Polish Man in New World

T o be successful is to be able to retain enthusiasm between the failures (Churchill probably said so).  Philosophy that explains how important failures are in one's ability to grow may apply to humans as  well as to any organisms on Earth. Last week I had a chance to help one of the graduate students Dr-to-be Stephen Formel in the field element of his PhD project. While collecting mud for his glasshouse experiment we also ventured into one of the island ecosystems of Bay Jimmy - oil contaminated part of the Gulf of Mexico .  To our surprise oil-contaminated soil did not stop mangroves from establishing but what managed to kill them was the very short period of freeze that happened last winter in Louisiana . Apparently, the xylem vessel that transport water into mangroves canopy are of weak design ( broad vessels with thin walls ), just like pipes in the whole of New Orleans - they burst open while temperature fall below 0C (32F). The mangroves do not give up t...

If you were to USA and you have not experienced passive-aggressive behaviour then you haven't been to USA. It still is a "Struggle Street" for me as I do not know how to navigate the passive-aggressive situation. Do you go back as if you hit the dead end street or move forward and attack the dead end wall? I ask myself this question on a quite a regular basis. It is not unusual that for example  a huge truck drives over my feet on a pedestrian crosswalk (green light for me) and the drivers sends a broad smile and says "Oops, I am sorry". I can respond to an aggressive person, I can respond to a nice person but I am still puzzled where I have to deal with a smiley light-weight abuser. More, American Street is loud. Expect smiley light-weight abuses daily. Shop-assistant/cashiers shout out " Hey !!!" right after I paid  and I still turn around to realize that this is how employees start conversation with another employee - standing shoulder in shou...

It's OK to flirt and make yourself look like a fool every time there is room for choice and mutual understanding. It is getting uncomfortable when sexual signals come from someone with power. It sucks completely when you are stuck in an abusive situation and can see no way out just like the wife of ex-deputy Prime Minister of Australian Barnaby Joyce . Natalie Joyce agreed to pose with two gay guys after her husband's lovechild-affair-with-staffer got out. She did it to keep her husband in power. God give her power! But in fact, #MeToo campaign has gone bee-knee too viral and one step ahead of itself. #MeToo shifted the power imbalance between the sexes and men began to feel terrorized. Suddenly, any attempt to pick someone up, look into eyes for a second longer is considered an act of sexual assault. French woman were first ones to object to that in their famous  #AntiMeToo campaign . God bless French Women! Sexually charged or not, #MeToo campaign seems to be one of the m...

When a local Teddy Bear comes off the skateboard due to icy conditions on the roads this definitely means a panic in New Orleans. State of emergency to be precise. State of Emergency. A real panic was caused by air temperatures falling below water-freezing level (30°F or 0 ° C). The schools were shut down, the classes were cancelled, the pipes were getting frozen, and all locals were advised to stay home. Mind you, we live in subtropical Louisiana where few dare a thought of insulating the water pipes. Icicles on local fern. T he only way to prevent freezing water from blowing up your pipes is to keep your water running entire night until you go mad or until the temperature goes above 0c or 30F. As in this famous torture   dripping can make you go insane.....drip, drip, drip, drip, mad, mad, mad. So... a sinking swamp city of New Orleans is not only exposed to rising sea level, hurricanes, but suffers from frostbites too. So... what would you do in the coastal...

" What the fuck is going on? " - it is a citation from super charismatic Dr Jack Gilbert - microbial ecologist who decided to ID all microbes present on Earth in an ambitious called Earth Microbiome Project . There are more microbes on Earth than stars in the entire cosmos. To be precise, estimated number of cellular microbes in the biosphere of the Earth is around 10 to 30th power (10 + 30 zeros) the number of stars is estimated to be 10 to 22nd power ( Purdom and Francis 2009 ). And we, Louisiana Phraggers Team , are a part of the research project that aims to contribute to Earth Microbiome Project by hunting microbes related to invasive success of local grass Phragmites australis .  Phragmites is mostly the dweller of wetlands ecotones zones  - zones of high disturbance level that mark border between high wave/hurricane/human activity and more intact wetland ecosystems. And of course we do have our hypotheses we want to test: H1: Increases in soil salinity w...

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 ...