Couchsurfing has become a profitable organisation?

From an e-mail you get as a new-joined memeber:

 [CS msg: Hikecrazy] Hi! Welcome to CouchSurfing - Greetings from San Francisco!
Finally, you might have heard or might hear in the future that CouchSurfing has recently changed its status from a non-profit organization to a B corporation, which is in fact a for-profit company. It is important to underline that CouchSurfing and its base services remain still FREE to use: so far the only OPTIONAL paid service is the verification service.
//Ciao! Jon

Now, this is all fine and dandy, untill you get a bit more into the thing; another couch-surfer (or at least somebody with a CS profile) says:

don't touch the couch request-button! It has finally been decided: CouchSurfing International Inc. has been denied charity status, as many of us have predicted would happen since 2007. It's official now: Couchsurfing can no longer pose as a charity, but is forced to admit it's a hardcore commercial business. Don't be fooled by the claim that CS is 'a socially responsible B corporation'. This only means they bought a B-Labs certificate, and has no official status whatsoever. CouchSurfing is commercial. This is a big step forward. Now the bunch of incompetents that call themselves the CS management (...)
//NLSSMT ; http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=1TL0TF5&from_search

Ach, weel, what can we do? As long as CS isn't buying blood diamonds in Africa, cutting down the forrests in Sumatra, etc. Or is it?

Summer break ... give me a break!

  There is absolutely no such thing as a summer break. Not anymore, anyway. This is, I believe, my third, perhaps my fourth year of not having quite the vacations I wanted and pictured - still have some exams I need to see through.
  Yeah, I know - "THIRD?? FOURTH????" you'll say. And you'll be right - I'm not having a hard going, that for sure. But still. It would be nice to chill at the seaside for a forthnight, without having to worry about absolutely anything else. And just ... relax, have "sexy-time" as Borat would put it and read books. Lots of them.

  Oh, and: can someone please tell me how I get rid of spam comments on my blog? I've got some chinese/mandarin/asian guy posting jibberish and expect me to follow the links ... ! Yelps!

A veste uni dnevi, ko bi ...

... najraje ugriznil nekoga? Pač sej, morda, če bi bil ta Nekdo posebna oseba (I'm referring to the technical term "that Special someone"), bi bilo potlej v redu ... ... ampak sicer bi pa samo širil sovraštvo in to pač tudi ni v redu.
  Mislim, da ta post, ta objava ne bo imela neke velike literarno-estetske vrednosti (kot opozorilo lenim bralcem, da ne bodo kasneje jezni), ampak definitivno nosi v svoji srčiki zametke psihoterapevtske znanstvene (?) panoge.
  Kakorkoli, beden vreme je, to ziher ne pomaga. Včeraj sem bil na smučanju (sem bordal, ampak je smučanje tak generični termin, ki ga pač vsi uporabljajo in ga bom tudi jaz;) in to bi bil tak lep uvod v vikend. Ne, ampak imam lahko še kanček neprespan na današnji dan in tudi malce polomljen ne zlomljen, ampak boleč, šest ur faksa. Pah, ja. Sej ni tok grozno, če jih ne bi imel v sredo 9,5;) Pa v bistvu je bilo kul, ker sem šel sredi tedna na smučanje in to je zakon.
  Mislim, da se je del gneva nad svetom, ekonomsko situacijo in mojo lastno ekologijo (I'm again, referring to the terminus tehnicus, which is contrary to the common belief, something completely different) že izlil, ampak vseeno ne pomagajo akivnosti in prihajajoče obveznosti ter rahlo boleča trtica (spet so me višje sile kaznovale: sem hotel frajarit, pa se nekaj obračat počez po hribu, pa sem takoj padu ... boleče... ) ki jo imam.

No, ad aspera per astra al kuko že.

U2 360° tour Zagreb, 10. 8. 2009

  In case I've forgot to mention ... I've been to the U2 concert!
Been there, done that (pissed on a wall, actually) and HAVE got a T-shirt! And it was amazing (the concert, not the piss)! The stage was round (see below)... with a huge big screen - in search of a better word - "TV" all around, Bono, the Edge, and the other one (Adam Clayton) were walking above our heads, around us - for we (my friend and I) had the privilege to be in the red district. Sorry - it was called the red zone. (Actually, we came to the site so early, they just let us in and we got stamped ... and could go out to get beer and so forth and so on. (AND we pissed against the wall, when there was a HUGE line ... for the 40 toilettes of both genders.)
  So here's a link to the blog, where there are a couple of nice photos.

Definitely a MUST!

Moj prvi orientacijski tek

  ... je bil malo manj spektakularen, kakor sem si predstavljal. No ja, saj me je enkrat pasje stresel kravji pastir, saj sem trikrat spektakularno padel, vmes, ko bi mogel šprintati, hodil (ker enostavno nisem mogel več), pa še teta Dia (una, k se ukvarja z rejo) me je prišla pozdravit.
  Ne vem točno, kaj sem si predstavljal. Saj že ime panoge razločno pove, kaj to je, mar ne? ORIENTACIJA + TEK = orientacijski tek! How hard is that to understand?

