BBC: A "molecular condom" to protect women against HIV is being developed by US scientists.

"The liquid formulated by a University of Utah team turns into a gel-like coating when inserted into the vagina."

"SpIFF to open with a feel for Kosovo". KUKUMI is scheduled to open the 2007 Spokane International Film Festival. Read it from spokane7.com/movies

Costume party at SPRAY.

Banksy's Wall and Piece

Such a controversial/provoking/simple book. Thank you Partin for this great gift. You are a great friend.

Semaine du Cinéma Français

The film french week came to a close on Saturday. There were a total of eight movies and i saw only a measly one movie. The movie however turned out not to be measly at all, but quite frustrating and nerve-wrecking in the beginning and then it gradually moved into a mellow state and then there was real drama and movement in the end. French movies do that to you: beat you up real good in the beginning and then they feed you crossants and wine in the end, and i still love them. The movie was called TRAVAUX: on sain quand ca commence or Housewarming.

It's good that ABC Cinema in here throws a couple of foreign movie weeks in a year.

A bit of London runs around

Vala900 Revamped!

This is the new VALA logo (previously known as VALA900). The whole VALA corporate image change was done by Ogilvy Kosova, part of the Ogilvy&Mather Worldwide.

Gurrakoc the Great!

Once again, it is the time that i embark on my frivulous journeys in Kosova. I somehow feel a bit of pride because i've been to so many places that i never knew existed, places that were so sharply contrasted with Prishtina, that you thought you were actually traveling to some other place. I was in Gurrakoc this time round, because we are with a local chips producing company "LuKo Chips" (would advise you to try one, but at your own risk). First, Gurrakoc is a village on the road from Peja to Istog. Second, it is like any other village: poor, almost no infrastructure and the locals can barely survive. Still, the more you see these things, the better picture you can build of what is the real situation of the place you are living in. Sure, the government comes up with all these figures of economic development, but when you see how are things on the ground, the "economic development" sort of dissapears from your mind. Gurrakoc the Great, a small village where a struggling patato chips producer from Switzerland is located. LukoChips gave us a basket of chips. That's something.

Polonium-210

Got it from www.dronecorp.com

polonium-craze!

An ex-KGB spy died of polonium, this mysterious yet so famous poisoning chemical substance. It was sad, but it happened. I thought that this story might die out with the ex-KGB spy's death, but on the contrary, the wheel of mystery just keeps on spinning. Check the headlines I read today from a BBC article:
"Polonium affects four in Germany"
"A car, understood to be used by Mr Kovtun, has tested positive for the radioactive substance polonium-210."
"Airplanes contaminated with polonium-210"
"Traces were also discovered in his ex-wife's Hamburg flat and the home of Mr Kovtun's former mother-in-law in the town of Haselau, west of Hamburg"

I also read that they will make a documentary series with Mr.Litvinenko's polonium-210 affair. And this story keeps on growing and changing countries and people. I don't mind this, because it is turning up to be THE story of the year, but i think (subjective) that there are massive cover-ups taking place for stuff that some people don't want to be shown. Politics.

North-sided.

Since i've started working for MDA, i had the chance to travel to many places within Kosova. I was in Artane (formerly known as Novobrdo), and traveled through Gracanica and some other villages. Now, I had to go to Shtrpce, Lypjan, and passed through a lot of grass/gravel, cars and cows as i made my way through my destination. It usually involves some kind of survey that brings me this opportunity to travel accros Kosova and meet new people from the regions. The reason i get picked for conducting these surveys is that my serbian is better than the serbian anyone at the office speaks: mine sucks, and their sucks even worse. So, chosing the less-worse serbian speaker was done, and i was the one that had to go do two surveys in the northern part of Kosova: Leposavic, Zvecane and Mitrovica. I'll admit that i did not feel comfortable when they told me that i had to go all by myself in those parts. Initially. I knew nothing about this part of Kosova, except the things i got from watching the news, or reading something on newspapers. So yes, i had reasons to be afraid from this unkown yet invisible/mysterious threat.

The driver that drove me to Mitrovica was a Bosnian, who spoke albanian and serbian, who lived in the northern part of Mitrovica and who's 8 year old child considered himself an albanian. His name was Adnan. We talked a lot during the road, about almost the universal stuff that preocupies us as inhabitants of this place: work, school, leisure time. Drivers changed and Bane (a serb from the northeren part of Mitrovica) drove me to Zvecane and Leposavic where i meet local inhabitants and utilized my rusted serbian-speaking skills to explain the questionnaires and ask questions to selected individuals.

