Month: November 2021

The coffee at the hotels for breakfast is so peculiar that we brought our own coffee machine, cappuccinator, and oat milk on the trip, and now we can even enjoy their muffins and bagels.

Watched a documentary about the Soviet “Lun” ekranoplan. Ekranoplans are a hybrid between an airplane and a ship, utilizing what’s known as ground effect. The Lun was radar-invisible, traveled over water at airplane speeds, carried guided missiles, and was impervious to mines—all of which was simply fantastical for that time (the ’80s). Like many things from the USSR, the Lun was abandoned and forgotten, and nothing new of the same scale has appeared not only in the USSR/Russia but also globally in thirty years. Went on to Google what interesting things are currently being produced. I found “Flying Ship” ekranoplans in the 2021 news—they are not only ekranoplans but also (semi) autonomous, essentially full-size drones. As a result, they use half as much fuel compared to airplanes while being 10 times faster than boats. Considering that there’s almost nothing substantial regarding ekranoplans, this startup looks very intriguing.

Peeked at the contact us—they have an office in my “village”! 15 E. Market Street, Suite 615, Leesburg, Virginia 20178. Literally five minutes from home. Very unexpected to come across such a thing.

Now I have a drawing table. It’s like an easel with an adjustable angle, combined with a table. I’m furnishing my man cave. I’m planning five zones – work, drawing, music, electronics, and 3D printing. It’s still unclear how to fit all this in one room, but I’ll solve problems as they come.

Contemporary art at Hirshhorn

At the Renwick Gallery in DC, there’s a fabulous exhibition called New Glass Now. Everything in the photos is made of glass (even the bananas), only the clock with the cloth is made of wood.

Funny fragment (about biologist Mary Frances Lyon). Judging by the biography, the research opinion has not changed

Could you please provide the text you would like translated into English?

An interesting story about Charlie Chaplin.

In 1942, Chaplin started an affair with Joan Barry, a budding actress from Brooklyn. He treated her as if she were a toy and ultimately discarded her easily. Like in that anecdote about Pavlov, who was bitten by a dog that grew up and forgot, while Pavlov did not forget, Joan grew up as well and one night, she broke into his home through a window, with a carbine on her shoulder, demanding he take her back. By then, Chaplin had already started another affair with Oona O’Neill, who was 36 years younger. Joan leaked to the press that Chaplin had left her pregnant and filed a lawsuit demanding a large sum of money as compensation.

In February, Chaplin was accused of violating the Mann Act, as he had transported Barry across state lines “for immoral purposes,” when she was still a minor (The Mann Act, by the way, is also called the “White Slave Traffic Act,” though it was essentially used to prosecute pedophiles). Eventually, Chaplin won the case, but another trial loomed over him concerning paternity.

At that time, genetics as an applied science was making cautious steps, but Chaplin’s lawyer was apparently interested, and it turned out that Joan’s daughter could not be Chaplin’s, because her blood type (B) did not match with the blood types of the supposed parents (“A” for Joan Barry and “0” for Chaplin). Interestingly, Joan allowed the determination of her and her child’s blood type for $25,000 (almost $400K today), and eventually, she lost the case.

But that was 1944. She hired a new lawyer, and he found a way to bring the case back to court. The jury understood nothing about Mendel’s laws and blood groups but could well judge the resemblance of the daughter to her parents. This principle was named “the proof of the bald eagle.” If someone looks like a bald eagle, presumably, their parents are bald eagles. The jury told the judge that they were at an impasse. Seven of them decided that Chaplin was not the father, while five thought he was. Barry filed a second lawsuit, where the jury voted almost unanimously, “Chaplin — father of the child!”, whatever your science may say.

After this story, Chaplin was “cancelled” in Hollywood. He left the States (not solely because of this story) and settled in Switzerland. Meanwhile, Joan Barry significantly lost her mental stability.

But many years have passed, and I’m sure that for nearly 100% of those reading this text, Chaplin remains an individual with a completely different image, not at all cancelled.

(Inspired by “She Laughs Like a Mother” by Zimmer)

I am reading Zimmer’s “She Laughs Like a Mother” in binge-fashion. Chapter 10 mentions Francis Galton: “…To better concentrate [on studying mathematics], he purchased a complicated device called the ‘Gumption-Reviver’, from which water dripped onto his head; a servant had to refill it every 15 minutes.” Galton wrote that his teacher recommended it, so it seems the device was popular in Cambridge to prevent falling asleep during the languid nights. “We usually started using this thing around ten in the evening, to stay awake until one or two in the morning; it was very useful,” wrote Galton.

At my home, the fireplace is called Superior FAC 1500