romunov’s blog et al

This is a close-up (not that you can tell) of a fish called Salarias fasciatus. This picture reminds me of an octopus, dunno why…

Three pictures for goodbye. I may or may not return in about 8 days.

Navy sailors are trading sea legs for land combat as the U.S. Army is opening its largest training base to help them survive when sent into Afghanistan or Iraq.

The draft is near. A lot of Americans don’t care, but they will, soon. I suspect it will be too late. Now all they need is a 9/11 like event to catalyse the submission of the American people to support the draft.
If that happens, I feel sorry for them because they’ve learned nothing from their past experience in Koreo, Viet Nam… Wish I could say it’s their blood and dollars, but the events may influence the entire globe.

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Ron has posted a nice piece on global warming. He’s absolutely right. It will be very interesting to watch “End of days” develop in front of our eyes.

Anyone interested in crash course of how our species migrated from Africa all over the world?

I need to get my act together and ID some of these plants.
This one is Viola, probably V. mirabilis.

Went shopping and checked out some places where I’ll be collecting plants for my herbarium. Also talked to some local folks. Should be fun.
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Some sort of protest against about 13 points, tuitions being most important. Click more to see pictures.
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Israel said Monday that a new “axis of terror” — Iran, Syria and the Hamas-run Palestinian government — is sowing the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century. The Palestinians accused Israel of an escalating and indiscriminate military campaign that targets civilians and entrenches its occupation.

Yeah, sure, it’s the Paleistinians for speaking out, not Israel for buldozing their houses and shooting them. This is the kind of stuff you can’t make up, it’s just unbelievable. And it’s interesting how the accused parties fit the situation. To anyone who has been dead for the past few years, Israel has been pushing for war with Syria/Iran for quite some time now. At some point, I thought they were going to bomb Syria, but it looks like they have set their xhairs, along with the US, on Iran.
I suspect they’re also putting out bullshit stories like a brazillion suicide bombers ready to strike targets. Just keep in mind that if something DOES blow up, you can’t really be sure, unless you find luggage with Arab-language papers revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives. Why would people who will be dead in a few hours, carry luggage with stuff like that? It’s just silly. Kinda like the grassy nole.
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Saw a blog entry on ATTWSYF about Iran’s stance on anti-Semitism.
For those who don’t want to click the link, here’s a quick quote that kinda sums up most of it:

“Iran has no motivation for anti-Semitism,” Haddad Adel reiterated.

Looks like the US is preparing for a strike against Iran with cover ops already under way. This would be hard to believe, but we now know that exactly the same thing has happened in Iraq before hostilities (while “diplomacy” was still on the table!) began. Nothing new here…

The United States is now a first-strike nation.

And has always been.

Some are trying to kill the Sheen story. Why?

An Alabama employment agency that sent 70 laborers and construction workers to job sites in that state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina says the men were sent home after just two weeks on the job by employers who told them “the Mexicans had arrived” and were willing to work for less.

I’ll bring this one back when someone yells “they took our job!!”. No they didn’t - they were GIVEN their job by their employer. So stop bitching and start working for less or shake the poop out of your government/employer. I guess I can relate to how it’s like when you live under fascism.

And to those who will say how Iraq is better off under the US occupation (because Hussein tortured his own people wink wink nudge nudge), I’ll show them this one. Women’s groups say their members are worse off under the current regime

Russians are not being helpful on the Iranian cause.

Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst, told Interfax that Israel could be tempted to launch a strike against Iran before Russia provides Tehran with sophisticated Tor-M1 air defense missiles. The missile deal has drawn a strong U.S. and Israeli criticism, and Markov said that Russia was delaying their delivery.

Who would be attacking who?

Near death experience kinda like dreaming.

Moussaoui is funny:

Moussaoui said he no longer wanted to include the “and be executed“ part, because he had consulted Islamic books and decided that violated Muslim religious beliefs.

Looks like he’s been watching too many John Wayne movies and his wording has gotten out of hand a bit.

Went to Piran for my last four dives to become PADI OWD (open water diver). Got my licence done today (actually, they just took my picture, the card comes in next week). I took some pics. Read on.
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Off to the sea side for about two days. Make sure internet doesn’t go offline while I’m gone. If I die, don’t take me to church, just bury me where I drop.

It is a pity that supporters of Israel still reach for the same obfuscations, denigrations and outright distortions of fact. As far back as 1980, the May/June issue of Yiton 77 (a Hebrew literary monthly) published an article by the Israeli writer Boaz Evron on the use of accusations of anti-semitism and reminders of the Holocaust to silence critics. There have been many similar articles in the Israeli media over the years.

