After a long battle with unwanted messages, I decided to create a new account. All the friends on my old accound should see my new contact infromation displayed in topic, right next to my name and in my profile.

I might be using this space still, but definately less frequently, some topics will be continued in my new space.

Don’t litter there, it’s a green zone.

Today i managed to do something that I succesfully eluded since the time I got my driving licence. Soem may have guessed, some have probably accused me of drinking and driving and getting cought by a traffic control cop... nah... Wrong!

I locked my car keys into my car.

While I was at the mall.

Yup, I did it and felt so stupid for it! I succesfully threw the key to the front seat, put all my shopping bags there as well and then completely consciously locked and closed. It's a good thing I didn't locked inside my purse as well or thank god I didn't, my cell phone.

I had to call my mum to have my spare key delivered to me so that I was able to get home.

So stupid.

And of course, my Hmster (the fuzzy toy that's supposed be guarding my keys), didn't have any usable training so unlocking the door from inside was in advance impossible.

To the next time I manage to scrue up something...

P.S.: I'd put up a picture of my Hamster, but he wasn't really good hamster lately and didn't take a bath for a veeeery long time. He's just plain dirty!

Yesterday, December 14th, was the International Day of Choral Singing.

It's an "initiative of Alberto Grau from the Latin American Vice-Presidency of the International Federation for Choral Music, proposed and approved by the General Assembly of IFCM held in Helsinki in August, 1990, within the framework of the 2nd World Symposium on Choral Music."

A proclamation has been written for this day and it's to be read during any choral concert happening on this day. According to the IFCM website, it's been translated into eight different languages.

Sing Choirs of the World!

May your voices take springs there where fire burns.
May your songs put roses there where battlefields lay.
Open furrow and sow love to harvest fruits of hope.

Sing to liberty where despot is,
Sing to equality where poverty nests,
Sing to brotherhood where hate prevails.

May your singing direct the world so that peace takes over wars, so that men cherishes earth, so that all race or color discrimination is banished so that we will be fraternal so that this planet rejoices with your voices.

This found it's way to my mail today. It's incredibly funny to read and even hold some truth...

A Concise Guide To The Choir

In any choir or chorus, there are four voice parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.

There are also various other parts such as baritone, countertenor, contralto, mezzo-soprano, etc., but these terms are mostly used by people who are either soloists, or belong to some excessively hotshot classical a cappella group (this applies especially to countertenors), or are trying to make excuses for not really fitting into any of the regular voice parts, so we will ignore them for now.

Each voice part sings in a different range, and each one has a very different personality. You may ask, "Why should singing different notes make people act differently?" Indeed, this is a mysterious question which has not been adequately studied, especially since scientists who study musicians tend to be musicians themselves and have all the peculiar complexes that go with being tenors, French horn players, timpanists, or whatever.

However, this is beside the point; the fact remains that the four voice parts can be easily distinguished, and I will now explain how.

THE SOPRANOS are the ones who sing the highest, and because of this they think they rule the world. They have longer hair, fancier jewelry, and swishier skirts than anyone else, and they consider themselves insulted if they are not allowed to go at least to a high F in every movement of any given piece. When they reach the high notes, they hold them for at least half again as long as the composer and/or conductor requires, and then complain that their throats are killing them and that the composer and conductor are sadists.

Sopranos have varied attitudes toward the other sections of the chorus, though they consider all of them inferior: The altos are to sopranos rather like second violins to first violins--nice to harmonize with, but not really necessary. All sopranos have a secret feeling that the altos could drop out and the piece would sound essentially the same, and they don't understand why anybody would sing in that range in the first place -- it's so boring.

Sopranos think tenors, on the other hand, can be very nice to have around; besides their flirtation possibilities (it is a well-known fact that sopranos never flirt with basses), sopranos like to sing duets with tenors because all the tenors are doing is working very hard to sing in a low-to-medium soprano range, while the sopranos are up there in the stratosphere showing off.

To sopranos, basses are the scum of the earth -- they sing too damn loud, are useless to tune to because they're down in that low, low range -- and there has to be something wrong with anyone who sings in the F clef, anyway. One curious fact, however, is that although the sopranos swoon while the tenors sing, they still end up going home (and/or to bed) with the basses.

THE ALTOS are the salt of the earth -- in their opinion, at least. Altos are unassuming people who would wear jeans to concerts if they were allowed to. Altos are in a unique position in the chorus in that they are unable to complain about having to sing either very high or very low, and they know that all the other sections think their parts are pitifully easy. But the altos know otherwise. They know that while the sopranos are screeching away on a high A, they are being forced to sing elaborate passages full of sharps and flats and tricks of rhythm, and nobody is noticing because the sopranos are singing too loud (and the basses usually are, too). Altos get a deep, secret pleasure out of conspiring together to tune the sopranos flat.

Altos have an innate distrust of tenors, because the tenors sing in almost the same range and think they sound better. They like the basses, and enjoy singing duets with them -- the basses just sound like a rumble anyway, and it's the only time the altos can really be heard. Altos' other complaint is that there are always too many of them and so they never get to sing really loud.

THE TENORS are spoiled. That's all there is to it. For one thing, there are never enough of them, and choir directors would rather sell their souls than let a halfway decent tenor quit, while they're always ready to unload a few sopranos or altos at half price. And then, for some reason, the few tenors there are always seem to be really good -- it's one of those annoying facts of life.

So it's no wonder that tenors always get swollen heads -- after all, who else can make sopranos swoon? The one thing that can make tenors insecure is the accusation (usually by the basses) that anyone singing that high couldn't possibly be a real man. In their usual perverse fashion, the tenors never acknowledge this, but just complain louder about the composer being a sadist and making them sing so damn high.

