More on Genetics - iGenea Forum

There are more studies on genetics of the people in the Balkans peninsula. Too bad I can't find the results of DNA tests on iGenea site anymore. Seems it is not available there.
However, there is a discussion at iGenea Forum - Bosnia,
and also another study - "The peopling of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina: Y-chromosome haplogroups in the three main ethnic groups" - from U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
What these results show is quite interesting. Today's nations in the Balkans region (and probably most other places on Earth) are based on religion, mostly, as well as some characteristics of societies from 19th century, like language, customs, appearance, history, etc.

Illyrian Identity

A very interesting way to look at the identity of Illyrians, below. Seems quite similar to how most nations in the Balkans area feel about themselves today.

In general, the Illyrians have tended to be recognized from a negative standpoint in that they were manifestly not Celts, Dacians or Thracians or Greek or Macedonians, their neighbours on the north, east and south respectively. (John Wilkes, The Illyrians, p3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niw6r9LB8YU

Changing Accommodation

Couple of days ago I decided to change accommodation. I thought it would be nice to move to another part of town, have some new experiences, meet some new people and places to go out. Change of routine would be quite welcome. I felt I needed to change something to be on the edge again. So I applied for a couple of ads for accommodation in different areas of Melbourne. 

However, just as with some other things, when the opportunities came close to realization I was in position to really see whether I want that or not. And, yes, I found I really have no need to move from the place I am now, in Altona. I love the surroundings here. There's not too many places for socializing but it is really quiet and peaceful for the same reason. I started appreciating the advantages this place has over anything else.

Fortunately, just before I was supposed to go check a place that looked the closest to actually hapenning, things changed and the advertiser found someone else. Instead of being disappointed, I was quite relieved and glad I don't have to move. Not to mention packaging things, updating the address, and other things that accompany moving accommodation. I guess now I feel as happy as being here as if I moved to a new place.

Mission accomplished. 

Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe

The results of a phylogenetic analysis from 2005 display the paternal gene flow among Balkans population. Shed interesting light on the origins and the relations between population.
"High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations"
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/10/1964.full

Real vs Fake Revolutions

Here is the image that portrays a difference between real and fake (democratic) revolutions:

http://giveupinternet.com/2011/02/01/real-democratic-revolution-egypt-vs-fake-democratic-revolution-iraq-pic/

Worth keeping the link to for illustration. :)

Football Practice

Someone at work organized a football (or soccer) practice. In the announcement email it sounded too official and competitive as a league was mentioned. Plus, just the word "practice" sounded like training rather than something fun. So I did not immediately respond.

After a week or two, I found out that the practice was nothing like what I thought it would be but exactly the opposite - it was exactly something I was looking for. Usually, at the practice, there would be more than ten people so two decent teams could be organized. The practice was simply - playing football for a couple of hours at a grass field in the park. The parks are well maintained and the grass is just perfect for playing games outdoors. I loved it.

The running shoes I used to play the first game broke as they were not meant for this sort of activity. Later I found a proper football shoes and now playing is a pleasure. At the first match it was raining heavily and it felt so good as it reminded me of home. Playing in the rain would be common. Except that it is usually a bit colder than in Melbourne.

These practices are now going once a week and I really enjoy it is it seems like such a good way to get some exercise without it becoming boring. We probably run more than during an average jogging session but nobody really notices it. It only becomes obvious once a person can't even walk and has to swap positions with a goalie, to get some rest.

Now, the Summer leaving seems pretty obvious in the Southern hemisphere. Wonder what the games will be like in a couple of weeks as it gets colder. Maybe track suits would be enough. After all, it does not get too cold in Melbourne but it does get dark soon so that might be an issue rather than rain and cold temperatures.

Twitter

Today I (finally) became a Twitter addict. This was one service I have not used at all until today. I failed to see how and why is it useful to read someone's posts in real-time. And I, kinda, still do.

However, while hooking up with some trance DJs, I found a world I have not seen so far. There were sites that distribute music, photos, communication, and news, all meshed together in a way. These people all used Twitter to post updates, and these other sites for media attachments to Twitter messages. So I created an account and started following them. 

What was quite important in the decision to go with Twitter, is that it is very easy to link Twitter posts to both Facebook AND Google Buzz. I have two groups of friends on those two networks and these groups are almost mutually exclusive. Now, with one post on Twitter I can post to both Facebook and Buzz at the same time, without any additional effort. In Facebook, the easiest way is to add Twitter application and allow it to post to your wall. Buzz allows linking Twitter as the source, it is that easy. There is also link to LinkedIn social network.

Another cool thing, that I still haven't found in either Facebook or Buzz, is that one can search any person's public feed. This was one of the main reasons I used blogs - they were searchable and were a sort of a diary that I could refer to both in terms of time of posting and the content inside. Now I can do the same with Twitter. So many Facebook posts fade away never to be seen again. Some of them I was looking for in order to refer friends to but could not find a way to search for them ever again. The same happened with Buzz posts. With Twitter, one can both post to other social networks *and* search the posts for those useful links and tips. 

This, in effect, will cause less posts on the blogs, I guess. Blogs are now looking like more static content holders. Something similar to web pages of the last century. I still find blog posts useful for longer text content, stories, images, and so on. Tweets could simply point to these stories with a short description.

Another cool feature is a permanent link to the tweet. Guess I'm into discovering the good side of web 2.0 where services finally talk to each other.

There are also RSS feeds with updates, replies, profile, searches. And it also works the other way around. One can link to any blog and have  Twitterfeed tweet any updates to the blog with the link to the post. Awesome! Twitterfeed also links to Facebook and a few other services. Now you can have automatic updates from your blogs all the way through to your social networks. Scary! And very practical, at the same time. :)

One thing to investigate is the usage of lists. I wonder if and how to best divide different topics/tags. I do a lot of posts for IT topics, some related to finance, some related to ordinary lifestyle issues, etc. There's probably no use of mixing these in the same stream.
Quick glance to Help section on Twitter shows that there are #hashtags that can be used to easily search for related posts on a certain topic.
Searches can also be saved for later reuse. Advanced search allows for some more complex syntax and filtering.

Lists are useful because one does not need to follow another user in order to see their tweets. Lists are a good way to categorize others' posts but not link to all of them and see the tweets on one's main page. 

Prevent Sickness, Increase Immunity

Wow, some really enlightening news in the article below. See what the real cause of the flu and cold is and how to protect.

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/prevent-sickness-increase-immunity.html

I guess this is one argument for not leaving Australia. :))

One of "those" days - Australian temperatures

Here's an awesome illustration of weather in Melbourne. Temperature drops of 20+ degrees are common. The sad thing is - it always happens when it is warm enough for swimming in the bay. :)

First World Problems

There is one awesome drawing that I often use as a reference when comparing 1st World and the rest of it. Here it is, illustrating a comparison between 1st World problems to 3rd World ones:

http://thisisindexed.com/2010/11/poor-things-2/