Pretty much the same thing is being used in holocaust-denial trials.
mparent7777 has more

The latest South Park episode sucked! They’re not even trying to be funny anymore. They carry a message that is not understood by most people (at least the ones with their heads in the ground) and their jokes have vained over the years. They even imitate family guy with that slap fight between Cartman and Kyle.

Well, I was at the pool today, and inbetween some excercizes, I went swimming around a bit to warm up (pools are quite cold when you sit on the bottom and wait). I was swimming along the bottom when I saw a bracelet… or something similar. I don’t wear contact lenses, so my vision is rather limited. Well, I grab it and pull it closer to check it out. It turns out it was a tampon, and it was stained red a bit. Eeeeew.

Whatreallyhappened.com wrote commented on this:

Well guess what: not only are Iraqi citizens having to deal with this, but also our troops - and their children. This is going to come back to haunt the U. S. in a very tragic way.
And don’t say we didn’t told you so!

Israel rejects Hamas long-term truce: official
That is because Israel benefits from non-peace times. They can do whatever they want and they write the check to “our security”. Just as they used previous wars to deport Palestinians, which is, according to Geneva convention, a war crime. And don’t tell me that it was to move them out of harm’s way - if it was that, they should have moved them back when the conflict was over.
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I’ve been quite busy lately, and it doesn’t seem my schedule will clear this week. I go to sleep at around midnight and wake up at six in the morning. Meanwhile I usually do about 30km on my bike along with listening to lectures and doing lab work. Not “exhausted” yet. Don’t have time for anything else. As I type I’m eating a yoghurt with some bread. I’ll have to skip my first class, because I’m by no means done with work here at home. I’ll apologize to fellow bloggers who’s blogs I’ll be neglecting this week.

I thank everyone for their kind greetings, however, I was away till about 11pm. I was at scuba course. Can’t wait Saturday/Sunday when we go to Piran for our “finals” in “the real thing”.
I will be turning in with a midnight snack (banana) and a shower. I’ll shave my mustache in the morning, so that the mask won’t leak, unlike some presidents. Didn’t have time to check for news, either, so no lame update from me today.

Ever thought who forged the documents that in GWB’s mind “proved” Iraq was trying to buy uranium birthday cake? By watching/reading/listening to the US press, you wouldn’t know, or, you would hear “some Nigerians”.
Actually, the Italian government did an investigation and found four names: Ahmad Chalabi , Francis Brookes, Dewey Clarridge, and Michael Ledeen.
Some of these names may be familar to you. I suggest you google them.

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Another set up. Why were Israelis warned to “stay indoors” just prior to attacks? Acid rain? Cheap hookers? WHY?

The US is starting to experience the epidemic of democratizacia.
This is nothing new for Iraqis, who have seen a rise in cancer by several fold!
Additionally, the dust is possibly spreading over the Globe via wind, and may affect as all.

Looks like these guys (1, 2) have been watching too much South Park.

As almost every morning, when I wake up, I hook up some sites and start reading news. Looks like Bolton is pushing to bypass Security Counsil, as the US is resisting talks with Iran to possibly nuke it.

This sounds very familiar. A very similar tactics was used when they were banging the war drums on Iraq. The fun part is the American people will fall for it - again.

Meanwhile the US Treasury is missing 3 trillion, couple that with Pentagon’s missing cash (about the same amount - give or take a few millions) you wonder what bannana loving ape is running that country. And the question one must ask onself is - where is all the money going?

Researchers have found that uranium binds to DNA. I would think that this will enable us to test the amount of dose the person was exposed to. Which makes it harder for military to justify the use of such hazardous (irony?) weapons.
There have been tests to test for the ammount of radiation the person was exposed to by counting irregular nuclei while in mitosis. The test was done by taking blood (which is fairly easy) and then process the blood cells and count nuclei after a few days (they induce cell division and when nuclei form a visible structure, you can count them). Abnormal nuclei are deformed, split or otherwise damaged. You can estimate, by the number of abnormal items per unit of counted cells, the dose to which the person was exposed to.

To people who are not into this kind of stuff, binding heavy radio active metals to DNA spells cancer. Half life of Uranium is… a lot more years that there is fingers on your extremities.
And there are reports that uranium dust (from DU weapons) has been detected in India and England. And if it’s in England, you can bet your ass that we’re breathing it as well. I offer a name for the symptom: democratizatia.