Anonimowi chlopcy stoja pod blokiem, starajac sie wmowic sobie sile wlasnych osobowosci. Stoja na ugietych nogach, gotowi skoczyc do gardla nieobecnemu zagrozeniu. Jak mlode wyzly, jak dzikie psy nieokrzesani zyciowym doswiadczeniem.

I love the 21st century. All you need to know is someone’s name and you can find them just like that… no more loosing touch, no more lost friends, no more loneliness. And yet, paradoxically people seem more lonely now then ever before. Real bonds between neighbors, peers, people on the bus seem gone. Maybe that’s the way of the future – to have many friends from all over the world, but none from next door. There is a certain sadness to this reflection… bits and bytes of a person can’t replace their sight, sound, smell, touch. The future seems sensorily deprived and the future is now.

So, it has been so long since I last wrote in these pages, that I’m sure that noone reads this anymore. But matter not, I shall finally add another entry.

So much has been happening to me over the last months that I had no time at all to write here. Hell, I don’t remember when I had the last free evening, without 20 deadlines approaching. Most of those deadlines and duties had to do with my applying for a PhD. I had a plan to apply to the most prestigious programmes first, and then proceed to the lesser known universities later.

I first sent my applications to Cambridge (and Oxford too, why not), to the European Molecular Biology Laboratories(EMBL) and to the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics(MPI-CBG).

Oxford never replied, and Cambridge informed me, that they had only 5 positions available, and that I’m not that lucky. However, both EMBL and MPI-CBG invited me for interviews. Those were some interviews, each lasting one week.

We were invited to come (all expenses paid) and stay in a hotel nearby the instute. In Heidelberg, we stayed in a Bauhaus-inspired hotel. The building was a cube and all the furniture was very strange, but never mind. The EMBL building is even stranger – it is composed of about 3 cube-like structures integrated into one amazingly confusing maze of corridors and stairways. Suffice it to say, that there are 3 elevators, each leading to a different part of the building, and the entrance is on the 3rd floor.

Confusing as it was, the building was one of the smallest ostacles of the week. After monday’s welcome dinner, we had two full days of interviews. I personally had 20, each lasting 30 minutes of focused attempt to convince the Group-leader that I’m the right person for this program. Exhausting, you bet. And yet, after the second day, I arranged a dinner meeting with one of the PhD students finishing his thesis there.

The whole week was basically about meetings and about trying to make a match. You needed to find a group, which you would like and convince it’s leader that he needs you in it.

Anyway, after all the individual interviews, there was an additional panel interview. I won’t even go into it, because it was the most stressful thing I went through in a long time. After the panel interviews were over, and almost everyone was convinced that they flunked the test, there was a huge party (this was thursday). The party was quite spectacular, because everyone got quite drunk. It didn’t take a lot to get drunk, since the stress of previous days deprived everyone of any apetite. The unlimited free alcohol and great music, didn’t hurt either.

On Friday, after they allowed us to recover (at 4 p.m.) we got the results. And let me just say, that I was awarded the Louis-Jeantet Foundation Fellowship to work at EMBL.

From this place I would also like to congratulate all my friends who also got positions at the EMBL, the MPI and other places. And Congratulations to Daniel, for passing his test.

Singing off, Mike

“The influence of Darwin’s theory can partially be explained by the fact that at its time scientific debate reached wide audiences. The main explanation however, lies in a human factor: in the uproar caused by consciousness that all people are not descendants of Adam, but rather of a monkey.” – Norman Davies

This week marks the official start of the presidential election campaign in America. On Tuesday two important events took place, the first was a meeting of the Democratic Party in Iowa which held a primary election between the candidates, the second was president Bush’s yearly State of the Union address to the nation. For whatever else this election may bring, it promises an exciting and important campaign.

So… now that I have a new blog, it would seem like a good idea to post something. Let’s see… what did I want to write about? Oh yes… ‘the Universe’

After reading the ‘Library of Babel’ by Borges (which you have to read!), I started to think about the word “universe”.

Hi… As you can see, I’m moving my blog to a new software system. The new program is called Movable Type and should be more flexible and have more features then the previous one.

I’ve just imported the content of my old blog (which was almost easy), but I will work on the templates (look and feel) another time.

