Month: August 2021

August 18 2021, 17:10

Finished watching the documentary series “Living Pushkin” by Parfenov. Very interesting, highly recommend. Made back in 1999. How did I miss it!

P.S. Pushkin – “greetings from our quarantine to yours”.

“The cholera epidemic came to Russia from India. Fearing panic, the authorities hid the first fatal cases in Moscow from the population. The real chaos happened when the number of sick reached the thousands. Wealthy families, terrified, fled Moscow.”

Here’s what Pushkin writes to Natalia Goncharova:

“Entry to Moscow is forbidden, and here I am locked up in Boldino. (…) I have completely lost my courage, and really don’t know what to do. Clearly, this year (may it be cursed!) our wedding cannot happen. (…) It would be unforgivable to voluntarily expose oneself to the danger amidst cholera. I know well that they always exaggerate the devastation and the number of victims; a young woman from Constantinople once told me that only the rabble dies from cholera — all this is fine and superb; but still, decent people need to take precautions, as this is what saves them, not their elegance or their good manners. So, you are well sheltered from cholera in the countryside, aren’t you? We are not surrounded by quarantines, but the epidemic has not penetrated here yet.”

Such was the self-isolation then. By the way, half a million fell ill then, and every second or third patient died. Right at the start of the pandemic, I was reading a smart book about various contagions, and I remember a wonderful story about how in London, John Snow (not that one, another) identified the source of cholera spread – a water pump on Broad Street through analyzing the distribution of the infected. “The map marked the locations of water pumps and the number of deaths from cholera in each building. Snow relied on statistical data to firmly prove the connection between the water source and the disease. The resulting overall picture of the epidemic showed that the greatest number of deaths occurred around the water pump on Broad Street”. At that time, the laboratory could not yet confirm the presence of cholera. They shut off the pump, and it saved London.

August 14 2021, 11:35

We’re slowly watching Parfenov’s series about Pushkin from 1999, where Parfenov mentions that Gabriadze planned to erect a monument to a rabbit that crossed the road in front of Pushkin in Petersburg to join the Decembrists, thereby saving his life (Pushkin took it as a bad sign and turned back). The monument was unveiled in December 2000 and features a milestone stating “416 versts to Senate Square” with a figure of a rabbit sitting on it. A Google search shows that there are only two photos of this monument on the internet. That’s it. Why might that be? Can you find a third one? How can it be that in 21 years not a single new photo has appeared? It is, after all, a landmark. Is the monument still standing? If not, why are there no reports about it? Where was it located? If there are 416 versts to Senate Square, it should be 443 km from Senate Square, but how can this be if Pushkin’s house-museum in Mikhailovskoe is only 400 km from the square? No use asking Rezo Gabriadze, he passed away a month and a half ago… And Andrey Bitov, co-author of the idea, died in December 2018.

August 09 2021, 19:05

The first rapid prototype of a smart dog bowl. Made in the last two hours from available materials. An Arduino inside a cardboard box sends the weight of the feed to the server (logz) every second. Let’s observe. It’s not unlikely that Yuki will quickly demolish this setup. But that’s what a prototype is for. Actually, the plan is to set up a platform on the same scales where the dog will be eating and simultaneously weigh the dog. It’s relatively uncomplicated (just bulky), but it will be amusing to watch how grams move from the bowl into the dog. Also planned is a feeder which will dispense the feed on a schedule and just enough to fill the bowl. Nothing too complicated either, just need to get around to it.