romunov’s blog et al

Well, there you have it. Shelley at Retrospectacle has “won” the battle, and some people went even further. She got an email from UM library. If you’re into such things as copyright law, fair use… read more about it here.

I will disagree:

The conflict in Iraq is different. Over the past couple of years, the President has let it proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued.

The plan works just fine. Ask Halliburton!

I watched a piece of “Hitler’s secretery” (at least I think that was the title) the other day on TV. Madam was telling how Adolf was driven around on good roads and most intact parts of the city. His driver did this on purpose. People around him didn’t want him to see what the war has really done. Hitler may have never known of the devestation. And this one reminds me of this.

The president was escorted in and out of the campus through an entrance on the far side of the campus, where he could not see the protests.

Big red, CCCP like, flag - DO YOU SEE IT?

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.

I did my butterfly route, and along the way, made a few photos. More under the fold.

And here is the list of species I saw/heard today. LBB (little brown birds) and other common things, excluded.
Coenonympha pamphilus
Pieris napi
Pieris rapae
Leptidea sinapis/reali
Gonepteryx rhamni
Callophrys rubi
Glaucopsyche alexis
Papilio machaon
Coenagrion hastulatum (dragonfly - need to recheck since I’m still a novice)
Orthetrum cancellatum (dragofly - need to recheck since I’m still a novice)
Araschnia levana
Everes argiades
Issoria lathonia
Cuculus canorus
Pyrgus malvae/malvoides
Lycaena tityrus
Anthocharis cardamines
Erynnis tages
Listera ovata

and more. ^_^

(more…)

Have you ever had a dream that you’re beeing chased by a cookie monster? Ok, how about a tiger? Mmmkay, a T. rex? Aaah, we’re getting closer. Now imagine you’re being eaten by a giant fungus! Just imagine how our ancestors must have felt when someone would be crushed by a giant tree-like fungus (or is it fungus like tree?). Hat tip to Mikrobiolog.

While Pharyngula usually bashes religion and raves on how bad ID is (yawn), he sometimes does make some good contributions to humor. Like this one.

You HAVE to love this:

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation.

Ok, nothing out of the ordinary so far.

But check this out:

As the Bush administration’s so-called “AIDS czar,” Tobias was criticized for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Evil Bobby hasa posted a number of links to Moyers’ Buying the war. Recommended to those who aren’t following the Iraq war too close.

Finally, a night with some sleep, albeit uncomfortable one. I’ve been virus stricken, but I’m winning on all fronts at the moment. I’ve started spitting out some jelly like substance. Which made me think. What exactly comprises these snots? I don’t feel like searching journals for analysis, rather, I will postulate and make some educated guesses.

First, the nose is lined with respiratory epithelia, which has mucus glands. These glands produce mucus (no surprises here). Mucus is a web of polysaccharides and water. Naturally, a snot will be mostly made of water. This jelly like substance (mucus) protects our respiratory and olfactory apithelia from damage, keeps it moist, helps it perform their funcions (helping us smell and warm up inhaled air) and entraps tiny particles, thus performing a cleaning function, all in one.

Then, when you have a (virus) infection where cells may be destined for the junk yard, this is likely to end up in this mucus. Along with “detritus” that has accumulated during an infection. Inadvertably, in a virus infection, virus particles end up in here too. I would venture a guess that other particles end up in there too, perhaps some blood cells, leucocytes and other. Hopefully someone more knowledeable on the subject could chip in?

In any case, it sure does feel good to spit out, knowing rejuvenation is just behind the corner. I can then resume my field work. Orchids and butterflies await!

And another thing I was thinking while laying in bed, waiting for my body to wake up as well. Some divers who have been diving sewage exhausts can tell you that they can smell the stench, even though under water. I can think of two possibilities how this happens.
One, the smell molecules defuse through the mask material and seals, causing the awful stench to be recognized.
OR
From my own experience, I can’t always keep my mouth piece water tight, causing some of the water to get into my breather. And since mouth cavity and the nose are connected, the smell could pass into the nose. I will have to visit an exhaust site someday to see if I can smell it with my nose or the smell comes from “the background”.

The corporate spirit plays their cards again. Shelley is off the hook, but higher ups blame junior staffer. Which of course made me wonder, was this official policy, meaning she was instructed by default to respond like this, or is she just being “sacrificed”? I’m eager to know!

Reminds me of the Abu Ghraib torture debacle, where the top brass blamed “a few bad apples”. Although, it was later revealed that this was a systematic thing, order coming from Dick himself.

Jerry Miller was exonerated yesterday in Chicago after serving 24 years in prison. He becomes the 200th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence. To recognize this landmark, the Innocence Project launched a month-long national campaign to prevent this injustice from happening to more people.

This is exactly why there should be no death penalty. Not only can you reverse any damages done (I hope he sue the bastards and wins ton of cash), but there are more horrible things to do in life than die.