Tenors have a love-hate relationship with the conductor, too, because the conductor is always telling them to sing louder because there are so few of them. No conductor in recorded history has ever asked for less tenor in a forte passage.

Tenors feel threatened in some way by all the other sections -- the sopranos, because they can hit those incredibly high notes; the altos, because they have no trouble singing the notes the tenors kill themselves for; and the basses because, although they can't sing anything above an E, they sing it loud enough to drown the tenors out. Of course, the tenors would rather die than admit any of this.

It is a little-known fact that tenors move their eyebrows more than anyone else while singing. And it's true what Liszt said: tenors have resonance where their cerebra should be.

THE BASSES sing the lowest of anybody. This basically explains everything. They are solid, dependable people, and have more testosterone and facial hair than anybody else. By the same token, they also tend to baldness more than any of the other parts. The basses feel perpetually unappreciated, but they have a deep conviction that they are actually the most important part (a view endorsed by musicologists, but certainly not by sopranos or tenors), despite the fact that they have the most boring part of anybody and often sing the same note (or in endless fifths) for an entire page. They compensate for this by singing as loudly as they can get away with -- most basses are tuba players at heart.

Basses are the only section that can regularly complain about how low their part is, and they make horrible faces when trying to hit very low notes. Basses are charitable people, but their charity does not extend so far as tenors, whom they consider effete poseurs. Basses hate tuning the tenors more than almost anything else. Basses like altos -- except when they have duets and the altos get the good part.

As for the sopranos, they are simply in an alternate universe which the basses don't understand at all. They can't imagine why anybody would ever want to sing that high and sound that bad when they make mistakes. When a bass makes a mistake, the other three parts will cover him, and he can continue on his merry way, knowing that sometime, somehow, he will end up at the root of the chord.

I'm a soprano and... Well, some is true, other dangerously close...

Plastic doomed our planet when it was first invented. Well, people did with their (our) wreckless usage and disposing of it. There are two major problems over all: plastic bags and bottles.

Plastic bags problem is slowly being solved, people are becoming more aware and use those huge Mercator bags that are neither 100% recycled, neither completely regradable, but if that brings down the usage of the free, ugly plastic bags (the huge one has nice motives on it), it's something. Bringing the awareness to the people who thought that one person can't make a change.

So the new generation of plastic is on it's wake and will probably end up in garbage sooner or later with everything else that's made of plastic.

Wel, they tried.

Then, how about this new paper bottle? (DVICE)

It's a great I dea, I think. But are we all preapred to use more tree trunks to put our water in paper bottles. And what is it really made of. Soemhow, I have trouble imagining paper holding water indefinately.

And how about all the abuses plastic bottles are capable to put up with. i don't see paper bottles standing up to that.

Again, I think the key is not to use better recyclable materials, but use products that can be re-used. I think that's the key to the cleaner environment.

I don't think I'll be able to as much as look at them in the next weeks. Or anything that reminds me of bananas.

But it's not really banana's fault.

Today I had a performance. Nothing to do with the musical, it was just one of those regular  singing performances with the Classical singing class. I sang Venite inginochiatevi, aria of Susanna from Figaro's wedding, by Mozart.

Susanna's aria  performed by Diana Damrau

It went remarcably well. Didn't forget the lyrics, didn't miss my entrance, got all the hights right and my voice didn't crack. I never believed it'd go so well.

Anyways, a smaller group of singers decided to hand out a little after the performance ad we went downstair in the sweetshop called Europa. A smaller group being two men and two women and the teachers joined us later.

The first thing Helena and me did when we entered was to stare at all the cakes that were on display. That's a natural. We didn't decided on what to have, but there was lots of various fruit as well and it was quite appealing.

By the table we ordered each a cup of tea and Janez was disappointed when he learned that no alcohol was served there.

While we were waiting for our beverages, Helena and me quickly went through the menu and decided on a simple, fresh fruit salad with a ball of icecream and no whipped cream. We told that to the waiter and he told us he understood. Only half a minute later, he returned to ask us if he could put soem bananas in the salad as well.

''Sure.''

Minutes later we got our order - all banana salad, with whipped cream. I was reall optimistic when I dug into the cream to get to the icecream, but... there wasn't any. Only bananas.

I tried to eat some, but bananas and whipped cream made a huge sticking ball in my stomach and that was a reason to call it.

And that's when men come in handy. Especially hungry men.

But I'm still left with uncomfortable feeling.

Banana? - No thank you.

No, I don't feel sick, I just want to point out a few ideas for Green-power Technologies (as usually, picked the ideas from Dvice)

A 'green' energy source would be a renewable natural source, that doesn't effects the nature. Solar pannels, wind turbines... all 'old' technology that actually result in recycling energy from the environment.

Mankind needs heat to stay cosy and warm and what people usually do is buy oil, burn it and heat water with the energy it produces. What some genious came up with was extracting heat directly from environment. Maybe not so bad idea, reflecting on Stargate Atlantis' Brainstorm, since the biggest side effect is cooler environment. Maybe if all world was using it... Nah! If you want to get heat from air it's okay, you'll result in a cooler room, if the heat pump is in a naturally warmer room, it could act as a cooling device. It's a great idea, but I should brought to attention the amount of electric energy it needs to work properly - it's huge and it probably counts out the amount of CO2 emission we spared the nature.

Should make my dad to rethink if the purchase of the device was really that benefitial.