  No, poleg očitnega pomanjkanja kondicije, je bilo seveda prisotnih kar nekaj orientacijskih napak. Ampak sva bila z L**** vseeno zadovoljna - našla sva vse (če nimaš vseh KT-jev (KT=kontrolna točka), si avtomatsko izločen), on je bil celo četrti (od štirih), jaz pa sem tekmoval v kategoriji s tistimi, ki sem jih do sedaj vedno imel za polbogove orientacije, guruje, ki učijo in osvetljujejo pota nam nevednim in ne tako veščim orientacijskih veščin.
  Pa zaradi mokrote in čevlja in moje neumne kože na nogah sem dobil nekakšne vodne otiščance. Pa še ... ne, to je pa to;)
All in all: ZAKON!
KDAJ JE NASLEDNJA TEKMA?!!! :)

Zlet!

Zlet Zveze tabornikov Slovenije 2009 v Pomurju je v polnem zagonu!
V bistvu je v svojih vzdihljajih, ampak gre samo še na gor! Mulci se imajo super, vodniki takisto ('malce' je sivih las v zvezi z naročanjem in prejemanjem hrane ter urami, določenimi za spanje, but all in all, it's GREAT!). Priložena slika je ta od Bubija in Mojce in še ene punce, katere ne vem imena. Fotka sicer ni iz Zleta 2009 (prejšnji je bil leta 2002), je pa podobno noro super fajn!
ZDej pa na U2-je! (In seveda nazaj na Zlet za še en, zadnji dan! Woo-hooo!;))

Kam bi pa vi radi odšli in morda tam ostali?

Vsak od nas ... ali pa se vsaj tako zdi (ko je ura po polnoči;) ima nek kraj, za katerega verjame, da je nekako .. njegov, svet zanj/-o. Da se malce jasneje izrazim: kraj, kamor bi rad šel in za katerega je v močnih dvomih, da ne bi morda tam celo ostal. (Dvojno zanikanje, Slovenija moja doma, yeah!)

Milo se mi je storilo pri srcu (in zdaj se mi bo še šampon, ko tole pišem), ko sem poslušal in gledal enega prejšnjih postov o levjem kralju (This land) - me namreč vedno spomni na Afriko (gee, I wonder why?). Kot nekakšno slonje pokopališče. Ma ne, to ne, ker želim umreti čez 101 ob sončnem zahodu nekje drugje (not telling:). Bolj recimo, me Afrika privlači kot dežela, kjer bi rad delal, živel. Tako, med "lokalci". (Ki nosijo Nike zgulene superge in Adddidass hlače iz 90-ih).

In vi? A bi? A si/ste? Egipt ima že kljukico pri meni, a to je malodane Arabski svet, skorajda nima veze z Afriko, če izvzamem pokrajino Nubijo (?) na skrajnem jugu, od koder se Nambiske (?) peščine res lepega peska razprostirajo do Sudana ...

Skrbijo me edinole lepi sončni zahodi.. In iskreni nasmehi .. ter živi ljudje, igrivi otroci, onesnažena in kristalno čista voda, ..., zvoki živali ponoči, nosorogi, Serengeti, Nairobi, Kilimanjaro, kotlina Kongo, Slonokoščena, vonj jasmina, kolibriji, sloni in levi, domorodci, ki še lovijo z loki in pojejo .. in plešejo. Ter ploskajo, predvsem ploskajo in bobnajo ...

To me resnično skrbi.
Pa ne zato, ker zaradi zgornjih besed tja ne bi šel - ne, zato, ker se zaradi njih od tam ne bi več vrnil. ;)

Feel free to comment - Komentiraj, bitte;)

Free the Sleeping Giant (Dragon) ... ie, China

Cheers!
Sleeping Dragon, Crouching Tiger and all of the things from Jet Li, as well as stretched time-space continuum to include Marco Polo, who brought but a few things with 'im back to ole Europe... AND met with Kublai Khan, grandson of the great (?) Genghis Khan - back when greatness was determined by how much wealth and people you have, serving under and around yeh. Also, building ever-lasting monuments is but one of those eency weency little thingies (like they did in Egypt or India - Tadž/ Taj Mahal, say).
(Yes, paper, gun-powder, spaghetti/noodles, compass, sextant, things like that, you know, not much really;) Oh, travels on the silky road ... go ever oooonnn, down from the Venice where it began;)


Now this will probably be enough for my blog to be removed from the internet, since China is a People's Country ... how very appropriate, so nearly after the day of human rights, for me to spell this out: China is free.