The old blog can still be found at: http://www.lonet.gdynia.pl/~mike/nibylog/nibylog.php

Czytanie Borgesa to przygoda, ktora wiekszosc osob rozpoczyna dwa razy, nim w pelni zacznie cieszyc sie lektura. Za pierwszym razem trudno jest ustosunkowac sie do pism tego autora, poswieconych wszystkiemu, wiec w sumie niczemu. Nie wiadmo jak zareagowac na esej, w ktorym przywolywany jest ‘Don Kichote’, Biblia i jakis malo znany argentynski mysliciel, a ktory poswiecony jest zabiegowi umieszczania autora w jego wlasnych pismach.
Olsnienie nastepuje dopiero w momencie, w ktorym czytelnik zdaje sobie sprawe, ze zarowno on jak i sam Borges pojawiaja sie w tym eseju.

Wlasciwie nie wiem, czy esej to odpowiednie slowo. Problemy z Borgesem pojawiaja sie juz przy probie okreslenia formy i gatunku literackiego, w ktorym tworzy. Pisze eseje w Polskim znaczeniu tego slowa, czyli szkice literackie, krotkie rozprawy ujmujace okreslony temat w sposob subiektywny, laczac proze artystyczna, naukowa i publicystyczna. Nie sa to rozprawki analityczne i moze to jest takie zaskakujace gdy pierwszy raz sie z Borgesem spotyka.

Kazdy jego esej jest zamknieta caloscia, ktora wpasowuje sie w ciekawy sposob w przerozne konteksty: kulturowe, historyczne, filozoficzne, a rowniez osobiste. W kazdej pracy przywoluje on ktoregos ze swoich ulubionych filozofow (Platona, Berleya, Hume’a, etc.), ale nie dokonuje analizy ich dziel, raczej zlewa je ze soba, laczy w dziwny spobob i wrecza Tobie gotowy twor jako intelektualna zagwostke. Gdybym ja przyznawal takie tytuly, nazwalbym go prawdziwym postmodernistycznym filozofem.

Jedno jest pewne. Jego eseje wywoluja bardzo dziwny nastroj, pewien intelektualny niepokoj, poczucie niezaspokojonej ciekawosci… Opisuje on paradoksy w taki sposob, jakby byly naturalnymi rzeczami, a swiat opisuje tak jakby byl paradoksem.

Serdecznie polecam Wam dwukrotna lekture Borgesa.

Who can know the thoughts of Mary Jane?
Why she flies and goes out in the rain
Where she’s been and who she’s seen
In her journey to the stars

Who can know the reason for her smile?
What are her dreams when they journeyed for a mile?
The way she sings and her brightly coloured rings
Make her the princess of the sky

Who can know what happens in her mind?
Did she come from a strange land, leave her man behind?
Long lost signs and her brightly coloured eyes
Tell her story to the wind

Who can know the thoughts of Mary Jane?
Why she flies and goes out in the rain
Where she’s been and who she’s seen
In her journey to the stars

— Nick Drake

Czesc Witajcie w 2004 roku.

Rok ma juz 2 tygodnie, a ja dopiero zaczynam moja blogowa aktywnosc, wiec spiesze z zyczeniami. Tak wiec zycze sobie i Wam udanego roku.

Osobiscie zaplanowalem, ze bedzie to dobry rok. Jest 2004, wiec ladna parzysta liczba. Zakladam, ze wydazy sie kilka ciekawych rzeczy w tym roku: bedzie olimpiada podczas ktorej nawet terorysci odloza na chwile bron i usiada przed telewizorami. Ludzie Busha znajda w Iraku sporo broni masowego razenia z czasow wojny z Kurdami i przekonaja amerykanska opinie publiczna, ze to wlasnie byl powod inwazji. Mimo to licze na to, ze Bush nie wygra ponownie wyborow i w Ameryce bedzie nowy prezydent. Czy lepszy nie wiem, ale przynajmniej bedzie mowil lepiej po angielsku.

Ja sam planuje skonczyc jedne studia i zaczac nastepne. Mam nadzieje, ze doktorat uda mi sie zlapac w jakims ciekawym miejscu (nie mowie gdzie, zeby nie zapeszyc). Planuje pozostac w tym roku calkowicie pozbawiony znaczen i bawic sie dobrze cieszac sie kazda chwila wbrew iluzji uplywajacego czasu.

Do zoaczenia wkrotce mam nadzieje,

.mK