1. Algae-Made Biofuels from Carbon Emissions

 What it is California's Sequesco uses microbes to capture carbon dioxide from power plants, converts it into feedstock for biofuel. Making biofuels from algae isn't new, but doing it in a closed environment without photosynthesis is. This tackles one of the biggest issues around today's energy generation — carbon emissions — while competing less with food production or natural habitats for biofuel production, like corn ethanol.
If Sequesco uses emissions from an oil- or diesel-powered power plant, you could capture the emissions on site and turn it back into biofuels, running them through the plant again and again.

Great! When I finally scoop the algae from my water tank, I'm sure I'l have it enough to go about... 10 meters??

This actually deals with the main problem that comes with fossile fuels is that they emisse a lot of carbon dioxide.

Aren't all fuels doing that? Why is biofuel so different, you might ask. Well, the answer is simple: all things in nature are recycled - the oxygen you breath, the carbon dyoxide, water... absolutely everything. Fossile fuels have been locked in the ground for thousands, millions of years in soem casses and by digging them up and using them, we presented new, additional material for Earth to recycle. The problem is, that our ecosystem used those thousands of years when all the carbon has been below groun to adapt. See the problem?

2. Nuclear Fusion Tokamak

What it is sure, nuclear fusion is great: Heat some hydrogen to millions of degrees Fahrenheit, and boom — a cheap, plentiful energy source for everyone, with little waste. But the problem with fusion is that it needs the right box to contain that superheated "fuel," or plasma, and right now it can burn through anything man-made. So researchers from around the world working on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) are trying to build a better plasma trap. The 17-meter-wide vessel, called a tokamak, will be surrounded by superconducting coils that create magnetic fields 100,000 times as powerful as the Earth's. They've got a $15 billion budget, or about half of what's needed to bail out General Motors.

The feedstock for a fusion reactor — hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium — is readily available in our oceans. And the process produces some useful waste: helium, especially important if either zeppelins or making funny noises with party balloons is your thing.

I was always one of those who supported Nuclear plants. But I was always very caution how I spoke of them. People always bring up Chernobil. Well, yes, if a disaster happenes, and there  always is a chance it will, the consequences might be more terrifying, with much larger range in time and land, but I think, that if we're going to keep using the electrical energy the way we are, it's one of best ways to produce it.

The only minus I find while operating without problems and/or flaws is the water from the cooling system that's usually released to the river. It isn't poisonous, but it's much warmer than the river itself, which usually causes a bit of a havoc in the fauna and flora of the river. If people didn'+t always look at the costs when building a Nuclear power plant, they might consider using the same water to warm up several dozen of near-by houses, for example.

3. Electric Vehicle Retrofitting

Hacking your old car to turn it electric has been a hobby for gearheads for a while, but San Francisco's ElectraDrive has created a process so it can retrofit virtually any fossil-fuel car to run on electricity. The company's electric drivetrain replaces your car's current gasoline-powered one, and can adapt almost any passenger vehicle to electricity, whether it's that gas-guzzling Hummer, a '60s muscle car, or that bland sedan you've become attached to for some reason. And their all-electric system promises the same or better performance. Each conversion costs about $20,000, but they figure it'll pay for itself in six years if you're a typical SUV owner.

America has 250 million cars. Even if new electric vehicles were widely available tomorrow, it would take a while to replace that entire national "fleet." ElectraDrive makes repurposing those vehicles and extending their usable lives much easier, and its plans include certifying installers to do conversions.

I've stated in my previous posts why yes and why not having a electric car. One of the nots was the cost. I'd love to have a car with electric engine, but having one for 15.500 € is a bit too much. I can get a new car, with lover fuel usage and 'earn' just as much in 6 years. That's how people think, so down with the price!

I mean, gosh! Poeple have been buying diesel cars because the fuel costs were lover - for a minimal percentage.

4. Vehicle-to-Grid Technologies

Rather than build 100 new power plants, why not build several million small ones? Google's founders have been looking into the idea of using hybrid and electric vehicles as batteries to store energy to be used by the larger electrical grid at peak times, such as mid-day when the cars sporting those batteries are parked and plugged in, doing nothing. In October, Boulder, Colorado, launched a "phase one" project for vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, technologies, starting with 60 customers with hybrids. Technologies in development now will skip the plugging-in part, using wireless systems to tap your car's battery. Picture this technology allowing you to program how far you're traveling when you get into your car, then driving over roadbed transducers that will pull energy from your moving vehicle to power nearby office buildings, and you arrive at your destination with enough credit in your energy account money to buy lunch.

"Distributed energy" is a concept you'll see a lot more of in coming years. This means that rather than replacing a coal power plant with a wind farm, why not replace it with 100,000 smaller systems that are already out there? This means a more secure power grid for everyone with redundancies built in.

Hmmm... This is the first time I've came over an idea like that. I like it. I like the concept and the idea itself but again - have some daubts if it would really work like that. That would mean that there must be enough electric vehicles on the road, which brings me back to my point about costs.

5. The New Net Metering

Think of the vehicle-to-grid idea above. Now extend it to homes that produce renewable energy as well. 30 states have net-metering laws, meaning that utilities in those states are required to "net out" any excess power production generated by a customer — like one with a house with solar panels — against any power they've bought to keep the TV on at night. That fascinating spinning dial on the side of your house is nearly 100 years old, but that old-school meter can run backwards. Firms like Fat Spaniel are offering web-enabled, wireless monitoring system to keep an eye on your energy production and your efficiency of energy use.

Some states have had net metering for a while, but if you couple distributed energy technologies with rewards for efficient energy use, you're well on your way to helping our energy needs without enormous amounts of infrastructure. And unless people start putting their own coal-fired power plants in their backyard, it'll likely be adding only renewable energy to the grid.

Well, that is something! No comment here - yet. Just - buy a solar pannel if you don't have one yet.

