Balkans
clock | July 26, 2008Serbia: New Instructions and Law Regulations on Online Privacy:
On July 21, RATEL, Serbia's Republican Agency for Telecommunications, posted a Document of Instructions for Technical Requirements for Subsystems, Devices, Hardware and Installation of Internet Networks on their official web site. This news didn't go unnoticed yesterday in Serbian blogosphere and internet community, as many bloggers expressed various opinions as well as disapproval because of the potential abuse of users' privacy.
This document of instructions defines technical requirements for authorized monitoring of some…
clock | July 21, 2008Serbia captures fugitive Karadzic:
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men, has been arrested in Serbia after more than a decade.
He has been brought before Belgrade's war crimes court, in accordance with a law on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, the Serbian presidency said. The Bosnian Serb wartime political leader disappeared in 1996.
He had been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide over the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.
Perhaps his poetry will get better once he starts writing it in jail....
Update: picture - Karadzic on…
clock | July 11, 2008I guess it is unlikely you have not already heard about the big brouhaha that erupted when Bill Donohue targeted PZ Myers for showing disrespect towards a belief that made some religious nuts go crazy and violent against a child (yes, Eucharist is just a cracker, sorry, but that is just a factual statement about the world). If not, the entire story, and it is still evolving, can be found on PZ's blog so check out the numerous comments here, here,here, here, here, here and here.
Also see what Greg Laden and Tristero say. [Update: see also John Wilkins and Mike Dunford for some good clear…
clock | July 7, 2008Several people e-mailed me to alert me to the new blog post on BibliOdyssey that depicts several old maps of Belgrade, some very intriguing, some very beautiful.
clock | May 24, 2008Before I went back to Belgrade, I did not know if there was a website with information about the racing and equestrian activities there. There used to be one some years ago, but it has not been updated in a very long time. So, I was happy when, while there, I was given URLs of the Belgrade Racecourse website and the Federation for Equestrian Sport of Serbia website. The former looks good and easy to navigate.
The latter is little old-timey in appearance but that may be on purpose, to emphasize the long tradition. It is also a little too PDF-happy for my taste - it is OK to use the…
clock | May 15, 2008The fifth annual Museum Night in Belgrade and other Serbian cities will be held this Saturday, May 17th:
More than 130 museums and galleries in 23 towns in Serbia will be open just for you, so the only decision you have to make is to choose a good company. We hope you are in good shape because there will be so many interesting exhibitions, concerts and performances that you will literally have the whole Belgrade under your feet!
What a great idea - pick a day, have special exhibits, events and concerts, all for free, and get the entire town to come out and enjoy.
clock | May 15, 2008I am kinda glad I went to Belgrade earlier and escaped the craziness of the EuroVision contest. The tickets have been sold out for a long time now. At least the European visitors will see how pretty Belgrade is now and how nicely it has recovered from a decade of wars, sanctions, hyperinflation, mismanagement and bombing.
clock | May 13, 2008This one is for Rob, one of those strange-metered (7/8, or 1-2-3;1-2;1-2/1-2-3;1-2;1-2/...) Macedonian songs of old:
There are many more like this in the menu there on YouTube....
clock | April 29, 2008Yesterday I went to the Belgrade Racecourse and the barns and was happy to meet many of my old friends, including my old trainer (with Professor Steve Steve below) as well as some good new kids, including two sisters who used to own and ride my old horse. There were two small show jumping classes yesterday (3'6" and 4'), both with simple, nicely flowing courses appropriate for the very beginning of the show season. The horses are all better than what we used to ride, the rides went smoothly, and both sisters placed in the bigger class that included a jump-off:
clock | April 27, 2008Today is Orthodox Easter. Most everyone here will have lamb for lunch today. We did something different....
