romunov’s blog et al

I will be seding the modem in a few minutes. Sorry for the delay… again. I really need to clean up my act. <_<

Get off my crude-rich turf.

Pure poetry.

Top officials should expect a wave of assasination any day now.

link

Another mass death of corals in the Carribean. Corals reefs have been declining since the dawn of man, we’re just not helping.

NASA thinks that they can breath again. I won’t hold my breath for now, though.

Ok, another evidence, although nota very good one, that the US military is growing thin.

And this is a study you won’t see in Christian science monitor.

Venezuela will launch an international 9/11 investigation. This should be fun, especially with Iran’s holocaust revision. Ok, we need one more for the assaination of Ivan Kramberger. Any takers?

This is new to me. Why no one from 9/11 comission collects the price?

Jimmy Walter has been at the forefront of a world tour to raise awareness about 9/11 and has still yet to receive any response to his million dollar challenge in which he offers a $1 million reward for proof that the trade towers’ steel structure was broken apart without explosives.

The US government attempted to sabotage the trip by putting Rodriguez, who has been decorated at the White House itself, and Walter on a no fly list.

Why? If he’s a nut job his words and deeds wild discredit him faster than you can say “Kakapupupeepeeshire”. Looks like to me the US wants to silence another dissident - despite self proclaimed “greatest democracy” in the world with free speech, assembly and right to dissent.

Rodriguez and Walter offered their full support for Charlie Sheen’s recent public stance on 9/11 and were heartened by his efforts. The potential of a government level inquiry endorsed by Hugo Chavez dovetails with Sheen’s call for an independent investigation to be carried out by political foreign nationals.

You can check BravoCharlie webpage. I think this is hypocritical of news outlets (and blogs) to praise him for him speeking out. There are TONS of people who have been saying what he’s saying (he had to learn from someone) for years, yet they get little or no attention. However this should not hold anyone back in searching the truth.

Chuck’s addiction has update his page with my pic of Chelmon rostratus infected with what is possibly a virus called Lymphocystis. While I’m happy that my picture will help educate future hobbists, it sadens me that I had the apportunity to take the pic of ill fish.

quicktags: fish disease, lymphicystis, fish health

The Pentagon stalled efforts to clean water supplies contaminated by a carcinogenic chemical despite evidence that it posed a significant health risk to millions of people, it was reported yesterday.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated the solvent, trichloroethylene, extensively used on military bases, after significant quantities were found in water supplies. In its report, published in 2001, the EPA found it to be 40 times more likely to cause cancer than had been previously thought, and recommended tough safety standards to limit public exposure. There was also evidence the chemical played a role in birth defects.”

link

Los Angeles students have staged a school walkout “in a second week of protests against legislation to crack down on illegal immigrants”. Crooks and liars et al have more.

Speaking of illegal immigrants. Who are those guys that came to America, on boats and started killing Indians and taking their land? Perhaps that’s where the Congress needs to start…

…that UN resolution 188 created Jewish (Israel) AND Arab (Palestine) states, yet Israel won’t recognize Palestine as a state? And the Eyerabs are not willing to negotiate… p-lease.

Finally made some viewable pics - and here they are. (more…)

Guys at the MarineDepot forum think that Chelmon rostratus which I’m currently fish-sitting may have a viral infection. According to this page, it does look like Lymphocystis. I’ll sure try and take a picture.
As of the treatement, I’ve desided that the best course of action ATM is to feed well and keep water quality up. I’m counting on fish’s immune system.

Field day was cancelled, so Vesna and I organized one of our own. Enjoy some of the pictures. (more…)

“They hate us for our freedom.”