6. Trash-to-Ethanol Plants

Biofuels have a problem: Making them can be more costly environmentally and economically than the benefits they give. But what if you could make biofuel from stuff lying around? Not content with just turning agricultural waste into fuels, Fulcrum BioEnergy wants to turn your home trash to waste, a la Back To The Future. Municipal solid waste comes into their plant. Any remaining recyclables would be pulled out, and the leftovers — your leftovers — are gasified through application of heat and pressure and turned into alcohols to be used as fuels. Since they're using something we pay to get rid of anyway, they have a "fixed-price, long-term, low-cost feedstock," meaning their ethanol production cost is less than $1 a gallon, or about 65% lower than corn-based ethanol.

Biofuel production is great, but Fulcrum's concept does a lot more. Cheaper ethanol means wider adoption of gas-ethanol blends, and if every city of any size had a Fulcrum plant as part of the waste management stream, it would save transportation costs for refined gasoline.

I was always supporter of the corn-ethanol. I think it's great especially because it burns out completely - yes there are carbon dioxide emissions, but remember what I said about fossile fuels? Corn's carbons were in a living plant and back there they go. They wouldn't be an extra pressure to the environment.

But making ethanol from trash - well, isn't that just something we all want to get rid of anyway? Trash is slowly began to cover the eart and now the speed is rocketting, so it's about time we recycle it into something useful.

7. "Run of River" Hydro Power

In the world of renewable energy, "intermittency" is the word that makes utility managers wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Solar and wind power require sun and wind — not something that's happening 24/7, and is especially weak at peak usage times, like at night… in winter… in the Northeast. Enter hydropower, the oldest renewable energy source we know. Until recently, its biggest nuclear-power-like drawback was the giant dams that made it possible. But now some utilities, especially in the Northeast, use smaller "run of river" hydro, where water is partially directed into a turbine and allowed to carry on without a dam, headpond, or flow interruption.

This is the ideal renewable energy choice. It provides clean energy with equipment that isn't too energy- or resource-consuming to make, generates power around the clock and doesn't create an environmental hazard to do it.

Let's talk about that. Dams are horrific, destroying the valleys, natural habitat of thousands of species (everybody is forgetting the unnoticable tiny worm-like creatures living in wet soil close to the river, frogs and toads laying eggs in teh shallow parts, birds that make nests among the high grass, barely above the water, deers and other forest creatures that came to drink water in the shallow parts and live in the to-be-flooded forests.

If you take away the dams, you still got one problem: What about fish? Mayn fish species travel up the stream to mate, many are born and live in different parts of the river in different life stages. IS ti okay to forget those?

I really like the whiteness the show brings. It  covers up everything that's exposed, saves it 'till spring and crushes what's to be crushed.

It really presents that feeling of ending and of time passing by. It also soothens to environment. It all looks so peaceful and calm, quieter than over the year - probably has something to do with the snow muffling the sounds.

And then there are Holidays. Without any snow, holidays just aren't what they present, it's as if something was missing, just doesn't feel right. Cristmas just has to be white.

But there are other aspects of Winter. It can be cruel, it can kill. It does Kill - everything and everybody who is unable to protect itself/himself. Or anyone who's stupid enough to go and walk down the icy stairs - like I did and broke my tooth. I was in second grade, but got the pleasure to remember it for life.

Musical selection - I couldn't decide, but I will go with an Acoustic version.

Again, we prooved it. Well, not really me, but I consider myslef a student that that is a student's win. Completely.

And once again it's been proven that Slovenia is small, but great people come from our villiages.

Two years ago, a Slovenian team first applied to the iGEM competition and won the Grand Prize with project Engineered Human Cells: SAY NO TO SEPSIS.

Last year Slovenian team won the Health&Medicine cathegory with project VIROTRAP: A Synthetic Biology Approach Against HIV.

And this year, our team won Health&Medicine section and the Grand prize with Immunobricks.

''Bacteria Helicobacter pylori infects half of the world population causing gastritis and contributing to increased incidence of ulcers and gastric malignancies. This infection can be treated with multi-drug regime, but this is often associated with induced antibiotic resistance and does not protect individuals from re-infections. Vaccination against H. pylori can therefore be a viable alternative to control this widespread infection. However, developing an effective vaccine against H. pylori has presented a challenge because H. pylori or its components, which have frequently been used as parts of vaccines, are modified by bacteria such that they evade host defense mechanisms. Using synthetic biology approaches we managed to assemble functional “immunobricks” into a designer vaccine with a goal to activate both innate and acquired immune response to H. pylori. We successfully developed two forms of such designer vaccines. One was based on modifying H. pylori component (flagellin) such that it can now be recognized by the immune system. The other relied upon linking H. pylori components to certain molecules of the innate immune response (so called Toll-like receptors) to activate and guide H. pylori proteins to relevant compartments within the immune cell causing optimal innate and acquired immune response. Both types of vaccines have been thoroughly characterized in vitro (in test tubes or cells) as well as in vivo (laboratory mice) exhibiting substantial antibody response. Our strategy of both vaccines’ design is not limited to H. pylori and can be applied to other pathogens. Additionally, our vaccines can be delivered using simple and inexpensive vaccination routes, which could be suitable also in third world countries.''

Preety impressive, isn't it? For more, click the picture.

(P.S.: I'm not taking any credit, I'd only like to point that out, because I'm proud. And if anyone from the Ministry of Science is reading this: think about what you spend our money on...)

Today, a friend has posted something that reminded me of the History classes about three years ago, that I never really followed. Yes, history is important, history teaches us... pardon, should teach us. But the older you grow, the wiser you become, faster you realise that it thought us absolutely nothing.