First, for breakfast I had snenokle (here is a recipe from a delightful Balkans food blog Palachinka) and I ground some chocolate on top of them:
Then, we had eggs. Not just painted on the outside, but simmered for many hours in onion husks, olive oil and a bunch of spices until the eggs were brown to the core:
I was a very picky eater when I was a kid. One of the things I liked was a simple beef soup with star-shaped noodles. As this is a Nostalgia Trip this week, that is what…
clock | April 26, 2008I walked around town a little bit these days. My feet know the way, even if all the names of streets were changed from WWII National Heroes to saints and medieval princes. It has changed a lot - there are nice new stores, cafes, restaurants and apartment buildings everywhere, the parks are well kept and beautiful, and the people are beautiful and well-dressed. The old, gray, socialist city of my youth is gone and replaced with a modern European city:
This is the Serbian Parliament (formerly Yugoslav Parliament):
In the Pioneer Park, across the street from the Parliament, is the famous WWI-…
clock | April 26, 2008After the 1999 Clinton/Clark bombing of Belgrade, almost all of the ruined buildings were quickly torn down and replaced with modern buildings, perhaps out of spite (which is the national character trait). After all these years, the city is unrecognizable - it is cleaner, livelier, prettier, more modern and more optimistic than ever. Replacing the bombed buildings was also good for everyone's sanity here - to forget quickly, move on, build new...
But, if you arrive in Belgrade by bus, by train, or by plane (and then take the bus into town), one of the first things you will see are these…
clock | April 26, 2008There were quite a lot of events and actions in Belgrade for the Earth Day last week. I came in on that day so I did not have time to see anything. But I loved the balloon they placed in the center of the Slavija square: it was a globe with recognizable outlines of the continents. But the parts of the world were labeled with the names of main streets, parts and neighborhoods of Belgrade (with some effort to match "characters" of the places):
The balloon was supposed to be set free on Earth Day, but, just as I was speaking at the Pediatric Center, a huge storm started outside and broke the…
clock | April 26, 2008It took a century to build the St.Sava Cathedral. I remember playing on its foundations as a kid - a great fortress to play in. But the enterior has just begun to be worked on - I am not sure if the pictures can show the immensity of the space in there:
clock | April 25, 2008Last night's dinner - crepes filled with a mix of cheese, eggs and sugar, baked in the oven with some sweet cream:
And, for the drinking game, we used 'Vranac', an excellent Montenegran wine:
clock | April 25, 2008I was kicking myself all day yesterday because I forgot to take my camera with me for most of the day. First, my mother and I went to the bank to do some business which, of course, made us hungry so we stopped by a bakery and got fresh djevrek (no, although it looks like a sesame bagel, it is not - it is much lighter and crispier). Mmmmmm....
Then we went to the main building of the Natural History Museum and made some contacts there. The Director was at a meeting, but the secretary is smart, hip and on-the-ball and will be a great contact for the future as they try to design a new website…
clock | April 23, 2008OK, I posted a lot of pictures of Belgrade and my Mom's food so far, but the real business was on Tuesday, when I gave two talks about Open Access, PLoS, Science 2.0, the future of the scientific paper, Open Notebook Science and science blogging.
In the morning, I gave a talk in the gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art in front of about 20 people, mostly specialist librarians. That session was recorded and, as soon as the podcast is available, I will link to it. There were many good questions asked at the end and the excitement was palpable.
Afterwards I gave an interview for Radio…
clock | April 20, 2008Yup, as soon as I land in Belgrade, I will be giving two lectures about Open Access and the Science Communication in the Age of Internet. The first one, this Tuesday at 11am, will be in the beautiful hall of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, sponsored by the Serbian Museum Association and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The main target audience are librarians, but I gather that the lecture is open and quite heavily advertised.
The second lecture will be on the same day at 2pm in the Decanate of the Medical school at the University of Belgrade, geared more towards the…
clock | April 11, 2008This post from May 07, 2005, was one of the rare personal posts I have ever written. Under the fold....
It is Derby Weekend! Exciting, isn't it? I had to watch the re-run tonight, but I saw it. Giacomo! Who's that!? I love when underdogs win!
I practically grew up on the Belgrade Racecourse. Horse sports being really small in Yugoslavia, it is an unusual place. The mile-long dirt track is on the outside. Inside is a 1000m long hard track for trotting races. And in the very center, there is a large show-jumping ring. The Sunday racing program would usually start with a jumping class (and you…
clock | April 5, 2008You must have noticed that there wasn't too much effort on this blog over the past couple of weeks (except for the elaborate and too successful April Fools hoax). I've just been so busy lately. So, here is a quick recap, and some pictures.
Back on March 21, I went to Duke University to participate in a panel called Shaping the world, one job at a time: An altruistic/alternative career panel. From education, to public health in the developing world, to science journalism, writing, blogging and publishing. The room was full (80 people? Perhaps 100?!). I am not sure one hour was enough for…