Polish Man in New World

I and CB   attended a launch of "Option B" - book written, and presented here in New Orleans, by Sheryl Sandberg - COO of Facebook. The audience comprised of around one thousand women and few men. What was the most eventful part of this event was the Q and A session at the end of it. All the women poured out very personal hurtful stories into the public and very poor Sheryl -  all what she could answer was to repeatedly say "I am sorry",  "I'm sorry to hear it" and  "So sorry again". One woman threw-up, fainted, and ended up being carried out by paramedics. OK - since that eventful event [ May 09, 2017 ] I finished the book. "Option B" book project was meant to help Sheryl to overcome a grief after her husband passed away suddenly in 2015. She uses vast psychological research to, if to summarize in less than 140 characters, - to prove that all humans need a lot of support to become meaningful and happy people. It seems lik...

Me & CB have been very lucky to be embraced by locals of New Orleans. Last weekend local Lorena (Columbian by birth) invited us to cook Columbian-style  E mpanadas together. Empanadas stand for dumpling-like meal . Helper Diana hand-full of Empanadas Empanadas are build around word " PAN " - Spanish for bread but they do look like dumplings with deliciously meaty filling. With core ingredients (corn dough + meaty filling) waiting for us to be stuck together we rolled up the sleeves and threw ourselves into social empanada experiment. Sticking the flat dough-ends together though, exactly as per the commands of chef-in-chief Lorena, was challenging. I also tried hard not to stumble over anyone in the kitchen - relatively small kitchen filled with relatively big crowd of Em PAN adas -helpers. Lorena the Empanadas -party holder managed to command the crowd skilfully and no glass-breaking nor pan-dropping accidents happened. Apparently, in Old English the term lord c...

San Francisco is both mind-blowing & bogging. A tweet ( click here to see ) won me a 2-day pass ($880) from Mango Solutions to attend EARL 2017 Conference held in San Fran last Mon-Wed. As Mango Solutions gave me very little time on deciding which plane and which place to book I went for "the most spatially and economically accessible". I found a relatively cheap flight and a cheap room only 10 min. walk away from the conference venue. The room was nice and tidy but it turned out to be located in the middle of the Tenderloin. Aha, if you are a local you know that Tenderloin is a centre for crime and homeless people. As you step away from Powell Train Station you are hit by thick smell of urine and cohorts of beggars. Your chances to see someone urinating, defecating or even masturbating are very high in these parts of the city. Apparently homelessness is quite a problem in San Fran and many ponder on how to solve this issue . I tried to take a photo of them but it felt ...

This 2017 Science March story won me Amazon voucher from CID Bio-Science and can be viewed on their website as well as right below :)  My road to science began early on a little  farm in Eastern Europe where my hard-working family decided not to include me in all the hard work that farm demanded. As a kid I started to wonder around with a guide to local flora learning all I could about the natural world surrounding me. Then, through a biological class in high school and major in environmental science at the local university I continued further pondering. At the moment I am finalising my PhD project on Australian Ecosystem while helping around in the ecological research on Louisiana coast in USA . PLANTS ARE AMAZING. We still do not know how trees pump their water up to canopy? What endophytes enhance invasions of environmental weeds? What plant traits combinations and what mechanisms explain the diversity of plant we see in biomes we tread through. AMAZING! But.....

Today's trip starts a field work season where I will be assisting in a research project that examines how Phragmites australis ssp australis gained so much advantage over local species in establishing itself along Louisiana Coast.   Phragmites australis ssp australis as opposed to  Phragmites australis ssp americanus is considered invasive. Quite a change of climate. We moved from super dry Australia to super wet Louisiana. Being entirely terrestrial creatures we would not be able to get to our new study sites without a help of Anthony from LUMCON -  The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium . We truly appreciate Anthony's help in today's site exploration: Quite a change of scale too. I started to help in looking at few levels down from a plant level - Christina will try to answer a question whether endophytes enhance the invasive capabilities of alien Phragmites and whether salinity can play a role in how microbes act and assemble within the livin...

To impress a guy or a girl Polish saying advices you of a shortcut that worked since we were monkeys or even earlier:  "Przez żołądek do serca" = "through stomach to heart". Recently, I managed to score 10 out 10 points when serving Blueberry Salad with Grilled Chicken to Christina. It is super easy and super yummy. Photo and recipe come from this website . I thought I will share the recipe here too. Bon Appetite! Ingredients 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast 1 tsp. kosher salt, divided ½ tsp. ground black pepper, divided 1 ½ c. fresh blueberries, divided (about 8 ounces) ¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil 3 tbsp. white balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp. honey 8 oz. baby spinach/spring mix blend (about 8 cups) 4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled ¾ c. roasted, salted almonds, chopped (about 3 ounces) Directions Heat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with ¾ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Add chicken to grill rack coated with cooking spray. Gr...

"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together" - Woodrow W. Wilson.  Hard to disagree with 28th President of USA after having such awesome time in Washington DC with our two dear friends.  Michelle made us feel like VIP-s when guiding us through ups and downs and middles of the Capitol. while Natasha not only guided us through streets of DC + Swedish House: but also hosted and entertained us at her place. DC was a bit wet and cold at that time of a year (thank God we got married on a beach in Perth, Western Australia) I finally learnt that the State Representatives reside in Capitol not in the White House and it is called Congress not Parliament.  Shouldn't it be called "Capitollness" instead of Congress? Then, following from that we could call Congressman a Capitan instead? One Capitan went to the moon on Apollo 13 mission and came back but he did not survive getting elected to House of Representatives in 1982. John Swi...