I'm always a bit nervous when posting about things taht bother me, but aren't really my home field. Sometimes, you just gotta get it out.

People fight over land, over natural material, food, or just because they're too stubborn to admitt they were wrong. I should know, I live in a nation where fighting is an everyday activity. I'm not talking about a teenager who opposes his parents, I'm talking about real villiage wars. Two neighbours fight over a tiny square piece of land, which divides a villiage in two halfs soon the war for land ends up on the court. People get hurt in the process, physically and mentally, they destroy each other's property... It's about eye for an eye untill everyone is blind.

What's sad, is that people find it entertaining and the fight ends up on TV in a special show that's all about fights between neighbours untill the whole Country knows about those two down there who fight over that piece of grass.

It goes well back. The first and second World Wars effected the people living around me in a different way. The battlefields were practically at their doorstep. Austro-Hungarian claimed Slovenia as their own and when Italy joined the war, it was 'our' boys who fought in the name of Austrians high in the hills, their blood turning the river of Soča crimson.

In the WW2, Slovenia was occupied by Germny. Hitler walked upon our lands, demanding ''to make the land German again''. Which it never was. Those who loudly opposed him, were killed on the streets as an example, execution style, the quiet ones were sent to Auschwitz (concentration camp) and died there. Those were priests, teachers and artists.

The war forced the people to divide. The Reds and the Whites were fighting, each suporting another side, but both somewhat fighting for the same cause. Both, gverilla style. I still don't really know who was who and who was right. Probably none, or both, but the stories are different, depending from what mouth they come. And still, in the so called modern political system, the politics accuse each other of being Red or White. Further more: Your dad was Red/White so you're a bad news.

Speaking with my grandmother about politics is a big no-no. For her, someone is Red, other White and it really doesn't matter what one does for the Country: Reds are BAD. To me, they're all great speakers, since they talk much but do little and when they actually do something great, it's usually a bit too late or still a bit off.

But what can I do, but to try and vote for the one who would do less bad. Reds and Whites are past to me and my generation. Now it only matters if you're Green or Purple (Green - Ljubljana's football team, Purple - Maribor's footbal team).

And there's the reason I'm a Star Trek fan. Gene Roddenberry predicted the future so well: First we're going to nearly destroy us in the WW3, poison the Earth and brought us to the edge of extinction and only then, when there would be nothing else left, we will step together and work in the good of all. That's the only way to reach the stars: bring down the fence and work together.

I'm one of those who are convinced that violence is not a way solve a problem. But if some 'great' world leaders are convinced otherwise, maybe locking them together in a small room until they solve things, even using fists, isn't such a bad idea.

War always comes with cost and the numbers on the bill are huge:
WW1: - 9.911.000 dead, 7.750.000 missing, 21.219.500 wounded --> 38.88.500 victims (dead or alive)
WW2: - 20 - 30.000.000 dead, 3.000.000 missing, 35.000.000 wounded --> about 60.000.000 victims
WW3?

Slovenia has a population of 2.000.000. Only in WW1 it was completely wiped out 9 times. Worthed?

Until 18 years ago, Slovenians only hoped of their own country. Till then they were always a slave nation, small and thus easy to conquer. But our time came, and not completely without force.

In the end, I'd like to put up a poem, written in 1844 by France Prešeren. It should be read, thinking globally, because no one wants war and hopefully, one day, every country will think of other countries as neighbours, because that's just what we are on this tiny spec in the Universe.  The seventh stanza is our national anthemn.

A Toast

The vintage, friends, is over,
And here sweet wine makes, once again,
Sad eyes and hearts recover,
Puts fire in every vein,
Drowns dull care
Everywhere
And summons hope out of despair.

To whom with acclamation
And song shall we our first toast give?
God save our land and nation
And all Slovenes where'er they live,
Who own the same
Blood and name,
And who one glorious Mother claim.

Let thunder out of heaven
Strike down and smite our wanton foe!
Now, as it once had thriven,
May our dear realm in freedom grow.
Let fall the last
Chains of the past
Which bind us still and hold us fast!

Let peace, glad conciliation,
Come back to us throughout the land!
Towards their destination
Let Slavs henceforth go hand-in-hand!
Thus again
Will honour reign
To justice pledged in our domain.

To you, our pride past measure,
Our girls! Your beauty, charm and grace!
here surely is no treasure
To equal maidens of such race.
Sons you'll bear,
Who will dare
Defy our foe no matter where.

Our hope now, our to-morrow -
Our youth - we toast and toast with joy.
No poisonous blight or sorrow
Your love of homeland shall destroy.
With us indeed
You're called to heed
Its summons in this hour of need.

God's blessing on all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When o'er earth's habitations
No war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all men free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.

At last to our reunion -
To us the toast! Let it resound,
Since in this gay communion
By thoughts of brotherhood we're bound.
May joyful cheer
Ne'er disappear
From all good hearts now gathered here.

I rarely find time to really post during the week, or I'm just too lazy to put my thoughts down. This week, I simply didn't have enough time.

Biology is the kind of a science that requiers lots of tests, cutting, poking into living and dead things to find out something incredible and important for living. Unfortunately, usually that means that some animal must die for 'greater' benefit. This week, it was a toad (Bufo bufo). It died without pain, but somehow there's was still this bitter taste feeling, slight nausea when I had to inject a tranquiliser. But people get used to everything, right? Even dissecting clinically dead toad.

I really don't know why people dislike toads solemnly because their skin is not shiny like frogs'. They're are actually qiute cute, eben though they're a bit poisonous.

You can be certain you're watching a toad if you see the two poisonous glands behind the eyes. They're easy to tell, since it looks like the skin is blown up. But there are also this little pores in it, that made the gland look like a sponge.

