Month: July 2018

July 24 2018, 18:02

[Great talks/lectures, in Russian, on paleoanthropology, from Stanislav Drobyshevsky]

I recently watched a whole series of lectures on paleoanthropology by Stanislav Drobyshevsky. Highly recommended, incredibly interesting. He has a huge number of lectures, you can just pick any and listen. If anyone knows Stas – introduce us)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMNA2YNEM5g

“Who created us, and at what cost,” about an hour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvmI8IkKCss

“Kin, dawn, and nearly apes,” about two and a half hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K4mBjuvWtw

“Hobbits, vegans, and other oddities of evolution,” 25 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aRdT-I5KcM

“Anatomy of a Centaur,” 25 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0QbFqMIn8

“Homo scape. How did our ancestors die?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niOk-tcN81I

“Is intelligence inevitable?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1G9RlPq6s0

“Myths about races,” 2 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJQYAkyHD5w

“The earliest tamers of fire,” about 30 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KaipDhGrfk

“The origin of human races,” an hour and a half

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvDjWw_guZU

“Intellectual capacities of races,” 15 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6-DKuwHyjY

“A gill will not spoil an ear. Useless parts in humans,” 40 minutes

“Is intelligence inevitable,” about an hour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ZA8gS4D7Q

“The biological future of mankind,” about 40 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RRZku4fpWE

“Social structures of primates and ancient humans,” an hour twenty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB1j20biCJs

“The emergence of morality in humans: morality in the Paleolithic,” forty minutes

July 23 2018, 20:07

A new update on the hybris blog. A new set of groovy scripts. These scripts help to troubleshoot the hybris instance by injecting your code inside hybris on the fly. I’ve published some before, this is part 6.

https://hybrismart.com/2018/07/20/useful-groovy-scripts-part-6/

July 23 2018, 14:06

Two Chukchi hunters killed a walrus. The geologist sees them dragging the walrus by a tail and says, “Hi guys! Can’t you see the walrus’s tusk clings! It makes your job harder! Take it by the tusk, and things would be a lot easier for you.” The Chukchi hunters listened. They took the walrus by a tusk. It worked! After a while, one of them says, “That geologist is a smart guy. It is much easier to drag the walrus by a tusk.” The second one replies: “Your geologist is an asshole! Look! We’ve come back to the sea!”

More: https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/russia-ukraine-and-the-caucasus/chukchis-russian-jokes-history.html

July 23 2018, 12:04

Yesterday I learned how IMAX works, the photo is from the Philadelphia Science Museum IMAX theatre.

Film platters weigh 250kg, the projector itself is about 1.5 tonnes. IMAX projectors are equipped with water-cooled xenon lamps. It was really interesting to see all this stuff in action.

I used to think that all IMAXes are digital, and it is so for years, but I learned that Digital IMAX has the same resolution as your domestic 1080P TV. Moreover, there are films which weren’t published for IMAX Digital, such as “Interstellar” or “Dark Night Returns”. The new generation is Laser 4k digital projectors which are rare, but they are much better in terms of quality and closer to 70mm IMAX.

For example, the majority of IMAX theaters are 70mm, some have Dual system (both digital and 70mm, rail system). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IMAX_venues. In our area, there are two laser 4k projectors, in the National Air and Space Museum and in Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. In Moscow, there is only one, Formula Kino Kutuzovsky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EaIQoIuSCc

July 21 2018, 05:47

I am the one who sets up a competition between coffee makers at 5 AM. The right one replaced the left. Same volume, 17 ounces. The right one is noticeably heavier with thicker walls.

At 00:06:16, the left one starts to hiss, and at 00:07:29, the water is already boiling. The right one only starts boiling at 00:09:43; those thick walls are not for nothing. It takes 2 minutes and 15 seconds longer. However, after adding coffee, the right one can be set on 30% of the stove to continue cooking, and it does not reach the boiling temperature as quickly (which is neither good for the coffee nor the stove). A scientific approach, you know?)