Take, for example, the operation in Isshaqi, a small village near Samarra. At 1:30am on Tuesday, March 21, the American troops, accompanied by helicopters , raided the modest rural home of a primary school teacher, Faiz Mratt. According to his neighbor Mohammad Al-Majma, the 27-year-old school teacher, his wife, their three children, his sister, her three children, his father and a woman who was visiting them were all arrested, tied, and beaten, and then the American troops opened fire on the family. “After they executed them, the troops put explosives in the house and blew it up,” said Mohammad, crying. “They killed even the farm animals”

Faiz’s surviving sister was devastated. “They killed my mother, Torkiya Majid, who was 90 years old,” she cried. “They killed Faiz’s three children: Hawra, 4, Aysha 2, and Hussam, who was only 4 months old. They killed my sister Faiza, who was also a schoolteacher, and her children Osama 6, and Asmaa, 5.”

Aziz Khalil, 30, and his fiancée Nidhal Mohammad, 23, who were to be married on Thursday, were also killed. All told, the operation to kill “insurgents” left six children and four women dead.

It would seem the American public learned nothing from Mai lai, Falluja, Samarra and others… A pitty, because they’re losing ideologically. And once the mind is not with the ass, the ass will no longer follow.

link

United States will join the EU in imposing sanctions on Belarus over the country’s contested elections, a U.S. official said.

Thatsmells funny. Oh, I know! It’s because of this. You don’t have to click the link. I’ll just hint to what it says:

Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how.

And I’m not sure I’m ready to boycott America. Too many good things come from there, and I think it’s totally possible to root out the bad things (current corrupt government, lobbyists…).

A few days ago, someone commented that Israel doesn’t need US, and I asked him if that’s the case, then why do they have a web of spies and pro-Israel activists all over the States (and other places, like the UK).
See here, here, here, here and here.

Some random quotes. I promise I’ll keep them short and sweet.

The study also points to Washington’s staunch support of Israel at the United Nations. Since 1982, it says, the United States has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel — a number greater than the combined total of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members. And it has blocked Arab states’ efforts to put Israel’s nuclear arsenal on the agenda of the IAEA.

Quote on quote: It’s a threat to world peace; it’s a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I’ll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel.

…Israel is certainly a U.S. ally, one reason our notional policy of being an “honest broker” between the Israeli government and the Palestinians is derided by most in the Arab/Islamic world.

Daily Kos is of course wrong. US has no ally status with Israel. See Ray McGovern’s comments on “The French connection” to why Israel doesn’t need an ally status with the US.

In the “mainstream” media, however, and certainly in Washington, D.C., the power of Israel’s lobby is unchallenged. This hegemony has now been thoroughly detailed and analyzed in an important study by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, published by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The same study I first quoted in this post. You can grab a pdf file here, or a shorter online version here.

Well, what a fine Sunday morning. I got up at quarter past six. Some people might find that early and others would say why don’t I sleep in - it’s Sunday for crying out loud. Well, it may be His day, but my hormones don’t care about that. I try to keep my rhythm as steady as possible. It’s bad enough that I have school only three days a week (not that I’m complaining) and I get a bit thrown off. But nothing major.

I already fed my animals. Every morning I check my tank, add evaporated water and feed the fish. I feed about 15 artemia shrimp per feeding, about three times or more, a day. This is how I think we whould be feeding our fish. It can’t be that complicated to make a device that would thaw and feed a piece of frozen foods. It may be costy, but what isn’t?
After I’m done with that, I take some salad and feed it to the cricket (Acheta domesticus). I keep them for the fun of it. I like their chirping noise they make, especially when their bellies are full and they’re properly heated.

Am I the only one who thinks Acheta domesticus should actually be A. domestica? Could Acheta be male? It strikes me as being a female, which would, by my logic, make domesticus -> domestica.

Well, it sucks to be unexperienced, and I really don’t have any knight tales to talk about. That’s absolutely one of major good points of being old. One may have ton of stories to share. And young people should be more prone to learn from them.

I will leave you with a quote:

“Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

You might have heard that Isaac Hayes has left South Park. He was the dude playing the voice of Chef.
It appears that Parked and Stone made fun of Scientology a while back, which made Isaac snap.
According to the linked article:

Stone told The AP he and co-creator Trey Parker “never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin.”