The gland behind the eyes isn't the only place where toads are poisonous. Frankly, their entire skin has little glands, sao it's recommenbded that after handling a toad, it's good to wash your hands and you better don't touch your eye or a wound. Also, don't lick them...

Toads don't jump what people migh believe because of their cousins - frogs, that are capable of jumping. Their legs are way to weak and are not even built for jumping. Thus, toads walk and are an easy prey - hence the poison.

Systematics: Toads are Anures - Amphiboans without a tail in their adult stage.

It's that time of year. Air pressure is low, causing my headaches to be more frequent.

It just seem like everyone wants something from me and I'm so without any will to do it and in the end I just do it, so that that person would stop nagging me.

Glass is never half full, always half empty, just as my room is never quite the way it should be and unfortunately my fish are probably not that happy as well.

But this melancholic feeling pulls lots of things behind and the lack of energy effects all around me. I'm not tha sure, but if I had a hance, I'd sleep all day.

Maybe one day, I'll just run away, sit by the river and listen to some music, or maybe just to the water rushing by and the leaves falling and I'd be my own pessimistic witch, where I'd bother no one and no one would bother me. I'll sit in the shadow let no sun close to me.

Yup, that will be my day.

SCI FI Wire has exclusively obtained the first concept art for the upcoming Stargate Universe, which reveals the new look and feel of this latest spinoff of the Stargate franchise.
The images show a bit of the new ship that will figure prominently in the show. Stargate Universe centers on a simple reconnaissance mission that turns into a never-ending quest as a new crew of Stargate explorers gates onto the Destiny, an Ancient ship that is unable to return to Earth. They will travel to the far reaches of the universe, encountering new races, enemies and adventures.

  The shuttle bridge

Corridor hub

The airlock door

An Ancient console

Well, I like the concept. Looks very anciently, if only they changed the concept of the characters...

Now there's a little data that shocked me not so long ago...

Wait.

I should start at the end, because it'd make more sense that way.

It's about biology again, you can guess that. And a bit of phylosophy, which I was never really good at. Well, I told you...

Right now I'm learning about comparative verterbrate embriology. Fascinating thing. There's one cell and then two, four... But there's so much more to that than just cell diving. Cells travel, diferenciate and form shapes - out of nothing... and in two days a chicken embrio's got a beating heart and in two months, there's a little frog, anatomically correct, ready to live the life if it's own, only smaller.

And a baby human seem to come out of nowhere as well. There are so many things that can go wrong in those nine months and it's really fascinating how we're able to come out of it just fine. Out of one cell, a 60 kilos of cells.

But there's the catch. Bacteria are everywhere, many a thousand times smaller than our own cells and studies indicate, that theres just about ten times more foreing cells in and all over our body than our own cells.

There you go: what the hell am I? One giant host for bacteria. We evolved out of a bacteria like organisms, and now we give a nice, warm home to our relatives.

So forget about us ruling the world. It's really in the hands of bacteria. They're smart enough not to change the world to fit their needs, they rather mutate a bit and then all can be happy. Almost.

Enterobacteria phage λ (lambda phage) is a temperate bacteriophage that infects Escherichia coli.

Lambda phage is a virus particle consisting of a head, containing double-stranded linear DNA as its genetic material, and a tail that can have tail fibers. The phage particle injects its DNA into its host through the tail, and the phage will then usually enter the lytic pathway where it replicates its DNA, degrades the host DNA and hijacks the cell's replication, transcription and translation mechanisms to produce as many phage particles as cell resources allow. When cell resources are depleted, the phage will lyse (break open) the host cell, releasing the new phage particles. However, under certain conditions, the phage DNA may integrate itself into the host cell chromosome in the lysogenic pathway. In this state, the λ DNA is called a prophage and stays resident within the host's genome without apparent harm to the host, which can be termed a lysogen when a prophage is present. The prophage is duplicated with every subsequent cell division of the host. The phage genes expressed in this dormant state code for proteins that repress expression of other phage genes. These proteins are broken down when the host cell is under stress, resulting in the expression of the repressed phage genes. Stress can be from starvation, poisons (like antibiotics), or other factors that can damage or destroy the host. In response to stress, the activated prophage is excised from the DNA of the host cell by one of the newly expressed gene products and enters its lytic pathway.

Lambda phage was discovered by Esther Lederberg in 1950.^[1] It has been used heavily as a model organism, and has been a rich source for useful tools in molecular biology. Uses include its application as a vector for the cloning of recombinant DNA, the use of its site specific recombinase, int, for the shuffling of cloned DNAs by the 'Gateway' method, and the application of its Red operon, including the proteins Red alpha (also called 'exo'), beta and gamma in the DNA engineering method called recombineering.

((Article snatched from Wikipedia because I'm too lazy to write it up myself, picture by me, using coloured pencils, some drops of water and some tinkering with Photoshop, because the yellow was apparently to gentle for the scanner to recognise.))

At least you learned something new, and I got to remeber the excitement we had last year, when we were infecting Eschirichia coli with the lambda.

Life just rushes on. Now and then it gives me a moment to breath, but then it goes off right away again.

I'm 21 since two days ago. Wow...

I mean, time goes faster as you grow older? I think I heard that one before. And now, I just can not disagree anymore. In about five years I'll be probably all busy buying anti- and pro- age cremes and tonics. I'll be putting a little devil to sleep and slapped one snoring man on a couch with a slipper so that I'd be able to put him to bed as well, where he could snore on.

Or I'll be one of those modern, busy women, with lots of cremes as well, running from one place to another in high hells, with a massage chair to give me a massage instead of sort of a hubby.

