romunov’s blog et al

Here is a site explaining what revisionism of Holocaust is all about. Recommended read.

Check out this video of a Canadian (Montrealean?) citizen expressing his thoughts on how some of them will react upon a "false flag" attack, should it be blamed on the current terrorist country, organization, persons… Hopefully someone will export this sort of thinking south of the border, where such thinking is in really short supply.

I am currently working on a project, where we search for a butterfly and a plant withing a given range on Ljubljansko Barje near Ljubljana. My task is to check every meadow, hedge and ditch and locate butterfly Maculinea telejus (also M. teleius, in Slovene "strašničin mravljiščar" and Scarce Large Blue for English) and the feeding plant Sanguisorba officinalis (strašnica). I mark everything down on a map (like the ones here) with color markers and fill out a form. All this will be analyzed at a later date and consolidated in an opinion on "health" of population of this perticular buttefly in this particular region. Why? (more…)

And you thought the US govt has been trying to protect you, via shock bracelets and filling out the green form over the internet but all they want to do is help out their corporate friends at finding illegal software in your iPods, laptops and phones. No wonder they have no time searching for "terr’ists", if they’re busy going through your 20 GB home made porn collection.

Has the McCain camp and himself lost it? A bunch of barbarians is running for the Oval office these days…

Citing what he called the "overwhelmingly positive response to my jokes about killing Iranians," presumptive G.O.P. presidential nominee John McCain issued today a list of his favorite humorous remarks on the subject.

Titled "John McCain’s Top Ten Funniest Ways to Kill Iranians," the list was published on his official campaign website at www.JohnMcCain.com/funnywaystokilliranians.

 Can you imagine if you read something along the lines "Xxxxxx’s top ten funniest ways to kill Jews"? AIPAC would squirt blood from every orifice if they heard that… Looks to me like they’re softening the American public to "something" (wink wink nudge nudge).

I just felt like I should post this one.

Found this body yesterday. I’m fairly certain this is the result of modern farm equipment. UPDATE: I’ve talked to the authorities on mammal and they say the cause of death could be a number of things (car, hunting, parasites). Also, the damages are not consistent with mowers that usually cut off legs.

Part of my training for a biologist consists of field work. The last comprehensive camp was last week at lake Bohinj. Bohinj is located at the north-western part of Slovenia in a valley in Julian Alps (east part of the Alps you keep hearing about). I didn’t have time to take a lot of photos (or I didn’t take the time, because the camera wasn’t as handy as I would want it to be), but I did take a few. Here is one of Savica brook just before it spills into the lake. The brook is very cold (around 5˚C) and it creates a thermocline in its delta - a sharp transition from its temperature to that of the surface temperature of the lake, which is about 20˚C in this time of year. The cold water runs at the bottom of the lake and doesn’t mix with the upper layers of the lake as one might imagine. The lake is meromictic, meaning it gets mixed by winds two times a year (spring and autumn). The east part is the deepest, about 45 meters. River flowing out of the lake is called Jezernica.

I was sampling with Ekman’s corer (also dubbed Bodengriefer, švaba) at about 40 meters. As luck would have it, I hit a spot with a lot of subterranean amphipod crustaceans, which indicates there is an underwater spring thereabout. Hopefully this will be of any value to the scientists at http://niphargus.info/. Sampling was done on one day, sorting the samples the other and identifying on the third. Identifying was interesting. Most animals were Diptera larvae, but oligochaetes were common as well. As already mentioned, one sample contained a lot of amphipods. Deep parts of lakes are usually poor in animal diversity (and zero in plant diversity, because there is usually no light below a certain compensation point defined by many factors) because of extreme environmental conditions. Animals have to be adapted to low temperatures and often low oxygen levels. Some animals (like the amphipods I already mentioned twice) avoid low oxygen levels by moving through the ground into subterranean streams.

In recent times, invasive species are often the hot topic of conversation of environmental biologists. These species are capable of invading, in modern times almost exclusively through human activities, new habitats - often on other parts of the world. In Europe, most invaders comes from the States and Asia. Little plants and animals come from the southern hemisphere. This indicates how similar certain environments can be in certain respects.

I’ve been following the story of a Mediterranean polychaete (a hairy, spiny worm) Sabella spallanzanii (Mediterranean fanworm). They’ve spotted a single specimen in one New Zealand port (link here), but after a wider scan, they’ve noticed that it’s widespread throughout the port (see here).

 While there is some concern for panic that this species may spread, we can keep firetrucks at home for now. Invasive species are usually present (only) in degraded areas that have lost their function through loss of local flora and fauna, and marinas and ports are exactly that. Most organisms never make it through the gate, as long as the surrounding environment is in OK., if not pristine, conditions.

On the last sampling for my graduation thesis this June, we found an invasive species of algae, but only on a newly built wind stopper near a swimming area. This shows that the rocks that have been put into place have yet to reach the climax community. If the hydrodynamics of the currents has not been drastically changed, and the rocks receive enough new water, this should happen in a few years. But I’ve noticed that the water is stagnant, which means a lot of organisms can have problems with oxygen. And empty niches mean more room for new, more competitive organisms.