above. I ask that you remove my content from your feed [the link to this blog] and refrain from doing so in the future. The content on this site is protected by a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license. Yes, you did give Attribution, but the purpose for running your blog is commercial and in violation of those terms. All you had to do was ask me. I might have said “Yes”. To late now….

Update:
Spam in Blogs and Social Media
“As social media systems such as blogs, wikis and bookmark sharing sites have emerged, spammers have quickly developed techniques to infect them as well. The very characteristics underlying the Web, be it version 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0, also enable new varieties of spam.”

- includes .pdf file of the presentation.
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Technorati Tags: splog, blogsolution, multimediaserwis.com.pl, search, engine, cloaking,

Gail bought a bokashi bucket in the summer and now is getting another one for her tenant to use.

I couldn’t be more thrilled about the Bokashi system of recycling food scraps. The fact that there are no bugs, no worms, no odors makes this the ideal way to recycle and re-use. I would not use any other method of composting. I have told many about this and believe that I will be taking orders for Al in no time. We must save the environment and think of being clean and green. The Biosa Bokashi system is the only way to go. Thanks Al.
Posted 05 Apr 2007 at 10:36 pm

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