… have sold out. Long ago.

I wonder what would happened if someone else offered “unwavering support” for Mexico. Or Venezuela. Or Germany. Can you say “lesbiancommiegayhippyliberalterrorist”?

Publishing SOBs of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (Wiley Publishing Inc.) are busting Shelley’s proverbial balls over some data she posted not quite the way some imagined. You go girl.

Hat tip to Good Math, Bad Math.

*Update*
John Pieret at Thoughts in a Haystack is keeping a list of blogs that have mentioned the debacle.

Today marks 54 years since one of historic discoveries, when Crick and Watson reported their findings on the structure of DNA. Strange fruit has a wee more.

Here’s a great page, via Pharyngula, on how to give an academic talk. There is a number of pointers, some of which used seldom. I don’t know weather or not lectures are considered an academic talks (I’ll assume they are), but this is something almost every lecturor I’ve had during the course of my schooling, should read, re-read and read again.

There were, of course, some nice exceptions. Some professors were just great. If there’s something I hate is a powerpoint presentations full of text. I came to HEAR a lecture, not read it. I can do that at home.

In my junior year, we had a guest visitor from Hophins U. I can’t remember his name anymore, but the person was very articulate and his slides were basically ideas, not text. And it was kinda cool to listen a lecture in English. It was nice to hear words I usually read from books or the internet.

I got a dichotomous orchids of Slovenia key from my docent for botany. I managed to ID one of the orchids growing on the hill next door.
I think I’m correct when I say that this is pictured specimen of Dactylorhizon (prstasta kukavica). I can’t decide on the species, though.

I’m thinking either D. maculata agg. or D. comosa.

According to the key, characters favouring D. maculata agg.:
- upper stem leaves don’t reach lower flowers (socvetje?)
- stem under the flowers thick 1,5-3 mm
- outter side flower leaves in blunt angle

Characters favouring D. comosa:
- stem hollow (I think it’s hollow, it sure feels like it, but I didn’t open it to be sure)
- flowers from May to June

I will leave the possibility that this is a hybrid, but if I had to decide the species, I would say D. comosa.

JFK talks how press should behave. No indications that our press will take any bigger turns for the better.

If you check out various popular (my estimation) “news” portals like www.rtvslo.si, www.24ur.com, or listen to most radio stations or watch TV stations available, you’ll notice that most of them promote mostly trivial things not neccessary for healty functioning of the state. Big brother or sports aren’t our top priorities.

We have gotten too comfortable, but it’s not time to endeavour in such pleasures. The rich man is still trying to take everything for himself, claiming moral or survival upper-hand, masses are still not knowledgeable and squabbling over petty things.
For things to take root, we must work bottom-up, not top-down. May that be driving culture (yes, I just read editor’s comments in “Žurnal”), Gipsey debacle, environmentalism or just simple social interactions.

How do we start? First, don’t think you’re helping the environment if you recycle, because your trans-Atlantic flights outweight it by a long shot. Pumping liquid gas into your car isn’t environmentally safe. It’s not even better. It’s just less disasterous (and I’m not being pessimistic). You’re still a person who prefers convenience over what’s right, just to drive to the market, when you could take one or two trips and carry it yourself.
If people come this far and acknowledge (and act) that they’re lying bags of rotten potatoes, I’ll shut up.

I thought this was interesting:

I was watching the live MSNBC feed during this horrible tradgey.

They had one of the Columbine family survivors on air..

He mentioned a gag order and how he couldn’t talk about “details” regarding his (my heart goes out to him) lost son. he mentioned also that several details regarding this shooting will not be released for another 25 years. The father of a murder victim, subject to gag orders? esp regarding high school shooting? What is being kept from US? More importantly what will be withheld during this profound VT case?

Why a gag order? link

And how about this?

Police and EMT workers at Virginia Tech tell us that campus police were given a federal order to stand down and not pursue killer Cho Seung-Hui as Monday’s bloodshed unfolded.

Is the local police unfit to take out an armed person? Why the stand-down order? link

And for anti-video-game proponents, they found no video games in Cho’s dorm room.

Looks like the police can protect you - if they feel like it.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court found that Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police protection, even in the presence of a restraining order. By a vote of 7-to-2, the Supreme Court ruled that Gonzales has no right to sue her local police department for failing to protect her and her children from her estranged husband.

A gun ban in the States is not functional, because you can’t have a gun free zone in a gun full zone. It’s like having a “peeing station” in a public pool, hoping it won’t spread.

And remember, do unto others as you would have them do to you. And vice versa.

It doesn’t take much to realise hunting every damn thing that swims to extinction is a bad thing. Saving some of the populations, moderate fishing and “bottom-up” perservation protocols go a long way towards a sustainable fishery.

Read more about some success stories here.

Hat tip to Caper at Coral bones.