Polish Man in New World

The attack on native gardens as described in recent West Australian (“ Verge rules crackdown upsets residents ”, Nov 11, 2017, Issue, Page 23) upset me all the way here in Uptown, New Orleans, USA. The very Ex-Minister of Environment, currently Mayor of City of Joondalup Albert Jacob supports issuing notices for residents to remove “offending native plants” and “landscaping features”. It resonates with me very much as I still have vivid memories of participating and co-organizing native garden workshop in 2015 as an active member of Murdoch Branch of Wildflower Society of WA. How on Earth it is possible that residents’ passion for native vegetation is so brutally punished by ex-Minister of Environment?   Let’s try to accept the fact that Ex-Minister for Environment does not care for the terrestrial environment ( many Australians do not care for natives either ) but genuinely is worried about pedestrians’ well-being. Pedestrians indeed may stumble over a rock, or worse, get en...

The fundraiser on Oct 28, to sustain Turtle Cove Environmental Research Centre , made me think politically. How on Earth public institutions, like Turtle Cove mentioned above,  need charismatic individuals, like Rob (guy on the phone, on the photo below, who let Christina drive the boat while discussing business matters),  to find ways to sustain their existence? My hypothesis is simple - levels of empathy differ across political scene. The less empathy for public good the less tax to do public good. Right seems to be of greed for few ( Red Republicans in US/ Blue Liberals in OZ). I noticed that right wing parties tend to be made of few alpha males and all the rest sucks up to them in a faith they will become alpha males one day as well. Everyone below the alpha male level is driven by a dream to grab everyone else by their groins that one day. This sort of wild west attitude seems to go back to medieval times where  rather democratic peasants were overpowered ...

Following a long entertaining night with a local Halloween artist and English fiction writer Jack Bell, we have not only acquired strictly American skill of carving Halloween pumpkins but also learnt a lot o f insights on American culture.  Racism . You may wonder why people, that share 99% of DNA with monkeys, still debate racist issues? Why the very people that were reduced to the population of about ∼2,700 ( Zhivotovsky et al 2003 ) individuals in our most recent evolutionary history pay so much attention to skin colour? We know that there's a great divide. The USA split into North and South. In the North people hate people but love race. In the S outh, people hate race but love people. In my previous blog post on black murderer/American writer , I pondered on source of that racism. It does feel that below race-label runs a deep wound. It looks like it 's less about black skin and more about never healing wound of slavery underneath that skin. Basically...

You start seeing things when exposed too often to media. TV news, social media, radio, text messages - even my mum in Poland is tracking Irma, The Hurricane, that is hovering above Florida as I type these words. Nonetheless, against the scream on media, we decided to drive towards Irma's eye to visit our dear friends that flew into Florida's pan handle from far corners of USA. It looked like we had a window of opportunity to do just that. Screaming media makes you see things though. We subconsciously looked around for any signs of oncoming calamities. The rental car company, for example, was testing our patience when asking us to prove we are not criminals. We were close to taking it as an evil omen (we already saw us driving into an eye of category 5 hurricane) and cancel the trip to Florida. But car rental company was humble and offered us a ~1h trip around New Orleans to help in collecting all the needed documents. We ended up driving at night and can you realiz...

Too often things are not what they seem to be. Have a look at this industrial set of iron pipes and bricks I have to pass every day I walk to work at EEBio . Do-not-enter Entry Do-not-enter Entry to what? Why are all those people breaking the "do not-enter" rule!? Would you expect a lively intellectual hub behind that wall? It is called Loyola University (named after Spanish Saint) and it truly feels like you are Alice from Wonderland who fell into rabbit hole because this how it looks like behind the do-not-enter entry: Have a great school year, Wolf Pack! #loyno pic.twitter.com/l8UbIKW1EN — Loyola New Orleans (@Loyola_NOLA) August 20, 2017 Life has a way to keep good things hidden away these rusty pipes seem to say. The fake things, on the other hand, tend to be well-manicured. How to tell apart fake from not fake in present post-truth world? Not sure. Science? Very likely. Many may say that off-putting bible is a fake too but I managed to...

Psoriasis is well-known in Portland to my surprise and drugs are promoted widely there. Psoriasis is a condition that is poorly understood though and blame is put on genes. I can not escape comparison with homosexuality here. The drugs that are on market have a lot of side-effects as they state clearly in the ads! Of course they do - as any drugs against homosexuality drugs against psoriasis will be a form of a systematic torture therapy. Art Work in Portland Gay Bar. How come that general public fears people that deviate a "bee-dick" too far from normal? How can Western Medicine treat something misunderstood? Western Medicine prescribes expensive drugs that kills symptoms not causes.  In my nearly 20 years long struggle with psoriasis I can say that psoriasis relates greatly to the stress level. Every time I take holidays I recover a little bit. In other words do not put psoriatic nor gay people in stressful situations. Just be nice, please . Coming from my ...

I met a self-confident rat walking across my little courtyard in New Orleans. Then I met Bruno (or if you prefer B.R.U.N.O - Brave Rodent Utilizer in New Orleans ) who is actively researching the distribution and ecology of local rats. And then, last Friday, I had to say good bye to Bruno as he leaves to follow his supervisor. Unfortunately, the rats stay in New Orleans - they do not follow Bruno nor his supervisor. New Orleans is apparently a home to two types of fury fellows: Norway rats and black rats. While Norway rats tend to live in underground burrows,  black rats live in tree canopies or the roofs of buildings. I assume I met my fellow European :) Credit: Timmy Madere, Tulane University .  These rats are small and shy. I had no time to take a picture of that little bastard as they are  neophobic too - yes new scientific synonym I just learnt meaning that they don’t like new things. “ Getting your hands on an animal is incredibly hard ,” says Rat Researche...