If everything in the article is true, and I’m not missing anything major, I’m with Stone/Parker on this one. But hey, Hayes is just human. Most of us get offended when someone talks over our belief. However, I truly believe that “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” If you don’t you may find out that you’ve lived in error your entire life. That would just suck, huh?

It took me almost an hour to get from my grandmother’s house back home. It usually takes me less than 30 minutes (and I don’t rush at all).
Anyways, enjoy. (more…)

Well, first round of batteries just went dead. I took about 450 pictures. The batteries are 2500mAh, and I charged them at 120mA for about 20 hours.

I added two new pictures (5, 6) to the picture gallery.
Read (more…)

The United States has informally asked Japan to suspend its plans to develop an Iranian oil field as part of world efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a Japanese newspaper said on Thursday.

Get out of the way, Kiro-son, we’s gonna bomb the hell out of em’, BANZAIII!

link

On July 18, 2005 14 year old Ragheb al-Masri sat in the back of a taxi with his parents at the Abo Holi checkpoint. An Israeli bullet penetrated his back and cracked open his chest. His mother screamed as his body lay lifeless. Have you heard his name?

The study, however, found that The New York Times covered Israeli deaths in the headline or the first paragraph in 159 articles—meaning in some cases they covered the same death numerous times. In contrast, The New York Times only covered about 40 percent of Palestinian deaths—334 of 808—in the headline or in the first paragraph of the articles. Nearly eight Palestinians died for every one Israeli.

This is why I think Israel will ultimately lose. First hearts, then economically and finally militarily. His biggest sponsor, the Uniteed states, is already pushing to an abrupt end. They’ve raised the debt ceiling to 9 trillion, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be paying back any time soon. It is ofcourse impossible to convince the American people that the future for them is dire, so we’ll have to wait till they get hit where it hirts them the most - their wallets, cc and gas. Some still whine about high gas prices, while they’re barely reaching EU prices. It’s sad that they stopped developing a more efficient engine. Corporate power pwns as all - until it will be too late.
“liberal” media

And you might have thought that Google is somehow liberal? Yes, they struggeled so that they don’t have to release some information to the government, but see here. Although they have restored indexing, makes you wonder why the hell did they do that, huh? This of course isn’t the first time censure has hit google chaps.

On The “Bush”-Whacked Administration you can read:

For all his posturing and strutting now he tells us that our sons, daughters, fathers, wives, aunt and uncles will be in Iraq until the next president takes office.

Well duuuuh, what did you expect? He’s gonna bring them home on day 10 and leave Haliburton with only a couple of billion dollars?!
I’ve been saying that fascism is just radient ATM, not just in USA, where it dominates, but also everywhere else. Corporations buying politicians, and soon there will be noone to represent us (yeah, right, like there’s anyone representing us today - well, there might be, but it’s not noticeable).

Ok, this is kinda scarry stuff. A few days ago, some scientist on an annelid (you know, worms and stuff) mailing list stirred quite a conversation with almost poop flinging. He is from Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Some of you might remember that Leslie offered to send me a polychaete (polychaetes are in group Annelida) identification key. She, too, is from the very same museum.
Ok, here’s the funny part
Today I start reading an article and the author starts mentioning some polychaete genera and other taxonomical groups (Spiohanes, Spionidae, Spionida). That aroused my intereset and turned the page to see the author. And guess what! It was the very same one who started the debate on the mailing list! Small world!

Oh, and the article is Fitzhugh K., 2005. The inferential basis of species hypotheses: the solution to defining the term ’species’. Marine ecology. 26: 155-165 if anyone cares…

It might be of interest to Peter. As I was writing this, the door2door service came and took the package. You should get a huge box on monday. Sorry for not sending it earlier, but I phoned them on Thursday afternoon - should have done it in the morning and they would pick the package the same day. That’s why I’m for banning weekends!

p.s.
As I’m reading the article, I came across a word “semaphoront”. I of course didn’t find it in my little dictionary, so I googled it. And found this page. Check the author.
Here, Fitzhugh defines a semaphoront as an individual in a certain, theoretically infinitely small, time span of its life, during which it can be considered unchangeable.