Thursday, October 29, 2009

What's your favourite torrent tracker?


For many reasons I prefer Kazakhstan torrent tracker kaztorka.kz. It's quite good for downloading some popular stuff. But if you need something more specific you should try to find it on thepiratebay.org. Very likely you are familiar with the service. One of the things which is really great is you need not to register, just go to the index page, type what are you looking for and download a torrent file. As a rule there are many seeds and a lot of stuff is available.
Finally one page that I really enjoyed is "Legal threats against The Pirate Bay". The point is that many companies are very disappointed as they bear losses because of existence of such useful tracker. Everything what they create is available there. But people like sharing - there is nothing to be done. And the PirateBay is one of the spots where you can share. Thank you for seeding, dear seeders!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Scott Anderson's article

Some significant facts about Russia terror in September, 1999 were revealed recently in GQ magazine. But one cannot find it in russian version of GQ, moreover one cannot find it in english electronic version on the GQ web-site. The reason is there's something related to Putin, Russian ex-president and present Russian prime-minister. How did they find out about it? Scott Andresen, GQ journalist have met Mikhail Trepashkin, former deputy of Federal Security Bureau (the successor to the KGB) in Russia and have discussed some inconsistencies concerning the bombings. As you can read in Anderson's "Vladimir Putin’s Dark Rise to Power" the acts of terrorism were planned by Russian FSB in order to gain high popularity of Mr. Putin who had charged Chechen terrorists with perpetration of the explosions. Vladimir Putin gave rise to the Second war in Checnya while he confidently was coming into power. There were attempts to expose these terrible actions but they didn't lead to success. Some journalists and former agents of FSB were silenced or killed. Mikhail Trepashkin is one who is still alive and doesn't want to give up.

As regards the article, of course it's available on the web. For example scan of english article and russian translation are available here.

What is most interesting for me is question what resonance will it have for Russia? Most likely it won't have any effect...

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"Global" means everyone should really care

There are some problems which appear for us to be very far and have no any influence on our private lives. Those problems usually at the same time are global problem. It is difficult to say without five minutes for reflection, what is the influence of decreasing in north fur-seal population on your personal being. Of course if you are not a member of Green Peace or WWF. But an extinction of some species is a global problem and it has a direct effect on everyone. That effect could be not so explicit like effect of such issues as economical crisis or world war. But it does have a great meaning. One could realize it if he would think about world as a sophisticated open system. You cannot add or remove something without any consequences (negative or even positive) for working regime of that mechanism with the exception of case when you clearly understand all principles of system's behavior. This is not the case for us. Although our scientific achievements are far from those which we had many years ago, we are still weak while trying to predict the behavior of complex non-linear systems. For the same reason we frequently fail in weather forecasts. That's a conclusion - if you are human being you are at the same time a part of the world, and you will not be able to be an exterior when the disaster comes. Of course if you are not a member of International Space Station or some mission to Mars. So, it's time to realize that you are responsible for dying of the unhappy fur-seals. Also you are responsible for other many global problems. In my opinion the importance of such kind of realization is fact that if we couldn't realize our implication to global challenges we wouldn't do anything. Of course it doesn't mean that you should go directly to the North Pole for treating of endangered species. You should do such things those you can do according to your education or your passion. And similarly there are actions you strongly shouldn't do. It's not only "do not kill a fur-seal". In general it could be unified in one manifest "Don't be a destroyer of your environment".

One problem of exceptional vital importance is a problem of climate change. At the same time it is a striking example of challenge which requires the actions from all of us not only if you are scientist, manufacturer or politician. That's a simple example. The solution of climate problem will require the transforming of energy industry. It means that everything that habitual for you now, will have been changed considerably before we get a progress. And that process will occur faster if the people are prepared for it. They should be prepared in conscious level. The last thing depends on you. It's necessary to realize your responsibility for climate change.

The last issue of PhysicsWorld journal named "Energy puzzle" is mainly devoted to climate change. You can download it for free after filling in a form here: http://physicsworld.com/cws/download/oct2009
In that issue a broad review of climate change and related aspects is presented. One of the main statement is "The climate problem is not only scientific one but also political". It's quite obvious but article "Challenges in tackling climate change" gives more than review of the conjuncture... Another topic is an energy producing and consumption. If we don't find sustainable alternative for our nowaday energy industry that harmful due to its carbon dioxide producing we will have got a lot of problems in future. There's an excellent article "The road to sustainability" about that. Also you can read there "Does nanotechnology have the energy?”

That's very exciting; climate change problem needs to be solved with the combined efforts of the experts from the various fields. They are chemists, engineers, physicists, policymakers, economists and others. It's time to unit all forces against the crucial challenge. Each of us should make some contribution. It could be some kind of propaganda, study of nanotechnology or just a willingness to accept a new way of life, life that exists harmonically with the Nature.

Monday, October 26, 2009

The pilot message.

Well. I've opened this new blog with the intention of building my writing skills. One woman who gave me lessons on Toefl preparation said that she had written one essay everyday during one month before she passed the exam. As you know Toefl essay has a definite structure. It's not just an attempt to say anything from your mind. And that's one of the things that seems to me very difficult. Another thing is my vocabulary. It's not good. My grammar skills are also not satisfactory. So, there's a lot of work to do and there are a few weeks to exam. The situation is not new one for me. (I mean that there were many things that I had to finish just before the deadline. There is nothing to be proud of. It's a terrible habit which need to be broken). But this situation differs drastically from anything that I have experienced. It differs due to it exceptional importance. And I feel something like fear. One thing that encourages me is that my intentions are pure and I know exactly that I'll do my best for arriving at a goal.

What's a very essential is to get encouragement from the friends. And I lucked out about it. I'm very thankful for those who helps me with my English and corrects my documentations. They are Ainur, Dana, Eldar, Jay, Karakoz and Matthew. And other persons which also let me know that I'm not alone are Lexa, Mishka, Lenka, Olya and Andrey.

So, I'm going to start.