Czechmatediary

Today left Prague an important travel expedition called the Bargans Bajkal 2010. It consists of 2 extra brave men - Vaclav Sura and Petr Blazek, who are to cross the Siberian Baikal lake on foot, by so-called unsupported style. All of their belongings (food included) will be pulled by those two man on sledges. The trail leads from the south peak of the lake to the north peak and it si ‘mere’ 650 km long, which should take them 4 to 5 weeks to conquer. The slight problem is that the temperatures during this time go as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. Only one such expedition has been done in the past, so if the Czech one is succesfull it will be a great victory.
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What a ‘beauty’, right? Can you guess where was this picture taken? No, it wasn’t shot in some hot desert state like Arizona or Nevada; this spider lives in the Czech Republic! Him and 3 other spider species  are not only  very rare kinds in nature but they are also THE BIGGEST SPIDERS IN CENTRAL EUROPE (!!) and - let me repeat - they all live in the Czech Republic, namely in the county of Olomouc. All of these four guys are living happily together in one particular area without having the need  to compete over each other or eat each other up as it often happens in nature.

These spiders can grow up to 4 cm in diameter and their mandibles can be up to 1 cm wide. But don’t worry they are not poisonous and don’t like to bite humans -  they would rather snack on tasty Czech beetles and other bugs. (more…)

If you don’t like to go mushroom picking you are simply not Czech. As most of us have  experienced, summer in the Czech Republic (or Slovakia) can be very rainy; sometimes it rains for weeks! It is unfortunate for  tourists but for mushroom pickers it is a time for celebration. As the forest soil sucks in the moisture, various mushroom types  emerge but you have to have a trained vision to see them as they are really good in camouflaging themselves. When I was about 5 years old I went mushroom picking with my neighbor’s family. Since I was the youngest one in the pack I was sent on the most obvious and boring trails. Discouraged, with my basket being completely empty compared to the others, I slowly lingered on my assigned trail. All of a sudden I see this suspiciously big pile of leaves. (more…)

Do you ever watch the immortal CIA agent Jack Bauer from “24″? While the show is currently on its 7th season, Jack is still entertaining millions of viewers (including those in the Czech Republic). Most people don’t know, however, that the Czechs have their OWN Jack Bauer. His name is Emil Kucera and he is a stout entomologist. Why does he resemble the qualities of Mr. Bauer? Let me give you the highlights:

About a year ago, Emil and his colleague stole couple of hundreds of bugs from the Indian National Park near Singalia. I am sure they crossed the bug law for the better cause but the Indians did not see it that way. Since Emil did not have the permission to do that he got charged with 3 (!!!) years of prison while his partner was let go. Emil did not waist time after the verdict and managed to escape from the Indian prison. Now we are finding out that it was the Czech CIA who helped him escape! (more…)

April of this year “celebrated” the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (1986)  - the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Although we know that the Russians were performing some experiments, till this day no one really knows what the possible causes of the explosion were but everyone would soon found out about the after effects. Since Russia didn’t bother to notify the rest of the world, Europe found out about this “little” accident when the radiation levels set off alarms at the Forsmark nuclear Power Plant in Sweden. As far as  Czechoslovakia goes, the first signs of an approaching radiation cloud were signaled by the power plan in Dukovany. (more…)

Thanks to the Warsaw Pact the Soviet army occupied Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic from 1968 until 1991. During those 23 years those troops caused a lot of environmental damage to our lands. They operated in 73 localities from which 60 were left in a very bad shape. What were the main environmental problems?

• contamination of ground water by fuels like petrol or diesel
• dumps with hazardous waste
• unexploded ammunition (!!) (more…)
  
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If you like to hike in the Czech woods, watch out because the bears and the wolfs are back! They happen to be “illegal aliens”, crossing the Slovakian-Czech borders in the Beskydy Mountains. You can read more about these dangerous outlaws right here.

CZ: Chodite radi na tury v ceskych horach? Jestlize ano, davejte si pozor, protoze medvedi a vlci jsou zpatky! Pry “nelegalne emigruji” ze Slovenska, a to na Beskydskych hranicich. Vice se o techto nebezpecnych zlocincich doctete zde.