Men are trouble anyways, so why do I even bother.

Why am I even thinking about that now? Ummm... *slaps self and get on*

We fianlly took that pictures last week. The part when we're wearing those best costumes in entire show. We're sort of a hermaphrodites. I'll let the pictures to tell the rest.

Are we great or what?

Cloning in biology is the process of producing populations of genetically-identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organisms. More generally, the term refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as digital media or software. ((Wikipedia))

Is it okay? Is it wrong? It's for sure very tempting, don't you think?

People get sick and they would need new organ, but getting one that's compatable is a bit of a trick. Apart from growing simple organs like skin or a cartilage of the pinna. Under very regulated conditions we can grow veins and with stem cells we're able to repair certain damage as in heart or muscles and some scientists are trying to repair even brain damage.

But there are still limits to what we can do and what we can't. Growing larger organs like a heart, a liver, pair of kidneys or a lung is much more complex. You see, with skin grafts ist's easy, because the graft doesn't need any veins to go through, it's only a layer of skin cells in a nutritious solution the cells feed from with a simple difusion. Cartilage uses the same trick. When growing veins, you cut the sample and open it and you've got three different layers, that again feed with difussion. Stem cells are just cell - difusion again.

Then why a heart couldn't get nutrients with difussion? Of course it could. but getting a heart from a bunch of cells is where the experiment ends. Hart has to have cavities, a different type of cells for the musculature, the pericardium, the valves that have to be in the right place... Too many different cells, too little regulatory systems to put them at the right place. A no go.

But that's how much I know about the current biotechnology. I have no idea what's going on behind the doors of locked laboratories.

The other option that would ensure you to have an organ replacement when your own fails? A secret cloned buddy in a closet, feed by tubes and kept in complete secrecy, ready to sacrifice itself? Or would it be you sacrificing him/it for your benefit. I'm saying it, because if someone was locked up for their entire life, I daubt that that person, if I can call it a person, since it never saw and tasted what we call freedom, would have an actual sense of self awareness.

There's a clear line drawn, the ethics and morale should tell us that that kind of organ harvesting is completely unacceptable.

Again, it's still possible that one very rich Terran has one subject locked down in his storage room. What do I know? I'm not Big Brother.

Cloning itself as well brings lotss of problem along. The biggest problem being in the most essential part of it, the part that actually makes a clone: an identical DNA. The thing is, that by the time you decide you want a clone of yourself, that DNA is very old.

Let's say that I wanted to make a clone of myself. I'm 21 years old. My DNA had been multiplying since I was concieved, which is 21 years and 9 months ago. A normal, human body replaces most of it's cells in about three weeks (depends on the type of organ and the state of your body, diseases. Don't forget that each time a cell divides, you get two cells, which means that some have to die or you would be bigger than house preety soon.) A simple calculation would telkl you that I've replaced my cells about 348-times through my 'short' life.

You know, that when you have to copy a document, that the copy is never completely identical to the original. It's quite frustrating, when you find out that the copy-machine missed a dot or a letter that wasn't wel printed... How about when you have to copy about 3 billion base pairs?

Accidents happen, letters get confused, sometimes they're discovered and repaired, sometimes not and my poor cells might just have about a thousant or so mistakes. I really haven't got a clue.

So, if I wanted to make a clone with my genetic makeup, I'd get the clone all of my genetic mistakes to start with. The other me would be generally sicker and it would get all teh old age diseases about 20 years too early. So, there's a no-no.

Human race after generations of clones?

But let me tell you what would I do if I had a clone. It's the idea I began to build the today's blog on. I'd be in two places at the same time, like on October 18th. Charity concert or the Sound of Music? Performing with a bunch of famous Slovenian singers and rising money for good causes or dancing and singing in a musical?

What should I do?

Maybe clone myself for a day?

The life of actors can be so ridiculously unpredictable, that it can get us all by surprise now and again.

The public can be very open and when they are, it's a real joy being on stage and performing, connecting to those who are watching and add a little bit of yourself into the show, do something silly, just to entertain.

Sometimes, the public is just too serious, whre people usually have trouble keeping their urine in, we maybe get a bit of a giggle and no apploud when we would deserve it. You can't help it when they leave you wondering, what did you do wrong and you go home with mixed feelings.

Sometimes one from the public gives you a nice surprise, like today, when I and anothergirl from the nuns' choir got a flower at the end. Thank you Ani very much, you've made my day. We never got anything, were sort of lost somewhere in between the 'real' actors and the 'kids'. So that really ment a lot to me.

Sometimes something goes wrong. There's a lot of tech that we use to bring the best sound to the public and that equipment just yells for trouble. We had wrong people being put through, people who weren't even on stage and were talking about their personal stuff to actors while those, take that the sopranos, weren't in and everything sounded completely off tune. Or it could happen that one of the mics malfunctiones, like mine did yesterday. I was told that I was in and then out and in again, preferably not when I had my solo.

Or something not techniacl happenes. At one time, when we were dancing the waltz, and we were supposed to be completely sinchore. I noticed something was going on with the couple far left and when we were off the stage, I asked what was wrong.the girl showed me her foot and than pointed at the stage: there it was, a shoe lying completely innocently in the center of the stage.

Today, something different happened: we were all waiting backstage, having our hair done when people began to čaught unontrollably. Actors who were waiting behind a curtain came over as well, because they were just too loud to be so close to the stage. I didn0t hear it when it happened, but an actress, who is playing the role of a maid, said something completely ridiculous on stage: in stead of saying violin and harmonium, she said acordeon and violinium. Now acordeon wasn't that bad, but violinium... Naturally they had to improvise to get off the stage a bit sooner and didn't say all the linnes...

