Month: July 2016

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https://meduza.io/short/2016/06/29/how-dangerous-holiday-in-turkey-became-safe-in-one-picture

It’s not often you see people coming from a ballet with blankets, folding chairs, and wheeled coolers – because at Wolftrap, there are lawn seats. “Romeo and Juliet,” American Ballet Theatre. Lisa and Masha are sitting somewhere near the stage.

Heading home for lunch, it’s 38 degrees outside. These kinds of alerts pop up on my phone

On my way home, I saw fireflies for the first time in my life. In the darkest part of the road, they seemed like an extension of the starry sky. White lights appeared and vanished, some moving from place to place on complex trajectories. A mesmerizing spectacle.

That is, until one of these centimeter-sized beetles lands on your face in the dark.

Two species of fireflies live in Virginia – Photinus pyralis (or the common eastern firefly) and Photuris http://animals.mom.me/fireflies-native-virginia-8288.html

The communication of fireflies through light signals is so filled with deception that one could say deception is “a way of life” for them. The light signals of fireflies serve as a means of intersexual communication. For example, a Photinus pyralis male uses a half-second flash every 6 seconds, zigzagging downward through the bushes or grass where a female might be sitting. In response, the female waits 2 seconds after the male’s flash and then emits her own half-second flash. This sequence can be repeated a dozen or more times before the male finally approaches the female and climbs onto her. However, since the female begins laying eggs immediately after mating, it leads to a surplus of males.

This surplus of males benefits another species of firefly — Photuris. Females of this species mimic the response signals of Photinus pyralis females to attract and eat these males. There is another deceptive trick: Photuris males, if they fly slowly, can mimic the signals of Photinus males to attract females for mating. And sometimes their imitation may mimic an imitation.

One thing remains unclear, do Photuris pyralis females eat their own males or just the competitors? Does anyone know?

There’s a good video about this on TED.com: https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_lewis_the_loves_and_lies_of_fireflies

I tried to take a video, but I’ve just realized it’s no good. You’re better off watching this one https://youtu.be/pR0b2_rg4U8?t=102

Today I dreamt a long dream about life and then, suddenly, the theme changed. I stepped out of the office, was about to write something on a piece of paper, and then – Erik Babadzhanov (also seemingly appearing out of nowhere) tells me that something weird is happening, saying, “Look at the sky.” And there, half of the night sky was filled with some gigantic trapezoidal ships, behind which other ships were shooting missiles at each other – with flames and as thick as a finger. And then one of them crashes to the ground (it seemed to be in Moscow), and then the blast wave, collapsing buildings, fire, screams. At that moment, I managed to think that it would be smart to slide aside a manhole cover and dive in. Right then, I decided to wake up, or someone woke me – I don’t remember, so whether I survived or not – we’ll see tonight. Upon waking, the first thing I do is read the morning Facebook (which for you is almost evening), and there – a message from Maxim Antonov about the flying saucers having arrived, see the screenshot. I also found out that there’s a UFO Day 🙂

So now I wonder whether I’m already connected in my consciousness to the friend feed and incoming messages at night, or if it’s a sign 🙂

Yesterday in St. Mary’s city, I encountered such a beast of engineering thought. Press the left button – boiling water pours. Press the right one – cold water flows. If you press both, pleasantly warm water comes out, but there’s nothing left to put under the faucet, as your hands are busy with the buttons.

Besides a hare, yesterday was also memorable because, in the middle of the night, there was a child’s chair in the middle of my lane on the highway. At a speed of 120-130, I bypassed it so neatly that the rear bumper was slightly torn off. As a result, today we are fixing the car.

Update on my blog about Hybris. This time – about snippets in search: highlighting found words. Such functionality is not present in Hybris, but it is not difficult to add, as it is one of the features in SOLR, which is part of hybris. Read the details on my blog and watch the video of the fully functional prototype!

https://hybrismart.com/2016/07/11/highlighting-in-hybris-search/

Met a rabbit in the forest today. Twice, in the same spot. They probably have a nest there 🙂 Allowed me to come within a couple of meters of it. Then it hopped away.