shabbat shalom 03.09.09

Hi everyone, I'm taking advantage of the free internet cafes in the Czech University of Life Sciences and getting this written while I can.  It's a new campus and fully wired.  I suspect, like the University of South Bohemia, this is one of the new universities that got started after the "Velvet Revolution", when it was no longer required that professors are members in good standing in the Communist Party.  There were hundreds or thousands of good academics stuck in the various Academies back then, doing research because they were good, but not allowed to teach because they were politically incorrect.  The Czech Republic blossomed after the Velvet Revolution and all these universities got started.  It's still coming up from the rear fast, but Prague had a great tradition as an academic city as well as a center for music, so they have a pretty fair idea where they want to go.  It's fun to watch. We have 1200 participants in this conference, from over 60 countries. It is the Regional Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology (European Section) but a lot of people are from outside Europe: notably Africa and Asia, but also a load of Americans.  Some ladies from Iran are here in hijab, hoping nobody notices they are breaking Ramadan.  As for us Israelis, well so far nobody turned down sausages. The diet is like I remembered it when I was on sabbatical here: sausages for breakfast, lunch and supper, varied by roast pork, ham, and bacon, with the occasional tomato.  My Israeli colleague were more aghast at the lack of fruit and veggies than they were about the pork.  We are nearly vegetarians in Israel, and th Czechs eat veggies once a week whether they need it or not.  That said, the sausages are among the best in the world, maybe THE best; they do roast pork like genius chefs, and the ham is to die for.  So much for my diet this week.  That plus non-alcoholic beer on tap, along with just about every beer known to mankind.  Czechs invented beer as we know it, I think.  Add to this first class rye bread and mustard, and it's really not bad as survival rations go.  And we are eating in the student mensa, along with the students..... I met with the European Section steering committee and they are glad to see me here.  I did good service for the Asia Section over six years (two terms in office) and now am sniffing around for some service work here in Europe.  They seem to think they will find a spot for me.  Good; I miss having some involvment in how SCB works, and in truth my links to Europe are a lot stronger than to the Far East.  It's also a LOT cheaper to get to Europe.  In effect, Israel is a European country when it is civilized, and Asian or North African when it is casting spells and curses, or selling blessings.  The Czech landscape is lovely around here: rolling hills, forested, small fields spreading out from clustered villages.  It is a pleasant landscape, and so green that it is almost painful for my "desert eyes" to look at it.  I'll get a better view when I take the train to Karlovy Vary on holiday starting on Sunday..... That's about all for now.  Just enjoying the meetings.  So far I've been in a workshop on classifying endangered species according to the IUCN Red List, and another on "adaptive management under global climate change", both work related.  I'm in the midst of one on management and conservation in protected areas (parks and nature reserves), and tomorrow will focus on monitoring methods.  On shabbat I have to give my own lecture in a session on fire ecology. (It's a safe bet I'm the only one lecturing on fire in desert, but our neighbors the Greeks will be there with a lot of their own fire experiences to tell, since half the country went up in smoke again this year...) Guess that's it; gotta get back to the sessions. shabbat shalom, Linda