Free of prejudice, tyranny, neglecting smaller towns and villages, entire ethnic groups. I think PR of China is a good example of how a country can stick together and not let outsiders brake-in, demolish what we have fought so hard to retain: Chinese vulture, sorry, culture, it's Great and Noble history and all else.
Here's a short quote from Wikipedia:

The last Chinese Civil War has resulted in two political entities using the name China:
* the People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China, has control over mainland China, and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999).
* the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Pescadores, Kinmen, and Matsu.

Who am I to judge - I know not of these heavy historical facts and/or words, said and done in the times past, ... - to say that Tibet should be a free country would be blasphemy, probably. I can only cite what people have written before me:

Wiki:
The government opposes publicized foreign travels by former and present ROC officials promoting Taiwan's independence, such as Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, and other politically controversial figures, such as Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, in an official context.

Also, human rights, as I have already pointed out, have a place of special interest in this world: old Shakespeare would probably say: "Much ado about nothing!" Thus, I giveth to thee, a picture, (said to be worthy of thousand souls! Sorry, words ...):
Surely, a great and under god, a humble nation, stands for its people, you will ask? Yes! Even more so: the Enemy lies within ourselves! Thus to defend our great nations' best interests, we sometimes have to fight our own internal enemies (which are supposedly everywhere, so we must be prepared!!), even at the cost of human life & rights.
Separatists (such as Tibet ... I gues?) have to be at least isolated, for they hurt our economy and good-will of the working nation.

And so forth and so on. I don't know. I've said enough. I really like a book called "On the roof of the world, by Tomo Križnar (web page of the author here). Also, a link to one of the previous articles I posted: here: Free smiles capaign. (And here about the Pulitzer price-winning photograph (after which the photographer allegedly made a suicide: Naomi Kline and NoLOGO ... consumers.


I'll just Finnish offff with two things, without comments:
It's sad we go from this, the wonders of the (ancient!!) world to the "modern 'wonders' of the world". (Tianamen Square, Sudan, Tibet, Darfur, Apartheid, South America, ..., and to finish of with the climate "crisis", mmm, coup de la theatre!)

Summer job on marine biology station Piran

Tukajle ne you-tube-u dostopen link do krajšega prispevka na vest.si (Jonas Ž., Jani Sever et al.)
Posneto pretekli teden, govora je na kratko o terenskem, aplikativnem delu biologov, tehnikov in ostalih na Morski biološki postaji v Piranu Nacionalnega inštituta za biologijo.

P.S.: Naj vas posentki ne zavedejo: šel sem tja seveda samo zaradi možnosti sončenja.

Friends and best memories for ever

Jamboree ... d best (razen seveda organizacijskega dela:)
Se posebno, ko se spet snides ali slisis z novimi Prijatelji, ki si jih spoznal tam.
Bah, besede so odveč,
samo fotka:

Od leve proti desni, v obratni smeri urinega kazalca:
Daniela, Brasil; Laura Abondano, Colombia; Chris, Schwiez; Katie, Seven Oaks, UK; Camilo, Bogota, Colombia in zgoraj levo - jaz. :)
Todos, mucho gusto en vos conocertos!

(Is it right? I just went by logic:)

Out of ord... town

"We're going out of town, yeah!"
Zadeva je taka, stoji pa takole: grem. Mu ah ha ha. For those of you who can actually bear with me (bear ... since you obviously prefer furry things) and my so-called blogging: I'm outta here!

As U2 would sing it in The Wanderer: 'I went out riding /.../ told her I'd be back by noon ... Lifted some stones, saw the ... /.../'
Be back JUST in time to buy the NEW Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

Aye, this be my one obsession for thee month of Jeh-ly, yeh filthy ... vagabonds! You're off the edge of the map, mate ...
AND HERE THERE BE MONSTERS!!!

//capt. Barbosa to capt. Jack Sparrow

A lahko pristaneš ... med dvema časovnima območjema?

Sliši se sicer kot en naslov kakega članka v ŽIT-u (življenju in tehniki), v rubriki ZF ...
Ampak ni. (Hm, zanimivo - sem odprl eno staro ŽIT, da bi pogledal naslov rubrike, ker sem pozabil, pa vidim tale začetek stavka: "Tukaj je čas še v tekočem stanju," je pojasnil peklenšček. Zanimivo ...

No, da se vrnem nazaj na prvotno stvar: prijatelj, kolega/so-študent biologije, je šel te dni, natančneje včeraj v Indonezijo ... Oz. je šel že drugič v dveh dneh .. prvič je šel namrech v nedeljo - ker je bil iskreno prepričan, da ima let pach v nedeljo.
No ... ko sem pogledal njegov blog o indoneziji, se mi je utrnila zabavna misel: kaj, če bi se zmotil v datumu prihoda? Medtem, ko bi letel? A vesh, da bi enostavno zafrknil in bi mislil, da bo/je priletel včeraj --- in potem sploh nikoli ne bi pristal?!

Lol - hecka;) :pirate:

Slika je sicer intelektualna in sicer še kaka last Zvoneta Šeruge, natančneje se nahaja med ostalimi superlepimi ...