There is just too many things that can go wrong in 2,5 hour long show, with live music and singing, seven kids and non-professiona actors... My energy seem to run aw3ay from me, but when I think about how many people have had a nice evening because of us, it was all worthed.

Now, I've got a new car, by now, a 10y old Opel Corsa. But... It's not really green if you know what I mean. though it is greener than my previous car: Opel Kadett.

But really, I wouldn't mind having this little Nissan. And it's so tiny! no more problems with parking!

Neato Nissan Nuvu electric concept car looks like a solid gold ladybug

We're nuts about tiny electric cars, and this Nissan Nuvu concept car rolled out at the Paris Motor Show is the coolest one yet. The 9-foot minicar seats the driver up front, a passenger seat alongside, and room for a kid or groceries aft. Its green nature extends beyond its whisper-quiet electric motor; many of its raw materials are recycled or organic.

Nissan says the Nuvu is the company's vision of an electric car circa 2015, but can't we have something like this today? If Nuvu were to be built by the 2010 timeframe like the Chevy Volt, maybe Nissan would be brave enough not to dumb down its design like GM suits did with the Volt. Oh well, guess we'll just have to wait for that similar-looking Toyota iQ to go electric.

Oh shoot! Another prototype.

My piano teaching project is going well. It's really a job.

I want the kids to play well, so I always give them notes that are slightly above their abilities. The results are coexistant with the effort they put into practicing.

Sometimes, I guess they think I'm a bit evil, especially when I want them to lear something new, when I demand to play the rhytm that's written on the sheets, not their own, when I want them to count and when I demand to tell me the name of the note. And then ,when everything is correct, I suggest to loose the robotic playing and put a little of them selves into the story, because every music composition tells a story and the story can only be told by expressing them properly. I want them to feel the music, not just play it. And sometimes it's so difficult.

Kids are interesting: some take the criticism with an open mind, grasp it and turn to better, others make a grimace sort of exept it, but the next time I see them, there's no change. One boy, takes every hint I give to him and tries to learn it the way I told him I learn a new song and after a week, he tells me I was right, that playing my way is easier and that makes me proud, because I know I did something right.

But then again, it hurts me more when some start to cry, becuase it's difficult. I never said it wasn't, but there's a change whether the kid wants to learn something new or just stay on the level he's sort of mastered. I'm ruthless when it comes to that, because I know just how difficult is to adjust and how easy is to use it once you make it right. They'd only get a paper tissue from me and a disappointed look mixed with persistance and in the end, we would make it through and the kid would be thrilled to know something new and didn't even let me to correct her.

Sometimes, when I've got some time, I sit down by the piano myself and play some notes. There are some melodies that I've known like forever and are great to pass time, but sometimes I feel the need to learn something new, something to show off. So I picked a nice piece of modern music about two weeks ago and and now I'm sweating over the keys and trying to make it work with all the flats.

What usually happenes when I'm practicing, is that somoene, or entire family want some peace and quiet. And then I get a bit crazy about it, because if I've got to listen to saxophone at 11:30 pm, then my family should be capable of listening to some piano at a reasonable hour like 5 pm.

Another thing that botheres me, is that my sister, the violin player usually walkes up and without a question grabs her violing and begin to play it along while I'm trying to sort out playing like eight different notes at a time. Clearly that she's got the melody in a heart beat, since she only can play one note, maximum two at the time.  Or sometimes she sings and sometimes my dad pick up his violin and I have to play the Moon River for him, because it's the only piece he can play.

Then how the hell am I supposed to learn something new?

Do I really have to take a day off from the uni to be able to play piano without the televisiou shouting at me and my siblings yelling an playing around and my mum telling me to give her some peace because she's just got home from work and is wasted. Not to mention that my dad sometimes does it as well. And they are the ones who think that i shouldn't have given up playing all those years ago. How am I supposed to practice five to eight hours each day if they can't stand half an hour of playing? That sort of contradicts itself, right?

Back to my sister. She agreed with me that the latests piece is marvelous and after listening to the orchestral version, she sort of learned the violin part and now we can play together. Not the best you ever heard, but it's fun. It's fun catching up with her all the time, as she has to catch up with me.

At least my dad was thrilled and actually let me practise for a change.

Hopefully one day, well be actually capable of playing it nice.

That's the orcestral version. Strip the music of everything but the piano and a violin and you'll get what we're working on.

Now, chicken taste good and eggs are a great product, but till now, that was all. Clever people in Netherlands now figured out a way to get rid of the smell (if you've ever been to chicken farm, you know the scent, I do) and their manor.

It's not new technology, but it will be used for the first time on that scale.

Netherlands to power 90,000 homes with chicken manure

So, you're an Earth-loving, eco-friendly environmentalist, as it's all the rage these days. Alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar, are what you're looking to use to get your juice. OK, that's cool. But what about more… unorthodox sources of power? I'm talking, of course, about chicken crap.

Yes, chicken manure is a viable source of energy. Who knew? The folks in the Netherlands, apparently, as they're planning to power 90,000 homes with pure chicken excrement. A new 150 million euro plan will convert about 440,000 tons of chicken poo into about 270 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. It's a pretty great system, as it both provides energy and gets rid of disgusting chicken waste at the same time. So how about it? Want to get your home on the chicken crap energy plan?

(DVICE http://dvice.com/archives/2008/09/netherlands_to.php )

Clever, I've got to say. Now, we could do the same with the 'side products' of all other farm animals. I'd certainly be happy in farmers didn't pour it all over the fields near my home. Would make the early spring days so much nicer if I could smell flowers instead of dung.