After all were done, Adnan and I set back to Prishtina. It is strange to see those parts where you have to remove your KS license plates to move around. A lot of cars had old license plates and most had no plates at all. I did not feel threatened in any way, but was cautioned not to speak in albanian or i might risk putting everyone in danger. That was a threat, but i did ingore it a bit. I got scared about another thing: when you cross the Mahalla e Boshnjakve, everything we call "institutions" and the small "law and order" that we have created here, falls apart like a lego building. There is almost no rule of law (the law that the kosovar parliament passes), the police are just puppets, and the whole atmosphere gives you the impression that you are not in Kosova. That is when i got really scared and puzzled at the same time: why can't this part be like any other part? why are the serbs doing this? Without dwelling into our rich historical part, I came to understand the words North-Mitrovica and South-Mitrovica. I felt really sad for a city devided like that. The northern part was a part of serbia. Yes, people really struggle in these parts (barely survive), but seeing how they ignored the fact that they live in Kosova and not Kosova i Metohija as they used to call us, really pissed me off. I do not see how Mitrovica's ends will be together again. Nor i do not see how Leposavic or Zvecan or any other northern village can come to respect the Kosovar government and it's red-painted institutions. For them, they live in a place that is part of serbia (with all the posters of the ultra-nationalist tried in the Hague for Crimes agains humanity Vojislav Sheshel glued all around the places). They show not a single sing that they want to integrate within our "democratic" institutions.

On thing that really united them and us here, is trade. Albanian firms have started creating partnerships with some construction firms in Leposavic and Zvecan to help build roads and stuff. The conclusion is not that simple, but this might work: Only jobs and work will make us whole again, as Adnan was trying to say. The people in these places were just surviving, and need immediate help. However, they keep on ignoring the real facts on the ground. They are not to blame because they have shuffled their brains from Belgrade and now they are blinded by a situation whose purpose is not to make their lives better, but only for political reasons. As i was talking with Adnan, he told me this sentence that made my prospects a bit bright for the future of these parts: When the 8 year old boy asked Adnan (father) to buy him a silver eagle, Adnan joked and asked him: Aren't you bosnian? Why do you need the eagle? The child (Benjamin) responded: We might be Bosnian, but we all live in Kosova.

I'M series presents sleepfairy.

I'M so sleepy right now, I wouldn't mind even if you put cow-skin on top of me as a blanket; I would not even mind all the ants and tiny multi-legged creatures that live on the meadows where i lay, the long shards of grass might make my senses all tingly if they find their way into my nose;

I'M so sleepy that I would not mind even if a glass of wine is spilled on my face: It'd just make my face warm and my tongue red; I would not even mind the bread crumbles from you sandwich, really; I'M so full of sleep that I would probably fall asleep while trying to go across a wire with the pole on my hand;

I'M so sleepy that I right now that I would do as the bed does and lie down flat; I wish I was a bed, a black bed;

I'M so sleepy that I would not mind even if your basket ball landed on my face; but i wouldn't be able to throw it back, so sorry. pick it up yourself;

I'M so sleepy and I like it. I hate it though because i can't sleep. So, i'm kinda stuck;

I'M so thinking that i've been poisoned by the sleep-fairy with sleeponium212;

I'M so sleepy that my thoughts have sleepy-sacks attached to them;

I'M so sleepy that my breaths ready to be shipped out, stay inside;

I'M so sleepy that i would skip the intro and go straight to dream-land;

I'M so sleepy for the phone and emails, you can have them;

I'M so sleepy that I'll ask rudolph to distribute the presents himself;

I'M so sleepy that would leave my shoe-laces untied like i always do but then trip over;

decisions, decisions.

Snapped a photo of this traffic-light. It's not the sunlight that makes its lights look bright. The traffic-light actually had the orange light and the bright light on. It perfectly resembles the traffic patern in the city: driver's have unlimited choices on the road, and if they pick one of them, they damn sure are right. No wrong decision answer here because as you can see from the traffic-light, all decisions are good decisions. Shooting the President of the United States is not a good one. I guess this is the only time when we are allowed to make our own decision: stop, get ready or just go straigh ahead. So nice of the traffic-light to give us that opportunity. Of course, the problem is that we might just collide all together and get ourselves into a mess for making our own choices. But hey, it's just a traffic-light. A very bright/colorfull one indeed.

wheelbarrow.

After these two weeks of relative peace, without school's hassle, but with daily work and some other untriffling matters that needed attention. This week was also November 28th, our very own flag day. And yes, there were minor shattered windows on govt. buildings, red-painted walls and large crowds of people that roamed the streets that day. I did not feel like celebrating anything, so I just snuk behind the sofa, drank my carrot and other-than-carrot juice, and watched as events unfold. I was very keen on following the protesters with my camera around, but i couldn't, since that day was work day for me. Anyway that is all a thing of the past. Or is it?

The national flag-race is definitely on. I just saw a couple of more terribly, pointless and meaningless flag proposals for our national flag today from individuals i will not name, for thou i shall spare them the humiliation. Personally, I don't like the proposed flag by our late President Rugova. It has always gone wrong when politicians interfere with these things, (like the head of the Albanian American National leage, DioGuardi, who's proposed american/albanian hybrid flag was even posted on the local KOHA DITORE newspaper), because simply put, they don't even have the slightest clue of how should a national flag should look like. I might have an idea about the flag, but I am not capable of making such a paramount decision. There are other far more qualified individuals that can be trusted with this task. I hope.

Tomorrow my classes resume, and the winter quarter will be in full swing. Almost, since some classes start a week later. Oh and yes, if you have the time, please watch Al Gore's documentary on global warming: An Inconvenient Truth. Such a great presenter. Nothing important to do today, so i'll just watch a couple of movies, stretch my legs and let the day pass by. I can rent part of the day to anyone in need.